An African Adventure (Vince Hamilton Private Investigator Book 4)

by Patrick Slaney

  I was sitting in the comfort of Business Class as the Inspector said that I could afford the luxury as he was paying for the seat.

  'I am travelling on business,' I replied.

  'What business are you in?' he asked.

  'I am a researcher for a media company.' I had used this answer before and found that it explained how I spent my time perfectly adequately.

  'That sounds like an interesting job. Does it take you all around the world?'

  'Yes, and I never know where I will be asked to go next.'

  'My name is Johan Nel; I am glad to meet you.'

  'I'm Vince Hamilton.' I shook his hand. 'Are you also travelling on business?'

  'Yes; I was in the UK for the past ten days and I am returning home to Johannesburg. I am in the legal profession.'

  I wanted to ask him why he had been in the UK, but I decided that he probably wouldn't tell me if I asked.

  'Have you been to South Africa before?'

  'Yes, I was in the country on a few occasions around two years ago. I was very busy and didn't get much of an opportunity to see the sights but I did get to Cape Town.'

  'Where are you planning to go to this time?' he asked me.

  'I am starting in Johannesburg, where I am booked into a hotel in Sandton. I will then be going to East London in the Eastern Cape,' I replied.

  'You will enjoy East London; it is a very unspoilt town with the only major industry being the Mercedes factory. You should make sure that you stay at the Holiday Inn on the seafront. It is only one hundred meters from the Indian Ocean.'

  'Is there a good road between East London and Johannesburg?' I decided that I should find out as much about the place as I could since Mr Nel was in a talkative mood.

  'There is a great road between Johannesburg and Bloemfontein which is a distance of around four hundred kilometres. After that the road is quite narrow and bumpy; you need to drive very carefully as the natives don't drive too responsibly. The total distance is about one thousand kilometres. Are you seriously planning on driving there?'

  'I'd like to drive if I can so as I can get a better look at the countryside.'

  'Well, I wouldn't recommend driving the full distance on the same day as it is a long way on poor roads. It would be much better if you break the journey up by stopping for the night in Bloemfontein.'

  'Thank you for that advice, I might just do that.'

  In fact I would probably be following a truck carrying one or even two twenty foot containers and unless they stopped, I couldn't.

  Our meal arrived so our conversation came temporarily to a halt. The Air Stewardess kept our glasses full of a very pleasant South African red wine.

  To finish off our meal we decided to have a glass of Port with the cheese. It never ceases to surprise me how much more I tend to drink when I am imbibing with somebody else.

  'I don't think that you are a researcher at all Vince,' Johan Nel said to me when we resumed our conversation. 'You are definitely not the academic type and I am usually a good judge of character.'

  His remark surprised me and for a moment, I didn't know how to reply.

  After a period of thought, I answered him; 'I do research for a division of the London Metropolitan police and not a media company.' I decided to tell him a half-truth.

  'So do you work for the police?'

  'In an indirect way I do, but they do not employ me. I work on a freelance basis.' The large amount of wine I had drunk was making me less cautious. I had probably said too much already.

  'So what are you going to research in East London?' he asked me. 'I wouldn't have thought there was much going on in that part of the world that would interest the English police.'

  'I am afraid that I can't tell you more than I have said already. My work is confidential,' I replied.

  'Sorry, I shouldn't have asked you that. I overstepped the mark there. I apologise?'

  'No that is fine, you weren't to know it was confidential,' I added. 'I am going to try and get some sleep now so as I arrive moderately refreshed in the morning.'

  'I will follow your example. It was good talking to you. You have a fascinating job.'

  For some reason, I felt very uneasy and just hoped that I hadn't said too much to Mr Nel. He said that he was in the legal profession but hadn't said what part of the legal world he was associated with. He had quite quickly worked out that I was an Investigator working for the police. I decided not to reveal anything more to him.

  We were woken up with about one hour of the journey remaining. I had slept surprisingly well. Probably a result of the wine and Port that I had drunk.

  'Good morning Vince,' Johan Nel said, with a cheery smile on his face.

  'Good morning Johan; did you get any sleep?'

  'Yes thank you, I always sleep well on a plane. I'll be back in a minute; I must go to the toilet.'

  He set off towards the front of the aircraft and the toilet. I decided to use the opportunity to go as well. Once he returned and was seated, he would block my exit so I didn't want to disturb him once he got settled again.

  Back in our seats, the Air Steward on the section brought us our breakfasts.

  'Have you got a busy day ahead of you Vince?' Johan asked me.

  'I have nothing planned, how about you?'

  'Since I have been away for ten days my work will have backed up so I will have to go into the office even though it is a Sunday,' he replied.

  'Is your office in the Johannesburg area?'

  'No, I am based in Pretoria, which is the main legal centre for South Africa.'

  'I have never been into the city of Pretoria, as the main road travels around the outside. I don't know the city,' I commented.

  'At this time of the year it can be quite cold in the mornings, but it generally warms up to around eighteen degrees by lunchtime.'

  'I forgot that it is nearly midwinter down here at the moment as we are now in the southern hemisphere.' Up to that point, it hadn't crossed my mind that I would be arriving in the South African winter. I hope that the clothes I had packed would be adequate for the low temperatures I would experience.

  'As I mentioned last night, you will find East London a lot warmer.'

  The captain announced that the crew should go to their seats for landing as we would be arriving in ten minutes. I stopped talking and concentrated on watching the landing from my window seat. I never failed to be impressed by how they could put a plane of this size down so gently on the runway. This landing was no exception; the pilot touched down without any bumps or rattles.

  The flight had taken just over twelve hours and the local time was 8.30am. It was the start of another adventure in an alien environment. From now on I must be on my guard.

  I shook hands with Johan Nel as we left the aircraft to enter the terminal building. He had been good company; however, I didn't expect that I would ever meet him again.

  There was quite a long queue at the Hertz desk and it took me about twenty minutes to get the keys of my Toyota five-door Landcruiser SUV. I had picked the largest and most robust vehicle that they had in their fleet. Nobody was going to force me off the road.

  I had no problem finding my way to the Holiday Inn at Sandton. I remembered the route from my previous visit to the city and being a Sunday; the roads were clear of traffic. Sandton was also well sign-posted.

  When I was signed in and safely in my room, I telephoned Dale Fortuin.

  'Hi Dale, how are you,' I said when he answered his mobile.

  'I'm good; I was waiting for your call so I am glad you didn’t waste any time in getting in touch with me.'

  'Can you come and see me at the Holiday Inn in Sandton so as we can discuss what you can do to help me?'

  'When do you want to see me?' he asked.

  'If you are free, can you come now?'

  'Yes, I will borrow my mother's car and come straight over.'

  'I'll see you in about thirty minutes then Dale. Ask for room number 315 at reception.'r />
  'Will do.'

  I hung up my clothes and tidied up the room prior to his arrival.

  While I waited for Dale, I put a call through to Reggie in Kenya. He wasn't in his room so I asked them to pass on a message to him asking him to telephone me.

  Half-an-hour later there was a knock on the door. When I opened it Dale was standing there.

  The last time I had met him was over a year ago when he had just been released from the high-security prison. He was obviously now eating well as he had put on a lot of weight, not that he looked fat, but he had filled out.

  I was surprised when he gave me a welcoming hug.

  'It's great to see you again Major Hamilton, I owe so much to you. In fact, I owe my whole life to you. I would be still rotting in prison if you hadn't proved that I hadn't killed my brother and got a confession from the person who did it.'

  'After I first met you at Leeuwkop prison, I was sure that you were innocent and I was lucky enough to be able to prove it. Unfortunately, it didn't bring your brother back, but at least, you were cleared of his murder.'

  I could see that there was a tear in Dale's eye as he recalled his twin brother.

  'When you asked if I would help you with your current case I was delighted to offer my services. What do you want me to do?'

  'I plan on being in South Africa for at least two weeks and I would like you to travel with me and act as my back-up.'

  'When you say back-up what do you mean by that?' Dale asked me.

  'I like to have somebody with me who I can bounce ideas off,' I explained. 'It is also important that someone is watching my back in every situation where I am getting close to the enemy. Occasionally, if we are conducting a stakeout, you will be asked to keep watch while I sleep and vice versa.'

  'It sounds interesting. Do you think that I will be able to do it?'

  'You are perfect for the role. You are certainly strong enough and you also have the motivation to succeed after what happened to you.'

  'I certainly want to help you catch the bad guys.' Dale sounded very enthusiastic.

  'Okay Dale, pin back your ears and let me tell you what has been happening so far and why I have ended up in Johannesburg.'

  I spent the next forty minutes telling him about the gang that were stealing luxury cars in London and how we had tracked the containers holding the cars to Mombasa and East London. I told him there was another team tracking the containers in Kenya and Uganda and we would therefore only have to concentrate on South Africa.

  'So do you know who is in charge at the South African end?' he interrupted me.

  'Yes, a man called Hansie Joubert is the big boss. He is a shipping agent and his offices are in the Sandton area.'

  'So where do you think the containers will be taken when they arrive in East London?'

  'I don't know but I do know the date that they will arrive so we can follow them when they leave the port on a truck or a train.'

  'When do you expect the ship to arrive?'

  'The containers we are interested in are on a vessel named the Johannes Maersk, which will arrive in Durban on Tuesday. 'I am expecting the ship to arrive in East London on Thursday so we need to be there by then. The vessel may be delayed and arrive on Friday; It depends on how quickly they can offload in Durban.'

  'It all sounds fascinating. I just hope that I don't let you down.'

  'You'll be okay Dale and I'll try and look after you.'

  'Are we doing anything today?' he asked.

  'No, I am planning on relaxing and doing some serious thinking.'

  'My parents said that they would like to meet you as they didn't have the opportunity to thank you for what you did on my behalf. They told me to ask you to come for lunch if you are free.'

  'That sounds like a good idea provided you will excuse me if I inadvertently doze off after not sleeping very much last night.'

  'That's great. I will phone my mother to let her know that you are coming and then we can head over there.'

  While Dale was telephoning his mother the 'phone beside my bed rang.

  I picked it up and heard a familiar voice.

  'Hi Vince,' Reggie said.

  'Hi Reg; how are things in Mombasa?'

  'So far everything is going well. They have offloaded the three containers and they are in a holding area right beside where the ship docked. I left John keeping watch with the listening device.'

  'How do you know that they are the containers that you should be following?'

  ‘We used a pair of binoculars to get the serial numbers of one of them. I did telephone the tracking centre in London but they told me that they had gone out of range and weren’t registering on their computer.'

  ‘You’ll just have to hope that you got the right number and are following the correct containers.'

  'Vince, we will keep watch on the container depot until they are loaded on trucks to take them further. Both John and I have Toyota Landcruisers, so we will follow the containers until we know where they are going.'

  'That’s perfect Reggie. It sounds like a simpler job than the last one I gave you searching for a motorbike.'

  'It is much easier to track something as big as a twenty-foot container that is painted sky blue.' He sounded in good form and in control of what was going on.

  'I won't be at the hotel for the next few hours Reg as I am going out. If you need me, phone me back at the hotel after 3.00pm. I'll then make sure that I stay around the hotel until the morning.'

  'I'll talk to you later Vince.'

  He ended the call.

  'I presume that was your man in Mombasa?' Dale commented.

  'Yes, that is Reggie, who is up there with a police officer named John Griffiths.'

  'Are they having much success?'

  'Yes, it appears to be all going to plan although the containers can no longer be tracked from London. Let's go and see your parents Dale.'

  I followed him to his house which was in nearby Bryanston. I brought my car to save him bringing me back to the hotel later in the afternoon.

  Chapter 20

  Dale had a remote to open the gate as the house he lived in with his parents was situated at the end of a long driveway. With the security situation in Johannesburg, it was essential to have perimeter protection, and the Fortuin's had a large metal gate and a high fence. It was also considered dangerous to have to get out of your car to open the gate, hence the remote operation.

  We parked in the front yard, and he showed me the way into the house. His parents were sitting expectantly in the lounge that overlooked the pool and the back garden. They stood up as we entered the room.

  'Major Hamilton it is so good to finally meet you,' Dale's dad came towards me and shook my hand. 'My name is Dougie, and this is my wife, Michele.' He swept his hand towards his wife who I approached to shake her hand.

  'Please call me Vince, it's a long time now since I left the army and I wonder what I have done wrong if somebody calls me Major.' I smiled at them.

  'Dale has told us a lot about you, and we are forever in your debt for the way you managed to get him out of prison when everyone else had given up,' Michele said. 'He has also told us that you have asked him to help you in your present investigation. It all sounds very exciting.'

  'I hope that it won't be too exciting, but I needed someone to help me, and I immediately thought of Dale. He is what I call battle hardened.'

  'Are you able to tell us what you are investigating?' Dougie asked. 'Is it to do with diamonds again?'

  'No, it has nothing to do with diamonds. In fact, it is very mundane and entails tracking twenty-foot shipping containers from the time they arrive in East London in the Eastern Cape, until they reach their final destination, wherever that might be.'

  'I think that even I can manage to follow a twenty-foot container,' Dale chipped in.

  'I assume that it is what is inside the container that you are interested in,' Dale's father, Dougie, commented. 'It must be very valuable for
you to have come all this way.'

  I decided that there was no risk of giving them more information and, the more they knew, would put their minds at rest regarding their son's involvement. I told them how luxury cars were being stolen in London, being boxed up in the containers and finally being shipped to South Africa. I also explained how we were tracking the containers using GPS devices, or we had been until they moved into the Southern Hemisphere.

  'So you think that the cars are being sold in South Africa and probably in Johannesburg?' Michele asked.

  'Yes, there is a shipping agent involved who has his offices in Sandton. All the indications are that he is the big boss of the operation. Knowing that he is based in Johannesburg makes me reasonably confident that the cars are ending up here.'

  'There is nowhere in Sandton to store containers,' Dale offered.

  'It's more likely that the containers would end up in Midrand somewhere,' Dale's Dad offered.

  'All will be revealed as the investigation progresses,' I said. 'The ship isn't scheduled to arrive in East London until the end of this week, so I have plenty of time to find out.

  The maid came to announce that dinner was ready and was on the table. We relocated to the dining area, and the conversation changed to more general stuff about Johannesburg and the current political and security situation in the country.

  We were sitting down in the lounge with our coffee after an excellent meal when Dale's father made a suggestion.

  'Vince, I have been thinking about what you said regarding the shipping agent, and I may be able to help. I run a roofing business, and I have to import various materials from time to time. My suggestion is that I go and talk to the shipping agent on the pretext that I am interested in him handling my imports. I can then find out where he stores his containers and as much other information as I can garner.'

  'Would you do that for us?'

  'Of course, I will. It is the least I can do for returning our son to us.'

  'That would be a huge help. The name of the company is Natal Shipping Agents, and the Director is a man called Hansie Joubert.'

  'I will make a point of going to see him tomorrow morning, and I will then come and see you to pass on the information.'