Читать книгу Piranha - Rudie van Rensburg - Страница 13

The vagrants under the bridge checked Kassie and Rooi out with some suspicion. Kassie took out his SAPS identity card and showed it to them. ‘We’re from the police. We want to talk to you about Barnie Wolhuter.’

A man eating baked beans out of a tin with a teaspoon shrugged his shoulders. ‘You must talk to Boepie. The rest of us know fuck-all about Barnie.’

‘Is Boepie here?’ Rooi asked.

‘I think so. Probably still sleeping.’

The man got up with a groan, walked a few paces until he was out from under the bridge, then took another spoonful of beans. He shouted towards the bushes: ‘Boepie! Bad news and good news! Bad news is: cops are here for you. Good news: they just want to talk about Barnie.’

First nothing, then a rustle. A man emerged, tall and wiry, wearing dirty jeans and a worn-out T-shirt across which was emblazoned I don’t need Google – my wife knows everything. The hard, round little belly which had clearly earned him his nickname seemed to belong to someone else. His feet were bare. His weathered red face showed all the hallmarks of an excess of sun, wind and booze.

He pointed to a pine tree where they could talk away from the others.

‘One of you generals perhaps have a cigarette for me?’ he asked.

Kassie gave him one of his Lucky Strikes. Boepie fished a box of matches out of his pocket and lit the cigarette. ‘What can I do for the generals this morning?’

‘We understand from Barnie’s wife that you and Barnie were friends?’

Boepie nodded, inhaled and looked at the burning end of the Lucky Strike. ‘We were, yes.’

‘When last did you see him?’ Rooi asked.

‘Almost a month now. I told his wife. But after she left I remembered something I didn’t tell her.’ Boepie slowly lowered himself onto his haunches and looked around him bleary-eyed. ‘Barnie told me a while ago that he had a scheme. And if the scheme worked out, he was going to be rolling in it. Millions, he said.’

He laughed. One of his front teeth was missing. ‘Told me he’d share with Maarman and me. Enough to buy a house and a car. I didn’t take him seriously. He was high. Tik.’

‘Did he say anything else about his scheme?’

‘Just that it was a bit of a gamble. That’s it. Old Barnie was desperate for money. He was used to the good life. He wanted to make a comeback.’

‘Who’s Maarman?’ Rooi asked.

‘His tik buddy. He used to come around to fetch Barnie to steal copper pipes with him.’ He laughed. ‘Copper’s the poor man’s trade for tik.’

The police were always getting complaints about copper-pipe theft, Kassie knew.

‘Where can we find Maarman?’ he asked.

Boepie shrugged. ‘Who knows? Maarman’s a drifter. But if I bump into him, I’ll tell him the generals want to talk.’

Kassie took out his business card. ‘Tell Maarman to call me at this number or to come to the Newlands police station. Tell him we just want information about Barnie. We’re not planning to cuff him for stealing pipes.’ He gave Boepie another cigarette. ‘And come to us if you hear anything about Barnie.’

He and Rooi walked back to the car in silence.

‘This scheme of Barnie’s bothers me,’ said Kassie when they got to the parking lot.

Rooi nodded. ‘It could have backfired. Maybe he’d fallen in with a gang that was planning a robbery and now he’s dead and gone.’

‘We’re going to have to do a missing person … send the details to all the stations in Cape Town.’

As he was getting into the car, Rooi’s phone rang. Kassie waited in the passenger seat while Rooi spoke excitedly outside.

‘Geeznuts, Kassie. Listen to this!’ he said as he got in behind the steering wheel. ‘Bugsy got a job. She went for an interview this morning and they just phoned her. Five hundred rand more per month than the last job. Starting tomorrow. At a shop in the Waterfront.’ He laughed. ‘That will give my poor credit card some breathing room.’

‘What kind of shop?’

‘African stuff.’

* * *

Theodore knew that sleeping with Carina Vosloo was a big mistake, but the whole thing had just taken him by surprise. He hadn’t had time to think. She’d practically dragged him to bed. The sex was wild, her shouting was loud and shrill, and her appetite was insatiable.

It was an uphill battle to get rid of her this morning. He lied and told her he was due to meet suppliers at Beitbridge. Then she wanted to know when they’d see one another again.

‘How about tonight? Want to come round for supper? You probably never get a proper meal out here in the bush.’

‘My sister’s coming to visit me from Cape Town for a week. And she’s an excellent cook,’ he lied without batting an eyelid. Especially about his sister being a cook. She’d never lifted a finger in the kitchen.

He walked over to his Land Rover. It’s not as though he hadn’t enjoyed the unexpected sex. It had been six months since that tourist. But he had no intentions of getting into a relationship, especially not with a woman fifteen years his senior. And there wouldn’t be much to talk about beyond masks.

He sighed. The problem was, he needed her masks. He couldn’t afford to cut ties.

* * *

Afrikaans was a terrible struggle in the beginning. Luckily, we had an English-speaking classmate doing the same BSc subjects we were, who was prepared to translate his notes for us – at a price, of course. Smiley’s father also saw to it that we got Afrikaans tutoring. And luckily most of the textbooks were in English.

Smiley made quicker progress socially than I did. He was naturally charming and a good sportsman. Some of his cricket team started hanging out at our little flat. The friendly ‘Soutie’ from Uganda soon became extremely popular.

My biggest problem was that I was dependent on Smiley for money. His father paid for our studies, accommodation, food and other expenses by transferring money into his account and he was supposed to give me my share. But he started turning off the money tap with excuses like ‘my father paid in less than usual this month’. He soon bought himself a motorbike while I carried on walking everywhere. When the soles on my only pair of shoes got holes in them, he shrugged and said I couldn’t expect his father to buy my shoes too.

I started working nights at a restaurant. Smiley had parties and entertained at the flat, providing alcohol bought with ‘our’ money.

The first serious cracks in our friendship started to show … cracks that would lead to enormous crevasses on my side.