Vendetta, page 28
‘Yes, he told Mia that, as well.’
‘He’s a good man, Sannie.’
He’s a politician. That did not mean he was, by definition, a bad person, but it meant that he would be acutely aware of his image, and his past. Everyone had a past – Sannie herself had once disobeyed her superiors, crossing the border into Mozambique on an unauthorised investigation. It was how she’d met her second husband, and she had nearly lost her job over that rash decision. ‘He seems like it.’
‘This country needs him.’
Sannie sipped her wine. South Africa needed many things, but most of all it needed a leader who was honest. Was that Tony Ferri? She was not sure.
‘Adam’s hurt, and I don’t blame him,’ Evan said. ‘It’s hard for me to let the past go, and to live in the moment – we all have to try to do that, and it’s not always easy. It’s no secret that I’m heavily involved in Tony’s campaign, and the party, and I think it would be a bad thing for the country if Adam was to . . . say stuff. Or try anything.’
‘What are you suggesting?’ Sannie asked.
Evan shrugged. ‘Nothing. It’s just that, I know he has an axe to grind with Tony, and I worry that Adam might be a little unstable. I’d understand if he was, but I wouldn’t want to see him do anything rash.’
‘Of course not, but that’s a matter for him.’
Evan leaned back on his bar stool, as if appraising her. ‘You two seem to be good friends.’
‘We haven’t known each other long.’ Her guard was up.
‘Can you help me, to heal some old wounds? It might be good for everyone, and we have a funeral to attend tomorrow.’
‘I don’t know. What are you suggesting?’
‘Adam was barely able to acknowledge Tony just now, when they both met at the bar. If I can get Tony to agree to formally apologise to Adam, for what happened in Angola, do you think you could ask Adam to at least give him the time and place to do so? I’m sure Tony will. He wants to bury the past.’
I bet he does. Exactly how keen was he, though? If a formal apology did not work, was he ruthlessly ambitious enough to have a person killed? Had Tony Ferri been behind the deaths of Frank and Luiz, and, if so, what had they had on him?
Sannie now looked at Evan. He could make eye contact and appear earnest and honest sometimes, but at other times his eyes wandered, or he tugged an earlobe; she had seen these signs in lying criminals in the past. Was Evan so enmeshed in Ferri’s campaign, so tied to his political coat-tails, that he would kill to protect his candidate’s reputation?
Sannie looked around the room, where others were either talking to one of the police detectives or waiting their turn.
Lisa Ingram saw Sannie looking at her and locked eyes with her. She stared over the rim of her wineglass, and Sannie looked away. What about her? She was the pretty campaign manager, and Sannie wondered if Ferri had slept with her. From what Mia had said, and what Sannie had observed, Ferri had a roving eye and, allegedly, permission to flirt, or more. Lisa would want to protect Ferri’s reputation at least as much as Evan did, if not more. Sannie had known, and arrested, women who had killed. Anything was possible in South Africa, and hit men were cheap.
‘This Colonel de Villiers . . .’ Sannie said.
‘Yes?’ Evan set down his beer.
‘Do you still have contact with him?’
‘He passed away. I did talk to him about ten or eleven years ago. Jaco – Colonel de Villiers – had moved to Australia.’
‘Why did you contact him?’
‘You’re very direct, Captain.’
‘Comes with my job.’
Evan frowned. ‘When Tony was getting ready to make his first serious run at the leadership, we – his closest supporters and advisers – wanted to clear the decks, to make sure there would be no nasty surprises waiting for us. I tracked down de Villiers through Facebook.’
‘I see. What did he have to say about Tony?’
‘He was glowing.’ Evan finished his beer and nodded to the barman that he wanted another. He waited for his beer to come, and for the barman to move out of earshot again. ‘He said Tony was a fine young officer. We talked about the business of Frank and Adam being court-martialled. De Villiers was unapologetic. He saw Frank as a troublemaker and thought of Adam as nothing more than collateral damage.’
Sannie controlled her anger and waited for Evan to finish, after he drank some more of his beer.
‘De Villiers said he wished Tony well for his campaign. He more or less confirmed that it was all his idea to charge Adam and Frank. He’d basically wanted rid of Frank. I later tried telling Frank that, but he didn’t want to listen. He took his grudge against Tony to his grave.’
Sannie digested what Evan had just said, again wondering if someone had hastened Frank Greenaway to an early death.
‘Was your visit to Frank part of this “clearing the decks” exercise?’
Evan seemed to bristle at that, but he had more or less implicated himself already. ‘Frank was a comrade, a fellow veteran who was doing it tough. I reached out to him because I heard he was having troubles.’
‘And you wanted to know if he would upset Ferri’s eventual run at the leadership.’
Evan said nothing for a moment, then sighed. ‘I’d be lying if I said otherwise. I spoke to Frank. That was when he told me his theory about Tony smuggling diamonds out of Angola. Frank had been talking to some of Duarte’s fellow airmen and they told him that was what he sometimes carried out of Angola. Frank had no proof, though, that Tony was actually involved. I was with Tony. He was too busy calling in the artillery strike and saving our arses to steal any diamonds.’
Sannie said nothing; it was the same thing that Adam had found out from Frank, about Duarte being a possible diamond courier. She wanted Evan to keep talking.
‘So,’ said Evan, ‘I told Frank that was the first I’d heard of that and that neither Tony nor I had made a fortune from stolen diamonds. To be brutally honest, Captain, my family was wealthy and I had no need to get involved in a diamond heist. Tony had his sights set on becoming a lawyer after his military service; a criminal record would have sunk that. He sat the bar exam after the army, did well, and set up a successful practice. He made a good living before getting into politics.’
‘But you said Frank didn’t believe you?’
Evan spread his hands wide. ‘I don’t know. I think he didn’t want to forgive Ferri, and that his conspiracy theory was more attractive to him. I told him that if he ever went to the press with it, no one would believe him, and that he had no proof to link either me or Tony to any missing diamonds.’
Sannie knew there were ways to check the truth of what Evan had just told her – financial records, a little digging into both his and Ferri’s backgrounds – but this was not an investigation and no one had alleged a crime had been committed – yet.
‘I’ll tell you who worries me, Captain, though I bear him no ill will.’
‘Who?’ she asked.
‘Your friend, Adam Kruger. I think he wants Tony dead.’
Sannie said nothing. But she couldn’t ignore the fact that Adam had left her alone in the afternoon for a couple of hours and returned with sand and dust on his shoes and legs, as if he had been out in the desert.
Chapter 24
‘Lisa, can I have a moment of your time?’ Sannie set her glass of wine down on the side table next to where Lisa was sitting.
‘I was hoping to get another drink, after my grilling,’ Lisa said, her eyes cast towards the bar.
The female police detective had just finished interviewing Mia and had moved on to speak to Evan.
‘I saw your video online.’
‘I think we’re up to nearly a million likes,’ Lisa said.
Sannie tried to read her. Was she surprised? Proud? Perhaps both.
‘It must have been quite scary, having someone shoot at you,’ Sannie said.
Lisa took a sip of wine and nodded. ‘Yes. Terrifying, actually.’
‘Yet . . .’ Sannie let the word hang there a second, ‘from the angle it looks like you’re standing up in the back of the game viewer, to get a better view. Mia has to tell you to get down.’
Lisa looked away, as if trying to remember something. ‘It was a crazy moment. I’m not sure I knew, or remember, what I was doing at the time.’
Sannie smiled. ‘I’m sure it was crazy. But most people’s inclination when they hear gunfire is to take cover. You were remarkably calm.’
Lisa now looked into Sannie’s eyes. ‘I know you’re a detective, Sannie, but are you interviewing me – questioning me – as part of some sort of investigation?’
Sannie held up her hands. ‘Not at all. I’m more curious, that’s all.’
Lisa narrowed her eyes. ‘Are you saying I did something wrong, or that Tony did something wrong?’
Sannie shrugged. ‘All I know, like a million or so other people, is what I saw on the video. I think Tony taking Mia’s rifle and charging up a sand dune at whomever was shooting at you all put Mia in a difficult situation. It’s not appropriate to take someone else’s firearm, and Mia was responsible for protecting you all. Tony forced her to split up the group.’
‘Well, as you no doubt heard, he’s a crazy, brave bastard.’
He was at least one of those things, Sannie thought. ‘Does he have many enemies, Lisa?’
Lisa laughed out loud. ‘He’s a politician running for leadership. I’d say a sizeable proportion of South Africa wouldn’t have shed a single tear if he’d been shot and killed.’
‘And now?’ Sannie said.
‘What do you mean, Detective? Are you suggesting that me taking a video of Tony charging after some poacher might improve Tony’s popularity?’
‘From what I’ve learned, it seems unlikely there would have been an armed poacher in that part of the reserve.’
Lisa looked away again. ‘All I know is that someone shot at us and Tony tried to save us.’
‘What about the assault on Tony in his tent? Any ideas?’ Sannie asked.
Lisa returned her gaze to Sannie. ‘I think this place, for all its luxury, needs to take a long, hard look at its security.’
‘I’m sure Julianne Clyde-Smith will be doing that. I know that she takes security at her lodges very seriously,’ Sannie said.
Lisa picked up her wineglass and stood. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I think it’s going to be time for dinner soon.’
‘Of course,’ Sannie said.
Sannie sat for a moment after Lisa had gone, thinking about what the other woman had said and how she had said it. Political candidates often tried to talk up threats to their personal safety during elections; everybody wanted to look like the underdog these days, to encourage more people to vote for them. Tony Ferri was campaigning on law and order and the environment, so to have him taking on an armed assailant – the campaign team could brand the criminal as a poacher or whatever they wanted – would emphasise his tough stance with graphic video imagery.
It was one thing for a candidate to throw a brick through their own campaign office window and claim they were the victim of a hate campaign, but another thing altogether to have someone fire several rounds from a rifle into a game-viewing vehicle. If the attack on Mia’s game drive was a stunt, then it had been an incredibly foolhardy and risky one.
Sannie took out her phone and went to Instagram. There was a message from Ilana asking if she was safe. I just saw the video of Tony Ferri at Dune Lodge. Isn’t that where you are? Ilana had written.
I’m fine, Sannie typed in reply. Nowhere near me.
Ferri is amazing, Ilana typed back as Sannie watched. And hot. Shame he’s married, or else you should let him buy you a drink! Ilana followed up with emojis of love hearts, kisses and a winking smiley face. Sannie shook her head.
‘What are you smiling at?’
Sannie looked up from her phone to see Mia standing in front of her. Mia was smiling too, though it looked forced. Their last exchange had been tense.
‘My daughter. She just made a joke,’ Sannie said. ‘Can I ask you a question about Dune Lodge?’
‘Sure,’ Mia said. She appeared to relax.
‘Who is Shirley’s superior here at the lodge? Who does she report to?’
‘No one. She’s the big boss – she runs the place. Just because she’s under forty and a woman of colour doesn’t mean she can’t run a lodge.’
Sannie tried to ignore the barb in Mia’s response, though clearly they had some bridge-building to do. ‘Of course not; it’s just that in my experience the general manager is not usually the front-of-house person.’
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to insinuate you were a racist or anything like that, Sannie.’
‘It’s fine. But Julianne Clyde-Smith doesn’t greet all her guests in person.’
‘No. Shirley is very hands-on. She’s actually a shareholder in the lodge as well as the GM. She’s a real success story in the industry and Dune has a fantastic reputation for luxury and service. Her father bought the land here back in the early nineties and after he passed away Shirley expanded and improved the lodge her father had built, pretty much from the time she graduated with a business degree from UCT.’
‘I see. When did Julianne buy the lodge?’
‘She hasn’t – well, not yet. Julianne’s company has a commercial contract to market Dune Lodge and handle reservations as part of her group of lodges, but she also wants to buy it outright. It’s a bit hush-hush, but I believe her offer has been accepted and just needs to be signed. I’d wanted to work with some San trackers and learn from them for a long time, and Julianne wanted me to come here and assess the quality of guiding and the guest experience, in case any changes were needed when the sale goes through. The deal is that Shirley will stay on as GM for at least a year, to oversee any changes.’
‘And what was your opinion of the lodge and its staff?’ Sannie asked.
‘Hundred per cent,’ Mia said without hesitation. ‘There’s nothing I could do to improve the standards of guiding and tracking, and guests are treated like royalty here. Like you say, it’s probably unusual for a GM or owner to be handing out cold towels and welcome drinks to guests, but it’s part of what makes this place so good – and expensive. Shirley’s attention to detail is faultless.’
‘And security?’
Mia cast her eyes around the dining area, where the two local detectives were wrapping up their interviews, and outside to where two of Meshach’s men stood guard, armed with rifles. ‘This is crazy, Sannie. Nothing like this has ever happened here before, according to Shirley. To have a guest assaulted in a suite and then a game drive shot up by a sniper is, well . . . it’s just nuts.’
‘Tell me,’ Sannie said, ‘did Meshach and his men or any of your trackers look for spoor around Ferri’s tent after the assault? Surely they’d have the skills to at least get an idea of where the intruder went.’
Mia rubbed her chin. ‘Good point. I need to follow up on that with Shirley.’
Meshach walked along the pathway, stopped to chat briefly with one of his men and then headed towards the next.
‘Look at them; they’re all armed to the teeth, even Meshach,’ Mia said.
The head of security had a rifle slung over his shoulder, Sannie noticed, and his men carried LM5s, the semi-automatic version of the South African army’s R5 assault rifle.
‘So, you wouldn’t say Shirley has skimped on security?’
Mia shook her head. ‘Absolutely not. To tell you the truth, when Julianne was asking me about the staffing structure here a few weeks ago, I told her that if anything, I thought the security here was overkill. We’ve never lost a rhino here to poachers, so there’s no serious armed poaching, and we’re to hell and gone from Askham so it’s not even like we get any burglaries, yet Shirley is very proud of Meshach and his team. The security guys themselves have ATVs, four-by-fours, night vision, a dog team – you name it.’
‘Like you said, overkill?’
Mia shrugged. ‘Better to be safe than sorry. It just makes it even more ridiculous that these two incidents happened.’
Sannie nodded. ‘Would you like to have dinner, just the two of us, Mia? I feel like we’ve hardly seen each other, and today must have been very difficult for you. Also, we’re friends. I don’t want us to argue.’
Mia’s shoulders sagged. ‘I know, and I hear you, Sannie, but –’
‘Well, hello there, ladies.’ Tony Ferri moved through the dining area and came to Mia’s side. ‘I’m sorry to steal Mia away from you . . .’
‘Sannie,’ she said.
‘Yes, sorry, Sannie. Captain van Rensburg, right?’
‘Yes, correct,’ Sannie said.
‘I’m sorry, Sannie, but I need to steal my ranger away from you. Duty calls. I need her to escort me through the dark to my suite.’
‘I thought that was the job of lodge security?’ Sannie said. She glanced at Mia and saw her friend’s cheeks colour.
‘Well, it’s also a custom here for rangers to have dinner with their guests and Mia has agreed to have dinner with me in my suite this evening, haven’t you, Mia?’
Mia looked from Tony to Sannie. ‘Um, well, Shirley says it’s OK given the trying time we’ve all had today.’
Ferri was smiling, his campaign-poster teeth as white as a shark’s.
‘Enjoy your meal,’ Sannie mumbled. Her reservations about Ferri aside, Sannie had travelled across South Africa to see her friend and now she was being fobbed off in favour of a politician. She felt a fool, now, for suggesting that she and Mia have dinner together.
‘I’m sure we will.’ Ferri placed his hand in the small of Mia’s back. ‘I’ve just told Shirley that we’re ready for dinner, Mia.’
