Chapter 8

As I turned onto the R516, I had the setting sun on my left, and what a magnificent sight it was. I had always heard about the wonderful sunsets that you get in Africa, and this was certainly an excellent example of what I had been told. The whole sky to the left of the road was a mass of colour with the predominant colours being orange and red.

I heard a speeding car roaring towards me from behind. I slowed slightly to allow it past, keeping as close as possible into the left hand side, still enjoying the view of the sunset. Glancing in my rear view mirror I could now see that the vehicle approaching was a large black four wheel drive Toyota. It looked decidedly menacing at the speed it was going.

As the Toyota roared past it swerved towards me and smacked into the side of my pathetically light hire car. I remember the feeling of total panic as I felt the car leave the road and there was a tremendous impact. The next thing I recall is coming to, having been unconscious for I don’t know how long. Stabbing pains were shooting across my chest and stomach. The pain in my legs was almost unbearable. Mercifully I was still alive. I managed to work out that the car was on its side with the driver’s door up in the air. The left hand door was buried in the ditch.

It was pitch-black outside, making it impossible to see anything inside the car. The glorious sunset I had been admiring, had long gone, to be replaced by the total darkness of a highveld night. I had to get out and get help.

My first attempt didn’t succeed. My weight was hanging on the seat belt, and it was pinning me in. With a great deal of effort, I managed to unclip the belt, and I was free. I now was able to move a little, but any movement was accompanied by considerable pain. I tried to push my door up so I could escape that way, but the door wouldn’t budge and was stuck fast. My only way of escaping the confines of the car would be to kick out the windscreen, and my legs weren’t feeling much like kicking.

Was I going to lie there all night, and perhaps even get murdered for my valuables, or would I at least attempt to smash the windscreen? My army training surfaced, and I summoned enough energy and will power to overcome the pain and kick the windscreen out. I slithered out through the narrow opening and ended up standing on the road, but what now?

I looked around me in the pitch black of the night and was very relieved to pick out the bright light of a farm house about two kilometres away. Would my shattered body be able to travel that far? If it didn’t, what was the alternative? I noticed blood on my shirt. In my plight of being stuck in the car, I hadn’t noticed that I had suffered quite a deep gash on my head. It was still bleeding quite badly.

I obviously couldn’t stay where I was if I wanted to be still alive in the morning. I had to get some treatment for my injuries as a matter of urgency. I also had to get away from the scene of the crash. Whoever it was that had tried to get rid of me might come back to see if they had succeeded.

Going cross-country was not an option. I was in no shape to climb over fences or whatever obstructions I might meet. There must be an avenue off the road I was now on. If there was a farmhouse, then there logically must be a driveway to the house. My best approach was to go along the road looking for the entrance.

As I struggled along the road, the light that had been shining like a beacon went off. The thought now going through my head was ‘how would they receive me when I arrived at their front door in the middle of the night’? I just hoped that they wouldn’t shoot first and ask questions later.

After about two hours, and now needing longer and longer periods of rest, I eventually arrived close to the dark shape of the farmhouse. .

I got the fright of my life when a dog started barking extremely close to me as I passed the outhouses of the farm. I was stupid for not anticipating that they would have a guard dog and that the dog would signal my arrival. Luckily it was tied up and didn’t attack me.

A light went on in the farmhouse, and a man holding a gun was silhouetted in the doorway.

I tried to shout to him, but at that point, my strength gave out and I collapsed to the ground. I came to in a bed, with a lady bathing my forehead looking extremely concerned. She smiled as I opened my eyes.

‘Welcome back to the world whoever you are,’ she said in English, but with a particularly strong accent. ‘We were quite worried about you and wondered where on earth you had come from in the condition that you are in. Here, take these panadeine-co pain killers and perhaps you will be able to sleep.’

I tried to talk, but the pains in every part of my body took over and all I could do was groan. She helped me take the tablets, and I settled back in the bed.

‘You just rest there, and we will talk to you in the morning. Andre has already found your car and towed it up here. It is hidden away from anybody looking from the road. You have nothing to worry about.’

I couldn’t tell her then, that, in fact, I had plenty to worry about. Somebody had tried to kill me, and, if I hadn’t found this isolated farmhouse, I would probably have died of exposure in the veldt.

A picture flashed into my mind of the last I saw of the Toyota 4 x 4 before it side swiped me. Added to the picture of the Toyota there was this image of a massive man at the wheel whom I would have expected to see among the forwards at a rugby match. Either Brett or Vic had been driving that Toyota, and it had been a deliberate attempt to kill me.

I awoke with the sun pouring in through the open window. Through my half opened eyes I saw two intelligent young faces staring at me. They both ran off, and I could hear them speaking to their mother in what I assumed was Afrikaans. Shortly after, she appeared with a mug of tea and some tasty homemade bread, buttered and jammed.

She sat down in the chair beside the bed.

‘How are you feeling this morning,’ she asked me.

‘I am in a lot of pain and have a bad headache. Other than that I am extremely glad to be alive,’ I said looking over at her soft, kind, face.

‘Andre has looked at your car this morning. He discovered black marks and dents on the driver’s side. All indications are that you were driven off the road.’

‘Yes, as far as I can remember that is what happened? I remember a large black Toyota approaching at speed from behind me. As it passed, it swerved into the driver’s side of the car, making me fly off the road into the ditch. Luckily I had slowed down to look at the sunset and was not going very fast.’

‘Do you know who would do something like that? Is there someone after you?’ She asked. ‘I don’t want my family to be put at risk.’

I decided that if I needed her help, which I obviously did, I had better tell her enough to put her mind at rest.

‘I am a private investigator representing a company in London, and I am in South Africa to try and find out who is deliberately damaging their business,’ I explained. ‘I think that yesterday I may have found out something and those involved want me out of the way,’

‘You poor thing! Who could do such an act?’

‘Oh there is a lot of money involved. They will protect their own necks in whatever way they can. Lives don’t seem to matter to them’

‘My husband suspected that there was something serious involved, so he has hidden your car well out of the way of prying eyes. You can stay here until you are better and get your strength back.’

‘You are extremely kind, but you know you can just drive me to a hospital somewhere where I can recover without endangering your family.’ I didn’t want them putting themselves at risk.

‘No, you must stay here. I have called the doctor, and he will come to see you this morning. Before I married Andre I was a nurse, so I am well equipped to look after you, and, if anybody comes round to annoy you, Andre will chase them off with his shotgun as he almost did to you last night,’ she said smiling.

The doctor gave me a very thorough examination. His prognosis was that nothing appeared to be broken, but I had suffered a lot of heavy bruising.

‘Well Mr Hamilton you have had a right buffeting, but I am glad to tell you that you seem to have come through the experience pretty well in-tact.’

‘Thank you doctor, I don’t feel very in-tact, and I am feeling a lot of pain’ I grunted.

‘Whoever treated the leg that you had repaired, prior to this last accident, did an excellent job, and it has survived the crash. You should be up and about in a few days. I have given Rosie Pretorius a supply of strong pain killers which will make life easier for you,’ he said as he packed up his bag and prepared to leave.

I lay back totally exhausted by his examination, but immensely relieved that I had escaped any permanent damage.

It was the following week before I was fit enough to leave and by that time I was firm friends with the family, including the two children. How fortunate I had been to find such incredible people who had taken such a genuine interest in me.

I had phoned the hotel telling them that I had been involved in an accident, and they could pack up my things and let the room out. I also told them that I would settle anything I owed them the following week. There was no way I was going back to the same hotel. Brett and his cronies might be watching out for me.

Giving Moira Fortuin the name of the hotel that I had been staying in had been a mistake. It was now a strong possibility that she was in league with Brett Polline so they would know where I was staying.

I had also managed to send a message through to my wife in London, letting her know that I was OK and would contact her again when I got a chance.

I said my sad farewells to the Pretorius family and Andre drove me into Pretoria to the Avis office. I informed them that they needed to recover a severely damaged car from the entrance to Andre’s farm. Andre had decided that it might reduce the number of awkward questions if he moved the wrecked car down to the road. They didn’t seem too surprised by my news, and, in fact, intimated that they had one such case every week. Much to my amazement there was also no problem in getting another car, and I was on the road again in no time.

Motoring down the N1 highway towards Johannesburg I saw a sign for a hotel called the Mercure, so I diverted into Midrand and booked myself in for at least one night. Later that evening I travelled into Sandton, collected my bag and settled up what I owed the Holiday Inn. I was extremely careful where I parked my car, and I scouted out the area before hobbling to the reception desk to sort everything out.

In the safety of my room back at the Mercure Hotel, I decided I had better sort a few things out in my mind, and also determine what my next step should be. Was I personally equipped to deal with the assignment, both physically and emotionally?