‘I get the impression he was re-evaluating his views on South Africa,’ Calder said. ‘And if the Beatrice Pienaar woman was planted by the Laagerbond, perhaps she might have persuaded him to go along with them.’
George shook his head. ‘You’re right, he was changing. But although I didn’t like the man he was becoming, I still can’t believe he would take their money. Presumably they wanted him to toe the apartheid line once he had bought all these newspapers. I haven’t seen much evidence of that.’
‘How do his papers cover South Africa?’ Calder said.
‘Objectively, from what I can tell. I haven’t noticed any bias. I don’t think he takes much of a personal interest in South African coverage. If he was funded by the Laagerbond, you would expect his papers to be full of anti-ANC propaganda.’
‘Did you know that Cornelius is bidding for The Times now?’ Calder said. ‘I wonder if the Laagerbond is still funding him?’
‘That would be a real prize for them.’
‘And an expensive one,’ Calder said. ‘I remember reading the price tag was over eight hundred million pounds.’
‘Do you know where he gets his funding from?’ George asked.
‘Historically he’s borrowed most of it,’ Calder said. ‘But I can check. Could you find out where Visser and Havenga are now?’
‘No problem, that will be easy.’
‘And a woman called Libby Wiseman?’
‘Libby Wiseman? What does she have to do with this?’
‘Apparently she was on a charity board with Martha. They were friends.’
‘I know Libby Wiseman vaguely,’ George said. ‘She was in government for a brief time, probably less than a year. I think she lives in Johannesburg now, it should be easy to track her down. I’ll give you a call at your hotel when I’ve got the information.’
Calder finished his whisky, preparing to leave. ‘Are you still working?’ he asked.
‘Oh, I still write the odd piece now and then. And I’m helping out on the Rainbow. It’s a black-owned paper, very well respected, but quite critical of the government. The ANC have achieved a lot over the last ten years, but they now have a monopoly on power. Someone needs to point out the dangers of a one-party state, and that’s what the Rainbow does. But it’s always short of funds. Plus ça change.’
Calder liked George Field: he was an intelligent man with a good understanding of South Africa. Calder decided to take a step into the minefield that was racial politics. ‘It can’t have been easy being a white South African.’
‘A lot easier than being a black one,’ George said.
‘You know what I mean. The apartheid regime was obviously evil, but what could you do about it? Voting for the opposition didn’t do much good since the National Party always had a majority. You and Cornelius tried to protest peacefully, but that didn’t work, you were both forced out of the country. Cornelius’s daughter, Zan, got involved in the armed struggle, but a violent revolution doesn’t seem the right answer either.’
‘Most white South Africans looked the other way,’ George said. ‘They say now that they had no idea what was going on in their country, but that’s crap. We told them in our newspaper, as did others. OK, sometimes we weren’t allowed to report the whole truth, but if you read the Cape Daily Mail it was easy to work out what was going on. People refused to see it: it was like a mass denial.’
‘Many of the people who perpetrated these crimes have got away with it, haven’t they?’
‘That’s true,’ George said. ‘A lot of them are still in positions of power, even now. Or they’ve retired on good pensions. This country has all sorts of problems: unemployment, violence, AIDS, a horrific past. But when South Africans argue about whether things are going well or badly, whether the glass is half full or half empty, they forget the most important thing. The glass wasn’t smashed. It took an extraordinary effort by our leaders, not just Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Tutu, but also F. W. de Klerk and his government, to forgive and forget and to try and build a new free country, however flawed it might be.’
‘Is Martha’s death part of that past? To be forgiven and forgotten?’
‘Perhaps not,’ George said. ‘But digging into the past in South Africa is dangerous. That you have already seen.’
‘Are you suggesting I leave it?’ Calder asked.
George smiled. ‘No. Just be careful.’
As soon as Calder arrived back at his hotel, he called Tarek al-Seesi in London. He was fortunate to catch him in his office, working late. He asked him to check with the Bloomfield Weiss analyst who covered the media industry to see if there were any unexplained holes in where Cornelius got his funds from. Tarek was happy to help.
Then he called Kim on her mobile. To his surprise, she was having supper with his father in Anne’s house. Todd was making very good progress, already he seemed much less confused than he had when he had first woken up. After Todd had been transferred down to the private hospital in London, Kim had decided to stay with Dr Calder and the children in Highgate rather than with her father-in-law. Calder told Kim about his discussions with Zan and George Field, and the theory that the Laagerbond might have financed Cornelius in his attempts to buy foreign newspapers. Kim was shocked at first, but she liked the theory. It was clear that her mistrust of Cornelius was growing by the day.
‘Will you be able to discuss this with Todd, do you think?’ Calder asked. ‘If Zyl News was financed by mysterious South Africans, Todd might know something. He worked for the company for several years, didn’t he?’
‘He did, although from what he has told me Zyl News was funded entirely by bank loans and junk bonds,’ said Kim. ‘Todd’s still pretty groggy. We’ve talked about the plane crash, but not about who might have caused it. I’ll see how he is tomorrow.’
‘I’ll leave it up to you to decide.’
‘Cornelius and Edwin have been to the hospital. Cornelius has spent quite a lot of time with Todd, but I keep out of the way whenever he’s around. And as for Edwin...’
‘Yes?’
Kim whispered, presumably so that Calder’s father wouldn’t hear. ‘He tried to threaten me. He’s found out about Donna Snyder and he said he’d tell the police. He seems to think they would view me as a suspect. He wants me to get you to come home. I told him to piss off.’
‘Good for you. Call his bluff, the police won’t care. They’d never take you seriously as a suspect. Speaking of which, how are they getting on?’
‘Pathetically. I’ve spoken to Inspector Banks and she says they are not pursuing Cornelius as a line of inquiry. It sounded to me as if she wasn’t very happy with that, but I couldn’t get her to admit it. Oh, and the South African police told her that the records relating to Martha’s murder have been mislaid.’
‘Destroyed, they mean,’ Calder said. ‘I can’t believe that the police are leaving Cornelius alone. At least I’m making some progress here.’
‘Thanks. Keep trying. Do you want to have a word with your father? He’s right here.’
‘Yes, please.’
He waited a moment and then he heard his father’s Borders’ brogue. ‘Alex? So you’re getting somewhere then?’
‘I think so. Kim will tell you.’
‘Good. I’m relying on you.’
Calder smiled. ‘How’s Anne?’
‘Stable. She’ll keep the other leg.’
‘Is she conscious?’
‘Yes. I spoke to her this afternoon on the telephone.’
‘Did she say anything about me?’
‘I think William has been getting her agitated. I’ve told him he really shouldn’t, but it’s difficult to be firm with him from up here.’