The Fallen (13 page)

‘He was standing somewhere around here,’ he said. ‘In this area.’

Jade watched the torch beams criss-cross the ground as the two men scanned the area for any sign that an intruder had been nearby. But although they walked right to the perimeter, the coarse green grass offered up no discernible footprints, only sharp black shadows.

‘Neil really should consider getting this place fenced off,’ David suggested, echoing what Jade had been thinking ever since she arrived. ‘Palisades, chicken wire, electric wire, whatever. Just something to prevent every man and his dog from roaming inside the resort. He’d need to run it all the way round the property. Put a gate at the top and another leading down to the beach.’

Vusi nodded solemnly. ‘I will tell him what you said, but I do not know if he will listen to me. There has never been a problem until now. This is a peaceful place.’

‘Well, he should listen, because you’ve got a problem now.’ He paused, scanning the area with his torch beam once more. ‘No sign of him here, so let’s widen the search. We’ll go right, you go left.’

Taking the right-hand route would lead David down to the beach. Jade guessed he had opted to go this way because it was darker, more deserted and potentially more dangerous.

Turning left, she and Craig headed up the long, winding driveway. He shone the light a couple of metres in front of them, but every few paces he raised the torch and swung it slowly from right to left and back again. As he did this, Jade was suddenly reminded of their walk last night, which had followed almost exactly the same route; what had happened before they left, and what had happened between them afterwards.

Neither of them had spoken since they set off together, and this time the silence felt uncomfortable. Jade wondered if Craig felt guilty, too. She’d seen the way he looked at Elsabe. She was sure that if he’d had the choice, he would have opted to spend the night with his ‘friend’, not with her.

As they headed towards the entrance gate, they passed Neil’s house, where Jade noticed that a couple of lights were on but all the curtains were tightly drawn. Neil was hiding away from the world.

Along the access road, the torch beam lit up the nearest palm trees, their fronds spiky-pale in the glare, and banana trees, slender-stemmed but with leaves so broad a man could have hidden behind them. Their shadows stretched darkly away from them before being swallowed by the forest.

Jade had no idea what else was growing in this bushy jungle. She didn’t have green fingers. She didn’t understand plants and, like her father, she had no interest in identifying them

She followed the beam. Looking for anything—a footprint, the compact cylinder of a cigarette butt.

There was a strong likelihood that this search, like the previous one, would be a waste of time. There was only a slim chance that they might find evidence of the intruder, if he even existed. There was virtually no chance they would locate the stranger himself.

Even so, despite Neil’s protests that everything had been safe until now, the grim reality was that they were no longer secure.

In Jo’burg, nobody felt secure. That was why everyone lived in impenetrable fortresses, behind high walls topped with ten-thousand-volt electric fences. There, people were prepared for the war against crime, but here they were not. Ironically, it was sometimes only in the most dangerous places that you were the best protected.

Perhaps the unlikeable Larry and Roxanne had made the right decision by leaving.

‘Just like yesterday, isn’t it?’ Craig’s whispered words broke the silence.

‘Let’s hope it doesn’t have the same outcome as yesterday,’ she whispered back. She’d been thinking of the murder, but felt the blood rush to her face as she remembered how the night had ended for her and Craig.

Jade was glad Craig couldn’t see her blush. He didn’t reply. In silence, they continued walking along the forest-lined access road.

A movement in the bushes ahead jerked Jade away from her distracting thoughts. She looked towards it and froze, her hand automatically closing round the grip of her gun.

‘Something there,’ she whispered. ‘In front of us and to the right.’

A moment later, the flashlight found its source and lit up the area to reveal nothing more than a sleek ginger cat with a still-struggling rat in its jaws. Seemingly unfazed by the beam of light, it gave them a baleful look, its eyes flashing bright green.

‘Phew,’ Craig whispered. ‘I expected the worst there for a moment.’

And then the cat tensed and darted off to the left, fleeing deep into the undergrowth. Before Jade could even begin to wonder what had caused the animal to panic, she heard another, much louder, noise coming from roughly the same area. The sound was massive—half roar, half scream, accompanied by the gunshot-like reports of cracking branches. It was so huge and so entirely unexpected that, for just a moment, Jade was certain the source of the noise was a charging hippo.

A heartbeat later, she realised how wrong she was when she saw the gleaming metal body of a large, dark truck burst from its hiding place. Its engine howled, and branches snapped as the vehicle gouged a path through the undergrowth.

The thick metal bull-bar on the truck’s bonnet swung in her direction. At first she thought the vehicle was heading for the entry gate, but then she realised it was showing no signs of turning to the right. It continued to surge straight forwards, straight at her. Jade knew if she didn’t move within the next few seconds she would be crushed by a two-ton piece of machinery as deadly as any wild animal due to the intent of the person behind the wheel.

‘Craig! Get out of the way!’ Jade screamed, as she flung herself desperately to the side of the road. She landed hard on her left shoulder and rolled through the wet undergrowth, twigs clawing at her face. The truck passed so close to her that its front wheel caught her left elbow, ramming it with such force that her shoulder was almost jolted out of its socket.

Arm on fire, Jade struggled to her feet and stared at the truck’s retreating taillights. It was moving so fast over the uneven road it was impossible for her to read the whole number plate, but she did manage to get the last two digits.

‘Jade? You
OK?’

Craig’s voice sounded shaky. A moment later, the torch beam—also rather unsteady—found her. Jade cupped her right hand over her eyes and turned her head away from its light.

‘I’m not hurt. Are you?’

‘I’m fine. But that truck was going straight for you.’

‘It didn’t knock me over. Just grazed my elbow. No lasting damage. It’ll probably just bruise.’

Craig shone the torch on Jade’s muddied arm and they both examined the large, red-stained weal. She flexed her arm and opened and closed her fingers. Then, using her right hand, she took her cellphone out of her pocket and dialled the number for the flying squad.

The meeting was an emergency one this time. Bradley was in the same tiny shed with the same plastic table and rickety chairs. There were three differences, though. One, it was night, so the place was less of a furnace than it had been during the day, although it was still stuffy, filled with suffocating humidity after the rain. Two, he had screwed up a second time, so he was sweating even worse than he’d done the day before. Three, Chetty didn’t look as if he’d come from a relaxing day on his yacht. This time, his pants were crumpled and his face was drawn and anxious.

Zulu, however, looked exactly the same; expressionless.

Somehow, Bradley found that the worst of all.

He was rubbing his thumbs and forefingers together in a non-stop back and forth rhythm. He couldn’t stop this action, so he’d put his hands under the table. At least his two bosses wouldn’t see him doing it, and hopefully they couldn’t hear the tiny whispering sound of flesh against sweaty flesh.

‘How could you let this happen?’ Chetty asked him in a voice that made Bradley think of knives.

Until he’d walked into the shed five minutes ago and Chetty had briefed him on the latest shocking developments, Bradley hadn’t had the faintest clue that anything was wrong.

He hadn’t known about the latest screw-up; his screw-up.

Bradley shook his head helplessly. ‘I don’t know how it happened. Kobus was properly briefed. I made sure of it. Everything was under control.’

‘No. It wasn’t.’

Bradley blinked rapidly, feeling his face start to twitch.

‘He didn’t tell you about it?’

‘Not a word. I didn’t know until you told me.’

‘Why?’ Chetty barked out the word, furious. He slammed his fist down on the table so hard that Bradley thought the flimsy plastic might crack. ‘Why would he do such a thing? It’s so bloody stupid. He was supposed to stay out of sight. Find the girl, grab her and go. Now we’ve got the wrong person dead and the local police force swarming round the area. If they find her before we do …’

‘He was well briefed,’ Bradley muttered. The heavy phone hanging around his neck seemed to be pulling his head down, keeping him from being able to look the Indian in the eye.

‘Do you realise how this could jeopardise the operation?’

Now Bradley found the strength to raise his head, to look into Chetty’s narrowed eyes and Zulu’s dark ones.

He’d sat in countless boardrooms before now, and looked at innumerable faces. He’d always been able to read them well. He’d had excellent instincts in the past and, in spite of his recent troubles, he’d thought they were still good. And that made his stomach curdle, because what he was seeing now in the eyes of both men was doubt. Serious doubt.

A screw-up this bad in his previous days may have been a career-damaging move, but not a life-threatening one. But this was different. If these guys were starting to mistrust him, well … he was finished.

Taking a deep breath, Bradley fought hard to hide the panic he felt.

‘They won’t trace anything back to the harbour. How could they?’

There was a pause. Neither of the other two replied, so he continued. ‘It may even be a good thing, having an unexpected distraction like this. It’ll occupy the investigators’ attention. Focus them on what’s happening at the resort.’

More silence. His confidence growing, Bradley continued.

‘I understand that this isn’t the main issue. The main issue is that Kobus did something he was not ordered to do, and I can’t
have anyone working on my project who doesn’t follow orders to the letter. So I’m going to fire him, as of now. He’s off the team. We can manage without him now. There’s so little time left to go in any case.’

Chetty nodded.

‘A good idea,’ Zulu said gently. ‘But please, leave the firing to me.’

He said it in such a manner that Bradley was left in no doubt about the intent behind his words. He would have liked nothing better than to let the black man have his way, but he daren’t.

‘No,’ he said.

Zulu raised an eyebrow. At least, Bradley thought he saw it twitch.

‘Why not?’

Bradley wiped his sweaty forehead with the back of his hand.

‘Because the guy’s an old-school racist. I spent time with him—lots of time, in fact—back when we were inside. He doesn’t trust either of you. If you call a meeting with him, he’ll automatically suspect something is up, because he’s always taken orders from me.’ Bradley swallowed, burned by the knowledge that his ex-prison buddy had let him down in the worst way possible. That he had not, in fact, followed Bradley’s orders, despite all his promises. ‘Kobus is a dangerous man and he has a gun. This is my job. It has to be.’

The other two men exchanged a glance. For a minute, neither one spoke. Then, finally, he got a reply.

‘Do it properly,’ Zulu said.

Did this mean they were giving him another chance?

If so, Bradley knew only too well it was the last one he would have to prove his loyalty to his bosses. To make things right again and help limit the damage that Kobus had done.

‘I will.’ He let out a deep breath. ‘Trust me, I will.’

Now that the truck had gone, so had the feeling of uneasiness that had been prickling at the back of Jade’s neck ever since they’d left the resort. She listened hard, but could hear nothing else in the still, quiet night.

Quickly, she made two calls, speaking first to the flying squad and then to the local detectives.

‘Pillay said he’d alert the local Metro Police,’ she told Craig, putting her phone away. ‘And he’s coming back now. He’ll be here in ten minutes.’

‘Something I wanted to ask you,’ Craig said carefully, as they turned and made their way back down the road towards the little cluster of lights.

‘Go right ahead.’

‘How the hell did you get that truck’s number plate? I tried to, but it was too fast. And I wasn’t even in its path.’

‘I saw the same vehicle earlier this afternoon, speeding on the main road. He almost wiped me out. I took his number plate because … well, because that’s what you do, isn’t it?’

‘Is it?’ Craig shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. Not everybody would have the presence of mind to do that in an emergency.’

‘You would have.’

‘I would have tried, yes.’

‘Well, then.’

Jade would have liked to leave it there, but she sensed Craig was waiting for her to say something more.

‘I’m a trained private investigator,’ she confessed somewhat reluctantly. ‘And a bodyguard.’

‘You are? That’s incredible. Why didn’t you tell us that on the campfire night?’

‘Because people always end up asking too many questions.’

‘I suppose they do,’ Craig said ruefully, as if he’d been about to ask them too.

‘I knew a woman in the States who worked in the same field as me, and at parties she used to tell strangers that she ran a nail bar.’

‘A nail bar?’

‘Manicures, acrylics, you know? Then it was a two-minute conversation. Oh, how lovely. Having your own business must be such a challenge! What are the new season’s colours? And that was it. Over and out. Much easier that way.’

Craig started to say something else. Then he stopped himself and gave a small laugh. ‘Jade,’ he said. ‘You know … hell … if I’d met you before …’