sometimes an exit wound, but never wider than a centimeter. Entry wounds usually three, occasionally four centimeters. Here we have two cutting edges, much like a bayonet, but wider and thinner. Considerably wider. A bayonet also does more damage internally?designed for it, did you know? So we have a blade sixty centimeters long, with a narrow piercing point growing steadily wider towards the back where it is just under seven centimeters. Do you follow, Nikita??
?I?m with you, Prof.?
?It?s the classical assegai, nothing else approaches that description. Not even a sword wound. Sword wounds are naturally very rare, I think I have seen two in my life. Swords have a much wider exit wound and the wound widths are much more uniform. But that is not the only difference. The results of the chemical analysis produced a few surprises. Microscopic quantities of ash, animal fats and a few compounds we could not identify at first, but had to go through the tables. It appeared it was Cobra. You know, the polish people use to shine their floors. Animal fats were of bovine origin. You don?t find that on swords. I began to look around, Nikita, as it has been a long time since we had an assegai, one tends to forget. Let?s go to my office, the notes are there. Something different about you. Wait, let me guess . . .? Pagel went ahead to his office.
Griessel looked down at his clothes. Everything was as usual, he couldn?t see anything different.
?Sit, dear fellow, and let me get my story straight.? He removed a black lever-arch file from the shelf and paged through it.
?The ash. They use it to polish the blade, the blacksmiths. I suppose they are assegai smiths as they only make those. Ancient method, they used it to polish Cape silver in the old days, sometimes you see pieces in the antique shops, the wear is distinctive. This tells us the assegai was made in the traditional way. But we will come back to that. The same applies to the beef lard and the Cobra polish. That is not for the blade but for the shaft. The Zulus use it to treat the wood, to make it smooth and shiny. To preserve the wood and prevent warping.
?All very well, you will say, but that isn?t much help in catching the fellow?with Cobra polish? I made some calls, Nikita, I have some friends in the curio business. They say there are three kinds of assegai on the market today. The ones we can ignore are the ones they sell at the flea market on Greenmarket Square. Those come from the north, some from as far away as Malawi and Zambia?poor workmanship, with short, thin blades and metal shafts and lots of African baroque wirework. They are made for the tourists and are replicas of some or other ritual assegais of various African cultures.
?The second kind is the so-called antique or historical spear or assegai?either the short stabbing assegai or the long throwing spear. Both have blades which match our wound profile, but there is one major difference: the antique assegai blade is pitch black from ox-, sheep?s or goat?s blood, as the Zulus use it for slaughtering. To kill the animal. The ash residue will also be visible under the microscope in much greater quantities. Do you know, Nikita, they sell the old assegais for five or six thousand apiece? Up to ten thousand if there is good evidence of age.
?But none of your victims had traces of animal blood, which means your assegai is either antique but very well cleaned, or it is one of the third kind: exactly the same form and manufacture as the antiques, but recently made. And the rust tells us it is the latter. I asked them to look for oxidation deposits in the wound under the spectrometer and there were practically none. No rust, no age. Your assegai has been made in the last three or four years, more likely in the last eighteen months.
?Oh, and one more thing: I suspect the assegai is not thoroughly cleaned after every murder. We found traces of the first two victims? blood and DNA in Laurens?s wound. Which means it is the same weapon and most likely the same murderer.?
There went his theory that Bothma had been involved with the murder of Laurens. He nodded at Pagel.
?The thing is, Nikita, there are not many people making traditional assegais anymore. Demand is small. The craft mostly survives in the rural areas of KwaZulu where the traditions are still practiced and they still slaughter oxen in the old way. Where they still use beef lard for the shafts and buy Cobra to polish their
I also don?t believe we are dealing with the long throwing spear. The entry angle of the wound is not high enough. I think this is a stabbing assegai, made by a blacksmith somewhere on the Makathini plains, in the past year. Naturally the question is, how on earth did it get from there to here, in the hands of a man who has a bone to pick with people who do harm to children? An odd choice of weapon.?
?A man, Prof??
?I believe so. It?s the depth of the wound. To push an assegai through a breastbone is not so hard, but to thrust one right through the body, breaking a rib on the way and protruding four or five centimeters out the back takes a lot of power, Nikita. Or a lot of rage or adrenaline, but if it is a woman, she is an Amazon.?
?It?s a good choice of weapon, Prof. Quiet. Efficient. You can?t trace it like a firearm.?
?But even the assegai is not small, Nikita. Meter and a half, maybe longer.?
Griessel nodded. ?The question is: why an assegai? Why not a big hunting knife or a bayonet? If you want to stab there is plenty of equipment.?
?Unless you want to make a statement.?
?That?s what I?m thinking too, but what fucking statement? What are you saying? I am a Zulu and I love children??
?Or maybe you want the police to think you are a Zulu while all the time you are a Boer from Brackenfell.?
?Or you want to attract attention to your cause.?
?You can?t deny, Nikita, that it?s a good cause. My first impulse is to let him go his way.?
?No, fuck, Prof, I can?t agree with that.?
?Come on, you must admit his cause has merit.?
?Merit, Prof? Where?s the merit??
?Much as I believe in the justice system, it is not perfect, Nikita. And he fills an interesting gap. Or gaps. Don?t you think there are a few people out there who will think twice before they hurt their children??
?Prof, child abusers are lower than lobster shit. And every one I ever arrested I felt like killing with a blunt instrument. But that?s not the point. The point is, where do you draw the line? Do you kill everyone that can?t be rehabilitated? Psychopaths? Drug addicts who steal cell phones? A Seven-Eleven owner who grabs his forty-four Magnum because a manic-depressive kleptomaniac steals a tin of sardines? Does his cause have merit too? Shit,
