Sunstroke

by Madge Swindells

  I screamed and kept on screaming. Eventually I sat up, shuddering, and picked it up, but my hands were shaking so much, I had to place it on the table because I couldn’t see properly.

  ‘Be calm. Your baby needs you. Keep your wits about you.’ Saying the words aloud seemed to calm me, but still I could not stop shuddering. Had Wolf done this? I returned to the bedroom and gazed at the terrible evidence. The photograph of Nicky in his high chair had been taken by Wolf two weeks ago. I had asked for an enlargement but I had not seen it since. Here it was. Nicky was looking so happy and smiling so confidently at his father. But his father had taken a red crayon and mutilated the photograph with a deep red slash around my baby’s neck.

  He had written in red ink over Nicky’s white T-shirt: ‘Keep your mouth shut.’ A red arrow pointed to the slash on Nicky’s neck.

  Chapter 28

  I was muttering to myself almost incoherently, but another part of me was watching me as if from a distance. In my detached, bemused state I was listening to my own voice.

  ‘There’s no one here. No one! Little Nicky, my sweet son, and my love… Gone! I must do something. What is it that I must do? I must burn the papers. There must be no documents left concerning his business. Leave nothing! Not even a fingerprint. Wolf must have no excuse to harm my baby.’

  First, I rubbed every polished surface, Wolf’s shoes, light switches, door handles, bathroom cabinet, TV set, CDs, everything I found that he might have touched. This took me several hours. At midnight, I took matches, paraffin and a galvanized bucket and hurried through the garden to his office. I threw all that I found into the bucket and set light to it: files, computer diskettes, correspondence. I opened the safe and ran out with bundles of files and papers. My anger was like the flames, all-consuming. The papers were soon reduced to ashes as my love was. I wanted it to die as I stirred the ashes with slow, deliberate movements.

  Switching on Wolf’s computer, I keyed in his password, Bosbok. As I had thought, he had trashed everything, but there are ways and means of recovering trashed information, so I removed his hard disk and smashed it to fragments with a hammer.

  I knew I should destroy the mutilated photograph of Nicky, too. No one must discover that he was held hostage, but when I tried, I found I couldn’t bear to throw his image on the fire. Smoothing it out lovingly, I placed the tear-splashed picture on the desk.

  ‘I’ll find you, Nicky. I promise you. Mummy’s coming after you.’ But where would I find him? My determination gave way to utter dejection and more tears.

  Brigit began to growl, but I hardly noticed. Looking down I saw her hackles rising. She looked terrified. I just sat there. A man appeared in the doorway and I came to my senses too late. I stood up and stumbled across to him, but he pushed me back violently. He stepped in and slammed the door behind him. Then he locked it and put the key in his pocket. He walked to the computer and switched it on.

  ‘Get out! Out! I’ll call the police.’

  ‘I am a policeman, Mrs Moller. I’m looking for your husband. Where is he?’

  ‘You’re foreign. You’re lying. Who are you?’ My voice had become too high-pitched. I tried to keep calm.

  ‘I told you. Ah. So I’m too late. You have destroyed everything. Why?’

  He shot me a grim look and began searching the office. I watched him nervously, wondering how I could get out. There was a panic button behind Wolf’s desk, but he blocked the way. There was only one door and he had the key. He was short and powerful-looking, with a wide head set on a thick neck. Blond stubble hardly covered his scalp, and the expression in his blue eyes was of the utmost menace. He seemed to think he had all the time in the world. I shuddered.

  ‘Where is your husband, Mrs Moller?’ His voice was low as he moved towards me. I screamed as his hand shot out and punched me on the side of my face. Reeling back, stunned and hurt, I felt my mouth fill with blood.

  It was then that Brigit sprang at him. Taken by surprise, he fell backwards. I leaped across the floor and reached the panic button by the desk. As the room reverberated to the sound of the siren, I heard a shot and saw Brigit float backwards, her skull disintegrating, blood gushing. She jerked a few times and lay still in a pool of blood.

  ‘Bastard!’ I screamed, losing control. Grabbing the nearest chair, I flung it at him, intending to kill him, but he could have been a rock. The chair splintered and my anger turned to fear as his hands closed around my throat.

  ‘Where is Wolf Moller?’

  I choked and gagged, and his hands loosened while the sirens wailed on. ‘I don’t know. He’s gone.’

  A quick push sent me sprawling on the ground. His hand caught hold of my right wrist, strong as a handcuff. A flick-knife flashed and the agony exploded in my brain as he pushed the point under my thumbnail and twisted it, while I writhed and screamed.

  ‘Where is your husband?’

  His voice seemed to come from a long way away from the cave of pain I inhabited. Then the intruder caught sight of Nicky’s photograph lying on the desk. He dropped my hand and gazed at it.

  ‘So you tell me the truth, eh? You do not know where he is. If you did you would go after your child. You would not be here. He holds your child as hostage.’

  He took the picture and left as unexpectedly as he had arrived. I collapsed groaning on the floor, nursing my dead Brigit, my swelling thumb and my stifling grief.

  *

  Someone was shaking me. I became aware of pain. My head ached intolerably and my hand and cheek were swollen. Opening my eyes, I saw the blood and Brigit’s corpse, and the night’s events came flooding back. I frowned at a policeman, who looked concerned. Who was he? I tried to get away from him.

  ‘Police, Mrs Moller.’ He pushed his badge at me. ‘You’re quite safe. Your siren went off and the security company called us. What happened?’

  ‘Someone broke in,’ I muttered.

  ‘And your dog?’

  ‘Oh, my poor Brigit. She went for him… He shot her. She saved me.’

  ‘Your neck is badly bruised. What happened to your hand, lady? I’d better call an ambulance.’

  ‘No! Don’t! I must stay here. My husband’s disappeared… taken my son. But he’ll call me… he must. I have to be here.’ By now, I was almost incoherent.

  ‘Did your husband do this terrible thing?’ He took my hand and gazed sadly at my black thumb, where the nail hung by a thread.

  ‘For God’s sake, I told you. Someone broke in.’

  He helped me back to the house where two more plain-clothes detectives were searching around. One of them made coffee and brought it to me. Another took out a folder and a pen and we spent a long and painful half-hour composing a statement. I had to repeat everything several times. He was sure that I was lying and he was right. I didn’t want him to know that the intruder had been looking for Wolf. When I was satisfied that my statement said next to nothing, I signed the page.

  ‘You have to try to rest, Mrs Moller. Call your doctor, please. That hand must have attention. Is there a neighbour I can fetch to look after you?’

  I shook my head.

  ‘We’ve searched the premises thoroughly. There’s no one here. Nothing appears to be missing. Let me help you to your room. I’ll leave a policeman on guard.’

  ‘I can manage, thanks.’

  As the first glimmer of dawn touched the windows, I slept briefly, only to wake to pain and nausea, but far worse was the nightmare that would not go away.

  Chapter 29

  Mavis came in with a cup of coffee. ‘The police are back. They’ve been here for a while. They’ve searched the house.’

  Again! What good could they do? I knew now that they would not find Nicky. Wolf had kidnapped him and Wolf was the cleverest man I knew.

  ‘Tell them I’m going to take a shower. I’ll be down in twenty minutes.’

  These were sterner, cleverer policemen and all signs of sympathy were gone. They introduced themselves as Lieutenant Joubert and Majo
r Barnard from the fraud squad. Joubert, the younger man, was pale and thin with sculpted features and deep-set pale green eyes. Major Barnard was very tall, with a domed forehead. Each of his features vied to be the biggest and most prominent, yet his mild brown eyes brought a kind of sanity to his face.

  ‘Mrs Moller, you’re in big trouble,’ he began, in a surprisingly low-key voice. ‘We’ve traced your husband to Walvis Bay harbour. After that there are no further sightings. He could have left by boat or driven overland to Angola. Did he have contacts there?’

  I remained staring at my hands.

  ‘Why did he take your child?’

  I shrugged.

  ‘Did he leave you here to cover for him?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Do you know where he is?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘We have details of your behaviour at the airport. You were in shock, Mrs Moller. You had no idea that he was leaving. You were desperately worried about your son.’ My thumb was black and throbbing. The more I stared at it, the worse it seemed to get.

  ‘You were tortured last night.’

  ‘We had a fight when I tried to reach the panic button.’

  ‘I don’t think so. From your bruised neck and your maimed thumb, I think this man tried to force you to tell him where your husband is. If he finds your husband before we do, your child will be killed. Tell us what you told him, Mrs Moller.’

  ‘That I don’t know where Wolf is.’

  ‘Is he going to send for you?’

  I stared at him. ‘Do you think that’s likely?’

  He must have picked up a trace of hope in my voice. ‘No, I do not. Wherever he is, it’s imperative that you find your son quickly. Co-operate with us, Mrs Moller. That is by far your best bet. We have deduced that you destroyed all your husband’s files and his hard disk drive.’

  I shrugged. Then I decided to lie. I said, ‘No, the intruder did that.’

  ‘That’s a silly answer, I’m afraid. If he were a friend of Moller’s he would not have tortured you. He is Moller’s enemy. Help us to identify him before he harms your child. Be realistic.’ He shook my shoulder. ‘The child would be taken to force your husband to hand over the millions he has made. Think what he did to you. Do you want that to happen to your son? It would be far worse, I assure you.’

  I shuddered. ‘I can’t help you. Why don’t you leave me alone?’

  ‘Help us to identify the intruder. If you don’t you will be obstructing justice. We know that you saw him.’

  ‘I can do that. He was short, thick-set, bull neck, blond stubble over his flat-topped scalp, blue eyes. His eyes were a killer’s eyes. No warmth, just menace.’

  ‘Will you attempt to identify him from pictures?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I’ll take you down to Headquarters.’

  ‘No, please, I must stay here.’

  ‘Your husband won’t contact you, Mrs Moller. We are your best bet.’

  My lips were pressed together, but my eyes beamed fury.

  ‘Why are there no photographs of your husband in the house? Did you destroy them?’

  I shook my head. ‘There were none.’

  ‘But you were married to him for three years.’

  ‘He never allowed himself to be photographed.’

  ‘Didn’t that seem odd to you?’

  ‘Not at the time.’

  ‘You are a part of everything, aren’t you, Mrs Moller? All his thieving and conning.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘But you must have known there was incriminating evidence on the file. Why else would you destroy it?’

  ‘I knew nothing about it.’

  ‘You’re covering up for him.’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Give me another reason why you destroyed your husband’s files.’

  There was a long silence.

  ‘We know that he created a project to help local businessmen shift their capital out of the country. Unfortunately for them, that was not his true motive. Are you involved in this fraud?’

  ‘Do I look like a cheat? And if I were, wouldn’t I be long since gone?’

  ‘We called in a locksmith to open your husband’s safe, but it was empty, naturally, since you emptied it. Your silence incriminates you. I must remind you that it’s ten years for fraud, Mrs Moller. I’ve heard there may be other, more serious charges. You had better co-operate with us or you will be considered an accessory to your husband’s many fraudulent projects. He conned many millions out of his victims, so you can expect a long sentence. Do you have any suspicion as to where he might have gone?’

  Their questions went on and on. I suppose they were hoping to wear me down. I fended them off, or closed my mouth. Hours later, they stood up scowling.

  Barnard’s voice was very expressive. It spelled out my danger succinctly as he said: ‘Don’t leave Cape Town, Mrs Moller.’

  I buried my face in my hands. I didn’t have to pretend that I was in shock. I was.

  Chapter 30

  Joy and Bernie arrived at lunch-time. They parked the car immediately below the steps and stood on the porch looking hostile and scared.

  ‘We’re ruined. We’ve had to put our house on the market,’ Joy said, in an undertone. For the first time, I noticed a sense of comradeship between them. Bernie was clinging to Joy’s arm.

  ‘You warned him. You helped him get away. I trusted you.’

  ‘Joy, I only asked him where the money was, just as you told me to.’

  ‘Don’t bother to give me his reply. Just tell us where he’s gone.’

  ‘I wish I knew.’

  Joy noticed my swollen cheek and bandaged hand for the first time. ‘Did he beat you up? What’s wrong with your cheek? And your hand?’

  ‘Someone broke in last night.’

  ‘There’ll be plenty more. Hordes of them,’ Bernie said nastily. ‘They’ll all want to know where Wolf is. Did you tell him?’

  I shook my head. ‘No! How could I? I tell you, I don’t know.’

  ‘Tell us where he is,’ Bernie pleaded. ‘If I could get my hands on him, I might force some of my cash out of him.’

  ‘You have to believe me. He’s kidnapped Nicky. According to the police, he chartered a flight to Walvis Bay and then disappeared. Joy… Bernie… How am I going to find my baby?’ The last shreds of my self-control were at snapping point.

  ‘The fraud squad came.’ Bernie’s voice grated unpleasantly. ‘They told me you covered up for him. You burned his files while he skipped with the cash. I’m telling you, Nina, you won’t get away with it. There’s more to this than you know. Wolf’s waiting for you somewhere. You two were as thick as thieves. Well, you are thieves and I told the fraud squad as much. He made a fool of the government, and they’ll put you away instead of him. You could get years.’

  ‘Oh, please! You can’t believe that, Bernie.’

  Joy shot Bernie a warning look. He shut his mouth, as if realizing he’d said too much, and the silence was chilling.

  ‘Come in,’ I said. ‘Why are we standing here?’

  ‘We’ll never set foot in your house again,’ Joy retorted. ‘Don’t ever try to contact us.’ She shot me a glance of contempt.

  As they left, the full impact of my duplicity hit me. I could have told them that their cash had been transferred to Lubeck, but if Bernie contacted the Lubeck police, Wolf would hurt my Nicky. Nothing would tempt me to risk my baby’s life. Wolf had silenced me, just as he had planned.

  *

  My mood lightened slightly as I saw that there might be a lead here. I had been so shocked I hadn’t thought properly. I decided to fly to Lubeck at once. I might be in time. It seemed an eternity since Wolf had left, but it was just twenty-four hours. I sat at the dining-room table and jotted down what I could remember of his background. Beeskow was his home town, and he had studied geology at Dresden.

  What if Bernie was right and the fraud squad prevented me from leaving? I decided to wait until the followi
ng evening and drive through the night to the Namibian frontier. No one would expect me there. Besides, it would be Sunday, and the dreaded Major Barnard would be enjoying his day off.

  I spent the rest of the day trying to plan. I organized a freight company to pack my personal possessions, which would be shipped home. I cashed money from my private account and paid off the staff. A call from the building society revealed that the bond repayment on our house was overdue. How could that be? When I checked the statement with them on the phone I discovered that Wolf had taken an eighty per cent bond on the house a few days earlier.

  Sitting with my head in my hands, I went through the facts I knew so far. A call to Wolf’s bank manager revealed that my husband had banked five hundred thousand rands ten days ago, and later that day he had issued a cheque to the Gold Coin Exchange for the same amount. So Wolf had carried 490 one-ounce gold coins with him. Was that possible? Of course, for it was only just over thirty pounds in weight. That’s why he’d had Nicky’s backpack. The coins were stashed in it.

  The blown-up photograph, the purchase of the gold coins, even the application for an eighty per cent bond on our house revealed that Wolf had been planning to leave for some time. If I could get to Lubeck fast enough I might find him – or, at least, a trace of his next cash transfer.

  *

  That night I paced up and down for hours attempting to out-guess Wolf, trying to make sense of all that had happened. What did I really know about this man I had married? Very little, I concluded. This monster, who had defiled my son’s picture, robbed our friends and taken the cash I had invested in our home, was not the man I’d thought I loved. That person was just a false personality of Wolf’s creation.

  And who was the thug who had broken in last night? Why did he want Wolf? Bouts of shuddering and panic were incapacitating me. I swallowed a tranquillizer, pulled on a jersey and vowed to pull myself together. Nicky needed me, and I would need my wits about me to find him.