the man.
‘And then?’ Sannie prompted.
Tom looked at his watch.
Alfredo turned back to the map and planted a bony finger on a dot. ‘Here. Near Chongoene, about thirteen kilometres north-east of Xai Xai, later in the afternoon a HiLux with a tinted rear cab but untinted front cab ignored a direction by one of my officers to stop.’
‘Why did he flag it down? Did he recognise it as the suspect vehicle?’ Tom asked.
Alfredo turned back to him and shook his head. ‘Regrettably, no. The officers’ radio was unfortunately not working, but the vehicle was speeding. Sixty-five in a sixty zone.’
Tom thought the captain had talked about the crime as though it was one step removed from murder. ‘They didn’t pursue it?’
Alfredo shook his head again. ‘This is a poor country, Detective Sergeant Furey. Not all of my officers have cars or motorcycles. They had no way of pursuing the Toyota, but the officer used his cell phone to call the next checkpoint, at Chidenguele. The officers there said the description matched that of the suspect vehicle you have lost.’
The emphasis did not escape Tom, and he remained silent.
‘And that checkpoint notified you?’ Sannie ventured, looking for a way to defuse the confrontation before it began.
Alfredo smiled at her efforts. ‘Yes, Sannie. I ordered the police in the speed traps to set up roadblocks and check every bakkie passing through that area.’
She nodded. It was good policing and a swift reaction.
‘However,’ Alfredo continued, taking his seat again and, as though he had just got back from running after the truck himself, mopping his brow with one of the serviettes that had come with the takeaway chicken, ‘the vehicle never reached Chidenguele.’
‘You’re sure?’ Tom said, almost instantly regretting the words.
‘I am sure, Detective Sergeant.’
‘Hard to miss it with a static roadblock in place,’ Sannie said, as much in reproof of Tom for doubting the Mozambican officer’s word as in support of Alfredo. ‘May I?’ She stood and walked around the enormous desk so she could study the map more closely. Alfredo swivelled in his chair and looked up at her.
‘As you will see,’ he said, ‘there is a side road they could have taken, away from the coast.’
‘Or they could be somewhere here.’ Sannie circled the stretch between Chongoene and Chidenguele. ‘About forty-five kilometres of coastline.’
‘Didn’t you say this is one of the busiest parts of Mozambique?’ Tom observed. ‘We were thinking they might prefer somewhere more remote, perhaps further north.’
Alfredo started to speak, but Sannie beat him to it. ‘The established coastal resorts, such as Xai Xai and Bilene, further south, are busy, but this part of the coast is still very empty, if I’m not mistaken, Capitao?’
Alfredo nodded. ‘ Sim, Sannie. There are only a few resorts, but they are mostly quite inaccessible. One needs a four-wheel drive to get into them because of the coastal sand dunes in this area.’
Sannie looked back at Tom. ‘Remote, inaccessible to most vehicles, on the coast…’
‘Perfect,’ Tom agreed. ‘And still only a couple of hours’ drive from Maputo if they need to fly anywhere or disappear into a city.’
‘Some of the beaches — mostly those near the resorts — are protected by natural reefs, so you could bring a small boat in or out as well,’ she said.
‘Captain,’ Tom said, trying his best to sound humble and beseeching, ‘what assets do you have at your disposal to search this part of the coastline?’
‘Naturally, I will devote what resources I can to this task,’ Alfredo said. ‘It is, of course, of great importance to the British government and I would hope that they would be grateful for the assistance of our poor police force.’ He spread his hands wide, over the desk, palms upwards.
Tom half wondered if he was expected to pay a bribe at this point. He forced the uncharitable thought from his mind. ‘Vehicles?’ he said.
‘I have four cars and two motorcycles, though only one four-wheel drive — my own Land Cruiser — which we will, of course, use to investigate any leads that my officers turn up.’
This hardly filled Tom with confidence. ‘Boats?’
‘Alas,’ Alfredo said, shrugging his shoulders, ‘there are some inflatable boats, donated to the police by the government of Portugal, at the praia, but they all have punctures.’
‘The praia? What’s that, the beach?’
Sannie nodded. ‘The Praia do Xai Xai, the town’s beach, is about ten kilometres from here.’
‘I will have my officers contact all of the accessible villages and resorts on this stretch of the coast first thing tomorrow morning,’ Alfredo said, standing as if to signal their meeting was over. ‘If we receive word of the stolen vehicle I will be ready to depart, at a moment’s notice, in my Land Cruiser. I will keep four men here with me, armed with AK 47s, to act as the reaction force.’
‘Thank you, Capitao. We are very grateful to you for staying back to meet us, and for your kind offer of assistance in the morning. We will be here first thing to monitor the search.’ Sannie stood and nodded to Tom to do the same. Her look told him to keep his mouth shut.
Tom turned on her as they walked outside into the sticky, salty night air. ‘What the fuck is all this manana bullshit? We’re wasting time.’
‘Easy, easy.’ She placed a hand on his arm, as she had done at the border. ‘Look at the realities of policing in Africa, Tom. This guy’s got no boats, no helicopter, one four-by-four and a few bicycles. You saw the station — it’s empty except for him and the woman on duty. All of his officers will be off in their villages by now. The police here spend most of the time standing by the side of the roads with speed cameras, or on roadblocks hassling tourists. You’re not going to get a SWAT team rappelling out of the sky, no matter how much you want it.’
‘I’ve got to get on a phone and tell the people back in the UK. They might even have people on the ground by now, in South Africa or here. At least we’ve got the vehicle confined to a limited geographic area.’
‘Exactly.’ She removed her hand from his arm. ‘I’ll do the same with my people and until we can get some back-up over here, I’m afraid there’s not very much more we can do until Alfredo gets his people on the job tomorrow morning.’
Tom walked away from her towards the Volkswagen, his fists clenching and unclenching as he went. He felt like hitting something, running somewhere, getting in the car and charging up and down the coast road in pursuit of a vehicle they had only a vague description of. It was all so maddeningly frustrating. All the long day he’d been just a step behind the abductors. They were close, but close wasn’t good enough in this game. He turned and saw Sannie standing there, giving him space to vent. ‘It’s not about me, Sannie. I want you to know — ’
‘I know, Tom,’ she said sympathetically.
‘I’m probably finished as a protection officer no matter how this pans out. I cocked up royally and I deserve all I’ll get, but there are two men’s lives at stake here. I can’t just sit on a beach and do nothing.’
‘It’s why I’m here as well. God knows, I’ve probably screwed my career up too.’ She tried to force a laugh, but it was hollow and they both knew it — her words were too close to the truth. ‘But we’ll do more harm than good charging around blindly, and you know it. Say we did find the vehicle by ourselves and went in there, guns blazing…’
‘They outnumber and outgun us,’ he conceded.
‘If we make a mess of it, the first thing they’ll do is kill the hostages. You know that, Tom. This is the time for others — the military, whoever — to make a plan to rescue them. But we can still look for them. Tomorrow. Carefully.’
He sighed and slumped against the car. ‘Christ, I’m hungry — and thirsty. But I keep thinking how bad things must be for Bernard and Greeves.’
‘They know you’re on their trail, Tom. You nearly caught them in Kruger. That will keep your men alive. That will give them hope.’
‘So where to next? A hotel?’
Sannie shook her head. ‘African towns aren’t generally renowned for the choice of accommodation. I don’t like the look of anywhere I’ve seen so far. Hotels in small towns often double as brothels.’
