CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE

‘Warrant Officer Snyman,’ said Henk, handing Reghardt the aerial and spanner, ‘take this straight away to Forensics in Oudtshoorn. And then go to Records and get anything you can on all the people in this group. Everything from birth certificates to library fines.’ He turned to Piet. ‘Constable Witbooi, go to the house and watch that Ousies doesn’t disappear again.’

Reghardt and Piet left, and Henk looked at Ricus and me. ‘I want to speak to the two of you. In private.’

Ricus said, ‘Johannes, could you take Esmeralda back to the house? And then work on that clutch of Mevrou van Straten’s Mazda?’

Johannes unwound the snake from Ricus’s arm and headed off.

An agama lizard was on the roof of the rusty grey Bedford van, watching us.

Henk said, ‘I want you to show me where each of the people in the group was standing, here by the fire.’

‘I was right here,’ I said, stepping onto my spot. ‘On my left was Lemoni, and on my right was Fatima.’

‘I was here,’ said Ricus, ‘next to Dirk, who was beside Lemoni. And on my left was Ousies, then Tata.’

‘So Tata Radebe was on your right?’ Henk said to me. The agama lizard lifted its blue head up and down.

‘Yes, but not close. He was over there.’

‘Use these stones,’ said Henk, ‘to show me exactly where everyone stood.’ He bent down to pick up a big stone, and exposed a small scorpion, which ran away and hid under a car tyre.

We laid the stones in a circle around the fire, naming each one for Henk.

‘And here, this is where Johannes was,’ said Ricus, putting a black stone beside the red panel van where Johannes had been working. The lizard ducked out of sight as Ricus passed by.

Ricus said, ‘The way Tata fell, shot in the chest, Ousies couldn’t have done it. She was right behind him, catching him as he fell. Also Dirk and me were behind him. The bullet must have come from this direction.’ He pointed towards the stones that marked me, Lemoni and Fatima.

‘Unless he moved before he was shot,’ said Henk. ‘Or Ousies twisted him. Piet told me the tracks show a sudden movement of Tata Radebe’s feet.’

‘We can’t rule out anyone, then?’ said Ricus. ‘What about Johannes? He didn’t have a clear shot of Tata. Dirk, Ousies and I were in his line of fire. And the aerial and the spanner, you found them there, in front of the Combi, behind Maria, quite a distance from where he was.’

‘Ja, but didn’t he knock a gun out of a man’s hand with a spanner last week?’ said Henk. ‘He knows how to throw . . .’

Henk ran his thumb and finger across his moustache. ‘I need to know all about each of the members of this group. Their fears and their secrets.’

Ricus and I studied the empty fireplace. This wasn’t the way I intended to tell Henk about my secret. Ricus took out three folding chairs and laid them out as if we were having a therapy meeting. We sat down. There wasn’t much shade, and the sun was hot. Ricus tapped his fingers on his thighs, on his blue overalls. Henk folded his arms across his chest, making creases in his cream shirt. I pulled my brown dress over my knees.

I wished I had told Henk my story about Fanie earlier. When I could’ve softened it somehow. When Henk himself was softer. Now he was so hard. And when he found out I was a murderer, he might even suspect that I killed Tata.

‘What do you want to know?’ asked Ricus.

He answered Henk’s questions about Ousies, talking about how she and Slimkat had played an important role in winning the land-claims court case. Ricus said Ousies was on good terms with Tata and had no reason to kill him. Ricus told Henk about Fatima’s hard time in Somalia and her troubles here. He shared Dirk’s stories about the army and his wife and son. He spoke of Lemoni’s robbery and Tata’s torture. Henk was interested in the fact that Dirk and Tata Radebe had fought on opposite sides of the anti-apartheid war. Maybe he had the same suspicions as Jessie.

When I listened to the stories of all the suffering carried by this small handful of people, I felt sad, like the world held too much pain. But when I realised the discussion was getting closer to me, I forgot about the world’s troubles and started worrying about my own.

‘And Tannie Maria’s story . . .’ said Ricus gently. ‘That she can tell you herself.’

Ricus was giving me the chance to do what I’d said I needed to do. Tell Henk the truth about Fanie. To tell him here and now, with Ricus’s help. Could I tell him the whole truth? Even Ricus didn’t know the terrible way that I had killed Fanie. Fanie was not a good man; I wasn’t sorry he was gone, but I didn’t know if I could forgive myself for the way I killed him. I opened my lips to speak, but my tongue was like biltong and wouldn’t make the words.

I was saved by the sheep. Kosie came charging down the pathway between the panel vans, stopped in front of Henk and butted him on the knee.

‘They are very good with voices,’ said Ricus. ‘Each lamb knows its mother’s sound.’

‘I’ll take him back today,’ said Henk, scratching Kosie between the horns.

‘You are welcome to leave him. A ewe has already adopted him. One who lost her lamb at birth. He’s very happy here.’

‘Ja, I see that, but when the time comes . . . I do eat lamb, but I don’t want Kosie to end up in the pot.’

‘Oh, no,’ said Ricus. ‘These are all Merino sheep. I farm them for their wool.’

‘Oh. But don’t you also . . .?’

‘Some farmers do. But for me, they’re like pets. No, the sheep here all live a good long life. And I could do with another ram. I’ll buy him from you. In a year or two, the Colonel won’t be able to keep up with all the ewes.’

‘You promise you won’t kill him?’

‘I could say I won’t harm a hair on his head, but that wouldn’t be true; I’ll shear all his wool off every year when the weather is right.’

‘What do you think, Kosie?’ said Henk.

Kosie rubbed his head against Henk’s hand, then danced off into the veld to join a ewe for breakfast; they nibbled on a grey-green shrub behind the yellow Combi van.

‘The food is good here,’ I said, finding my voice.

‘Okay,’ said Henk. ‘I won’t take money for him, but he can stay.’

‘You can come visit him. Any time,’ said Ricus.

‘You were telling me about the people in your group . . .’ said Henk.

‘I was saying Maria can speak for herself, unless she’d prefer I spoke for her?’

‘I know Maria’s story,’ said Henk.

‘She’s told you?’

‘Yes,’ he said.

I took a deep breath. ‘Maybe,’ I said, ‘maybe Tata was killed by mistake. In that smoke and all . . .’

‘Ja,’ said Henk, ‘I have thought of that. So we’re not just looking at motives for killing Tata Radebe but at motives for killing any of the people in the group. Also, when you are dealing with . . . um . . . disturbed people, the motive might not always make sense. We’re digging up what background we can, and I’ll interview everyone again.’

‘Detective Kannemeyer,’ said Ricus, ‘I think this group should meet again. This afternoon.’

‘That’s too dangerous. What if something else happened?’

‘We won’t do the smoke at the end of the session. We could have extra security, tell the group it’s for their own protection. We could even put cameras on the panel vans.’

‘Hmm,’ said Henk.

‘I’m hoping we’ll get a confession,’ said Ricus. ‘That would begin the path to healing.’

‘This is not the time for your psychological . . . stuff.’

‘It may be the fastest way to find the murderer. You can do all the homework you like, and yes do it, but the truth might lie here, inside one of us.’

Henk frowned and looked out into the distance at a stony koppie. A black-shouldered kite was hovering above it, hunting.

‘It’s not worth putting you all in danger,’ he said.

‘Until the murderer is caught, we are all in danger,’ said Ricus.

‘Maria, I don’t want you at risk.’

‘Like Ricus says, we’re all at risk now,’ I said. ‘We need to catch whoever killed Tata. Isn’t that what’s most important?’

For a moment, his grey-blue eyes softened into sadness, then his hard look was back, his mouth tight beneath his moustache.

‘Yes, that is what’s most important. Okay, let’s do it.’

Kosie came back to Henk and nuzzled against his hand before skipping off again.

‘You promise you’ll look after my lamb?’ said Henk.

‘The best I can,’ said Ricus.

‘I’ll miss my lammetjie,’ Henk said quietly, looking out at the veld.

I remembered his lullaby, lamtietie damtietie. I felt a small stab of sadness, sharp as a thorn. I don’t know why; I was sure Kosie would be very happy with Ricus.