Like Clockwork

inaudible. ‘I don’t like it there, it’s so creepy. I hadn’t been since those guys were attacked there last year.’

‘Why did you go this time?’

‘He offered me double. I needed the money. I needed to get home.’ Clare touched the smooth skin on the back of his wrist. He turned his hand over and gripped hers. His shoulders quivered as he repressed a sob. Clinton leaned forward and pulled up a khaki trouser leg. ‘Look here.’

Clare saw the puncture marks like ritual tattoos following the vein that traced the contour of his calf muscle and disappeared into the back of his knee. ‘This is why I need the money. This is why I take the risks. Rick said that is where we must go. It seemed to turn him on like anything.’ Clinton stopped.

‘Go on,’ said Clare.

‘He wanted a blow job,’ said Clinton. He shuddered. ‘I just look somewhere else and pretend it’s not me doing it. That’s when I saw her lying there. She looked like a mermaid on the edge of the water. That was when I wished I was there where she was. With everything just over.’ He paused and managed a shaky sip of his cooldrink. ‘Rick was finished. He threw money at me, more than we’d agreed, and then he was gone.’

‘Did he see the girl?’ asked Clare.

‘He had his back to her, so I don’t think so. He didn’t say anything. He just threw the money at me and went home to his wife.’

‘I thought you didn’t know anything about him.’

‘I don’t, but I can recognise a wedding ring when I see one. Most of my regulars are straight men. Married. They seem to like me. Maybe it’s because I look like a girl so they can carry on pretending about themselves even while you suck them off.’

‘Did you go over to her?’

‘I got dressed again first. I was freezing. And then I went over to her. Amore. Her name didn’t help her, did it?’

‘How long were you with her?’

‘I don’t know. A few minutes,’ he said. ‘Should I have stayed longer?’

Clare shook her head. ‘Did you touch her at all? Pick anything up?’

Clinton looked trapped. ‘I tried to cover her. She looked so cold lying like that.’

‘Like what?’ asked Clare.

‘With her top pulled down like that. I tried to cover her up but her shirt was stuck underneath her. I heard it tear. When I pulled, her head moved and I could see where her throat had been cut. That gave me such a fright. Then I left her. I had to be home. Otherwise…’

‘Otherwise what?’ Again the deadness in his eyes.

‘My stepfather donners me if I’m late. And then he donners my mom. For giving birth to a worthless thing like me.’ He put his face in his hands, fingers opening, closing on his short dreadlocks.

‘What will happen to me?’ he asked Clare.

‘The police will need to interview you. And they will need to find Rick and talk to him too.’

‘Ha!’ said Clinton. ‘He’ll deny that he has ever even laid eyes on me. And who will believe me? Rent boy versus businessman – great odds.’

‘You have to take that chance. The people at Lulu’s will recognise him too,’ said Clare with more confidence than she felt. ‘But right now you need to do something about your other problem. The one that got you into this situation.’ She passed him a name and number she had written onto one of her cards. ‘Call him. He knows where you’ve been: he’s been in the same place himself.’ Clinton looked at it with a sneer. But he put it into his pocket before he stood up to go.

‘There is one other thing,’ he said, as he gathered his bags. ‘There was a drag mark on the sand near where she was lying. I don’t know if it means anything, but I thought it was funny because it had rained so hard earlier. So it must have happened after the rain stopped. That gave me the grils – it really got me that someone had put her there just before we got there. That he might have been around there somewhere. Watching.’ He looked nauseated.

‘What time did you meet Rick?’

‘Oh, it was just before. He came into Lulu’s at about eight-fifteen, and he came straight over to me. As if he had checked it out before. Planned it, planned me. He bought two drinks and brought them over, but we didn’t finish them. He wanted to get going straight away. He was very excited.’

‘Did you drive?’

‘No. It’s close. We walked down Joubert Road to the pool.’

‘And when he left? Where did he go?’

‘He crossed the road to his car. I had the feeling that it was in the direction of Three Anchor Bay. And then I caught a taxi. Can I ask you something, Dr Hart?’ Clare nodded. ‘Will my mother find out?’

‘She will. You’ll have to give a detailed statement to Inspector Faizal at the Sea Point station. You should tell her yourself. Maybe she will go with you. Also, when the police catch this man, you’ll be a witness.’

‘Will people know what I was doing?’

‘Yes,’ said Clare.

‘He will kill me. He’ll kill me and that will kill her.’ He walked out into a blast of winter air. Clare watched him until he disappeared around the corner. She put down her cappuccino. It was ice cold.

She was waiting for the bill when her phone beeped. There was a text message on it from Clinton. ‘Rick,’ it said. ‘Apt 2, 473 Victoria Road, Clifton.’

It would be an interesting interview. She didn’t think that Riedwaan would want to miss it. She called him. ‘Turns out Clinton was paid for his time. I’ve got the client’s address,’ said Clare. ‘What do you say we drop in for some late supper?’

‘I was just thinking how hungry I am,’ said Riedwaan. ‘Why don’t you pick me up? I persuaded Phiri that I needed a special ops room and he gave me that old caravan at the back of the building. Generous bastard. Thank God it’s not summer, otherwise we’d all die of heat out here. Much more pleasant to freeze.’

‘I’ll see you in half an hour,’ said Clare. She couldn’t help feeling a surge of hope that they might have something at last. Mr Da Cunha was certainly well off and mobile. He wouldn’t be the first killer to pay a visit to a corpse. If it was him, of course, Clare cautioned herself – if it was him.

23

Clare found Riedwaan swearing into his cellphone. He banged it onto the desk when she walked in. ‘I can’t get a land line and I can’t get a computer. Can you believe this: Admin says it will be stolen. I told the woman that we are the police and she said that our station has no security guards, so our computers “just walk”. I have to get permission from the provincial government if I want a computer in my caravan. How the fuck am I meant to catch a serial killer without any support?’

‘Maybe Joe will have more luck,’ said Clare. ‘He knows how to chat up those ladies with the forms. Will you give it a try, Joe?’

Joe nodded, smiling. ‘Riedwaan, you go with Clare and interview that rent boy’s client. Leave me to get the equipment. What else would you like?’

‘Try a coffee machine,’ said Riedwaan. ‘Maybe pigs will fly.’

‘Well, you’d better fly away.’ Joe held up an espresso machine. ‘I’ve got one already.’

Riedwaan laughed. ‘What truck did that fall off, then?’

He turned to Clare. ‘Shall we go?’ She nodded. He held the sagging caravan door open for her. ‘We’ll see you, Joe. You can ward off crank confessions while you freeze your balls off in here.’

‘I’ve got a heater, Faizal. But thanks for caring,’ said Joe.

‘I don’t know how you do it.’ Riedwaan slammed the door shut.

‘Have you had some cranks already?’ asked Clare as she unlocked her car. Riedwaan got into the passenger seat.

‘Two already. But I think it’s the same guy,’ said Riedwaan.