Durant walked into the tearoom which was situated between a ship’s chandelling store and a petrol station along the Esplanade. Perhaps it was a bad place to meet an informer. Not only too close to the harbour – you could see the wounded superstructure of the
Endeavour
through the window – but the tearoom was also a popular spot for seafarers, mostly yachting types from the mall across the road. Three of the plastic tables were occupied, all by elderly white men reading newspapers. Behind the counter, a youngster had his ear against the radio. It was like being at war, Durant thought. Everybody’s waiting to hear, but there were no new developments. Just the same old rhetoric from politicians about ‘leaving no stone unturned’ and that ‘perpetrators will be brought to justice’. No one really believed these words. They wanted to hear that the country’s security service – including intelligence – were on top of the situation, had identified the network, that the suspects were known and that arrests were imminent. These were the only words that would bring comfort. Anything else just reinforced the fear. Durant felt sorry for normal citizens. Perhaps they could at least nurse the vain hope that progress was being made and that soon they would be safe again. But he was in the unenviable place where he knew this wasn’t true. What he did know was true was that the man he was to meet in the restaurant knew more than he was telling them. A bell tinkled as the door opened, and Durant hardly recognised Tanveer with his cap and dark glasses. There was a rustling of newspapers as the readers looked up and glared at the Pakistani. He appeared nervous as he sat down opposite Durant.
‘It feels like everyone’s looking at me,’ he said. ‘The bigots. All of them, bigots.’
‘It’s because you look guilty, Arshad. Take the flipping cap and sunglasses off and you’ll look less like a terrorist.’
Tanveer took the cap off and smiled at a man who still stared over his newspaper. ‘It’s because I’m Muslim. They’ve already decided it was Islamic extremism that did this.’
Durant smiled. ‘That’s what the newspaper’s telling them to think. There’re pictures of police helicopters flying over the
IAC
and archive photos of the sheikh. It’s clever. The sheikh was a victim, but there’s something appealing about a front-page story about terrorism where you have a picture of a Muslim cleric with a big white beard and his finger in the air. Sells newspapers.’
‘I should have stayed in Pakistan. Life wasn’t great there, but at least it was peaceful. It’s going to be tough to stay here.’
‘Would you consider leaving? What about Siraj?’
‘I would take him and go. There is nothing left for me in this country. My wife is dead; business is bad, and now this. I fear for my life now.’
‘Does the name “Khalid” mean anything to you?’
Tanveer looked puzzled. ‘No. Should it?’
‘He may have been the one seeing Mariam. Sure you don’t know the name?’
‘Where’s he from?’
‘Don’t worry. If you don’t know him, then leave it at that.’
‘But, if he was seeing Mariam . . . didn’t he . . .?’
‘I don’t know if we’ll ever know.’
‘Khalid. This is too painful for me. I will kill him.’
‘He’s already dead, Arshad. Looks like he killed himself.’
Tanveer’s face grimaced. ‘I would have killed him. I believe in revenge. My brother was killed in Kashmir. Revenge brings satisfaction and redemption.’
‘Not in my world, it doesn’t. It just brings more devastation and perpetuates the cycle. Sometimes you have to let go.’
A waiter appeared at the table as Durant’s phone rang. He listened and then put the phone in his pocket. ‘You’ll have to excuse me; something urgent’s just come up.’
Durant arrived home within ten minutes and found Stephanie on the phone in the kitchen. Alexis was watching Cartoon Network and Durant changed the channel to Discovery. ‘Watch something else, Lexi.’
‘It’s
Destroyed in Seconds
, Dad. I don’t like watching it.’
Durant switched the
TV
off. He had seen enough destruction lately. ‘Play in your room so long, I’m coming now, I just want to talk to Mom.’
‘She says Granny’s very sick.’
‘Really? Is she talking to Granny?’
Alexis nodded. ‘Put it back on cartoons, Dad, come on.’
Durant sighed, picked up the remote and put it back on Cartoon Network.
‘It’s Christmastime. Everybody’s so sad. Shouldn’t we be having fun?’ she asked.
‘We should be and we will. It’s just so much is happening right now, Mom and I haven’t—’
‘It’s the ship, isn’t it? The ship blew up, that’s why you’re busy.’
‘Have you been watching the news?’
‘Mom was. Me too, but just a little. I closed my eyes when they showed the dead people.’
‘Don’t watch that stuff, Lexi, please. Tell Mom not to let you watch.’
‘Why not? You say I mustn’t watch cartoons.’
‘I know, but not the news either. It’ll make you sad and scared.’
‘I am sad and scared. And I miss Mushkie Bear.’
‘Mushkie Bear’s here, my baby, don’t you worry. He’s just got a bearsized headache right now, but he’ll be fine again soon. Watch cartoons a bit.’
Stephanie replaced the receiver and she looked troubled. ‘Hi, darling, thanks for coming home. It’s Mom. She’s just going from bad to worse. The doctor says it’s Alzheimer’s.’
Durant put his arms around his wife. ‘But she’s not that old. Can it be?’
‘You don’t have to be old, apparently. She’s got all the symptoms.’
‘But so suddenly? A few weeks ago she seemed fine.’
‘Well, forgetful, but it’s got worse quickly, very quickly. I don’t know what to do. She’s in that big house all by herself . . . I’m worried, Kevin.’
Durant was worried too. ‘Well, I don’t know. What do you think?’
‘Maybe we should move her in here for a while. Sell her house, build a granny flat.’
Durant hitched himself up onto the countertop. ‘But we’re busy planning on leaving here. You’ve convinced me to go and now you’re making plans for us to stay.’ He frowned. ‘What is this now?’
‘She looked after me all my life; I can’t just abandon her. I need to care for her, make sure she’ll be okay.’
‘She’ll need to be looked after. I’m sure we can get her the best treatment, a nice frail-care home where they’ll look after her.’
Stephanie’s hands went to her hips. ‘I can’t do that to her. I can’t just hand her over to strangers. That would be cruel.’
Durant nodded. ‘It would be. Sorry, what was I thinking?’ He smiled. ‘I guess I was just so focused on moving to New Zealand.’
‘Well, that might not happen now. Perhaps we can take her, or . . . I don’t know.’
‘The medicals are hectic. I don’t think they’ll let her in.’ Durant tried hard to hide his lack of disappointment.
Stephanie rolled her eyes. ‘Well, I’m sure you’ll be happy to stay.’
‘And the crime?’
‘There’s crime everywhere. We’ll handle it.’
‘So I don’t need to certify my degree certificates then?’
‘We’re not going.’
Durant smiled. He didn’t even know where his degree certificates were.
‘Come in, gentlemen,’ Masondo said, manoeuvring his wheelchair back from his desk and motioning to Durant and Shabalala to sit down. The doctor had booked him off work for six weeks when he’d left the hospital at 11 that morning. He got the taxi to drop him at the office. ‘I’ll deal with you later, Mr Shabalala, about other matters; right now I want to update you on what I have.’
Shabalala seemed to slide into the chair as if it had been electrified and Durant couldn’t help a smile.
‘Things are moving fast. That’s why I’m here, against my doctor’s orders. And my doctor is also my daughter, so it’s doubly bad. Hear me out. The Americans move fast on things like this, as you know. It seems like they’ve changed their entire Homeland Defence programme just to focus on this act that came to our shores two days ago. This is what they’ve given to us: a package of commercial explosives was detonated by cellphone at exactly 20:30 in a ventilation trunking on the deck next to and below the reception area. This caused a secondary explosion of an ammunition magazine in the landing craft well which destroyed the magazine and smashed into the reception area or the helicopter hangar.’ Masondo paused for a moment. ‘Secondary fires broke out, but these were brought under control by the ship’s firefighting and damage-control crews. The explosives footprint is the same as that of the
ATM
bombers – commercial type. Also the same as the type found in Mohammed’s room at the
IAC
. Now they’re busy tracing the origin of the call that triggered the cellphone detonator to identify a number.’
‘Wow,’ Durant said. ‘Maybe Mohammed is the guy.’
‘Don’t jump the gun, Mr Durant. Don’t assume anything. Get back to your sources and tell me who did this thing. Every time I move, my leg hurts, so I’m reminded every minute of the day how badly I want people to be arrested for this terrible deed. South Africans are looking to us, colleagues, not the Americans, to find answers. Bring me the answers.’
‘We’ll do our best, sir.’
‘That’s what I expect. You can go, Kevin. You, Mr Shabalala, stay.’
Durant looked at Shabalala and stood up.
‘Thanks, have a great day.’ It wasn’t meant to sound facetious, he really meant it.
Shabalala doubted his day would be good. It felt like he was about to be executed.
Masondo rocked backwards and forwards in his wheelchair and didn’t look at Shabalala.
‘When I was lying in that burning ship and I thought I might die, the cogs started turning in my head. I thought about my life and about my daughter and about things in general and I said to myself, “Alfred Masondo, you worry too much.” That’s what I said to myself, I remember it clearly. There was smoke and fire and my leg hurt, but I remember thinking life is short and I need to let go.’ Masondo seemed uncharacteristically uncomfortable for a brief moment. ‘I just wanted to say, well, don’t close yourself off to the idea of getting to know Nandi better, if you choose to, I mean, don’t let me stand in your way.’
Somebody turned the current in the chair off and Shabalala felt his muscles relax. ‘Thanks, sir, I mean, I’ll certainly not, um, close myself off to the idea.’
‘You know I just felt sometimes I came across a little intimidating and disapproving.’
‘No, sir, not at all, not intimidating at all.’
‘Disapproving, then. When I saw her arrive at the hospital with you, I know, this is going to sound ridiculous, you almost looked like a couple.’ Masondo laughed and Shabalala had to laugh too.
‘Well, I’d love to get to know Nandi better, sir, with your permission, of course.’
‘Now, you see, you don’t need my permission. Shabalala, that’s the whole point of this conversation. You don’t need my approval. If you want to see my daughter, it’s between the two of you, I won’t interfere.’
‘Of course not, sir. I mean, of course I’d like to have your approval though.’
‘Shabalala, now you’re annoying me. I just said you don’t need my approval. If you want to see her, you phone her, you say nice things, you maybe bring her some flowers, and then you arrange to take her for coffee. You dress up, wash your car, you arrive at my house, you fetch her. I won’t even come downstairs. Well, I can’t anyway with the wheelchair. It’s a long process.’
‘I would think so, sir. Well, thank you for the offer of, um, your daughter.’
‘For heaven’s sake, I’m not offering her, Shabalala. I’m just saying—’
‘I know what you’re saying, sir. You’re letting her go.’
Masondo felt his eyes burning and he clenched his teeth. ‘Get out of here, Mr Shabalala. You know what to do.’
Shabalala closed the door behind him and had only walked two metres when Durant grabbed his arm and said ‘Debriefing. My office. Now.’
‘He what?’ Durant shook his head. ‘I thought it was only his leg that was injured. Perhaps he should go back for a brain scan. He’s okay with you and Nandi? I’m not even sure I’m okay with it!’
‘Shut up, wise guy, keep your voice down. He’s given me his blessing, that’s all.’
‘Don’t you think it’s strange getting his blessing now, after he inhaled all those poisonous gases? Clearly, he’s not okay.’
‘Kevin, just shut up. He said if I want to pursue her, he’s okay with it. I mean, that’s what I’ve always wanted.’
‘So you’re out the closet now, so as to speak?’
‘What? Of course not. He mustn’t know we’re already seeing each other. I’ve got to dress up, wash the car, buy some flowers, go over to her house and take her for coffee.’
‘Take her— are you out of your mind? You’re way past coffee. You’re on the cheese and biscuits already.’
‘I’m not sure I like what you’re implying. Look, Kevin, I want to do this right. I need his approval. You know it’s not sustainable without it.’
‘Maybe not even with it. What do you want me to do?’
‘Nothing. Don’t do anything. Let’s focus on this investigation and wait for the dust to settle.’
‘Don’t you think he might come to his senses when the painkillers wear off?’
‘Very funny. He means it. Nandi and I’ll play the courting, nervous first date couple a few times, and then in a month or two, we’ll announce we’re going out.’
Durant shook his head and exhaled. ‘Brother, you’re playing a dangerous game. But I’ve got your back.’
Berkeley helped Masondo move his wheelchair into a comfortable position behind the restaurant table. He noticed she looked drained. In a short space of time, every foreign diplomat’s worst nightmare had come true for her. A terrorist attack on American soil – on her watch. Half the federal government was probably on her back and all eyes were on her.
‘I’m sorry to bring you out to this meeting, Mr Masondo, but I felt I had to share the latest information with you because I’m not sure how much you’re getting at the moment.’
‘We have our assets working on this case night and day, ma’am. Our people have prioritised this incident and we’re all working twenty-four hours. And we’ll keep working twenty-four hours until we’ve found the people who did this.’
‘We are grateful for the cooperation. I’m sure you’ll get an official heads-up on the latest developments, but I thought I’d sneak this to you so long because sometimes the official channels are a little slow.’