As Lisa looked up at him and he locked eyes with her he instantly knew that she needed to leave Johannesburg. The violence was destroying her gentle soul.
“Okay, Mikey. I’ll wait… and we do need to talk.”
Night viewed himself in the mirror of the bathroom and with perfect clarity he knew what he had to do.
He returned to the bedroom to find Lisa sitting at the small table she used in the morning to put her moderate amount of make up on each day before work. She gestured for him to join her. Night sat and smiled, just the sight of her filled him with joy.
She eyed his body thoughtfully.
“I hadn’t noticed until now but you’re looking well, Mike. You’re looking fit!” she said as she playfully poked him in his hard stomach with a finger.
Night laughed and caught her finger and then twisted her arm, without hurting her, so that she had to twist her body into his. He caught her and gazed down into her face as she landed safely in his lap.
She laughed for a while and then suddenly stopped and sat up.
Both of them opened their mouth to speak but then noticing the other wanted to do the same they both fell silent. This happened once more before Night put his hand up.
“We need to call it off, Lisa. Just for now at least.”
She stared at him for a long moment and Night had the uncomfortable feeling that she was searching his mind. Lisa had always had the ability to know what Night was feeling and thinking sometimes even before he was fully aware of his own feelings.
“Yes. We do. And it’s not just all the crime and what happened to us here, what happened to Wamba… how is he by the way?”
Night then told her about Wamba and the farm on Ermelo and the traditional Zulu medicine that had brought him back from the brink of death and about Nandi, the Sweet One. He left out the part about nearly being killed by Dingiswayo.
“Oh, how wonderful, Mikey! Our boy has a girl!” Her eyes lit up at the news and she punched the air in excitement.
The pair fell silent for a while before Night’s curiosity pressed him on.
“What other reasons can there be, I mean, I thought the only reasons you were going to Cape Town was because of the crime and what had happened?”
“So you know about Cape Town?”
Night just nodded.
“The break in was our breaking point, Mike. My parents and I have been very worried about things for a long time but we just kept on going, and of course we all felt much safer having you here and then of course having Wamba. You know I was talking about it with my parents the other evening and we all admitted to ourselves that we kind of saw Wamba as being indestructible, you know like some kind of magic beast that would protect us from all evil. Childish I know, but then when it happened that illusion of total safety was shattered. And as you know it nearly pushed my mom over the edge…”
“She seems much better to me?” said Night hopefully.
“Well, why do you think that is?”
Night shrugged his shoulders, he hadn’t thought about it.
“Because of you, silly. You’re back. And that there is the very problem. You had to leave on whatever business you had with… with that man…” Lisa suddenly looked angry.
“Who? Amos?”
“Yes, Mike. Amos Arosi, great General of Johannesburg. You left on his orders to God knows where, Wamba was, well what we thought was dying, and we were all alone. My dad’s no fighter… anyway, it’s not fair on you either, you can’t be with us all the time and my parents aren’t getting any younger…”
“I thought you liked, Amos?”
“I do, or at least I did… he’s a lot more dangerous than you think, Michael. Anyway this isn’t about him. Work has also become very difficult for me.. you know it’s becoming quite toxic at radio control. People are getting jobs and promotions based only on the strength of who they know or who their families know. Some of them can’t even read and write properly…”
Night realised just how disillusioned Lisa had become, not only with the crime situation in Johannesburg but with the corruption and flagrant nepotism in almost all spheres of business, both private and government.
“I can buy us a house now” Night blurted out feebly.
Lisa now looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“So you don’t really think we should break it off?”
“No, not now that I can provide an alternative…”
Lisa seemed to consider his words for some time before saying:
“No, Mike, and I’m not even going to ask you about how you have come into such an amount of money, for the moment anyway. But it’s decided and it’s for the best, for my parents and for myself, in the long run. We’re moving to Cape Town, my parents have sold this place and with a little bit of my help we can get something smaller but safer, perhaps a townhouse in a security complex under the mountain. I’ve always dreamed of that and I’ve even found a new position .”
“So you’re serious then.”
“Seriously serious, Mike. We leave at the end of the week.”
Lisa’s last words caught Night like Nandi’s shin to his jaw but it wasn’t her final blow and Night watched in what seemed like slow motion as she removed her engagement ring and dropped it into his lap. Lisa van der Westhuizen, the love of Night’s life, then stood, kissed him on the head and left the room. Leaving Night sitting there, half naked and speechless.
Night didn’t consciously remember dressing or packing up his few belongings that he kept at Lisa’s place. He wasn’t aware of the drive to Norwood station either. And he had no idea that after leaving her bedroom Lisa went upstairs to her mom and cried in her lap until she fell asleep.
Night switched off the Lumina’s engine after pulling into the Norwood police station parking lot and closed his eyes. He was exhausted, emotionally and mentally.
A sharp knock on his window jerked him back to the present and while automatically reaching one hand for his weapon he turned to see young Steven Dlamini at his window. He rolled it down.
“Good morning, CAPPY!” the young man then stood to attention and gave his best parade ground salute.
“Morning, Dlamini.”
“Guess what, Cappy?”
“What, Dlamini?”
“November Whisky Fifty is back!” the student then held up the keys to the vehicle.
“Where the hell did you get those?”
The young student constable now looked very pleased with himself as he explained to Night that after booking off road duty yesterday he had ‘bribed’ the logistics officer with lunch for a week to make sure that the windshield was fixed that day. He then explained how he had personally driven the LO to the state garage in his vehicle and then had further ‘bribed’ the state mechanics to fit the new windshield as they waited.
“Then the LO drove November Whisky Fifty back to the station and I followed!”
Night was truly impressed. To appease the young man he had suggested that they may get the vehicle back in working order in a couple of days but he didn’t believe that for a second. Night was planning on leaving it for at least a week or two before following it up with logistics, knowing full well that it could take as long as a month or two to get the car back. Then again Night realised he’d never before been in a position to pay such ‘bribes’.
“Bet that five hundred I gave you is about gone then?”
“Yep, but it was worth it, Cappy! By the way can I borrow…”
“Ask Shaka, I’m sure he will happily reimburse you for your... activities.”
“Cool, Cappy. Should I bring it around to the front?”
“Do you want to die today? You know what Sergeant Shaka will do to you if he sees you driving his beloved Beast. And you’ve already escaped his wrath once!”
Dlamini then made a show of looking at his wrist watch.
“It’s not even seven yet, Cappy. That big tree doesn’t get out of bed until 0730.”
Night realised how much ea
rlier than usual he had arrived at the station after waking from that dream… nightmare. He suddenly forgot which was the dream and which part of the morning in Lisa’s room was reality.
“In that case, Dlamini. Go get the vehicle and bring it here, you can then take us for breakfast, on me.”
Steven Dlamini then stood to attention once more and saluted.
“Captain, my Captain!”
The aspiring police constable then disappeared from view as he jogged off and entered the station.
Despite himself Night smiled, briefly, if anything that young man’s positive outlook on life was infectious.
Chapter Fifteen
Fifteen minutes later and the Captain and his student sat at the local MacDonald’s. Night was no fan of the food but the coffee was strong and the view of Louis Botha avenue tactically advantageous. Besides the fact that nothing else was open yet. Dlamini polished off his meal in no time. Night hardly touched his food, focusing more on his second coffee.
“Captain, may I ask you a question?”
“Sure” Night said as he pinched the bridge of his noise with his two forefingers with his hands shaped in the prayer position, perhaps subconsciously entreating for an easy interrogation.
“Um, I’m not really sure how to say this, and I hope you don’t think I’m weird or anything but I’ve been having this dream, almost every night now..”
Night put his hand up to interrupt the student.
“Let me guess… your weapon won’t fire, or it fires blanks or you can’t pull the trigger?”
“What the… how did you know. But it’s not exactly like that. I can’t cock it!?”
“Same thing. A lot of policemen, soldiers, armed security contractors, you name it have the same kind of variation of the dream. Why do you think Sergeant Shaka carries that big knife of his? Yes, he tells everyone it’s because he is a proud Zulu warrior but I remember him bringing in on duty only a few days or so after he told me he was having the same dream. It’s normal, nothing to worry about.”
“Will it pass, I mean, did it pass for the Sergeant? And will I ever be able to cock it in real life?”
“Oddly enough the day Shaka brought his big bloody knife with him on duty we made contact with some house robbers and Shaka emptied his entire clip, he didn’t hit much, mind you but after that his policeman’s dream stopped. Now answer me this: can you cycle your weapon in real life?”
“Ja, of course! Look!” Dlamini then went for his weapon on his waist to demonstrate to his Captain.
“Not in here, man! Of course you can do it in real life, and of course I know you can. It will pass after your first proper contact, when you fire back for the first time.”
“Oh, so I’m normal then?”
“I wouldn’t go that far, but yes, it’s common.”
Dlamini smiled and nodded to himself happily.
“That’s good Cappy, I was starting to think I was a square head or something!”
“Let’s finish up and get back to the station, I’m sure the Sergeant and Warrant will be waiting for us.”
“Let’s do it, Cappy. I need a proper shootout already so that I can stop having this stupid dream!”
There was more that Night wanted to discuss with the young man. Dlamini had experienced a lot for such a new officer – the death of a fellow student, the shooting in the vehicle and all the dead bodies from his first eventful week on shift. Though if it was affecting the young man in any significant way he certainly hid it well. That talk could wait until after his first contact, Night decided. If the young man managed to pull the trigger, a lot of cops never did, and if he survived it, of course, he would have another chat with the young man.
At Norwood Police Station Night pulled November Whisky Fifty into an empty parking space next to his own vehicle and enjoyed the surprised look on Sergeant Shaka’s face as he walked up to the vehicle.
Shaka circled the double cab once while seemingly inspecting every inch of it before coming around to Night’s driver’s window. Night smiled to himself as he noticed that Dlamini hadn’t immediately vacated the front passenger seat to take up his normal position in the back. Shaka impatiently knocked on the window. Night, very slowly, rolled down the window.
“Get in” said Night.
Shaka stared at him with a scowl on his face for a few moments before speaking.
“What do you mean get in, you must get out first, so that I can get in!”
Night noticed Kalahari walk up from behind Shaka and smile at him as he realised what Night was doing.
“Change of plans, Sergeant, you’re fourth crew. I thought it would be a good experience for the youngster to ride shotgun today.”
Dlamini’s eyes widened at the possibility of Night’s words and Shaka looked as though he might explode as Kalahari got into the rear passenger seat behind Night and then chipped in.
“Zulu, my favourite Sergeant, should I slide over or do you want to sit behind second crew, Dlamini?”
Shaka pointedly ignored the Warrant Officer’s last words and slightly tilted his head at Night while a small smile spread across his lips.
“If I remember correctly, Captain Night, your authorisation has expired, hasn’t it?”
Night looked at his friend quizzically while trying to remember if his authorisation to drive state vehicles had indeed expired. Unsure Night pulled out his driver’s license from his wallet and smiled to himself as he saw that it indeed had.
“Nope, I’m good for another three months…” and made to put his license back in his wallet but Shaka had snatched it out of his hand and read the expiry date out loud pointing out that the date on the license had passed three weeks earlier.
Now the tables were turned and Kalahari got stuck in.
“By the way, Captain, who drove this state vehicle this morning?”
Shaka boomed out his laughter as Night grabbed his license back from his friend and exited the vehicle and looked at Kalahari.
“Quiet from the peanut gallery please, Warrant. I was only joking anyway, Sergeant.”
Shaka began pressing the point jokingly, saying that he was going to fine Night for his rule violation when the words “Any November Whisky for an alpha complaint come in for control?” came over the police radio.
Dlamini picked up the mic and told control to send for November Whisky Fifty.
“Thank you, November Whisky Fifty, I have a complaint of fighting at the Wanderers Hotel opposite the cricket ground, I’ve been trying to give it out for over an hour now, and the complainant keeps on phoning, but no vehicles have responded. Please attend and are you booking off duty from night shift or are you booking on for day shift? And if you are booking on please give me your zero one.”
Dlamini looked to Night for guidance.
“Take it and book us on, looks like you’re second crew for this first call, Dlamini. Shaka, Warrant, let’s roll!”
Night ran around to the third crew’s position while Shaka got in and adjusted the seat, moving it so far back to accommodate his huge frame that Kalahari had to hold up his hand to stop its backwards momentum before the seat smacked into his legs.
“Steady on there, big man.”
“Sorry, it’s just that I’m not used to having little people drive my girl.”
Seven minutes later and November Whisky Fifty pulled into the driveway of the Wanderer’s Hotel.
“Control, November Whisky Fifty, break at Wanderer’s Hotel” said Dlamini.
Shaka parked the vehicle right outside the main entrance and as the police officers disembarked they were met by a smartly dressed night manager.
“Where the hell have you guys been? Sleeping no doubt! I first called you over two hours ago! Bloody useless…”
The night manager didn’t wait for a response but instead turned on his heel and walked off back into the hotel assuming the police would obediently follow, they didn’t.
Dlamini wanted to trail the man but was held back by Night.
/> “That’s not how we do things, Dlamini.”
The man disappeared into the hotel through some revolving doors and took a few moments to reappear looking confused and angry in equal measure.
“Well, are you bloody well coming?!”
Shaka took a few steps towards the hotel employee before coming to a halt and pointing to the ground in front of him.
“Come here and explain to us, calmly, what is happening in your establishment?”
Dlamini was surprised to see the night manager almost mechanically obey the large Sergeant’s commands and walk to the spot indicated.
“Forgive my bad manners..” said the man who then stood on his tip toes apparently trying to get a look at the policeman’s epilates to identify his rank..
“Sergeant… is it?”
“That’s correct.”
“Thank you, Sergeant. As I said please do forgive my short temper. It has been a very long night, what with the cricket match played across the road yesterday, and the noisy British louts in the bar.”
The man then took a deep breath, obviously trying to calm himself down.
“No problem… Jerry” said Shaka reading the man’s name tag “and rest assured that we have literally just booked on to duty so we have not been late in our response. And I am sure my Captain over there… will investigate why it is that the night shift failed to come to your call for assistance. Now tell us what happened or indeed what is happening, I presume it’s to do with these ‘British louts?’”
“It is, Sergeant…”
Jerry the night manager then went on to explain how after the England team had thrashed the South Africans in a One Day International the previous afternoon the travelling ‘Barmy Army’ as he called them had ‘invaded’ the hotel’s bar and were now well into their drinks and had refused to leave the bar upon its closing time of six o’clock. Night noticed that Kalahari was casually leaning against November Whisky Fifty while listening to the man’s story while enjoying an early morning apple and Night smiled to himself as he saw Dlamini walk over and mimic the Warrant Officer’s stance, apparently unimpressed with the petty call. Night realised that the controller, desperate to get the complaint off his computer screen before booking off duty had once again taken another controller liberty and escalated the complaint from a disturbance of the peace to one of fighting, Night probably would have done the same, knowing full well that no night shift about to book off duty would want to deal with such a complaint that could get very messy and time consuming. It could involve many petty arrests and lots of paperwork, something that got even more complicated when international visitors to the country were involved.
Night In London (Night Series Book 2) Page 18
