Blindside. Wilna Adriaanse

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ Otherwise, you remained an anonymous cop.

      She rubbed her arms again. The bloody cold wouldn’t go away, and she was glad when the formalities were over at last and they could go outside. As she was leaving the church, she tried not to look at the organist. Her father had liked to stand in as organist. He came from a musical family. Put an instrument in their hands and they’d be playing it before long. She had liked to come along when he’d played the organ.

      When she walked out into the sun, she put on her sunglasses. It had rained almost all of the previous week, but today was cloudless. The September sun was pale, yet it burned her cold skin. Somewhere a dog was barking and a lorry’s brakes hissed. The pepper trees in front of the church were green and dense and the birdsong was almost deafening. She wondered how the day could be so bright. Inside the gloomy church she had imagined that the sun had disappeared for a moment. Even if it was just behind a cloud.

      “May angels lead you into paradise; upon your arrival, may the martyrs receive you and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem …” Father Frank’s voice accompanied the coffin outside. When the hearse pulled away, with the coffin inside, they walked with the rest of the mourners to the adjoining parish hall. Ellie’s mother was still sniffing softly.

      Inside the hall people approached them to sympathise.

      “Such a good man …”

      “We’ll miss him in the choir …”

      “It must be an enormous shock to you …”

      “And with retirement so near …”

      “He was going to play at my funeral one day.”

      The expressions of condolence were interspersed with remarks about her dark hair. After a while she felt tempted to say something inappropriate. You’d swear she was the only person on earth who’d ever dyed her hair.

      Ellie listened and nodded occasionally. Shook her head when it was called for. She heard her mother’s thin voice by her side and smelled the conflict between the alcohol and the peppermints on her breath. She hoped someone would bring her mom some tea.

      “I can’t believe he did it to me. But like my mother said all those years ago, he’s not of our church. If only I had listened then.”

      The listeners made appropriate noises and Rika McKenna sniffed loudly and pressed her handkerchief to her eyes.

      Ellie excused herself and fetched her mom a cup of tea and a sandwich. Her mother’s hands trembled when she took the cup, but Ellie was relieved to see her drink it thirstily and eat a piece of the bread.

      Her father’s colleagues stood huddled against a wall. They looked awkward, as if they didn’t belong there. She was surprised to see how many of her own colleagues had come. They came over in groups to speak to her. Shook her hand. Brigadier Andile Zondi, her commanding officer, put her hand on Ellie’s shoulder. Clive Barnard, her captain, hugged her briefly, clumsily. Clive turned forty last year but today the deep lines beside his mouth made him look older.

      She looked around for Albert, but didn’t see him anywhere. She wasn’t too surprised. His mother’s funeral had probably been the first and last funeral he had ever attended.

      When Melissa offered to fetch her some tea, she declined. She knew what she needed, and it wasn’t tea and a sandwich.

      Melissa linked her arm through hers and they stood like that quietly. If anyone knew how she was trembling inside, it was Melissa.

      “Are you going home tonight?”

      “No, I’ll sleep at her place again.”

      “Want me to come with you?”

      Ellie smiled. “Maybe you should go, and I’ll sleep with Antonie and the kids.”

      “Maybe I should come and sleep at your place, and we’ll send your mom to Antonie and the kids. I don’t know who I’d feel sorrier for.”

      Slowly the sympathisers thinned out. Ellie had to stop herself from sighing with relief when only Father Frank remained. She kissed his cheek.

      “Thank you, Father. I’m sorry you had to do this – it couldn’t have been easy, but there was nobody else I could ask.” Ellie smiled. “Not that I had a choice. He always said that it had to be you, or just a cremation without any ceremony. End of story.”

      The grey-haired man took her hands in his own. “I am very sad, and even a little angry with my friend, but I would have been hurt if you hadn’t asked me. I promised him long ago that if this day came and I was still around, I would do this for him. He could have made it easier by not dying, but then again, he was never a man for making things easy.”

      Ellie nodded. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

      He turned to her mom and took both her hands in his own. “He loved you very much.”

      Rika McKenna made what sounded like a grunt and Ellie hurriedly said goodbye.

      “Where are we going now?” her mother wanted to know when they were in the car.

      “I’m going to drop you off at home. Aunt Vera will stay with you. I have to go, but I’ll see you a bit later.”

      “I know you’re going to Joe’s. Why can’t I come?”

      Please don’t bury me with tea and coffee, her father had written in a letter that he had put in a partly faded envelope along with his will. At the back of my sock drawer in my wardrobe you’ll find money – take the guys to Joe’s for a round or two on me.

      The money had been there, and Ellie had wondered when he had put it there. Whether he had added to it over the years, as things became more expensive.

      “It’s been a long day. You and I can go sometime, but not today.”

      At home, her aunt and uncle were making tea in the kitchen, still in their funeral best.

      “Come and have a cup of tea,” Aunt Vera said.

      Ellie saw her mother licking her lips and knew she wasn’t going to stick to tea, but she couldn’t worry about that right now.

      CHAPTER 3

      Joe’s was crowded when Ellie arrived. The pub was one street from Durban Road, just before you crossed the N1 from the Bellville side. It was a popular watering hole, and many police officers stopped there on their way home from work. The voices quietened down a bit when she walked in. Those who hadn’t attended the funeral remarked on her darker hair. Ellie shrugged.

      Joe came out from behind the counter and took her hands. “I’m glad to see you survived the day.”

      His hands closed firmly around hers. In his mid-sixties, he was still a strong man. He had been a wrestler in his younger days and it was still evident in his build. It’s just the hair that hadn’t lasted. He was almost completely bald, except for a thin strip of grey around the back of his head.

      Ellie shook her head. “The day’s not over yet.”

      Someone touched her СКАЧАТЬ