An Ordinary Day (23 page)

‘Hello?’

A male voice answered. ‘Who is this?’

Durant never gave his name until he knew who he was speaking to. ‘Who are you looking for?’

‘Do you know a Leila Elhasomi?’

‘Who’s calling?’ he asked.

‘Sir, it’s Inspector Heath from the South African Police Services. I have in my hand a card with your cell number on it which was in Miss Elhasomi’s possession.’

Durant stood up. ‘Okay, Inspector, is Miss Elhasomi in trouble?’

‘I would say so, sir. I’m standing next to her.’

‘Where are you?’

‘Umgeni River. Opposite the bird park.’

‘What?’ Durant almost shouted into the phone. ‘It can’t be. She’s at home.’

‘Sir, we found some documents on her, a passport and a card with your number on it. Do you know her?’

Durant realised he was gripping the phone. The temperature in the monitoring van was reaching a level the air-conditioning unit was never designed to cope with. Durant’s knees felt weak, and he reached backwards for his chair and sat down.

‘Is she okay?’

‘Sir, she’s dead.’

‘Inspector Heath, I’ll call you back in five minutes.’

Durant threw the cellphone on the desk and wheeled his chair to the videotape he had taken out of the video machine earlier in the morning. He thrust it into the slot and nervously tapped his fingers on the desk as the tape rewound. It took him less than a minute to find the spot. The time imprinted on the tape was 23:47. Durant unconsciously remembered Amina had stopped monitoring in real time at 22:13 when her husband had threatened to lock her out of her apartment if she didn’t come home immediately. The cameras had, however, captured what Amina had missed.

The images showed Elhasomi coming downstairs in her jeans and a black
T
-shirt. Salem’s voice could be heard from the bedroom, indistinctly saying something. Elhasomi continued to the kitchen, holding her head with one hand, and sat down at the kitchen table. Salem descended the stairs and put his hands on her shoulders, gently massaging them.

‘My darling, what’s wrong?’ Salem’s voice was strained.

‘My head is paining. And I am worried about something.’

Salem turned a kitchen chair around and sat facing Elhasomi. ‘Don’t worry about the accident; it will be taken care of.’

‘Do you love me?’ Elhasomi asked, looking into Salem’s eyes, still cradling her head in her arms.

‘What kind of question is that? Of course I do, Leila, you know I do.’

She nodded slowly and looked down. Elhasomi’s eyes glistened and Durant thought he could see a tear running down her cheek.

Salem put his hand under her chin and lifted her head. Her eyes, shrouded in tears, met his. ‘Why do you ask?’

‘I let you in. I opened the gate and let you behind the walls where my heart is.’ Elhasomi bit her bottom lip and wiped her eyes with her fingers.

‘Yes. You told me you did.’

‘I trusted you. I thought I would be safe. And now I know I am not.’

‘What do you mean, why are you saying this?’

Elhasomi looked up at Salem. ‘I know today I will die by your hand.’

She shook her head and then stood up suddenly and turned her back on him. He stood up too, and started walking around the table to her. She turned around. Her hand was stretched out in front of her, clenched, and now there was a determined and angry expression on her face. Salem hesitated, then backed off to the other side of the table. ‘What’s this all about?’

Elhasomi’s voice was stern and sombre. ‘I was a fool. I trusted you with my heart, and you have betrayed me.’

Salem shook his head. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ He stumbled back into the sideboard, knocking over the bronze Zulu figurine. He picked it up and absently held it by its wooden base. ‘You have been everything I have ever wanted. What’s wrong? Why are you saying these things?’

Elhasomi stood motionless, her hand still stretched out in front of her, still clenched.

‘You do not know me, Ben Salem. If you knew me, you would have been more careful. You would not have opened my suitcases. You would not have lied to me. You would not have travelled to South Africa with this in your bag.’ She turned her clenched fist over and then opened her hand to reveal a dull metal object in her palm.

Salem stared at it, his face expressionless. But somehow Durant could feel the rage behind the expression as he watched.

‘Only a Jew would have a chai … What does it bring you? Good luck?’

‘It’s symbolic of life. Jewish people love life. I’m sure you find it hard to believe.’

Elhasomi nodded slowly. ‘You are a … Jew.’

Salem smiled. ‘You say it as if I have some disease. Yes, I’m Jewish, and yes, I love life and everything it brings. It brought me a beautiful daughter who loved life too before hatred of Jewish people took her away.’

‘You …’

‘And it brought me you, Leila. It brought someone into my life to love and care for, someone who taught me how to live again, love again, believe again. You’ve taught me there are Muslims and Arabs whose lives don’t revolve around hatred and killing. The fact that I’m a Jew doesn’t change the way I feel about you.’

Elhasomi took a step forward, her eyes narrowed and menacing. ‘You pig. You used me. You think things can still be the same?’

Salem looked down silently.

There was a little pause, then Elhasomi said ‘Who are you? Mossad? One of the Zionist hit squads? You were sent to kill me?’

Salem shook his head. ‘Our first meeting. When I met you in Valetta, it was all planned. The Brazilian, the American, all plants to force you towards me.’

‘I fell into your trap, right into it.’

‘I knew you were Libyan intelligence. I knew you were involved in procuring weapons of mass destruction.’

‘It was not a love affair. It was an … operation.’

‘I’d done my homework. Your hatred for Israel and her people was clear in my mind and I wanted to kill you before I met you. Then I met you.’

‘No, stop speaking, stop it.’ Durant watched her cry.

‘You were vulnerable and lonely, professional, passionate. Falling in love with you was never part of the plan. I had no control over my feelings for you; perhaps as you lost control too. If I’d wanted to kill you, I could have killed you that night we met when you climbed into my car.’

Elhasomi’s face was drawn and she wrung her hands. She shook her head slowly at everything Salem said. ‘You are lying, everything you say is lies.’

Salem took a step closer to her and stretched his hand out. ‘Don’t let your mind play tricks with your heart. You’re thinking like a politician, like an activist, like an intelligence officer. Think like a woman for a moment. Listen to what your heart is saying.’

‘No! I cannot bear to look at you.’

‘Your heart knows the truth. Your heart must win this battle, Leila, because if your mind wins, you’ll never be free.’

Elhasomi closed her eyes and her bottom lip began to tremble. ‘I am free,’ she said quietly.

‘There’s no freedom in hatred. We love each other, despite our differences, despite our different worldviews and perceptions and prejudices. Love is stronger than all of that.’

Salem stepped forward and put his left hand on her shoulder. With his right he brought the figurine down violently against the side of her head.

Elhasomi looked straight ahead of her for a moment, then her legs appeared to buckle beneath her. She reached out her hands to Salem for support, but he let her fall awkwardly onto the mat.

Durant saw Salem take a towel from a drawer and wrap it around Elhasomi’s head, over the area where the object had impacted. He wrapped a cloth around the figurine and put it on the kitchen table.

Durant gasped as he witnessed the blow, and he raised his hands to his head as if he had been bludgeoned with the object. With a hand over his open mouth, Durant stared at the monitor as Salem dragged the motionless woman to the garage door on the mat on which she had fallen. He disappeared for a few moments. Durant watched in shock over the next seven minutes as Salem came back into the house, carried the three suitcases to the garage, and then followed with another suitcase. Salem went upstairs to the bedroom and there was silence.

Durant felt nauseous. He stood up and fumbled for his cellphone on the cluttered steel table in front of him. With a shaking hand he dialled Masondo’s number.

Durant reached the townhouse less than two minutes later. He hadn’t had much time to explain everything to Masondo, but said enough to get the response he wanted. Masondo offered to send the
SAPS
Task Force and National Intervention Unit, but Durant told him that they needed to keep it quiet so as not to send Salem fleeing. Durant was convinced Salem wasn’t at the townhouse anyway; his best hope was to apprehend him when he returned to the apartment. Durant parked his vehicle close enough to the apartment to observe any activity, but not too close to attract any attention. He asked the surveillance unit to withdraw to the perimeter areas and maintain a very low profile.

Twenty minutes later, a cream minibus arrived and parked behind Durant’s car. Masondo leapt out of the passenger door and in two strides was beside Durant. ‘This is a nightmare.’ He waved in the direction of five men dressed in camouflage uniforms who were assembling some equipment at the rear of the van. ‘It’s a small team, but they’ll go in and get him out if he’s in there. I told them to keep it low profile. If he’s not there, do you have any idea where he could be and when he’ll be back?’

‘No idea, chief. Unfortunately, this thing happened when the surveillance unit wasn’t deployed and the feeds weren’t being monitored in real time. He hasn’t been home the whole day, not since seven this morning.’

‘How did we miss him?’

‘It’s my fault. We should have been monitoring continuously. And when Salem left this morning, surveillance should have taken him. I told them not to because I didn’t know …’ Durant shook his head as his voice dropped. ‘I didn’t know he’d killed her.’

Masondo touched Durant’s arm. ‘Don’t beat yourself up. Are you sure about what you saw? He definitely killed her?’

‘Definitely. It was a hell of a blow.’

‘What about Ali? You think he’s next?’

‘Salem’s Jewish. He’s here to stop Ali and Elhasomi from doing this deal, from buying whatever it was they’re buying. It could be a personal crusade, or a political one, I don’t know. Or perhaps he’s just after the money. There’s twelve million dollars to steal. Either way, I think Ali’s life’s in danger.’

‘You think Salem will go for Ali?’

‘I’m sure of it.’

‘I’ll make a few calls. Get him into protective custody. He won’t like it, but he’s got no choice.’

‘A police van’s better than a mortuary van.’

The task force was ready to penetrate the townhouse, and Durant was tempted to give the team leader the key to the front and back doors, but knew this would compromise the intelligence operation.

Masondo keyed the hand-held radio. ‘If he’s not there, you need to stand by in the townhouse until he arrives. We’ll have our surveillance team deployed around the area so we’ll be able to give you an early warning. Good luck.’

Five camouflaged figures slipped across the road and mounted a low wall in the front of the townhouse. Durant returned to the monitoring van and checked the monitors for any activity inside. He had advised the team leader that he believed the townhouse was empty, without letting on how he knew. Seconds later, as Durant watched the screens, the front and back doors imploded simultaneously and the policemen swept through the townhouse, silently and professionally. The call came through from the team leader in less than a minute. ‘The building is clear. Bedrooms clear. One vehicle in the garage.’

Durant hesitated for a moment. ‘Can you confirm male clothes in the bedroom, over?’

The reply came quickly. ‘Negative. Only women’s clothing.’

Durant called Masondo on his cellphone. ‘Chief, I don’t think our man’s coming back.’

‘Damn. I made a call and they sent a unit to find Ali. His staff said he went to a meeting this morning and never returned. They’re worried about him.’

‘Do they know where the meeting was?’

‘He never tells them where he’s going. Amina said she heard Salem arranging to meet someone at a container depot. She didn’t catch the address, though. We need to find Salem. This is becoming embarrassing to our country. We can’t have this.’

‘Chief, let’s meet at the townhouse. I’ll get hold of Mike and Amina. We’ll keep the surveillance unit deployed around the townhouse just in case he heads home, but I think he’s moved on. We need to go through that townhouse and look at anything that might point towards where he’s gone.’

‘Fine, what else?’

‘We first need a crime scene squad to go in and do their forensic investigation. Salem’s fingerprints should be on the murder weapon, the Zulu figurine on the sideboard. The tape – the murder tape – who do I give it to?’

‘You keep that tape with you, Durant. The operation is still top secret. If it had to come out we were bugging a diplomat, we’ll never dodge the fallout. The police will have to do without the tape. There must be enough physical evidence of the murder in the townhouse.’