by Tony Park
‘She must have been quite adventurous, your wife, back then.’
He looked at her for a moment as if trying to decide whether she was mocking him, but he rolled his shoulders and nodded. ‘She was. I was. I wonder if she left because she just got bored, with me and my work.’
She saw the pain creeping back into his eyes. Her mother and her best friend said she worked too hard and that was why she didn’t have a husband. She would angrily reply to both of them that she didn’t have a husband because she hadn’t met the right man, not because of some slavish commitment to her job. They painted her as a caricature of the hard-nosed career woman, which, in her mother’s eyes at least, secretly translated to being less of a woman. They were wrong. At least she thought they were wrong. ‘There’s nothing wrong with being dedicated to your work.’
Cameron flipped through the menu, not reading it, but perhaps not wanting to meet her eyes, either. ‘I wonder. You know, she left me for some guy on the internet, an American she’d never even seen in the flesh. What does that say about me?’
She felt a need to put her hand on his, on the table, but she checked herself. ‘I think you need to ask what it says about her.’
He looked up at her now. ‘I thought she was happy. I was wrong. I can’t put all the blame on her for leaving us – me and Jessica. If I wasn’t fulfilling her needs, then I’ve got to shoulder part of the blame, it’s just that …’
Cameron shifted his gaze out over the bay. Kylie wasn’t good at relationships. She hadn’t had one that had lasted more than a couple of months, and had never lived with a man. A woman in human resources had hit on her at an office Christmas party a couple of years back. Kylie had politely declined the invitation to go back to the woman’s flat, and on the way home, alone in a taxi, wondered how many more of her colleagues thought she was a lesbian. ‘Don’t beat yourself up too much.’
He waved his hand in front of his face. ‘It’s nothing. We need to talk about Wellington.’
She was glad he had changed the subject. While it was nice to see him open up a little, she knew she had no real advice to give a man whose wife had left him for a stranger. Oddly, though, she did feel this need to comfort Cameron. She had never felt this way about a work colleague. Perhaps it was because of what they had been through together – it had the effect of creating a bond. Or perhaps it was because she felt that he didn’t really like her, so she had some basic need to make him like her or, at least, respect her.
The waiter returned and Kylie asked for a seafood platter. Cameron said it was a good choice and ordered the same.
Kylie sipped her wine, a Portuguese Lagosta vinho verde. It was cold and crisp. ‘Wellington must still want Luis dead.’
Cameron nodded. ‘Luis is a risk to him alive, because he knows too much.’
Kylie thought about Luis, and how he had behaved in the wake of his wife’s murder. ‘Luis is keeping something from us.’
‘What makes you think that?’ Cameron asked.
‘I know men and different cultures handle grief in different ways, but Luis wasn’t just bottling his emotions, he looked like he was planning something. The look in his eyes wasn’t sad, it was cold.’
‘You think maybe Luis will get word to Wellington somehow that he’s in Mozambique?’
Kylie shrugged. ‘Would he do that, to keep Wellington away from us?’
‘He’s a good guy, but that would be suicidal. Especially if Wellington gets out on bail. That could be what he wants, a showdown.’
‘What we need,’ Kylie said, ‘is to go higher up the food chain in South Africa and find an honest cop we can brief about Wellington and his crimes.’ Their food arrived and Kylie scooped the flesh from a butterflied prawn almost as long as her hand. It was succulent and tasted of garlic and lemon. ‘You … we … can’t keep carrying on like vigilantes.’
Cameron chewed a mouthful of seafood and chased it with beer. ‘I only had to carry on like a vigilante because all you Australians in head office stopped me from running armed security operations underground two years ago. It was after that when Wellington’s operations went from small scale to full production.’
Kylie ignored the criticism. She and Jan had agreed that the armed patrols should cease after a security guard had been wounded in the leg during a brief firefight with a zama zama. Their legal counsel had worried about possible actions against Global Resources. As Jan had said, Global Resources wasn’t in the business of operating a paramilitary force, and the detection, pursuit and arrest of criminals was best left to the police. Kylie had now seen and heard first hand just how reluctant the police were when it came to enforcing the law of the land underground. She had to concede that as unorthodox as Cameron’s previous policies were, and as out-of-step as they were with Global Resources’ corporate culture, they had worked. Three good company men and Luis’s wife had been killed because Wellington had been allowed to expand his underground fiefdom to the point where Cameron had to go to war to stop him.
‘I can see, now, that things are different here in Africa,’ she conceded.
*
They chased the setting sun back to the South African border.
Kylie had drunk two more glasses of wine with her lunch, but Cameron had limited himself to two beers. There were only a few people queuing to get out of Mozambique so there was no need for fixers and bribes. They passed through the South African formalities with equal ease.
The alcohol had relaxed her at first, but now she felt a knot of tension in her chest as they raced back along the N4 and turned left to Barberton. They passed the spot where Sipho and Miriam had been killed and Kylie felt the hot sting of tears.
Cameron glanced at her as she sniffed and cuffed her eyes. She didn’t want to appear weak. She looked over to him. ‘I’m all right,’ she said quietly.
‘You said it yourself earlier today. People deal with grief in different ways. Your tears are a sign of respect.’
She swallowed hard. He reached over and put his hand on hers. There it was again, the touchy-feely thing. He moved it back to the gear stick to change down and overtake a truck, and then returned both hands to the wheel. She wouldn’t have minded if he had put it back again. ‘How do you deal with it, then? You were in the war, weren’t you? In Angola?’
‘How did you know that?’
‘Jan told me. He said you were in special forces, like him.’
He nodded. ‘I was working on a mine at Carltonville, near Johannesburg, and I got drunk the night after call-up came through for national service and decided that if I was going to go into uniform, instead of ending up as a clerk or cook or cannon fodder in the infantry, I’d go all the way and try out for the recce commandos. Jan and I never served together, but he was also on the mines and told me he thought the same way.’
‘Brave.’
He shook his head. ‘Stupid. I saw some things, did some things, in Angola that, well, I don’t like to think about. But to answer your question, I dealt with the deaths of friends in different ways. Sometimes I drank, sometimes I cried and sometimes I went out looking for payback. The truth is that none of it really works. Time is the only thing that helps, and even then there are some things, some people, you can never forget.’
‘Thanks.’
He looked at her, perhaps to see if she was being sarcastic, but she wasn’t.
Darkness descended and they drove on in silence. ‘I have to call Jess.’
‘No worries,’ she said.
Cameron dialled and used the phone’s hands-free. ‘Hello, my girl.’
‘Howzit, Dad?’
‘Fine. I’ll be home in about half an hour.’
‘Cool. I’ve been worried about you. Is Luis all right?’
‘Yes, we saw him safely across the border.’ He winked at Kylie. ‘Do you want me to get a pizza for dinner?’
‘I’ve made lasagne at Mandy’s, Dad. Her mom’s ready to take me home whenever.’
‘That’s lekker. Is there eno
ugh for three?’ He glanced across at her.
Kylie was surprised. Caught off guard she returned his look with raised eyebrows and a shrug of her shoulders. Now that she thought about it, the idea of going back to the hotel and getting the lonely businesswoman’s table for one seemed like a depressing prospect.
‘Ja, I made enough for a couple of nights so there’s plenty. Why? Are you bringing Kylie home?’
‘I’ll just ask her. Do you want to?’
‘Sure. That’d be lekker. Is that the right word?’
Jess laughed. ‘Yes, it is. I’ll get a lift home now and get the table set and see you soon.’
About twenty minutes later they drove past Barberton prison, where Kylie hoped Wellington was safely under lock and key, and then left onto the winding dirt road that climbed up the steep mountainside. A car passed them in the opposite direction and Cameron waved and said it was Jess’s best friend, Mandy, and her mother, Charmaine.
As they turned into the driveway Jessica flung open the front door. A dog barked somewhere nearby. Kylie wondered what sort of pets they had. The girl ran to her father, her arms reaching for him.
‘Hey,’ he said, hugging her. ‘This is a surprise. We’ve only been gone a day. Are you all right?’
‘Dad …’ Jessica pulled her face from his chest and Kylie noticed her eyes were red from crying.
‘What is it?’
‘I didn’t have time to call you. I only just got here myself a few minutes ago. I begged Mandy’s mom to stay, but she said it would be best if I was alone, if it was just the three of us, but I don’t want that. I don’t want to be here.’
‘Jess, calm down. What happened? Let’s go inside so we can talk.’
Kylie smiled at the girl, but she was beginning to feel it was a mistake, her coming to dinner, as it appeared she had walked in on some breaking family crisis. A terrible thought chilled her from the outside in. She hoped Wellington hadn’t escaped, or sent his goons to the house.
‘Dad, I don’t want to go inside the house. Can we just get in your truck, now, and maybe go out to dinner somewhere?’
‘Maybe I should just get back to my hotel, Cameron?’ Kylie said.
‘No, come. We’ve invited you to dinner and Jess has made her famous lasagne and we’re all going to sit down to a nice meal, just as soon as my daughter tells me why she’s acting so crazy all of a sudden.’
‘Dad, I’ll tell you in the car. I can’t go back in there.’
Cameron put his hands on his hips and turned to face Jessica. ‘For heaven’s sake, why not?’
Beyond him, Kylie could see movement and a woman with short-cropped peroxided hair and dark eyes appeared in the doorway.
Jessica sighed. ‘Because Mom’s back.’
23
‘I can’t deal with this, I’m going to Mandy’s. They only just left and I’m getting them to turn around and come get me. You deal with her.’ Jessica had her cellphone to her ear as she ran down the driveway and onto the access road.
‘Jessica!’
‘Leave her, Cameron.’ Tania came to him, then looked at Kylie. ‘Found someone new already?’
‘I …’ She had no damn right to be snide with him. She had run away and left them. ‘This is my boss from Australia, Dr Kylie Hamilton.’
‘I should go,’ Kylie said.
‘No,’ Cameron said, trying to gain control of his feelings and the situation.
‘Ag, babe, please forgive me.’ Tania sniffed and came to him, wrapping her arms around him.
He couldn’t do the same. He stood there, arms by his side, trembling. She couldn’t do this to Jessica, or to him.
‘Please don’t be so cold. Please don’t reject me, Cameron. I’m begging you.’
Reject her? She had left with barely a word, and now her plan must have backfired on her. ‘Please,’ she sobbed into his chest.
He prised her away from him and looked at Kylie, who looked embarrassed. ‘I’ll take you back to the hotel.’
‘I can manage. Perhaps I can call a driver.’
‘No, I’ll do it. This is South Africa, not Australia, you can’t just whistle up a cab.’
He held Tania at arm’s length. ‘I’ll be back.’
She sniffed and he looked briefly into her eyes. There were no tears. He turned his back on her and walked to the Toyota. Kylie followed in his footsteps.
Tania stood in the driveway of her empty house, arms folded. He slumped in the driver’s seat and turned the ignition.
‘I could take the truck,’ Kylie said, ‘and come back and pick you up tomorrow.’
He shook his head and reversed out, not looking at his wife. ‘No, I need space … air. I feel like I’m drowning. I know how Jess feels. I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be.’
As they set off, Cameron called Mandy’s mother, Charmaine, on his cellphone.
‘I’ve just turned around and picked up Jess halfway down the hill. What should I do, Cameron? Should I take her back to my place?’ Charmaine asked.
‘Yes, please. I don’t have to tell you it’s complicated. I’m still going on that business trip to Zambia I told you about, so if you’re happy to look after her while I’m gone, maybe she can meet her mother on neutral ground somewhere.’
‘I don’t want to see her anywhere,’ Cameron heard Jess say in the background.
‘Shame. But, ja, OK,’ Charmaine said. ‘I’m still fine with looking after Jess while you’re away.’
‘Baie dankie, Charmaine.’
After that he drove in silence, down the winding access road, through the near empty streets of Barberton, out past the mines to the turn-off to the Consort mine and the Diggers’ Retreat. He turned left into the hotel’s driveway and down the long lane to the accommodation area and guests’ car park. Kylie looked across at him.
‘Thanks,’ she said. ‘It’s been a hell of a day. What do you want to do about the trip to Zambia?’
His head drooped. ‘Wellington’s in prison, Jess is with her friend and I’ve got a wife at home I don’t want to talk to. I’m still coming. I have to.’
‘Look, Cameron, it’s none of my business, but if your work contributed to the problems with your marriage, then you should stay here and sort things out with your wife. I can get one of the guys from the Johannesburg office or maybe Chris to come with me.’
‘I could use another drink.’
She opened her door. ‘Well, I can’t tell you what to do, but if you want to come into the bar, it’s my shout. My round, that is.’
He opened the driver’s door and got out.
Kylie led the way through the hotel’s empty lounge room and reception and into the Hangman’s Tree bar.
A couple of locals who worked at Fairview mine nodded to him. That was the problem with this place: everyone knew him, and everyone knew his business. It wouldn’t be long before they all knew that Tania was back. She would be the talk of the small town – again. ‘Let’s go out back,’ he said.
Kylie nodded and they went outside and took a table under the thatched lapa by the side of the swimming pool. A waitress in her late teens came over. ‘What’ll it be?’
‘Brandy and coke,’ he said.
‘Gin and tonic, please,’ Kylie said.
He sat there, in silence, and nodded his thanks to the girl when she brought the drinks. He didn’t know what to say to Kylie, or if he should say anything at all. Kylie was right, it was none of her business, but he had no one else he could talk to, no one else he could tell how he really felt, about Tania leaving and now coming back. He looked across the table at her and she gave a small smile, but said nothing, as if waiting for him to fill the void.
‘I feel guilty,’ he said at last.
‘About her leaving you?’
‘Yes.’
‘No one’s perfect, Cameron.’ She sat her glass down on the table and smiled again. When she dropped the corporate routine she was very attractive. He knew she didn’t understand what he meant, an
d wondered if he should explain further.
He was sure that she thought he was about to reveal all to her, and tell her what a lousy husband he had been, neglecting his wife in favour of the mine, perhaps having an affair with one of the girls in the office or sleeping with hookers when he was away at mining conferences.
‘I do spend too much time at work. I know it. Tania didn’t like it. She hated the hours, hated Barberton. She was brought up in Sandton, Johannesburg. Her parents are loaded; you saw the Hippo Rock house and that was just for weekends and holidays. We met when we were both on holiday in Thailand. I was an ex-soldier and a miner and she was a kugel, a rich Johannesburg princess. Back home she wouldn’t have said hello to me, but we were two South Africans abroad and we had a holiday romance and Jess was the result of it. Tania thought having a child would define her spoiled existence, but the truth was she resented our daughter, and me, for taking her away from what would have been a life of luxury and parties and big houses.’
Kylie nodded, as though she understood the scenario.
He took a long sip of his drink. ‘When she left, to go hook up with this oke from America she’d met on the computer, I couldn’t believe it. I realised I’d been so neglectful of her, but how could she leave Jess?’
He exhaled and wrapped both hands around his glass, looking down into the liquor then up at her again. ‘I know what a lot of people in town were saying. Tania could be the life of the party, and she was, well … flirty.’
‘Did you suspect her of being unfaithful?’
He looked into her eyes and mulled over the question. ‘For a while I did, but, no, I don’t think she ever was unfaithful, before this business with the internet guy. I confronted her once and she said she had wanted to be, but she hadn’t because she was worried that in such a small town people would talk and she couldn’t keep it a secret.’
‘Believe me, I know about mining towns and sexual gossip.’
He took another drink. ‘So, finally, she meets this guy on the internet and decides the only way she can escape me, escape Barberton, and even poor Jessica, is to leave the country. It was crazy.’
