But Stanley was closed, police vans, Opels, blocked the street. Uniforms came running with guns in hand.
'Fuck,' said Steven beside him.
Barry said nothing. He stopped the bakkie and lifted his hands slowly off the steering wheel and held them above his head.
'He's coming with me,' said Rachel Anderson as they carried her to the helicopter on a stretcher. She pointed at Griessel, who walked beside her holding her hand.
'There's no room,' said the paramedic.
'Then I'm not going.'
'Rachel, I'll be there in a few minutes,' Griessel soothed.
She fought to get off the stretcher. 'I'm not going.'
'Wait,' said the paramedic, 'he can go with you.' To Griessel he said: 'Where's your car?'
Benny pointed at the van. 'The keys are still inside.'
They loaded her into the helicopter, and Griessel shifted in beside her with difficulty. 'Wait a bit,' the paramedic said and ran back into the building. He returned with the toes in a little bag and passed the gruesome cargo to Griessel. 'They can sew them back on,' said the man. 'Maybe ....'
In the helicopter she tried to talk but the rotors made too much of a racket.
Once they had landed on the roof of the hospital and when they were ready to wheel her into theatre, the same one where they had operated on Mbali Kaleni and Eben Etlinger, she asked them to wait. She told Griessel there was another thing, last night. After they had cut Erin's throat.
'We'll talk later,' he pleaded, because he had to get back to Vusi, there was a lot of work to do.
'No. You have to know. They killed another man.'
She had seen them cut Erin's throat and she had run blindly in fear and shock back to the street, chose the first possible street away from them. Somewhere not long after that she had seen a building on the left with an entrance through to an inner garden. She wanted to get out of sight. She ran in there.
A big, middle-aged man in a suit, handsome, was standing at a fishpond and watching two other men walk away. He shouted something angry before they opened a glass door and disappeared inside. On the wall was a logo of a bird, she could remember that.
'Please, help me,' she said with huge relief, here was help. The big man had looked at her and the anger on his face had quickly changed to concern. 'What's wrong?' he asked.
'They want to kill me,' she had said and went to stand with him.
'Who?'
They heard their running steps and looked at the entrance, where Jason and the others had appeared. Jason had a gun in his hand now.
'We just want her,' he said to the big man. The man had put his arm protectively around Rachel's shoulders and said: 'Not before we call the police.'
'She stole from us. We just want our stuff back, we don't want trouble.'
'Even more reason to call the police,' and he had started to feel in his pocket, probably for his phone.
Jason pointed the pistol at the man. 'Then I'll have to shoot you.'
The man took out a cell phone.
She realised she was not going to be responsible for another death and she started running again. The big man tried to stop them.
She heard two shots. She looked back. The big man in the black suit fell down.
Then she was gone, around the corner. In the street a municipal lorry had pulled away, a smelly truck transporting rubbish bags. She jumped up against it, saw them coming. The truck picked up speed so that Jason became smaller and smaller. She thought they had given up when she had nearly a half a kilometre lead on them. But then the traffic lights at the top of the street turned red. She jumped off then.
'Two men went into the building just before he saw you?' he asked her as they wheeled her into theatre.
'Yes,' she said.
Griessel followed. 'What did they look like?'
'I can remember only one. He was ... eccentric. Very thin, his head was shaven .. . Oh, and he had a silver earring,' and then the doctor told Griessel he would have to leave. 'He was dressed all in black,' she called before the theatre doors closed.
16:41-17:46
Chapter 47
Detective Inspector Vusi Ndabeni finally lost his professional cool in the interrogation room at the Caledon Square police station.
They deposited Steven Chitsinga in a cell. They asked Mat Joubert to question Jason de Klerk in an available office, as Griessel said he couldn't, because if he did he 'would beat the fucker to death'.
Vusi took Barry Smith to the official station interview room. Griessel took charge of Bobby Verster in another office. Verster was the last one to come out of Rachel's torture chamber, the one who had left Jeremy Oerson alone with her. They suspected he was the weakest link.
Joubert got nothing from Jason de Klerk, despite his skill, his intimidating size and the fact that Jason was in agony from his smashed elbow. He ignored every question, just sat and stared at the wall.
To every question from Vusi, Barry Smith mumbled 'Fuck off.' Vusi felt the unease growing inside him, but he suppressed it and asked the next question.
'Fuck off.'
In the other office, Bobby Verster told Griessel he hadn't been on the tour. Last night by chance he had been with Barry and Eben at the Purple Turtle when Jason had phoned. Barry had jumped up and told them to come, and outside they had seen Jason and Steven chasing two girls down Long Street. So they joined in the chase.
Griessel's body was sore, but he was filled with euphoria from the breakthrough and the relief at finding Rachel. He stood up from his chair and approached the table. He looked at
Bobby. Bobby looked away. 'Have you heard the one about the little dog?' Griessel asked.
'What one?'
With suspicion.
Benny sat on the table, folded his arms carefully across his chest and said in a mischievous, playful and friendly voice: 'The one about the young dog that heard the big dogs talking about sex and how good it felt to fuck. "What is fucking?" asked the young dog. "It's the best thing ever, let's show you." The dogs ran up the street and found a bitch on heat. The bitch ran away from the pack. They chased her, around and around the block. After the fourth time around the block, the little dog said: "Guys, I'm only fucking one more round and then I'm going home."'
Bobby Verster didn't laugh.
'You didn't get tired of all the chasing, Bobby?' Benny Griessel asked.
Verster said nothing.
'Not even when they cut an innocent girl's throat?'
Bobby said he was shocked when Jason did it. He had protested. But Steven Chitsinga told him: 'You're next if you don't shut your mouth and help.' It scared him. But he didn't know what the hell was going on with Jason and them.
'So were you forced?'
'Yes.'
'So actually, you are innocent?'
'Yes!'
'Would you make a statement to that effect? Just so we can close your part of the case?' Griessel asked him.
'I will,' he answered eagerly.
Benny shifted pen and paper closer. Bobby wrote. 'Sign it,' said Benny. Once Bobby was finished, Griessel read the statement out loud to him. He asked: 'All this is the truth?'
'It is.'
'Then you are an accessory to murder. You are going to jail, and you will sit there for a very long time.'