?We?ll see.?
Griessel ruminated on that, then said, ?Stop when you like.?
Seventy kilometers on, on the long sweeping curves the N2 makes between George and Mossel Bay, something dropped onto the front seat beside Thobela. When he looked down, the assegai lay there. The blade was dull in the lights of the instrument panel.
45.
First came police in uniform and she was hysterically crying and screaming: ?He?s got my child, he?s got my child!? They got the information out of her and tried to calm her down.
More policemen arrived. They sent for an ambulance for her. Suddenly her flat was full of people. She wept uncontrollably. A first-aid man was cleaning her face while a black detective questioned her. He introduced himself as Timothy Ngubane. He sat beside her and she told her story between sobs while he wrote in his notebook and said earnestly: ?We will find her, ma?am.? Then he called out orders and then there were fewer people around.
Later the two from Social Services arrived, and then a large man with a Western Province cap. He showed no sympathy. He asked her to repeat her story. He did not take notes. There came a moment in the conversation when she realized he didn?t believe her. He had a way of looking at her with a faint smile that only lasted a moment. Her heart went cold. Why wouldn?t he believe her?
When she had finished he stood up and said: ?I am going to leave two men here with you. Outside your door.?
She looked at him in inquiry.
?We don?t want anything to happen to you, do we??
?But didn?t you arrest Carlos??
?We did.? The faint smile again, like someone sharing a secret.
She wanted to phone Vanessa to hear how Sonia was and she wanted to get away from here. Away from all the people and the fuss, away from the gnawing tension, because it was not over yet.
Another detective. His hair was too long and ruffled. ?My name is Benny Griessel,? he said, and he held out his hand and she took it and looked into his eyes and looked away again because of the intensity in them. As if he saw everything. He took her out onto the balcony, and asked her questions in a gentle voice, with a compassion she wanted to embrace. But she couldn?t look him in the eye.
They turned off the N2 and drove into Swellendam. There was a filling station deep in the town, past a museum and guesthouses and restaurants with small-town Afrikaans names, deserted at this late hour.
When Griessel got out Thobela saw the Z88 was not in his hand. He got out too. His legs were stiff and there were cramps in the muscles of his shoulders. He stretched his limbs, feeling the depth of his fatigue, his red, burning eyes.
Griessel had the Nissan filled up. Then he came to stand next to Thobela, not speaking, just looking at him. The white man looked rough. Shadows around the eyes, deep lines in his face.
?The night is too long,? he said to Griessel.
The detective nodded. ?It?s nearly over.?
Thobela nodded back.
?I want you to know we got Khoza and Ramphele,? said Griessel.
?Where??
?They were arrested yesterday evening in Midrand.?
?Why are you telling me this??
?Because no matter what happens tonight, I will make sure they don?t get away again.?
She lay on her bed and told herself she must suppress the urge to go and lie with the detective who was asleep on her couch, because it would be for all the wrong reasons.
Griessel?s cell phone rang and he answered and said, ?Yes? and ?Yes? and ?Six kilometers? and ?Yes? and ?Okay.?
Then Thobela heard him say: ?I want to hear her voice.?
Silence on the street in Swellendam. ?Carla,? said Griessel. Thobela felt a hand squeeze his heart because of the awful emotion in the white man?s voice when he said: ?Daddy is coming to fetch you, you hear? Daddy is coming.?
She needed to be held. She wanted him to hold her because she was afraid. Afraid of Carlos and of the detective in the rugby cap and afraid that the whole scheme was going to collapse in on her. Afraid that Griessel would see through her with those eyes of his, that he would expose her with that energy of his. It wasn?t right, because she wanted to lie with him to make him blind.
She must not do that.
She got up.
?Infanta,? said Griessel. ?Six kilometers outside town the road to Infanta turns off. There will be a car there. They will drive behind us from there.?
They got back into the Nissan, Thobela in front and Griessel behind.
?Infanta,? he heard the man say, as if the name made no sense to him.
On the instrument panel the numbers of the LCD display of the clock glowed yellow.
3:41.
