Tony Park - Silent Predator

Nick coughed blood. ‘My, my. Gone native, have we? The old Tom Furey wouldn’t have roughed up a prisoner. But he would have gone running to the guv’nor if he’d caught someone else teaching a protester some manners.’

Tom shook his head.

Sannie knelt in the grass behind Tom and lay Ilana down. She smoothed the fair hair from her eyes and leant over her, listening to her breathing. Satisfied the child was alive, she kissed her and stood.

‘So, what happens now, Thomas?’ Nick asked.

‘We call the police, and you go to jail for the murder of Precious Tambo. There’ll also be some questions about the death of Carla Sykes from an overdose of contaminated drugs.’

Nick started shaking his head, and his face broke into a broad grin. ‘If that’s the best you’ve got on me, I’ll never do serious time. They’ll have enough to do me on conspiracy charges, but that’s assuming the UK government wants a public trial. I haven’t read anything about old Greeves in the papers, Tom, since you got back to Africa. That means they’re keeping it hush-hush. What did they do, buy you off with a pension? And no one here cares about that slag, Carla. Nah. You’ve got nothing on me in South Africa, except for maybe breaking and entering.’

‘Kidnapping,’ said Sannie.

He laughed again. ‘Attempted kidnapping? Three to five years, tops.’

‘Shut up, Nick, you’re boring me.’

‘He could be right, Tom,’ Sannie whispered.

‘Listen to the lady, Thomas, she’s a smart one.’ Nick shrugged. ‘I don’t care. I’ll do my time, wherever or whatever it is. And then I’ll come back and find you. And if your kids help put me in stir, Sannie, I’ll track them down and kill them when I get out, and that’s a promise.’

Sannie raised her pistol so that it, like Tom’s weapon, was pointed at Nick’s face. She looked at Tom. He glanced at her briefly, not wanting to take his eyes off Nick for too long, and nodded.

Captain Isaac Tshabalala scratched his bald head. He still hadn’t forgiven Furey and van Rensburg for disobeying him and running off to Mozambique while he was trying to conduct an investigation into the British government minister’s disappearance from Tinga.

He stood beside his patrol car, looking up the hill at the farmhouse where the former police officers both now lived, surrounded by neat rows of banana trees. It was ironic and mildly annoying that after being transferred from Skukuza to Hazyview, one of his first major cases was the investigation of a shooting outside this pair’s property.

One man was dead and another was wounded, though the doctor in Nelspruit said Duncan Nyari would recover.

Furey and Sannie stood beside each other at the end of the deck, their bodies touching as they leaned on the railing and looked out over their farm. Furey waved at Isaac, who waved back. The Englishman then took his woman’s hand in his. They had obviously had a harrowing night.

It was unusual that the villain in this crime was a white man. An armed offender had broken into the remote farm — there was clear evidence of where the man had cut the security fence and entered — and a gun battle had ensued after the owners surprised him attempting to abduct a child. Furey and van Rensburg had stopped the kidnapper’s vehicle, and the man had allegedly fired at them and attempted to escape on foot with the child. The two ex-police officers had returned fire and killed him.

A niggling feeling told Isaac there was more to this crime than met the eye, but he was happy to see these two troubled souls at peace for the moment. The older woman, van Rensburg’s mother, bustled noisily into the house and Sannie’s two children ran past her.

Tom and Sannie turned and hugged the children.

Isaac put his cap back on, got into his car, and drove out the front gate.