Snake (25 page)

Before the bolt could work again, Kramer had dived behind the counter.

“I will kill you,” said Da Gama’s voice from up in the darkened balcony.

“You have to,” Kramer replied. “Don’t worry, I understand.”

“Police?” asked Da Gama.

“Frelimo.”

“Your witness is dead?”

“Uh-huh.”

Kramer had by then heaved the heavy corpse in behind the chipboard of the counter and made himself a shield with it.

Da Gama, committed to destruction and escape within the least possible time, began firing into the counter. The chipboard proved just thick enough to slow the high-velocity slugs down and lodge in the dishwasher.

Either way, it was a matter of time, and Kramer hoped Zondi would appreciate that.

Zondi closed the door softly behind him, waited for a shot to ring in his ears, and slid the bottom bolt home to keep whoever it was up there outnumbered.

His PPK was already cocked, so he could move without making a sound into the middle of the floor.

The lieutenant was obviously pinned down behind the counter, but he saw no way of safely reaching him.

“It’s all up with you!” the lieutenant shouted at the balcony. “All up, do you hear?
Up!
”

A heavier-caliber rifle cracked out its first shot above Zondi’s head, taking
NO SALE
out of the till. It would soon get its range.

“Up, up, up!” the lieutenant shouted. “You’ve got no hope left—no hope
left.
Do you understand?”

Zondi saddened at the thought a fine man should be going mad—then got the idea.

“That’s it!
Right
, Da Gama, this is when—”

That bullet brought a cough from the corner.

Then the lieutenant’s voice, a little croakily, began another string of defiant gibberish. “Stop! Stop! I’ll do anything. I’ll go
back
and say nothing.
Stop!
That’s
dead right.
Go on, shoot, you bugger!
Shoot!
You have been authorized.”

So Zondi shot straight upward into the thin floor of the balcony, grouping his bullets carefully, and keeping the ninth just in case it was still needed.

An act of thrift more than anything, as it turned out, because first there was a sharp, bouncing thud from above, and then a dull one.

“God in heaven,” said the lieutenant, staggering across with his brains showing. “Just wait till the colonel hears what you’ve done this time.”

Piet leaned his air rifle against the tree under which Kramer was sitting, and joined him on the grass.

“Tell me again,” he urged.

“Which one?”

“Oh, any.”

Kramer was not really in the mood for stories, and his leg, half encased in plaster, was irritatingly painful. Even after a whole week at Blue Haze.

“Tell me some jokes, then.”

“Hey?”

“The one about Mickey.”

“Zondi? He is a man, and you are a child.”

“All
right
, I
know.
The one when Zondi thought Gama had got you in the head, and you wiped some off and said you were so clever it sometimes came out of your ears.”

“Who told you that?” Kramer snapped. “Your ma?”

“Mickey did, when he came to help us with your suitcases and boxes. He also told me how you made him steer under the gun flashes, and how if you opened the windows then all the smoke would blow out. But aren’t you going to say the joke?”

“
Ach
, man—you know it already.”

“That doesn’t matter.”

“And it isn’t really funny because the dead man got nearly all his head blown off by the one bullet—which is why you must be careful with
that
thing.”

“Tell me again what that
skabenga
did.”

“Hell,” sighed Kramer, and then realized that his means of escape were nil. “The
skabenga’s
name was Ruru and he had once worked with Da Gama in a special sort of police force.”

“Like you and Mi—”

“Uh-huh. So when the terrorists took over in LM they ran away and came to this town, where—no, that’s wrong. First Da Gama came here and bossed an old man into making him his sort of son because the old man—”

“Funchal?”

“Because Funchal was rich and funny, not in the ha-ha sense, and he was afraid of Da Gama. Then Ruru came and worked as a dishwasher in their tearoom. Gama and Ruru planned to kill the old man and then, later on, cheat the whole family out of their shops. Ruru was black, so he could go among the blacks in Peacevale and find men—gangsters—who would help them.”

“Why?”

Piet always asked that question.

“What did I say the last time?”

“Because they were promised a lot of money and could see how clever Ruru was.”

“Now don’t ask it again! Anyway, Ruru and these two, Dubula and Mpeta, made a start by killing shopkeepers in Peacevale.”

“Lucky?”

“That one your ma must have told you!”

Sensibly, Piet said no more and pretended great interest in a ladybird.

“Anyway, they finally come to the day when they think that Ruru is going to rob an expensive—
ach
, a place in town where there’s lots of money, and he tells them all about how rich Mr. Funchal is. They wait in front of the shop, they hear the bang, and they drive off and dump the car. Then they walk back to where Ruru said he would meet them in an old De Soto. Now, they don’t know, but this De Soto is their coffin on wheels!”

“This is the part I like best.”

“Ruru has already hidden the gun—which was just a pistol with no telescopic sights—and the exact same amount of money as Gama will say is missing, under the seat. Then, to make extra sure we won’t go on looking, Ruru also puts a centavos in the tin and has to mix it with ordinary coins so it won’t look too—y’know.”

“Obvious?”

“Uh-huh. Don’t forget, just before the car came outside the—”

“I know that one backwards! Gama went down and emptied the till. Then he called—no, wait. Mr. Funchal was sitting behind his till. Dubula could see this and when there was nobody going into the tearoom, he tooted his hooter.
Then
Gama, who couldn’t see underneath him, knew it was safe to call down and tell Mr. Funchal to look in his till. Mr. Funchal opened the till, saw nothing was inside, and looked up at Gama to ask what was going on. Gama already had him right in his sights where the hairs cross and—”

“Who is telling this story, you or me?” said Kramer, and cuffed his head.

“Ow, you big bully!”

“So there are Dubula and Mpeta driving out into the country where the hairpin bends are—it’s not very far. Ruru tells them to stop and he hands each of them big wads of paper wrapped in rags and says they must count their pay.”

“He is in the back seat!”

“Correct. And as they bend to look at the money—”

“Which is only paper!”

“He does this to their necks.”

Piet got up off his stomach and tried to imitate the action. “Is that true?” he asked. “Would that really kill you?”

“
Ach
, no!” Kramer lied with a laugh, because he’d just seen the Widow Fourie approaching across the garden with two lagers, and this was her child he was corrupting.

“And then?”

“Ruru does what he’s done many times before, and he fakes an accident so nobody will notice. Then he and Gama go and see what the Durban shops are like and—”

“Why didn’t they have a light on in the tearoom when you made a big fool of yourself?”

“Careful, sonny! What do they need with a light when they’re just going to talk and up there on the balcony there are all those windows? A light would have drawn attention to them, and it was their meeting place. You see, Gama was white and.…”

Thank God. Bloody Piet had finally lost interest.

Then the boy looked up and said, “Is that story true. You know, really real?”

“Why ask?”

“Because everyone dies in the end and how—”

“What’s this? More stories?”

“Ja, Mum—the one about the snake.”

The Widow Fourie stopped short.

“Trompie! You’d tell—”

“The one about the snake in the grass, Mum, that’s all.”

“Thank heavens for that,” she said, sitting down and handing Kramer his glass before smiling.

“Was that Zondi just now?”

“Popped in to see how you were—I don’t think he likes Klip Marais much—and to say they’re not going to proceed against Martha.”

“I’ll see you,” said Piet, shouldering his gun and going off to the barn.

Kramer was following the line of a stout branch above his head.

“What’s the matter?” the Widow Fourie asked. “Don’t tell me my favorite tree has now got spitbugs in it?”

“No. I was just thinking: after all that, there would be only one hanging.”

“Peter? Peter Shirley? But I say he’s mental!”

“Huh! The law says he can tell right from wrong.”

The Widow Fourie made a face at him and then drank some of her lager.

“Have you noticed about Piet?” she asked.

“What now?”

“He never calls you Uncle Trompie anymore.”

“Uh-huh?”

“And you know why?”

“Because I’m the landlord?”

“Because I think he loves you.”

“Piet,” said Kramer, getting up by grasping the tree, “is just another sodding snake in the grass.”

O
THER
T
ITLES IN THE
S
OHO
C
RIME
S
ERIES

Quentin Bates

(Iceland)

Frozen Assets

Cheryl Benard

(Pakistan)

Moghul Buffet

James R. Benn

(World War II Europe)

Billy Boyle

The First Wave

Blood Alone

Evil for Evil

Rag & Bone

Cara Black

(Paris, France)

Murder in the Marais

Murder in Belleville

Murder in the Sentier

Murder in the Bastille

Murder in Clichy

Murder in Montmarte

Murder on the Ile Saint-Louis

Murder in the Rue de Paradis

Murder in the Latin Quarter

Murder in the Palais Royale

Murder in Passy

Grace Brophy

(Italy)

The Last Enemy

A Deadly Paradise

Henry Chang

(Chinatown)

Chinatown Beat

Year of the Dog

Red Jade

Colin Cotterill

(Laos)

The Coroner’s Lunch

Thirty-Three Teeth

Disco for the Departed

Anarchy and Old Dogs

Curse of the Pogo Stick

The Merry Misogynist

Love Songs from a Shallow Grave

Garry Disher

(Australia)

The Dragon Man

Kittyhawk Down

Snapshot

Chain of Evidence

Blood Moon

Wyatt

David Downing

(World War II Germany)

Zoo Station

Silesian Station

Stettin Station

Potsdam Station

Leighton Gage

(Brazil)

Blood of the Wicked

Buried Strangers

Dying Gasp

Every Bitter Thing

Michael Genelin

(Slovakia)

Siren of the Waters

Dark Dreams

The Magician’s Accomplice

Requiem for a Gypsy

Adrian Hyland

(Australia)

Moonlight Downs

Gunshot Road

Stan Jones

(Alaska)

White Sky, Black Ice

Shaman Pass

Village of the Ghost Bears

Graeme Kent

(Solomon Islands)

Devil-Devil

Martin Limón

(South Korea)

Jade Lady Burning

Slicky Boys

Buddha’s Money

The Door to Bitterness

The Wandering Ghost

G.I. Bones

Peter Lovesey

(Bath, England)

The Last Detective

The Vault

On the Edge

The Reaper

Rough Cider

The False Inspector Dew

Diamond Dust

Diamond Solitaire

The House Sitter

The Summons

Bloodhounds

Upon a Dark Night

The Circle

The Secret Hangman

The Headhunters

Skeleton Hill

Stagestruck

Jassy Mackenzie

(South Africa)

Random Violence

Stolen Lives

Seich
Matsumoto

(Japan)

Inspector Imanishi Investigates

James McClure

(South Africa)

The Steam Pig

The Caterpillar Cop

The Gooseberry Fool

Snake

Jan Merete Weiss

(Italy)

These Dark Things

Magdalen Nabb

(Italy)

Death of an Englishman