The Wall

50

“Are we on the air? Skype is amazing. Hello? Ah… now! All right… I’ll start since I know the two of you. Inspector Pokwana in Beacon Bay and Warren Kramer in… Ah yes, you’re both in Beacon Bay. Neighbors, practically. So Inspector Pokwana is the police contact officer for the Neighborhood Community Watch in Dorchester Heights. Hello…”

“Hello!”

“And Warren is responsible for the security of the gated communities managed by Meyer Investment. Hi, Warren.”

“Stevie, hi.”

“That’s six of them, right, Warren? Gated Communities. Man, it’s warm today…”

“Exactly. Six. Yes, here in the office it’s unbearable.”

“Okay. So we all know what’s happened. A dangerous individual is on the loose in The Pines. A young man. Broke in and stole numerous items of value. Tried to rape a, uh, woman. Hurt one of our colleagues, who’s now on his way to the hospital with bruised balls, as I’ve been told. Dad is on site and has everything under control. But we still don’t have the guy.”

“I’ve sent around the photo taken from the cctv footage. Did you get it?”

“Hm!” Warren.

“Yes.” Pokwana.

“Recognize him?”

“Never seen him,” Pokwana said.

“Me, neither.” Stevie van Lange paused. “We have a ton of people in The Pines, and I think we’ll catch him soon. However, in my opinion… if he puts up a fight, it could get quite dicey. And we don’t know if he’s armed. So we thought—Dad’s idea—that we could maybe temporarily shut down the access roads.”

“Absolutely not,” Pokwana interjected. “The neighborhood’s too large. How would you manage that? Too many people live there.”

“I was thinking we could help each other out. People will soon be coming home from work.”

“We’ll send a third car over. We really can’t swing more than that. And if he really is all that dangerous, then my people will be needed inside the neighborhood, not at the gate. Besides, that’ll be hard enough as it is. We can’t stop people who live half a kilometer away from where we’re searching for the suspect from getting home.”

“Do we know where he is?” van Lange asked.

“Can’t you just suggest it to people?” Kramer.

“Suggest what?” Pokwana.

“That they wait outside until we have him.”

“Uh-huh. We could.” Pokwana. “We could try.”

“So we’ll post a few people at the entrance and… what?” That was van Lange. “It’s best to stay outside, otherwise… I think I’ll just drive over there myself. What time is it? Ten past two. I can get there in fifteen minutes. Warren, what about you?”

“I’ll join you.”

“And you, Inspector Pokwana?”

“Let me first talk to my people. I mean… a single fellow. That can’t be all that hard.”