Blindside. Wilna Adriaanse

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      Clive sat back down. “Warm up faster. We don’t have all day.”

      Happy cast a longing look at the food, but Clive shook his head. “First, we talk.”

      “Last Friday I was at my auntie’s pozzy in the Hill when I saw a guy who was at school with me. Hangs out with my cousin these days. Fancy, even drives a car. He must have bought the licence – he wasn’t too bright at school. Anyway, he tells me he’s working for Mr Williams himself. The problem is once you start showing off, you can’t keep your mouth shut any more. I acted dumb and he took the floor. As an encore he spoke about the big move they’re pulling. His eyes went all glassy and I could see the dollar signs.”

      “What move?”

      “Nei, he was a bit smarter than that. He didn’t say.”

      Clive began to get up, the food still in his hand. “You’re wasting our time.”

      Happy looked at Ellie. “Every little bit is important, you said. Now you’re being nasty. It’s not fair.”

      Ellie took the food from Clive and put it in front of Happy. “What do you know about the shooting at Milnerton?

      “Only what the papers said. I don’t hang around there.”

      “I know, but you know a lot of people. Someone might have said something.”

      Happy chewed in silence for a while, then shook his head. “You know I don’t love that Russian and his rubbish. They’re a bunch of mother—”

      Clive aimed a blow at him. “Watch your tongue.”

      “What I mean is, I stay far away from them. They’re a scary bunch.”

      “It can’t do any harm to talk to your contacts. I’m sure someone knows something.” Ellie rose to her feet. “Call me when you’ve got something.”

      “I will, but come alone next time.” He ducked when Clive got up as well.

      “Do you believe him?” Clive asked when they got into the car.

      “I know he’s dead scared of the Russians, so I believe him when he says he stays away from them.”

      “That doesn’t mean he hasn’t heard anything. He has a lot of contacts. These guys who sell the papers, they see and hear things. They act dumb when it suits them.”

      “He’s got a big mouth, but he’s never lied to me. I’ve always been able to depend on him. He may not bring me answers immediately, but you know as well as I do that from the bits and pieces we often get the full picture.”

      “Yes, I know. I just didn’t feel like taking his shit today.”

      “I don’t think the guy who works for Williams was clever enough not to give details. The truth may be that he doesn’t know. Those people are too clever to allow every foot soldier to know the full story. In my experience, they work on a need-to-know basis.”

      “Talk to me,” Clive said when they had driven a few kilometres without Ellie saying anything more. “Tell how your mind’s working.”

      “In circles.”

      “There’s also Ken Visser, of course,” Clive said after a few moments’ silence. “The guy Gabriella Allegretti married last year. I’ve heard rumours that his father has ties with a syndicate that worked out of Zimbabwe and Angola years ago. The story is that they had contacts in the army way back then, and that his father has important connections in Zanu–PF. Maybe he’s the one stirring things up, in the hope of getting rid of his brother-­in-law, which will make him and his wife the sole heirs. If he manages to piss Barkov off and have fingers pointed at brother Enzio, he may be rid of him. Or maybe he and Enzio are in cahoots and he’s the balls in the operation. Hell, it must be hard to be stuck with a legacy like that. Aren’t kids supposed to be more successful than their parents?”

      Ellie looked out the window. “That’s what they say.”

      Clive sighed. “In my case it wasn’t very hard. I outshone my old man just by getting up in the morning.”

      “I made peace long ago with the fact that I shouldn’t even try. Now I don’t know any more.” She let her head lean back into the headrest and they both fell silent.

      Clive turned the radio up. Arno Carstens was singing: “From the galaxy of blues to a universe we choose, no more crying and just maybe somebody to hold …”

      After that, it was Coleske: “Take me where the sun is shining, where the air up in the skies are in my eyes, and I will fly to where my dreams are hiding somewhere in the sky, for just a while.”

      When Nianell began to sing “Did you see the shiny moon turned into a black balloon just as you walked away from me?” Clive looked at her. “Warn me before you start crying, but I’m a sucker for this girl’s lyrics.”

      “You’re forgetting what kind of home I grew up in. My dad had a very broad taste in music. But he drew the line at backtracks.”

      “One of my girlfriends didn’t like local music. I think that’s why I started liking it. Pure childish rebellion. Relationships can get pretty toxic.”

      Ellie thought about her parents. Was their marriage also toxic towards the end? Can people’s expectations of love and marriage be so different that one partner thinks he’s giving his all, while the other one feels she’s starving?

      “And yet we don’t stop searching. Maybe humans are programmed to find a partner. The never-ending hope that this time you’ll get it right.”

      Clive sighed. “We’re stuffed before we’ve even started.”

      They stopped at the office block and walked quietly to their office, side by side.

      “Ellie, Captain Greyling has been looking for you,” Rita said the minute they entered.

      “Why didn’t he call me on my cell?”

      “No, he’s here.”

      “What’s he doing here?”

      Rita motioned with her head in the direction of the corner office. “He’s with the brigadier.”

      Ellie hung her handbag over the back of her chair, poured herself a cup of coffee and took up position in front of the whiteboard. She had always been good with riddles. The thing was to unravel that first thread. After that, it was child’s play. She read the names again. Saw them in her mind’s eye. Allegretti. Even in the worst photo he was attractive. The same could not be said for Alexei Barkov. The good life was apparent in his waistline and double chin. But it didn’t seem to put the girls off; there was a continuous parade of them on his arm.

      Yuang Mang maintained a lower profile, but occasionally a photo surfaced, taken at some event or club. He was a regular visitor at a particular Chinese restaurant in Sea Point.

      The one she found most unpredictable was Nazeem Williams. No one knew his bloodline, but he was said to have grown up in Manenberg. He lived in Rondebosch East these days. In СКАЧАТЬ