Blood Rose

detained. Drugs that made your heart stop. Where do you think they practised?’

‘Where did they do this?’ asked Riedwaan.

‘First at Vastrap, then they had a place out in the Namib, in the Kuiseb Delta somewhere. I never went there.’

‘Would they have taken anyone else out there?’ asked Riedwaan. ‘Boys, maybe?’

She considered the possibility. ‘Not likely,’ she said, holding out her bruised hands. ‘It’s women he likes to see grovel and beg. He’s very old South Africa, so if he had boys out there it’s because there was hard labour to be done.’

‘Where would they go,’ said Riedwaan, ‘if they’ve come back? Tell me, Darlene. If they’ve come back for some of their old toys and you say nothing, you’ll have way more than a couple of homeless kids on your conscience.’

Darlene’s resistance crumbled. ‘There’s one place. I’ll show you.’ Riedwaan followed her as she walked down the passage. ‘Here.’ She pointed to an old survey map taped to the wall. ‘It’s a map of the Kuiseb before the big flood a few years ago. This was an old army site, before the river changed course after the flood.’ She pointed to a marking next to the old Kuiseb River. ‘It’s this area around the old railway line that caused all the trouble between the Topnaars and the army; it was full of!nara plants. Now it’s giving Goagab headaches. Maybe that’s where they tried to go. Some kind of sick reunion.’

‘Can I take this?’ Riedwaan asked.

Darlene nodded and Riedwaan rolled up the map.

He closed the front door behind him and heard the chain rattle as Darlene locked herself in. She must have slid down the wall and crouched there, because he did not hear her footsteps recede.

Riedwaan’s bike surged to life. He made the short trip back to the station in record time. He closed the special ops room door and called Phiri, pleading with his acid-sounding secretary that she get him out of his weekly planning meeting. While he waited for Phiri to call back, he looked at Clare’s map of where the dead boys had been found. Two, three, five, the first one with nothing. He plotted possible trajectories, trying to figure out where they had been killed from where they had been dumped. Two of them in the east; two in the west. No-man’s-land in the middle.

‘Faizal?’ Phiri called back in five minutes.

‘Sir, I’m glad you-’

‘I had a call from someone called Van Wyk,’ Phiri cut him short. ‘He tells me that Captain Damases is off the case and that he’s in command and, thanks, but no thanks for the assistance. I then had a call from Town Councillor Goagab saying that, apart from apprehending the suspected serial killer, who seems to be some kind of desert bogeyman, the show’s over. What’ve you done this time?’

‘I’ve done my job,’ said Riedwaan.

‘That’s what I was afraid of,’ said Phiri.

‘Goagab and Van Wyk would like to see it as solved,’ said Riedwaan.

‘You and Clare don’t?’

‘No,’ said Riedwaan.

‘Despite the fact that the luminal showed positive for blood on the cart?’ Phiri asked.

‘The Topnaar could’ve moved the bodies when the boys were already dead,’ Riedwaan explained. ‘But I don’t think he killed them. You dump a body out here, and no one will find it. Vultures, predators, heat. All you’ll have is bleached bones in a couple of weeks. I’d put money on that Topnaar moving these boys to draw attention to their murders.’

‘What for?’ asked Phiri, puzzled.

‘There’s a weapons test site that a special ops unit used to use,’ said Riedwaan. ‘Bang in the middle of the Topnaar land. I want to check it out.’

‘That’s it?’ said Phiri.

‘That, and the fact that a couple of old soldiers who used to be involved in covert stuff seem to have been around.’

‘That lot are finished, Faizal. They are all practising their golf swings in Wilderness.’

‘If your intelligence is correct, this little game is not about ideology,’ said Riedwaan. ‘This is about money.’

There was a long pause. Riedwaan waited it out. ‘What sort of weapons?’ asked Phiri. ‘What sort of money?’

‘The records are all gone,’ said Riedwaan, ‘but I’d say biochemical.’

‘I have one card left to keep you there,’ Phiri said reluctantly. ‘And that’s a bluff. You’ve got twenty-four hours.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ said Riedwaan, breathing a silent sigh.

‘This had better be good,’ warned Phiri. ‘If it’s not, there’s a post in Pofadder that needs filling.’

‘I’m sorry, sir,’ Riedwaan cut in, ‘but I have a call waiting.’ He saw with relief that it was Clare.

‘What’ve you got?’ he asked as he switched calls.

‘Nothing yet,’ said Clare. ‘Myburgh hasn’t pitched.’

‘Wait for him,’ said Riedwaan. ‘I’m going to check out an old military site. If Karamata’s around, I’ll get him to take me.’

‘Good plan,’ said Clare. ‘Elias knows the area well. What did Darlene tell you?’

‘That her ex-husband’s been back.’

‘Surprise, surprise,’ said Clare. ‘With those bruises, who else? You think he’s been killing these boys?’

‘Why come all the way to Walvis Bay to kill street children?’ said Riedwaan. ‘There are enough in Cape Town.’

‘Another coincidence?’ Clare asked.

‘That’s what’s bugging me. We’ll discuss it over dinner.’

forty-nine

Clare was watching the fishermen, their rods sticking up like insects’ feelers above the shoreline, when the battered red bakkie drew up next to her. She got out, the sand blowing off the desert stinging her calves. Tertius Myburgh unlocked the door and she slid in next to him, holding the door against the wind.

‘Here,’ said Myburgh, pushing an envelope across the cracked seat. He was tense; his hands were shaking.

Dr Clare Harriet Hart. Her full name in black ink: like an accusation. Clare opened it. Five pages of Myburgh’s dense, looped cursive. Clare spread out the pollen report on her lap.

‘There’s the list,’ said Myburgh. ‘Tamarix. Trianthema hereroensis, Acanthosicyos horridus.’

‘What does that tell me?’ asked Clare.

‘The Tamarix and the Hereroensis grow in the Kuiseb River. This is where you’ll find them.’ He pulled out a map and sketched out two intersecting arcs. ‘This section is where they overlap.’

‘That’s a huge area,’ said Clare. The flicker of hope disappeared into the empty wastes that Myburgh’s long, tapering fingers indicated.

‘Well,’ said Myburgh, ‘you can cut out this bit. If they’d been near the mouth, you’d have found Sarcocornia, a stubby little succulent. You’ll have seen fields of it beyond the lagoon. Nothing on them. They didn’t even walk through it.’

‘So they could’ve been anywhere in this area, except for this two-kilometre sliver near the shore?’

‘No.’ Myburgh looked around the parking lot before continuing: ‘There’s the Acanthosicyos horridus, the!nara plants that the Topnaar harvest. These grow in restricted areas along the vegetative dunes. It looks like a melon. Sweet, nutritious, full of fluid. Just what you need in a desert, but they only grow a few kilometres inland.’

‘So that restricts us to this area, more or less?’ asked Clare, pointing to the area of the Kuiseb Delta and just