20

Ten years later, Williams made no attempt to squeeze her shoulder. He simply leaned over and shook her hand, his tie slipping round the curve of his stomach.

“Circumstances could be better. But thanks for helping us out.”

She noticed the cuffs of his shirt were fastened by gold cufflinks. That was something else she remembered. Williams had always been a sharp dresser. Her father had joked that he’d only become a detective so he could wear a suit and tie to work each day.

“It’s my pleasure.”

He squeezed her hand harder. “Your father’s daughter. That’s what you are, all right. De Jong was a fine man. Filling his shoes hasn’t been easy. Especially with the problems we’re experiencing now.” His gaze was sharp and keen. “You should join the police service. We’d arrange you a special dispensa-tion. Get you into a detective unit in no time at all. We need people like you. High-caliber individuals.”

He hadn’t referred to David. Jade wondered whether his compliment to her was a backhanded insult to him.

“I’ll certainly give it some thought,” she said. “Although my father and I agreed a long while ago that my personality was more suited to private investigation than to public service.”

Williams laughed. “Either way, good to have you on board for this operation.” He withdrew his hand. “Well, I’ll be off. Good evening to you.”

He buzzed up the window and pulled away, engine roaring.

David followed her inside. He tossed an armful of scatter cushions onto the floor and slumped onto the couch.

Jade fetched him a beer. “Long day?”

He took it without opening his eyes. “Longer than you can know. As you saw, Williams gave me a lift home. I thought it was a kind offer, but it was just an excuse for a major telling-off. I’ve been dumped on from a dizzy height. Non-performance, corruption in the department, low solve rate. All my fault. We’ve got performance reviews coming up in a week’s time. I’ll probably be the first-ever superintendent to get a decrease. If I’m lucky and I don’t get a straight demotion. When he shook your hand I thought he was going to offer you my job.” He drained the can and crumpled it in his fist.

Jade got him another. “Maybe that’s his way of managing staff. Perhaps he doesn’t have people skills. He’s been in the department for ages, he’s part of the old school.”

“Let’s hope so.” David opened his eyes and sat up straighter. “God. This couch is like a bloody feather bed. So. Update on today’s activities.”

“Go ahead. I’m listening.”

“The body’s gone for analysis. It’s definitely Grobbelaar. His buddy ID’d him.”

“Any evidence?”

“Not so far. Apart from being butchered, apparently with an axe, there was no sign of a struggle. A couple of carpet fibers under his fingernails and a missing nail led forensics to believe he might have been transported in the trunk of a vehicle.” David shook his head. “Rocket scientists, that’s what I said. I told them they must be rocket scientists to figure out he was transported in the trunk and not sitting upright in the front seat waving at the traffic with all that tape wrapped round his head like the Bride of Frankenstein.”

Jade suppressed a smile as she imagined the confrontation between David and the luckless forensic team. David was noto-riously impatient and demanding when it came to getting pro-fessional opinions out of people involved in his cases.

“Whoever cut him up was tall and strong, probably six foot or more. And right-handed, according to the way the blows fell.”

“And the axe?”

“It wasn’t in the vicinity. We might never find it. I’ve put the word out in the surrounding area, got the local police on the lookout.” He pushed himself straight again. “I’m so bloody tired I can’t tell if it’s me or the sofa that’s the problem here. So, Jadey, that’s it as far as the body in the woods goes.”

He slid down onto his elbow. “That’s better. So what’s new on your side?”

Jade told him about her day. While she was talking, David pulled off his shoes and stretched his legs across the sofa. He didn’t look comfortable, but she thought he was too tired to care.

She wondered who had deliberately chopped Dean Grob-belaar to pieces. What kind of a person could raise an axe and send it thudding into a human body, then work it loose, shift the grip on the handle and bring it down again, and again? Was he a psychopath? Was he mentally ill? She wondered why he had gone to such lengths to torture and kill Dean. Was it because the investigator had tried to discover more about Ellie Myers? Where was Ellie? When would they find her?

“Oh, I got your message,” David said, eyes closed. “Since I’d only done twelve hours when I got back into town, I went round to check out 48 Forest Road. Couldn’t have Williams thinking I was taking a half-day.”

Jade curled her feet up on the chair opposite as David continued.

“Yup. Took me an hour in traffic just to get through Sandton. And why the hell did they fence off the whole of that bloody suburb? Took me another hour to find the entrance. It’s like Fort Knox in there, and I’m damn sure it’s illegal.”

“You can go back tomorrow and arrest them.”

David forced a smile. It looked out of place on his grim face and didn’t survive long, but it seemed to put him in a more jovial mood. “I spoke to one of the neighbors. Met her coming home and flashed her. My ID, of course,” he said, as Jade gave a snuffle of laughter. This had been an in-joke between them for as long as they had known each other.

“She didn’t know where Ellie was. But she did gossip about the area. I don’t know how accurate it was, but it was inter-esting. She was a chatty old bird. Especially when she saw my handsome face.”

Jade corrected him. “She was probably babbling in terror.”

“One fact’s clear, Jadey. As long as I live, I’ll never be able to afford property in Sandton.”

“Unless you start taking bribes.”

“Yeah. Well, they’d have to be big ones.”

“Tell me what she said.”

“Number 48 Forest Road was a triple-sized stand. Five hectares. They kept horses there. She told me she visited her sister in England for a couple of months and when she came back, she didn’t recognize the place. The Myers had sold it to a developer after some sort of trouble.”

“And then what?”

David peered up at her from his prone position. “Then the developer started going crazy. Now this lady knew the original house. She said it had some extraordinary number of bedrooms, an entertainment area, pool, the works. First of all, they put a garden fence around it and sold it off. Then the developer built thirty-two luxury cluster homes on the rest of the land. With five bedrooms each and their own pool and garden.”

Jade tried to imagine living in a luxury five-bedroomed cluster home like that. What would it look like? She suspected it would be similar to the out-of-town residences of the rich people whose families she had guarded. She remembered automatic gates, endless driveways, imposing front doors imported from Indonesia or Italy. Gold taps and enormous baths. Marble finishes everywhere. Great echoing empty spaces filled with nothing but antique statues on pedestals. She’d never felt comfortable in those homes.

“And then what?”

“Then they built a whacking great wall round the whole estate and put in twenty-four-hour security. The houses inside sold for around six million each.”

“As good as printing the money themselves.” That was another favorite saying of her father’s, when he spoke about people who had made an unseemly fortune.

“The lady reckoned the developer made around fifty million.” David righted himself once more. “But there were hundreds of complaints from residents in the area, including them. Apparently the land hadn’t been zoned for develop-ment and there were by-laws preventing subdivision into sizes that small.”

“So the developer had greased a few palms?”

“Yeah. Might have channeled a few crumbs from all that profit in the right direction. The neighbors did get together to try and take him to court when they realized he wasn’t just putting up a garden cottage, but the case got delayed and by the time anything could be done it was a fait accompli.”

“What have the neighbors done since then?”

“They’ve been a busy bunch. The minute one develop-ment goes up, homeowners in the area start looking at the dollar signs and working out how much they can get for their own property. There’ve been a couple of other develop-ments started in neighboring roads. A few more that they’ve managed to put the brakes on. But in the meantime they’ve forgotten about number 48. Number 48 is old news now.”

Jade walked through to the kitchen and retrieved the heater. Then she went into the bedroom, unbuckled her gun belt and locked it into the bedside cupboard. She found two blankets in the wardrobe and brought them back for David. Then she sat down again on the chair opposite him.

“I wonder why Mark and Ellie Myers sold up.”

David sat up on the couch. He shrugged off his jacket and loosened his tie. Jade wanted to walk over and wrap her arms around him. She didn’t. She sat and watched as he lay down again and pulled the blankets tight around him. “Yeah, I wonder. Probably saw a chance to fund their retirement. Perhaps they were emigrating. Or wanted lots of money and didn’t care about ruining the area.”

“We need to find them.”

“We’ll follow up tomorrow. I’ll get my team onto it first thing.” He grimaced. “While they’re still my team.”

“David.” Jade sighed. “If the other superintendent was so useless, it will probably be Williams in the firing line, not you. You’ll be fine.”

David didn’t answer. A few seconds later, he started to snore.

Jade waited. “David,” she said again, louder. There was no response. He was deeply asleep. His face looked peaceful. He looked innocent, younger, but somehow vulnerable, in a way he never did when he was awake.

She lifted her hand to her mouth and bit her nails, ago-nizing over what she should do. Having David sleep over on her couch wasn’t a problem. Not at all, although if she had her way he wouldn’t sleep over on her couch. They’d be pooling body warmth together in bed. But she really should wake him up and send him home. Tomorrow Viljoen was going to be released from prison. She had an early start ahead of her and she didn’t want David around.

As she was considering her options, she heard honking outside.

“Shit,” Jade muttered. She jumped to her feet. David mumbled something and pulled the covers tighter around him. He didn’t wake up.

Grabbing her keys, Jade hurried over to the door and opened it as quietly as possible.

Robbie was at the wheel of his BMW. She got in and closed the car door. The heater was on full blast. He was gripping a can of cider in between his thighs—Robbie had never been one for cup holders. He lifted it to his lips, took a long pull, and offered it to her. She declined. He shoved it back between his legs and grinned at her, tapping out a rhythm on the top of the can with his fingernails.

“What’s up, Robbie? Why are you here? This time the cop next door is home. Didn’t your source tell you?”

“Big day tomorrow,” he said. “Big, big day for you. Your friend gets out of chokie at last.”

“Yes.” Jade studied him. He looked wired, tense, hyperactive. Yesterday’s adrenaline rush combined with large amounts of cider, she guessed. She’d never seen Robbie use drugs.

“So. We’re going to follow him? Take him out, chop-chop, done and dusted?” He snapped his fingers.

“No.”

“Why not? You crazy or something? He’s going to come after you. I remember the last time you were as jumpy as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. Looking over your shoulder all the time. You want to be like that again?”

“He’s already got people watching me. I want to wait and do it properly. I can’t risk being caught.”

They both looked round as headlights lit up the road. Robbie tensed. His hand slipped down and Jade knew it was on his gun. Anyone trying to hijack the Beemer would come off second-best if Robbie had his way. Before the car reached them it turned into a driveway further down. Just an honest citizen arriving home late. Robbie’s hand moved back up to the wheel.

“In a couple of days you could be dead.”

Jade felt uneasy. She didn’t want to be parked in the road, arguing with a small-time gangster who, for some unfathom-able reason, was going a few steps too far in helping with her problem. She didn’t want to be parked in the road at all. What if David woke up and came looking for her? He must never know about Robbie. She’d be in trouble trying to explain why she had dealings with him. David would rightly feel that she had betrayed his trust. She didn’t know what Robbie’s history was with the police. But she knew he had a record.

“Not tomorrow, Robbie. There’ll be people around. I’m not doing anything if he’s got all his fanatical followers from the old days crowding round to congratulate him on his release. Let’s follow him, see where he goes, get an idea of his routine. Wait a bit longer, till the fuss dies down.”

Robbie drummed his fingers on the wheel. “OK. Fair enough.” He opened the car door. “So. You going to invite me in for a coffee?”

Jade jumped out of the car. Robbie was already walking towards the front door.

“No.” She hurried after him, trying to keep her voice down without seeming obvious. He stopped in his tracks.

“Why not?”

“Because I’m tired and I’ve had a long day and we’ve got an early start tomorrow. We both need to be alert.”

“I can crash on the couch.” He gave her a sidelong glance that confirmed the couch was the last place he intended to crash. His hand clamped round her waist and strayed upwards.

“What about Verna?” she asked.

Robbie looked smug. “Verna knows the deal.”

This had happened before, the first time she met him.After they left the nightclub and he’d invited her back to his flat. She hadn’t wanted to go, but she knew she’d be safer with him than without him.

He’d offered her his sofa and given her a T-shirt because her clothes were two days old and rancid with sweat and nightclub smoke. In the middle of the night, she’d woken to find Robbie next to her. His naked body was pressed against hers and his hands were groping around under the T-shirt.

“Yeah, babe,” he’d said. “Ooh, babe.”

At first, Jade had feigned sleep. When that didn’t work, she’d tried to resist. He’d ignored her. His strong arms had thrust hers aside. He’d pushed her legs apart. Jade had lis-tened to his harsh breathing and felt the rasp of his stubble against her face. She’d never felt so powerless. Perhaps this was part of the deal. Perhaps Robbie’s help had to be earned through sexual barter. Terrified and exhausted, she’d been about to close her eyes and let him do what he wanted. Then she’d changed her mind.

She remembered that she’d reached down.

“Yeah, babe,” Robbie had groaned. “Hold me. Yeah, like that.”

Jade had gritted her teeth and then squeezed and twisted her hand as hard as she could, digging her nails into his soft flesh. For one white-hot moment, she hadn’t cared whether Robbie broke her arm, beat her up or kicked her out onto the street.

“Bayyyyb!” Robbie’s voice had risen in a surprised and ago-nized screech. Then he’d flown off the sofa and collapsed on the floor, bent double with pain.

After that Jade had pulled the duvet tightly around her, hoping he couldn’t see how violently her arms were trem-bling. “I said no,” she’d told him, hoping she sounded calm and controlled. She was already regretting what she’d done. But to her relief, Robbie was completely cowed.

“No. You said no. I heard you.” He’d raised his head and stared at her again in painful disbelief. “No it is. OK then. Fine. Be like that.” Gathering the shreds of his dignity around him, he’d staggered back to his bedroom and slammed the door.

She wondered if he remembered this incident now, as she removed his hand from her waist and turned to face him.

“Robbie, sex is not part of our relationship. I’ve told you before. Go home and sleep in your bed. If you come in, there’ll be complications. Then neither of us will sleep and tomorrow will go badly because we’ll be pissed off with each other.”

Robbie paused. Jade could almost see his brain working. His eyes lit up and he jumped to the wrong conclusion.

“Are you screwing that cop next door? Is he your new boyfriend?”

“No.” It was the truth, but she was glad it was dark so Robbie couldn’t see her blushing.

“I think you are.”

“I’m not. And even if I was, it’s nothing to do with you. We’re doing business, Robbie. You’re my friend. Nothing more. OK?”

“You know, Jade, you’re a fuckin’ ice queen, that’s what you are.”

Robbie turned and stomped back to his car. Gravel sprayed from the sidewalk as he drove down the road. Jade watched him leave, relieved he was gone, but terrified that by rejecting him again she’d made a dangerous enemy.