CHAPTER TEN
Sam woke me up at five.
'Sis, we need to get moving, they've had a breakthrough in the Bonny case,' he whispered.
Clem and I dressed at the rate of knots and we were on the road twenty minutes later.
Yekani had allocated an interview room for us in the south east corner of the police station. Two detectives, George Thambo and Fanie Kruger who I had dealt with previously, came into the room and plonked a young coloured male into the interrogation chair. He appeared to be in his late twenties, body builder type with long dreadlocks. He looked as if he had run into a ten-ton truck; his face was badly swollen. I was sure that his jaw was broken and the angle of his nose indicated that it too had been broken. His massive arms were full of bruises that were starting to turn yellow; his eyes were those of a man who had conceded defeat. I couldn't help but feel sorry for him.
Clem gave the two policemen what Juba and I called the look.
I had seen it when her ex burst into my home and again when she realised what Jacobus was up to; it was a stare that would melt all the icebergs in Alaska. Whoever the target was literally cringed from their toes to the tips of their ears. Juba had told me in confidence that he had experienced it once so far when his eyes lingered a little too long on a scantily dressed female at Calisto's, he told me that it made him feel like a little boy who had been caught peeking at the Christmas presents. He resolved to never go down that road again, much to my amusement. This petite little woman had turned the monster into mush and I loved it. The look had the desired effect and the two ghouls left hastily with their tails between their legs. They had got the message.
They were that small part of the system that gave SAPS such a bad name. They ruled by fear and my experience had proved that whenever corruption charges were uncovered in the police force, these type of detectives were involved. I loved Yekani but I had a problem with him turning a blind eye to what was going on. Sam and I had had a number of debates over the issue; he felt that if you did not apply force in some situations you would never break the more difficult cases. He might be right but it was not my style and obviously less so with my new partner, that's why I preferred to be a private detective rather than to be part of the mainstream. Very often my private detective colleagues were far worse however as the industry often attracted the rogue cops.
Sam read the report that the two macho's had left and passed it onto me. 'Right,' he said. 'I want to make it clear Lucky that we are not here to hurt you any further, we just want some straight, honest answers and if you co-operate with us. I may be able to cut you a deal. Are we clear on that?'
Lucky nodded.
'Tell us your story.' Sam sat back and folded his arms.
Clem was still looking at him with pity in her eyes; I made a mental note to talk to her about that later. Criminals can pick up a weak link in seconds and will exploit that throughout the interrogation. I would take the secondary role to Sam; Lucky could not work out what I was thinking behind my dark glasses. He kept looking at my hat in astonishment. I knew that I was an unnerving sight at the best of times and that's why Sam took me to these interrogations. My presence seemed to open up the perps much quicker.
'I work for Easy Credit'' he began. 'I have been with them for almost ten years now. My job is debt collector; I have to go out and collect from people who renege on their loans.'
'Do your methods include murder?' I asked.
'No ma'am, we have strict instructions not to permanently maim or kill clients; the tip off that the police received was from our company. Our Boss, Abdul Moosa approached us to collect an outstanding debt from a lady who owned a day care centre. We were given her address and went to see her. When she let us in I could see that we had a problem. Some clients hold back on payments, not because they don't have the money or have no access to money, but because they just don't want to use it to pay the debt. A broken arm or broken leg gets the desired results quickly.'
Clem shifted in her seat and I saw the look disappear, she had just learned another important lesson; pick those that you have sympathy for carefully. Although what had just been done to Lucky was out of line, he was doing the same thing over and over again in the name of his job. Hundreds of unfortunate souls had experienced excruciating pain from his hands and feet over the years.
Clem noticed me looking at her and blushed, the lesson was learned. She definitely had the makings of a good investigator. The best part of the moment was that Lucky saw it too; his weak link was lost- defeat returned to his eyes again and we were going to get to the truth.
'Her whole demeanour was that of total resignation. We were not going to get any money out of her whatsoever. She had no family support base which is where the bulk of the money eventually comes from, and her bank balance was zero; we had already checked that. I personally do not harm woman, I think that is why Abdul sent me along. I think that he would have made her sign over her business to him if we did not succeed. Tiny and Boom-Boom, my two colleagues, threatened to break her legs if she did not give us the money.
To my amazement she broke down and asked us to kill her as she did not want to go on any longer. I was terrified, she was so calm. She actually did want us to do her in; it was bizarre and I wanted nothing to do with it. Tiny and Boom-Boom were intrigued and asked her why they should oblige. It turned out that her late husband had a collection of gold Kruger coins that were worth at least twenty thousand rand and she was prepared to hand it over to us if we helped her out.'
'How much did she owe Easy Credit? Why not hand that over as repayment of the debt?' Sam asked.
'She owed a hundred thousand.' Sam whistled. 'Abdul would not have accepted twenty, he would never have got the balance back, she knew that. She also said she did not have the guts to commit suicide.'
'What happened then?' I asked, totally fascinated.
'Tiny and Boom-Boom agreed to the deal and she went to fetch the coins. I told them I was out of there and wanted nothing to do with it. They told me what would happen to me if I split on them and I left. I read about the murder in the paper the next morning and went straight to Abdul.'
'What was his reaction?' Sam asked.
'He was furious, he was going to send out some of the team to find them but cooled down and told his secretary to phone the cops instead, anonymously. I presume that's how they found them.'
Sam pushed the bell under his chair. The two detectives returned, they had been watching the interview through the one-way mirror.
'Take him away but put him back in Sing Sing and bring the other two here,' Sam instructed.
Sing Sing was the nickname of a holding cell which was reserved for prisoners who needed to be kept in isolation.
They returned five minutes later with two huge brutes. They were both bigger than Juba which I did not think possible. Tiny Naude was at least two-point-three metres tall and weighed at least one-thirty. Boom-Boom Cassim was almost a replica of Tiny, just darker in skin colour. Their biceps were enormous, you could see from the marks on their faces and broken noses that they had also been worked over but it did not have the same effect as on Lucky; it would be like trying to hit a concrete wall. The one good thing was that I could see they knew the game was up and were resigned to their fate. I guess fear of Abdul was the driving force; they would otherwise simply disappear and the police would not spend too much time looking for them.
Sam stared at them for a few minutes.
'Right you two scumbags, out with the truth otherwise I guarantee you the rest of your lives in the worst jail I can find… one where there are at least forty inmates to a cell twenty-four hours a day. Co-operate and you may end up with a cell for both of you with much better food and extra-curricular activities.'
Tiny relayed the same story as Lucky without any discrepancies.
'After Lucky left,' Boom-Boom said, 'the lady returned with the coins. I checked them out, they were genuine. My father has had a pawn shop for years and I know how to examine gold to make sure that it is real. I gave Tiny the thumbs up and he grabbed her from behind and strangled her. She was so small she died instantaneously. We wrapped her in a carpet, took her to the car and dumped her in Muldersdrift.'
I shivered. They were typical psychopaths, they displayed no remorse whatsoever. Boom-Boom may as well have been telling a story about putting a rabid dog out of its misery. Clem went pale, Sam never flinched. He had seen it all over the years; thank God they would be out of society for a long time.
'Where are the coins?' Sam asked.
'With my father,' Boom-Boom said casually, 'but please keep him out of it, he has no idea where I got them from.'
Sam pushed the button again; Mutt and Jeff appeared and took them away. Sam asked them to return after they had deposited the garbage in the can.
When they returned he gave them his instructions.
'Charge Tiny and Boom-Boom for premeditated murder; I doubt that they will get bail tomorrow. Transfer them to Krugersdorp if bail is denied. Tell WO Yekani that we need our best man on this case - I suggest Rose Mashigo,' he said winking at me.
Gender debates were also on our agenda from time to time; it looked like I was winning that one.
'Then I want you to release Lucky and agree not to charge him provided he signs a statement saying that he was treated like royalty here. I want to see him before he leaves. We will wait for him. Finally, get those coins back from Boom Boom's father and find out who the executor of Bonnie's estate is, then take the coins to that person. In two weeks' time I want you to raid that pawn shop and I want you to continue to do so until the father either sees the light and stops fencing or goes out of business. I don't have a preference; either one will do.'
He dismissed them with a wave of his hand. 'Oh, and before you do anything,' he added, 'arrange with Meg to bring us two coffees and one Rooibos tea.'
Sam smiled at us. 'A thought just struck me,' he said. 'We may not solve the abduction case but by the time we have finished investigating it, all the other crimes will be solved. I have never encountered anything like this in my career before, and to cap it all, by the time the case is closed, Clem will be qualified to work with the FBI on psychopath profiling.'
Clem and I laughed. Meg brought our drinks and a plate of blueberry muffins; I was famished as we'd not had breakfast. I cannot function without what I consider to be my main meal. Now that my sugar level was restored to normal my brain would work.
Before we could continue our conversation, Yekani came into the room with a young fellow dressed in a three piece suit who looked like a lawyer. 'This is Robin Bauer,' he said. 'He is the chartered accountant we tasked with going over the books and records of Huggy Bears and Peter Pan. He has an interesting story for you.' Sam introduced us.
'Hi everyone,' he began. As usual, he couldn't take his eyes off me and it took an effort for them to disengage. 'You will be interested to hear that Huggy Bear in itself is a little goldmine. It has very good margins and generates strong gross and net profits. Costs have been well contained and the company has an excellent customer base. The problem lies in the area that we refer to as 'below the line', in this case, drawings from the business.'
'Cash has been withdrawn on a regular basis from a bank account which has not been accounted for; there is no record or receipts in the files to indicate how the money was spent. I finally hit the jackpot and found a gold card from Monte Casino in Fourways, in one of her drawers. These cards are issued to regular gambling clients, and entitle you to certain privileges that normal customers are not privy too. You can also deposit money on to the card before you start gambling.'
'I managed to trace the last deposit with the help of the Casino; a hundred thousand. The entire amount was blown that one night; I have no idea where the money came from though. It did not come out of the business, so someone must have given her that amount in notes.'
We were stunned, but one of the important pieces in the puzzle had been found. We thanked Robin for his good work.
'Well, well, well,' Sam said. 'Sis, do you want to summarise? My male brain is so full of information and I can't unpack it like you do so easily. Just in case you're getting excited about me conceding that the female gender has superior brainpower, forget it. We males conserve ours, that's why so many more women than men get Alzheimer's.'
I threw half a muffin at him. The problem with men was that unless they were drinking or playing a sport, they avoided additional effort especially if there was a woman handy to delegate it to … however I took the bait in typical female fashion.
'It is simple,' I said. 'Someone gave Bonny a hundred in cash to clear her debt with Easy Credit. Why would they do that? We can safely assume as payment for helping to abduct Brian. Bonny has a serious gambling problem and decides, like all gamblers, to turn the hundred into a million, but loses it. The responsible gambling program the gambling board set up is complete hooey. There are thousands of gambling casualties that can attest to that.' Sam eyed me knowing my abhorrence of the industry. I stopped my sermon, returned to the point.
'She has nowhere to turn now, she still owes hundred with no way to pay it, other than to hand her business over. She genuinely wants to end it all, but as she said to the rocky horror show, she does not have the guts. Another Brett Kebble saga. They oblige without taking the ramifications into account with Abdul, because they don't have two brain cells between them and voila, the case is solved.'
'The murder had nothing to do with the abduction; in fact the abduction was Bonnie's lifeline, provided she stopped gambling. She couldn't, and became another tragic crime victim; this time of her own doing. As far as the abduction is concerned, we now know that Bonny, in all probability, escorted Brian off the premises or to the gate.'
'Remember what she had said to Mrs. Mayweather?' Clem said, 'John was calling her to come back to him, she decided that the time was right to go. Should we not investigate the lifestyle of the people at the other day care centre? Surely the same modus operandi would have been applied? Look for someone with money problems and plug the gap on condition that they help abduct Jonathan.'
I jumped up, did a jig and grabbed her hand. 'Great idea! I made the right choice Sam, when I took this one on.'
He grinned. 'She has potential.'
'As much as a woman can have of course,' he added slyly. I threw the other half the muffin at him.
'It's an easy one actually.' Sam said. 'Robin has already cleared Tracy; no sign of any extra money going into any account or cash being removed from the business. We need to plant a mole there just for a few days to uncover who is cash flush at the moment. I will arrange that with Trudy.'
There was a knock on the door and Fanie brought Lucky in.
'Thanks Fanie, leave him with me,' Sam said. 'I'll escort him out.'
He sat staring at Lucky until he had made him very uncomfortable.
'Your name is appropriate young man, but luck never lasts. I am going to watch you very closely from now on. I have a list of Easy Credit's customers and if I find out from any of the hospitals or morgues that one of them has accommodated one of your clients, either with serious bodily harm injuries or death, I will come to you first. My advice to you is to get out of the business, go into one of the debt rehabilitation companies. You can do more good that way, make a career for yourself and have less stress. You've got the ability, now use it. You know the industry, flip the coin and start a new life; you narrowly missed a life term.'
Lucky started to cry, he never expected the compassion that Sam was displaying. My heart swelled with pride, Sam was one of the best people that I had ever met. Cross him and you have a problem, work with him, and he would treat you like gold.
He took Lucky by the arm who mumbled goodbye to Clem and I, and escorted him out of the building.
Clem looked at me. 'I am so blessed to be able to learn from the two of you – you are both amazing.'
'As long as you don't show sympathy for scum bags again my friend,' I teased,' I will be a happy employer.'
'Just kick me if I do that again.'
'No, you're cute when you squirm.'
She threw half her muffin at me this time.
Just after Sam returned, Matumi came into the room.
'Ah,ha! The Ghostbusters - just who I wanted to see. We've been working hard my friends, not eating muffins and smelling the roses.'
I threw the last muffin at him; Meg would never speak to me again.
'We have completed background checks on all employees of both day care centres. We'll leave Huggy Bear out of it as we all know how Brian was abducted.
One of the employees at Peter Pan recently won a jackpot and resigned. According to her she won over one hundred thousand rand on the Lotto. The problem is that we can't verify a sum of that amount in the winnings over the last two weeks. She is in the waiting room; we'll talk to her after this session. All of the other employees including the owner, Trudy Boshoff, came off clean; methinks Wendy Modonsela escorted Jonathan off the premises. We also interviewed Jackson from the scout club; both boys were relatively new to the club. The two boys did not appear to be friends although they got on well with each other. He has met both mothers and they seem to dote on their sons. Both boys' fathers visited the club only once, which was on the day that the Head of the Scouting movement in the UK conducted the initiation ceremony for the new members. As far as he could remember they did not speak to each other at the function, he had also never seen the mothers of the two boys talking to each other so the parents definitely did not appear to be acquainted.'
'What are your thoughts on Jackson?' I asked
'Salt of the earth, he is a primary school teacher who is totally dedicated to his profession. He turned down an opportunity to be school principal because he just wants to spend all his time with the children. He has been married for twenty years; by all accounts happily, and has three children who adore him. No priors. Everyone we approached who knew him told us how much everyone loves him.'
'No one is that perfect,' Sam smirked
'I am,' I added coyly. 'There are a few of us.'
Everyone laughed. No more muffins to throw so I let it slide.
'Are you saying,' Sam said '…that the Scout club is just a coincidence?'
'Yes, I think so,' Matumi said thoughtfully. 'The main reason why I say that is that there is no indication that either Brendan Van Niekerk or his father has ever had links to the club. In addition, the other two sets of parents do not appear to be acquainted with each other.'
'Jackson checked his records carefully to see if the Van Niekerks had been involved with the club. Negative. He also didn't recognise them from the photographs we showed him. We have however, also checked Bill Van Niekerk's background. Shirley you have some knowledge of his business interests through your links with Juba so I won't dwell on that. He has had his business for over ten years and makes good money. The company has a good reputation with its clients and Bill is respected in the industry. He has been married to his wife Gerda for twenty-five years and by all accounts the marriage seems to be sound. They only have the one son, Brendan, whom he dotes on. He has a brother who is the Chief Ranger for the Golden National Park and a sister who owns a printing shop in Pretoria; the siblings appear to be close. His wife is an only child and both sets of parents are dead. Bill has never been in trouble with the law although there are rumours that he will from time to time, take on high risk cases. We have been through all of those cases over the past few years but nothing looks out of place.'
'Good work Matumi,' Sam said. 'Bring in Wendy then Fanie and tell him to fix her with his strongest stare.' He deliberately avoided my eyes and even though I was wearing dark glasses, he knew what I was thinking. 'We don't have time to be nice,' he added for my benefit.
Wendy was a small, timid looking lady in her mid-forties. Dressed in designer clothes, she certainly looked as if she had won the jackpot. It's not going to be difficult to crack her, I thought.
She sat down nervously opposite Sam and kept looking furtively at Fanie who stood next to Sam with his arms folded wearing a scowl that would stop an elephant.
'Wendy,' Sam said. 'I am not in the mood for games, I know that your story about winning the Lotto is absolute crap, we have checked that. Just tell me the truth and we'll go easy on you.'
Fanie changed position as he finished his sentence, just to make sure she hadn't forgotten him.
She hadn't and started to cry.
We waited until the storm had abated and then I took her hand in mine and told her to just tell the truth. Fanie shifted position again; she looked at him with alarm.
'I didn't mean to cause any harm. I have three little girls to look after and an ill grandmother. We have been battling to make ends meet. Someone called me just after I had applied for a loan at Capitec Bank and had been turned down and told me that he would give me a hundred rand if I helped him with a problem he had. There was a young boy at the day care centre, Jonathan Manning, who was in serious danger and he wanted to take him to a place of safety. He could not tell me what the problem was as it was confidential. All I had to do was to put a mild sedative, which would be placed in an envelope in my mailbox at home, in his cold drink at lunch. He would appear to be ill; I needed to offer to take him to the sick room and wait until sleep time had started, then find a way to take him to the gate. Someone would approach the gate and I would then let him out from the front door. He said proof that they would not harm Jonathan was that he would go willingly.'
It was such a hard decision for me to make but the money would set us up for the rest of the year and I could sleep easy at night. On the other hand, if they did harm Jonathan I would be in serious trouble.'
It had obviously not dawned on her that she would be in trouble anyway; aiding in a kidnapping is a serious offence.
'I found the pill in an envelope in my mailbox at home the night before the abduction took place. I never slept a wink but in the morning decided to go through with it. Everything went as planned . When the children sleep, one of the staff looks after them and the others relax; most of them have a snooze too. I waited until the coast was clear, woke Jonathan up and took him to the gate. I went back to the front door and waited until someone, I don't know if it was a man or woman, came to the gate and said something to Jonathan. He smiled and turned back and waved at me. I let him out of the gate and went back to the staff lounge. Everyone was asleep, no one noticed my absence and I felt so relieved. Jonathan was happy to go. I felt like I had done a good deed.'
'You have no idea who the people were who called you or collected Jonathan?' I asked.
'None whatsoever. The voice on the phone was disguised and the person at the gate was wearing a cloak, it was freezing cold and the person – I don't even know if it was a woman or man – wore a balaclava. Am I in trouble? she wailed.
'Probably,' Sam said. 'I am going to let you go home but I warn you not to spend the money.' From her expression I could see that it was too late. Money in, money out.
'You better make sure that we know where you are 24/7. Don't make me look for you when I need you, and I will.' He waved her away; Fanie escorted her out just to make her day that little bit worse.
'Let's get out of here and go back to your place Sis,' Sam said. 'I've had information overload today, we need to sleep on it and get moving in the morning.' We passed by Meg's office on the way out. 'Where is Detective Arendse?' Sam yelled. 'I thought that I asked him to see me first thing this morning?'
'I have left a message for him,' Meg said timidly.
'That's not good enough. In my office seven tomorrow or all hell is going to break loose!'
Clem and I agreed in the car that one of us in the team was like a bear with a sore head. After receiving a warning glare from the bear we kept quiet the whole way home – a record for me.
We had just arrived when the bear received a phone call. From the bulge in the veins on his neck we realised it was not good news.
'Detective Arendse has disappeared!' he bellowed. 'His wife says that he came home last night, packed his clothes, refused to tell her what was going on, got in his car and drove off. She has not heard from him since then and his phone is disconnected. That bastard is involved in this, I can smell a rat a mile away. I hate crooked cops!'
'This is the beginning of your tornado Clem, hold on tight.'
*****