Facets of Death

by Michael Stanley

Chapter 31

  Nari drove Kubu to the hospital where he’d taken the injured man the morning before. Kubu was a little embarrassed because it turned out to be less than a kilometre away. He told himself that he would have walked had he known how close it was.

  He showed his badge to the receptionist and asked for Tony Roberts.

  “He’s in ward eleven—a private ward.”

  Kubu thought that she sounded disapproving that a person could have a private ward. He walked down the passage and found ward 11, knocked, and walked in. Roberts was sitting up in bed with his face bandaged.

  “Mr. Roberts, my name is Detective Sergeant David Bengu of the Criminal Investigation Department, Botswana Police. Do you feel strong enough to answer a few questions?”

  The man nodded.

  “Thank you.” Kubu pulled out his notebook. “I’ll keep this as short as possible. First, Phineas Nari, the airport manager, says he filled the tanks of your plane the night before you took off. Did you check that they were full?”

  “I did my normal pre-flight check, and they were full.”

  “Was there anything unusual about your pre-flight check?”

  “Everything was fine.”

  “And what alerted you to a problem when you were taxiing to take off?”

  “I heard an unusual sound from the right engine. When I leant across the passenger seat to see if I could see anything, I saw flames.”

  “What did you do then?”

  “I shut down both engines, stopped fuel flow to the engine, and jumped out to see what was going on.”

  Kubu waited for Roberts to continue.

  “As I walked around to the engine, there was a loud bang, and flames everywhere. As you can see, my face was burnt. And my hands.” He waved his bandaged hands in the air.

  “Do you have any idea what could have caused it?”

  “I spent most of the night thinking about that. I was worried I’d screwed up and would be fired. I’ve only been flying for Debswana for nine months or so.”

  “And what was your conclusion?”

  “I think I did everything correctly. It had to have been some extreme malfunction that caused sparking, probably of the electrical system.”

  “What’s electrical in the fuel tank?”

  Roberts shrugged. “I’m not sure—maybe the fuel pump.”

  Kubu made a note to ask the civil aviation inspector about that.

  “One last thing, Mr. Roberts. Nari told me that he saw a man give you something as you drove out of the airport the day before the fire.”

  “A beggar. Gave me a small parcel wrapped in brown paper. I’m sure all he wanted was a handout.”

  “Can you remember what he looked like?”

  “Hmm. He was old. Maybe in his fifties, maybe sixties. It’s hard to tell how old blacks are. His face was very wrinkled, and he wore a dark jacket, which I thought was a bit odd. Made him look less deserving.”

  “Did you give him anything?”

  Roberts shook his head.

  “Then why did you take the packet?”

  “It was easier to take it and drive off, than haggle with him.”

  “Did he say anything?”

  “He muttered something I didn’t understand. It sounded like hocus-pocus to me.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Whatever he said sounded like a song. It was strange.”

  “Do you still have the parcel?”

  “I threw it in the back of the car. I was going to throw it out when I reached home but forgot. It must still be there.”

  “And your car is still at the airport?”

  Roberts nodded. “Unless Phineas drove it back for me. I always leave the keys in the car.”

  Kubu thanked the injured man and walked back to reception. There was still an hour before he had to meet the assistant superintendent, so he decided he’d better return to the airport and check on Robert’s car. However, he was unsuccessful in persuading anyone to give him a lift, so he set off on foot.

  Chapter 32

  The leader of the robbers and his men sat in the shade of a jackalberry tree near the ramshackle house. Even there, they suffered from the heat. A breeze that should have cooled them lifted heat from the ground and enveloped them. They sweated profusely and grew grumpy.

  The contrast of the adrenalin of the previous day and the nothingness of sitting around waiting eventually got to the leader. He wanted to get going, to get away from the danger of the Botswana police, who were searching everywhere for him and his men. He knew it was dangerous to cross the border into South Africa during the day. They’d seen helicopters flying low over the border fence. But the thought of doing nothing for the many hours until dark was more than he could handle.

  He jumped up and looked at his men. “We’ve got to get going. The police will find us here. People will have seen us drive through the village.”

  He strode over to the house and banged on the door. “Ngaka, we must leave now,” he shouted. “It’s too dangerous to stay.”

  The door opened, and the doctor and his son walked out.

  “Ngaka—” The leader addressed the older man, but Vusi interrupted.

  “You will leave when I tell you!”

  The leader took a step back, seeing raw anger in Vusi’s eyes.

  “But…”

  The doctor lifted his hands to the sky. “My friend, listen to my son. I see great danger if you leave now. You must wait until he says you can go.”

  The leader felt anger welling up. “It is our lives that are in danger, Ngaka. Not yours or your son’s. We can see dangers better in daylight than at night. We’re well armed and well prepared. We will go now. Your diamonds will be safer with us in South Africa than here.”

  “The spirits have told me that you will be safe if you leave tonight.”

  “Ngaka, the spirits don’t have to face the police or maybe even the army.”

  “You will not reach the border if you leave now.” The leader could barely hear what Vusi said, but he took another step back. “The diamonds are ours. The money is ours. You will do as I say. You will leave after supper, when I say. Not before. Not after. Tell your men to be patient, for their reward is great. Go.”

  With that Vusi turned and stalked back into the house.

  The doctor turned also, then stopped at the door and spoke to the leader. “Do as my son says. He is wise and knows what is best for you.”

  The leader walked back to his men.

  Maybe I’ve had this wrong, he pondered. I thought the doctor was in charge, but maybe it’s really his son.

  Chapter 33

  “You look as though you’ve been rained on,” Nari commented, looking at Kubu’s drenched shirt as he opened the airport gate.

  “Where’s Roberts’s car?” Kubu growled.

  Nari pointed at a white Toyota Corolla parked near the office building. “The keys are probably on the sun visor.”

  Kubu walked over to the car and peered in the back seat. There he saw a package wrapped in brown paper.

  “Do you have a bag of some sort?” he shouted to Nari, who was heading back to his air-conditioned office.

  “I’ll see if I can find one.”

  A few minutes later he came out and handed Kubu a plastic Pick n Pay bag. “What do you need that for?”

  Kubu opened the back door and lifted the package using his handkerchief. He put it in the bag. “We just need to check what this is. Rra Roberts said the man who gave it to him was singing some sort of song.”

  “Fuck!”

  Kubu was taken aback by the English expletive. “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve heard stories over the past week of a powerful witch doctor being in Jwaneng.”

  “A witch doctor?”

  Nari nodded.
<
br />   “What do you think is in the package?”

  “I don’t want to know. Don’t open it here, please. Take it away right now.”

  Kubu was puzzled by Nari’s reaction. He’d always regarded the stories of witch doctors casting spells and people dying from them as folklore. His father was a traditional healer—a well-regarded one—but never cast spells on anyone.

  “Please could I trouble you for a lift again? I need to meet my superior in town.”

  Nari shook his head. “No way I’m going anywhere with that parcel. Who knows what could happen to me and my family? Why don’t you take Rra Roberts’s car and drive yourself?”

  Faced with the choice of another long walk in the sweltering heat or commandeering the injured pilot’s car without permission, Kubu convinced himself that to reach the restaurant by noon he’d have to take the car. He was sure Assistant Superintendent Mabaku would approve his decision to borrow it—if he was on time.

  Chapter 34

  It was 12:15 p.m. before Mabaku and Samkoa arrived at the restaurant. Samkoa recounted his interviews with a variety of people at the mine. “No one I spoke to except the gate guards had any idea that the shipment was any different from normal. Of course, the guards saw three armoured trucks arrive and leave, instead of the one vehicle Jwaneng normally uses.”

  “Did they notice anything unusual near the gate?”

  Samkoa shook his head. “The morning was a waste of time actually. I learnt nothing.”

  “Not true,” Mabaku snapped. “You learnt a lot. You learnt nobody knew anything. That’s important. How confident are you they were telling the truth?”

  “I don’t think any of them were lying.”

  “Good. And you, Bengu, what did you find out?”

  Kubu recounted the information given to him by the civil-aviation investigator. “So we were right it was part of the heist,” Mabaku interjected. “Go on.”

  When Kubu had finished his report on Roberts and the brown-paper parcel, Mabaku interjected again. “What did you make of that?”

  “I think most of the witch doctor stuff is bogus,” Kubu replied. “Old-fashioned ideas that have no place in today’s world.”

  “Let me give you some advice, Bengu. First, never discount the power of the witch doctors. You may think they are bogus, but many people believe in their spells. And I can tell you from firsthand experience that I’ve seen things that can’t be explained by logic—people falling sick in houses that a witch doctor has put a spell on; even people dying because of spells. It doesn’t matter what you think; it’s what other people believe that’s important. So never reject something because you don’t think it makes sense. Understood?”

  “Yes, sir.” Kubu felt disappointed that he hadn’t impressed Mabaku.

  “Second, you did a good job in getting the stories of what happened but a lousy job of asking the right questions.”

  Kubu didn’t say anything, but he felt Mabaku wasn’t being fair.

  “Did you ask the civil aviation inspectors where the devices that were used to torch the plane could have been bought? Did you ask them if they’d seen any similar incidents? Or had they heard of similar incidents?”

  Mabaku stared at Kubu.

  “Did you?”

  Kubu shook his head. “No, sir.” Half an hour earlier he’d felt pleased with what he accomplished; now he felt he’d done nothing right.

  “Did you ask that Nari bloke if he’d checked the perimeter fence to see if he could spot where the intruder or intruders had come onto the airport?”

  Kubu shook his head again. Things were going from bad to worse.

  “Where did Roberts work before? What’s his background?”

  “But, sir, Debswana would have vetted him before hiring him.”

  “How do you know that? Maybe he’s somebody’s friend. How do you know that he’s not part of the whole heist? Perhaps it was his job to close the runway.”

  “But his face was badly burnt…”

  “What does that mean? It could have been an accident. Maybe his karma changed. You have no idea, have you?”

  Kubu hung his head. He didn’t want to look at Mabaku.

  “And what’s that Nari’s background? Maybe he planted the bombs. He’d have plenty of opportunity. He doesn’t earn much, I’d wager. A bribe to leave the gate open, or a payment for placing the bombs could make his life a lot easier. Or maybe they threatened to kill his children. Do you know if he has children?”

  “I’m sorry sir,” Kubu mumbled. “I’ll do a better job next time.”

  “You’d better. After lunch go back and re-interview everyone. And this time dig deeper. Don’t trust or believe what anyone says unless you can cross-check or corroborate it.”

  “Yes, sir.” Kubu’s stomach hurt, and he was so depressed he didn’t even want to eat.

  “I spoke to all the people on my list,” Mabaku continued. “Basically, everyone involved in moving the diamonds from the mine to the armoured vehicles. I have to say the plan they’d thought out seems solid. As Chamberlain said, once the diamonds were in a box, two identical boxes were brought in and filled to the same weight with gravel. The guards who took them to the loading area didn’t know which one contained the diamonds, and the people from the transit company didn’t know which was which either. So the probability of the thieves picking the correct vehicle was one in three—not good odds for the size of the operation they needed.”

  The three men sat in silence for a few minutes, then Kubu ventured a comment. “As I mentioned last night, it could be done if two people at the mine were in on it. One would have to be either Tau or…hold on a second.” Kubu flipped back in his notebook. “Or Peter Tshane. And the other would have to be one of the three guards who took the boxes to where they were going to be picked up. Tshane could put the box with diamonds in a particular position, say in the middle. The guard who was in on the plan would know which box to pick up, and he’d put it down in a predetermined position. The insider from the transit company would take it and put it in his vehicle.”

  “That’s good, Bengu. I must say, Tshane seemed nervous when I spoke to him. What would you do next?”

  Kubu thought for a moment, desperately wanting to get back in Mabaku’s good graces. “I’d do thorough background checks on everyone involved, particularly Tau, Tshane, and the three guards. Maybe even Chamberlain and Goodman. Maybe they were in some sort of financial problem or had their family threatened. Something to make them cooperate if they weren’t in the deal from the beginning.”

  “That’s precisely what I’m going to do. Hopefully we’ll have some preliminary information later today. What else?”

  Kubu frowned. What else? he said to himself.

  Mabaku waited patiently.

  “I’d find out which guards carried the boxes and double check them. And find out if they had any relationship with Tau or Tshane.”

  “Right.” Mabaku stood up. “So we’ve got plenty to do. Samkoa, you come with me. Bengu, you’ve a lot to follow up on. Meet here again at six.”

  “Assistant Superintendent Mabaku, sir,” Kubu said tentatively.

  “I suppose you want a ride to the airport.”

  “No sir. I have a car.”

  Mabaku frowned but said nothing.

  “I just want to promise that I won’t disappoint you again.”

  Mabaku stared at him for a few moments, then burst out laughing. “You didn’t disappoint me, Bengu. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t think you’d done a good job.”

  Chapter 35

  When he got back to the mine building, Mabaku went straight to Goodman’s office.

  “Do you have a list of all the personnel here at the mine?”

  Goodman said he did and retrieved it from one of his filing cabinets. Mabaku found it dauntingly long, but it was organised by
work area, which helped. He wasn’t interested in the miners, who made up the large majority of the employees; he was interested in the people in the cleaning plant, the administration and management, and the guards. He marked those sections and asked to see their files.

  “What, all of them?” Goodman asked. “Including mine and Eddie’s?”

  Mabaku nodded. “And Mr. Chamberlain’s.”

  “I don’t know…the files are confidential.”

  “Let’s go and ask Mr. Chamberlain about that. I don’t think he’ll be happy about anything delaying the investigation.”

  Goodman hesitated, trying to choose between two undesirable courses of action. “I suppose it will be okay. I’ll ask my secretary to go to the records section and find them for us. But as he’s senior management, the major’s will be at head office.”

  “Ask her to bring what she’s got. And to be as quick as possible. She can bring me the management ones first while she digs out the others.”

  * * *

  Mabaku took his time over the two senior managers’ files. He didn’t know what he was looking for, but he hoped that his instincts would alert him to anything significant. He made several notes, but neither had anything unusual about their careers. They’d been successful in previous jobs, had performed well at Debswana, and had been promoted. The references he found in the files were all strong and complimentary. Finally, he set them aside and moved on to the guards, starting with Peter Tshane.

  The man was from Gaborone. His first job had been with a bank, where he’d first been trained as a guard. After two years he’d moved to a jewellery store as one of two store guards. A year later he left, and his next job was at Jwaneng mine. Mabaku hesitated. There was a gap of almost six months between when he left Bright Star Jewellers and when he came to Jwaneng. What had he been doing during that time? There was a reference letter from the bank; they’d been happy with him. But nothing from the jeweller that might explain his departure.

  Finally, there was a brief, typed note concerning the interview, which had been held by Tau, a security manager, and an HR person. And it had an explanation. In a brief paragraph, it was stated that Tshane had disagreed with the store manager on a variety of issues and had resigned. He’d spent time considering his future before deciding to apply to De Beers.