Dive Pool
An albatross circled overhead. David stood beside the dive pool and watched the bird as it hunted. There was no shortage of yellow tail and other small fish nibbling at scraps of flesh and bits of bone left over from the carnage of the night before. Earlier that morning, he had used a long pole to dislodge pieces of fur trapped in the metal grid at the entrance to the pool.
It was tidal and bordered by rocks on the ocean side and freshly-raked sand on the other. The metal grid was there to stop sharks from coming in and eating people taking scuba lessons. A plunge well, at one end, enabled divers to descend to twenty metres. Warm showers and changing rooms were provided and there was enough equipment to cater for people of all sizes and shapes. David had come across similar pools but none as lavish as this.
He consulted his watch. Other instructors would be using the pool. They had not yet arrived. Nor had any of the dive students. The courses were scheduled for low tide. That was when the depth at the shallow end was suitable for beginners.
David was accustomed to things starting on time. Other standards prevailed at the Flamingo and punctuality was not one of them. He was reminded of the old saying: time and tide wait for no one. Money could evidently override the basic facts of life.
He heard footsteps and peered over the bushes. Something was happening at last. He craned his neck and saw a cheetah padding towards him, followed by a tall woman. He recognised Anna and recalled that Charlie wanted him to spend the night with her.
Anna had a room next to her prudish younger sister, Petra. There was no chance of spending the night with her. That meant he would have to shaft Anna and make sure nothing nasty happened to Petra while he was doing it.
The cheetah bounded over a bush and entered the pool area. Anna walked around the bush and followed it inside. David tried to imagine what lay beneath her flowing robes. He held up a hand.
‘Hi. I’m David. You must be Anna.’
She eyed him up and down. David guessed she was comparing the real him with his photograph. For an awful moment he thought he was going to be rejected. Then she smiled.
‘Where shall I undress?’
‘Do what?’
‘Change into a wetsuit, David. I can’t go into the water like this.’
He pointed to a door. ‘The wetsuits are in there. We’ve got all sizes. Find one that fits and put it on.’
She thrust the lead at him.
‘Take my cheetah. Her name is Constantia.’
David reached out a hand.
‘And don’t rub her up the wrong way. Cheetahs bite.’
David wondered if Anna would bite if he rubbed her up the wrong way. He guessed she would and watched her go into the changing room. Constantia came closer. The old animal seemed to prefer his company to that of her mistress. He stroked her neck and noticed that she didn’t mind which way he rubbed it. She sniffed the air.
‘What’s the matter?’
Constantia’s ears pricked up.
‘Who’s coming?’
David heard male voices and female laughter. He recognised the voices as belonging to Dino and Rambo. They were sharing the pool with him. Their dive students were listed as Carla and Mario.
He followed Constantia’s gaze to the iron gate at the entrance of the enclosure. Shadows appeared beneath it and he made out the shapes of a large animal and three people. Constantia sniffed the air and prepared to bolt.
David hung on to her as the gate opened and a huge dog appeared, followed by Carla. He guessed she intended to upstage her cousin. Carla had acquired a ridgeback. The ferocious-looking animal padded towards them and Constantia backed away.
The breed originated in Zimbabwe when the country was known as Rhodesia. David recalled that the white settlers kept them as guard dogs and they had a reputation as killers. Ridgebacks could rip people to pieces and had been known to chase off lions. Carla had hers on a lead and was struggling to keep it under control. Rambo came to her aid and brought the animal to a halt a few paces from David.
His face lit up when he saw him.
‘It’s Tweety Pie!’
David ignored Rambo. He was far more interested in Carla and she was far more interested in him. Her dark eyes flashed and she looked him up and down. Then she turned her attention to Constantia, who was cowering at his feet.
‘Where’s Anna?’
Constantia hid her face in her paws.
‘Where’s that fucking bitch?’
Carla yelled at the top of her voice. The door of the changing room flew open and Anna appeared. She was dressed in a wetsuit that she had failed to zip up properly in her haste to join the fray. Her breasts hung out and she strode forward, like an Amazon on the warpath, brandishing a weight belt at arm’s length.
‘Get that dog out of here!’
She swung the weight belt over her head.’
‘It’s got no right to be here.’
Carla surged forward.
‘It’s got as much right as your cheetah.’
‘No. It does not.’
‘Why’s that then?’
‘It’s frightening Constantia.’
‘Too bad!’
‘I rescued her when she was a baby.’
‘That’s not what I heard ...’
David decided to stay well clear of the conflict. If Carla’s ridgeback ripped out Constantia’s throat that would be sad but not his fault. In the unlikely event of Constantia biting off the dog’s head he would be equally guiltless.
Constantia nuzzled up to him and the ridgeback prepared to charge. A passive role was no longer possible. Ridgebacks can inflict terrible wounds and those in Africa have a reputation for carrying rabbis. David drew his dive knife and the blade flashed in the sun. Most dive knives are relatively blunt. His was razor-sharp.
Dino urged the dog on.
‘Get Tweety Pie.’
Rambo joined in.
‘Bite his balls off.’
David prepared to slash the dog’s throat. This was the last situation he wanted. He was there to protect Petra and Anna from power-crazy tycoons like Cuthbert Maguire … not from ridgebacks and mindless yobbos like Dino and Rambo.
Suddenly the crisis was over.
‘Call off your dog!’
David said a quiet prayer of thanks for the resort’s security guards. They moved in and the dog shrank back when guns appeared. One of the guards led it away and another took Constantia. David watched as the cheetah was handed over to a man in a smart suit. He recognised Sipho and saw Petra standing behind him.
He had waited days to talk to her. Ideally, they would speak alone. That wasn’t going to happen. Anna had joined her and Petra was anxious to play the role of a peacemaker.
After that, everything went pear shaped. David said they should start the scuba class. Anna said she and Petra had been diving for years and so had Carla and Mario. The scuba lessons were an excuse to have fun and meet interesting people like scuba instructors. She pinched his arm to make the point and Petra went off to talk to Carla.
She returned to say that all misunderstandings had been overcome. Carla had apologised for bringing the ridgeback to the pool and Dino was sorry if some of his jokes had been taken the wrong way. Dino had suggested that they should play water polo and get to know one another better. There was a frightening air of unreality about the whole thing. David hoped he would have a chance to talk to Petra later in the day.
The opportunity came at lunchtime. Anna produced a picnic hamper and they took it down onto the foreshore. Sipho thought that was one of the few places where they could talk and not be spied upon. He said the resort was festooned with bugs. Everyone was spying on everyone else. He had done a sweep of their rooms and removed some listening devices but wouldn’t guarantee that he had got all of them.
They found a sheltered spot amongst some rocks. Sipho sat on a clean towel to protect his smart suit. David squatted on a patch grass and was joined by Anna. Petra sat beside Sipho.
Anna took a bottle of bubbly from the hamper and Sipho reached for a bottle of mineral water. He wanted to talk about Carla. He had already spoken to the sisters about her and made no progress. Neither of them believed that their cousin was seriously planning to kill them. He called on David for support.
‘Tell them what your friends said, David.’
David did his best to explain that his friends spoke Spanish and had listened to the recordings of Carla and her mother discussing the terms of grandfather Simon’s Will. That got the discussion off to a bad start.
Anna wanted to know why she had not been brought into the act. She spoke Spanish. So why hadn’t Sipho gone to her? She could have put him in the picture.
Sipho came up with a weak excuse and that made Anna mad. She threw scorn on everything he said. He didn’t know her cousin. Carla was always shooting her big mouth off. If you believed Carla, you would think she was planning to murder half the people in the resort. The place would be filled with corpses. It was the way the silly bitch spoke and no one in their right mind would take her seriously.