An Ordinary Day (17 page)

Shezi walked up to Durant with a bread roll in one hand and a beer in the other. ‘The roll will keep us alive until the meat’s cooked. I need the meat, brother.’

‘It’s gonna hit the spot, Mike. I’m starved. Stephanie hasn’t really been Nigella in the kitchen lately. Are you okay?’

‘I’m okay now. I just think too much sometimes.’

‘Don’t. Sometimes we think stopping bad things from happening is so important. Think about it. Weapons of mass destruction. Mass destruction. These are huge words. There are some really evil people out there, but sometimes we think we’re the most evil of all in our own homes. We neglect our families. I feel guilty.’

‘It’s a cage, Kev, I know. I’m in one too. You’ll never get out, you’re locked in. Fear keeps you inside.’

‘It’s easy dealing with secrets. It’s hard to talk about stuff at home. I’m used to keeping everything inside.’

Shezi nodded. ‘Our lives are one big lie. We think we’re these supermen, but we’re actually feeble. We can’t even please our own families any more.’

‘So you don’t feel like a hero, Mike?’

‘I feel more like a failure. I’m just working to eat, not to save the universe.’

‘Pat yourself on the back for making it this far.’

A smiling Amina walked up to the two men. ‘Don’t you two have work to do?’

‘Very funny. I’d rather not be here myself. I’m out of here as soon as my meat’s cooked,’ Durant said.

‘You unsociable lot. Can’t you do anything except work these days? Don’t you have lives?’

Shezi laughed. ‘This is our life. Be a darling and braai our meat, Amina.’

‘I don’t even eat meat and you want me to braai yours?’

Durant laughed. ‘See how we’re treated, Mike? Not only aren’t we heroes, even the womenfolk don’t respect us. We’re losers!’

‘A family of losers!’ and Shezi pulled Durant and Amina in for a group hug. ‘I love you guys.’

When Durant wandered across to the braai area with his meat, he thought about what had got into Shezi lately.

Anja spotted Elhasomi first. She had seen her before and had marvelled at how beautiful she was, but she seemed more stunning than ever now as she waited for her suitcases at the carousel. Her straight black hair was tied back loosely and her light green eyes looked mysteriously transparent against her olive skin. She stood by herself, her arms resting lightly on the trolley and then looked over and smiled as Salem embraced her from behind.

Anja had identified the man before he walked up to her. He was clearly Middle-Eastern, tanned, with short, gelled, black hair, dark glasses resting on his forehead. If there was a male equivalent of Elhasomi, he was it – distinctly good-looking features, well built and dressed in designer jeans and a khaki top. Anja made the call to Durant. ‘The other package has arrived. It appears as though the two packages are very close. I’ll call you back when I’ve established their mode of transport.’

The small air-conditioning unit in the monitoring van just wasn’t coping with the 38-degree temperature outside. Sweat dripped on the small table in front of him as he scribbled notes while Anja updated him on the progress of the package. As Elhasomi and Salem neared the townhouse in their hired vehicle, Amina dared not speak to Durant. He was totally absorbed in the monochrome images on the monitors. Uptown Girl was minutes away from the townhouse.

Durant tried to determine the critical point when there would be no doubt that the target was approaching the house, and when he could stand the surveillance unit down. The closer Elhasomi got to the house, the more suspicious she would be. He didn’t want to risk the surveillance unit blowing the operation if their tail became obvious. He involuntarily raised his arm, still staring at the monitors, as if starting a race, and when Anja said they had turned off the freeway and were heading in the general direction of the townhouse, he made the call. ‘Withdraw, withdraw, withdraw!’ His hand came down slowly and he leaned in so close to the monitors, Amina thought his chair would flip over forward. There was now a strange quiet in the van, punctuated by the humming of fans in the electronic equipment and the distant whining of the air-conditioning unit on the roof.

The images on the screens were still. Like black-and-white art, they reflected an eerie beauty inside the townhouse. Every few seconds the pictures broke up into distorted lines and the sound crackled annoyingly. Durant seethed with frustration and Amina knew there was no point in saying anything. She knew as well as he did that they were lucky to have any pictures or sound at all given the short time they’d had to set the operation up.

Long minutes passed as Durant and Amina’s eyes searched the monitors for a hint of someone approaching the townhouse. A shadow, a change of light, anything. Dahdi had indicated to Elhasomi that a friend would leave the keys under the mat and Durant knew that one of the tiny cameras would catch the couple as they walked in through the front door. But they didn’t. A full twenty minutes went by before Durant spoke. The disappointment in his voice reflected in his downcast eyes. ‘Did I stand down the surveillance unit too soon?’ he asked, and then looked at Amina as if he really wanted an answer.

‘I would have called it when you did,’ she lied.

‘I thought they were close enough. Twenty-five minutes. Maybe they’re just lost. They’re foreigners in a strange city; the neighbourhood’s very confusing. Isn’t it?’

‘It is.’ Amina knew that nothing she said would console him. She put her hand on his arm and said softly, ‘Kevin, why don’t you go home? I don’t mind staying here all night if I have to. I’ll be fine here by myself. The backup vehicle’s just up the road. I’ll call you if anything happens.’

‘Thanks, Amina, but I’m staying. They’ll come to our house, they’ve just gone to get something to eat. They’ll be here soon, trust me.’

‘Kevin!’ Amina’s voice couldn’t hide the excitement. ‘Listen!’

Durant grabbed a set of headphones and clamped them on his ears. The microphones in the townhouse were picking up the distant sound of a vehicle engine idling outside. Then a car door opening and closing, and finally voices, slowly getting louder as they neared the front door. The voices were clearly male and female and Amina’s face lit up.

‘She called him “Ben”, and she’s saying next time she’ll drive and he can navigate.’ Durant was impressed by how much Amina’s trained ear could hear through the clutter of noise. He hadn’t heard a word.

The number three monitor captured the moment the front door swung open and Elhasomi and her companion entered the hall. The camera was mounted high and the angle caused the picture to shorten the figures of the two as they came into view. Despite this, the features of Elhasomi and Salem could clearly be seen. As the couple embraced in the hallway, Durant leaned back in his chair and smiled.

‘It’s going to be an interesting evening. Amina. Promise you’ll change channels if there’re any sex scenes.’

She smiled. ‘I can’t believe we’ve got to this point. It’s a miracle.’

‘It is a miracle. But we’re going to need a few more miracles before we can pat ourselves on the back.’

Elhasomi and Salem took their suitcases upstairs.

‘Amina, you like the soapies, so I’ll leave you to watch tonight. I haven’t been home much in the last few days and Stephanie hasn’t really been coping well lately, so can I leave this to you?’

‘You know you can,’ she said, and eagerly stood up to replace Durant in the hot seat. ‘I’ll call you if there’s anything interesting, which means I’ll probably be on the phone to you the whole night.’

‘Perhaps give me one call with the summarised version. Mike will join you later, and backup’s outside. We need to figure out who this guy is and what they’re doing here. The connection to Ali is obviously our first prize.’

Durant desperately wanted to stay, but he also wanted to let Amina know he trusted her enough to let her carry on without him.

A gentle breeze tugged at the tartan tablecloths at the Park Restaurant, and the breakfast regulars began to fill up the tables quickly.

The morning sun was warm on Stephanie’s shoulders and it seemed as though she hadn’t felt it for weeks. She moved out of the umbrella’s shadow completely and leaned back in her chair, letting the sun fall on her face.

‘Are you okay?’ the man opposite her asked, extending a hand to touch her arm, thinking better of it, and resting it on the table in front of him. As presumptuous and self-assured as Richard King was, he knew that some boundaries were still in place.

Stephanie shook her head without looking up. ‘Kevin and I used to come to this place often. We used to talk about our dreams, our kids, our careers, about all the things that mattered in life. We haven’t been here for months. And we haven’t spoken about those things for months. Whenever he tries, I get angry and it gets awkward and then Kevin withdraws.’

King leaned forward. His eyes held a gentleness and compassion she hadn’t seen in a man for months.

‘The trouble is your life’s been one way for so long, you’ve got used to it. Something unusual’s happened; you haven’t learnt to cope with it because it’s such a new experience.’

‘Childbirth’s a normal event. Women have babies all the time. Why is it just me who can’t cope?’

‘You’re coping okay.’

‘I’m not. I want to be enjoying this time. I want to be able to push a pram through the park and having everyone say what a beautiful baby I have.’

‘It’ll happen. You just need some time to adapt to this new life. It happens to a lot of women, and they all somehow survive.’

‘It’s overwhelming, Richard. I’m totally out of control when I’m alone with the baby. I worry about something happening and I can’t handle it. She has this weird hold on me, like she’s trying to control my life.’

‘Steph, she’s only a baby – don’t attribute too much to her. She has simple needs. She just wants to be loved, fed and left to sleep. And all those things are within your power.’

‘It doesn’t feel like it, Richard. It feels like I’m powerless. I can’t do the simplest things. I couldn’t give birth naturally, I couldn’t breast-feed, she cries all the time … I’m a total failure. I don’t have any control.’

‘Then you’re like a million other mothers out there. There’s nothing wrong with those things.’

‘Then why am I seeing a shrink? My mother’s spending more time with Alexis than me.’

‘I think you read too many books. Your expectations of motherhood are way too high.’

‘My expectations were the same as any other mother’s …’

‘You want a baby that sleeps eight hours a night, never cries and feeds herself?’

‘That is not funny. I just wanted everything to be the same as before.’

‘It never is. Your body’s never the same again, your social life changes radically and your career goes for a ball … You need some time to adjust.’

‘I want to give Kevin more attention, but between his work and the situation at home, it seems impossible. I see so little of him, and during those times we argue. He is spending far more time with Alexis than with me.’

‘Maybe Alexis is listening to him more. When Kevin gets home, he wants to relax and talk about his day at work, his frustrations, his successes, his …’

‘He doesn’t talk about work – he can’t.’

‘Maybe he thinks you’re not interested. Maybe you should listen more. Don’t talk about the problems at home and how badly you’re coping. There’s not much he can do about that.’

‘He only comes home because of Alexis. I feel sorry for him that he has to put up with so much. He’s under a lot of pressure at work too. You would know.’

‘I wonder sometimes why he puts so much effort into it. He’s got a stunning wife. If I were him I’d be late for work every morning. I’d dream of you all day and skip robots to be home when you come home.’

Stephanie managed a smile, her first for a while. ‘You say the nicest things, Richard. I always thought you were pompous and a bit self-centred.’

‘Maybe I am sometimes. A lot of people don’t understand me. My ex-wife never understood me, and I never understood her. We couldn’t communicate without fighting. You seem so in control and so calm.’

‘I wish I was always like this. When I’m with you, I—’ The words faded because she knew they were words of betrayal, and they weren’t fair on Kevin.

‘You need to get away – just the three of you – and forget about home and work and just enjoy your time as a family.’

‘I’ve asked – no, begged – Kevin to take some leave. But they just won’t give it to him. I’ve even phoned Mr Masondo. He says they’re relying heavily on Kevin at the moment. I said, “Well, so am I. Don’t I get a turn?”’

‘Stephanie. Don’t make the mistake I made. Don’t leave it too long. You two need to sit down and talk.’

‘I know. I will when I’m ready. Right now, I still don’t know what to say that will fix everything.’

‘Take small steps. Talk about how much you need one another and how you can’t live without each other.’

Stephanie moved under the umbrella and a shadow fell over her face. ‘The trouble is we
are
living without each other.’

King put his hand on hers and she made no effort to resist.