The Fallen (14 page)

‘Craig,’ Jade said. ‘It’s
OK
.’

‘It’s not. I feel …’

‘Don’t.’

‘I feel as if I’m making mess-up after mess-up. Digging myself deeper into trouble all the time. Getting further away from where I’m trying to be, and hurting people in the process.’

‘I understand. But I’m not hurt. What happened last night was good for both of us, I think. It doesn’t matter that it won’t happen again.’ Jade spoke the words with conviction, but, as she said them, she wondered how true they were.

‘It was more than good,’ Craig said softly, and she felt her face getting hot.

She said nothing in response, just walked beside him in the darkness, listening to the distant sound of the sea. If she looked to the left, she could see the faraway headlights of the cars on the main road. Traffic was light. No flying-squad vehicles in evidence yet. And the man who had tried to run her down was on that road, getting further and further away with every moment that passed.

‘Elsabe and I had a fight last night, before she went out,’ Craig added. ‘I started getting pushy. Wanting to know where she was going. Like I owned her; like we were lovers instead of just
friends. Like she wasn’t fully entitled to spend a night somewhere else. It isn’t even any of my business who she went to see.’

‘It isn’t, but it is,’ Jade said.

‘Sometimes I think she hates me,’ Craig said. ‘That it’ll never work out between us.’

‘There are times when I think I hate David, too. Lots of them,’ Jade said, privately acknowledging the fact that it hadn’t stopped her from loving him. Nothing could do that, not even the fact that he and his wife were now expecting another child. As for Craig, well, Elsabe was here with him now. Didn’t that count for something?

‘This holiday was Elsabe’s idea,’ Craig said, as if reading Jade’s mind. ‘She invited me along. I get here, and then she basically ignores me. Spends time with everybody except me.’

‘Have you spoken to her about it?’

Craig shrugged. ‘I’ve tried to a couple of times, but she just shuts down.’

‘You need to explain to her how you feel. Then you’ll find out the truth. Either she feels the same way, but can’t express it, or she isn’t interested in you, or she’s playing mind games.’

He sighed heavily. ‘I know.’

Pillay passed them, driving fast, just before they reached the chalets.

Nosipho was peering nervously out of Craig’s kitchen window. Seeing the police officer arriving, the cleaner unlocked the door and scurried back to her own room. Through the open door, Jade could see that Elsabe hadn’t moved from her awkward position on the couch. Craig headed inside and sat down next to her and, once again, Jade noticed Elsabe tense up and edge away from him.

Pillay hauled himself out of the car. He looked exhausted and skinnier than ever. Although it was late in the evening, no trace of stubble darkened his smooth brown cheeks and, yet again, Jade couldn’t help thinking how ridiculously young he looked.

Notebook at the ready, Pillay trotted up the stairs and onto the verandah.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked, giving Jade a worried look.

‘Yes. The truck didn’t actually hit me.’ She glanced down at her muddied clothes. Her elbow had stopped bleeding, but it was stiff and sore, and her whole body felt bruised.

‘Are you sure? I could call an ambulance or a paramedic if you’d like …’

‘Not necessary.’ A morning on the beach tomorrow would do her all the good in the world, she thought, if the sun actually managed to burn off the thin grey haze. That was what she wanted to do. She didn’t want to have to struggle with wetsuits and goggles and air canisters, to fight her fear of the depths. She needed to stretch out, cat-like, on the warm sand and feel the hot air soothe her body. And her mind.

Ideally, she would like to be naked, although on a public beach she supposed that this would be inadvisable.

And, in a perfect world, a willing partner would be lying beside her. After all, somebody would need to rub sunscreen onto her back. David would do the job perfectly—he had done it before now—but, with a twinge of guilt, Jade found herself thinking of Craig’s strong, capable hands applying the lotion.

Pillay cleared his throat and glanced down at his notebook. Looking at his hands, Jade noticed he had a slim golden band on his ring finger. She hoped the young detective was happily married, because right now, in her personal opinion, there was more than enough relationship angst circulating in the greater St Lucia area.

‘Now, Ms De Jong …’

‘Call me Jade, please.’

‘Er …’ Pillay shifted from foot to foot in a way that made her think he was uncomfortable with being on a first-name basis. ‘Was the driver the same man you saw on the beach last night?’

‘I’m not one hundred per cent sure. It was too dark on the beach to be able to see him clearly. But I am sure that it was the same man who nearly crashed into me on the main road earlier today. That’s how I managed to get his licence plate.’

Pillay gave a satisfied nod.

‘Yes. Well done. And that’s why I’m here now.’

‘Because of the car?’

‘Yes.’

‘Is it stolen?’

‘Not exactly.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘The vehicle is registered in the name of Vishnu Padayachee.’ Pillay spoke the words with quiet pride, although they meant nothing at all to Jade.

‘Who’s he?’ she asked.

‘He is one of the missing people that I have been trying to trace.’

‘Oh, is he?’ Jade felt her heart quicken at the news.

‘Yes. He works at the harbour, or did until he disappeared a month ago, along with his vehicle. Neither have been seen since. I don’t think the driver you saw was Padayachee, but the car is definitely his, so if you could sit down with me for a few minutes, I’m going to ask you for a full description of the man behind the wheel.’

‘Happy to help. I hope this leads somewhere,’ Jade said.

‘I hope so too.’

Pillay pulled out one of the verandah chairs for her and then sat down on the other.

‘What does Padayachee do?’ Jade asked. ‘What’s his job at the harbour?’

The detective hesitated, as if wondering whether he should disclose this information. For a moment, Jade thought he had decided against it, but then he gave a thoughtful nod and spoke again.

‘Padayachee works with explosives. He’s a blasting technician. He was apparently involved in a building project at the harbour when he went missing.’

Jade and David arrived at the Richards Bay port just after dawn. The last few stragglers of yesterday’s clouds seemed to be regrouping for another offensive. It made for a dramatic sunrise. Bulky grey clouds with bright-pink and deep-crimson edges clinging to a dark and forbidding-looking horizon.

‘Pretty,’ David said rather dismissively, glancing to the east as he drove through the main gates.

The harbour was larger than Jade had expected, with large signposts pointing the way to a dizzying number of different ports and terminals. However, when they’d asked for the main offices, they’d been directed away from the shoreline towards a secure-looking area surrounded by a high chain-link fence. The access road led up to a steel-barred gate, which was firmly locked from the inside by a solid-looking chain and padlock. Near the gate, and also on the inside, Jade saw a small, rather weather-beaten room that she supposed must be a guardhouse.

‘So what’s this, then? Alcatraz?’ David said.

He brought the car to an abrupt stop, yanked the handbrake up and climbed out. He walked over to the gate and rattled the chain.

Jade opened her own door. The wind coming off the sea was strong, buffeting the door back against her body. Somewhere above her a seagull cried and, in the distance, she thought she heard the sound of a train. At this early hour, the small car park inside the secure area was already more than half full. Beyond it, she could see what must be a construction area, although she had
no idea what they could be building, because a towering screen of sheet metal hid everything from view.

David’s phone rang and, with a brief apology to Jade, he climbed back into the car and out of the wind, to take the call.

As he did so, the door of the small outbuilding opened and a weary-looking guard in a creased uniform stepped out and made his way over to the gate.

The man seemed to be in his fifties, and years of exposure to the sun had weathered and permanently darkened his skin to a deep mahogany, blurring the boundaries of his race.

The guard didn’t greet her, just glanced down at the clipboard he was carrying.

‘Your name?’ he asked.

‘I’m Jade de Jong. That’s David Patel,’ she replied.

Jade assumed that the guard had asked for the information in order to write it down on the clipboard, but she was wrong. Instead, he took a longer look at what must have been a list of approved names. Then he looked up again and shook his head.

‘You’re not on here,’ he said. ‘I can’t allow you in.’

Jade blinked, taken aback by this unexpected response.

‘It’s police business,’ she said.

‘You’re police?’ From the guy’s expression, it was clear to Jade he wouldn’t have believed her if she’d said she was.

‘No. But he is.’ Jade pointed to David, who had finished his call and strolled over to see what was going on.

‘Superintendent David Patel,’ he said conversationally, while snapping open his leather wallet to display his police
ID
. ‘Is there a problem here?’

Moving right up to the chain-link fence, the guard took a careful look at the wallet’s contents. Then he turned and walked back to his little office. Inside, Jade saw him picking up a radiocommunication handset, close the door, and turn his back to the window.

Nothing happened for a few minutes except that the morning got brighter, the crimson clouds fading slowly into pinkish yellow, and a train left one of the harbour sidings. Jade heard it before she saw it. An old-looking engine with a few identical
carriages chugged out of the harbour from beyond the tall sheet-metal walls and then swung left.

Then a figure emerged at a run from one of the offices and scrambled into a white Golf. Jade could hear the squeal of rubber as he spun his wheels and drove out of the car park, heading towards the gate.

The new arrival was Indian. Short and stocky, and dressed in a smart suit and tie with a business-like attitude to match. Calling out a hurried greeting to them, he waved the guard impatiently back into his little office. Jade was glad to see the back of him.

Moving swiftly to the gate, he unlocked it and rolled it open.

‘Please,’ he said, extending an open palm towards the access road. ‘Come in, Superintendent. Good morning. And a very good morning to you too,’ he said, turning to Jade. ‘I’m the harbour master, and I’m sorry about the inconvenience. We’ve had big security problems recently and have just implemented a whole new access system here. We’re still experiencing some teething problems, as you can see.’

Jade revised her initial impression of him. He didn’t look business-like so much as deeply stressed.

She and David got back into their car and followed the white Golf down the surprisingly potholed access road and into the car park. Looking over her shoulder, Jade saw the guard reappear and swiftly close and lock the gate behind them. He’d find himself having to open it again in a couple of minutes, because two other men, who, judging by their tired expressions, were night-shift workers, were starting up their own vehicles.

The harbour master hovered by their car as she and David got out again, shifting from foot to foot as if he were cold.

‘We’ve got a backlog,’ he said, as if to explain the departing night-shift workers. ‘We’ve had a high … er … turnover in staff these last few weeks.’

‘That’s what I’m here to speak to you about,’ David said. ‘I understand one of your employees, a Mr Padayachee, went missing a while ago.’

The Indian man started speaking again, the words spilling from his mouth like water from a wide-open tap.

‘That’s right. It’s all been chaotic, I’m afraid. I’ve been run off my feet trying to sort out the irregularities we’ve found. There’s more to Padayachee’s disappearance than we first thought. Would you like … can I ask you to come back next week? I’ll have more time for you then.’ His plea fell on stony ground. David simply shook his head and Jade watched the harbour master’s expression change from hopeful to resigned.

‘Irregularities?’ David asked.

The other man chewed his lip for a moment, his small white teeth pressing deeply into the soft flesh.

‘Unfortunately so. We’re being advised by our lawyers at present on how best to put a case together. Currently there are a couple of workers on suspension, and of course the one who’s disappeared.’

The harbour looked busy. One ship was docking; another was being towed in by a tugboat. Two cranes were in operation, winching large, dull-coloured containers from a third ship and lowering them into a cordoned-off area that Jade supposed was where goods were inspected by Customs.

She wondered how much one of those containers weighed and what its contents might be. Different ports must handle different shipments, she thought, although from what she could see, most of the offloaded cargo here was coal, transported loose in the ship’s hold.

‘Where can we go to discuss this?’ David said.

The harbour master chewed his lip again.

‘We can talk in my office. I don’t mind giving the details to a police detective, of course, but I’d prefer our conversation to be in private, if you don’t mind.’ He glanced apologetically at Jade.

‘Go right ahead,’ she said. ‘I’ll wait in the car.’

She watched David follow the shorter man along the roughly
paved path that led to the offices and enter a low doorway. David had to duck his head to go through and, even so, she thought she heard the distinctive thunk of his forehead hitting the lintel as he disappeared from sight.

Jade suppressed a laugh. Cruel, she knew, but what could you do?

The offices weren’t very grand-looking. In fact, the squat, beige, oblong buildings with their small windows and flat roofs distinctly reminded her of the containers that were being offloaded from the ship.