While Ramphele ordered two chicken burgers, Khoza inspected the four corners of the large room. There was only one security camera. It was against the eastern wall opposite the cash register.
He murmured something to Ramphele, who nodded.
Griessel?s phone rang while they waited for the pizzas.
?Benny, the boss says we can give her Witness Protection, but it?s going to take time,? said Ngubane.
?How much time??
?Probably only tomorrow. That?s the best we can do.?
?Okay, Tim. Thanks.?
?What are you going to do? For tonight??
?I?ll make a plan,? he said.
Khoza waited until the last of the four clients in the shop had paid and left. Then he walked up to the woman behind the cash register, shoved his hand in the back of his denim jacket and drew out a pistol. He shoved it against her face and said, ?Just open it up, sister, and give us the cash. Nobody will get hurt.?
?I?ll have to sleep on your couch tonight,? said Griessel.
Christine looked up at him and nodded.
?We will place you in Witness Protection tomorrow. They are organizing it now, but it takes a little time.?
?What does that mean?? she asked.
?It depends.?
There was a knock on the door. Griessel got up and took out his Z88 service pistol. ?That must be our pizzas,? he said.
The Toyota Microbus of the South African Police Services Task Force Unit stopped at the filling station for petrol. The nine policemen were stiff from hours of sitting and thirsty. They had last stretched their legs at Louis Trichardt. They all got out. The young black constable, the sharpshooter of the team, knew it was his duty as the youngest to take the orders for cool drinks.
?What do you want to drink?? he asked.
That was when two men came out of the Quickshop, each carrying a pistol in one hand and a green, purple and red plastic bag in the other.
?Hey,? said the sharpshooter and dropped a hand to the firearm on his hip holster. The other eight members of the Task Force team looked instinctively at what the constable had seen. For a moment they could hardly believe their eyes. For a very short moment.
?Just now, you said you did not want me to leave. Why?? asked Griessel, but her mouth was full of pizza and she had to finish chewing before she answered.
?You are the first person I have seen today,? she said and left it at that. He could see she was struggling not to cry.
He understood. He visualized her day. Her child was missing, probably dead. The awful worry and doubt. Fear perhaps, because the guards were gone. Alone, between these four walls. ?I?m sorry,? he said.
?You needn?t be sorry. It?s my fault. Only mine.?
?How can you say that??
She closed her eyes. ?If I wasn?t a whore, I would never have met him.?
The first thing that popped into his head was to ask her why she had become a whore. ?It doesn?t work like that,? he said. She just shook her head, keeping her eyes closed. He wanted to get up and go over and put his arm around her shoulders.
He stayed where he was. ?It?s a psychological thing,? he said. ?We see it often. Victims or their families blame themselves. You can?t be responsible for someone else?s behavior.?
She didn?t react. He looked down at the pizza on the plate in front of him and pushed it away and wiped his hands on a paper serviette. He looked at her. She was wearing jeans. She sat on the chair with her bare feet folded under her. Her long blonde hair was half covering her face. What could he say to her? What could anyone say to him if it had been his child?
?I actually came to tell you about something else.?
She opened her eyes. ?I don?t want to hear bad news.?
?I don?t think it is bad news. It?s just that I think you have the right to know. You know about the Artemis affair the papers are writing about??
With a sudden movement of her head she tossed her hair back and said, ?Yes. And I wish he would come and kill Carlos.? She said it with hate he could understand.
?It?s my case. The assegai man. I want to use Carlos to catch him.?
?How??
?We know he picks his victims when the media writes about them. About their crimes. Today we gave the media a lot of information about Carlos. About how he . . . abducted Sonia. About his drug-dealing background. We think it will lure the assegai man.?
?And then??
?That?s another reason we?re watching Carlos so carefully.?
