Facets of Death

by Michael Stanley

  Chapter 74

  Kubu and Dow were up early to start their investigation of the Otse murder. They visited the kraal where Kubu had stopped for directions, and they found out that a woman sometimes worked at the house and where she lived. That was good news.

  As Kubu drove, he wondered about the motive for the murder. He was sure it was connected with the robbery, and most likely the dead man knew something about it. Kenosi and the other security guards and the team that had carried out the robbery had all been killed and now, perhaps, the witch doctor himself. He felt a chill. Whoever was behind the robbery was eliminating every connection to himself.

  Kubu followed the directions carefully and found the woman’s home with no wrong turns. It was another small kraal, with goats and chickens, and several young children playing barefoot outside. A boy ran up to the Land Rover, and Kubu asked him if this was where the woman who worked at the house up the hill lived. The boy said yes, she was his mother, and he would take them to her. Kubu was relieved. He’d been worried that whoever was behind all the murders might have eliminated her too.

  The boy took them to a field where the woman was working with a hoe. She straightened up as she saw them coming and waited for them to approach.

  “Dumela, mma,” Dow greeted her. “We’re from the CID in Gaborone.” They showed her their identification. “We need to ask you some questions. Can we stand over there?” He pointed towards a large tree nearby that would give some shade. The morning was already hot.

  The woman nodded and walked over to the tree with them. Then she asked, “What do you want to know, rra?”

  “Mma, a man has been murdered. We don’t know who he is, and we think you may be able to help us.”

  “Why would I be able to help? I know nothing about a dead man.”

  “Let me show you a picture of him. I have it here on my camera. You may recognise him.” He flicked to the image he wanted and showed it to her.

  “Aii! It’s the ngaka—the doctor! Who did this horrible thing? Aii!” She started to sob.

  “That’s what we want to find out. Please tell us everything you know about him.”

  For a few moments she was unable to answer, and then she pulled herself together. “Until just last week, I worked for the man in the house up the hill. This is his father.”

  “Who was this man you worked for?”

  “He told me to call him Rra Vusi.”

  Immediately Kubu jumped in, excited. “Vusi is his first name? Do you know what his last name is?”

  The woman shook her head.

  “This man, Rra Vusi, that you worked for. Can you describe him?”

  The woman tried, but all they learnt was that he was middle-aged and of medium height. “Oh, yes. There is one other thing. His face reminded me of a jackal.” She grimaced. “His eyes were cold and never smiled.”

  Kubu remembered thinking Tuelo’s face looked pinched. Perhaps it could remind one of a jackal, he thought.

  “And the dead man is his father?” Dow prompted. “Do you know his name?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t know his name. I just called him Ngaka.”

  Doctor, Kubu thought. “This doctor,” he asked. “Was he a real doctor or maybe a witch doctor?”

  She took a few moments to answer. “Some say he was a witch doctor, but I never saw him do anything that made me think that. I never felt scared of him.”

  “When did you stop working for them?”

  “Four days ago. Tuesday was my last day. RraVusi said he didn’t need me anymore, but he paid me for the rest of the month.”

  “Did he say why?”

  She shook her head. “Sometimes he comes and sometimes he goes. I don’t ask what his business is.”

  “Did Rra Vusi and the ngaka have a car?”

  “A bakkie.”

  “Do you know the licence-plate number?”

  She shook her head.

  “Do you know what make and model it is? And its colour?”

  She shook her head again. “It was old. Sort of white.”

  That wasn’t much help. Botswana was full of old, white bakkies.

  Dow changed tack. “Was there anyone else in the house?”

  “It was me and Rra Vusi and the ngaka. That’s all.”

  “Did anyone else come while you were there?”

  She nodded. “There were four men who came in a big car. They stayed the night and left the next night.”

  “When was this?”

  “It was the day before he told me to go. So last Monday.”

  Dow started fiddling with his camera again, so Kubu asked, “What did their car look like?”

  “It was white. Big, and the back opened.”

  Dow had found what he wanted—pictures he’d taken of the photographs of the robbers that had been sent to the CID by the South African police. He showed them to the woman.

  “They’re dead too! Aii! Who has killed all these people?”

  “Are these the men who visited?”

  She nodded.

  The detectives paused, wondering if they’d missed anything. Then Kubu asked, “These men who visited, were they Batswana?”

  She shook her head.

  “And the ngaka and Vusi?”

  She shook her head again. “None of them. They’re from South Africa, I think. Or maybe Zimbabwe. They don’t speak much Setswana.”

  Kubu gave a small smile. That was consistent with the robbers being from South Africa and could explain why the witch doctor used Zulu fetishes. It all seemed to fit.

  Chapter 75

  Mabaku had left the CID building as soon as he could and had negotiated the long and boring road from Gaborone to Jwaneng. Since the traffic had been light, the most important things he’d had to do were to look out for cows on the highway and prevent sweat dripping into his eyes. For the most part, that afforded him plenty of time to think about the case.

  He was quite sure that Eddie Tau’s death was no coincidence, coming as it did so soon after the deputy commissioner had stirred things up. The robbery could never have taken place without insider knowledge, and now it seemed that the culprit was Tau.

  He hoped the official finding would in fact be suicide. That would neatly tidy up one part of the investigation. On the other hand, if the finding of the forensic pathologist was the only other alternative, namely murder… Mabaku grimaced as he contemplated the fallout. What a mess it would be.

  * * *

  Mabaku wasn’t in a good mood when he pulled up in front of the Jwaneng police station. Even though the trip was just over two hours, sitting doing nothing for such a long time wasn’t what he liked to do. He was a man of action.

  He walked into the station, announced himself to the receptionist, and was immediately sent through to the station commander’s office, who met him with a broad smile. “Good morning, Assistant Superintendent. You didn’t have to make the trip, you know. It’s an open-and-shut case.”

  Mabaku frowned. “Are you sure?”

  The station commander nodded. “Definitely! Death by suicide. The gun was on the floor of the car. There are no suspects, and from what Major Chamberlain says, he had a strong motive to take his own life. Here, take a look at these pictures from the scene.” He shoved a folder across his desk to Mabaku. “You see? Everything properly documented,” he added smugly. “The body has been sent to Gabs for autopsy.”

  Mabaku sat down and opened the file. It contained a number of gruesome pictures of Tau, slumped in the car with a hole in his right temple and blood everywhere from a gaping wound on the other side of his head. He passed the folder back.

  “Have you checked that it was Tau’s gun?”

  The station commander hesitated for a few moments. “Not yet.”

  “And fingerprints?”

  “They’re b
eing done now.”

  “I noticed he had his watch on his right arm, and he shot himself on the right side of the head. Do you know if he was right-handed or left-handed?”

  “Why would that matter?”

  Mabaku took a deep breath. “Do you know?”

  The station commander shook his head.

  Mabaku took out his notebook. “Okay, tell me the whole story.”

  The station commander related how the police had been called early in the morning—7:03, to be precise—by a hysterical Mma Tau. Her husband hadn’t come home the night before, and she was worried he’d had an accident. They’d started looking and quickly found his car in the Pick n Pay parking area. He was in it, dead from a head shot. His gun was on the floor of the car. Obviously, it was suicide.

  “Did you get statements from Mma Tau and Chamberlain?”

  The station commander shook his head. “Only from Chamberlain. We thought she needed some time to recover.”

  Mabaku sighed. “Please get me a copy of Chamberlain’s right away. I need to see what’s in it before I speak to him.”

  “I can tell you what he told me.” Mabaku could tell the man wanted to relate the story, but he didn’t have the time to listen. Reading the statement would be much quicker.

  He shook his head. “That’s okay. Unless there’s something I need to know that’s not in the report.”

  “It’s all there.” He pulled several sheets of paper from a folder and handed them to Mabaku. Then he leant back with a satisfied smile. “You see, Assistant Superintendent, we don’t always need help from the experts in Gabs.”

  Mabaku thought it was a good thing the station commander couldn’t read his thoughts. “But I will need to conduct my own investigation, by order of the deputy commissioner. I’m sure what I find will corroborate everything you’ve said, but I don’t have a choice.”

  The station commander scowled. “You guys never think we in the field can do anything properly. Well, you’re going to find out this time.” He stood up. “Let me know what you need, and I’ll arrange it.”

  Mabaku thanked him and left. So many assumptions and probably second-rate forensics, he thought. I just hope the car has been declared a crime scene.

  Chapter 76

  As they drove back to Otse after talking to the old woman who’d worked for the doctor, Kubu shared his idea with Dow.

  “Sir, I have a theory about this man. Actually, it’s just a guess, but a man called Vusi Tuelo is wanted by the South African police for murder and armed robbery. I saw an APB about him last Monday, and I checked yesterday. He’s still at large, and they think he may be hiding out here or in Zimbabwe. If it’s him, maybe he’s here for a purpose, not just to hide out.”

  Dow hesitated. “Vusi is quite a common name.”

  “Yes, sir, but according to the woman, this man is from South Africa. And Tuelo is an expert safecracker. He wouldn’t have any trouble with the locks on the Debswana diamond transport box. He would have the contacts to recruit the robbers too.”

  “Good thinking, Kubu. It’s certainly a possibility. We need to get that information out. Did the APB have a picture?”

  Kubu nodded, and Dow smiled.

  As soon as they reached the constable’s office. Dow phoned the director while Kubu and the constable strolled outside to allow him to speak in private. When he was finished, he called them back.

  “I have some important news. The security manager at Jwaneng took his own life last night. The assistant superintendent is already on his way there.”

  Kubu gasped. “That’s it then. He’s the inside leak. I’d never have guessed it. I wonder how he’s connected to Tuelo and the witch doctor.”

  “I hope it’s that simple, although it never is. Anyway, I filled the director in on what we’ve discovered. He’ll have an alert sent out about Tuelo. I don’t think there’s much more we can do here, and the director agrees. Forensics will check the fingerprints and so on that they collected last night, and the pathologist will do the autopsy this afternoon.”

  He turned to the constable. “You know where to pick up local rumours. Please ask around to see if anyone knows anything about this man Vusi, particularly when he left and where he went. It’s worth trying, but I doubt you’ll find anything.”

  Kubu thought he was correct about that. Tuelo, if it was Tuelo, had slipped away in the night, probably after killing the witch doctor, who almost certainly wasn’t his father.

  “Come on, Kubu. Let’s sort out the bill at the guesthouse, pick up my vehicle, and head back to Gabs.”

  As Kubu drove them back to the guesthouse, Dow smiled. “Well, Kubu, you’ve come up with really useful ideas. Well done.”

  “Thank you, sir. But I don’t think the director is too pleased with me.”

  “So he said before I came down. But the main thing is that the dead man is very probably the witch doctor who was helping the robbers, and we may know the identity of the man behind all this. Also, it’s very likely he has the diamonds.”

  “How do we know that, sir?”

  “They got a Debswana geologist in this morning to help them. The gravel that they found in the box brought back from South Africa wasn’t the same as the gravel in the two decoy boxes. But it was the same as the samples from the sack you found in the house. Almost certainly this Vusi made the switch when those men stayed with him overnight.”

  That made sense to Kubu. “I see… He probably did it to fool the robbers into thinking the box was still full of diamonds. They wouldn’t try to open it with the fetishes covering the locks.” Then he had another thought. “And maybe he also leaked false information about the robbers to the informer—that they were gunrunners with lots of money hidden in the seats. All he had to do was tell the informer when they’d cross the border, and he tipped off the Motswedi police to set up an ambush. He got them to do his dirty work for him.”

  Dow nodded. “You may be right about that.”

  Both detectives felt that they were finally getting to grips with what had happened. In fact, it looked as though the man who’d murdered the witch doctor was the kingpin in the whole Debswana robbery. All they had to do now was catch him.

  Chapter 77

  When he left the Jwaneng police station, Mabaku headed straight to the mine to talk to Chamberlain. After going through the various security checks, he eventually ended up in front of the major’s PA.

  “Assistant Superintendent Mabaku from the CID.” He showed her his police card. “I’d like to speak to Mr. Chamberlain, please.”

  “The major doesn’t want to speak to anyone today,” she responded. “He’s in shock. As you know, one of his senior men committed suicide last night.”

  “That’s why I’m here. Please let him know.”

  The PA hesitated.

  “I’ll give you five seconds. One…”

  She picked up the phone. “Sorry to disturb you, Major. But Assistant Superintendent Mabaku is here to see you.”

  Mabaku couldn’t hear the response.

  “I know, sir,” the PA continued, “but he insists. It’s about Rra Tau.”

  After a few more seconds, she put down the phone. “Please go through.”

  Mabaku marched into the major’s office and sat down.

  “I can’t believe it,” the major said. “I never suspected that Eddie was involved in the robbery. We’ve worked together for several years, and I thought he was completely loyal to me and to Debswana.”

  “Mr. Chamberlain, in your statement to the police, you said that you spoke to Tau last night after work. Tell me about that.”

  The major described how he’d received a call from Tau around dinner, pleading with him to go to his home to talk about the robbery.

  “You stated that he confessed to leaking information about the backup plan and that he put something in the box wit
h the diamonds.”

  “Yes.”

  “And that you tried to persuade him to turn himself in immediately.”

  “Yes. I thought he could make a deal—provide information in return for a lighter sentence. But he said he’d do it in the morning. He wanted to explain everything to his wife first.”

  “Did he seem suicidal?”

  “Not at all. If he had, I’d never have left him. He must have realised he could go to prison for a long time. Or maybe he couldn’t stand the thought of looking his friends and family in the eye, knowing that they knew what he’d done.”

  “I’ve read your statement, Mr. Chamberlain. You must have been in shock when you made it. I just want to make sure that you put down everything that Tau told you. Maybe you remembered something more when you got back to your office.”

  The major hesitated, then pulled a piece of paper out of his desk drawer.

  “I didn’t forget anything, but I purposefully left a couple of things out of the statement because the local police are totally incompetent. I didn’t want them to make a complete hash of the investigation and lose the culprits and maybe the diamonds.”

  Mabaku took out his notebook and waited for the major to continue.

  “The most important thing he told me was how they were going to get rid of the diamonds. The robbers are meeting a fence in Johannesburg in four days.”

  “Do you know where and when?” Mabaku asked eagerly.

  “The Zoo Lake at four in the afternoon. It’s a park in Johannesburg.”

  Mabaku nodded. “There’ll be good views in all directions and probably several roads to leave on. Better than a building, where it’s easier for people to hide.”

  “So, you’ll set up an ambush?”

  “I don’t know what we’ll do—maybe nothing if the South Africans don’t cooperate.”

  “Dammit, you have to do something. We need our diamonds back.”

  “We’ll see. Did Tau tell you who this fence is?”

  The major shook his head.