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The light above the door was out, which Louis found strange – he had replaced the bulb two days ago – and the door was ajar. Natalie always locked it. His heart pounded in his chest. He kicked the door open. It banged against the wall and bounced back towards him.
“Natalie,” he called from the doorway.
Silence.
“Natalie,” he called again, this time louder. His voice reached a higher pitch than usual and squeaked like a thirteen-year-old boy whose voice was breaking.
He heard the wind howling through an open window in the kitchen. The kitchen curtains flapped and disturbed the leaves of her herbs on the window sill. He took a tentative step inside and stood in the hallway.
“What the fuck is she up to now?” he mumbled under his breath.
There were more dangerous predators in Pretoria than him. He only hoped that nothing had happened to her. He hoped she was trying to teach him a lesson or it was one of her other stupid games. He didn't know what he would do if anything happened to her. What if she tried to kill herself again? The possibility made him want to throw up. He looked around the corner into the lounge which was lit only by a single lamp. He took a few more slow steps inside. Thoughts of her being hacked to death by a machete-wielding gangster made his stomach lurch. Images of her hands being chopped off for muti invaded his already strained mind.
The lampshade was tilted at an angle, illuminating a spot on the wall. Taking slow nervous steps, he made his way to the middle of the room and stared at the wall. Sprayed across the wall in red spray paint was,
It’s my turn.
*
THE SUN WASN’T DUE to come up for a few hours. They drove in silence. Red and white lights blotted the horizon. Clouds blocked out the moon. The headlights of cars travelling in the opposite direction broke the darkness for a few seconds but not for long enough to interrupt the darkness which had welled up in his head and his heart. He gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. Natalie sat curled up on the passenger seat beside him, with her feet on the seat, hugging her knees to her chest. She hadn’t said a word or uttered a sound since they got into the car. They were both locked into their own minds, alone with their thoughts and pain. But most of all they were alone with their guilt.
“Where are we going?” she asked, after driving in silence for two hours, her voice was muffled and soft.
He didn’t answer her.
“Where the hell are we going, Nico?” She turned around in her seat and faced him. Anger, tinged with fear, started to creep into her voice.
The only sound in response to her question was the wind buffeting the car and the engine objecting to the long drive.
“Damn it, Nico. Answer me.”
He looked at her for a few seconds and then turned back to the road ahead. He couldn’t answer her question. He didn’t know where they were going. He had hoped to have come up with a plan by now, but all he could see was Janet in the bathtub, with her throat slit and her dead eyes pleading with him to help her.
Natalie pounding her fists against his arm forced the image out of his mind. Tears were streaming down her cheeks.
“God damn you, Nico. I hate you,” she screamed at him. Each time her fist hit his arm, her voice grew louder and more hysterical.
It was a narrow single carriageway with farmland on either side. They had passed the small mining town of Lesley and were half an hour outside of Standerton, a large farming town. There was nothing but farmland between them and Standerton. He decided that this was as good a spot as any and pulled over into the emergency lane.
“Get out of the fucking car you crazy bitch,” his voice was quiet and cold.
“Fuck you.” She spat in his face.
He wiped her saliva from his face and dried his hand on her jersey. He got out the car and walked around to her door. She pressed the lock down on her door and then leaned over the driver’s seat and locked that door as well.
“Open the door, Natalie,” he shouted through the closed window.
She stared straight ahead of her. The only sign that she acknowledged his presence was by extending her middle finger. He took some satisfaction in dangling the car key in front of the window and then proceeded to unlock the car door. Her screams of protest as he pulled her out were shrill and annoying as all hell.
“Shut up,” he shouted as he slammed her against the car. “Now, you are going to be a good little psycho and shut up, so I can think. Is that clear?”
She glared at him in silence.
“Is that clear?” He slammed her against the car again.
“Perfectly,” she hissed through a clamped jaw.
He let her go and slumped against the car next to her.
They stood in silence for what seemed an eternity. The sun would be up in a few hours. The thought of a new day brought hope that maybe, just maybe, he would be able to kill the bastard without too much damage to himself.
“So genius, we’ve been standing here like idiots for a while now, and I don’t know about you, but my arse is numb, and I’m cold. I was wondering if you had, by some miracle, any clue as to what we’re actually going to do?” Natalie intruded on his thoughts.
“Didn’t I tell you to shut up?”
“That was a while ago, and if you don’t have any ideas I thought you might like to hear mine?”
“Fine! So what’s your great idea?”
“We go back to Pretoria. I’ll tell you the details on the way.”
*
“IT JUST MIGHT WORK,” he mumbled to himself.
He couldn’t believe that he was going along with Natalie and her crazy idea. Sitting back on his couch after the exhausting round trip to the middle of nowhere, he tried to order her plan in his tired and fumbling mind. It was a dangerous plan, and the chances of coming out of it in one piece were slim to none.
Natalie was curled up on the couch opposite him, sleeping soundly. She didn’t move in her sleep. The only indication that she was alive was the shallow, yet steady movement of her chest. She had been so calm while telling him about her plan. It was as if all her hysterics from earlier had never happened. Grief and guilt affected people in different ways. If it hadn't been for Janet's murder, Natalie would never have offered to help him to put Louis away. She would probably have protected him to the last, no matter what he did.
He realised then that there must have been a side to Janet that he had never known. How else could she have been close to this woman for so long? Had Janet not seen who and what Natalie really was? Had she not seen that Natalie had serious mental issues? Janet had been many things, but stupid and naïve were not words he would have used to describe her. So how could she not have seen this aspect of her friend? The more he asked himself the questions, the less he liked the answers.
Then again, he was going along with her plan. So what did that say about him? Was he just as demented as the man he was trying to bring down?
Natalie’s eyes were open and watching him. He realised that he had been staring into space and hadn’t noticed that she was awake.
“You certainly were far away,” she said with a smirk.
He grunted in reply and got off the couch and walked to the window.
“When are you going?” he asked with his back facing her. The sun was bright, and the wind howled and whipped around the building.
“Soon.”
“Good, the sooner this is over and done with the better.”
“Fine, if that’s what you want.” She stood up and stretched.
He heard her yawn, and then her muffled footsteps made their way across the room to the front door. There was a pause, and the door squeaked open and slammed shut.
He would oil the door hinges when this was over.
*
SHE FELT FAINT WITH excitement. It was almost over. She had to keep it together for a little while longer. Hell, she just had to survive the next few hours. This time tomorrow she would be free from the guilt and truly alone for the first time since she was a little girl. No Louis and no Janet. She wiped away the tears and forced the pain down, deep inside her. She would deal with it later.
The lift hit the ground floor with a jolt. Her legs felt like rubber under her. She willed them to move. With each step she took her resolve grew stronger. There were moments in the walk towards Johnnie’s Café & Bar that she wanted to turn tail and run, but she had come too far. She had put too much on the line to stop now. Besides, if she didn’t end it her way, Louis would make sure it ended his way, which would not be a healthy solution for her or Nico.
The image of Janet in the bloody bathtub squirmed its way into her mind. She tried to shake it, but Janet wouldn’t let her go. She didn’t want to end up the same way.
“I’m sorry Janet,” she said softly. “I’m so sorry.”
Her feet crunched on the sandy pathway that led under the trees. The plot of ground across the road from Nico’s block of flats was empty except for a few old blue gum trees. It was a short walk from Nico’s flat to Johnnie’s Café & Bar, but it felt like an eternity.
The public phone was outside the entrance to the bar. She paused in front of it and took a deep breath before dialling Louis’s cell number. She'd left her own cell phone at home in all the craziness.
“Hello.” His voice sounded shaky to her ears. She smiled and enjoyed the few beats of silence before answering him.
“So do you miss me?” she asked
“Where are you?”
“That’s a nice way to greet me.”
“Don’t play with me. Just tell me where you are and I’ll come get you.”
“Impatient, aren’t we?”
“Stop your shit and tell me where the fuck you are.” His voice grew louder, and desperation clung to it like a wet rag. She fought with herself not to burst out laughing. Being so close to her goal made her feel reckless. Her thigh muscles rippled like an excited thoroughbred’s before a race. She managed to keep her cool and her voice even.
“I was with Nico.”
“With Nico?”
“That’s what I said. He's made me feel things I'd never thought possible.”
“I'll fucking kill him!” he screamed.
“You can try, but I don't think you're man enough.” She enjoyed taunting him, and his ego made him an easy target.
“Where is he?” He took a new tack and audibly tried to calm himself down.
“Still at his place, I would imagine.” She could hear his mind ticking over, calculating.
“Natalie, does he know?”
“Know what Louis?”
“Stop with the games. Does he know?”
“Yes, he knows, and he’s not very happy about it at all. And to be quite honest, neither am I. You really shouldn't have killed Janet.”
He exhaled. She heard his breath echo through the phone line. The phone clicked as she put the handset back in its cradle. Smiling, she walked into the bar and sat on a stool. Johnnie’s Café was filled with off-duty or retired cops who had nothing to do except have a beer in the middle of the afternoon. The TV above the bar broadcast a local soccer match. The Orlando Pirates were playing Mamelodi Sundowns.
All she had to do now was have a stiff drink while she waited.
*
NICO WAITED A FEW MINUTES after Natalie left before making his phone call.
“SABC,” a young woman’s voice answered the phone.
“Would you put me through to the Newsroom, please?”
“Just one moment, sir.”
He listened to irritating hold music until a harassed-sounding man barked “Newsroom” into the receiver.
“Helen Stratford, please,” he asked trying to sound calm.
“Just a sec. Let me see if she’s at her desk.” There was a pause. “Ok, there she is. Hold on a mo.”
The phone rang twice before she picked it up.
“Helen Stratford.” Her voice sounded as though elocution lessons were the norm in her daily life. He had found it sexy when they were together, now it just annoyed him.
“Hello, Helen.” His voice croaked.
“Well, Nico, this is a surprise. What can I do for you?”
“Don’t you mean what can I do for you?”
“Very well, Nico. What can you do for me?”
“Be at my place in an hour’s time, and you’ll get that exclusive you’ve been after.” He put the phone down before she could ask him any questions.
He exhaled and sank down on the couch. Putting his elbows on his knees and resting his forehead in the palms of his hands, he wondered if Natalie was setting him up.
*
SHE LOOKED AT THE DEAD phone in her hand as though it were a golden trophy that she had just won after the toughest race of her life. She didn’t hear Kyle coming up behind her.
“What’s wrong with the phone?”
“Huh,” she said, jumping out of her skin. “Don’t sneak up on people like that.” She put the phone back on its cradle gently.
“Sorry, I didn’t realise I was sneaking up on you.”
“Just go and pack up your gear.”
“Why? What’s happening?”
“We have an appointment.”
“Who with?”
“With my African Journalist of the Year Award. Now stop with the twenty questions and get packed.”
“Yes, ma’am.” He turned and jogged out of the overcrowded open-plan newsroom.
She watched his long legs encased in tatty old jeans and had to admit that he was quite an attractive specimen. When this was over, and she had the story in the bag she would be nicer to him, much nicer. Maybe she would make his wildest, wettest fantasies a reality. A blush crept from her neck up to her cheeks as the thought took hold of her body. She savoured the carnal sensation she felt between her legs and fought to control the blush as she put on her tailored jacket. She didn’t know which turned her on more: the thought of Kyle or the exclusive story on the Bathroom Strangler and proving to Nico, once and for all, that he did need her.