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Nico walked into his fishbowl a few hours later and threw his car keys and cell phone onto his desk. He pulled his jacket off, which felt a little tight around his shoulders and draped it over the back of his office chair. Either all his clothes had shrunk, or he needed to go on that diet Janet kept suggesting. Sitting down, he rested his elbows on his government-issue desk and rubbed his stubbly chin. A shit day lay ahead of him. There wasn't any proper evidence against the young constable sitting in the holding cells below; most of the evidence he had was circumstantial. Even though he was guilty of theft and perverting the course of justice, he wasn't the killer.
He wasn’t looking forward to dealing with Louis. He needed to get all his thoughts down on paper; it was the only way he could sift through everything that was swirling around in his head. He took out a pen and was searching his drawers for paper when his boss, Colonel Molwedi, phoned him.
“Get your white arse into my office now, Van Staaden.” The phone was slammed down. His day was off to a very bad start.
It took him a few minutes to get to Molwedi's office. He knocked three times and was answered by “Get in here!”
“So let me guess ... I’m in the shit?” Nico said as he walked into the office and closed the door behind him.
“Whatever gave you that impression?” Molwedi said, his hands clutched in front of him on his cluttered desk. Moses Molwedi’s desk was also typical government issue, only bigger than Nico’s. Desk size was the best way to tell the difference in rank in any government department.
“Oh! I don't know ... maybe the ‘Get your white arse up here’ thing. So ... what terrible crime against humanity have I committed this time?”
“They are too numerous for me to mention all in one sitting.”
“Look, Boss, can we get this pithy shit out of the way so you can crap me out for whatever it is and then I can get back to work. How does that sound?”
“I’m going to ignore the fact that you don’t enjoy our banter. Now, about this fucked-up arrest you made last night. What were you thinking?”
“Well Boss, I was ...”
“Oh, shut up. That was a rhetorical question. I know what you were thinking. Nothing! Absolutely nothing, you weren’t thinking at all.” Molwedi got up from his chair and started pacing behind his desk.
“Now, what I want to know, Captain, is, haven’t you learnt anything about the law of evidence during all your years on the force?”
“Well, considering that I caught the guy with the victim’s property in his hands and, sir, I think you mean ‘service’ don’t you? Remember the whole image change?”
“If I were you, I’d watch the attitude. You are this close to a suspension,” Molwedi said, holding up his thumb and index finger in a pincer position and less than an inch apart.
“You’ve threatened that a few times and I’ve never been suspended, so it would be an interesting experience.”
“Then consider yourself suspended.”
“Thanks so much for the experience. Now, do you want to tell me why you’re suspending me, other than my attitude?”
“There's the fact that I just don't like you. You've already got two warnings for insubordination on your permanent file and that fuck-up you called an arrest which you made last night.”
“Oh, ja, I forgot about those two minor incidents. But you've got to admit that Laurel and Hardy, I mean Maritz and Lubbe deserved everything they got and they were just small practical jokes. Who knew that they didn't have a sense of humour?” He noticed that Molwedi shared the same deficiency with Laurel and Hardy, so quickly changed the subject. “But what about last night? Why was it such a colossal fuck-up?”
“All his alibis check out. He’s not the Bathroom Strangler. The only thing we can charge him with is theft and obstruction of justice. And thanks to you we have yet another corrupt policeman on our hands. We have enough image problems with corruption as it is. The press is going to have a field day with this. It's a PR nightmare.”
“You're kidding me. You're worried about a PR issue. We've taken another corrupt cop off the streets. That's a win for us and no reason to suspend me; you should be giving me a medal.”
“You’re really starting to get on my tits. Isn’t that a good enough reason?”
“No.”
“Pity. Okay, the lone wolf act that you keep pulling, your attitude towards your superiors and the fact that you were already on very thin ice. Also, I don't like the way you're handling this case. Your judgement is clouded. This is a high profile case and, considering your past experience with certain members of the press, we need someone who will represent the police effectively in the media. How’s them for reasons?”
“That’s only enough to pull me off the case.”
“Which was what I was going to do, then you asked for the suspension. Remember?”
“I forgot about that.”
“So, please hand me your police ID and your sidearm.”
Nico removed his pistol from his hip holster and placed it on Molwedi’s desk. He then took his police ID out of his wallet and placed it next to his pistol.
“Here's the official suspension form you need to sign.” Molwedi took a form out of his top drawer and pushed it across his desk towards Nico.
“How long is the suspension?” Nico asked while signing the document.
“A month. Now get out of my sight.”
“Yes, sir.” Nico turned and walked towards the door, his ego crushed, as well as any will to fight with Molwedi.
“Oh, and Captain – come back with a better attitude. Use the time to learn to be a team player.”
“I’ll try, sir,” Nico said while opening the door. He stepped out of the office and closed the door behind him. Once outside Molwedi’s office and his earshot he smacked himself on his forehead and shook his head.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” he said under his breath and leaned against the wall. He needed to think, needed to figure out his next move, especially if he was right about Louis. He could only hope that by killing his mother, he had also killed his motivation.
“Yeah, right, someone’s definitely living in a dream world,” he mumbled to himself. Looking up, he discovered that all eyes from the open-plan office were on him. He straightened his tie and tried to ignore the pounding headache developing at his temples and his ulcer making its presence felt. He wanted to throw up.
Fishing a Tums out of his pocket, he popped it into his mouth and walked along the passage and down the stairs, back to his fishbowl.
Laurel and Hardy ignored his entrance. Nico opened the stationery cupboard the three of them shared and emptied a box of its contents onto the floor. He put the empty box onto his desk, pulled the top drawer out of his desk and tipped the contents into the box. He started to do the same to the second drawer when Louis knocked on the open door.
“Am I interrupting something?” Louis asked, looking at the box.
“No, not really, I’m just emptying out my desk.”
“Why?”
“Because I’ve been suspended?”
“What?”
“I. Have. Just. Been. Suspended,” Nico said slowly, enunciating each word for effect.
“I heard you. Shit! Man, I’m sorry but if you’re suspended who’s handling my mother’s murder, and you said you had a whole lot of questions you wanted to ask me?”
“I’m sure one of these two jokers will be able to take your statement. If they can pull their fingers out of their arses, that is.” Nico said, looking at Laurel and Hardy. “And I’m sure one of them will be taking over as lead detective.”
“Why are they suspending you?”
“My attitude sucks,” Nico said, emptying the contents of his bottom drawer into the box.
“Oh, okay and umm ... how long are you going to be suspended?”
“A month and then, if my attitude hasn’t changed, they’ll probably decide to take further disciplinary action.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t understand.”
“It’s quite simple: my boss hates my big fat white arse,” Nico said as he put the lid back on the box which now contained all his personal belongings. “A lot of guys have been drummed out of the service for less, so I'm pretty lucky I still have a job. It's out with the old and in with the new. The only reason those two boneheads still have a job is because their noses are so far up Molwedi's arse that when he shits, they burp fart.
“So you can just walk away from this without a second glance?”
“No, but I don’t have much choice on this one. I’m sorry, Louis, but there’s nothing I can do.”
Louis sat down on a chair opposite Nico’s desk.
“I don’t believe this. I was counting on you.”
“Would one of you please help this man?” Nico said to Laurel and Hardy, as he picked up his box and walked towards the door. He stopped at the open doorway and turned around. He gave the office one last glance, making sure he hadn’t forgotten anything he couldn't live without. His glance rested on Louis, and his stomach wanted to revolt. He hated unfinished business. “Look, if you need anything or if there’s anything I can do to help, please give me a call,” Nico said and walked out, right into Pete.
“Where’re you going with that box?”
“What? Haven’t you heard?”
“Heard what?”
“That’s right, it's a little too soon for the rumours to have reached all the way to you. I’ve been suspended.”
“I wish I could say it was a surprise. What are you going to do?”
“I haven't got a clue, but I need a favour?”
“As long as you don’t need cash, then I’m your guy.”
“I need you to keep an eye on Louis Gouws for me.”
“Of course.”
“Thanks, and while you’re at it, make sure Laurel and Hardy don’t just sit on their arses with this one.”
“I’ll try, and I’ll keep you posted on how things develop. But if we’re right about your friend, I don’t think there’ll be another murder for a while. He’s killed his stressor, and for now, he’ll think he can live a normal life. But the smallest thing will set him off. If he kills again, it’ll be in frustration, and it’ll be worse than the others.”
*
THE SUN WAS LOW IN the sky when Nico pulled up outside Janet’s block of flats. He had driven around most of the day, not quite knowing what to do with himself. Being a policeman had defined who he was for most of his adult life and now that he wasn’t one, even if it was only for a month, left him feeling out of sorts.
Janet’s green Opel Corsa was parked in its usual spot outside the main entrance. He sat in his own car, a battered old Datsun, staring into space. He had inherited the car from his grandmother shortly after graduating from the Police College. She had been his only relative to live long enough to see him graduate. She died a week later, and the car had been the only thing she left him.
There was an annoying tap-tap sound. He ignored it, lost in his own thoughts. The tapping became a loud banging at his window. He looked up to see a rather unhappy Janet scowling back at him. He unlocked his door and got out. Janet’s arms were crossed, and he could tell by the way she was standing, it was her 'I'm waiting' stance, that his explanation had better be good. It was the first time she’d been this angry with him and, as far as he was concerned, she had never been more desirable. Too bad he wasn't up to it.
“How did you know I was here?”
“I just got here myself, and it’s difficult to miss your heap of junk from the entrance.”
“I suppose it is your usual time to get home.”
“Yes, it’s my usual time, but it isn’t yours. So, what are you doing here?”
“Can we go upstairs? I don’t want to talk about it out here.”
“Nico, what’s going on?” Her voice softened, and so did her body language.
“Have you spoken to Natalie today?”
“No, I’ve been on a course all day. So she wouldn’t have been able to get hold of me even if she’d wanted to.”
“On a course?”
“Yes, a management course, nothing too fancy. Don't change the subject, why are you asking me if I’ve spoken to Natalie? What’s going on?”
“Let’s go inside, and I’ll explain everything, okay?” he asked, guiding her towards the entrance to her block.
“Okay.”
They walked to the block and up the stairs to the first floor in silence. Janet fished around in her oversized handbag for her keys. Nico always wondered what she kept in there and why she needed such a big bag. She opened the door and stepped inside. Nico followed and closed the door behind them. She dropped her bottomless pit of a bag on the dining room table and walked into her kitchen. Nico carried on down the passage into the lounge. He sat down on the red couch carefully. He had learnt that it could suck him under if he wasn’t careful. The cushions billowed out around him. Janet came out of the kitchen carrying two glasses of white wine.
“What’s that for?” Nico asked her as she walked towards him.
“You look like you could use a drink and this is the strongest I have.” She handed him a glass that was too full and on the verge of spilling over.
He took a sip to prevent spillage and then stared at the glass, not knowing where to start.
“So ... do you want to tell me what’s going on or do I have to guess?” Janet asked, breaking the silence.
“I don’t know where to start.”
“How about you start with why you stood me up last night?”
“Oh, ja, I did, hey.”
“What do you mean ‘Oh ja, I did, hey.’?” she said mimicking him, with an edge to her voice.
“Sorry, honey. I really am, and I do have a decent excuse.”
“You bloody well better have.”
“Louis’s mother was killed on Sunday by the Bathroom Strangler.”
“What?”
“I was staking out her house last night waiting for the killer to show up. As it turns out, the guy I thought was the killer is a nineteen-year-old snot-nosed constable, who goes back to the victim’s homes after we’ve done everything we have to do and robs the place.” He took a breath and a sip of the wine. “Anyway, I arrested the stupid shit and have been suspended for my troubles.” He gulped down half the glass in one swig.
“They suspended you just for arresting the guy?”
“Well ... not just for that. My attitude sucks, I’m told; I didn’t follow proper procedure; the guy has valid alibis for all the murders; my boss thinks I’m not a team player and I pull too many lone-wolf stunts. I already have two warnings on my file. Plus Molwedi has been gunning for me since he took over that position. I've got the wrong skin colour. Blah blah blah.” He gulped the rest of the wine down.
“I see.” Janet took a sip of her wine. “How long is the suspension?”
“A month and then Molwedi will decide if my attitude has improved or not.”
“So what are you going to do for a month?”
“Nothing. I’m just going to sit on my arse and drive you crazy.”
“That’s all fine and well, but you can’t sit still for two minutes – how the hell are you going to make it through a whole month?”
“As I said, I’m going to drive you nuts.” He eyed the empty glass, hoping to find a drop of wine he might have missed. “Oh, I almost forgot. When I was at Louis’s place last night telling him about his mother, he told me that he and Natalie are engaged. He proposed on Sunday night.”
“Really? Wow. It’s strange that she didn’t tell me.”
“Maybe she couldn’t get hold of you, you were on a course, or she just had other things on her mind. You never know with fruitcakes like that.”
“She’s not a fruitcake.”
“Yes, she is. There’s definitely something not right with that one.”
“Hey, careful there, you’re talking about my best friend.”
“Sorry Sweetie, but that’s another thing I don’t understand.”
“What don’t you understand?”
“Your friendship with Natalie.”
“What about it?”
“Doesn’t make sense. You’re both so different.”
“So we’re different. What’s your point?”
“I don’t understand how you two could be such good friends when you’re such total opposites.”
“We’re not total opposites.”
“Yes, you are. She’s a nut, and you’re not.”
“Look, Nats and I have been friends since high school. When we met, some kids were bullying her because she was living in an orphanage. She had nothing, no home, no family and no friends. I felt sorry for her, so I stood up for her, and we’ve been friends ever since.”
“Now that I understand,” Nico said, tapping his index finger against the empty glass.
“What do you understand?” she said, getting up from the couch, taking his glass and walking to the kitchen.
“You feeling sorry for her.” He raised his voice so that she could hear him in the kitchen. “And you still do.”
“She has a lot of issues,” Janet called from the kitchen. “So what? Everybody has issues.”
“The fact that you feel sorry for her is the foundation of your friendship.”
“No, it’s not.”
“Yes, it is.”
“Since you want to discuss strange friendships, how about yours and Louis’s? That’s a match made in La La Land as far as I’m concerned.”
“He’s an okay guy,” he said taking a sip of his wine and hoping she would drop the Louis issue. He wasn't sure how he'd tell her he thought one of her oldest friends was a serial killer.
“Wait a minute, why have you got that look on your face?’
“What look?”
“That look you get when you want to dodge a topic.”
“I have no such look.”
“Yes, you do, and you have that look right now.”
“I do not.”
Janet looked at him with arched eyebrows, and a grin played on her lips.
“Oh, all right, so I don’t want to talk about Louis right now or anything to do with his mother’s murder. It has nothing to do with me anymore,” Nico said, taking another sip and eyeing her over the rim of the glass.
“Now why don’t I believe you?” she said, as she plopped down on the couch.
“Because you know me too well?”
“Mmmm ... Good answer. Now stop dodging and spill it.”
“Seriously, I’m not dodging anything, but I would like to know more about Natalie and Louis’s relationship,” he said drinking more of the wine, which was starting to taste like vinegar.
“Why?” Janet asked, crossing and uncrossing her legs.
“I’m just curious, that’s all.”
“What are you curious about?”
“Well ... How did they get together?”
“We all went to the same school; Natalie had a crush on him from eighth grade. I still don’t understand why she's fascinated by him. He was a loner: he had no friends, and the only thing he did was play rugby, and that was because it was mandatory to do a sport. He just didn’t fit in.”
“I can see how they would make a perfect match then.” He pretended not to see Janet’s look of disapproval.
“The three of us somehow ended up as friends. I don't even remember how it happened. But Louis only started thinking of her as more than just a friend in Matric. He noticed how beautiful she is at the Valentine’s Day ball. She looked incredible that night; she must have scrimped and saved for ages. I still don’t know how she managed to get the money together for that dress. The people at the orphanage were horrible to her and wouldn’t do jack-shit to help her. To make a long story short, they’ve been together ever since.”
“Cute story. What was her relationship like with Louis’s mother?” He couldn't help but wonder how much of the tale she was leaving out. Was there something she wasn't telling him?
“Is this an interrogation?”
“No, it's not, but I would like to know why you're trying to avoid the subject?” he asked, arching one eyebrow.
“Is that your interrogation face?” she asked him, grinning.
“It is if it works for you. Now stop avoiding the question. I’m serious, what was Natalie’s relationship like with Louis’s mother?”
“Okay, fine. It was strained.”
“How strained?”
“Louis’s mother was a mean, cold-hearted bitch.”
“How strained?”
“Why are you being such a cop about this?”
“Why are you avoiding the question?”
“I’m not avoiding it.”
“Then answer the question.”
“Okay. They hated each other. You happy now?”
“No. Why do you say they hated each other?”
“I don’t know all the details, but I do know that Louis’s mother is the reason Natalie slit her wrists.”
“Wait a minute; the infamous suicide attempt was because of Louis’s mother?”
“Apparently, but Natalie won’t tell me what happened. It was all bizarre. After that, she changed.”
“An attempted suicide will change you, believe it or not.”
“I know that, but she changed towards me. I’m probably being paranoid, but she just acts differently around me now. It's almost as if she doesn’t trust me anymore. She’s shut me out.” Her lips quivered as she tried to fight back the tears.
Nico rubbed his fingertips over the bottom of his chin and scraped them against his two-day stubble. He filed the information away with all the other parts of the puzzle that didn’t fit together; he needed to put them all together. Not that it would do him any good at this point since he was off the case, but he had to finish what he’d started.
*
SHE COULDN'T CONCENTRATE on any of the contracts her boss had placed in front of her during the day. Luckily he bought the act Natalie laid on thick about her shock and grief over the death of her mother-in-law-to-be and let her go home early. She now sat on their second-hand couch, thinking.
The thoughts started out as a jumble, but now everything started to make sense. She’d wondered why he worked every Sunday night shift and went to see his mother during his shift. The way he behaved when he got back from those Sunday visits had puzzled her. Before, he would never have touched her after being to see his mother, but the last few weeks they’d had sex every Sunday night. It was as clear as daylight to her now. The gift of twenty-twenty hindsight was an amazing thing. The only thing she didn’t know was what to do with this revelation.
She didn’t know how she felt. She’d hated that evil witch, but the other women were innocent. Weren’t they? Louis must have had a reason for killing them. Maybe they deserved it. She had to admit she didn’t care about the other women: they meant nothing to her. They were faceless and generally nameless women, whom the media had branded as a bunch of alcoholics.
She got off the couch, walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge. She glanced inside and slammed it shut without taking anything out. The kitchen clock ticked and the sound grated on her nerves. The traffic outside competed with the ticking clock for most annoying sound. She walked back into the lounge and stared at nothing in particular. Trying to grasp one chain of thought was proving to be somewhat more difficult than she thought possible. There had to be something she could do with the information. Should she tell Nico what she suspected? The real question was what did she want? Did she want to stop him from hurting anybody else? Or did she want to protect him?
She paced up and down. It took her six steps to get from one side of the room to the other. She ran her fingers through her hair and stopped mid-stride. She realised the only thing that mattered was the fact that she loved him. It didn't matter what he'd done. He was still the man she loved. And with that realisation, all other choices flew out of the window.
*
AFTER SEEING NICO PACK his box and walk out of the charge office, Louis didn’t know what to do with himself. He had psyched himself up for today. He had all the answers ready for Nico; he'd been ready for him, and now that Nico wasn’t going to ask him any questions he felt deflated. It was as if he wasn’t important enough to Nico: the women he'd killed and everything he'd done wasn't important.
He was going to show Nico that he was; he was going to make him realise he was the most important thing in Nico’s life. He wasn’t sure how he was going to achieve it. Thankfully he had the kind of job where all he had to do for long periods of time was think. But thinking, he had discovered, wasn’t always such a good thing.
Most of the day he’d spent parked under a tree but hadn’t been able to come up with anything. All he had been able to think of was his fucking Bitch mother who was, thankfully, now burning in hell. With her out of the way, he was in the clear. He’d circled around the thoughts swirling in his head for most of his shift. Then he would try to focus on showing Nico what was important but his thoughts kept returning to his mother lying in the mortuary waiting to be buried.
It was late when he arrived home, and he still didn’t have a fixed plan of action. He opened the front door to find Natalie pacing up and down the lounge with a smile spread across her face.
“What are you so happy about?” he asked her, finding it amusing to see her jump. He enjoyed giving her a fright and, being highly strung, she was an easy target. It didn’t take much these days. It wasn’t much of a challenge, but it was still enjoyable.
“I didn’t see you standing there,” she said, pasting on another smile. “I was just thinking about our wedding. Speaking of which, I’d better give Janet a call. She's going to be my bridesmaid.”
He was about to say something glib when he realised that Natalie had just given him a way to get back at Nico and secure his relationship with Natalie.
“I love you!” he shouted at her retreating back.