'No, no,' said Alexandra Barnard, totally confused, and Dekker wondered what was in the pills she had taken.
'Inspector,' said the nurse.
'Another five minutes,' he said.
'I'm sorry, that's not possible.'
'You misunderstood me,' said Alexa Barnard.
'Please,' said Dekker to the nurse.
'Inspector, if the doctor says fifteen minutes, that is all I can give you.'
'Fuck the doctor,' he said involuntarily.
'Out! Or I'll call security.'
He considered his options, knew he was so close, she was confused, he wouldn't get another chance, but the nurse was a witness to this statement.
He stood up. 'We'll talk again,' he said and walked out, down the passage to the lift. He pressed the button, angry, pressed it again and again. So close.
The door whispered open, the big lift was empty. He went in and saw the G-light on, folded his arms. Now she wanted to point at Willie Mouton. He wasn't going to fall for that.
The lift began to descend.
He would go and talk to the maid, Sylvia Buys. He had her address in his notebook. Athlone somewhere. He checked his watch. Nearly twenty past four. To Athlone in this traffic. Maybe she was still in the house in Tamboerskloof.
Willie Mouton? He recalled the chaos this morning in the street, the militant Mouton, the black knight, shaven-headed earring- wearer on his fucking phone. To his lawyer. Mouton, who was desperate for him to arrest Josh and Melinda.
The lift doors slid open. People were waiting to come in. He walked out slowly, thoughtfully. He stopped in the entrance hall.
The lawyer who had been with him all day, the spectre of a man, so grave. Mouton and Groenewald here, with Alexa. 'What can you remember?' Why?
Was the drunk woman lying?
Adam phoned me last night, some time after nine, to tell me about Ivan Nell's stories.
'Benny?'
'Fransman, are you still at AfriSound?'
'No, I'm at City Park.'
'Where?'
'At the hospital. In the city.'
'No, I mean where in the hospital?'
'At the entrance. Why?'
'Stay there, I'll be with you in a minute. You're not going to believe this.'
Chapter 46
With the crooked pliers of the Leatherman that had saved his life, Benny Griessel cut Rachel Anderson's hands free. Then he went and fetched four sleeping bags, asked Vusi to call for backup and medical support, spread two sleeping bags on the floor for her to lie on and covered her shivering body with the other two.
'Don't leave me,' she said.
'I won't,' but he heard Oerson groan and went to find the Metro officer's pistol before sitting down with her, taking out his cell phone and calling John Afrika.
'Benny, where the fuck are you? I've been phoning ...'
'Commissioner, we got Rachel Anderson. I'm sitting with her now. We're in Observatory, but I just want to ask one thing: send us the chopper, she needs medical assistance, she's not bad, but I'm definitely not taking her to Groote Schuur. ‘There was a heartbeat of silence before Afrika said: 'Hallelujah! The chopper is on its way, just give me the address.'
'I'm sorry, Mr Burton, but I just don't believe you,' said Bill Anderson over his cell phone. 'There's a warning right here on the US consulate's website, stating that fourteen Americans have been robbed at gunpoint after landing at the OR Tambo International Airport in the past twelve months. I've just read that a South African government Minister has said police must kill criminal bastards, and not worry about regulations. I mean, it's the Wild West out there. Here's another one: 'More police were killed in the years since the end of Apartheid than in the previous period in that country's history.'
‘“Armed robberies at people's homes have increased by thirty per cent.' And you are telling me we won't need protection?'
'It sounds worse than it is, I can assure you,' the American Consul reassured him.
'Mr Burton, we are flying out this afternoon. All I want you to do is to recommend someone to protect us.'
Dan Burton's sigh was audible. 'Well, we usually recommend Body Armour, a personal security company. You can call a Ms Jeanette Louw ...'
'Can you spell that for me?'
Just then the house phone on Anderson's desk began to ring and he said: 'Excuse me for one second,' picked up the receiver and said: 'Bill Anderson.'
'Daddy,' he heard the voice of his daughter.
'Rachel! Oh, God, where are you?'
'I'm with Captain Benny Griessel, Daddy ...' and then her voice broke.
Griessel sat with his back to the wall, both arms around her. She leaned heavily on him, her head on his shoulder, while she spoke to her father. When she was finished and passed the phone back to him, she looked up at him and said: 'Thank you.'
He didn't know how to answer her. He heard the sirens approaching, wondering how long it would take the helicopter to get here.
'Did you find the video?' she asked.
'What video?'
'The video of the murder. At Kariba.'
'No,' he said.
'That's why they killed Erin.'
'You don't have to tell me now,' he said.
'No, I have to.'
She and Erin had shared a tent the whole tour.
Erin had adjusted easily to the new time zones, slept well, got up with the sun, stretched pleasurably, yawned and said: 'Another perfect day in Africa.'
Initially Rachel struggled to fall asleep at night. After the firstweek it improved, but every night, somewhere between one and three, her body clock woke her. Later she would vaguely recall moments of consciousness while she reoriented herself and wondered at this astonishing adventure, this special privilege, of lying listening to the noises of this divine continent. And she would sink away, carefree and light as a feather, into cosy sleep.
At Lake Kariba the moonlight had taken her by surprise. Some time after two in the early hours, near wakening, she had become aware of the glow and opened her eyes. She thought someone had switched on a floodlight. Then truth dawned - full moon. She was enchanted by its brightness, its immensity, and was ready to drift back to her dreams. In her imagination she saw the moon over Kariba, the beauty of it. She realised she must capture it for her video journal. It could be the opening shot of the DVD she would make at home on Premiere Pro. Or the background of her title- sequence animation in After Effects, if she ever found enough time to unravel the
