Broken (30 page)

"That's a
good idea!" Garth
said. "It'll work
perfectly. And then I can knock him out and he'll never know what
happened."

***

"Your Honour." James Foster said
looking up at Judge Bester. "Miss Bedford is looking a little
tired. Perhaps this would be a good time for her to step down from
the witness stand and for Garth Gilmore to continue with his
testimony."

The judge nodded.

CHAPTER 12

"Garth
." Paul Greave said once
I'd sat down in the chair on the witness stand. "Cindy Bedford has
been telling the court about your plans to rob Mister Bogdanovic.
Please tell the court about Cindy's second visit to the money
lender."

***

As I walked behind Cindy towards
Mister Bogdanovic's shop I realised just how sexy she looked in her
short skirt and high heel shoes. No wonder Bogdanovic couldn't take
his eyes off her. I even experienced a strange feeling of jealousy
as I thought of the two of them picking up the contents of Cindy's
handbag off the floor of the office while he looked up her
dress.

I stopped ten
metres from the shop and watched Cindy reach the entrance and press
the buzzer. I was wearing my ski mask rolled up to just above my
eyebrows and the rucksack was slung onto my back. The rubber
truncheon was tucked in under my belt and hidden by my dark blue
windbreaker.

I saw Cindy
push open the security gate of the shop and quickly stick the thick
the piece of thick mirror tape over the cavity of the lock before
Mister Bogdanovic appeared at the front door. The gate closed
behind her. I counted to thirty while pretending to fasten my
shoelace and then walked to the shop entrance and pushed the
security gate inwards. It opened silently. I entered the shop, took
the "CLOSED" sign out of my pocket, unfolded it and stuck it on the
outside of the glass door with the pieces of Prestik that I'd stuck
on each corner. I could hear Bogdanovic and Cindy talking in the
office. I closed the door quietly and moved as silently as I could
across the entrance area towards the door into the back of the
shop. As I passed the office door I glanced in. Both Cindy and
Bogdanovic were squatting with their backs to me as they picked up
the contents of Cindy's handbag that she'd dropped. I reached the
door and turned the key. I pulled my ski mask down over my face and
pulled out the rubber truncheon. I moved to the entrance to the
office. Both Cindy and Bogdanovic still had their backs to me. I
stepped up behind the money lender, raised the truncheon and
brought it down hard on the man's bald head. As the man slumped
forward onto the floor I saw a large gash on his head where the
truncheon had struck him. Dark red blood began pouring from the
wound. Cindy stood up, clutching her handbag, her eyes wide with
fear.

"Did you get everything that was
in your bag?" I whispered.

Cindy nodded, too scared to
speak.

I looked at the big safe. The
thick steel door was slightly ajar. I hurried closer and hauled it
open. I stared at the stacks of one hundred Rand notes and the
glittering jewellery. Cindy came up and stood next to me. I pulled
the rucksack off my back and opened it. We began to stuff the
banknotes and the jewellery inside.

"Wow!" Cindy whispered
excitedly. "There's an absolute fortune in here!"

I was putting
the last of the contents of the safe into the rucksack when I heard
a noise outside the office. I put the rucksack down and hurried to
the doorway of the office. The handle of the door to the back of
the shop was moving up and down vigorously as someone behind the
barrier tried to open it. I turned to Cindy.

"Get out of the shop!" I
whispered. "Leave the rucksack and go home! Those two goons are
going to break down the door at any moment."

Cindy hurried
away. A loud bang came from behind the door to the back of the shop
and I saw the wood near the bottom bulge outwards. I hurried back
into the office, grabbed the last of the jewellery and stuffed it
into the rucksack. I closed it and slung it onto my back. With my
handkerchief I quickly wiped the door of the safe where I'd grabbed
it to open it. I heard a loud splintering sound from the entrance
area. I moved to the office doorway just as the bottom half of the
door to the back of the shop collapsed outwards and one of
Bogdanovic's thugs pushed his way through, crouching low. I felt
the hatred of him well up in my chest as I remembered the beating
he'd given me.

Realising
that I wouldn't be able to get away without the two thugs chasing
after me, I rushed up to the still crouching man and hit him as
hard as I could on the side of his head with the truncheon. I saw
his skull dent inwards as the weapon bit into it. He collapsed onto
the floor. The second thug must have realised what had happened and
instead of also trying to get through the hole in the door he
thrust his hand through the opening and reached up for the key in
the lock. Before I could react the hand turned the key and at the
same time the handle moved downwards. The broken door opened and
the second thug stared at me. He was holding a snooker cue in his
hand like a long club.

The man
raised the snooker cue above his head and rushed at me, almost
tripping over the unconscious man on the floor. I knew that if I
moved backwards as he expected me to do I would be an easy target
for him as he would be out of range of the truncheon but I would
still be within the range of the cue. Instead, I rushed closer to
him as he glanced down to avoid the prone man at his feet. I rammed
the end of the truncheon viciously into his solar plexus. The air
exploded out of the man's lungs and he dropped the snooker cue. He
clutched at his midriff as he bent forward desperately trying to
get air into his lungs. I stepped back and swung the truncheon down
as hard as I could on the back of his neck. I heard the vertebrae
of his spinal column crack. He fell to the ground like a limp rag
doll.

I was gasping
for breath from the effort and the tension in my body and had to
lean against the wall to steady myself. Gradually I calmed down. I
looked over my shoulder at the open doors of the shop but nobody
was in sight. I turned and walked to the glass door as I pulled off
my ski mask and stuffed it into my jacket pocket. I removed the
"CLOSED" sign from the door and put it into my shirt pocket. I
stepped out of the entrance area and I closed the door. I carefully
wiped the handle with my handkerchief. I pulled the security door
open and removed the thick mirror tape. I put it into my pocket,
stepped out onto the pavement and pulled the gate closed behind me.
Surreptitiously I rubbed the bars of the gate with the sleeve of my
jacket where I'd held them as I pulled it closed. I turned and
walked away as casually as I could. Nobody took any notice of
me.

***

I walked into the house and
closed the door behind me. Cindy hurried to me from where she'd
been sitting on the couch in the lounge. She put her arms around me
and hugged me tightly.

"I've been so worried, Garth."
she said. "I couldn't help thinking that those two thugs would
overpower you and kill you. Are you okay? You didn't get hurt?"

"No." I said
as
I walked into the lounge and slung the
rucksack off my back. I put it down on the couch.

"What happened after I left?"
Cindy asked.

"Fortunately those two thugs
couldn't get through the doorway together." I said. "So I was able
to take them out one at a time by hitting them with the
truncheon."

"I hope you didn't kill them."
Cindy said. "Will they be okay?"

"Yes." I
said. "One of them may have problems though. I had to hit him on
the back of his neck and I think that I may have damaged his
spine."

"And Mister Bogdanovic?"

"He was still unconscious when I
left." I said. "The important thing though, is that we got away
with it."

"What are we going to do with
the money and the jewellery?" Cindy asked. "Do you want to count it
now?"

"I think that we'd better hide
it as quickly as we can." I said. "We can count it later when the
heat's off."

"Where are you going to hide
it?" Cindy asked.

"I think that
the best place to hide it would be in a safety deposit locker." I
said. "At first I thought of Park Station but apparently they don't
have storage lockers any more. The only other place that I can
think of is the Gold Reef City casino. You can pay cash to rent a
locker there and you don't have to give them any details. We can
rent one for three weeks so that, even if the police do come here,
they won't find anything to link us to the robbery. You'd better
also give me the cell phone that you bought so that I can throw it
away. It'll just be a matter of time before Bogdanovic 'phones that
number to try and trace you."

"Can't we count the money
first?" Cindy asked. "I'd love to know how much we got."

"No." I said. "I'm going to the
casino right now. The sooner it's hidden the better. We can't take
any chances."

"Do you really think that the
police will link us to the robbery?" Cindy asked. "We didn't leave
any clues. What makes you think that they'll come here?"

"It's just a feeling I have." I
said. "We mustn't take even the slightest chance. There's too much
at stake."

I pulled the truncheon out from
under my belt and put it into the rucksack. I put Cindy's cheap
cell phone in my pocket and left the house.

During the
walk to the casino I
carefully wiped the
cell phone with my handkerchief to get rid of any fingerprints and,
when I was sure nobody was watching me, I switched it off and
dropped it down one of the street drains. As it was switched off
the police would never be able to trace it.

At the casino I hired a storage
locker and paid for three weeks rental in cash. I had thought that
the staff would be suspicious of someone renting a locker for so
long but they didn't say a thing. I stuffed the rucksack into the
steel container, locked it and pocketed the key. I left the complex
and walked home.

***

The robbery
at Mister Bogdanovic's shop was in all the
local newspapers and also on the television evening news.
The money lender and his two employees had all been hospitalised
but one of the employees had suffered serious spinal damage was
likely to be paralysed from the neck down. The police were
investigating the crime and important leads were being followed up.
According to the police this was the third robbery in Rosettenville
in the last six months.

My hunch
about the police coming to visit us proved to be right. One
afternoon, two weeks after the Bogdanovic robbery Captain Williams
and Warrant Offices Cilliers showed up at the house. Fortunately
Cindy was out looking for work
. I was
worried that if the police questioned her she would break down and
confess to what we'd done. I invited the two policemen into the
house and we sat in the lounge.

"Mister Gilmore." the captain
said. "We're investigating three robberies that occurred in the
Rosettenville area over the past six months and during our
investigation your name came up in connection with all three of the
crimes. So we need to ask you a few questions."

I nodded and tried to look
confused.

"Please
understand that this is a routine enquiry and we're not accusing
you of any complicity at this stage." the policeman said. "But we
have to follow up on everything that has any relationship to the
three crimes. Do you understand?"

"Yes." I said, still trying to
look confused.

"The first
robbery took place last November on the Monday morning immediately
after the Charity Mile horse race at Turfontein." the captain said.
"The man who was robbed was a book maker by the name of Edward
Eksteen. Unfortunately, during the robbery Mister Eksteen was
struck on the head by the perpetrator and died from his injuries.
Firstly, we've learnt from the other book makers at the betting
hall as well as some of the punters, that someone answering to your
description was seen placing bets with Mister Eksteen several times
before the robbery. Secondly, some of the punters also claim that
someone answering to your description but wearing a dark blue
beanie was seen in the vicinity of the betting hall on the morning
of the robbery."

"Yes, I did do most of my
betting with Mister Eksteen." I said. "And I also remember the day
that Mister Eksteen was robbed. I heard about it that evening on
the television. But I was nowhere near the betting hall on that
day."

"Can you prove this?" Williams
asked. "Do you have any witnesses as to your whereabouts on that
morning?"

I shook my head.

"Although I
remember hearing about the robbery that day I don't remember
anything else about the day itself." I said. "I only go to the
betting hall to place my bets on a Tuesday and a Friday and, as the
horse that I backed in the Charity Mile didn't win, I had no need
to go to the betting hall on the Monday."

The captain nodded.

"The second robbery involved a
Mister Whiteside from the Ace Dry Cleaners." Williams said. "He was
robbed while carrying the week's takings to the bank. Fortunately
he wasn't injured during the robbery. We've since found out that
the girl that lives here with you, Miss Bedford, was employed at
the Ace Dry Cleaners at the time of the robbery."

"Yes, she was." I said. "She
told me about the robbery."

"Can you remember where you were
on the morning of the robbery?" the captain asked. "It took place
on Friday the seventh of March this year."