Kujana Farm, Hluhluwe, South Africa
12th February 1999
Jamison’s telephone rang at twelve minutes past one in the morning. He dived out of bed, and rushed to silence it before it woke the children.
A loud scream came from the nursery, and Ebony groaned as she too rose from their bed, and trudged down the passage to the nursery. ‘That better be a life and death situation,’ she said.
‘Hello,’ Jamison said.
The operator on the other side was asking him to accept a reverse charge call from Gibson Ncube.
‘Yes, put him through,’ Jamison said, and he ran his hand over his eyes to try and dislodge some of the sleepiness.
If his cousin Gibson was calling him at this time of the morning it was important.
He sat down on the stool, and put his elbows on the dressing table as he waited.
He could hear Ebony in the nursery as she put Joy back to sleep, and quietened down Blessing, who had woken at the alien noise in the house.
‘Hello,’ Gibson said.
‘Gib,’ Jamison replied.
‘He’s coming for you,’ Gib said. ‘He left the farm in his sheep bakkie yesterday, and before he left, he went to his shrine. I followed him.’
‘His shrine?’
‘I’ll check properly when he is gone for a day or so more, but he collected something from his mushroom shed before he went and was muttering about the time being right to find the angel to save Impendla.’
‘Where are you?’ Jamison asked.
‘I walked to the main road, then caught a bus into Tsholotsho last night. I waited until there was no one around, and then I came to use the pay phone here in the street. I didn’t want anyone in Nyamandhlovu seeing me using a phone.’
‘So you are safe?’
‘Yes. He is gone. But I think he knows where you are.’
‘How? After all this time?’
‘Last week, we took a road trip back to Chinoya and we visited Amarose again. This time he went as a hunter. He took three days just to shoot a lion. Three days. I tracked it in one morning, but he was in no hurry. He was talking to all the staff about how he once knew you and how good you were at your job, and how he wanted to employ you, had to find you …’
‘Oh no …’
‘He spoke of hearing how you had built up the farm for the Widow Crosby so many years ago, and how he was looking for someone like that, someone reliable.’
‘And?’
‘Someone told him that they think that when Moeketsi had left, he might have gone to South Africa to find you. To join you.’
Jamison hung his head.
Not now. He looked down the passage where Ebony had just snuck out of the nursery and came towards him. His family.
Tara’s operation had been a success, and she had married Wayne, and moved to Kujana. Josha was so happy at the farm, and he was beginning to refer to Wayne as his dad to everyone.
He pinched the top of his nose between two fingers. ‘Moeketsi is from a large family. Did he take anyone from his clan?’
‘I don’t know. Buffel dropped me home, and then he went off again for another two days alone. I suspect he went back, because he came to his farm really late at night, and went straight into his mushroom shed. That is never a good sign. I will dig around a bit in there soon too, but I have to be careful that the other two workers here don’t get suspicious of me. They all know me as his tracker. No one knows that I was once a policeman. That I am your cousin.’
‘You stay safe, Gibson. You hear me?’
‘You too.’
Jamison put the phone down. He stared at Ebony.
‘He’s coming, isn’t he?’ she said.
‘I think so. He had already been gone for over twenty-four hours before Gibson could call this time, so he might already be here.’
He crossed the short distance to his wife, and hugged her close to him. ‘Eb,’ he said, ‘look at me—’ He raised her chin gently with his finger. ‘We have state-of-the-art security now, an alarm that would wake a hippo underwater, and smoke detectors, Eb, he can’t get to us in our house. We have game guards positioned outside, and travelling with you. We are armed to the hilt. We have made sure that we have everything we needed in this new house. He can’t get in without us being able to react. But I need to warn Wayne.’
‘I know. Poor Wayne and Tara, just when they are so happy. Now he is coming,’ Ebony said. ‘Go call him. I’ll be here waiting for you.’