Marbella, Spain
At seven thirty, Emma rushed into her sister’s room. “It’s a text from Leo!”
Jenny was at her desk. “Is it good news?”
“I don’t know. He’s in a different place, Phalaborwa. And he’s with Coetzee.”
“Phalaborwa. Where’s that?”
“In the Kruger. That lodge is a safari destination on the river.”
“So, Coetzee must have taken him to the Kruger to hide him from the others and wants to arrange his return. It seems he was telling the truth. That’s good news, it means the others are lying.”
“There’s also an email from the ARGS people which confirms that as well.” She showed her the email and photograph she’d received from the abductors. “It’s similar to the photo Coetzee sent, the same chair and background, but Leo’s holding the newspaper to show the date. We know the other one was genuine because of the properties but this one is pasted onto the message so we can’t see where it came from. They might have obtained that photo from Coetzee to pretend they have Leo. I’m starting to believe he has reverted to type, as he was when he saved those children three years ago. If he really has Leo, it could bring this nightmare to an end.”
Jenny said, “I’ll text Pedro right away, he’ll be arriving soon. We need to speak to him immediately he lands. There’s no point in him flying to Polokwane if Leo’s in the Kruger ...” She paused. “There’s something else I have to tell him also.”
“That sounds ominous. What is it?”
“I had one of my dreams last night.”
“About Leo?” Emma was aware of her sixth sense. Jenny nodded her head. “What was it?”
“I’m not sure. There’s one thing I can tell you. The text from Leo was received at nine last night and I don’t think they’re still in Phalaborwa. Wait until we speak to Pedro and you’ll hear it at the same time. We’d better get ready now, we have a lot to do today.”
Emma went back to her room and closed the door. She opened up Leo’s message again and typed, Hello Leo darling. I got your texts. Be strong and don’t worry, I’m coming for you. I love you and I’ll see you soon. MXXXX. She hesitated for a moment then pressed Send.
Delmas, Mpumalanga, South Africa
Everyone in the house was up and about by eight thirty. Coetzee took a swig of the black coffee that Karen had prepared for them. The house had been more or less in order when they returned from the quarry and they had managed to get a few hours’ sleep. She had taken a mug up to Nwosu, who, she said was remorseful and repentant, “He says he’s learned his lesson and just wants to forget the whole affair and get back to Diepkloof with Jamie.”
“He says lots of things, but very little that’s true. Ignore him until I decide what to do.” Coetzee was looking at the phone he had taken from the policeman in Polokwane and the one he’d confiscated from him that morning. There were only a few numbers stored in the second phone, including one beginning with the prefix 32, labelled, ‘Voice, Belgium.’ There were three numbers on the recent call list; two were to Nwosu’s own phone which Coetzee now had and the third to the Belgian number. There was no recording App on the new phone so he couldn’t check the conversations. He opened the calls list on Nwosu’s first phone. The call made from Joburg on Wednesday was to the same Belgian number.
Leo and Abby had taken the dogs for a walk and now he could hear them setting the table for breakfast. The smell of toast and fried eggs made his juices run. Leo saw him with the two phones and came to sit by him. “What’s up?” He was starting to feel a sense of complicity with the South African.
“I wondered how the opposition knew where we were and it’s very simple. Nwosu called and told them we were coming here. He called their number last night.” Coetzee’s logic was faultless but his conclusion was wrong.
“Why would they beat him up if he invited them here? It doesn’t make sense.”
Karen came to call them to the table and Coetzee asked, “Did you see what happened when the thugs arrived?”
“Yes. Nwosu thought it was you. Then they broke the door down and smashed his wrist. They were asking where you and Leo were. They thought you were already here. He told them you were on the way with Leo.”
“Sounds like you’re right again, Leo. They didn’t get the address from Nwosu ‘cos he didn’t know they were coming. Where the hell did they get it?”
“Breakfast is on the table. Come and sit down.”
They all sat at one end of the dining table. Jamie had been sent upstairs with a tray for him and Nwosu. Coetzee knew he didn’t have anything to fear from a man with a broken wrist and a busted shoulder and Jamie was no threat of any kind. He would work out what to do with them later.
“Do you remember anything else?”
“Yes. They said they’d come from Phalaborwa.” Abby spoke up with confidence. “The old man said that they’d left after you and how come you weren’t here yet.”
“She’s right. I remember now,” Karen agreed.
“The phones! It has to be Nwosu’s phones, Marius. They followed us to Phalaborwa and then to here. There’s no other link to those two places except the phones. You used one to call someone about the abduction when we were in Phalaborwa, I know because I heard you. Then Nwosu called you in Phalaborwa from here on the other one. Somehow they’ve got the phones tapped and they’re following our trail through the mobile signals.”
Coetzee gave Leo a look. “Normally I’d give you shit for listening to my calls, but this time I’m glad you did. That’s the only explanation that makes sense. Two gorillas from Harare drive down here and they know exactly where to go, even the lodge where we were staying. Then they leave an hour later to come here because they got new instructions. You’re right! It has to be the phones.”
“By the way, here’s the phone I took off Blethin.” Leo took the mobile from his pocket and gave it to the South African. “The battery’s dead, but I was keeping it just in case.”
“Speaking of phones, Marius, it’s about time Leo called his mother, she‘ll be worried sick about him.”
“I sent her a message last night, so she knows he’s fine and he’s with me. Can we wait until we get rid of Nwosu? I want to talk to all of you and set things straight before he speaks to her. Just a couple of hours?”
“It’s OK.” Leo said. He also wanted to get things clear before he spoke to Emma. He was well aware he was still in the country where he’d injured a police officer and accidentally killed a French doctor. “I managed to text her before the battery died, so we can wait a little while.”
Coetzee gave him a begrudging look of admiration as Karen announced. “Very well, but you have to call this morning without fail. Now will you eat your breakfast? Abby and I have gone to some trouble and we’d appreciate you enjoying the meal before it gets cold.”
They tucked into the toast and eggs, Coetzee’s mind working overtime. If the phones can bring them to the right place, they can also send them to the wrong place.
London, England
“Oh, my God! Harder, harder. Don’t stop.” The man’s voice was strained as he arched his back and pushed his hips upward.
Esther’s magnificent breasts swayed and bounced as she gripped her knees tighter around his body and pushed herself up and down on him in an ever faster rhythm until with a scream she climaxed. Finally collapsing alongside him on the bed she kissed him passionately, her tongue thrusting into his mouth. They lay side by side, completely satiated.
He was drunk when she returned to the hotel the previous evening. Drunk and incapable of sex. Even the sight of her magnificent naked body failed to arouse him as she reluctantly helped him undress and fall onto the bed, immediately lost in a semi-comatose state. She lay down beside him, watching him snoring gently, aching with unspent passion until she finally fell asleep. Esther was a highly sexed woman and her first action on waking that morning had been to arouse him and this time he had been ready for her.
She cradled his f
ace in her hands. “Chéri, I missed you so much yesterday. Being stuck with that pompous ass Dudley all day is too much. I couldn’t believe it. We spent two bloody hours watching a ballet about homosexual swans. Then he invited me to stay the night. I thought he was into men, not women.”
“I think it was students of both sexes, but he’s too old for it these days. Come on, in the shower. We have to go to the hotel to prepare for this afternoon’s meeting with my partner. I hope to God Dudley has found the boy, there’ll be all hell to pay if he hasn’t.”
She noticed that his voice trembled when he said those words. He’s in bad shape, she thought. I wonder how he’s going to fix it. It’s not just money. It’s never that easy.
Slater watched her as she went to the bathroom. Her body was the most beautiful he had ever seen. When he wasn’t with her he fantasised about it like a prurient adolescent and fretted until the next time he could feel her moving under him again. Even now he was becoming aroused for the third time. “What are you wearing for the meeting?” He called.
“Something suitably serious and business-like of course. Don’t worry, I won’t let you down. I’ll play my part like a true professional.” She came back into the room and removed a man’s navy blue business suit from the wardrobe. “Here. Put this one on, it makes you look like an experienced conspirator.” She laughed, her head thrown back and mouth open, white teeth against her pink tongue.
Slater resisted his overwhelming urge and picked up his mobile. It was time to make an important call before getting ready.
Delmas, Mpumalanga, South Africa
“Right, Nwosu. You’re not looking great this morning. Jamie’s taking you to the clinic to get your wrist fixed. You’re booked in for ten o’clock.”
Nwosu looked like a clown impersonating Admiral Lord Nelson. His nose was still red and blue, his eye was black and almost closed, his right wrist was in a sling and Jamie had pushed his left hand across his chest into his buttoned jacket to ease his shoulder. He hadn’t slept all night and had a day’s stubble on his face.
“This better not be a trick, Marius. I need urgent help or I’ll lose the use of my right hand. Do you want that on your conscience? You didn’t need to book me in, I can go to any clinic. Just let us go, Marius, I’m begging you as a friend. Just let us go and you’ll never see us again.”
Coetzee ignored the reference to ‘friend.’ “That’s very ungrateful, Jonathon. I’m thinking of your wellbeing. You don’t really want to go to a clinic near Diepkloof, do you? They’ll question why the neighbourhood’s star police officer looks as if he’s been arm wrestling with a gorilla. You’re going to a clinic to get special attention and no questions asked. It’s the Newtown Private Clinic, in Mayfair. You know where it is, don’t you?” Coetzee waited to see if the name rang a bell with the policeman.
“I’ve heard of it.” The name hadn’t registered. Nwosu didn’t know where Blethin had come from. He looked at Jamie, who seemed relieved and pleased. “Is it true? Did you hear him book me in?”
“It’s true, Jonathon, I heard him arrange it.”
“I still don’t trust you Coetzee. You’d never let me go in case I get in touch with the Voice again or go to the authorities about Leo.”
“Once you’re out of my sight I don’t give a shit what you do, Nwosu. You’re stupid, but not that stupid. Between Leo and me we’ve got a dossier that would put you away for a long time. I know where you live and where Jamie lives, don’t I? But just to be sure you get to the clinic safely, I’m coming along. You obviously need a bodyguard, the number of enemies you create everywhere you go.”
The two cars set off in convoy, Jamie driving the Ford with Nwosu and Coetzee and Karin driving the Land Cruiser with Abby and Leo. They had left the dogs in the quadrangle behind the house with enough food until the next day. The westbound traffic flow was light and they arrived at the clinic on time. Nwosu was escorted in by Jamie and Coetzee and an efficient looking black nurse checked the appointment book then took him straight through to the X-Ray department.
“Okay, Jamie, he’s all yours now. I’ll give you just one piece of advice. Get him to stay away from me and you stay away from him if he comes near me. Understood?” The young man nodded, looking very youthful and vulnerable.
He turned to go. “I almost forgot. Here are his two phones. I even charged them up.” He handed them to Jamie, walked out of the clinic and climbed into the Land Cruiser. “We’re going off to have a serious talk,” he said to the others and pulled away from the clinic towards the N3 going south.
Jamie watched until the car disappeared into the distance then gave a long sigh of relief. He shoved the phones into his trouser pockets and settled down to wait for his boyfriend.
Marbella, Spain
The sun was already hot on the terrace when Emma went out. “Buenos dias,” she greeted Encarni who was setting breakfast. The woman laughed and answered in rapid Spanish which she didn’t understand. She sat out of the sun, opened her iPad and found the Newtown Private Clinic again. Pulling up the bio of Dr Ernest Blethin she read the whole text, studying it more carefully. Jenny came out just in time to see her catch her breath.
“What is it?”
“I’ve been looking at Blethin’s bio. It turns out that he’s actually French and just look at this.” Emma put the cursor over a paragraph at the bottom of the summary. ‘Dr Blethin joined us after several years as a Senior Consultant at Saint Christopher’s Clinic in Nice, France’.
“We didn’t notice it before because we didn’t know where Dr Constance had worked and probably because the name was in French, but it’s the same place. See?” She showed the clinic’s website in English and French. There was no doubt. It was the same establishment.
Jenny laughed out loud. “Well done, Emma. So we’ve finally found a connection between what happened in Rwanda and Leo’s abduction. Constance knew about Mutesi and Leo, they presumably worked together and Blethin was part of the abduction team.
“I should have spotted it. But we still don’t know what the connection is with your trip to Joburg. I don’t understand how they found out about that, especially in time to set up the whole complicated kidnap operation.”
“I know. There has to be another link. Someone or something that connects Leo’s birth, your fortune and our trip to South Africa.”
“We’ll tell Pedro when he calls. He can ask his contact in Paris to check on possible connections of Constance and Blethin and try to tie one of them to the South African trip, but I’m not very optimistic.”
OR Tambo Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa
The flight from Frankfurt had made better time than expected. At just after ten o’ clock Espinoza arrived at the carousel, collected his bag and hurried across to terminal B for his flight to Polokwane. After six hours sleep on the plane and a quick cold water spruce up he was freshened up for the day. He’d received Jenny’s message and called her while he was waiting.
She replied immediately and switched the phone onto speaker. “Emma’s beside me and can hear the conversation. We’ve received a text from Leo. He’s not in Polokwane, so there’s no point in going there. We’ve also received a photo from the so-called ARGS and it’s almost identical to the one we got from Coetzee. It looks as if they have somehow got it from him and sent it to us to pretend they still have Leo.”
Espinoza was confused. After a moment he said, “Where is Leo supposed to be now? I can go straight there and save time.”
“It was sent from Phalaborwa, in the Kruger, but I don’t think he’s there now.” When he started to interrupt with more questions, she went on, “Pedro, you have to trust what I tell you now. There is no rational explanation for it, but I have some information that we need to consider. First of all, I think your instincts were right. I suspect that Esther Rousseau is involved in the abduction.”
This time he didn’t respond and she went on, “Then there is something about air travel in the story. I don’t know what, but
there is some connection somewhere.
“And lastly, I think Coetzee is a good man, but Leo is not where we think he is. I don’t know where he is but it’s none of the places we’ve been looking at.” Jenny said nothing about Leticia’s face appearing in the dream. She took a deep breath, looking at her sister’s amazed expression and squeezing her hand.
“I see. And where did this new information come from?”
“The same place that I learned about Vogel’s embezzlement, you remember?”
“I remember very well and I have confidence in that source of information. Vague, but helpful in planning our next steps.”
“And Emma has some important information for you too.” Her sister quickly related Blethin’s connection with Constance’s last employer.
“So he’s also French. That’s interesting. It opens up a whole new area of investigation for me. I have to find the connecting point. It’s there somewhere but we just can’t see it yet.” The line went quiet for a moment.
“Pedro, are you there?”
“Sorry, Emma. I was thinking about the various contradictory reports we’re receiving. Was the number of the phone that sent the text the same 027 number from South Africa?”
She checked the text message with the previous one. “Yes it is. So Leo’s still using the phone he got in Polokwane. Why? What’s wrong?”
“I’m concerned that we have two versions of where Leo is and who he’s with, but no verifiable confirmation.”
“But what about this text from him? He says he’s in Phalaborwa with Coetzee.”
“You’re probably right that the messages came from him, but I’m paid to be suspicious and at the moment I’m not sure who is telling the truth. A text message could be sent by anyone, that’s the problem. We assumed he took the phone from someone in Polokwane but we actually don’t know. And if it was someone else’s phone, would he have been able to keep it all this time? Wouldn’t they have noticed it was missing?
The Rwandan Hostage Page 35