New Image
The blotches had appeared again. Petra rubbed cream into her face and was determined to get rid of them. They showed that she was stressed. Strangers didn’t know that but members of her family did. It was the tragedy of her life. Family should be supportive. Hers were her worst enemies. Tears flooded into her eyes and added to her confusion. She wiped them away with a tissue and saw a movement in the mirror.
‘Oh. Please excuse me …’
She turned and saw Mario.
‘I didn’t know there was anyone here.’
They had exchanged no more than a few words since his arrival. Mario had thanked her for letting him use her study as a bedroom. When she apologised for putting him in such a cramped place he said he often slept in tents. His present accommodation was luxury in comparison.
‘One of my contact lenses has gotten displaced.’
Petra looked puzzled.
‘I need a mirror to locate it.’
She moved aside and watched as Mario stared into her mirror and probed his eye with his finger. Then he covered each eye separately and declared that both lenses were back in position.’
‘I take a mirror when I go camping,’ he explained. ‘I should have packed one this time then I wouldn’t have bothered you.’
‘It was no bother.’
‘But I shouldn’t have barged in like that.’
He looked embarrassed. Petra wondered about his background. Her sister and cousin were fighting over him and it couldn’t be for his sexual allure. Mario was hardly the strong masculine type. Petra had seen some of Anna’s live-in boyfriends. They came in a variety of colours, had bulging muscles and played violent sports. Mario would be pulverised if he went anywhere near them.
He turned to leave.
‘My parents are arriving soon. They are flying in from Buenos Aires. I’ll be going back that way. The route goes right over Antarctica. That will be very exciting.’
‘Your parents are coming?’
‘Yes. But not to here. They’ll take a chopper from the airport. They’re going to the Flamingo. Do you know it?’
‘It’s a big resort. My grandfather used to take us there.’
‘You mean Simon de Villiers?’
‘Yes. We went while he was still alive. My father hates the place. He won’t go anywhere near it.’
‘I don’t blame him,’ Mario dropped his voice. ‘I’ve been to some of the others. They’re all the same. Full of obscene rich kids trying to outsmart one another. That’s how their parents behave.’
‘You would have liked my father,’ tears returned to Petra’s eyes. ‘You sound just like him … that’s the sort of thing he said.’
‘Mario! Mario!’
Petra heard her uncle’s voice.
‘I must go.’ Mario touched her arm. ‘Henry mustn’t see me here. He’s taking me in his chopper. It will be here soon.’
‘Taking you where?’
‘To the Flamingo. We’re all going.’
There was no washing on the lines and the helicopter came and went without causing as much mayhem as before. Petra looked around. The compound had been cleared of its residents but the animals in Richard’s private zoo remained and some were distressed.
She went to calm them and found Sipho inside the enclosure where the cheetah lived. Her father had rescued her from a trap when she was still a cub. The tiny animal’s paw was badly injured and he flew her to Johannesburg so that the wound could be properly treated. She wasn’t strong enough to cope with the dangers of the wild and he brought her to live with them. Anna named her Constantia and claimed her as her own. She was Constantia of Constantia Nek, which was where the de Villiers mansion was situated.
Sipho looked up as Petra entered the enclosure.
‘Those bastards frightened her.’
‘You mean the helicopter?’
‘No. The Columbians set their dogs on her ...’
He spoke in a confused mixture of English and Xhosa. Petra gathered that the dogs charged the fence and almost brought it down.
Petra stuck to English. ‘Did my uncle try to stop them?’
‘He shouted at the guards and they called the dogs off. Carla wanted them to go on. I think that’s what she said. She was speaking Spanish. The young man told her to stop.’
‘You mean Mario?’
‘I think that is his name.’
‘His full name is Mario Mendez-Klein,’ Petra said. ‘His family is one of the richest in South America. Mario is going to join them at the Flamingo. Uncle Henry wants me to go too.’
‘Are you going?’
‘I don’t know,’ Petra shrugged. ‘Richard never went. He hated the Flamingo. I’m representing him so perhaps I shouldn’t go either.’
She reached down and stroked the cheetah.
‘What do you think I should do, Constantia?’
The cheetah licked her hand. That wasn’t much of an omen. There was no easy way to decide. She wasn’t a fairy-tale princess who talked to animals.
Her mind cleared. Richard didn’t go to the Flamingo because he didn’t like the people there. They probably didn’t like him but that was not a reason for staying away. Quite the contrary, it was a good reason for going. She needed to meet the people her father detested and get to know them better.
Charlie adjusted his headset. David watched from the other side of the room. Petra was holding a staff meeting in Richard’s study. She intended to represent her father at the Flamingo and was determined to make a good impression. Her grandfather’s Bentley was to be got out of the garage and sent into town for a total overhaul. None of the old wrecks, currently in service, would be allowed anywhere near the resort. Suitable cars would be hired and staff would be issued with uniforms. No one must dress casually. Petra intended to create a new image.
David smiled when she announced that her cousin, Mr Sipho Maduna, would accompany her as private secretary. He spoke English, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu. He had assisted her father in the operation of the de Villiers Foundation and was an ideal person for such a position.
The meeting ended. The staff left and Petra could be heard talking to Sipho. At one point, he went to the bug that he had planted in the study and spoke directly at it.
‘David. I hope you heard what Petra has just said. We are going to the Flamingo. I shall remove the scrambler from the transmitter and incorporate it in my computer. That way we shall be able to communicate. Most guests at the Flamingo use scramblers so the transmission will not be suspicious …’
He spoke in his slow melodic voice. David waited for him to finish. There was a slight pause followed by a click to say the transmission had ended. He turned triumphantly to Charlie.
‘Now, do you believe me?’
‘Believe what?’
‘That Sipho is for real?’
‘I never doubted he was real.’
‘You doubted he was dinkum.’
‘I did not jump to your hasty conclusions, David.’
‘You should have checked on who was paying his uni fees.’
‘I did and duly discovered that Richard de Villiers was paying for Mr Sipho Maduna to undertake postgraduate studies at the University of Cape Town.’
‘And that wasn’t enough?’
‘No. Your Mr Maduna could have been an imposter.’
‘But, you are convinced now?’
‘Ninety-five percent …’
‘Stop arguing!’ Frank cut in. ‘I’m ninety-nine percent sure and that’s as far as I’m prepared to go on any issue.’
He was perched on a high stool, peering through a window and listening at the same time. The big catamaran had returned and ropes were being thrown down.
Frank turned to David.
‘We had better get you to the Flamingo as soon as possible. They are pestering me for instructors. You can go under any name you like. They won’t ask for a diving licence. They leave that to me. Their standards are rat shit.’
‘Where will I stay?’
‘You will be given a bed in the staff quarters. There’s a security check when you enter the main resort and another when you leave. That way they know who is staying overnight.’
Charlie leant forward. ‘That’s something to consider. Handsome fellows, like you, are in high demand.’
‘Steer well away from the young ones,’ Frank advised. ‘Some parents take extreme offence if their teenage daughter is found in bed with a man. You could join the list of missing persons who have worked at the Flamingo and never been seen or heard of again.’
‘Seriously?’
‘Yes. Seriously.’ Frank’s voice hardened. ‘You will be investigating people who are prepared to bring down an airliner to kill just one man. They won’t hesitate to murder some young guy who has insulted them by fucking their daughter. One of my divemasters was found, washed up on the rocks, with terrible injuries. The resort’s doctors certified his death as accidental. I saw the body and there was nothing accidental about it. He had been tortured to death.’
Frank turned to Charlie.
‘Tell him I’m not exaggerating.’
‘He’s dinkum,’ Charlie said. ‘The Flamingo is a law unto itself. The members are so powerful. No one is prepared to take them on. What they say goes and not just here in South Africa. Confine your attention to older women who haven’t got their partners with them.’
‘Hang on!’ David raised a hand. ‘I came here to track down the bastards who killed Richard de Villiers. I’m not on a sex safari.’
‘You joined this team to collect information,’ Charlie growled. ‘If you are going to do that you need to penetrate the enemy’s inner core.’
‘You mean fuck their women?’
‘It’s the classical way, David. The Russians worked wonders in the Cold War. Their rivals’ secretaries were frustrated, thirty-plus virgins. They sent in men who could add spice to their lives and get a peep at the papers they were typing at work.’
‘You want me to play Mata Hari?’
‘That’s the general idea.’
‘I didn’t come here to be a gigolo.’
‘How else are you going to operate?’ Charlie looked pained. ‘We expect you to stick to well-tried procedures and behave in a professional manner. Life is real and life is serious, David. We are here to do a job and get results.’
All the humour had gone from Charlie’s voice. David suddenly realised that he wasn’t joking. He sounded like the uncle who lectured him on correct behaviour when he was a child. His mother was shocked by her brother’s views on morality and horrified to discover that he was teaching them to her darling boy.
‘You aren’t going to learn anything by giving scuba lessons in a dive pool,’ Charlie flicked his fingers in David’s face. ‘A far more focussed approach is needed. I thought you were determined to find Richard de Villiers’ killers.’
‘Yes, but …’
‘No buts, David.’ Charlie got up. ‘It’s too late to pull out now. You have taken on this assignment and you are committed to seeing it through to the end.’