Heart of the Hunter

elsewhere.?

Orlando Arendse shook his head in recall. ?Let me tell the thing with the French. One day we were walking in the city, down St. George?s, and there were these tourists, French, standing with a map and wondering, and they called me over in their bad English and they were looking for a place. The next thing big, black Tiny starts babbling in French like you won?t believe. There in front of my eyes he became another person, different body different eyes, another language, another land. Suddenly he was alive, his body and mind were in one place together. He was alive.?

The material in his memory bank made him laugh. ?You should have seen their faces, those tourists nearly hugged him, they chattered like starlings. And when we walked away I asked him, ?What was that?? And he said, ?My previous life?? that?s all, ?My previous life?? but he said it with longing that I can still feel today, and that is when I realized I didn?'t know him. I would never know him. Some more tea??

?Thank you,? she said, and he did the honors. ?And then he left your service??

Orlando Arendse drank the last of his coffee. ?Tiny and I ? There was respect. We looked each other in the eye, and let me tell you it doesn'?t happen often in my business. Part of that respect was that we both knew the day would come.?

?Why did he leave??

?Why? Because the time had come, that is probably the simplest answer, but not the whole truth. The thing is: I loaned him out, just before he resigned. Long story. Just call it business, a transaction. There was a shooting and a fight. Tiny landed in the hospital. When he came out, he said he was finished.?

?Loaned out??

?I?m honor-bound, my dear. You will have to ask Van Heerden.?

?Van Heerden??

?Zatopek van Heerden. Former policeman, former private eye, now he?s like a professor of psychology at the University.?

?The University of Cape Town??

?The Lord works in mysterious ways, verstaa? djy,? said Orlando Arendse with a twinkle in his eye, and beckoned the waiter to bring the check.

* * *

Vincent Radebe closed the door of the interview room behind him. Miriam Nzululwazi stood by the one-way window, a deep frown on her face.

?When can I go home?? she asked in Xhosa.

?Won?t you sit down, sister.? Soft, sympathetic, serious.

?don'?t ?sister? me.?

?I understand.?

?You understand nothing. What have I done? Why are you keeping me here??

?To protect you and Thobela.?

?You lie. You are a black man and you lie to your own people.?

Radebe sat down. ?Please, ma?am, let us talk. Please.?

She turned her back on him.

?Ma?am, of all the people here, I am about the only one who thinks that Thobela is a good man. I think I understand what happened. I am on your side. There must be some way I can make you believe that.?

?There is. Let me go. I am going to lose my job. I have to look after my child. I am not a criminal. I never did anything to anyone. Let me go.?

?You won?t lose your job. I promise you.?

?How will you manage that??

?I will talk to the bank. Explain to them.?

She turned around. ?How can I believe you??

?I am telling you. I am on your side.?

?That is exactly what the white woman said.?

Mentz is right, he thought. It was not easy. He had offered to come talk to her. He was uneasy that she was there, that she was being detained. His thoughts were with her, his empathy, but the damage had already been done. He let the silence grow.

She gave him an opening: ?What can I say to you? What can I do so you will let me go??

?There are two things. This morning you spoke to the newspapers. ??

?What did you expect me to do? They come to my work. They also say they are on my side.?

?It was not wrong. Just dangerous. They write crazy things. We??

?You are afraid they will write the truth.?

He suppressed his frustration, kept his head cool. ?Ma?am, Thobela Mpayipheli is out there somewhere with a lot of information that a few people want very badly. Some of them will do anything to stop him. The more the papers write, the more dangerous the things that they will do. Is that what you want??

?I won?t talk to them again. Is that what you want??