Tom noted the man had a large mobile phone hanging heavily from a clip on his belt. A satellite phone, he guessed. Tom considered his options. He could take one of them out, but not both of them. What he needed to do now was stay alive, for as long as possible. Not that he fancied his chances. He crouched, aware of the two weapons following his every move, and placed Sannie’s pistol on the tiled verandah floor.
Greeves started to get up from his chair, but his wife took a step towards him, out of the shadows, and swung her pistol towards the politician’s head. ‘Stay where you are, Robert.’
‘What?’ Greeves looked back at his wife, the puzzlement plain in his face.
‘Cover him, Pervez.’ Janet Greeves closed the gap between her and Tom, but stopped out of arm’s reach of him.
‘Pervez?’ Greeves looked imploringly at the Pakistani-South African, but the man just shook his head. ‘What the bloody hell’s going on?’
‘Furey knows too much,’ Janet said to her husband.
‘I can get away, get a new identity. Why are you betraying me?’
Janet laughed. ‘Betraying you? Don’t be pathetic, Robert. It was worth the gamble, but our bodyguard friend here was too clever. For his own good, and for yours.’
‘You bitch.’
Tom looked from husband to wife, and back again. ‘What did he do, Janet? Did he touch your children just like he touched the African kids when he was over here for work and play?’
‘Very perceptive. I knew early on in our marriage that Robert wasn’t particularly interested in me, save from using me to breed a couple of children, which were part of his political career. The overseas trips started early on, and I had my suspicions. When our daughter was ten, I caught him sitting on her bed, looking at her body, lifting her nightie, while she was asleep.’
‘Janet, please… he doesn’t need to know…’
‘Shut up, you miserable piece of shit.’
Greeves looked as taken aback as Tom was by the vehemence. It was as though he was seeing these feelings released for the first time. Janet looked back at Tom. ‘I told him then that if he ever touched the children I would have him killed. Arrest and a trial would hurt the kids more, I thought, not to mention the damage it would do the Party.’
‘So, the agreement was that he’d indulge his sexual desires overseas — with other people’s children.’
‘Don’t judge me, Mr Furey. I did what I did to protect my family. Honestly, I wish the events that led us to being here now had happened a decade ago.’
‘Janet, this is ridiculous…’
‘I said, shut up.’
Tom kept his eyes on the woman. ‘I suspected you knew what was going on, with the fake abduction, but I didn’t realise you were the mastermind. What forced you to act — the stripper threatening to go public, or the breaking up of the sex-slave smuggling ring in South Africa?’
‘Both, in fact. Pervez here convinced Robert that he could safely, discreetly, bring… God, I hate saying it… a child into the UK. An African child, for that’s my husband’s sick little fantasy. Robert had
… ordered an eleven-year-old girl for himself. If Pervez had been caught there would have been a trail leading to Robert. Nick found out about the impending operation through his contacts in the South African police, and tipped me off.’
Tom looked at Greeves. The man had been going to buy a child. He returned his focus to the wife. ‘So you and Nick were having an affair — that wasn’t just a red herring?’
She shook her head. ‘“Affair” might be too strong a word, as it implies some romantic involvement. I have needs, and Nick was more than happy to satisfy them — physical needs and business needs. I sent him to the girl, Ebony, and told him to pose as a journalist and offer more money than the World. I would have been happy for her to leave England with a bag of money, but she changed her mind. She told Nick she’d prayed about what she was doing, and that even if she gave the money to her church, back in Africa, God wouldn’t be happy. She told Nick she was going to go public, whatever happened.’
‘So you had her killed?’
‘I said before, Nick helped me with a number of personal and business needs. If it had just been the woman, that would have been the end of it, but the South Africans were on to this other sordid little business.’
‘I’d hardly call the international trafficking of children for sex a sordid little business,’ Tom said.
‘Don’t try my patience, Furey.’ She straightened her arm, raising the pistol to his eyes.
Tom thought she looked like a leopardess sizing up her prey. Like the silent predator, she had been waiting in the background, watching for her moment to strike. He glanced at Greeves again and saw his face was white with fear. Greeves had good reason to worry — Tom sensed his wife had been waiting, perhaps hoping, for this opportunity. This man who had travelled to the world’s war zones in defence of British foreign policy, stared down the media and the opposition in parliament, was cowering in the face of the woman who had held his destiny in her hands for so many years.
‘Why go through the whole charade of the abductions, the tapes to the media?’
‘I owe nothing to my husband, Sergeant Furey. I did not, however, want my children to suffer more than they had. Also, I am a staunch believer in our government, but the Party wouldn’t survive yet another sex scandal, especially one of this magnitude. Having Robert and Nick die at the hands of terrorists would only strengthen the resolve of the great unwashed British public to support their leaders in their fight against evil.’
Tom was tempted to throw the last word back at her, but he held his tongue. The woman was a zealot and he knew there was nothing more dangerous in creation. He turned to face the man with the assault rifle.
‘What happened to Carla Sykes? She was part of the kidnap plot.’
Janet shrugged. ‘She had a past history of involvement with drugs — as I believe you found out. There was some cocaine waiting for her in a hotel room in Mozambique — a bonus arranged by Nick as a replacement for the quantity she planted in your room. I doubt we’ll hear from her again.’
Tom tried not to let the shiver show. ‘And you, Doctor? When did you change sides from husband to wife?’
‘Me? I never had a side. Mrs Greeves offered me money to organise the abduction of her husband. I paid for the mercenaries and sent them on their way after Mozambique. If they are caught, or ever decide to go public, all they will do is recount how their “terrorist” paymasters let them go, just before they killed their hostage. Now Mrs Greeves has offered me more money to…’
‘To do as I say.’
‘Where’s Nick?’ Tom asked.
‘On his way here,’ Janet said. ‘I flew here when he told me you were closing on Robert and Pervez. I needed to get a feel for things first-hand, to see if the situation could be saved. Clearly, it cannot. I’m assuming that since you told Robert you’d sent a file to your crime-scene investigator that your South African partner knows everything as well?’
Tom shook his head. ‘No. Absolutely not. All she knows is that I was on my way here, to Malawi. She has no idea about any of this… about you.’
‘That’s not true, I’m afraid,’ Janet replied.
He felt his fear for Sannie and her children rising, burning, inside him.
‘You must believe me. I didn’t tell her all my suspicions, just in case something like this happened. I knew the odds were against me. She can’t prove anything. You’ll get away with it. Kill me and no one will know. I’ll just disappear. Please believe me, Janet. I was bluffing, you know, about the letter to the investigator and the press.’
Janet shrugged. ‘I thought you might be. She was given a warning, Tom, which she has failed to heed. She knows, all right.’
Tom shook his head. They had an insider. He felt a fool now, even as he learned he’d been right. He’d exposed Sannie and her family. ‘Sannie has two small children. Don’t leave them without a mother.’ He thought he saw a moment of doubt cross her face, a slight softening. He was wrong.
‘They’re all together right now. You’re right about not leaving the children without a mother.’
‘We’ll wait for Nick to get here.’
‘Janet,’ Greeves said. ‘Tell Pervez to back off. I’m no threat to you.’
