Tony Park - Silent Predator

Tom replaced the oil filler cap, lowered the bonnet and looked up as the back door opened again. Little Christo and Ilana, in their swimsuits, charged for the in-ground swimming pool and Sannie walked behind them, smiling and laughing. She carried a green-coloured rum cooler drink in a bottle and another beer, which she held up to him. She looked good enough to drink herself. She had changed out of her suit into a yellow bikini top and a pair of short-cut blue board shorts with an Australian surf brand running down the side. He’d seen her naked, and in her bra and pants, but now, if it were possible, she looked even sexier. She was a promise of long, carefree summer holidays and endless sunshine. A world without murder and terrorism and politics. She threw back her head and laughed at something her mother had said from the kitchen, and swayed her hips as she swung the bottles by her side and walked towards him. This was a Sannie he hadn’t seen before. At home with her children, safe from the outside world and free to be a kid again herself. She looked like a flirty teenager as she came to him and leaned a hip against the warm aluminium fender of the truck.

‘ Jissus, but I missed the sun.’ She upended the cooler and used the serrations of its cap to lever off the top of the beer bottle, then unscrewed the twist top on her drink. Tom drained the dregs of the one Elise had brought him. The leftovers had already been warmed by the afternoon sun, but the lager Sannie handed him was cold and dewy. He wanted her, right then, and allowed himself the brief fantasy of life forever after by the beach with this sun-kissed girl. ‘You’re filthy, man,’ she said, looking at his hands. ‘Did the truck start okay?’

‘First time.’

She sipped her drink, then, in reply to a demand from Christo, called out that she’d be in the pool soon. ‘Come join us for a swim,’ she said to Tom.

‘I’m nearly finished here.’ He gestured to the truck. ‘Go play with your kids. I’ll watch you from here.’

Sannie pouted. ‘Was my mom horrid to you?’

He smiled. ‘Not in so many words, but you could say that the riot act has been read and understood. She’s only trying to look after you.’

Sannie nodded, then looked over her shoulder. Her mother was watching them from the kitchen. ‘Mom! Get in the pool!’ Ilana yelled.

‘Duty calls,’ she said, setting her drink down on the Land Rover’s fender. Tom watched as she turned and ran, full pelt, to the edge of the pool and executed a running dive that barely raised a splash. She surfaced and lunged at the two children. ‘Here comes the krokodil!’ The children squealed with delight.

Elise had cooked a roast chicken dinner, though she barely acknowledged Tom’s compliments on it.

Christo had lost his initial reservations about the near stranger in the house, and pestered Tom with questions about English football teams and the country’s rugby side. Despite Sannie telling the boy to be quiet and eat his greens, Tom was happy to chat to him. Little Ilana was still quiet and shy, though a couple of times she smiled at him, then giggled, before hiding her face behind her hand. They were lovely kids, he thought. A credit to their mum and their prickly ouma. He could understand the older woman’s protectiveness.

Sannie had showered and changed into a simple slip-on sundress with a bright sunflower print. It showed off her tan and barely came halfway down her slim, athletic thighs. Like her kids she was barefoot at the dinner table, and Tom was perspiring freely, despite the fan that blew across them from a kitchen benchtop.

‘Is David Beckham the best football player in the world?’ Christo asked.

‘Carrots, Christo,’ Sannie said, in between chewing on a wing.

‘He gets his photo in the newspapers more than any other player,’ Tom said. Christo nodded as if this settled the argument and Tom felt toes running up his shin.

He glanced across at Sannie sitting opposite — her mother was at the head of the table — but she ignored him. She asked her mother to pass the salt, running her foot higher and higher until it rested in Tom’s crotch. He coughed, and Sannie asked him if he wanted more water, or another beer. ‘Oh, I’m fine just as I am,’ he said. She smiled and he thought he caught the hint of a wink. She wriggled her toes and he felt himself starting to harden. Tom concentrated on his chicken.

After the meal Elise boiled the kettle for coffee, telling Tom to stay seated. He was extremely grateful. Sannie grinned behind her mother’s back.

‘What’s funny, Mom?’ Christo asked.

‘Nothing, my boy. Just something funny Mommy heard at work today. You and Ilana can go and watch TV for an hour, if you want.’

‘Yay!’ The children left the room.

‘I’m going to turn in early,’ Elise said. ‘I’ve got my book to read. Goodnight.’

Tom wished her a goodnight, then breathed an audible sigh of relief when it was just the two of them left in the kitchen-dining room. ‘Is it safe for you to stand?’ she giggled.

‘Barely. You’re incorrigible. What were you thinking, with your mother right there?’ He smiled.

‘It’s like being fifteen again. It adds a delicious element of risk, don’t you think?’

Tom shook his head.

‘Let’s take our coffee outside.’

They sat beside each other in a swinging chair by the pool, and Tom loved the feeling of her bare leg pressed close against his. They chatted for a while, avoiding talking about the case or Tom’s imminent trip. Sannie explained, though he didn’t need her to, that her mother had loved Christo and was concerned that Sannie would never find a man as good as him to be a father to her kids. ‘Not that I’m laying that on you, of course.’

‘I never thought I’d have a family,’ he said. ‘Your kids are great, though.’

She blew on her coffee and sipped it. ‘They can be monsters at times, believe me. But I do want the best for them.’

‘Does that exclude me?’

She looked at him. ‘Of course not. Is that what you want, though?’

‘I don’t know what I want, and that’s the truth. But I love being here, in this house, with you, and your kids…’

‘And my mom?’

‘Well, let’s not push it.’ They both laughed.

Later, after she had put the children to bed and made sure her mother was safely ensconced in her room, Sannie came back outside with two open bottles of beer. ‘You never got in the pool this afternoon. Can’t you swim?’

‘Of course I can,’ he said, accepting the beer and taking a large swallow.

‘Then come in now, with me,’ Sannie said, sitting her untouched drink down on the grass. She stood and held out a hand.

‘I don’t have my swimming trunks on,’ he said.

She looked over her shoulder, back at the darkened house, then grabbed the hem of her dress and lifted it over her head. ‘Neither do I, lover.’ The white skin where her pants and bikini top had been shone invitingly. She turned and walked away from him, not looking back, and slid silently into the water.

Tom kicked off his docksiders, shrugged out of his T-shirt and unbuttoned his shorts as he followed her. At the edge, he stripped off his underpants and lowered himself into the water. Sannie swam underwater from the other side, and emerged in his arms. She kissed him, long and deep, her tongue darting inside his mouth. He started to say something, but she put a finger to his lips. The pool water was salty, as was she. It was like kissing a mermaid.

She led him, half wading, half swimming, to one side of the pool where a bougainvillea tree in the yard blocked the view from the kitchen, just in case anyone came to the window for a peek. When she stood on the bottom, the water reached halfway up her breasts, her nipples just breaking the surface. He placed one hand under her bottom, his other arm around her, and drew her to him, lifting her easily in the water. She encircled him with her legs and moved her hand between them. She parted herself for him and he lowered her.