Trackers (57 page)

Joubert didn't respond. The indemnity
was to protect the SAPS in cases where the missing persons report was malicious
or false. Which happened quite often.

'And then he said if Danie hadn't
turned up by the next day, then I must bring a photo, they'll put it up on the
website and they'll see what they can do. But they didn't do anything.'

Joubert looked up from his notepad.
'What type of Audi is it?'

'An A3, a red one. He bought it
second-hand. Here's the registration number ...'

He wrote it down. 'Did they check the
car for fingerprints?'

'No. I took the photo the next day and
asked if I could take the car home, and they said yes. I called once a day,
every day, and went once myself to ask, but they just said, "There's
nothing". How does that work? How can they not care? We pay their
salaries, their job is to help us. But they do nothing. I made fliers and put
them under people's windscreen wipers at the gym. I had to do that, myself.'

'The Audi is at your house now?'

'Yes.'

'Did they get a detective to handle
the case?'

'A week later, yes. He came to my
work and asked me all the things I'd already written on the form and he didn't
listen, he just kept fussing with his fringe all the time. I never heard from
him again.'

There were two possibilities when it
came to missing persons cases. Foul play. Or someone wanted to disappear. For
the loved ones who stay behind, both are equally hard to accept. So Joubert
asked the easy questions first.

Were his wallet and cellphone in the
car? No, they were gone.

Were his bank card and credit card
normally in his wallet? Yes.

Were there any transactions on those
cards after his disappearance?

No, she stopped the cards after three
days.

What was in the sports bag?

Only Danie's gym kit.

Any clothes taken from his wardrobe?

Pain moving shadow-like across her
face. No, she said.

Any of his possessions missing from
the house?

No.

Anything else missing from the Audi?
Not that she was aware of. No sign of the car keys?

No, she had to go and fetch the spare
keys from the house, from Danie's cupboard.

Any strange calls in the week before
the disappearance? No.

Were there any big arguments Danie
might have had with someone during that time?

Not that she knew of. Conflict at
work?

Nothing out of the ordinary. He
worked hard, sometimes there was stress ...

What kind of stress?

There was a strike, last year.
There's always staff stuff. The bus drivers ... Sometimes they don't turn up
for work, sometimes they're late, sometimes they crash into someone. Sometimes
Danie had to fire people.

There wasn't any specific case that
he spoke about more than others?

Danie didn't actually ever bring his
work home. He hid his stress well, he was always so cheerful. So, no, she
couldn't remember him mentioning anything in particular.

And then he said, gently, respectful:
'You must please understand, there are certain questions I have to ask, even if
they're difficult...'

She nodded her
head, but her eyes showed she knew what was coming.

'Were you
happy?'

'We were!' For the first time with
emotion, like someone trying to convince herself. She straightened her
shoulders. 'We had our arguments, but only now and then, like any married
couple. The usual stuff, but we always talked it through. Always. We had a
rule, never go to bed angry.'

'The usual
stuff?'

'You know ... I wanted a new lounge suite,
he wanted a built-in bar area. He wanted to go to cricket at Newlands, I wanted
to go to the movies ...'

'And he never
came home late?'

'With his work he did sometimes. But
then he would call, twice, three times. He was so considerate, always.'

'You said you looked for him at
Cubana and the Sports Pub. Did he often hang out there?'

'Last year ... In July and August I
worked very hard at Undercover, then I would call him and say I was going to be
late, then he would say, "Don't worry, babe, I'll just grab something at
the pub with the boys." Then I would meet up with him there and we'd have
a few drinks together. He never went without telling me. He was the most
considerate person ...'

'He didn't act differently in any way
in the month or two before he vanished?'

'Not at all. Danie is Danie. Always
the same.
I...
All this stuff, I wondered, could
there be something I'd missed? In those first three weeks after he vanished ...
I couldn't sleep, I went through his stuff, through his jacket and trouser
pockets, through his wardrobe, through the bedside cupboard, through his car,
through all the receipts and paperwork and there was nothing, absolutely
nothing.'

'How were your
finances?'

'My business ... We knew that it
would be tough, but we believed that it would make a big difference one day. So
we struggled a bit last year, but we always discussed it, we never, ever argued
about it, he just always said, "We'll get through it, babe, you'll
see". But now ... I don't know how long ABC will keep paying his salary
...'

'Does he have
a computer?'

'He has one at work, at home we
shared my laptop, we shared an email address for personal stuff.'

'Do you have
his cellphone records?'

'I have. There was nothing. His last
call was about quarter past three on die afternoon of the twenty-fifth, to
Hennie Marx, one of our friends. Hennie said it was just Danie calling him back
about plans for the weekend, we wanted to go out for sushi with him and his
wife.'

'Did you list
the cellphone?'

'No. What do
you mean?'

'Did you
report it as stolen or missing at all?'

'No,
I...
Not before I
could find out what happened.'

'That's fine,' he said, reassuring.
'Can you give me the cell number and the IMEI number?'

'The
aye-mee-aye number?'

'International Mobile Equipment
Identity. Every phone has its own, it's usually on the box the phone comes in,
or somewhere in the documentation. Every time a phone registers on the
network, the IMEI is tested to see if the phone is on the grey- or blacklist.'

He saw her look of incomprehension.
'When a phone is stolen, the owner has the choice of putting it on the grey- or
blacklist. The grey- list is when the phone can still be used, so you can plot
it. The blacklist means the phone is cancelled and no one can use it.'

'Oh. What do
you mean "plot"?'

'You can find
out where the phone is, within an eighty-metre range.'

'How?'
Hopeful.

'Through the cellphone provider. If
it's your own phone, you can just request it. If it's someone else's phone, you
need an Article Two-Zero-Five subpoena. There are other options too, freelance
people who can track the phone.'

'Can we do
it?'

'When last did
you ring Danie's cellphone?'

'I call every
day.'

'What happens
when you call it?'

'It just says,
"The number you have dialled is not available.'"

That could mean
one of several things. 'If the phone still has Danie's SIM card in ...' he
said. 'You have to understand, if the phone is off, we can't plot it. But we
can find out if it's still being used.'

'Can we try?'

'If we have the
IMEI number.'

She stood up.
'I'll look for it.'

'Tanya... I have
to tell you, there are extra costs. A court order ... Using the freelance
guys.'

She sat down
again, slowly. 'How much?'

'I'm not sure.
With the police we didn't have to pay for the subpoena. I will have to get you
a quote.'

Her shoulders
sagged again. 'The 30,000,' she said with despair in her voice. 'It's all I
have, Mr Joubert. It's on overdraft, it's all they'd give me.'

'Mat,' he said.
'Everyone calls me Mat.'

She nodded.

'Tanya,' he
said, with all the tenderness he felt towards her, 'you understand, it's three
months already now ...'

'I know.' Her
voice a whisper. 'I just... want... certainty.'

'What is justice
worth to you, Mr Bell? Can you put a price on that?' asked Jack Fischer on the
telephone, with his heavy Afrikaans accent, as he waved at Joubert to come and
sit down.

Joubert looked
at the pictures on Fischer's office wall, landscape oil paintings of the Bosveld
and the Boland. Against the opposite wall was a bookshelf that covered the
whole wall, filled from end to end with thick legal tomes. Which Jack himself
admitted he only displayed for the impression they created. 'Perception, Mat,
everything is perception,' he'd said when Joubert had sat here for the first
time. 'You must understand they've just come from Green Point police station
where it's
total chaos, they're looking for order, they're looking for reassurance,
they're looking for success. And that is what we give them.'

He hadn't changed at all, still the
same old Jack who'd been Joubert's senior at Murder and Robbery, back in the
day. Already a legend, a flamboyant success story. The suits were tailored now,
the lines in the long face deeper, but the self-confidence, the extravagant
verbosity, the emphasis on appearance, were unchanged.

'Of course the police are useless.
That's our bread and butter,' said Jack into the phone. 'Look, you know what
Jack Wells said?'

Clearly the person on the other end
of the line didn't know who this was, because Fischer added: 'You know, Jack
Wells from General Electric ...'

Then: 'That's what I said, Jack
Welch. Anyway, he said, "Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you
wish it to be". The SAPS is our reality. But Jack Fischer and Associates
is part of that reality. It's your chance to get justice, Mr Bell...'

Fischer listened, then rolled his
eyes at Joubert. 'I ask you again, Mr Bell, put a price on justice. What's it
worth? OK. Well, think about it... Thank you, yes, we hope to hear from you
soon.'

He put the phone down. 'Stingy
bastard. The Nigerians stung him for one point four million, but now he says
40,000 is too much to catch them.'

'A four-one-nine?' asked Joubert,
referring to the scam ironically named after Article 4.1.9 of Nigerian fraud
law.

'A clever one. Rang him and said he's
the primary heir of a man with the same name in England ... In any case, how's
it going with our Mrs Vlok?'

'Flint.'

'Fanus says she's paid the deposit.'

'She has. That's why I'm here. Jack,
the woman says that's all she has. We will have to cover other expenses out of
that.'

'Oh.' Disappointed. 'Not ideal...
What kind of expenses are we talking about?'

'I want to plot the cellphone.'

'Has she got the IMEI?'

'She thinks so.'

'Ja ..
.You can ask
Dave Fiedler for a discount, but I doubt it..

'Is he the guy you ... we use?'

Fischer nodded. 'He's here in Sea
Point, usually charges one five for a plot if you can provide the IMEI, but we
are one of his biggest clients, so you can try. Are you going to pull Vlok's
bank statements?'