“If you promise to behave until we reach Johannesburg, I don’t have to escort you in cuffs,” said Elon in response to her provocation.

  It’s going to be a long day, thought Liam.

  “Ah, officers?!” they heard the soft timid voice of the reception girl behind them. Both men turned to her. She was holding a piece of paper in her hand. “They sent this urgently for your attention.”

  Elon picked the piece of paper from the girl’s hand, scanned it and extended it to Liam.

  “The Tanzanian ‘court of justice gave us permission to excavate the suspected area for the body. I guess we are not leaving today. We have a body to dig up.”

  46

  The workers dug tranches around the Director’s seaside villa. They tried to avoid demolishing the whole construction, and they built tunnels under the foundation instead.

  Elon and Liam were present during the excavation work. They discussed the approach with a site architect that created a tunnel plan that would not debilitate the foundation, which could lead to the building collapsing. According to John’s testimonial, the body should be right under the cemented foundation but could not remember how deep they had to dig at the time.

  Everybody hoped that the body was buried deep underground rather than close to the surface, which would affect the stability of the foundation and would cause the whole thing to cave in.

  But hopes and well wishes never work when men play with the forces of nature, and none of the tunnels led them to a body. That part of Africa did not possess high-tech scanners to search for a human body. They found plenty of animals, bird and fish bones, but nothing bigger than that.

  Elon and Liam looked grimmer by the day. Three days they spent, sunrise-to-sunset, on that excavation site with no promising results to show for the efforts everybody put into it.

  “What if they moved the body? She might not be here after all.” This was Liam, thinking out loud. Elon looked at him and then returned his gaze to the horizon where the sun was disappearing, marking another day gone.

  “They?” said Elon. “Maybe you are right. We should take all possible angles into consideration. Maybe the girl is not even dead, and she staged her demise and ran away with her boyfriend, Stefano, into the sunset.”

  “And leave her twin-sister behind to pay for a supposed crime she had not committed? Very unlikely. We are missing an important piece of the puzzle.”

  “We are missing more than a piece. I’m starting to get annoyed with your flair for career-suicidal type of cases. How in the bladdy hell did you get yourself into this mess, bru?

  “Calm down man, I can see steam coming out of your ears. Let’s get some braai (grilled meat) and dop (alcohol) to wash off this day.”

  The two friends were moving away from the site. It was getting darker, the air smelled of sea salt and raw fish. The birds were going to sleep as the grave-like stillness shrouded the place. It was like the suspension after the inhale, only to blow out with a powerful exhale. Liam perceived that moment as he stopped and turned at the same time as the earth cracked under their feet, shaking, and moving downwards with a long groan. Good thing they had moved away from the site, as they witness the excavating machines and the workers sliding down as the earth swallowed them inside its belly. Then, under a minute of complete silence followed by a rise in red dust into the air, people started calling out in Swahili. Not knowing what they were doing, they all ran to the place that had swallowed their colleagues and started digging with their empty hands the disturbed ground.

  “Everybody move back,” called Elon while he was pulling Liam’s shirt. He dragged him by the neck of his shirt away from the excavation area as new sounds filled the space. It cracked and popped, screeched like a wounded animal, as lines like protruded veins appeared on the north wall of the villa. Liam understood that the tunnels must have collapsed under its weight and now the entire area was caving in, taking everybody down towards the sea. On his way, Elon grabbed the architect, who remained like a statue, watching the horror enveloping before his eyes. The earth started to slip from under their feet as they fought to run upwards, like inexperienced surfers on the fanatic wave of the red ground.

  As Liam was gliding down, he felt his shirt tearing away from his body, yet Elon would not let go of him. He suddenly caught his arm and continue to drag him up, along with the architect, always up on the descending ground.

  Even for the strongest of us, it comes a time when the force of nature makes us admit defeat, overpowered by providence or maybe just misfortune, as the three men were swept away by the avalanche that carried them towards the dark waters, just as the last red line of light was disappearing into the sunset.

  47

  “Are they dead?” asked Sade as she served her morning coffee.

  Everybody in the hotel spoke about nothing else. The villa by the sea collapsed, half swallowed in the ground, and there was an uncertain number of dead and wounded men that had been carried away to the local hospital.

  The area had been closed by the police, and tourists had to take a detour to go to the beach.

  “Detective Liam and the big guy are in hospital now,” said a dark, skinny waiter that was particularly nice to Sade and loved when she gave him her attention. “I know from reliable sources. My sister is a nurse in the hospital, and my younger brother worked at the construction site, and helped uncover all those workers. They carried detective Liam on a stretcher, unconscious. The big guy walked to hospital on his own feet.”

  “Too bad… I hoped it was the other way around. I used to like Detective Liam,” whispered Sade to herself. The Zanzibari waiter nodded happily, uncertain of what she meant.

  “Do you want more coffee?” asked the waiter searching around for his boss to see him lazing around a beautiful white woman.

  “No, thanks. I have things to do. What an exciting day!”

  Sade stood up and immediately moved away from the restaurant.

  With the agitation of last night’s events, everybody was distracted. It was her chance to make her next move, or run away, before the police put her back in house arrest or escorted her to a prison in South Africa.

  Would they consider me guilty if I leave? I’m sure they would. That big bully read my rights some days back. Leaving now it will mean that I’ve escaped arrest. Still, it gives me time to think and do something about this turn of events.

  48

  Liam felt a piercing pain behind his eyes, inside his brain, as light hit him hard when he tried to open his eyes. Instinctively, he raised his arm to protect his eyes from the light. He felt strings pulling at his arms, and needles popping out from under his skin.

  “Take it easy, bru.” Liam heard Elon’s voice before he identified the big man’s silhouette next to him. “You are in hospital. I had to drag you from under the ground that pulled us into the ocean. Not a simple task when you try to keep the head above the waters and feel your way through the waters and piles of ground, in the dark.”

  Liam’s head hit the pillow as he sighed, remembering the catastrophic events.

  “Did they find any bodies?” he asked after massaging his temples and gathered his thoughts.

  “Three dead and ten wounded. No other body older than the couple of hours that took them to dig them out,” responded Elon, knowing too well what his friend was referring to.

  No body… Liam was trying to keep up with the train of thoughts that was now gathering speed, understanding the magnitude of the situation. Without the body of the presumed dead girl, their case will not stand in court. John might even change his version of the story, and Sade… she will be free to be whomever she wanted to be.

  “I’m fucked,” said Liam.

  “We are both fucked, considering the circumstances. Johnny boy might not remember where he buried the body because of PTSD, and we must have dug in the wrong place, causing the entire building to collapse. We have 3 deaths to account for, and we might lose the chance at conviction.”

  “I want to go back to sleep and never wake up. My career is over.” Liam pulled the white sheets over his head.

  Elon removed the sheets from his grip with a tearing noise.

  “Get dressed. We have things to do.”

  “I’m sick,” tried to protest Liam, but obeying him all the same.

  “You are fine. You had a full night's sleep, unlike me…”

  Ten minutes later, the two policemen were leaving the hospital with a nurse on their tail, trying to explain the discharge procedure.

  49

  Eish, now he is playing the victim, the little bugger. Why am I so mad? I knew this would happen. Why would anyone go to prison if there is no body to put him in there? I’m such an idiot. I even sympathized with him, and I wanted to help him. The moment there is no corpse to answer for, the vermin move to the next best thing.

  Detective Liam was dashing through the Resort alleys from John Singh’s room. It seemed that his conscious was doing much better now and reconsidered his initial statement, requesting to be released from house arrest if there is no other proof that incriminated him.

  I hope you rot in your Hindu hell, Mother Fokker.

  Liam felt his shirt wet from how it gathered around his torso. His wounds were throbbing, and his head was too hot to think straight. He would smash into somebody anytime, and he wouldn’t care about the injustice of it. He had worked too hard for too long to have it undone so easily. His family paid for all the long hours he put into investigating and solving this case. His daughter was a stranger to him and probably hated him. No more than he hated himself at that moment.

  The Detective turned a corner and spotted Elon coming at him with the same determination in step, and a similar murderous look on his face.

  “We are burned, bru! Both our commanders requested our immediate return to Johannesburg. The Indian lover goes free, so does the sweet innocent twin sister. One of my buddies in the office has warned me that she made a complaint about harassment and false incrimination against the both of us. We are facing trial if this is not solved amicably.”

  Liam hissed to let the pressure building inside of him go out before his head exploded.

  “We have nothing. After all this time we have nothing on them,” thought Liam out loud.

  “We had John’s confession, but now he retracted everything and is claiming that he confessed under pressure. This will not look good for us either if he decides to testify in court.”

  “I would strangle him with my own hands… to show him how she felt, the love of his life, before she died,” gritted his teeth Liam.

  “Keep cool, bru. They are mere amateurs with a bit of luck. He was advised what to say and do, and I know exactly who that someone was. I will hunt them until they wish to be in police custody to protect them.”

  Liam raised his eyebrows at his friend. Despite acting so coolly, he, too, was heated hard inside. Only he could tell how much injustice annoyed his friend.

  “Let’s not ruin our lives over this, buddy. Let them go free. Someday they will make a mistake, and we will be close by to take advantage of it, just as they did now.” Liam was moving back into his controlled and calm self. He could be feral in his most peaceful moments. It was then when the best insights came to him.

  “Oh, for sure I will let them go. But they will never be free of me. I’ll be their shadow until the day they are tired of playing games. I’m never tired. I can wait.” Elon’s eyes sparkled, wet and wild.

  Can I wait? Asked himself Liam, feeling still the sharp bite of his frustration bleeding his guts raw.

  The brief silence that befallen them, both men lost in their internal dialogue and bitterness, when Liam’s phone came to life. On the screen he could read his Commander’s name.

  Liam inhaled once and answered, exhaling slowly while on the other side a mad voice yelling threats to him could be heard.

  “Commander, I have my concerns,” replied Detective Liam as soon as his Commander took a break from his insults.

  “I give rocks about your concerns!” The Commander screamed back. “Return to Johannesburg on the first flight, and I want to see your badge and gun on my desk first thing.” He hung up.

  “Good news. I’ve been given an unlimited vacation time. I just need to take a quick trip to return my badge and gun, then I’m free to do what the bloody I want.”

  “I’m sorry, bru. Let me talk to your Commander…” offered Elon.

  “No need. I was thinking of retiring early…”

  “You have many years, still… There ain’t many policemen like you…”

  “I said… no need to sugarcoat it. We said we will catch them. I will not be able to do it from inside the police. The Commander will be on me incessantly from now on. It’s time to try some private investigation. You will need a free agent to work for you in the real life while you manage the internal legal shit.”

  I’m going to get to the bottom of this, or my name is not Liam Blessing.

  50

  Sade was leaving the Resort on her own, a free woman. Detective Liam and that Beast were watching her as she checked out.

  I threw a stick at the lions and hit them in the face. Now they are considering how to tear me apart, thought Sade. She knew that she had declared war on them, but what else could she have done? She was trapped, and she took the first opportunity to put some distance between herself and life in prison as accomplice to murder.

  I hope that dimwit will have the balls to stick with the plan. She would have sacrificed him, but not if he would drag her down with him. She had helped Stefano get away, now she was letting a murder go free, so she could survive, too.

  This is not how I have envisioned everything. It came out wrong, bloody detectives and their perverse mind! I would have served them both the murderer and accomplice on a golden plate if they would only let me go. They have no sense of regard for what I did to offer my sister justice and rest.

  “Have a safe journey.” Detective Liam approached her as she was moving towards her cab that would take her to the airport and far away from this accursed place. “Until we meet again…” He made a gesture of touching his forehead as a military salute.

  The big guy was sneering at her.

  Are we still playing the intimidation game?

  “Ah, Miss. I’m sure you will be quite busy taking on your sister’s life once you are back in your loving parents’ bosom, but I would love to meet for an afternoon tea. No need to give me the address. I know it already.” Detective Liam beamed a benevolent smile.

  Oh, I know what you are playing at. You are telling me that if I press charges, you will turn my life upside down.

  “Detective Liam, there is still a lot of potential for a friendship between us. Let’s not ruin it! Please visit anytime you wish. I’ll be happy to have you as a guest. We have quite a selection of tea blends.”

  “Glad to hear. I won’t serve any wine, I’m afraid.”

  Elon allowed a discreet grin on his face.

  Jou bliksem! (You bastard!) swore Sade showing the same fake smile on her face, allowing a malevolent shine in her eyes.

  “We’ll meet again, boef,” said Liam between his teeth when Sade turned her back and got into her cab. He intentionally used the Afrikaans term for lawbreaker.

  “Ah, I’m craving for some braaibroodjies (toasted sandwiches that are grilled over an open flame) with some boerewors (popular mixed-meat spiced sausage in South Africa).

  “How can you think of food at a time like this?” asked Liam, pushing back the irritation in him.

  “Don’t get your broekies in a knot. (Calm down!) She is coming down hard, I promise you!”

  PART 2

  51

  Back in Johannesburg.

  “I know you want me to dismiss you from the Police Force. In your prime, great potential, brilliant mind, but you have an untamed nature, and this is your curse and downfall. I tried my best to guide you and keep you away from your destructive personality, but you won’t be saved, so I must let you go.”

  “What a moving speech, Commander. I didn’t know you had it in you.” Liam knew he was being disrespectful, and he had just released the bullet that would kill his career in the Police Force, yet, the Commander was right, his nature would not be tamed, as criminals will not get away with murder under his watch.

  Liam took out his gun and put it on his desk. He enjoyed the slow yet determined motions. He threw his badge, too.

  “I’ll be gone now, Commander. You’ll have to catch the criminals on your own. I’m going on a long vacation now.”

  “You would not let it go, would you?”

  Liam searched his former commander’s face for meaning.

  “Last time you said you were going on a vacation; you were hunting ghosts in Zanzibar. What’s wrong with you? Do you have a death wish?”

  “No, my Ego cannot accept defeat, so I have to solve this murder, or I will never find my peace.”

  “What you need is a trip to a mental institution.”

  “Even for that, we need a court order, Commander. It’s easier to go to Zanzibar.”

  “Bliksem! Listen to me, you ruined a villa in 5 stars resort in Zanzibar, killing and injuring men in the process and you found no human bones buried there. You have no witnesses or a confession that would stand in court. Are you a bladdy idiot? We have written complains on your name from the victim’s sister and the supposed murderer for harassment, and even the Resort came with claims for property destruction…”

  “None of them will stand in court. The Resort gave their consent for the excavations, and the collapse of the tunnels was an accident, or at least not our fault. The murder suspect and the suspicious sister also have reasons to defame me, and they will not go ahead with it. They are guilty, they know it, and they are smart enough not to risk too much attention. I hope they will bring me to court, because, in my defense, I can open an official investigation and I can also involve the Interpol. So, you see Commander, if they come to get me, I will drag them down to Hell before I fall. I still have friends and people that know me and appreciate everything that I have done for the Police. Unlike you, Commander, they will support me.”