by Ian Patrick
‘Pauline?’
‘Nadine’s assistant.’
‘Oh. Yes. Funny, I’ve seen her so many times but never...’
‘Me too. Thought it was time to introduce myself properly this morning. Listen, Jeremy, tell me if...’
‘No problem, Navi. Fiona and the kids are out at a school event until sometime this afternoon. Can I bring Sugar-Bear? I’ll keep him in the car if you’re at a crime scene.’
‘No problem. We’ll need you just to look over a few things with us.’
‘I’ll come right over. Umdloti?’
‘Down to Selection Beach, along South Beach Road. You’ll see the cars.’
‘I’ll be there, traffic willing, in under an hour. Have you had breakfast?’
‘You haven’t had breakfast, Jeremy?’
‘Well, actually, no, I was thinking...’
‘If Fiona and the children are out till this afternoon then maybe we can have a bite of lunch together. Or brunch, if you haven’t had breakfast.’
‘OK, Navi. I’m on my way. Tell me what you can while I walk back to get the car.’
Pillay filled him in as he connected Sugar-Bear’s lead and walked back home. She had been called early by Piet Cronje, she said, who had had a call from his opposite number at Durban North. Could they send a detective out? They had been called a second time from the home of the Brigadier, who had apparently spoken to the Cluster Commander, also at home. They needed a detective from another station, because there were certain circumstances…
By the time Ryder got back home and grabbed a few things he thought he might need, and put the dog in the cage in the car, he had a good overview of what had happened on the beach just after midnight and into the morning.
One thing worried him. The scene was taped off and Nadine Salm and the pathologist and the rest of the forensics people and the photographers had been hard at it, according to Navi, but everyone was very upset with the constant hassling of a very pugnacious journalist.
10.10.
Captain ‘Nights’ Mashego had spent two years with Durban Organised Crime since he joined them after seeking a transfer from Gauteng Hawks. As was the case with his earlier posting, he had acquitted himself superbly in the eyes of those to whom he reported. He was known as an extremely efficient detective and a no-nonsense, plain-dealing cop, as the Major-General in charge of the Hawks had described him in a note attached to his file.
What the note did not mention was the fact that Mashego had gone through a period of deep emotional turmoil after his seventeen-year old daughter was brutally raped and murdered in a field near Diepsloot. The case had shocked the detective’s friends and colleagues but had been overshadowed by the even more horrific case, in the same week and in the same location, of the rape and murder of three children aged two, three and five. As a consequence of the community outrage and wide media interest in that case, the brutal murder and rape and disembowelment of Mashego’s teenage daughter had barely made it into the main news.
Mashego had hunted down the killer of his daughter and the man was killed in a shootout with Mashego while resisting arrest. There were questions about the alleged self-defence scenario Mashego had painted, in which the murderer had been shot but had apparently knocked over a kerosene lamp in his attempt to attack the detective, and had as a consequence burnt to death in a shack at the edge of Diepsloot as the detective made his escape from the fire. The body had been burnt beyond recognition. The cursory and somewhat disinterested pathologist’s report noted that the crushed skull, smashed knee and ankle joints and snapped bones - in all four limbs - were unusual but could perhaps be attributable to the very heavy rocks placed on the tin roof of the shack, which could have fallen in and crushed the man during the course of the inferno. In the final analysis a few questions had been asked and not entirely satisfactorily answered, and some eyebrows raised, but the case had been closed and Mashego had gone on with his work.
But he had not been the same man. He had become morose and surly and uncooperative, according to his colleagues in the Hawks. Some said that it was because he was entirely alone and without family. He was still married, but his wife had gone back to the family home in Limpopo. Mashego felt that she blamed him for previously having taken them from there to Diepsloot to start a new life in Gauteng. A life that was supposed to have been different from the poverty of their previous existence in Limpopo, and instead it had led to the tragic and brutal and traumatic death of their daughter.
So when Mashego had applied for a transfer to KwaZulu-Natal it had been approved.
Since his Durban appointment Mashego’s arrest record was as impressive as his earlier record with the Hawks had been. Alongside this, he had one of the highest kill rates among the province’s detectives. All in self-defence against cornered criminals resisting arrest. The many IPID investigations had all cleared him of any wrong-doing, although one IPID investigator noted that in almost every case the pattern was the same: Mashego alone, one-on-one, with the resisting criminal. His police colleagues testified on most occasions that in the chase they had fallen behind and Mashego had got to the perpetrator long before they caught up. The guy in question had fired on Mashego, and he had retaliated. In self-defence. In each and every case.
Mashego was a big man at exactly six feet and five inches, although many people exaggerated his height by saying he was two metres tall. He didn’t need the extra couple of inches that would have justified that claim. As it was, he had persistent lower back pain and often cursed the fact that he was so tall. He felt that burden in cinema and aircraft seats, and in frequent bouts of sciatica arising from the problems he had at L4 and L5. To be two metres tall would be an additional curse, in his view, so he was happy to do without the extra couple of inches.
But it was not only the height that intimidated people. He was extremely powerful, and his two hundred and sixty pounds were attributable to hard muscle rather than any visible fat. His upper arms and shoulders exhibited evidence of frequent visits to the gym, and he was a champion swimmer so most of the prominent muscles were fully and frequently exercised.
Doubtless these physical features contributed in some way to ensuring that Mashego, although not Zulu, was readily accepted by his predominantly Zulu neighbours and colleagues in Durban. He spoke comfortably of his origins among the Mapulana clan in Bushbuckridge between Nelspruit and Hoedspruit, and spoke with pride about his family’s descent from brothers who in 1864 had fought the Swazis, and the family’s fame dated from the battle of Mogologolo when the Pulana triumphed. His mother tongue was now classified as Northern Sotho but in reality the Pulana language was intertwined with Tsonga, Pedi, Kutswe and even Swazi influences. Drawing from good-humoured interpretations of the origin of the clan and of his particular family name, Mashego was known as a man who was a creature of the night. Hence his nickname ‘Nights’ Mashego.
Mashego was now answering questions put to him by Nadine Salm. She and her assistant Pauline, along with various officers and medics and photographers and others had been at the scene for more than six hours. Nadine and Pauline had worked firstly under hastily erected lights from a diesel generator and then, since shortly after daybreak, under an increasingly warm sun. The divers, photographers, video team, and forensic pathologist had all done their work. The four bullet-ridden bodies had been taken away, and Nadine and Pauline were now wrapping up their side of things. Both of them were drawing their investigation to a close, but there would be much more work to do back in the lab, and again after the pathologist’s report was received within a few days.
They stood next to a fold-out table that had been erected in the sand. On the table were eleven firearms, each in a plastic bag, labelled, with notes scribbled on the labels.
‘Just a couple more questions, Detective Mashego, if you don’t mind. You say they fired about 30 rounds?’
‘Yes. Thirty-one.’
‘Wow. That’s pretty exact. Thank you. And how long after they started fi
ring, was it, do you think, before your guys started firing back at them?’
‘I don’t know. We were surprised, you know? We didn’t expect them to fire at us. They had their hands up in the air. Then suddenly they fired. So I think we jumped, you know, and ducked, and then we fired back straight away. Maybe a couple of seconds, you know. Maybe three or four seconds. Then we fired. After they fired. We fired after they fired.’
‘And none of the police sustained a wound?’
‘No.’
‘Lucky.’
‘Very lucky.’
‘Did any of the four men get hit by bullets from your guys while they were still firing their weapons at you?’
Mashego paused. He wasn’t sure how to answer.
‘I mean, did one of the four men go down before the others, do you think? Or two, perhaps? Or did they all get hit at more or less the same time by your guys?’
‘I don’t know. It was all happening very fast, you know...’
‘I understand. Sure. Must have been difficult. OK. Thanks, Captain. That’s helpful. We think we have quite a bit of evidence here but we’ll need time to go through it all.’
‘You want to talk about the woman they killed up on Sugar Cane Road?’
‘Oh. No, that’s not… Well. Yes. That was terrible, I hear. But no, not really. I’m interested, of course, but there’s another team working on her. If they find that one of these men put a bullet into her then of course we’ll be cross-checking on the ballistics. But as I understand it there’s one forensics team looking at that homicide and another team looking at this scene down here. Maybe there’ll be some joining together later, but not for now. I’ll be speaking to the other team, of course.’
There was a pause before Nadine continued. Mashego, she could see, was disappointed with her reply to his question.
‘Why do you ask?’
‘No. Nothing. It’s just that that scene was very bad, and then they ran from up there to down here. These were very bad men.’
‘They sure were. From what I’ve heard they did really bad things up there.’
‘Yes. Rape, and torture, and more bad things. Before they killed her. With a knife.’
‘Yes. So I heard. We noticed that none of them had a knife by the time they got down here to the beach. Maybe lost it in the bush. Maybe in the water. The divers will be doing more work here today and tomorrow. The team up there will be looking for the knife, too. But we heard that the preliminary finding is that there were no bullets in her body. If that information changes, as I say, and they do find a bullet, especially from one of these four guns, then we’ll have a different kind of approach.’
‘Yes. I see.’
‘Yes.’
‘Yes, OK.’
‘Yes. OK, well, thanks Captain Mashego. We’ll be in touch if we have any more questions. Thanks very much for your co-operation.’
Mashego turned and walked away to join the six uniforms who were waiting for him. Nadine watched him go.
‘I think someone might want to talk to him again, sometime soon,’ she said to Pauline, who was packing their things into a large cardboard box.
‘I’m sure. Interesting, isn’t it, that not one of the seven cops got hit by those thirty slugs.’
‘Thirty-one.’
‘Yeah. That’s right. Thirty-one.’
‘So he said.’
10.20.
Ryder pulled up next to Pillay’s car. The place was packed. Private cars were parked all along the verge, squeezed in among an ambulance, police cars, and groups of people chattering. Someone was on radio, other people crowded behind the police cordon and were looking down southward to where the action was taking place on the beach. Ryder left the dog in the car with the window not quite closed and weaved his way through the crowd, hearing snippets of conversation as he went.
‘I hear they got four of them but apparently a couple of cops were wounded.’
‘Really? Not what I heard. I heard that no cop took a bullet. I spoke to the medical oke himself.’
‘Apparently they had done some really bad stuff up on Sugar Cane Road. I hear there’s more cops up there.’
‘Ja. Me too. I heard the same thing. Apparently these guys were up to no good there.’
‘Apparently one lot of cops chased them from there down to here while another lot came in from the casino side to head them off.’
Ryder wondered why the word apparently was always so common in these situations. Useful word, he supposed. The speaker covering himself in case of misinformation, while at the same time invoking some unnamed authority for the information.
‘Detective Ryder?’
Ryder turned, and was too late to avoid the photograph being taken as the man came up to him. Ryder brought his hand up instinctively to cover his face, but the flash got him with his arm halfway up.
‘Mike Pullen. I’m a journalist with the Mercury. Mind if I ask a couple of questions?’
‘Sorry. I’ve just arrived, Mr Pullen. Can’t talk now.’ Ryder carried on walking as Pullen fell in behind him and continued with his questions.
‘Just arrived, you say? Weren’t you here earlier?’
‘No. Why?’
‘You sure about that?’
‘Like I said.’
‘Where were you at midnight, if you don’t mind me asking?’
Ryder stopped, and turned.
‘I thought I was the cop and you were just the journalist. Where were you at midnight on a Saturday, Mr Pullen? In bed, I hope?’
‘I know where I was at midnight, Detective. I’ve got an alibi.’
‘Lucky you, then. Hope he treated you nicely.’
‘And you, Detective?’
‘And me detective what?’
‘Do you have an alibi for where you were at midnight?’
‘Oh, boy. Now you’re getting really amusing. Sorry, Mr Pullonit, some of us have work to do.’ Ryder strode off down to where he could see Navi Pillay.
‘You sure you can’t tell me where you were at midnight, Detective Ryder?’ Pullen called after him. Ryder walked on. He was perplexed. Weird guy, he thought, as he walked over to Pillay.
‘I see you met Mr Pullen, Jeremy.’
‘What’s his case?’
‘Seems to have a bee in his bonnet about something. Asked me how well I knew you and whether I knew where you were last night. I told him to piss off, of course.’
‘Of course. Wanker. What’s he looking for?’
‘Dunno, Jeremy. He opened his mouth and, apart from his noticeable breath, I thought immediately that his questions suggested he was on some mission to prove something he’d already decided. Something like the four guys shot by Durban North cops working with DOC must have been angels and the cops must have been murderers or tsotsis. Oh boy. These guys.’
Nadine and Pauline walked over as Pillay was saying this.
‘Hullo Detective Ryder. Good to see you again. You know Pauline.’
‘Hi Nadine. Yes. Hi, Pauline, only by sight. Good to see you again.’
‘Hi, Detective Ryder. Pauline Soames.’
‘Pauline’s been filling me in on what she and Nadine have been looking at, Jeremy,’ said Pillay.
‘I heard you telling Jeremy about your friendly journalist, Navi. Guy seems to be on a mission to find some dirt on the cops, you said?’
‘That’s right, Nadine. First he tried it on me and then had a go at Jeremy. Seems pretty tenacious about it.’
‘I think he was pretty sure that I was here at midnight, Nadine. Strange. He seemed very fixated on it.’
‘I’m actually quite sorry you weren’t here last night, Jeremy,’ said Nadine.
‘Oh? Why’s that, then?’
‘Well, maybe our funny journalist friend started getting the same feelings as Pauline and I did about what happened here.’
‘OK, Nadine. Now you’ve got my attention. What are you saying?’
‘Well, nothing really. You know us Jeremy. We like to look at
the evidence and then sleep on it...’
‘But?’
‘But we’re both a little, how shall I put it, puzzled about Detective Mashego, who we were talking to. The reason I wish you had been here last night, Detective Ryder, is that you’re such a straight up and down kind of a guy.’
‘Really? I’m beginning to think you’re passing me a compliment, Nadine. Which would be a real change. You feeling poorly?’
‘Now, now, Jeremy. Pauline and I have always thought that you and Navi are good cops. We’re just saying that maybe we’ve been spoilt. We’ve got used to getting straight answers from cops like yourselves. Detective Captain Mashego is slightly different. No, don’t turn just yet. He’s looking this way.’
She caught Ryder and Pillay as they were both about to turn and look up the beach at Mashego and the six uniforms. Nadine continued.
‘You can look up that way casually in a short while, but just let me say that Pauline and I are, like, interested, you know, in his story about what went down at midnight. I picked up from the chattering, by the way, that someone higher up wants someone from a station other than Durban North to cast an eye over all of this. Even before IPID has a look at it. Which would be unusual. If that chattering is correct, maybe they haven’t told you yet...’
‘That echoes what Piet Cronje told me, Jeremy. Maybe we’ll hear more first thing tomorrow,’ said Pillay.
‘How very interesting,’ said Ryder, pretending that he was looking up at the sun as if ascertaining what the weather would be like, but taking in at a glance the seven cops standing together up the beach. ‘And it looks as if Detective Mashego and company are in a serious debriefing. Have they all been here since midnight?’
‘So we hear,’ said Pauline.
‘Long debriefing, don’t you think?’ said Nadine. ‘I don’t think anyone has actually asked them to hang around, but they’re sure not moving.’
‘Well,’ said Ryder, ‘you both look as if you’re ready to move off, but would you mind running me through very quickly what you think might have happened here last night?’
‘It will be our pleasure,’ said Nadine. ‘But Navi told me you hadn’t had any breakfast, Jeremy. Neither have Pauline and I. So why don’t we all take some time off for the taking of a toast and tea while we have the discussion. Somewhere nice so that we can share a few things with you in comfort.’