“I’ll see you around, Michael. And please bear in mind that you owe me your life and as far as I can remember you are one of a dying breed who still live with some amount of honour, so don’t go putting my name on any reports or case files.”
The man then tapped on the window and turned to leave.
“What do you mean ‘I owe you my life,’ your men shot at us, Blackie.”
Blackie turned.
“I know your vehicle is armoured. I just had to let your position be completely known to you. No more time to chat, bye!” said Blackie but before he left he turned to face Night once again and said “One more thing, tell your Taakie mate over there that if he ever points a gun at me again, I’ll fucking murder him.”
With that the man turned, walked back to his vehicle and theatrically waved good bye.
Within seconds the six vehicles carrying the Cash In Transit Robbers were gone, each pair of vehicles racing away along a different road. Night contemplated giving chase or simply trying to tail the vehicles long enough to call in air support but he let the thought die as he knew that if the highly trained robbers caught sight of November Whisky Fifty following they would open up with their weapons and this time they would fire until their rounds punched through The Beast’s windshield. Besides, they would never be able to keep up as although the Ford Ranger provided decent 0 to 100KM times it would stand no chance against the gang’s vehicles on Johannesburg’s highways. More than that Night knew who the gang’s leader was, Night knew his full name and his previous profession.
The four police officers exited The Beast and Night took control of the crime scene. He was immensely relieved to find that the three guards had not been seriously injured and that no bystanders had been hurt either. The three guards, all hardened former cops or military men themselves weren’t too bothered about the whole thing but instead seemed happy, happy to still be alive no doubt. Most CIT guards involved in a robbery were usually executed on the spot. They informed Night that the cash boxes taken were all full as they were on the way to dropping off the cash at various ATMs and businesses in Rosebank, Melrose and Sandton. The highly coordinated gang of thieves had got away with close to three million Rand equivalent to about two hundred thousand pounds.
“Those shots must have been for intimidation and crowd control purposes only” said Shaka.
As the police officers began to clear up the scene of debris, in a fashion that can only be unique to South Africans, the civilians who only moments earlier were caught up in a violent robbery started to go back to their business as though it was, well, business as usual.
Night noticed one of the vehicles that was caught at one of the intersections pull off and then slow down as it passed, the driver of the vehicle, a white woman in her late fifties, rolled down the window and shouted:
“Bloody useless pigs! The bloody monkeys rob us and steal from us and shoot at us in broad daylight and you useless pigs do nothing about it. You should be ashamed of yourselves!” she then spat out of her window and quickly rolled it up and tried to speed off in disgust, but to the amusement of everyone else sympathetic to the police officers, in the woman’s hurry to speed off she stalled the engine and it spluttered to a halt before the now red-faced lady regained control of her car and managed to drive away, this time putting too much emphasis on the accelerator causing her wheels to spin and almost veer off of the road.
As she finally left the intersection another vehicle, moving in the opposite direction, stopped briefly in the middle of the road and the driver, a white male in his forties, said:
“Don’t worry okes, I saw what happened, I used to be a cop, like you. If you had tried to take on those bastards they would have killed the lot of you!”
The man didn’t wait for a response and pulled off in a rush, now probably late for an appointment, once again, because of another pesky daylight armed robbery.
“Jeez like, does everyone in Melrose have an opinion on what just happened?” said Kalahari.
But before Night could answer the driver of another vehicle, a black man in his late twenties, stopped in the middle of the intersection, causing the person behind him to brake hard and hoot at him, and put in his two cents:
“I saw what happened you corrupt pigs and I’m going to report you to IPID (Independent Police Investigative Directorate). The leader gave you cash not to do anything and to use your radio and I saw it. And I’m a lawyer so I know how to nail you!”
That was all Sergeant Shaka could take, he was used to being sworn at and he was used to the racial slurs but he would not stand for being called corrupt. He dropped the car bumper that had fallen off the ramming BMW, that he was moving off of the road and marched toward the accusing man. The lawyer took one look at the giant marching towards him and floored the gas pedal and was away within seconds, all the while offering his finger as a farewell.
Night knew the man was just angry, angry about being stuck in traffic, stuck in the middle of a deadly robbery and angry with the state of the country and that he probably wouldn’t make a formal complaint. But Night wouldn’t be surprised if one day in the near future he got to the station only to find another docket, this time of corruption, had been opened against him for some totally manufactured reason.
“Cappy, how the hell can that guy say he saw that other guy give you cash, I was watching the whole thing from just behind you and he gave you nothing!?”
Night looked at the raw recruit and half smiled.
“That’s something you will learn quick-quick as a cop, Dlamini. In times of high stress people see what they want to see. That’s why witness statements are so unreliable. Anyway gents lets get this mess cleaned up.”
The police officers then used November Whisky Fifty to block off only the one half of the road of the one intersection and cordoned off with police tape the two vehicles involved in the premeditated collision. If the South African police had to shut down a road every time there was a car accident or incident of crime, traffic would come to a standstill and the citizens of the country would become even angrier. In a country where hundreds of serious incidents of crime happened every day life had to go on. Where the British say ‘Keep calm and carry on’ the South Africans say ‘Keep angry and carry on’ or more simply ‘T.I.A – This is Africa.”
Night then got on his mobile phone directly to the Channel 26 controller and at some length he explained what exactly had happened while Dlamini enthusiastically directed traffic around the crime scene.
After a lengthy call all the relevant officers had been notified and would be en route to the scene including the cluster commander, duty officer, duty detective, fingerprints expert, crime scene investigator and photographer and an ambulance for the wounded CIT guards.
Normally Night would have issued a Zero Six over the radio network – A lookout giving the description of the suspect vehicles used in the robbery but on discussion with the radio controller he decided against it as he knew the gang were monitoring the channel and if any units got too close they probably wouldn’t stand a chance against the highly trained criminals. The gang would have to be tracked down with the information Night had on the man and then an arrest warrant executed with the help of specialised police units and most likely Kalahari’s unit – The Special Task Force.
While Dlamini stood and directed traffic with his duty torch Night beckoned to the Warrant Officer and his Sergeant to join him in November Whisky Fifty.
“Must I also come, boss?” said Dlamini.
“Negative, Dlamini. Keep directing traffic, you’re doing a great job.”
“Okay cool, thanks boss!”
Night and Zulu climbed into the front and instead of getting into the back seat of the police vehicle Kalahari walked in front of the car and produced his mobile phone.
“What the hell are you doing, Kal?” asked Night.
“Well I’m taking a photo, aren’t I, the gun shot impacts are perfectly placed over your faces, and it looks bloody lekk
er!!”
The officers then took turns sitting in the front seats as the others took photos, even Dlamini got involved before Night sent him back to directing traffic and the other three got back in the double cab police vehicle for a much needed debrief.
“So what’s your take on what just happened, Kal? I take it you clocked the rifles?”
“Ja boet, R4s on bi-pods, and the only unit I know who used them – Army Commandos.”
Night nodded his head slowly. His old unit.
“That guy used to be one of your commanders, hey Mike?” said Shaka.
“He sure did. Blackie Swart is his name, an old school operator who joined the Commandos when he was 21, if I remember correctly.”
Sergeant Shaka whistled through his teeth and shook his head at the implications of what his friend had just said.
“Were they all former Commandos do you think?” asked Shaka.
“Probably, most of them for sure. And we can’t say we didn’t see this coming – I remember the top brass arguing against the disbandment of the Commandos stating that this very thing would happen. The men who relied on the small Commando’s salary would turn to crime with the only skill set they have.”
“Why did they disband them, Mike?”
“The ANC were scared, scared the Commandos would try and stage a coup or some such fear. And not only has it created highly trained and unemployed men having to now look for new ways to feed their families but it’s left hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people, defenceless in the more rural communities.”
“Ja, Mike. But the ANC weren’t too far wrong, hey. A lot of or should I say a considerable number of the Commando’s had hardcore Apartheid links, as I’m sure you know.”
“Some of them did but then did not the police?”
“Ja but they can control the police, get rid of the ‘old schools’, the Commando though was for a different time, a different beast they couldn’t so easily control. Anyway fuck that guy!” said Kalahari who now seemed very angry. “You know I was going to kill that fucker! I had him and was about to pull the trigger!”
Night and Shaka now turned in their seats and looked at the STF member, both surprised by the uncharacteristic show of emotion from the man.
“What stopped you?” Night asked, genuinely interested as he knew the Warrant Officer was fully capable of doing so and would have been completely justified, legally and morally, in doing so.
“Well, first of all I didn’t know how the kid would react. You know, would he run, would he shit himself, would he blindly also start shooting and hit you or worse, me. He also managed to lower his hands and get his nine out and it was pointing at the guy.”
Shaka nodded his head, he was impressed with the young man.
“And then, and no offence here okes, but I also didn’t know how you two would react. I knew I could probably nail one or both of the shooters in the pick-ups before taking cover behind the back of the vehicle and switching to my R1 and then I could do some real damage, but you know I don’t really know you okes well enough to… you know…”
“Know if we could handle ourselves in a shit storm.”
Shaka laughed and then said:
“I like you, Kalahari. But please don’t question how we operate in a firefight again. You saw us both in action, in the desert against those Zim soldiers.”
“He’s right though, my brother, think about it, would you have trusted us if you didn’t know us, know us on the streets?” said Night.
“I have no idea what you just said, but yes, we haven’t all worked together long enough to know each others’ capabilities.”
“What would your normal third crew have done?” asked Kalahari.
“Stani?! He probably would have blown his head off” said Shaka proudly.
“No he wouldn’t have” said Night “There were way too many variables at play particularly with the kid in the back. It probably worked out best the way it did.” said Night while running his fingers through his hair in frustration. Things certainly didn’t seem to be going his way of late.
“So what next, Mike, will you, you know, name him in your statement?” said Shaka.
Night didn’t answer, he couldn’t answer as he still wasn’t sure. Life was getting more complicated the older he got.
“I’ll talk to the General about it and then I’ll speak to some of the old brass of the unit… see where it goes.”
Shaka then clapped his friend on the shoulder and said “you know I’ll put whatever you want in my statement, brother, just let me know.”
“Me too” said Kalahari.
“Thanks guys, I’m sure the General will be able to help and I know the duty detective well, he’s solid and he’ll give us a couple of days before asking for our full statements.”
Shaka then began to laugh and pointed out of the window in the direction of student constable Dlamini who was moon walking while directing traffic.
Chapter Ten
Night and his crew had to wait for another three hours before all of the appropriate people had visited the scene and completed their investigative tasks. By the time they got back to Norwood station to book off duty they were all exhausted. Except for Dlamini who seemed to have an unlimited reserve of energy.
Once again Night arrived at Lisa’s parents’ home to find she was not there. He had desperately wanted to talk to her and allay his fears that she was moving to Cape Town with her parents as her maid had suggested. How could she? They were now engaged to be married. But the more Night thought on the matter the more he realised just how much Lisa was actually avoiding him. The tone of her voice whenever they spoke on the phone had also changed.
Night had attempted to call General Arosi to discuss the day’s events and perhaps receive some guidance but the General was unreachable.
Night was worried, about his relationship with Lisa, a woman he loved more than anyone else in his world, and about Blackie, for as much as Night knew about his former commander, his former commander knew more about Night. As he walked into Norwood station that morning to book on duty he felt more anxious than he could ever remember having been.
“Morning, Captain” said a female voice from behind Night.
Night turned and immediately stood to attention and saluted as he saw the station commander, Colonel Lembedi standing behind him. Night made a mental note to keep a more diligent lookout for the Colonel, she kept on getting the jump on him.
She returned the salute with a thin smile.
“Please follow me into my office for just a moment.”
Moments later and both of the officers were in the station commander’s office. Night stood in the centre as the Colonel closed the door behind them.
“This won’t take long. So I won’t ask you to sit. Two things; firstly, you now have a murder case pending against you for that operation you took part in a couple of days ago.”
Night made to tell his side of events but the Colonel waved his unformed words away.
“No need to explain yourself, I’ve read the docket and it looks like a clear cut justifiable and totally lawful shooting. However, I won’t be able to appoint you to the position as Head of Crime Prevention until the case is formally closed, and as you know that can take some time.”
Night nodded knowing full well that the case could take months, even years, to formally close and for him to be cleared. And until such time anyone who read his personal file would see a murder investigation pending against his name. Meaning no formal appointments to any new positions.
Colonel Lembedi’s next words indicated to Night that she had just read his mind.
“Though I am sure your friend, the General, may be able to help speed things along there for you.”
She was right so once again Night simply nodded.
Now the Colonel, who Night had never been close to or against in any large way leaned her formidable backside against her desk, and removed her police hat and placed it on the table. She then folded
her arms and tilted her head as she looked at Night in a way that the Captain could only describe as being full of concern.
“Of course I am not entirely sure what you and General Arosi get up to but, if you don’t know, which given the fact that the General has been out of the country and will only be returning tonight, I’ll assume you don’t know that the Gadaffi billions story will be breaking today, this morning in fact. I know this as my husband works for The Times. It seems the Libyan Transitional Council and our government have come to some sort of arrangement in handing back the gold, diamonds and cash. And apparently a recovery fee has already been paid.”
The Colonel let her last words hang there and she watched Night for a reaction.
Night gave nothing away and Colonel Lembedi was impressed.
“Anyone ever tell you that you would make a good poker player?”
“I’m not a bad poker player. And with the greatest amount of respect, Colonel, what is your point?”
“Basically, I care about you, Michael. I care about you and your crew and all the police officers under my command. I know that you don’t take me that seriously because I’m not so, how should we say? Force on force inclined?”
Night felt odd. In all his time as an Army Commando and Police Officer he had never been told by his immediate commander that they cared for him. But, he instinctively knew that she meant what she said. Her words also conveyed great warmth. And Night had always had a different kind of respect for Colonel Lembedi. It was certainly different having a female commander Night continued in his thoughts…
“Michael?”
“Um… Ja, I suppose so, if I’m being totally honest and…”
“Because I am a woman, and because I am black?”
Night understood her about feeling insecure being a female commander but her comment about being black surprised him.
“To be completely honest I couldn’t give two shits about the colour of your skin, Colonel. But I must admit it is strange having a woman as my commander because...”
There was a pause as Night searched for the right words before he continued.
Night In London (Night Series Book 2) Page 14