He heard her say something in the room, a bleary, unrecognizable word.
At last the key went in and he turned it.
?Chappie?? called the woman.
The man on the couch stopped snoring. Thobela turned towards him.
?Chappie!? she shouted, louder now. ?What are you doing??
The man sat up on the couch and threw the blanket aside.
?I am here about the child,? said Thobela.
He noted Scholtz?s shoulders. A strong man. It was good.
?There?s a kaffir in the house!? the man shouted to his wife.
She jabbed the blade into her foot, as hard as she could. She could not help the cry that fell from her lips.
But the pain was intense. It burned the hurt away; it covered over everything, just as she had hoped.
34.
He dreamed wild, mixed-up dreams that drove him from his sleep and made him get up twice before he finally dropped off again at three in the morning. He was busy talking to Anna, a conversation of no use or direction, when the cell phone woke him. He grabbed it, missed, the handset fell from the windowsill and landed somewhere on the bed. He found it by the light of the screen.
?Yes?? He couldn?t disguise his confusion.
?Inspector Griessel??
?Yes.?
?Sorry to wake you. Tshabalala here, from Oudtshoorn detective branch. It?s about your assegai murderer.?
?Yes?? He felt for his watch on the windowsill.
?It seems he was in Uniondale last night.?
?Uniondale?? He found his watch and checked it.
4:21.
?We have a child batterer here, Frederik Johannes Scholtz, out on bail with his wife. Stabbed to death in his house last night.?
?Uniondale,? he repeated. ?Where is Uniondale??
?It?s about a hundred and twenty kilos east of here.?
It made no sense. Too far from the Cape. ?How do you know it?s my assegai man??
?The wife of the deceased. The suspect locked her in the bedroom. But she could hear what was going on . . .?
?Did she see him??
?No, he locked the door while she was asleep. She heard Scholtz shout from inside the house. And he said the guy had an assegai.?
?Wait, wait,? said Griessel. ?He locked her in the bedroom? How did he get the man out of the bedroom??
?The woman says they don?t share a bed anymore, since the child died. He slept in the sitting room. She woke up when Scholtz began shouting. She heard him say: ?He?s got an assegai.? But there?s something else . . .?
?Yes??
?She said he shouted it was a black man.?
?A black man??
?She said he shouted: ?There?s a kaffir in the house.? ?
It didn?t fit. A black man? That?s not how he had pictured the assegai man in his head.
?How reliable that is, I?m not sure. It seems they were fighting in the dark.?
?What does the wound look like??
?The fatal wound is in the chest, but it looks like he was trying to fend it off with his hands. There are some cuts. And there is furniture overturned and broken. They obviously fought a round or two.?
?The chest wound?is there an exit wound in the back??
?Looks like it. The district surgeon is still busy.?
?Listen,? said Griessel. ?I am going to ask our pathologist to phone him. There are a lot of forensic details they must see to. It?s important??
?Relax,? said Tshabalala. ?We have it under control.?
He showered and dressed before he phoned Pagel, who took the early call with grace. He passed on the numbers to call. Then he drove to the Quickshop at the Engen garage in Annandale Road. He bought a pile of pre- packed sandwiches and a large take-away coffee and drove to work. The streets were quiet, the office quieter
