by Deon Meyer
Silence dominated the room.
In her seat, Melinda made a little noise, but Griessel kept his attention on Josh. The big man's shock seemed genuine.
'How?' asked Geyser.
'He was shot yesterday at his house,' said Mouton.
'Oh heavens!' Melinda cried out.
'I would like to talk to you alone, Mr Geyser,' said Griessel quickly, worried that the impetuous Mouton would say too much.
'Melinda, won't you wait in my office?' asked Mouton.
She didn't move.
'You're making a mistake,' Geyser said to Griessel.
'Would you sit down, please, Mr Geyser?'
'Come, Melinda,' said Mouton.
'I'm staying with Josh.'
'Mrs Geyser, I am afraid that I must speak with him alone.'
'She stays,' said Geyser.
Vusi found the manager in a small, untidy office with files and sheaves of accounts strewn across the table and shelves. She was typing figures into a large adding machine, painted nails pecking at the keys with lightning speed. He knocked on the frame of the open door and asked whether she was the manager.
'Yes.' She looked up. Forty, maybe, short black hair, strong features, but hard.
Vusi held out his identification and introduced himself.
'Galina Federova.' She shook Vusi's hand with a self-assured grip. 'Why are you here?' in the same accented English as Ponytail's.
Vusi gave her a quick outline of the case.
'Please sit down.' Somewhere between an order and an invitation, the please was a short, powerful pits. She began to pick up invoices from the table, looking for something. She found a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, flipped open the packet's lid and offered it to Vusi.
'No, thanks.'
She took one out for herself, lit it and spoke, the smoke trickling from her mouth.
'You know how many people last night?'
No, he said, he didn't know.
'Maybe two hundred, maybe more. We are very poplar.'
The mispronunciation distracted him momentarily. 'I understand that. But something must have happened, Mrs Federova.'
'Call me Galia. It is the Russian way for Galina.'
'Are you the owner?'
'That is Gennady Demidov. I just manage.'
Vusi took his notebook from his inside pocket and scribbled a note.
'Why you write this down?'
He shrugged. 'Till what time are you open?'
'The door close at twelve on a Monday night.'
'And then everybody leaves?'
'No. Nobody can come in, but those inside, they can stay. We close the bar when everybody go home.'
'This morning, at two-fifteen, did you still have people?'
'I must ask the night manager. Petr.'
'Can you call him?'
'He sleeps.'
'You will have to wake him up.'
She wasn't keen. She drew on the cigarette and blew the smoke out through her nose like a bull in a cartoon. Then she began to rifle through invoices again, searching for the phone. He wondered how on earth untidy people managed to function.
Benny Griessel walked closer to Josh Geyser. He looked up at the colossus who was now jutting his jaw out in determination. 'Mr Geyser, let me explain your choices: we can sit here, just the two of us, and talk quietly ...'
'Regardt and I will be here too, Josh, don't worry ...' Willie Mouton said behind him.
'No,' said Griessel, taken aback. 'It doesn't work like that...'
'Of course it does. He has the right...'
Griessel turned around slowly, his patience wearing thin. 'Mr Mouton, I understand this is a difficult time for everyone. I understand that the victim was your partner and you want this case solved. But it is my job. So would you please leave so I can get on with it.'
Willie Mouton coloured. The Adam's apple bobbed faster, the voice rose to the frequency of the meat saw. 'He has the right to a lawyer and yesterday he was in my office. Regardt and I have to be present. 'The lawyer, Groenewald, came down the passage behind Mouton, seeming to know he needed to help.
Benny looked for patience and found a fraction. 'Mr Geyser, this is an interview, not an arrest. Do you want Groenewald to be present?'
Geyser looked to Melinda for help. She shook her head. 'He's Willie's lawyer ...'
'I am available,' Groenewald said primly.
'I insist on it,' said Mouton. 'Both of us ...'
Benny Griessel knew it was time to tackle Mouton. There was only one way He walked purposefully up to the shaven-headed man, the official words ready on his tongue, but the prim lawyer was surprisingly quick. Groenewald jumped in between the two men.
'Willie, if he locks you up for obstruction, there is nothing I can do for you.' He took Mouton firmly by the arm. 'Come, let's go and wait in your office. Josh, you know where to find me.'
Mouton got to his feet; his mouth moved, but no sound came out. Then he turned away slowly, but his eyes stayed on Griessel, challenging. Groenewald tugged at him and Mouton walked to the door, where he stopped to call over his shoulder: 'You have rights, Josh. 'Then they were gone.
Griessel took a deep breath and turned his attention to the duo. 'Mr Geyser ...'
'We were in church last night,' said Melinda.
He nodded slowly, asked: 'Mr Geyser, do you want legal representation?'
He looked to his wife. She shook her head slightly. Griessel saw the dynamic. She was the one with the final say.
'I don't want anybody,' said Josh. 'Let's get this over with. I know what you think.'
'Ma'am, please, would you wait in Mouton's office?'
'I'll be in the front. In the lounge.' She went over to Josh, touched his big arm, gave him a weighted look. 'Beertjie ...' she said. My little bear. Beside her husband she looked small, but she was taller than Griessel had thought. She was wearing jeans and a sea-green blouse that echoed the colour of her eyes. Ten kilograms ago her body must have been sensational.
'It's all right, Pokkel,' said Josh, but there was tension between them, Griessel could sense it.
She looked back once, and closed the door softly behind her.
Griessel took out his cell phone and switched it off. He looked up at Geyser, who stood beside the oval table with his feet planted wide apart.
'Mr Geyser, sit, please.' He gestured to one of the chairs closest to the. door.
Josh didn't move. 'Tell me first: are you a child of God?'
Chapter 17
On the fourth floor of an unobtrusive building at 24 Alfred Street in Green Point, the shoes of the Provincial Commissioner SAPS: Western Cape clicked rapidly down the long corridor.
He was a Xhosa, short, dressed in full uniform, but without his jacket, the sleeves of his blue shirt rolled up to his elbows. He came to a standstill at the open office door of John Afrika, Regional Commissioner: Detective Services and Criminal Intelligence. Afrika was on the phone, but he heard his boss knock and beckoned him to come in.
'I'll call you back,' he said and put the phone down.
'John, the National Commissioner has just phoned. Do we know about an American girl who died last night?'
'We know,' said John Afrika, resigned. 'I was wondering when the trouble would start.'
The Provincial Commissioner sat down opposite Afrika. 'The girl's friend phoned her father in America half an hour ago and said someone is trying to kill her too.'
'Did she phone from here?'
'From here.'
'Bliksem. Did she say where she was?'
'Apparently not. The father said it sounded as though she had to run away before she had finished talking.'
I'll have to let Benny and Vusi know. And Mbali,' said John Afrika as he picked up his phone.
Galia Federova, manager of Van Hunks, spoke over the phone in Russian and then held it out for Vusi. 'Petr. You can talk with him.'
The detective took the phone. 'Good morning, my name is Vusi. I just want to know if somethi
ng happened in the club this morning, between two o'clock and two fifteen. Two American girls, and some young men. We have them on video, running up Long Street, and we have people who say they were in the club.'
'There were many people,' said Petr, his accent much lighter than the woman's.
'I know, but did anybody notice anything unusual?'
'What is unusual?'
'An argument. A fight.'
'I don't know. I was in the office.'
'Who would know?'
'The barmen and the waiters.'
'Where do I find them?'
'They are sleeping, I think.'
'I need you to call them, sir. I need all of them to come to the club.'
'That is not possible.'
'Yes, sir, it is possible. This is a murder investigation.'
Petr sighed deeply on the other end to emphasise his annoyance. 'It will take a lot of time.'
'We don't have time, sir. One of the girls is still alive and if we don't find her, she will be dead too.'
Vusi's mobile began to ring.
'One hour,' said Petr.
'Ask them to come to the club,' said Vusi, and passed the receiver back to Federova. He answered his cell phone. 'This is Vusi.'
'She's still alive, Vusi,' said John Afrika. 'She phoned her father in America, half an hour ago. But I can't get hold of Benny.'
Rachel Anderson sprinted down Upper Orange Street. Her eyes searched desperately back and forth for an escape route, but the houses on both sides were impregnable - high walls, electrified fences, security railing and gates. She knew she had no time, they would come back through the shop, she had maybe a hundred- metre start on them. Her father's voice had given her new urgency, a desire to live, to see her parents again. How horribly worried her mother must be now, her dear, scatterbrained mother.
She saw one house just a block from the shop on the corner to the left, a single-storey Victorian dwelling with a low white picket fence and a pretty garden. She knew it was her only chance. She hurdled the hip-height fence but the tip of her shoe hooked and sent her sprawling into the flower bed beyond, her hands trying in vain to break her fall, her belly skidding across the slippery surface, winding her, the damp garden soil leaving a wide muddy stripe on her blue T-shirt.
She scrambled up quickly, meaning to run around the house, across the front to the back, away from the street before they saw her. Over the grass, a paved path, more flower beds in cheerful white, yellow and blue. Her mouth was gaping to get enough air. Past the furthest corner of the house there were bougainvilleas, big and dense, the purple flowers tumbling over an arbour. A hiding place. She hesitated for only an instant to estimate the size of the bushes, not realising they had thorns. She dived inside, to the deepest shadow at the back. The sharp points pierced her, scratched long bloody tracks on her arms and legs. She cried out softly at the pain, and lay gasping on her stomach behind the screen of leaves. 'Please, God,' she murmured and turned her face to the street. She could see nothing, only the thick curtain of green, and the tiny white flowers in each purple cup.
If they hadn't seen her, she was safe. For now. She shifted her hand down her limbs, to try and pull the thorns out.
'Let me go and phone the American Consul,' the Provincial Commissioner said to John Afrika as he rose. 'I'm going to tell him we are doing everything in our power to track her down. John, you must make sure that that is true. Get Benny Griessel to take full control.'
'Right. But the stations are reluctant to allocate people ..
'Leave that to me,' said the Provincial Commissioner. He walked to the door and stopped.
'Isn't Griessel up for promotion?'
'It's been approved; I think he'll be notified today.'
'Tell him. Tell the whole team.'
'Good idea.' Afrika's phone rang. The Provincial Commissioner waited, in the hope that there would be news.
'John Afrika.'
'Commissioner, this is Inspector Mbali Kaleni. I am at Caledon Square, but they say they don't have a place for me.'
'Mbali, I want you to go to the station commander's office, because he is going to get a call right now.'
'Yes, sir,' she said.
'The missing girl ... She's alive. She called home half an hour ago.'
'Where is she?'
'She did not have enough time to say. We need to find her. Quickly.'
'I will find her, Commissioner.' So self-assured. John Afrika put down the phone. 'Caledon Square,' he told the Provincial Commissioner. 'They don't want to cooperate.'
'Wait,' said the little Xhosa in his impeccable uniform. 'Let me call him too.'
'Would you like to tell me what happened yesterday?' Griessel sat down on the other side of the oval table, with his face towards the door. The big man was sitting down now, elbows on the table, one hand nervously touching the drooping blonde moustache. 'It wasn't me.' He didn't look at Griessel. 'Mr Geyser, let's start at the beginning. Apparently there was an incident yesterday ...'
'What would you do if a son of Satan messed with your woman? What would you do?'
'Mr Geyser, how did you find out that Adam Barnard and your wife ...'
'We're all sinners. But he had no remorse. Never. He never stopped. Idols. Mammon. Whoring.' He gave Griessel an ominous look and said: 'He believed in evolution.' 'Mr Geyser ...'
'He's a son of Satan. Today he burns in hell...'
'Mr Geyser, how did you find out?' With infinite patience.
He shrugged as though he needed to steel himself. 'Yesterday when she came home, she didn't look well, so I asked what was wrong ...' He leaned his forehead on his hand and looked down at the table. 'First she said "nothing". But I knew something was ... So I said: "Pokkel, you're not okay, what is it?" Then she sat down and she couldn't look me in the eye. That's when I knew something was very wrong ...' He went quiet, clearly unwilling to relive the events.
'What time was that?'
'Three o'clock, round about.'
'And then?'
'Then I sat next to her and held her hands. And she started crying. Then she said: "Beertjie, let us pray, Beertjie". And she held my hands tight and prayed and she said: "Lord, forgive me because Satan ..."' Geyser opened and closed his fists, his face contorted with feeling.' "... because Satan got into my life today." So I said: "Pokkel, what happened?" But she just kept her eyes shut...' The big man shielded his face with his hands.
'Mr Geyser, I know this is hard.'
Geyser shook his head, still hiding his face. 'My Melinda ...' he said and his voice cracked. 'My Pokkel.'
Griessel waited.
'Then she asked God to forgive her, because she was weak, so I asked her if she had stolen something, but she said, Lord, One John One verse eight, she said it over and over until I said stop, what did she do? Then she opened her eyes and said she had sinned in Adam Barnard's office, because she wasn't as strong as I think, she couldn't stop the devil, and I said what kind of sin, and she said: "of the flesh, Beertjie, the big sin of the flesh ..."' Geyser's voice broke down and he stopped, with both hands over his face.
Benny Griessel sat there suppressing the urge to get up and put his hand on the massive shoulder, to console, to say something. In twenty-five years he had learned to be sceptical, not to believe anything until all the evidence was in. He had learned that when the sword of righteousness hung over your head, you were capable of anything - heart-rending, tearful denial, the pained indignation at being falsely accused, strong protest, deep remorse or pathetic self-pity. People could lie with astonishing skill; sometimes it led to total self-deception, so that they clung with absolute conviction to an imaginary innocence.
So he did nothing. He just waited for Josh Geyser to finish crying.
Galia Federova pressed a switch and neon lights flickered on near the roof of the club, just enough to cloak the large space in twilight.
'You can wait here,' she said to Vusi and pointed at the table and chairs around the dance floor. 'Would yo
u like something to drink?'
'Do you have tea?'
He fancied she smiled before she said: 'I will tell them.' Then she was gone.
He walked between the tables that hadn't yet been set out since the previous night.
He stopped at one, took down the chairs and sat down. He put his notebook, pen and cell phone on the table and looked around in amazement. On the right against the wall was the long bar counter made from rough, thick wooden beams. On the walls were artificial shipwreck ornaments from the era of sailing ships, between modern neon curlicues in piratical designs. On the left, right at the back, was a bank of turntables and electronic equipment, with a dance floor in front. Four dance towers stood metres above the dance floor. High up against the ceiling hung bunches of lasers and spotlights, all dark now. Giant speakers were mounted on every wall.
He tried to imagine how it had been last night. Hundreds of people, loud music, dancing bodies, flickering lights. And now it was quiet, empty and spooky.
He felt uneasy in this place.
In this city too. It was the people, he thought. Khayelitsha had often broken his heart with its pointless murders, the domestic violence, the terrible poverty, the shacks, the daily struggle. But he had been welcome there, the source of law and order, simple people, his people, they respected him, stood by him, supported him.
Ninety per cent of those cases were straightforward. In this city the possibilities were complicated and legion, the agendas inscrutable. It was all antagonism and suspicion. As if he were some intruder.
'No respect,' his mother would say. 'That's the problem with the new world.' His mother carved elephants out of wood in Knysna, sanding and polishing them until they came alive, but she refused to sell them in the roadside stall next to the lagoon, 'Because people don't have respect any more.' To her, the 'new world' was anything across the brown waters of the Fish and Mzimvubu Rivers, but there were no jobs in Gwiligwili, 'at home'. Now she was an exile, cast out on this 'new world'. Even though she only went shopping once a week. The rest of the time she sat in front of the corrugated iron shack in Khayalethu South with her elephants, waiting for her son to phone on the cell phone he had bought for her. Or for Zukisa, to hear how many artworks they had sold to the disrespectful tourists.