“Who are you thinking of?” asked Clive, still rocking in his chair.
“Visser.”
“What would Visser want with him?”
“He may be able to screw the old man for a few million. It doesn’t have to be Visser personally. He could have got people to do it for him.”
“And the two kidnappings happen to take place on the same weekend?” Ellie raised her eyebrows, while Nick yawned and smiled at the same time.
“Can we get past the fact that it’s a coincidence for a moment? It’s possible.”
“Yes, it’s also possible that my ninety-year-old grandmother did it. She’s a tough old bird,” Clive responded. “Possible, but highly improbable.”
Brenda came in with a tray of coffee and Eet-Sum-Mor biscuits, which she put on the table.
Nick suddenly realised that he hadn’t had supper. He took a biscuit and chewed slowly. “Where are the others?”
“I sent them home,” Clive said. “We need them bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow morning.”
Nick looked at Ellie. “Where’s the list of people you gave your card or number to?”
She pushed a piece of paper across the table. He began to read from the top, stopping at each unfamiliar name to ask who it was.
“Could anyone else have got hold of your number?”
“I suppose so. It’s not a state secret. Have you asked Gabriella if there’s a place in or near Cape Town where Enzio may be hiding? Do they own any other properties?”
“The flat where I used to stay belongs to them.”
“Don’t you live there any more?” Ellie asked, surprised.
“No, and I’ve already been there – no sign of Enzio.”
“I don’t think he would have booked into a hotel. Too many cameras. And he would have had to show some form of identification.” Ellie got up and crossed over to one of the whiteboards. She cleaned a section and wrote:
Commercial flights
Private flight
Houses/flats
Friends
Hotels
“Think about friends he might be with too. Maybe someone with a farm. That would be handy. He could have driven there during the night. It’s unlikely that anyone would spot him there,” she said.
Nick shook his head. “The problem with that scenario is that he would have had to trust someone else with his plans. You heard Paul say he’s been getting more and more paranoid lately that someone would betray him. He doesn’t always trust me either.”
Clive stretched. “He wouldn’t necessarily tell a friend that he’s in hiding. He could say he’s come to chill out for a few days … I must get home.”
When the front door closed behind Clive, Nick asked Ellie: “If you think Allegretti is still hanging around, making plans to rescue Clara, what do you think he’s planning? Is he still looking for the money, or does he have something else up his sleeve?”
“I think he’s looking for the money.”
“Where is he going to get that much cash at such short notice?”
“Call in old debts, do a quick deal.” Ellie looked at the names on the whiteboards. “Who owes him money?”
“I don’t know. His father doesn’t know either. I know he had a meeting with the Nigerian, Abua Jonathan, a while ago. It could only have been about drugs. Big money. The problem is Enzio doesn’t have that much money of his own – and he needs money to make money if he wants to do business with Jonathan.”
Nick took out his notebook and wrote something in it.
“He may have borrowed from Jonathan,” Ellie said.
Nick nodded slowly. “It’s possible, but I wonder if even he would be that stupid.”
“What could someone like Enzio offer Jonathan that would convince him to lend him the money?”
Nick took the last biscuit on the plate and chewed it for a while. “The right to be the sole supplier of drugs at the club.” He raised both hands. “Clever girl.”
“What kind of money are we talking about?”
“The people who visit the club want top-quality coke. They’re not crack users. For a gram of pure coke you can pay anything between four hundred and five hundred rand. Let’s say the average usage is three grams per night. Do the maths. A serious user with money to burn could easily spend thirty thousand rand a month. It’s worthwhile getting the sole mandate for a club like that. Especially if you can guarantee good quality.”
“Not everyone who goes there has thirty thousand a month to spend on a habit.”
“True, but let’s say each person spends five thousand a month. We’re still talking about a turnover of about two and a half million. Not bad for a month’s work when all you have to do is have someone on site every night to supply. You make an agreement with the owner that no one brings in their own supply. Same as with liquor. No one takes in his own booze.”
Ellie wrote Abua Jonathan’s name on the board.
“Were you at the meeting?” she asked.
“No, but I took Allegretti there and he introduced me to Jonathan.”
“How could we find out if there have recently been new suppliers at the club?”
Nick scratched his head. “Now that I think of it, Gabriella and Visser won’t know about it. It’s something Allegretti would want to do on his own.”
“Unless Gabriella smelled a rat and closed her own deal with Jonathan. Offered him a larger cut.”
Nick gave a lopsided smile. “You like making things difficult for me.”
“You just want them too easy.”
He threw his hands in the air. “Of course I want things easy. Bloody hell, I’ve earned easy. Since the afternoon you walked into the club there’s been one problem after another. If I were a superstitious man, I’d believe that getting rid of you would solve a great many of my problems.”
“I was out of your hair for five months and look where that got you,” Ellie said, smiling. “Step aside, won’t you, and let the pros show you how it’s done.”
He got to his feet. “How what is done?” Ellie played with the marker in her hand and didn’t answer. He sighed. “I’d better go. I need to get some sleep.”
“Are the Vissers still together?”
“Who knows? I don’t think they know themselves.”
He put his head around the door and said goodbye to Brenda. “Thanks. Your coffee was great.”
“The pleasure is all mine. Sweet dreams.”
“Do you trust him?” Brenda came to the kitchen doorway when the front door closed behind Nick.
“You’ll have to be more specific. Trust him with what? My life, my reputation, my heart, my work?”
“All of the above.”
“At the moment I don’t really have much choice. I have to trust him.”
“So you don’t trust him.”
“Brenda, listen to me: At the moment I trust him with what we’re doing. Whether I’ll still trust him in a week or a month, we’ll have to see. I don’t know him well enough to have an opinion about him.”
“You can see in a man’s eyes whether you can trust him or not. Women who can’t see it are stupid. Men can’t lie with their eyes the way women can. They’re put together too simply.”
“What about all the women who get taken for a ride by men? Who end up with their hearts broken?”
“I’ve told you, they’re stupid, or they choose not to see. It’s dangerous, that. The choice not to see. You know the saying: If something seems too good to be true, it’s probably not true? It can also be applied to people. If someone seems too good to be true, you’d better believe that there’s trouble up ahead. Rather trust the people who don’t hide their flaws.”
“You make life sound very simple.”
“It is. If we lose all the bullshit and open our eyes, it is very simple.”
“Do you trust him?” Ellie asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“He’s got honest eyes.”
Ellie put the marke
r down and laughed. “Your talents are wasted, you know? We should get you your own talk show or column in a magazine. Just think how much money you could save people. Psychologists all over the country would have to close shop.”
“He’s a good lover, but he struggles to be a husband. He seems like a free spirit, but deep inside he’s a one-woman man. He’s been rejected somewhere along the line and he’s more dangerous than you think, but not in obvious ways. Remember that.”
Ellie laughed even more loudly. “I’m impressed. You should reconsider your day job.”
Brenda turned around. “Mock me all you want.” She turned back. “Are you okay? Can I get you anything before you go to bed? Tablets, a bedtime story?”
“I’m okay, thanks.”
“Not even a man to warm your bed?”
“Especially not a man.”
“Well, fine. Sort out your shit first, or it won’t work anyway.”
“Brenda, you do realise you don’t really know me? Though you may think so.”
“You’d be surprised.”
Ellie was just leaving when Brenda spoke again. “Am I right about the colonel?”
“About what?”
“Is he a good lover?”
Ellie shook her head, but didn’t turn around. “How should I know?”
She heard Brenda laugh as she walked down the passage.
When Ellie got into bed, she heard the rain against the windows. The wind had subsided and the city had covered herself in a thick blanket of rain. Maybe she’d had enough of the fun and games on her streets and beaches and mountains. Maybe it was a cleansing ritual that made everything seem more muted on a night like this.
Ellie liked the winter rains. Perhaps because her dad had loved the cold, wet winters. They seemed to awaken something in him. The summers were too long and dry sometimes. Somewhere inside him the yearning lingered for Ireland’s green. Some of Ellie’s earliest memories were of the two of them walking the streets in the rain, protected by raincoats and wellingtons. Her first pair had been bright red. She thought of him under the tree in Kirstenbosch and imagined she could hear him give a contented sigh.
Maybe she shouldn’t have made him such a part of this dry land. Maybe she shouldn’t have given him to a white stinkwood, but taken him back to the land of his birth. She knew the graveyard where his people were buried. Maybe she should scoop up a handful of soil under the white stinkwood one day and take it to Ireland. Then again, maybe a part of him wanted to stay here to be close to her and her mother.
When a message came through on her cellphone and she saw it was Albert, she chose not to reply. She’d talk to him later.
His neighbour’s lights were still on when Nick passed her front door at one in the morning. He had been meaning to phone her. He couldn’t believe it was only a week ago. So much had happened since then that he had almost forgotten about their evening together. It was a cruel thought. No woman wants to know she’s forgettable, but it’s a fact of life. Some women are more memorable than others. And then there are women you battle all your life to forget. It’s not only about sex either. Their bodies seem to talk to you, in a language you never realised you knew. He tried to push away the face that came to mind. He suspected the language of Ellie McKenna’s body would be keeping him awake for some time yet.
His flat was dark and quiet when he unlocked the front door. He wondered whether Nols was still out. He felt guilty that he couldn’t spend more time with him. He put the bakkie keys on the table at the front door. When he turned, his heart nearly stopped. Then he realised it was Nols at the window. Nick switched on the light.
“Why are you standing in the dark?”
“It’s a beautiful city.”
“I’m sorry I’m so late. I hope you’ve had something to eat.”
Nols smiled. “Don’t worry about me. The past few years have taught me to look after myself.”
Nick thought he could hear a reproach. Maybe his conscience was making him imagine things. Nols sat down on the couch and he felt obliged to sit as well, even though his body and mind were aching for sleep.
“How are you getting on?”
“One step forward, three steps back. You know the story.”
“I miss the job.”
It felt as if a stone had been placed in his lap. Lord, he was too tired to be having this conversation.
“I was a fucking good cop.”
“One of the best,” Nick agreed.
“It makes it even harder. It would be easier, in a way, if I could tell myself I wasn’t as good as I thought, but I know I was good. It was all I ever wanted to do with my life.”
Questions flashed through Nick’s mind. If he never wanted to do anything else, why didn’t Nols keep his hands clean? If he was so good, why wasn’t he smarter? Then the two of them wouldn’t be sitting here now. Or if they were, he wouldn’t have a stone in his lap and a bitter taste in his mouth. Fuck, he didn’t know why he found it so hard to look Nols in the eye. Why was he the one who felt guilty? He kept quiet.
Nols got up. “I’m going to bed. I can see you’re tired. I’m sorry for imposing on you. I promise it’s only for another day or two, then I’ll be out of your hair.”
“You’re not imposing. I’m sorry it’s such a bad time. It would have been nice to spend more time together.”
“There’ll be other times. We both have things to do. I want to see my kids as often as possible and I’ve got to find a job. And you have to catch the bad guys.”
Lying in bed, Nick wondered if he should have knocked on his neighbour’s door. Or stayed in Milnerton. He knew he was going to feel Nols’s eyes on him all night. Eyes that hit a spot inside him, like a marksman hitting a bull’s-eye, and yet they looked past him. He had to make time for a proper chat with Nols.
CHAPTER 24
Ellie woke up when her cellphone rang. It was still dark outside but the screen told her it was six thirty.
“Ellie …”
“Clara?” Ellie sat up in bed. She was wide awake, her brain working overtime.
“Please help me.” Clara was sobbing uncontrollably. “Enzio is …”
“What about Enzio?” Ellie turned cold. Had something happened to Enzio?
“Enzio isn’t coming … they’re going to kill me.”
“Clara, let me speak to one of them.”
Just like the day before, she could hear an unintelligible muttering. Then Clara was back on the line. “They say you’re trying to be smart. You have to tell Enzio to come.”
“Clara, tell the person with you he or she doesn’t have to say anything. I just want to give them a message in person.”
More muttering could be heard.
“Ellie, you’re on speaker phone. You can talk.”
“Enzio Allegretti has been missing since Sunday last week. We’ve been looking for him without success. Please let Clara go. She can’t help you.”
She heard Clara sob in the background.
“They say he’s not missing, he’s just hiding. You have to find him.”
“We’re trying our best.”
Clara’s sobs got louder.
“Clara, what’s going on? Talk to me.”
“They … they say you’ve got … forty-eight hours. Then you can arrange my funeral.”
“Am I still on speaker?”
“Yes.”
“I want to meet. Tell me where, and I’ll come. I need to see Clara to make sure she’s unharmed, or we’ll abandon the search for Enzio Allegretti.”
The call was disconnected. Ellie tossed her phone on the bed, pressed her face into the pillow and screamed.
Moments later she got up and had a quick shower. She wished she could go running to clear her head, but the doctor had put a stop to it for now. Today she was taking off the neck brace – it was unnecessary and she’d had enough.
Ellie was making coffee when Brenda entered.
“You’re an early bird.”
“I was awake anywa
y, so I got up. I have to go see someone.”
“Don’t do anything stupid. I don’t do funerals, remember?”
Ellie picked up her handbag. “See you later.”
The bus stop was just down the road.
Less than twenty minutes later she found Happy in his usual spot. A stack of newspapers lay at his feet.
He pretended not to see her until she was right beside him. He held out a newspaper. She gave him the money and took the paper.
“How long will you be?”
He looked at the stack of papers. “Half an hour or so.”
“I’ll wait at the coffee place on the square.”
Half an hour later she saw him in the doorway and waved.
“Two visits in one week. People will think I’m a nutcase, with the social worker calling on me so often.”
The waitress put the coffee and the breakfast she had ordered in front of him.
“It must be important, for you to spoil me like this.”
“I need a favour, Happy, but you have to promise me you’ll do exactly as I say. I can’t answer any questions now. You’ll have to trust that I know what I’m doing.”
He stopped eating. “I see a shitstorm on the horizon.”
“I’m going to try to arrange a meeting with someone. I’ll let you know the address and the time. Hopefully it’ll take place here in the city. If I’m successful, they may want me to get into their car. If you see me get into a vehicle, I want you to call the guy who was with me the other day, or my former partner, Captain Barnard. Give him the registration number of the vehicle and the description, and tell him where I got in.”
Happy put his knife and fork down. “Nei, man, you’ve made me lose my appetite. What are you up to?”
“If you don’t want to do it, I’ll think of something else. I told you I don’t have time for explanations.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to, but those two cops will fuck me up if anything happens to you. Or even worse, put me in a cell and throw away the key.”
“Happy, it’s quite possible that I won’t be able to arrange the meeting, or that I won’t go with them. I’m just putting a few safety precautions in place.”
Endgame Page 24