CHAPTER SEVEN

Yekani was pacing nervously up and down in his office when we arrived. His face was ashen; he looked as if he had aged twenty years since we last saw him.

'I just had a call from the Botanical Gardens in Ruimsig. A six year old blonde boy disappeared from a day care outing; you need to get out there post haste.' He looked at us one by one.' I don't need to tell you how much panic and negative publicity this will cause. We have to eat, sleep and drink this case, these children must be found.'

Sam nodded in agreement. 'We will find these bastards sir, that I promise.' He quickly filled Yekani in on our new developments. He held his head in despair when Sam told him that whatever was on the go had an end point in our opinion, and that was two weeks tops.

'In fact,' I added, 'this may well be it. They may have accelerated the process now that their delay tactics have failed.'

We were all quiet on the way to the Gardens, which was also situated in the western part of the city. I could not help thinking that was a clue in itself. All three abductions and Bonnte's murder had occurred within a twenty kilometre radius. Whoever was responsible lived or operated in this area and I filed the thought away for later discussion with the team.

The Walter Sisulu Botanical Garden is a nature lover's paradise. It consists of a mosaic of grassland and savannah with dense bush and more than six hundred indigenous plant species. I have been there many times to just sit on one of the benches and enjoy the beautiful flowers and greenery and watch the birds revelling in one of the few natural African reserves left in the city. Almost two hundred different birds have been identified over the years in the garden. The Witpoortjie waterfall forms a backdrop to this little Garden of Eden and the mountains surrounding it are home to the rare Verreaux's Black Eagles. There is a telescope which is placed strategically just off the falls where, on a lucky day, you can spot the eagles returning to their nests. I have seen them a number of times; one of God's finest creations. Every third Sunday bands come and play music near the entrance and families picnic in a circle around the quaint little stage.

A few years back a young schoolgirl had tragically died wading into the bottom of the waterfall. The waterfall had sucked her in and she had drowned, also on a school outing. Access to the floor of the waterfall had since been denied and the area fenced off.

When we arrived, the manageress took us to one of the conference rooms on the site. There were three youngish teachers in the room and about thirty children of various ages.

Sam quickly introduced us, told Clementine to take the children into one of the other rooms, which she did, and then asked the teachers what had happened.

Apparently they had split the group into three groups of ten. One was down at the waterfall, another which consisted of the older children was on one of the many walking trails and the third was near the entrance where the youngest children were enjoying ice creams which were bought from an ice cream truck specially brought in for the occasion.

The abducted boy, Brendan, was not with the group on the trail. His teacher Gill was crying so much that at first we could not get any sense out of her but once she had calmed down, she relayed the story.

The group was on its way up to the top of the waterfall. Gill led the way just in case there were any Puff Adders lying on the road. The majority of snakes will disappear if they hear humans coming towards them, but Puff Adders are notoriously lazy and highly venomous. They enjoy lying in the sand when it is sunny and it is not so easy to detect them as they blend into the environment. Gill was a trained hiking leader and hence the reason why she was tasked with taking the boys to the top of the waterfall. The school had obtained permission from the parents to take the older boys on the trail walk with one exception, Brendan. He had stayed behind with the younger children at the restaurant.

In the excitement of getting their ice creams, Brendan simply disappeared. No one had seen him wander off. The teacher, Marie, had been trying to settle the younger children down and only noticed that he had disappeared after everyone had received their ice creams, a process that took about fifteen minutes. Marie, who was also the owner of the day care centre, was so distraught that she could not speak at all. Gill did all the talking.

Sam waited patiently until Marie had calmed down.

He asked the ladies to show us where the incident had taken place. Forensics arrived just as we reached the site where the ice cream van was positioned. Sam filled them in on what had happened and told them to get to work.

The van was parked just off the entrance; the main exit to the park was about ten metres from the back of the van. The exit route took you through a gate into a nursery, past a little Snoopy Shop and then into the car park. As it was a weekday, both the nursery and the Snoopy were closed and Sam quickly confirmed that none of the workers were near the abduction site. There were only a handful of people in the gardens and two of the forensics' team went to find out if anyone had seen the abduction in progress. They also recorded the registration numbers of every vehicle in the car park. There were no car park attendants on duty, which is the case over the weekends. Marie also confirmed that Brendan had not screamed or shouted while she was busy with the smaller children. We searched the van - no Brendan. The elderly owner of the van told us that he had not even noticed the young lad.

I couldn't help thinking how it was possible to experience so much pain in such a beautiful environment.

A small middle-aged man, with a pockmarked face, dressed in a expensive Gucci black suit came running towards us. He started yelling obscenities and ran straight at Marie with his fists raised. Sam quickly stepped in between them and held him back.

'I am going to sue you, you stupid bitch!' he yelled. 'How could you lose my son?' He was beside himself with rage and tried to push Sam away but Sam had extremely powerful arms and easily held him at bay.

'I presume that you are Mr. Van Niekerk,' Sam said. 'I am very sorry about what has happened here, but we will get to the bottom of it. Anger and insults are not going to get us anywhere.'

'Get out of the way, you black bastard! Is this your team? It looks like you're all from Boswell Willkie's circus!' He looked at me. 'You must be the clown; we all know how incompetent SAPS are. The moment that blacks were put in charge of the police, South Africa became a criminal paradise. They only employ deadbeats like you now; I will get my own investigator onto this so just butt out! He is on his way; I own the best security and forensic company in town!'

I suddenly realised who he was; he and his three brothers owned the Blitzpatrollie, a security company and as he had said, they specialise in providing security for big wigs and investigating crimes for the rich and famous with no faith in the police. I had dealt with his investigators; they were all a bunch of thugs who were rumoured to break every law in the book to solve a case. His company was in opposition to the one that Juba is contracted to. Blitzpatrollie had tried to recruit Juba on a few occasions but although they paid much better than where he was, he did not like their lack of ethics and had declined.

I walked up to Bill Van Niekerk and stuck my face into his face before Sam could stop me.

'Your guerrillas will not be allowed onto this crime scene, asshole. The next time that you make any racial comments or hurl any insults at anyone of us, I will personally contact Gwede Mashaba to tell him your views on people of colour. He is a personal friend of mine and may decide to give business to someone who understands transformation.' Gwede was one of the junior ministers in the government who was responsible for ensuring the safety of visiting dignitaries. A scrupulously fair man, he ensured that work was evenly distributed between the two companies who provided the service. If only one received the contracts the other would, in all probability, go out of business. The racist knew that. When I told him that Juba was my friend and neighbour, he went pale.

'All right, all right, I suppose that an apology is in order. I am just devastated with what has happened to Brendan.'

Sam explained what had happened while Bill continued to glare at Marie. Sam also told him that he could not stop the private investigation but that we were unable to co-operate with his man due to the sensitive nature of the case. Normally, SAPS would co-operate but this was such a high profile case that it was important to wrap our arms around it.

He pointed at me. 'Why are you co-operating with her?' he asked.

'Shirley is assigned to assist SAPS with all missing person's cases,' Sam replied.' She is part of us and Clementine is her assistant.'

I could see that he was unhappy with the arrangement and that he would continue with his investigation, but at least he had the sense to leave it be.

We ascertained that Brendan lived with his father. Bill was on his fourth wife and Brendan's mother had died of cancer some years back. Bill had dropped Brendan off at the Three Little Pigs and had confirmed with Marie that he did not want his son to go up to the top of the waterfall as he suffered from vertigo. Gill had called him when they realised that he had disappeared.

The receptionist came to inform us that the investigator had arrived. Sam had instructed that the gardens be closed down during the investigation and Bill then left muttering obscenities under his breath.

The forensic team returned, no one had noticed anything untoward. The people who were in the garden were nature lovers and tended to enjoy being left alone to enjoy the surroundings. The moment they heard the children arrive they had scurried off in all directions like squirrels; the further they could be away from the group the better. All cars in the parking area had been matched to people in the garden. There were no security cameras, the council had proposed installing them at one stage but the idea was shot down by the environmentalists.

Sam gave the thumbs up to Marie to take her brood back to the day care centre. 'Sis, I want to ask you a favour,' he said.

'Sure thing, as long as you don't want my beautiful body, fire away,' I grinned.

'Can we use your place as our headquarters? The press is all over the station and we need privacy.'

'Good idea let's go, we have bags of work to do.'

Clementine reminded me that our next session with Jenny was in two hours' time and we agreed to meet at home late afternoon. I gave Sam my spare key in case we were late.

When Clementine and I arrived, all the girls, with the exception of Joan, were there. She arrived as we were busy discussing how sad it was that people could make so much money on reality shows, such as the Kardashians. There is something wrong with a world where some people make obscene amounts of money from entertainment for people who try to live the dream through their TV sets whilst others who work long and hard hours live below the poverty line. We all agreed that nothing would change; the world was mainly populated by homo sapiens who were probably the most flawed of all Gods' mammals.

There was something different about Joan, she looked divine. Her hair had been cut into a bob-style that suited her face. She had dyed her hair auburn and it looked sensational especially with the plain blue dress she was wearing. I had never seen her in a dress before and although she was overweight it made her look quite sexy.

'Wow!' Jenny said. 'What happened? You look positively ravishing.'

She had a calm look on her face for the first time since I had met her. Her hands were steady and her eyes bright and alert.

'I want to go today Jenny,' she said.

We all clapped, maybe her devil was about to be expunged, too.

'I just want to find out how Thandi is first,' Jenny said, 'and then the floor is yours.'

Thandi smiled, she threw her hands up into the air. 'I feel great! I have had my first date in years and it went well; slowly, slowly but there is hope. The last session has helped me put my past behind me, my children are ecstatic. They asked me to thank you all; their mother is back. One thing I have realised is that when your past is gone, all you have left is now and the future and I am claiming my future big time now. The children and I are celebrating by going on the ocean cruise from Durban to Mauritius, just us; it is going to be heaven.

We all jumped up and hugged her, good things do happen. I needed to appreciate that a bit more.

Joan started without any further prompting from Jenny, her eyes were closed and her hands clasped together, she bent her head towards the floor.

'It is Sunday afternoon, we have just had lunch. I cooked roast pork with potatoes, pumpkin and broccoli baked in cheese. Sunday was our ice cream treat; we all had two scoops of rum and raisin. Suzette compliments me on the meal and Danie says that he will never be able to find a wife that cooks like me, Wim agrees. He tells the kids that that is why he married me; he just made it before Klasie Van Der Merwe took me away. I laugh; I can't imagine myself with anyone but Wim. We would have been married twenty years in November. I love him so much. I loved him from the first time I set eyes on him; we are so blessed with our children. Danie lives for sport; he is the school under 16 rugby and cricket captain, he is also top of his class academically. Suzette is an angel; she works hard and is in the top ten of her matric. class, this is her last year at school. She is a good piano player and always gets the main role in her school plays. The best part of all is that my children love each other.

Wim and I are sitting on the couch watching TV, he loves CSI; I think the CSI New York series is on. Danie and Suzette are in their rooms, I hear the dogs bark, there is a yelp from our Jack Russell. Wim gets up to go and investigate, the door bursts open. Two black guys and a white guy that I recognise from the shelter burst in – I always pop in and give him clothes. They have pangas and the one in front hits Wim over the head. Everything is in slow motion, Wim falls to the ground. There is blood everywhere, he groans. The second thug hits him again on the head, I hear someone screaming; it's me. I try to wake up but I can't, I am awake. Danie and Suzette come running into the lounge, I shout at them to run for help. Suzette bolts for the door but Jimmy, the white guy, grabs her. Danie runs at him and hits him in the face, Jimmy staggers back. I hear myself screaming 'No! No!' as the second guy hits him from behind with the panga. His head splits open and he falls right next to Wim, Jimmy has recovered. He picks Suzette up like a rag doll and drags her towards the passage, she promises them anything if they just let us live. He ignores her, my body comes out of its stupor, a rage fills me like no rage I have ever experienced before. I know then that the psychologists are right when they say that we all have the capability to kill – I want to kill them. I want to get my hands on them and tear them apart. The second guy had dropped the panga, I run and pick it up and hit the first guy on the shoulder with it. He cries out in pain and takes a knife out of his jeans; he lunges and stabs me in the right kidney. The first guy grabs me from behind and stuns me with the handle of his panga, they tie me up with some rope that they had brought in with them. I fight every inch of the way; I scratch them, I bite them. They stab me again in my right leg, I am becoming weak. I hear Suzette scream, Jimmy is raping her. I find one last bit of energy and manage to bite the first guy on his nose. I hold on while they try to pry me lose; I feel the noose is starting to come loose. There is blood everywhere, Suzette stops screaming. Please God, let her be alive. Jimmy comes in and helps pry me loose; 'Let's teach this bitch a lesson!' the first guy shouts. They pull my clothes off, I am numb. My mind disconnects from my body and I watch these animals rape me over and over again. I hear the second guy ask how the girl is; Jimmy tells him that she will not be a problem. I know he has killed her, I try to move but I can't, I am pinned down. I hear a car going past; I pray that it will turn into the property. It does, they panic. They run out the door, I hear their car start up and someone shouting, I pass out. When I come around my brother Warren is sitting next to me crying. He is holding my hand, I have a blanket over me and I hear the sirens.' She stopped and continued to stare at the floor.

We all sat riveted to our seats. It is in moments like these that you have no idea what to say. The horror is beyond comprehension. She had detailed the incident so well, it was as if we were all there. I wanted to go and throw up and then have a long shower.

Jenny left her for a few minutes.

'How are you feeling, Joan?'

She looked up. Her face was calm, too calm. I shivered.

'It was good to remember the lunch, Jenny; we had so many great lunches. We were a family that loved each other and I felt it when I told you about the meal. It was as if they were all sitting next to me telling me to remember that. I also felt so proud of Danie hitting Jimmy in the face; he gave his life for his sister. He could have run, they would never have caught him. He never hesitated; he just went up to him and 'whammo'! Later I found that my Jack Russell had been hacked to death – he also died trying to protect us. Wim would have given his life too but he didn't stand a chance. I felt so guilty for a long time because I sat on the couch at first, transfixed. My body would not move, I wondered what would have happened if I had of jumped up and helped Danie.'

'They would have still killed him Joan, and you too, it is quite normal to react like that. Your interference would have made it worse.'

'How did you feel when they were sentenced?' I asked.

'Dead; there was no remorse from their side, not even from Jimmy who we had helped so much. They will spend their lives in jail, but that won't bring my family back. I fought with God every day for sparing me. Why do that? I ask and ask and ask. I am nothing without them, they were my lives.'

'Is it okay if we leave it at that Jenny? As you know it is the first time that I have opened up like this, all of us here have our crosses to bear. Like Thandi, I just felt comfortable sharing this with you all. Thandi, I must thank you – you inspired me to get the devil off my chest. I realise now that evil is only dealt with after death and those three sub-humans will face the music when they die. I know somehow that my family is well, I could feel them sitting holding my hand on the couch. It was the best feeling I have had since that lunch, love is truly eternal.'

She smiled; we all bawled our eyes out. It was amazing; I could almost believe that her family had been with her during the ordeal. It was the most emotional hour I had ever experienced, the 'big lesson'; love conquers everything. I silently prayed that my turn would come.

We kissed each other goodbye and I collected Clementine who was waiting in the next room.

Sam arrived at home shortly after us, I poured a Captain Morgan and coke and Sam had a beer. Clementine was a teetotaller; she had a cup of Rooibos tea.

'Are you allowed to drink on duty?' she asked mischievously.

'One drink stimulates the little grey cells, a certain colleague of mine always tells me,' Sam said. 'Besides we are into overtime.'

There was a knock on the door; I knew who it was from the glow on Clementine's face. I had seen her sending a sms in the car on the way home.

I went to the door. 'No compost today thanks; we were plagued by compost sellers in the neighbourhood. They would wait until you got home and then start badgering you to buy compost for your lawn.'

'Velly nice compost make the grass grow and stinks out the neighbours!' Juba responded.

I let him in before Clementine whacked me.

'Quick visit,' Juba said coyly. 'Can I borrow your partner for dinner tonight? Calisto's have moved to their new premises and I want to try out their Prego's but I need some backup in case some damsel in distress sweeps me away.'

'You may take this damsel; I don't want her sulking at home. Clementine, Sam and I will be fine, go enjoy.'

Juba curtsied. 'By the way, I met your tattoo artist today; he has a small place in Steeldale. I took my tattoo man from Lagos with me; he said I must thank you for the nice tattoo that you paid for.'

'What did you do?' I laughed.

'We tattooed I love Yorkies across both cheeks in bright red on his ass. It was a stunning job, doubt that he will hurt innocent animals again.'

We all laughed. It looked as if Dexter was laughing too; the dogs were starting to recover nicely. It was hilarious when they chased each other, it looked so funny.

As I let him out, Harold came by. He brought the dogs biltong; that was special, Harold never shared his biltong.

'Hey Sammy, hope you looking after my neighbour?'

'Where's my biltong, Dutchman?'

'Ask Casper, no one gets biltong, I just make an exception for my mates here. I believe that you're giving free tattoo's Casper; can I go and have one?

'As long as I can choose it… no problem!'

'I hear you like to target the ass; you'll probably tattoo sad sack on my cheeks.'

'Is nothing sacred in this street, who told you about the tattoo?'

'Tant Sarie at the hairdresser told the wife this afternoon. Her first cousin's sister was at the hypermarket and some Nigerians were parading this guy around the car park. He had a hole in his pants at the back and every time someone came past he had to bend and show off his new tattoo.'

Juba is notorious for telling only half a story.

Sam and I got going after Harold left.

'These boys know their abductor or abductors Sam. Not one of them has even given a squeak when they disappeared, today is a good example. There is no way the boy was nabbed, he went willingly. He could not have disappeared without a fight, he knew his abductor. It is the same situation with Bonny, I think that she took him to the gate but he must have gone willingly. Someone would have reacted if he shouted or screamed. The other thing that bothers me is that someone knows something about all three children; there is a common link here.'

'If you add the dog incident into the equation and what Mutt and Jeff told us, then the unsubs know something about you too. Are you sure that you have never had contact with any of these boys?'

'No, I haven't, somehow someone knows all four of us. It's scary.'

Sam sat and looked at me for a while. 'I don't agree with one of your theories. I don't think that they accelerated the process. This abduction was planned, it was a classic and it was definitely not a spur of the moment idea.'

'Yes and no,' I said. 'I agree that this was planned but I think that the process will be accelerated – whatever that is. They may have a shopping list and it may or may not be completed but I think that the next stage will be brought forward.'

'What do you think that is?' Sam asked.

'I think that they are going to leave the country, we need to find out the details of all tickets booked for children for buses, trains and air flights out of the country within the next week or two. We also need to alert all border points to look out for blonde six-year olds. They may not travel together, they may be split, their hair may be dyed but they will still be six-year olds.'

'Good thought, I will get onto it straight away.' Sam made a phone call to one of his junior officers and gave him the instructions. He looked weary though. 'Our borders are so vast Sis; you know how easy it is to get someone across to our neighbours. These are professionals - they will have all angles covered.'

'I agree, but we must not leave any stone unturned. We also need to see both of our other teams tomorrow Sam, first thing. There is a link here with the boys and Bonnie's murder; we need to trace all of her phone calls and where her money has come from. I know some loan sharks only deal in cash but we need to check it out nevertheless. This is a complicated case so they will slip up somewhere; we need to make sure that we are well positioned to pick it up when it happens.'

That made him relax, he had another beer and went home.

I spent the rest of the evening going through all of the information we had managed to put together so far. It was almost too much. I was keenly aware that you can get so bogged down in detail that you don't see the wood for the trees. I took a step back and tried to extract only the salient points. It was my experience that once a crime is solved, and you go back and do a post mortem you find out time and again that there were four to five major clues that pointed in the right direction. The rest were either red herrings, not relevant to the case, or would not have led you to the solution at all. I had already worked out that the dog episode was a dead-end and fell into the last category.

We would only find out after the case was solved what had really transpired; it would not lead us to the solution. I did get some satisfaction that the culprits had been caught and were already punished; the big issue was that we had to get the children back; that was the imperative.

Clementine arrived back just before midnight, glowing like a princess. Juba walked her to the door and took his leave. She spent an hour telling me about the dinner and what had been said, men would never do that. They would either say that the evening was good or crap, but would never share the details. Woman had this genetic need to tell the world all of the details.

I went through my observations with her and she raised one very interesting point; was it possible that my mysterious connection was involved? I should have thought of that, but you try not to accept that someone you know may be involved in something as bad as this. So much for taking a step back, if you do that you need to open both eyes. I was annoyed with myself but grateful to have brought Clementine on board, it was going to save me time in the long run. I should be able to get to the solution a lot quicker.

The phone rang. 'Oh, no,' I groaned, '…not another one.' Clementine waited with bated breath. It was Jenny; Joan had gone home and committed suicide, she gassed herself in her car. Jenny told me to check my emails, Joan had sent us all one.

I immediately logged on and there it was; it had been sent to the entire group.

My dear friends,

I decided after our session today that I will not be able to function without my family. I am in a different position to all of you. You have a future. Mine was taken away from me. Jenny is right when she says that you have to put the past behind you otherwise you can't go forward.

That is true but you need to have a reason to continue, I cannot continue without my family. My entire family is gone; they will not be coming back. I need to go to them, they were with me today. I felt it. You all saw it. That is what I want, to be with them.

I need you all to know that it was an easy decision to make. Jenny, I don't want you to blame yourself for this, your process worked. Thandi has beaten the devil and so have I and I have no doubt that the rest of you will too. The devil thought that I would stay and remain bitter and twisted over what happened. Hell on earth. I decided to show him the middle finger and join my loved ones.

I wish that I had got to know all of you as well as I know Jenny. She chose you so I knew that you would be in her mould, very special people. Our three sessions together confirmed that.

You must all go and take life by the scruff of the neck as Wim and I did. We had a great life; good friends, lovely children and wonderful family around us. I have left the farm to my brother and his wife. They have fallen on hard times and this is the break that they deserve. I have also asked my brother to give you some money for a great meal at any restaurant you chose. The only condition is that you have a drink on me.

I love you all dearly. We will meet again.

Joan

Ps. I made sure that I was still in the clothes I wore today. Wim will love that.

I cried myself to sleep.

*****