“Look.” Espinoza pointed at a policemen’s jacket hanging over a chair back. There was a cap and an empty holster on the seat.
“Fucking Hell!” Hendricks looked in amazement. “He’s a cop. A sergeant, no less!” He started to reassess the possible connection between Espinoza’s visit and Dewar’s message. A shower room with an adjacent lavatory opened off the bedroom. Toilet items were strewn on the shelf in front of the mirror.
The room on the right was a small kitchen. Two coffee mugs stood on a bench. The mugs were almost full. Espinoza felt one, it was still warm. Hendricks cocked the pistol and opened the third door.
It was a comfortably furnished room with a dining corner by the window. Lying on his back by the dining table, his upper body in a pool of blood was Sergeant Nwosu. His pistol was lying on the floor beside him. He was in his shirt sleeves, his freshly plastered right arm stretched out and a bullet hole in his temple.
London, England
Dudley was itemising the fictitious additional costs of the operation when his mobile rang. It was his contact in Harare. The others watched expectantly as a broad smile came to his face. “That’s good news. Where is the boy now?” He listened again. “I see. And the policeman and the other man? What about your two missing agents? Very well, please let me know when the boy is safely in Beitbridge. Thank you for your intervention.”
“Well?” Slater asked eagerly.
“Please wait for one moment while I make another call.” Dudley went out of the room and called EzeTracker. “Simon, my dear boy. Could you possibly ask for a very quick update on our friends in SA?”
A moment later Pickford came back on the line. “Both phones are on the Western Bypass. It’s a ring road that takes you west of Johannesburg to get to the N1 northbound. Is that accurate enough, Master?”
“It is more than enough Simon, thank you. I do apologise for having troubled you again. Have a wonderful day.”
He came back into the room and closed the door, his smile even broader than before. “I now have independent confirmation that Leo Stewart is on his way to Beitbridge with appropriate security. We are once again in charge of the operation.”
Esther and Slater exchanged relieved glances. “Thank God. When was this? And what about Coetzee and Nwosu?”
“It was earlier this morning and apparently there was some collateral damage. Coetzee was not at the scene, but Nwosu was. Unfortunately he didn’t survive the event, which of course fortuitously removes another witness without any intervention on our part. I confess that I don’t understand what has been happening recently but the essential point is that we once again have Leo Stewart in our custody.”
“But where is Coetzee?”
“It’s really quite irrelevant now. The boy is out of his control and will very soon be in an inaccessible and inhospitable place. In the event he is still alive, there is nothing Mr Coetzee can do. He has no idea who or where we are and is now completely removed from this transaction. Our path to Ms Stewart is now clear.”
“So you’ll be sending the payment instructions today?”
“This evening, yes. If you don’t object I prefer to receive confirmation of their arrival in Beitbridge, there have been rather too many false starts as it is. I’ll return to my apartment with Esther and we’ll prepare the message immediately. It will be sent as soon as I have the necessary confirmation from my contact. I apologise for the confusion of the last few days and if possible I’ll discover more information for you, but I hope you’ll agree that we are once again in control.”
For the first time, Slater looked relieved and at ease. “Well done, Arthur. I’ll call my partner. Coming over here will be a waste of time now.” He went out of the room to make the call.
“Are you sure of this news, Arthur? We can’t afford another fiasco, it would cost us a lot, both financially and possibly in other ways.”
“Quite sure, my dear. My explanation was deliberately oversimplified and modest in the extreme. What actually occurred was that we traced both phones to an apartment in Diepkloof, which I knew, of course, to be Nwosu’s home. I arranged for another agent to call at the apartment and retrieve the boy. Apparently the sergeant tried to prevent them taking him away and had to be subdued. I have just had final confirmation that both phones are on their way to Beitbridge, which probably means that Coetzee had previously been neutralised and Nwosu had recuperated his own phone. That was the guarantee I required to prove that Leo has been retaken. It seems that for once we have managed to kill two birds with one stone.”
“And the two missing agents? I heard you asking.”
“They have still not been located. Nwosu threatened the agent and was shot before he could interrogate him about them, but that, fortunately is not our problem”
Esther came over and kissed him on the cheek. “Well done, Arthur. You are the most resourceful man I have ever met.”
Dudley flushed a bright red. The combination of the kiss and her heady perfume were almost more than he could cope with. The moment meant more to him than he cared to admit. His embarrassment was deflected by the door opening again.
“My partner will wait for further news before taking the flight. If we get confirmation tonight there’ll be no need to come.” Slater had ignored the sight of Esther moving quickly away from Lord Dudley’s chair, he couldn’t imagine that there might be the slightest cause for jealousy. “I’m assuming,” he continued, “that once in Beitbridge there’s no possibility of losing the boy?”
“I can assure you that once Leo Stewart is across the border in Zimbabwe, no power in the world can remove him if we do not want that to occur.”
“Then you don’t need me here either. I told you I wanted to leave today.” He looked at his watch and stood up. “If I go now I’ll just make my flight.” He called to the concierge to bring his suitcase. “I’ll be in touch this evening for further news. Well done and good luck.”
He shook hands with them both, resisting the impulse to kiss Esther, and walked out to take a taxi to Paddington to catch the Heathrow Express.
Vereeniging, Gauteng, South Africa
Including fielding a barrage of questions from Karen, Leo and even Abby, it took Coetzee an hour and a half to tell his story. He was not a loquacious man and didn’t enjoy speaking for so long but he knew they all deserved the full story, no short cuts or prevarications. He finished by saying, “Thanks to Leo’s brainwave, I knew if I gave the phones to Jamie, the heat would be off us. If the Voice is still looking for us he’ll be following Nwosu. I’m not proud of what I’ve done, but Nwosu is a butcher and he deserves whatever happens to him.” He picked up the cheroot from the table, put it between his lips then put it back again, unlit.
“Why on earth did you get mixed up in this dreadful business?” Karen had sat in shocked silence as she listened to her ex-husband’s confession. Although he had kept the story simple she knew the trouble he could get into and was already in. “You’ve spent your life protecting your country, saving lives, becoming a national hero and a shining example to people of all ages. Then you suddenly go off and kidnap an innocent young boy whom you don’t even know and get involved in death and destruction on a massive scale. What’s wrong with you, Marius?”
“Karen, the truth is, it’s really your fault.” Before she could respond, he went on, “For the last two years I’ve been totally lost. After you left me I walked out of the army, the only place where I’ve ever felt safe and useful. I set up a business which turned out to be a money pit and cost me my pension pot because I was too incompetent to manage it properly. I screwed up that business and now I’ve screwed up my life. I used to be clean living and fit and now I’m smoking, drinking and eating crap food because I can’t be bothered to cook or go to a proper restaurant.
“Then, to cap it all, I joined up with a psychopathic killer and a bunch of crooks because I’m broke and thought I could make some money to get started again and look at the result. There’s innocent people dea
d, my family were put in harm’s way and a young kid who could be my son almost ended up in Zimbabwe. How smart was that?”
Coetzee took the cheroot and snapped it in two. Threw the pieces over the side of the barge. “The bottom line is I’m a total fucking disaster on my own. I need someone beside me to keep me in order. I need a boss, Karen. I had one in the army and I had you at home and now I have no one.”
Leo was looking at Karen. Tears started to run down her face as he finished speaking. He turned to Coetzee and saw the same thing. Coetzee was crying now. Tears of love, he realised. They’re still in love.
He took Abby’s hand. “Let’s go for a walk. See what we can find along the river.” They walked down the stairs from the restaurant deck leaving Coetzee and Karen sitting at the table, saying nothing, just looking at each other.
FIFTY-EIGHT
Diepkloof, Gauteng, South Africa
“She says that’s the policeman who went upstairs with Mr Lambert, Sergeant Bongani. She’s sure of it.” The desk clerk at the Hotel Packard was looking at a photo of Nwosu’s dead face. Hendricks had emailed it to an officer in central Johannesburg who had gone straight to the hotel to interrogate the woman. He and Espinoza were still at the apartment as the pathologist confirmed the death from a bullet wound when they received the call. Two officers were also there searching the apartment and another was questioning the other occupants of the building, without success. No guns had been found, neither the murder weapon nor Nwosu’s police issue pistol.
Hendricks gave instructions for the clerk to officially identify the body when it was taken to the morgue and closed the phone. “That’s one crime solved since you got here, Pedro. We might never have put two and two together, certainly not so quickly. The PR people will make a big deal out of this. It makes great headlines when we actually get something right.” He made no mention of Espinoza’s supposed European connection. It would only complicate matters. Keep it simple and close the case, he said to himself.
The pathologist announced that the death had occurred less than an hour ago and the other injuries to the body were older and not directly connected with the murder. Both men tried to imagine what recent events had occurred to inflict such harm to the dead policeman. An accident treatment form from the Newtown Private Clinic was found in the pocket of Nwosu’s jacket and the nurse who answered their call confirmed that he had been there earlier that morning. The clinic had no further information to impart. His appointment had been made by telephone and he arrived and left with a young man after his wrist was plastered, having told them nothing about that or his other injuries. Hendricks had sent an officer to check, but there seemed to be nothing to learn there.
There were several photos in the apartment of a young black man, hardly more than a boy, some showing him with Nwosu in very explicit poses. Some had messages written on the back and were signed by ‘Jamie’. Nwosu was clearly a homosexual and Jamie had been his partner.
Emma’s instincts were correct, reflected Espinoza. Now, Nwosu was dead and Jamie was missing. The policeman’s laptop was taken away to be forensically examined. Hendricks hoped they’d find more information about the boyfriend from its contents.
One of the officers came over to them. “It’s funny, but we haven’t found a mobile phone. I don’t think I’ve ever searched an apartment without finding one. A cop always has a mobile.”
“Jamie probably grabbed it when he left. We’ll get after him right away. But we’ve got Lambert’s killer and that’s a good score for the day.” Hendricks sent the man back to his work.
He said to Espinoza, “It looks as if Jamie topped him for some reason when they got here and then pissed off. He can’t be far. We’ve got a good chance to find him if we put out an alert with one of these photos.”
Espinoza was less sure than the South African. He remembered the Zimbabwean car that had almost mowed him down outside the building. They were certainly in a hurry to get away. He was also not sure if the young man with Nwosu at the clinic was Jamie. It couldn’t be Leo, he reasoned. If Jenny’s theory was correct, he was with Coetzee. So if it was Nwosu’s boyfriend, why did he kill him and where was he now?
He said, “Is there any way to find the owners of that Zimbabwean car that drove off when we arrived? It was an old black Mercedes 220, number 294-TCE 87.”
Hendricks looked at him shrewdly. “You’re very observant, Pedro. If you’re right, that’s a diplomatic registration plate and we have no jurisdiction.” He checked his watch. “Their consulate is closed for the weekend, but even if they were open it would be a waste of time. They’ll be well on their way to Zimbabwe by now and if it was Jamie in the car he’ll get there without any problems. And a few hundred Rand will get them through the border even if we make a fuss. I’m sorry to admit it but there’s not a thing we can do.”
Espinoza took advantage of the policeman’s assumption, silently praying that Leo was not in the Mercedes. “Whether or not Jamie was in the car, you’re probably right. We now know Nwosu killed Lambert. There was a young man with him at the clinic and now he’s gone and Nwosu’s dead. It seems reasonable to assume that it was Jamie who was with him, but we can check his photograph with the nurse at the clinic. I don’t think there’s anything more we can do here.”
Hendricks nodded in agreement and gave a few final instructions to the police officers. They went down to his car. Espinoza said, “When do you expect the DNA report from Polokwane?”
“It might be there when we get back. Why?”
“I was wondering if they chose the Newtown Clinic by accident or whether there might be a connection.” Espinoza had now found a way to link the two murders. The DNA would identify Blethin and it would look as if he had also been murdered by the same people. Hendricks would be happy to close the dossier on a bent cop and a corrupt doctor if they could be tied together and blamed on Jamie who was probably on his way to Zimbabwe. He might be able to convince him of that. If Leo was safe with Coetzee he wanted to get out of the murder investigation as soon as possible and concentrate on getting him back and tracing the organisers of the abduction.
“Chance would be a fine thing. I’ll call and chase it up while we’re driving back.”
Espinoza sat back in the car. So far so good. His suggestion had been accepted without question. His mind turned to the other sore point which was now in the forefront of his thinking. Why were the phones being followed by someone in the UK? That had to be where the abduction had been masterminded. He knew he was still a long way from fulfilling Jenny’s appeal; ‘To get Leo safely back and then to bring the culprits to justice’.
London, England
“I estimate that they should arrive in Beitbridge by seven this evening. As soon as I get confirmation I’ll send off the message. It’s Friday so that may spoil their weekend a little, but needs must.” Dudley and Esther had prepared the email with the payment instructions.
“I have to do some shopping and sort out one or two personal matters.” Esther couldn’t face another long day alone with him. “Do you mind if I go now and we can speak later?”
He tried to hide his disappointment. “Of course not, there’s no need for you to stay. I’ll call you when I’ve accomplished the task. Perhaps we can have dinner together and discuss tomorrow’s negotiations for the money.”
“Thank you Arthur, but I’m afraid I can’t join you for dinner. I have another engagement.”
He said, “Very well my dear, I’ll send you a text message so that you can sleep peacefully knowing that everything is in order.”
“Good, but you may want to ask for a photograph from Beitbridge. I’m not suggesting that anything’s wrong, but it’s probably a wise precaution.”
“Indeed. I’ll call them later to request that. Where are you off to this evening?”
“I don’t know. An old friend from Paris called me and invited me to dinner. He’s on his own in town, so I agreed. You don’t mind, do you?”
“Of course
not, I have no claim on your time.” Dudley turned away. Foolish old man, he said to himself, she’s not one of my prized possessions.
“Then I’ll leave you and look forward to seeing you in the morning.”
He helped her into her coat, delighting as always in the closeness of her beautiful body and fragrant perfume. “Have a lovely afternoon and enjoy your engagement this evening.”
She turned and waved as she walked away. Dudley forced a smile again then went back into his empty apartment and closed the door.
Johannesburg, South Africa
“I’ve sent the DNA analysis to the Newtown Clinic. They’ve got records of all their employees going back ten years. If we get a match we’ll have solved the Polokwane murder as well. And if there’s a link to Nwosu that’s good enough for me. Lambert comes from the UK or Spain and gets murdered by Nwosu. Nwosu then goes after another gang member in Polokwane, comes back after a fight and gets topped by his boyfriend. Some kind of gang warfare ending with the deaths of three gangsters. One of them probably from Zimbabwe. Case closed.”
They had received photographic confirmation from the nurse at the clinic that it was Jamie who had accompanied the policeman, so Hendricks was feeling very pleased with himself. “It had to be Jamie who killed Nwosu since we have no reports of anyone else being in the building. And it looks like he escaped in the Mercedes and he’s probably safely back in Zimbabwe. My report will blame Nwosu for Lambert’s death and Jamie for killing his boyfriend. If I get good news from the clinic I’m wrapping it up.”
Hendricks had also called the duty officer at Diepkloof precinct to ask about Nwosu and his current activities. He was told the sergeant wasn’t working on anything except some cases of football hooliganism and had taken a few days off. They were expecting him back on Monday. He decided not to share any information with the man, not until he was ready to make an announcement.
“Thanks for coming over, Pedro. It might seem a wasted trip for you, but it was a lucky break for me.”
The Rwandan Hostage Page 38