Water Music
Page 24
He toppled, pulling her with him. In a deadly embrace, they plunged into the weir where the water churned before being channelled through the darkness of Judas Peak on its journey to Camps Bay.
Clare fell, sank deeper and deeper into the wild water, her killer clinging to her like a succubus.
She stuck two fingers into his gushing eye socket, and with a thrashing movement he released her. She was free, fighting back towards the surface, the turmoil of the water unbearable. Grasping at the metal stairs that led up to the platform, Clare clung to them as the water pulled at her, snapping her body this way and that. Then something fleshy, heavy hit her sideways, hit her hard. Noah Sterns drowned face touched her lips before being dragged into the vortex.
She would die too if she went down. Her arms flailing, her legs kicking against the water, Clare fixed her eyes again on the metal stairs. Two quick strokes, and shed be across the maelstrom, shed be there.
She struck off, but she was no match for the water. It took her in its grip and tossed her like a leaf along with the rest of the debris. She whirled towards a precipice where the water rushed over the edge of a pool before tumbling into the Apostle Tunnel.
The breath filled her lungs, held her ribs against the unbearable pressure of the water. She was sucked downwards, the turbulence tossing her about. She curled herself into a ball. Fragments of her life drifted in front of her as she was whirled down her mother, sitting in the deep shade of a blue gum, her mother who had drifted quietly through her life, never swum against the current. Clare held this image, felt herself succumbing to its allure. She curled herself up around the burn in her lungs, which crescendoed as the din of the water receded.
She opened her eyes to the blackness around her.
At last, silence.
Her hair glistened, her eyes were closed. Her torso and legs were submerged in the water that swirled around her, determined to pull her down, ever downwards. But Sterns body held her up. He had caught against a metal strut and stuck fast.
The current held Clares head against Sterns neck. His eyes were fixed on hers.
Riedwaan bent over her, yanking her limp body up into his arms, releasing her from the dead mans embrace. She was out of the water, on a ledge next to the stairs. Pressure on her chest, Riedwaans face inches above hers. Her lungs heaving, spewing water. More pressure, more gently this time. She inhaled deeply, spluttering as she did so; exhaled. Breathed.
He had his phone out.
Dont you leave me, Clare, his face hovering over hers. Dont you fucking leave me.
Riedwaans pleas, the chatter of the chopper working its way up the valley, were remote. Just the ripping pain low down in her pelvis.
Coda
Summer sparkled. Black oystercatchers called to each other on the rocks. Flocks of terns, white streamers against the blue sky. A gentle swell ran up the beach, gulls strutted along lace edges left by the waves.
The slap of the water against the sides of the yacht was soporific. The sunshine was as warm as a mothers hand on the back of Clares neck. The pain that had been her companion for six months, reminding her that she was alive after all, no longer there. The fractured ribs had knitted and the gashes had closed.
Lucky, is what the doctor had said. You wont scar.
Not where you can see, Clare had replied.
Therapy, the doctor had advised.
No one can erase whats in my head, Clares reply.
Rosa Wagner stepped out of the cabin and onto the bright white deck. Behind her were the musicians, their instruments gleaming. She stood erect as the murmurs of the audience died away. A brief shadow of wariness in her wide-set eyes.
Clare leaned against Riedwaans shoulder. He drew her into the circle of his arm, said nothing as two trucks pulled out from behind the Yacht Club and drove up towards the castle. Their purpose, their cargo someone elses business now.
Rosa called Esther over, looked down at her and smiled. It was hard to tell, even now after bald facts had been laid out, which one had kept the other alive. Rosa pulled the little girl close. There was a steadfastness to her chin and a set to the tiny shoulders.
An old man and a boy stood at the edge of the deck. Mr Wagner was wearing his best black suit. The child at his side, neat in navy-blue trousers and a white shirt, wore his hair longer now, yet it barely concealed the scar on his temple. Rosa and Esther carried the urn over to them, and Alfred Wagner helped them open it. The breeze took the ashes, lifting them through the air. The children, wary strangers who were learning to be siblings, watched as their mothers ashes drifted towards the waves.
Rosa turned to Clare.
Were alive today me and Esther because you came looking for us. Rosa sat down and took her cello between her knees. And Im human today because of my music, and the music of the water in that dark place.
She placed her left hand on the frets, while her right hand brought the bow up into position. She drew her bow across the strings. A plangent note lingered and drifted back into silence. Then she drew from the cello a complex ordering of sound that drifted over the water.
Esthers wordless song rose up over the music, drifting along with it. When the music came to an end, a smile teased at the corner of her mouth.
As Rosa swept the child up, her smile broke free, and she laughed. The sound seemed to startle her, and she buried her face in Rosas neck.
Her laughter, the music, hung in the air.
Rosa bowed, and the small audience clapped.
The sudden noise startled the infant in Clares arms.
Ishmael Hart, three weeks old, looked up at his mothers face. Clare saw herself reflected in her sons serious brown eyes. He appeared to be taking the measure of her.
The infant yawned, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.
Are you going to marry me? Riedwaan said quietly to Clare.
Its nice of you to ask, she said, holding their child against her body. But no, thank you. Its strange enough with a baby. Being one, becoming two.
Clare looked at Riedwaan.
Marriage. Being two, becoming one. Thats a step too far.
Acknowledgement
The testimony on pages 186188 is a that of a young victim of abductor and serial rapist Johannes Mowers, who is currently serving a life sentence. The testimony is a transcription of a recorded interview by Kathryn Smith, from her installation Psychogeographies: Walking Back the Cat (11th Havana Biennale, 2012).
We hope you enjoyed this book.
To find out about Margie Orford, click here.
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For an invitation from the publisher, click here.
About this Book
A terrified, frozen child is found close to death on an icy Cape Town mountainside. But no-one reported her missing. Where does she come from? Who does she belong to? Profiler Dr Clare Hart is baffled but when a young woman disappears, Clare sees a frightening pattern beginning to emerge.
Rosa is a gifted but troubled young cellist, and her grandfather is at his wits end. Why did she walk out of her music school that day? Where has she gone now?
As winter tightens its grip, Clare must find Rosa and unravel her secrets… all the while carrying a secret of her own.
Reviews
Racy, page-turning stuff that peers into the cracks in Cape Towns affluent surface.
Cape Times on Like Clockwork
Margie Orford has nailed it... a book that stays with you, even after the last page is turned.
Michael Connelly
Margie Orford is world-class. This is crime writing at its very best.
Deon Meyer
Snappy dialogue and meticulous forensic detail
The Times, South Africa, on Gallows Hill
Orford plots so brilliantly that to stop reading is as harrowing as to carry on.
The Telegraph on Daddys Girl
Margie Orford writes with great human insight, with poetic beauty, and always the deep, dark undertow
of menace.
Peter James
Wonderfully crafted and fully engrossing
Michael Connelly on Water Music
About this Series
THE CLARE HART INVESTIGATIONS
Clare Hart is a former investigative journalist turned profiler with a PhD in femicide. Cerebral and intensely private, she takes the violence meted out to women and children head on, her courage, intelligence and her intimate knowledge of Cape Town her preferred weapons of choice. Clare walks a fine line between the forensic profiling work she does with the police and her own sense of what kind of justice those who prey on the vulnerable deserve. Less easy for her to navigate is her combative relationship with the volatile police captain Riedwaan Faizal; against her better judgement she keeps letting him back into her bed, just as she keeps working on cases with him.
1. Daddys Girl
The little girl tells herself an hour is not so long to wait, and steps outside. The street is empty. Then she hears the car…
Police Captain Faizal has just been told that his six-year-old daughter has been abducted. And he is not allowed to join the search because his squad think he is the kidnapper.
Investigative journalist Dr Clare Hart is the only one who believes Faizal is innocent. Together they must evade the police and find his daughter even if it puts all their lives at risk.
Daddys Girl is available here.
2. Like Clockwork
A beautiful young woman has been found murdered on Cape Towns Seapoint promenade. Now journalist and part-time Police Profiler Dr Clare Hart is being drawn into the web of a brutal serial killer.
As more bodies are discovered, Clare is forced to re-visit memories of the rape of her twin sister and the gang ties that bind Cape Towns crime rings. Are the murders really linked to human trafficking, or is the killer just playing sick games with her?
Like Clockwork is a dark and compelling crime story, which exposes the underbelly of porn and prostitution in todays South Africa.
Like Clockwork is available here.
3. Blood Rose
A homeless teenage boy has been gruesomely murdered. Police Profiler Dr Clare Hart is brought into this claustrophobic township in the isolated part of Walvis Bay to work the case. To track down a monster with a taste for young male victims, Clare must enter the world of the desperate street kids who run the rackets of the dock. And Clare welcomes the distraction, a chance to distance herself from her rocky romance with Police Captain Riedwaan Faizal.
But when Riedwaan arrives to help with the investigation and try to salvage their relationship, it is clear that there is more at stake here than just their feelings. Now their lives and the lives of others are in danger.
Blood Rose is available here.
4. Gallows Hill
A woman lies dead in an abandoned shed, but skeletons have lain undisturbed for centuries here at Gallows Hill, where Cape Towns gibbets once stood.
Police profiler Dr Clare Hart soon discovers that a deadly, more recent secret lies hidden among those long-buried bones. Who was the woman in the green silk dress? Who wanted her dead? Who buried her body among these ancient graves?
Gallows Hill is available here.
5. Water Music
A terrified, frozen child is found close to death on an icy Cape Town mountainside. But no-one reported her missing. Where does she come from? Who does she belong to? Profiler Dr Clare Hart is baffled but when a young woman disappears, Clare sees a frightening pattern beginning to emerge.
Rosa is a gifted but troubled young cellist, and her grandfather is at his wits end. Why did she walk out of her music school that day? Where has she gone now?
As winter tightens its grip, Clare must find Rosa and unravel her secrets… all the while carrying a secret of her own.
About the Author
MARGIE ORFORD is a Fulbright Scholar and an award-winning journalist. She is Executive Vice President of South African PEN, and a patron of Rape Crisis.
She has written five Clare Hart novels, and learned many things during her research. A pathologist taught her how to reassemble human remains, a senior ballistics officer taught her how to shoot an AK-47, and the hard-pressed cops working Cape Towns gangland gave her an insight into how young, deprived boys are turned into violent men.
Margie Orford has three daughters and lives in Cape Town, where she is a full-time writer of fiction and non-fiction.
A Letter from the Publisher
We hope you enjoyed this book. We are an independent publisher dedicated to discovering brilliant books, new authors and great storytelling. Please join us at www.headofzeus.com and become part of our community of book-lovers.
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HeadofZeusBooks
The story starts here.
First published in South Africa in 2013 by Jonathan Ball Publishers (Pty) Ltd
First published in the UK in 2014 by Head of Zeus Ltd.
Copyright © Margie Orford, 2013.
The moral right of Margie Orford to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988.
Cover photograph © Joana Kruse/Arcangel Images | Back cover photograph © Squareplum/Shutterstock.com
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. All characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously.
9 7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN (TPBO) 9781781857847
ISBN (E) 9781781857830
Head of Zeus Ltd
Clerkenwell House
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Contents
Cover
Welcome Page
Display Options Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Friday June 15
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Saturday June 16
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Sunday June 17
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Monday June 18
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Tuesday June 19
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Coda
Acknowledgement
About this Book
Reviews
About this Series
About the Author
An Invitation from the Publisher
Copyright