Chapter 16

I spent the rest of the day driving around Hermanus getting a good feel for the place.

Later in the afternoon a police car passed me, and as it passed, it slowed down to get a good look at me. About half an hour later, when I was in another area, not many streets away, the police car appeared again and drew up level with me. He wound down his window and called out.

‘Are you lost or what are you doing?’

‘I am thinking of buying a property in Hermanus, and I am just looking at each area,’ I shouted back.

‘It would be a better idea to go and see one of the Property Agents in the town,’ he suggested.

‘I have already done that,’ I said. ‘A Mr Viljoen at Hermanus Property told me the areas that I should look at, and that is what I am doing at the moment.’

‘The people around here don’t like suspicious cars hanging around, and a resident reported you to us. I suggest that you leave now and return another day.’

‘OK officer, I’ll leave now,’ I politely replied. ‘Sorry to have caused you trouble.’

He wound up his window and drove off. I did the same. Clearly I must be a lot more careful in future as I didn’t want it advertised that I was suspiciously wandering around the streets of Hermanus. I returned to Cape Town, parked the car in the multi-storey car park and retreated to the guest house.

The first thing I heard when I woke up on Wednesday morning was the rain beating against my window. Looking out I saw that it was a wet and windy Western Cape day. My experience with the police car the previous day, had shown me the necessity of conducting my search on foot, but that would not be possible in this teaming rain. The last thing I needed was to arouse the suspicions of the police again. The next time they might take some action that would complicate my life considerably.

Thursday turned out to be an ideal day for my investigation. It was overcast, but at least not raining. The weather was better, but my searching proved fruitless, as did my efforts on Friday. By Friday evening, I was extremely frustrated having still not found the Fortuins’ house. My methodology was clearly at fault, and my strategy of looking for the cars wasn’t producing results.

That evening I repaired to the Waterfront to my favourite thinking spot, the Paulaner Brauhaus, where I ordered a pint of their best brew. I had brought my trusted notebook with me, and I opened it to a new page and got my brain into gear.

I wrote down:

Search Criteria:

The house is in Hermanus somewhere

Cars not visible - so need a different approach

New approach - look for a house protected in a similar way to the one in Johannesburg

Features of the house in Johannesburg:

3 Meter high perimeter wall

CCTV

Massive gates with smaller access door set in the right hand gate

Electric fence on top of the wall

It was a reasonable assumption, to think that if the diamonds were being held in the house in Hermanus, Jacques would have protected the house in the same way as he had the Johannesburg property. With a bit of luck, he might even have used the same contractors, even though Cape Town was 1,500 kilometres from Johannesburg. My assumption that I would find the cars had been extremely ambitious, and perhaps my latest list of criteria was equally ridiculous, but I needed to try a different approach.

Saturday I set out for Hermanus with renewed enthusiasm, and my camera. My plan was to take masses of photographs of the properties in my search area. I would be able to scan through the photos in the quiet of my room, picking out the ones that were the best fit.

Parking my car, I set off at a brisk pace, stopping to take frequent photographs as I went. The advantage of my new approach was that I was able to photograph two or three properties at the one time, which considerably increased the speed I progressed at. I was also only looking for external features, so I didn’t have to peer over the walls looking for cars. This also reduced the level of suspicion I was likely to create. I was exceedingly grateful when the whole day passed without any further visits from the police. It was also a sunny day, so I was getting good sharp photographs.

On my return to Cape Town, I grabbed a quick meal before settling down to review my day’s work. As I went through the photographs, I deleted any that were clearly well wide of my criteria. By the time I had finished my first run through, I was only left with ten properties, and these, on further close examination, were reduced to four.

Bingo; I had found what I was looking for. Unbelievably, the property I was looking at had all the features in the list I had drawn up from my memory of the Johannesburg house. Even the gates must have been made by the same company as they were exactly the same. I had wasted four days using the cars as my criteria, but I now had a property that I could investigate further. It was an easy step to work out the address as I had written down the names of the roads and the numbers of the photographs that related to each street. It was Number 42, Fernkloof Drive.

I felt elated at my success and immediately walked down to the waterfront and celebrated with a beer. I would drive back to Hermanus tomorrow and have another good look at 42 Fernkloof Drive.

Being a Sunday, with more people likely to be around, I had to be even more careful in case I was spotted lurking around the property. I dumped the car in an adjacent street and took a leisurely stroll past. It was unmistakably the house in the photograph and all the features checked out. Seeing the property up close, I was even more convinced that this was the right one. What was also encouraging was that there appeared to be a narrow laneway that ran behind the property, and, from what I could see, it would be possible to drive a car along the laneway.

I walked along the road in front of the house and took the next turn right to see if I could find the entrance to the laneway. There was a house where the entrance should have been. I kept walking around the block until I reached the other end of the laneway. There, I did find an accessible entrance.

There were a number of people out and about, mowing their lawns and washing cars etc. I decided that it would be more sensible to leave now and return that evening after dark when it would be a lot quieter.

From my initial observations, it appeared that my best approach was to use the access at the back of the property. By parking the 4 x 4 in the laneway, I could climb onto the roof, to access the property over the wall. The electric fence would be a problem; however, with the right tools and other bits and pieces, the fence could be cut and I could gain access. Being a Sunday there would be no hardware shops open where I could procure the items I needed, so, all I could do when I returned that night, would be to conduct some further reconnaissance. If I bought the items in Cape Town tomorrow, then I could return to Hermanus on Monday evening and try and get into the property. From what I had seen so far the property appeared to be locked up. There were clearly no people or dogs to bother about.

Just after 11:00 that night, I returned and had a much better look at the challenges facing me in trying to gain access. My initial analysis was correct. To try and get in through the front would be far too risky. There were no trees or other camouflage to protect me from prying eyes.

My investigation of the laneway at the rear of the property proved it to be ideal, provided, of course, nobody heard the engine noise. Once parked in the laneway, I could stand on the roof of the 4 x 4 and use it as a platform to launch myself over the wall.

While I was weighing up my options and studying the electric fence, I heard a car driving up the road past the end of the laneway. The noise it made was extremely loud, and I quickly realised that my idea of using the car to drive up the laneway to where I now stood was not a realistic proposition. The whole world would hear me driving down the rear of the properties if I used the car. I would have to park on the road and use a ladder to get over the wall. A big disadvantage of this method was I would not have a fast means of escape if anything went wrong, such as me setting off an alarm.

I was satisfied I had seen enough to draw up a workable plan, so it was time to leave and drive back to Cape Town. I would return the following night, provided I was able to buy the necessary items. Tomorrow I would spend the day preparing for my adventure and purchasing what I needed. I hoped, that between now and when I returned the following evening, neither of the Fortuins would have returned to their property and created a new challenge.