by Tony Park
‘It’s my job.’
‘Mine too. I know you are good at yours. If you weren’t you would not, as a woman, and a white woman at that, have risen to the rank you have attained. Yours is not a political appointment; you must have worked hard.’
‘I have. Thank you, now if we can get back to the girls –’
Virtuous held up a hand. ‘Let me help you.’
‘I am fine.’
‘You are not.’
Sannie gritted her teeth. If she did need help she would not get it in this place, from this peddler of –
‘Half-truths.’
Sannie blinked. ‘What?’
‘You think that I am not someone who can help you, that I am a purveyor of half-truths, of black magic.’
‘I would not say something like that.’
‘No, you’re politically correct. You have to be, in order to hold a senior police rank these days, especially as your people no longer run the country. You pay lip service to traditional beliefs, perhaps you even have something of an understanding of their importance to people, yet you still think of all this as a sham, as a collection of half-truths designed to rob the gullible.’
Sannie felt that if she had been her normal self, the woman she was before Tom’s death, that she would have been in command of this interview, that she would not have let this woman get to her. Now, however, she felt an almost physical weakness. Her vision seemed to blur at the edges. She took another deep breath. For a moment she wondered if she had been drugged.
She shook her head. No. She was very tired but she was in possession of all her faculties. The woman’s words and her obfuscations had unnerved her.
‘It was someone close to you. A family member.’
Sannie blinked. ‘Yes.’
‘Who, dear?’
‘My husband,’ she said softly.
Virtuous leaned forward and put a hand on her arm.
Sannie felt the emotion well up inside her, like a flooded river pressing against a weakened dam. She had to hold on or her defences would burst, and now was not the time, and this was not the place.
‘You are safe here,’ Virtuous said.
‘I have . . . I have to find these children, and I need you to tell me who the poacher is who is killing the rhinos in the Sabi Sand.’
‘My dear,’ Virtuous reached out again, but Sannie snatched her arm out of her reach, ‘I don’t know any poachers.’
Sannie wiped her eyes, and even though the woman’s face was soft with sympathy, all Sannie felt was her weakness exposed. ‘The men from Johannesburg. Tell me about them.’
Virtuous frowned. ‘You should let me help you.’
Sannie sat up straighter, squaring her shoulders. ‘You can come with me to Skukuza Police Station. We can talk there.’
The other woman held up a hand. ‘All right. I’ll tell you what I know. I owe those men nothing and they are a disgrace to my calling. They are the ones who got poor Sipho killed, I am sure of it.’
‘Why would they kill him?’
‘Because he knew too much and they knew that if you took him into custody he would talk.’
‘About snakes and umuthi?’ Sannie asked.
Virtuous shook her head. ‘No. Sipho was working with the rhino poachers as well; I am sure it goes deeper than him just selling imithi.’
Sannie regarded Virtuous. ‘I have eyewitnesses who say the poacher was an older man, and that Sipho ran off with a pangolin. The anti-poaching rangers were chasing two different men.’
‘And they did not catch them, yes?’
Sannie said nothing, but wondered why Virtuous had so quickly broken the unspoken code of silence that so often pervaded communities such as this. Was it because Sipho was dead that Virtuous did not mind airing her thoughts that he had been into more than trading in snakes, or . . . ?
Virtuous folded her hands in her lap and said nothing more.
Perhaps, Sannie thought, this wise, smiling sangoma also had something to hide, and Sipho was a convenient decoy for her to use, just as the poachers had.
Chapter 21
‘Where the bloody hell has this man gone?’ Mia said to Bongani. Both of them stared at the Vulture system monitors, with Sara keeping watch over their shoulders. ‘We should be out there tracking as well.’
‘You heard what Sean said,’ Bongani said.
While Mia had told Captain van Rensburg that she and Bongani were going out to track the poacher they had detected with the Vulture system, Sean had emphatically countermanded her, saying it was up to him and his men to follow an armed suspect. He did not want a repeat of the previous day’s events.
The radio hissed to life. ‘Benny’s lost the scent again.’ All of them in the air-conditioned cabin could hear the frustration in Sean’s voice over the radio speaker. They were all feeling the stress. ‘Have you picked up any more intercepts, Mia, over?’
Part of Mia wanted to tell Sean that she would have called him if she had, but there was no sense in her losing her temper any more than she already had. ‘Negative, Sean.’
Mia’s phone rang. ‘Hello?’
‘Mia, hi, it’s Jeff Beaton.’
‘Jeff, I’m kind of busy right now.’
‘Sure. I just wanted to say sorry, for what happened last night.’
Mia rolled back on her chair, stood and went to the door of the cabin. Sara seized the opportunity and scooted in so she could take over Mia’s screen. Mia went outside for some privacy. ‘You don’t need to apologise,’ she said quickly, ‘it was Graham who acted like a fool.’
‘Yeah, well, I can see how he might have got the wrong idea.’
‘Yes, I suppose so,’ she said, ‘but he has no right to tell me what to do or how I should act.’
‘Oh.’ He paused. ‘So you’re not, like, boyfriend and girlfriend?’
It was her turn to collect her thoughts. ‘We’re friends, Jeff. Good friends, maybe more. But he doesn’t own me.’
‘Right. So, well, this is a little awkward, but if you and Graham are only friends . . . I really like you and I’d like to see you again.’
That took her aback. She had found Jeff attractive, and thought he was a nice, sensitive guy, but she was romantically involved with Graham, no matter how she’d just fudged it. Not to mention that they were all neck-deep in a crisis. ‘Um, we can’t exactly go on a date anywhere right now, Jeff.’
‘I know that, and it’s difficult. I also wanted to talk to you more for my research, kind of off-the-record stuff. I’m really interested in your upbringing and your closeness to the Shangaan people – how you bridge the gap, if you know what I mean.’
It was flattering, his shy-boy approach, but she had a job to do. ‘Like I said, now is not a great time. We’ve got a poacher – at least one – somewhere on the reserve right now.’
‘Wow. Are you at the Vulture command centre? I’ll be right over. My other interviews were cancelled due to all the drama.’
Jeff hung up before she could tell him, again, that now was not a good time.
‘Mia?’ Bongani called.
She went back inside. ‘Find something?’
‘No,’ Bongani said, ‘but Sean just called again. He’s been on the phone to Captain van Rensburg. Another policeman, de Beer, has found our missing helicopter pilot. The cop’s on his way to Kaya Nghala with Mike in the chopper. He asked if you can go meet them. Mike is under some sort of arrest.’
Mia frowned. Part of her wanted to stay and search for the poacher, but she also had questions for Mike. She was proud that she had planted the idea in the minds of Sean and the police that Mike might have something to do with poachers – and perhaps girls – disappearing into thin air. The helipad was close by so she would hear the Robinson coming in to land and be able to get there in time to meet the men.
‘T
ell him I will,’ she said, staring at the screen over Sara’s shoulder. ‘Where has this guy gone?’
Sara traced a line on her screen. ‘I think he’s picked up the tracks of those rhinos.’
Mia bit her lip. ‘What’s his speed?’
Bongani called up the last intercept of the poacher and used his cursor to draw a line that ended where the poacher was last seen. ‘Roughly six kilometres per hour, straight line.’
Mia nodded. ‘Fast for that terrain, as if he’s on a mission. I don’t think he’s tracking. Sara?’
Sara looked over her shoulder. ‘Maybe he was moving fast until he picked up a track. His path does point to him intercepting those rhinos.’
Bongani clicked on the rhino intercept again and then pointed to a spot on the screen in the direction in which the animals were heading. ‘They are making for this waterhole.’
‘Yes,’ Mia said. ‘And so is our poacher.’
‘How come?’ Sara asked. ‘Does he know rhinos will be there at this time of day?’
‘Not instinctively,’ Mia said.
‘Then how?’ Sara asked.
They heard a helicopter fly low over them, on approach to the Kaya Nghala airstrip.
They all exchanged glances and Mia walked out to the Land Rover. Jeff was walking briskly up the path towards her.
‘Hi,’ he said.
‘I’ve got to go to the helipad, Jeff.’
He looked disappointed.
‘Get in,’ she said, pointing to the Land Rover.
*
Sannie’s phone rang and she saw that it was Henk de Beer.
‘Excuse me,’ Sannie said to Virtuous, and went out of her hut to take the call. It was good to get some fresh air. She had nearly been overcome by her emotions and the strange smells of the woman’s workplace.
‘Howzit, Henk?’
He spoke loudly over the noise of an engine. ‘I’m just coming in to land at Kaya Nghala, with the pilot.’
‘OK,’ she said. ‘Did you know there’s been another poaching incursion?’
‘Ja, we heard over the radio. We’ve been flying around looking for him, but now we must land to refuel. And I guess you want to talk to the pilot?’
‘I do,’ Sannie said. Henk’s arrival would give her the excuse she found she had been craving to terminate her interview with Virtuous.
She would not have said she had failed with the sangoma, but the woman was adept – at least as skilled as Sannie was – at turning the conversation to her own agenda. Admittedly, it seemed the woman just wanted to help her, but Sannie was not ready for some kind of traditional healing for her grief.
‘I’m coming now,’ Sannie said. ‘Sean Bourke has arranged for the head ranger from Kaya Nghala, Mia Greenaway, to meet you with a vehicle at the landing pad.’ Sannie’s phone beeped and she glanced at the screen. ‘Got to go, Henk, I’ve got another call coming in. I’ll drive to you now and meet you and the pilot at the lodge.’ She ended the call and accepted the incoming one. ‘Van Rensburg, hello?’
‘Captain, it’s Mia again.’
‘Yes, Mia? Any sign of the poacher?’
‘No, sorry. But I just heard Julianne’s helicopter fly over.’
‘Yes, I just spoke to Detective de Beer and told him you’ll meet him.’
‘Sure, yes, on my way, but I need to talk to you. This poacher is on a mission to get to a waterhole, Captain, and we think he’s going to try to intercept some rhinos there.’
‘Is he tracking them?’
‘No,’ Mia said. ‘I think he’s being fed information by someone.’
‘The pilot?’
‘Yes. Or someone else inside the reserve. I don’t know.’
Sannie thought about what Henk had just told her. ‘The pilot’s just been flying over your concession, supposedly responding to the report of the poacher being seen.’
There was a pause, then Mia said what Sannie had been thinking. ‘That pilot’s not looking for the poacher, he’s somehow working with him. I’m sure of it.’
‘OK. But leave the interviews to me. I’ll see you at the lodge, Mia.’ Sannie ended the call.
*
Henk de Beer had enjoyed the low-level flight over the Sabi Sand Game Reserve. It took him back to his time as a conscript in the old South African Defence Force.
He remembered the fear mixed with excitement and adrenaline as he sat in an Alouette helicopter, the wheels almost brushing the thorny uppermost branches of acacias as they raced across the dry bushveld of South West Africa, now known as Namibia.
Mike de Vries, the wayward pilot, was not a bad oke, Henk had already decided, and he had accompanied him in the helicopter to Kaya Nghala not so much to keep him under some loose form of arrest and assist with the interrogation as to get a joy flight out of Nelspruit.
‘Shame we couldn’t find the poacher,’ Mike said to Henk as he settled the helicopter onto the landing pad.
‘Ja,’ Henk replied. ‘Maybe if we can clear all this stuff up you can refuel and get back out there.’
The pilot smiled. ‘That’s what I like doing best. Hey, I need to let the engine cool down.’
‘All right,’ Henk said.
‘You can get out, I’ll see you once I’ve shut down. I’ll be there now-now.’
Henk hesitated. He supposed he really should stay with the young man, but a quick glance over at the fuel gauge confirmed what the pilot had said, that the needle was in the red. His tank was almost empty.
*
Mia and Jeff pulled up in her Land Rover just as the chopper settled onto the ground. A burly man with a grey crew cut got out, bent at the waist and jogged over to them.
‘I’m Henk,’ the man began, then turned as the engine note behind him changed to a high-pitched whine.
‘He’s leaving!’ Mia yelled.
Henk turned and started running back towards the helicopter, drawing the pistol from the holster on his belt.
The helicopter lifted off and the pilot banked away steeply as soon as he could. Henk fired twice, but both his shots flew wide. He swore, then pulled out his phone.
Mia got on the radio. She knew the frequency and the call sign Julianne’s normal pilot used.
‘Eagle, Eagle, this is Mia, go.’ She released the press-to-talk switch. There was no reply, but that did not mean the pilot could not hear her. ‘What are you playing at, Mike? Come back here and tell us what’s happening, over.’
Henk was talking into his phone now, to Captain van Rensburg by the sound of it.
‘What direction is that, where’s he headed?’ Henk called to Mia.
‘West. Straight towards Killarney.’
‘He’s heading your way, Sannie,’ Henk said. ‘No, not into the reserve. Stay where you are for now.’
Henk ended the call and came to her. ‘Let’s go.’
‘Where?’ Mia asked.
‘To the gate, then Killarney.’
‘We won’t catch a helicopter,’ Mia said.
‘I know, but he’s almost out of fuel. He has to put down somewhere.’
‘Wait,’ Mia said. She called Bongani. ‘Howzit. Can you expand your view on the Vulture radar to cover more of Killarney?’
‘Sure,’ Bongani said. ‘Why?’
‘I need you to look for Julianne’s helicopter; Mike just flew off, last seen heading west.’
‘Roger,’ Bongani said.
Mia got into the Land Rover and Henk climbed in the back, introducing himself to Jeff.
‘This is exciting,’ Jeff said.
‘Just another day in Africa,’ Henk said.
Mia drove off, racing up through the gears and going as fast as she dared through the bush towards the entry to the Sabi Sand reserve. Bongani came back on the radio.
‘Go, Bongani,’ she said, han
ging on hard to the steering wheel as the Land Rover lurched into and out of a dip in the road.
‘I’ve picked up the chopper. You were right, headed to Killarney.’
‘Good work.’
‘Wait, I’m losing him . . . he must be landing already.’
‘Where?’
There was a pause, probably while Bongani zoomed in on his map.
‘Got it. By the new schoolhouse, most likely using the football field as a landing zone.’
‘Roger. Keep an eye on the area. I’m heading there now.’
Mia sped on, hoping she could maintain her resolve. She needed answers to what had been going on. She respected people’s traditional beliefs, but she did not believe anyone’s muthi, not Bongani’s nor the poacher’s, could make a person disappear into thin air.
But a helicopter could.
Mia arrived at the gate. Rather than trying to convince the security guards on duty that she was in too much of a rush for them to do their routine search of her vehicle, she used the break in driving to radio Bongani again.
‘Any news?’ she asked him, without preamble.
‘He left the chopper and went into one of the schoolrooms – a new building that’s still under construction,’ Bongani said. ‘I haven’t seen him come out. There are no kids there because of the lockdown, but it seems like he’s hiding there.’
‘OK, call me if he leaves.’
‘Affirmative,’ Bongani said.
Mia called Captain van Rensburg and updated her on Mike’s location.
Clear of the gate, Mia pressed the accelerator pedal to the floor, and her two passengers gripped anything they could to stop the coil spring suspension from catapulting them from the vehicle as she raced along the dirt road leading to the community of Killarney.
*
Sannie got out of her car well short of the new Killarney school construction site near the new hotel on the outskirts of the community and approached on foot, her Z88 up and at the ready.
She mentally debated the merits of waiting for Henk, who could provide backup. The pilot, she assumed, was unarmed – Henk would have made sure of that.
Looking over her shoulder she could see the cluster of granite boulders where the local teenagers had been hanging out, and where the missing girls had last been seen.
