The Prey (29 page)

‘What do we need to take the camping gear for, Dad? That house is fully furnished,’ Jessica said.

‘Never mind, I’ll explain later.’ He looked back at Kylie, who nodded to him, signalling she understood what he wanted. Cameron bustled Jessica inside.

Kylie opened the tilt door of the garage and saw shelves on the far wall neatly stacked with camping and fishing equipment. She saw three mattresses and took one outside to the
bakkie
. She unhooked the vinyl covering down one side of the truck and peeled it open. Luis blinked up at her. His eyes were red. ‘I’m sorry, Luis. I’m not at all sure where we’re taking you, but Cameron has a plan. Here, this will make the ride a bit more comfortable.’

She undid the strap around the canvas-covered foam mattress and with Luis’s help unrolled it. He shifted and then lay on it, nodding his thanks. He said nothing, just stared up at the sky. Kylie heard Cameron and Jessica talking and partially closed the cover again. Luis made no complaint. Kylie walked across the lawn and met Jessica halfway. Cameron’s daughter had a carry bag and Cameron, she saw, had his gun bag again. ‘Let me help you with those,’ she said to the girl.

‘I can manage.’

Kylie heard the defensive note in the reply, but smiled. ‘I know you can, but I’m sure you need to lock up the house, right?’

‘Oh, OK, sure.’ Jessica handed Kylie her bag and she and Cameron went to the truck.

‘Couple of hours,’ Cameron said to Luis. The Mozambican just nodded again. Cameron unzipped the gun bag so Luis could see the shotgun inside. ‘It’s loaded.’ He laid the bag next to Luis, along with the rest of the luggage. Cameron was securing the last of the stays on the cover when Jess pulled the back door to the house closed and jogged across to them.

They got into the vehicle, with Jessica in the back seat. She took out her cellphone from the pocket of her jeans. ‘I’m warming to the idea of a couple of days off school. Wait till I SMS Mandy, she’ll be so jealous.’

‘Keep her guessing, Jess. I’d rather you didn’t tell anyone where we’re going. I’ll call your school and tell them you’re sick.’

‘Why all the secrecy, Dad?’

‘I’ll tell you the full story once we’re there, Jess. Now I need to focus on the road.’

They drove down the hill to the main road, back to Barberton and turned left towards Nelspruit. Kylie asked Jessica questions about her school and her life in Barberton, partly to deflect her curiosity about their trip, and partly because she was genuinely interested in the replies. Unlike her taciturn father, Jess seemed bubbly, outgoing and personable. Like her father, she was also smart.

‘I’d like to go into mining when I finish university,’ Jess said, ‘even though Dad doesn’t want me to.’

‘My father was against it as well, but there are plenty of opportunities for women in mining,’ Kylie said.

‘I’d really like to hear about how you got to such a senior position. Is your doctorate in engineering? People say it’s a man’s business, but I’m fascinated by building stuff and how things work.’

Kylie talked about some of the difficulties she’d encountered in the still predominantly male workforce, but told Jess she should follow her dreams regardless of what other people told her, and without worrying about preconceptions. It was nice to talk to another female. Cameron, she noted, was content to stay quiet and concentrate on the road. As well as they were getting on, Jess was going to be in for a shock
when they eventually let on who was in the back of the
bakkie
and why.

The drive took them across the N4 at Nelspruit and Kylie recognised the countryside they had passed through on their way to Lion Plains, through the pine and gum plantation-covered hills around White River. ‘Is this place we’re going to near the Sabi Sand Game Reserve?’

‘It’s only a few kilometres from it,’ Jess answered for her father. ‘My grandparents own the house and it’s
lekker
. I just wish we’d been to Hippo Rock more often. I guess this’ll be the last time, hey Dad?’

Cameron shrugged. ‘Your gran might still be happy for you to use it. She hasn’t asked for the spare keys back.’

Kylie had heard the sadness dulling the girl’s bright mood. She wondered if Cameron’s mother-in-law was angry at her daughter for leaving him and Jess. ‘What is this place we’re going to, anyway?’ Kylie asked.

‘It’s a wildlife estate, on a private nature reserve,’ Cameron answered. ‘It’s an old game farm that was given to the local community during the land redistribution program. Some developers hooked up with the local people and they built holiday homes on it for rich people from Jozi and Cape Town. It’s pretty cool – there are zebras and wildebeest and giraffe and stuff on the estate and it borders the Sabie River, so it’s technically part of the greater Kruger Park.’

‘But there are no dangerous animals around the houses, I’m assuming?’ Kylie said.

‘No, not really. Just a couple of leopard,’ Jess said nonchalantly. ‘But there are no fences around the houses, so don’t go walking about at night.’

‘
Just
a couple of leopard?’ The concept sounded weird, yet quite exciting. Kylie couldn’t imagine a housing estate in Australia where dangerous animals patrolled the neighbourhood.

They wound their way through hills covered with pine and banana plantations and Cameron stopped at the bustling town of Hazyview
to pick up some meat and groceries at the Checkers supermarket. Kylie tagged along behind Jess and her father, who seemed to know where everything was and what was needed for their stay. She left them and wandered outside and leaned against the
bakkie
, ready to load the food in before Jess could look inside. She would learn the truth of what they were doing soon enough. It was insane; they were hiding a fugitive from the law in order to protect him, and themselves possibly, against a crazed killer.

With the supplies packed and Jess none the wiser, they drove another thirty-five kilometres, passing through the town of Mkhulu, which Cameron said had grown in leaps and bounds in the past seventeen years. He slowed and Kylie saw a sign to Hippo Rock Private Nature Reserve on the right.

‘A few of these places have sprung up over the past thirty or so years – Marloth Park, Mjejane, Elephant Point, Sabiepark. They’re residential or holiday home estates where people come to try and get away from real life for a while.’

Kylie checked the wing mirror again – she’d noticed Cameron doing the same throughout the drive. She was sure no one had followed them. Cameron slowed and turned right.

A security guard in green uniform and canvas and rubber combat boots stepped out of a brick and thatch gatehouse and saluted. Cameron greeted the man and took out a plastic laminated identity card. The guard gave him a clipboard with a registration form on it and Cameron filled it out.

‘The security is really tight here,’ Jess told Kylie. ‘We get an ID card because of my mom.’

From the car, Kylie saw half-a-dozen warthogs down on their knees, rooting around in a green lawn watered by a sprinkler. The bush beyond, however, was dry and brown.

Cameron handed the clipboard back to the guard and they set off again. He took it slow on the narrow dirt road and they passed a series of houses, constructed in the same brick and thatch as the gatehouse, nestled away in the bush.

‘Zebra!’ Kylie couldn’t help but cry out when she glimpsed the black and white through the dull green bushes.

Jessica laughed at her childish excitement. Kylie wished she had her camera, but then remembered Luis lying sweltering in the back of the truck; the man had just lost his wife. She felt guilty that she could be distracted so easily when Luis was suffering so much.

Cameron turned into an even narrower road that twisted down a hill and led to a house that looked as unassuming as the others they’d passed. Cameron let them in via the back door and when he threw open the musty curtains on the far side of the lounge room Kylie was taken aback by the majesty of the view. ‘The Sabie River,’ he said. ‘It means fear.’

Dark waters rushed around smooth granite boulders that shone pink in the afternoon sun. A small chocolate-coloured antelope with white spots and stripes – ‘Bushbuck,’ Jess informed her – leapt away into a thicket as Jess slid open the doors. Kylie shielded her eyes and saw an elephant ambling down to the river on the other side, which Jess told her was the Kruger National Park. It was paradise, but it was time for them to explain to Jess what they were really doing here.

‘Jess, come outside with me, to the
bakkie
again,’ Cameron said.

Kylie followed them out, and Cameron gestured to a wooden bench. ‘Sit down for a minute, Jess.’ His daughter did as he asked and Kylie, on impulse, sat next to her and placed her hand over Jessica’s protectively.

‘What is it?’ the girl asked, looking up at him, though she didn’t move her hand.

Cameron moved to the rear of the
bakkie
and started undoing the stays on the cover. ‘Jess, there is a man in here, hiding.’

Jess put her free hand over her mouth. Luis sat up.

‘Oh my god.’

‘It’s all right, Jessica,’ Kylie said.

Cameron quickly explained who Luis was and how he had just lost his wife in a shooting.

‘The one where Sipho was killed?’

‘Yes,’ Cameron said. ‘Jess, I don’t want to alarm you, but Luis is important to our investigation into the deaths of Paulo Barrica and Themba Tshabalala. He’s crucial to bringing down the criminal miners. I needed to get him away from Barberton, and I didn’t want to leave you on your own.’

She nodded. Luis climbed down out of the truck and walked to her. ‘How do you do?’

‘I’m very well, thank you.’ Jess left Kylie and took his hand. ‘I am sorry for your loss.’

‘Thank you.’

Kylie was amazed that Jess seemed to take all this in her stride, but then she guessed growing up in Africa was different to growing up in Australia. In her country people didn’t get shot underground, or murdered for their cars. Nor did they live in housing estates with resident leopards.

They went inside and Cameron showed Luis and Kylie to their rooms. Kylie protested that he didn’t need to give her the master bedroom, but when Jess walked down the corridor, past the smaller of two spare bedrooms that had been assigned to Luis, he said, ‘I’ll sleep in the room with the two singles, with Jess. I want to keep an eye on her until this thing is sorted.’

‘I understand,’ Kylie said.

Each of the bedrooms and the living room looked out over the river. Kylie slid open a glass door to get some fresh air into the musty master bedroom. When she stepped out onto the timber deck she heard a deep honking. Leaning out over the railing, she traced the sound and saw a pair of pink and grey ears wiggling and an exhalation of air and droplets before the massive head disappeared. A hippopotamus. She turned at the sound of footsteps on the stone floor behind her.

‘He’s just checking us out.’ Cameron walked out onto the verandah, which ran along the whole front of the house, and stood beside her.

‘It’s lovely here,’ she said. ‘It’s just so sad we have to be here in such terrible circumstances.’

‘I know. And we’ve still got work to do.’

‘We can go over the review of operations in Zambia here, this afternoon. Maybe we don’t need to fly up there.’

Cameron shook his head. ‘No, you have to go to Zambia. The new mine up there is a crucial part of the company’s growth strategy and, well, don’t take this the wrong way, but …’

‘Go on.’

‘You need to assess the situation up there in person. You’ve seen for yourself that conditions here on the ground in South Africa are different to how you imagined them in Australia, yes?’

She didn’t like being admonished but she had to admit he had a point.

‘And you can’t let this bastard Wellington bring the company to a halt. He’s shut down Eureka but he can’t stop the whole show.’

‘You’re right,’ she said.

‘Tomorrow I’ll try and find someone in Pretoria we can hand Luis over to, but we have to give the guy at least a little time to grieve for his wife. Also, I have to sort out the transfer of her remains back to Mozambique and go and see Sipho’s family.’

It seemed to her as if saying the words made the weight of his commitments finally register. Cameron put his hands on the balcony railing and she saw his body sag. He looked out over the river. ‘I can’t let him win.’

She put a hand on his shoulder. ‘I know. He won’t.’

He looked at her and she saw the hardness in those sad eyes. She moved her hand, but he kept staring at her. Kylie swallowed. Her heart was beating faster. Despite the absurdity of all that had gone on since she’d arrived in South Africa, and before that with the deaths of Tshabalala and Barrica, she wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else than right here, right now, on the banks of a river called fear. In Australia her idea of confrontation was boardroom jousting by video conference. Here it was like being in a war zone: terrifying, electrifying, seat-of-the-pants stuff, with all its attendant tragedy. Cameron had tried to make decisions on mine security like
a commander on a battlefield, while she and Jan had been overlaying first-world health, safety and environment rules or, at best, acting like armchair generals totally distanced from the frontline.

‘Let’s go for a walk,’ he said at last.

‘OK,’ she breathed.

Jess was in the lounge room reading a book, legs and feet curled under her in an overstuffed beige two-seater lounge whose dust cover was lying on the floor. ‘Come, my girl, we’re going for a walk.’

She looked up from the book. ‘Dad, you know exams are on soon. I
have
to study.’ She glanced at Kylie, then looked away.

Cameron looked as though he was debating overruling her, and was probably torn between his desire to cosset Jess and his relief that he had a seventeen-year-old who actually wanted to study. Also, Kylie guessed he didn’t want to frighten her. ‘All right. Luis is in his room, lying down. Call me if anyone – and I mean anyone – comes near the house. Don’t open the door to anyone.’

‘OK, Dad. Enjoy the walk. Kylie, mind the buffalo.’