Peter Temple - In the Evil Day

Bruynzeel said to Serrano:

Trilling’s connections, there’s no problem.

If it was this Trilling, what connections was Bruynzeel referring to?

With the US Defense Department?

And Serrano had said something to Spence/Richler about needing to worry because ‘the Belgian’s one of yours’.

Bruynzeel and the Israelis? Was this the Trilling? It was a thicket, hard to get in, easy to be trapped, no way out.

What exactly did Lourens do? He’d never bothered to find out. He swivelled to the machine.

There wasn’t much about Dr Carl Lourens on the electronic record. The Johannesburg Weekly Mail amp; Guardian had a 1992 story that the Office for Serious Economic Offences, a branch of the Attorney-General’s Department, was investigating his company, TechPharma Global, for currency and other offences under the apartheid regime.

The Johannesburg Star reported his death. It called him an importer of chemicals ‘with links to the South African Defence Force’. The report said:

The body was burnt beyond recognition in a fire that destroyed the premises of TechPharma Global outside Pretoria. Police said gas cylinders and chemicals exploded, making it too dangerous to approach the blaze. It had been allowed to burn out.

It was rumoured in 1993 that Dr Lourens would be charged with serious offences relating to the apartheid era, but these never eventuated.

A spokesman for the Attorney-General’s Department said yesterday that Dr Lourens had been questioned in recent weeks over allegations made by a former employee of TechPharma Global.

There was one more reference.

A man found dead of a gunshot wound to the head in a Sandton City carpark yesterday has been identified as Dr Johan Scheepers, 56, a chemist of Craighall Park.

Dr Scheepers was found with a pistol. He was a former employee of TechPharma Global, whose director, Dr Carl Lourens, died in a fire two days ago.Dr Scheepers had been assisting the Attorney-General’s Department with inquiries into the affairs of TechPharma.

Lourens, Shawn, this man, Serrano, Kael…he didn’t want to go through the list again. No end to the number of deaths. He was sick at heart and stomach and the twenty-four-hour logs were waiting.

Jessica Thomas, the name added to the Mackie file, had used a credit card to buy petrol at a stop on the A44.

TIME OF EVENT: 12.42 a.m., Thursday, 13/10.

The CLIENT NOTIFIED box was ticked. TIME: 3.27 p.m.,Thursday, 13/10.

In the COMMENTS box, Jarl had written: Checked long delay in central transaction recording-Amex computer problems, system down.

Lafarge looking for Niemand. Was Niemand with Jessica Thomas? Why not, she had picked him up on her bike. Lafarge looking for the film Niemand had. Dead soldiers. Dead Tilders.

Anselm’s mind was sick of the puzzle, slid away to Alex. She had left the bed before dawn. He had woken but kept still, lying on his side, eyes closed, listening to her dressing, the fabric sounds, pulling, sheathing. She had come to the bedside, bent over, tried to place a soft kiss on his face, and he had taken her, caught her, pulled her down to him.

‘This is over-compensation,’ she said in his chest, breathless. ‘You don’t have to prove anything. It works.’

‘It’s not doing anything.’

‘Are you sure? Let me check…’ Riccardi. He should have spoken to him earlier. What did Riccardi know?

…LONDON…

‘We’re pretty much in a holding pattern,’ said Palmer. The small windowless room on the top floor of the embassy was overheated, and it made him feel tight in the chest.

‘It’s getting close for me, Scottie. I’d hoped things would be tidy by now.’

‘I’m not taking this lightly.’

‘No, I know you’re not. What help have our friends given you.’

‘Some. They’re on the case. Could hear something any time.’

‘Not a big country.’

‘Big enough. Plus there’s water around it.’

‘Is that a thought?’

‘We’ve got it covered, I hope.’

‘There was something in Hamburg.’

‘Yes. People did some housekeeping.’

‘Simpler ways, surely?’

‘They apparently thought it would be more surgical.’

‘They think Hiroshima was surgical. Sorted out the clown problem?’

‘An all-professional show next time.’

‘Call me any time.’

‘I will.’

‘And not a loose thread, Scottie. Not a fucking thing.’

‘Understood, sir. Goodnight.’

‘Goodnight, Scottie.’

Palmer dialled the other number. There were two rediallings.

‘Yes.’ It was Casca.

‘Palmer. Anything of interest?’

‘The present matter, sir,’ said Casca. ‘We put together a bunch of stuff, bits and pieces, mostly from the one place. It adds up and it’s not helpful. You might want to do something about it, sir.’

‘Tell me.’

…HAMBURG…

Riccardi sounded groggy, as if woken from a deep sleep.

‘What time’s it?’ he said.

‘It’s morning,’ said Anselm. ‘What sort of hours are you keeping there? Still up all night?’

‘Yup but now I’m getting paid for it. Got a job. Night job.’

‘What kind of job?’

‘In a call centre. I answer customers’ questions about software problems. From all over the world.’

‘What do you know about software?’

‘Fuck all. I’ve got an FAQ sheet, that won’t do it, I say we’ll get back to them.’

‘Do you?’

‘No. How you been?’

‘Alive. Listen, there’s something I want to ask you. Kaskis had a photograph.’ Anselm described it.

‘Yup. I saw it. The guy, he was in it.’

‘Diab?’

‘Yup. Diab. That woman get hold of you?’

‘In every sense. Did Kaskis say anything about the picture?’

He could hear Riccardi yawn, a sound a bear might make in spring.

‘She’d be an A1 fuck, I thought. Good legs. See her legs?’

‘She appeared to have legs. She was walking. What did Kaskis say about the picture?’

‘I turned it over and on the back was written SD and a date, I can’t remember, 1980-something, early eighties.’

‘SD?’

‘I asked him and he said, “Special Deployment, Sudden Death, the funny guys”.’

‘Slowly, I’m slow. Say that again.’

‘Special Deployment, Sudden Death. That’s what he said. And he said, “There but for the grace.” It stuck in my mind.’

‘I’m amazed. Drugs are doing you good. You asked what he meant?’

‘He said, just people who don’t exist.’

‘That’s all?’

‘Yup. Wildly talkative, Kaskis, notice that?’

‘I did. He said, “But for the grace”?’

‘That’s what he said. Listen, you raking over all the shit again? Baby, it’s history. Get on with life. Take drugs. Get a job in a call centre.’

‘I’ll pencil that in for tomorrow. Anything else about the picture?’

‘The one musclehead was called Elvis-not a name you forget.’

Elvis.

‘How do you know that?’

Riccardi said, ‘Written on the picture. Guy next to Diab. Elvis. On his big fucking chest.’

Anselm had the log open, he found Inskip’s list . Elvis Aaron Veldman.

Dead, shot by intruder, Raleigh, North Carolina, 7 October 1993.

This was the something that had moved in a crevice of his mind. The names on the list were the men in Kaskis’ photograph.

Most of them dead. Five of them killed in the space of a few days in October 1993.

When the picture was taken, in the early 1980s, they belonged to Special Deployment-Sudden Death.