Chapter 32

As the afternoon wore on, it started to get a lot colder, and I was finding it hard to stay outside the cabin in the cockpit. I was actually shivering, and the cold was getting into my bones. I searched the boat for some additional clothing to keep me warm. Having searched every available space, the only suitable thing that I could find was a life jacket. It wasn’t ideal, but it had a lot of foam padding in it which would act as a good insulation. Rather than have the reflective orange on the outside, which might be spotted, I put the life jacket on under my anorak, zipping it right up to my chin. It restricted my movements and made me feel somewhat bloated, but I was a lot warmer.

When it got dark, the lights on the jetty at the end of each pontoon, plus the lights around the club itself, illuminated the area to a degree. I was just about able to pick out the yacht Belle Diamant. Work had stopped on the vessel at around five o’clock; however, I had decided to stay in my observation post in case there might be some action later.

At around ten o’clock, I was rewarded for my patience when I saw two figures emerge from the car park and move towards the area where the yacht Belle Diamant was located. They grabbed one of the trolleys used by the boat owners, to carry items from their cars to their boats, and returned to the car park. A few minutes later they reappeared towing a fully loaded trolley behind them.

One of the men went up the ladder onto the yacht. He connected a light which he hung from the boom. This extra light meant that I could identify the figure of Caas Teifel on the deck. The man on the ground, whom I couldn’t make out clearly, passed the packages that were on the trolley up to Caas Teifel, and he threw them into the cockpit of the boat out of the way.

I had a quick look around me to check if anybody was in sight, and, seeing nobody, I left my refuge and moved along the pontoon to the jetty. I pulled my anorak hood over my head and moved as close as the darkness would allow to where they were loading the yacht. The light they had rigged on the boom made it possible for me to identify a number of similar sized packages. They looked just like those packages you see when the police are photographed with the evidence of a drug bust.

I was also able to see that the person passing up the packages was Jacques Fortuin. The final two packages he handed up looked a noticeably different shape. They had the appearance of black plastic rubbish bags heavily wrapped with what looked like packaging tape. I assumed that these must be the bags with the diamonds.

I was focusing so much on the activities on the boat that I wasn’t keeping a look out around me. Too late I realised that I was not alone and I saw the shadow of an arm descending towards my head.

I came to, frozen through, coughing and choking, with water in my mouth and ears. Freezing water was all around my head. It took me a bit more time to realise that I was floating in the water. In fact, I was wedged beneath one of the pontoons, my face up against the boards. I managed to put my hand up to my throbbing head and found out there was blood flowing from a head wound. I had obviously been clubbed by some heavy object. My head felt as if it had been split in two; the back of my head was under the cold water.

I heard some steps on the pontoon coming towards me. The danger had the effect of making me stop coughing, and I stayed as still as I was able, the only noise being the lapping of the water against the piles of the pontoon.

‘Well we won’t see him again Torben,’ a voice said with a French accent. I suspected that this was the crazy Frenchman who had hit me.

‘The blow that you hit him with would have killed anybody, Bernard. If he survives the blow, he will drown in the harbour. He was unconscious when we threw him in.’

‘I can’t even see his body so he must have sunk to the bottom of the harbour. He was wearing so many clothes that the sodden weight of them will have been pulled him to the bottom.’

‘We’d better go and tell Caas.’

They moved off. I waited a few more minutes and then ducked under the water and came up on the seaward side of the pontoon I had been wedged under. Still dazed, I had a look around me. I spotted a boat that had a ladder on the stern, and I slowly moved towards it. With a huge effort, I managed to pull myself up onto the boat, and I then had a further look around me to make sure that they hadn’t returned. Soaked through and freezing, I waited for what seemed like hours, but, in fact, it must have only been about fifteen minutes. More alert now, I got off the boat and made my way to the safety of the boat I had been lent.

I had brought a towel with me together with some spare clothes, so I was able to struggle out of my wet clothes and get dry. What had saved me was the life jacket I was wearing under my anorak and the padding in the hood of my anorak. The life jacket had enabled my head to stay above water. My attackers would have had no idea that I had a life jacket on as it wasn’t visible. They had assumed that my bulk was due to my clothes. I was starting to get warmer, but there was nothing that I could do about the throbbing in my head. I was extremely lucky to be alive.

I had learnt a valuable lesson; I must learn to be more vigilant and not to get totally wrapped up in what I was looking at. I had made the mistake in Hermanus of getting careless, and exactly the same thing had happened here. I wouldn’t survive much longer as a private investigator if I kept making mistakes.

Making sure that the hatch to the cockpit was locked and that there were no external signs that I was on the boat, I was safe provided that I didn’t venture outside. It was unlikely they would come looking for me anyway as they thought they had killed me and I was now fish fodder.

I searched through the drawers on the boat and managed to find some Paracetamol. I risked taking four tablets to try and combat the pain in my head. I then had time to reflect on what had been happening on the Belle Diamant prior to my being thrown into the harbour.

I was 100% sure the diamonds had been handed up to Caas Teifel. I was also convinced that a large quantity of drugs had been loaded on board. This whole operation was a lot bigger than I had ever imagined, and, with drugs as part of the cargo, there were even larger amounts of money involved. The fact that drugs were being carried as well as the diamonds would also explain why they were so protective of their activities. In fact, the diamonds were only a miniscule part of the total deal.

So what did I do now? An ordinary citizen would go to the police to report what I had seen, and let them handle it. If I took that course of action, would that complete my assignment for Sir Montgomery Fortiscue? The answer to that was - No, it wouldn’t.

My original plan was to track the diamonds to Europe and then follow them to London to find those in charge at the distribution end. If I wasn’t able to find out who was involved at the London end, then they could just arrange another delivery at some other time in the future. Where the drugs fitted in was another day’s work, but it clearly significantly increased the stakes that were involved and increased the risk to me and anybody else that got in their way.

I also decided that I shouldn’t use the Cape Town airport to leave the country as they most likely would be watching it. It was time that I did a disappearing act from Cape Town.

There was now no need for me to hang around in the Western Cape; I had seen the diamonds being placed on board the yacht. I also knew that the yacht would leave Cape Town by the weekend on the freighter to Agadir. There was no need for any more ‘spying’, which meant that I would be able to depart in the morning. The only remaining task was to return the gun and the keys to Laurie Scott in Tokei.

At three in the morning, I decided it was time to leave my sanctuary. I slowly opened the hatch to have a good look around the marina. The temporary light on the Belle Diamant was no longer shining, and the whole yacht was in darkness. There was nobody around the yacht, and, as far as I could see, there was nobody on guard looking for me.

Time to go then!

Packing up all my bits I got ready to leave. I found a couple of plastic bags in the cabin to stuff my wet clothes into, prior to putting them in my bag. I left the remainder of the food and drinks behind me as I wanted to travel as light as possible. I had made a plan to get to the main gate by water rather than walk along the quayside. There was a small dinghy tied up to one of the boats nearby. Somebody had carelessly left two oars sitting in it, and I could use it to paddle to the gate across the harbour.

I rolled up the awning that I had been using over the cockpit and stowed it in the cabin. I then placed my bag into the dinghy and locked up the boat. Very carefully, keeping close to the other yachts moored along the pontoons, I paddled the boat towards the exit to the marina. I then cut back across the harbour towards the main quay. It was a pitch black night, without any moon, so it was impossible to see me from the Yacht Club and its approaches. I found a place where there was a ladder built into the wall of the wharf and, tying the dinghy to the bottom rung, I climbed to the top with my bag. I then casually walked towards the gate and out of the dock area onto the main road. Glancing at the security hut I noticed that the guard was sound asleep. My first bit of good fortune for some time.

I reached the shelter of the city streets and made my way back to the guest house. To prevent any awkward questions, I dumped the two plastic bags of wet clothes in my car, before entering the guest house. What I was going to tell Mrs Cronje about the large lump on my head when I met her in the morning, I hadn’t worked out yet. Reaching my room I took two of the strong pain killers that I had been given when I had the accident north of Pretoria. I climbed into my bed and, making sure that I didn’t lie on the damaged area of my head, I fell asleep.