Death of the Mantis

by Michael Stanley

  Tau was ecstatic. He couldn’t wait to get back to the station and call Lerako.

  “They knew each other,” he would say importantly. “Krige was looking for Haake.”

  Helu picked up Kubu punctually at quarter to nine and drove to the offices of the Namib Mining Company, which were situated close to Eros Airport. As far as he had been able to determine, Muller and the company were clean.

  They were sipping coffee when Henk Muller walked in.

  “Mr. Muller,” the secretary said the moment he stepped in, “these gentlemen are from the police. They want to talk to you.”

  Muller frowned. “Come into my office.” He held the door open. “Please sit down. What can I do for you?” He walked behind his desk, sat down and leaned back, arms folded.

  “I’m Detective Sergeant Philemon Helu, and this is Assistant Superintendent David Bengu of the Botswana police.” He turned to Kubu. “Why don’t you explain why you are here?”

  “Mr. Muller. Do you know a man by the name of Joseph Krige?”

  Muller didn’t answer immediately, but looked from one detective to the other.

  “Yes. As a matter of fact, I do.”

  “How do you know him?”

  “I recently hired him to do a small job for me.”

  “What sort of job?” Helu asked.

  “Sonya,” Muller shouted, “please bring me some coffee and get some more for the detectives. And get some cake as well.”

  He ran his fingers through his hair and put his elbows on the table.

  “About three weeks ago, I discovered that some valuable data was missing from one of our filing cabinets. Secret stuff. I suspected that it had been stolen by an employee we fired about six weeks ago. I hired Krige to see whether he could confirm that.”

  “Just what was actually taken?” Kubu asked.

  “It was a folder containing several DVDs of data, as well as printouts of that information overlaid on maps.”

  “Why didn’t you come to the police?” Helu snapped.

  “As you know, we are in the mining business. We have a lot of highly confidential information about prospects, and I felt that . . .” Muller hesitated, “that I’d rather handle it myself. I felt I couldn’t make accusations until I had hard evidence. I was planning to come to you when I had that evidence.”

  “Who was the employee you got rid of?” Kubu asked.

  “It was a geologist who’d been with us for several years. Very good, but had no discipline. Often disappeared for days without telling anyone or filing for leave. Always said he was on company business. It’s hard to check when people are in the field. His name is Wolfgang Haake.”

  Helu whistled in surprise, and Kubu sat upright in his chair.

  “You know him?” Muller asked, puzzled at the reaction he had provoked. “How do you know him?”

  Kubu took a deep breath and marshaled his thoughts.

  “So let me be sure I understand what’s going on. One: you had a geologist on staff—named Wolfgang Haake?”

  Muller nodded, frowning.

  “Two: you fired him because you thought he was abusing the leave policy?”

  “Well, that. But mainly he wouldn’t follow orders. He always had his own views on everything, so ignored what head office wanted him to do. Just went off and did his own thing.”

  “Okay. Then, three, a few weeks after he left, you noticed an important folder of information missing?”

  Muller nodded again.

  Kubu lifted his hand with four fingers extended. “Four, you suspected Haake and hired Krige to find out whether Haake had indeed stolen this data?”

  “Yes!” Muller’s frown deepened.

  Kubu gathered his thoughts.

  “What did Krige report back to you?”

  “A couple of days after I hired him, he called and said he’d found Haake and was going to follow him. But I haven’t heard from him since.” He leaned forward, staring at Kubu. “Do you mind telling me what’s going on?”

  At that moment Sonya arrived with a tray of cups and three slices of chocolate cake. This is much better than mixed biscuits, Kubu thought. She handed each man a cup of coffee, offered them milk and sugar, and then passed the cake around. A silence descended for a few minutes, punctuated occasionally by the rattle of a cup against its saucer.

  Helu got the meeting back on track. “What’s going on here, Mr. Muller, is that Krige is dead, and the Botswana police think he was murdered.”

  “Krige dead? Murdered?” Muller leaned back, a shocked expression on his face. “And you think Haake did it?”

  “We don’t know who did it, Mr. Muller,” Kubu replied. “We are trying to find out. Do you think Haake is the sort of person who would kill someone who was prying into his business?”

  Muller didn’t answer at first. “I don’t think so. He has a short fuse, but I never thought of him as violent.” He thought for a moment. “Mind you, he had some secret project of his own. He seemed obsessed by it. Some sort of huge mineral discovery, I think. But he would never talk about what it was. I think that was where the stolen company time went too. Maybe that’s why he wanted the data.” He shrugged. “You know, detectives, there are lots of people like him all over the world—looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The trouble is that almost always it doesn’t exist.”

  “And what was the information you had that he wanted?”

  “It was a set of gravity data for a section of southwest Botswana.”

  “What’s gravity data?” Helu asked.

  “You fly an airplane low over the ground and measure the change in the earth’s gravitational field. The changes are caused by different rock structures under the ground. You process it, and you can get an image of the gravity field over the area. By analyzing that you can often learn what is under the surface. All the big mining houses do it. It’s very important in an area like the Kalahari because there’s little outcrop. Everything’s covered by sand.” Kubu glanced at Helu, who shrugged—this was obviously way beyond him.

  “When was Krige killed?” Muller asked.

  “About a week ago, in a very remote part of Botswana. It looks as though he was following Haake. Maybe Haake spotted him and they got into a fight. Krige’s skull was crushed.”

  “This is terrible,” Muller said. “I feel as though I’m responsible. For hiring Krige to dig around Haake. If I hadn’t done that he wouldn’t be dead.”

  “You aren’t responsible for what happened, Mr. Muller.”

  “There’s something else I should mention. Haake called me on Friday, sounding angry. Told me he had nothing to do with this company anymore, and I should get off his back. I got angry too, and told him to return my data, and we’d call it quits. He was furious. Shouted at me. Told me to watch my back. I told him he could talk to me when he was willing to be polite. I thought nothing of it at the time. I told you he has a hot temper. But this changes all that.”

  Kubu leaned forward. “Did he mention Krige? Either by name or in terms of being followed?”

  “He just said he knew I had someone watching him. That we were trying to steal his discoveries. That’s all nonsense, of course. He doesn’t have any discoveries to steal anyway.”

  Kubu nodded. “So Haake knew he was being followed, and knew—or guessed—that Krige worked for you.”

  “How did you know I hired Krige?”

  “We found the deposit your company made into Krige’s bank last week. It was a lot of money.”

  “It was important to find our confidential material, and that’s what Krige asked for. I didn’t think it was out of line.”

  After a few more questions, Kubu heaved himself to his feet. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Muller. Here’s my card. If you hear from Haake again, please call me or Detective Sergeant Helu immediately. I think he could be dangerous. Don’t meet with him alone.” They shook hands and the two detectives left.

  “Well, what do you think?” Helu asked as they stood in the su
n outside the office building.

  “Well, if Haake was the thief, he may’ve had a strong motive for murdering Krige. And apparently he knew Krige was following him. We need to interview him again at once. This time it won’t be so friendly.”

  Helu nodded. “What about Muller himself?”

  “I don’t think he’s involved. Do you?”

  Helu shook his head.

  As they were driving back to the police station, Kubu thought about Haake’s call to Muller.

  “Do me a favor. Take a picture of Haake and show it to the caretaker at Krige’s apartment. It’s a long shot, but maybe she’ll recognize him.” Kubu was interrupted by the ringing of his phone. He glanced at the caller ID.

  “Lerako, I was just going to call you.”

  “Kubu, I have some important news. Tau found out that Krige knew Haake. Krige asked about him at the gas station in Hukuntsi a few days before he was murdered. You need to check this out with Haake. Have you interviewed him yet?”

  “Yes, I interviewed him yesterday morning. I pushed quite hard, but felt that he didn’t know Krige before finding him dead. However, he did know his name without me telling him. He said he got it from the radio. We’re checking that, of course.”

  “Yes, but now we know Krige knew Haake.”

  “Knew of Haake is a better way to put it. Lerako, please tell Tau I’m pleased with his work in uncovering the Krige connection. But I have news for you too. Helu and I have just left the offices of a mining company that Haake used to work for. They think he stole some information from them before they fired him. So the company hired Krige to find out whether it was, in fact, Haake who stole the material and to try and get it back. That’s why Krige followed Haake into Botswana. And, after the murder, Haake called the head of the company and threatened him. I’m sure he guessed Krige was working for Muller.”

  There was a pause on the line. Kubu glanced at his phone’s display to see whether he had lost the signal. He still had five bars. Obviously Lerako was taken aback by this development.

  “Where’s Haake now?” Lerako finally asked.

  “We’re just about to set up another interview with him. He has a lot more to answer to this time.”

  “Please call me as soon as you have more information.” Lerako sounded despondent. He thinks that my discovery has blown his Bushman theory out of the water, Kubu thought.

  “This may be a copycat murder, Lerako. Haake could’ve heard about Monzo from someone in Hukuntsi. We haven’t tried to keep it secret, have we?”

  “Okay. Let me know what you find out from Haake.”

  “I’ll call you as soon as I’ve finished with him.”

  Kubu hung up. He had a premonition that finding Haake wasn’t going to be easy.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Haake was indeed difficult to find. There was no answer when Kubu rang his cell phone or the number where he said he’d been staying. There was no reply to several voicemail messages left at both numbers. And the Luderitz police reported that Haake hadn’t returned to his home there.

  Kubu persuaded Helu to check with Immigration at all the border posts between Namibia and both Botswana and South Africa. They also alerted Immigration at Windhoek’s international airport.

  Just before 5:00 p.m., Helu received a call from the woman staying in Haake’s apartment.

  “I’m Ilse Burger. You left a message to call you. Has something happened? What’s going on?” She sounded scared. Helu switched the call to the speakerphone and motioned for Kubu to come closer.

  “Ms. Burger, you are now on speakerphone. Assistant Superintendent Bengu from the Botswana police is also here. We’re trying to find Wolfgang Haake. He was in here on Monday, and we have some more questions to ask him.”

  “He’s not here. He left yesterday. Why do you want to see him?”

  “Ms. Burger, we would like to speak to you face to face. We can be there in twenty minutes. Will you be there?”

  “I suppose so. Is everything all right?”

  “Thank you. We’ll be there shortly.” He pressed the button on the speakerphone and disconnected the call. “Come on, Kubu. Let’s see if we can learn more about your Mr. Haake.”

  Ilse Burger opened the door immediately when Kubu and Helu arrived. She’s very anxious, thought Kubu, as they shook hands. Must’ve been peering through the window waiting for our arrival.

  “Come in, please. I’ve made some coffee. Would you like some?” She sounded tense.

  Both detectives took her up on her offer. Helu settled himself on the sofa, and Kubu pulled out a dining-room chair, thinking it would be easier to get up from it. Ilse returned with mugs of black coffee and offered milk. Helu declined, and Kubu accepted. Kubu noticed that Ilse didn’t pour herself a mug.

  “How can I help you?” she asked, her eyes flitting from one man to the other.

  Helu answered, pointing at Kubu. “Ms. Burger, Assistant Superintendent Bengu is from the Botswana police. He’s investigating a case in Botswana and needs to talk to your friend, Wolfgang Haake.”

  Ilse didn’t respond.

  “Mr. Haake came to the police station on Monday so we could ask him about his last trip to Botswana. But it was only afterwards that we got some new information, and now we have follow-up questions. But we can’t find him. He doesn’t answer his phone, and hasn’t returned our voicemail messages. Do you know where he is?”

  “No. He left yesterday morning and said he’d be away for a week or two.”

  “Did he tell you where he was going?” Kubu asked.

  “No. He just said he had business to take care of.”

  “What sort of business?”

  “He’s a geologist.”

  “He just got back from Botswana. Do you know what he was doing there?”

  “Not really. He doesn’t tell me about his work.”

  “How long have you known Mr. Haake, Ms. Burger?” Helu interjected.

  “About four years.”

  “What’s your relationship with him?”

  “Well, it’s his apartment, but I live here.” She paused and frowned. “And he stays here when he’s in town.”

  “Is he your boyfriend?”

  Ilse hesitated. “I suppose so. But he probably has girlfriends in other places too.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Well, he doesn’t tell me much about what he does. He’s quite secretive. I’ve always assumed that’s because I’m not the only woman in his life.”

  “And you’re okay with that?”

  “He’s very nice to me. I stay here for free, and we enjoy each other’s company. He makes me laugh.”

  Kubu glanced around the room. The place was clean and tidy, and there was nothing extravagant. She’s careful with money, he thought. He turned back to her.

  “You’re sure he hasn’t said anything about what he’s doing? Hasn’t told you where he’s going?”

  “All I know is he goes to Botswana quite a lot. I think he’s searching for something because he sometimes says he’s nearly there. But I don’t know where that is or what it means.”

  “And you don’t know what it is he’s looking for?”

  “Well, he’s a geologist, so I suppose it’s gold or diamonds or something.”

  “And he’s never talked to you about it? Never shown you anything? Samples, or something like that?”

  Kubu noticed her body tense. She looked challengingly at Kubu. “No, nothing like that.”

  There is something, he thought. He decided to take a different approach.

  “I appreciate your trying to help. But if there is anything you know that you haven’t told us, please tell us. Even if it seems insignificant. Mr. Haake’s life may be in danger. There’ve been several murders recently in Botswana around the area he was last seen. It’s really important that we find him.”

  “Someone may kill him?”

  “Ms. Burger, as I said there have been several murders, including someone from Namibia.�
�� He paused for effect. “And if Mr. Haake dies, what will happen to this apartment? To you?”

  Ilse looked down. The detectives let the silence work on her.

  Eventually, she looked up, wet-eyed, frightened.

  “He’s got a map.”

  “What sort of map?”

  “I don’t know. It’s old and drawn by hand. It had something written in German. Something like ‘I found it here.’ With some initials. HS, I think. But I’ve no idea what the map is about.”

  “Can you describe it?”

  “On one side, it looks like some of the geology maps he has. Contours and things. I don’t understand them at all. On the other side, there was a drawing that looked like hills.”

  “When did you see it last?”

  “About a week ago. I saw it in his wallet and took it out to see what it was. He saw me with it in my hand. He was very angry. Told me to tell no one. Please don’t tell him I told you about it. He could throw me out of here. Please.”

  She’d be lucky if the only thing he did was evict her, Kubu thought.

  “Thank you. Perhaps don’t tell him that you mentioned it to us. We’ll also be discreet.” Kubu paged back in his notebook to see if he had missed anything. “Does he have any other friends?”

  “Not that I know about. Just me.”

  “And enemies?”

  “Not enemies, really. He has a few people he doesn’t like—mainly people who disagree with him.”

  “What sort of people?”

  “Well, he sometimes has very strong opinions on things. When people tell him he’s crazy, he stops being their friend, or he gets angry with them. He’s got a quick temper.”

  “Would he hurt someone who disagreed with him?”

  “Oh, he might try to punch them or something, but nothing more.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  She nodded.

  “Did he tell you anything at all about his last trip, Ms. Burger?”

  “Not really. He told me he was close to finding whatever it is he’s looking for. I don’t think it’s even real. Big dreams—that’s all it is. Like all the other dreams people have. Winning the lottery, marrying someone handsome and rich. You know what I mean?”