Vortex

CHAPTER 14 Investigations

SEPTEMBER 1 8-JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

Emily van der Heijden didn’t hide her envy as she studied the busy newsroom. By rights, she should have been a part of this noisy, exciting chaos.

The staff of the Johannesburg Star was on final countdown-working frantically to put the afternoon paper’s last edition to bed. Copyboys, harassed reporters, and redfaced, fuming editors threaded their way through a maze of desks, filing cabinets, and overflowing wastepaper baskets. Loud voices, ringing phones, and clattering typewriters and computer keyboards blended in a swelling, discordant clamor.

“Looks almost like the real thing, doesn’t it?” Brian Pakenham said bitterly.

Emily looked up at the tall, gangly, balding young man beside her. When they’d been in classes together, Pakenharn had been widely teased for his naivete and innocent good nature. He’d never shown a trace of the cynicism so necessary to thorough reporting. Four years as a real journalist working under South Africa’s press restrictions had changed him.

“But the Star is a fine paper, Brian.”

Pakenham shook his head.

“Wrong, I’m afraid. It used to be a fine newspaper. Now we’re just cutting and pasting official press releases that are so full of shit I keep wanting to reach for toilet paper after

I skim one.”

He jerked his head toward a dour-faced man conspicuously alone at the far end of the newsroom.

“And there’s the bloody Cerberus who makes sure nothing like the truth leaks into our readers’ minds.”

Emily followed his angry gaze.

“A security agent?”

“Uh-huh. One of your father’s brighter thugs. ” Pakenham saw her hurt look and blushed.

“Hey, Em, I’m sorry about that crack. It wasn’t fair.

I know you’re not to blame for any of this mess.”

She forced a smile.

“Yes. One cannot pick one’s parents, right?”

“Right.” He took her elbow and steered her through the crowded newsroom, dodging coworkers, leering wisecracks, and a handful of pink telephone message slips fluttered at him by his shared secretary.

The noise level fell off dramatically as the newsroom’s clear glass door closed behind them.

Pakenham glanced down at her as he led the way down a long, narrow hall toward a staircase posted with a sign that read EMPLOYEES ONLY.

“I can get you into the morgue, but then I’ve got to get back to work. ” He hesitated.

“Look, Em, is there anything I can do to help? What kind of material are you looking for?”

For an instant, Emily was tempted to tell him. The Johannesburg Star’s morgue, its reference library, was hugea roomful of filing cabinets crammed with yellowing back issues, old photographs, and folders full of clippings from newspapers and magazines around the world. Scouting through it on her own for information about security chief Erik Muller would take hours or even days. And there was always a chance that she’d miss something vital. Getting Pakenham’s help would make the task much easier. But it was also unwise.

Ian was right. The fewer people they involved, the fewer people they put at risk.

“I thank you for your offer, Brian, but there is really nothing very special in what I am doing. Just a bit of historical research… about my family, you see.” She was glad that negotiating the steep staircase made it impossible to look Pakenharn in the eye. She’d never been an especially convincing liar.

“Historical research. Oh, of course.” Obvious disbelief vied with ordinary politeness. He sighed and shrugged.

“Well, I suppose it doesn’t matter very much anyway. I don’t expect to be here much longer.”

Emily came to a dead stop.

“What do you mean, Brian? Are you in some kind of trouble?”

“No special trouble.” Pakenham laughed harshly.

“No more trouble than any other white mate in this country.”

Oh. The Army.

“You’ve been called up?”

He shook his head.

“Not yet. But I will be soon. In fact, with all the casualties, I’m surprised it’s taken them this long to get around to me.”

A thin, humorless smile flitted across his face.

“Vorster and his broeders must be reluctant to see too many damned English rooineks running around with weapons.

“Will you go?”

“Yes.” It was Pakenham’s turn to look away.

“I’m not a hero, Em. I find it easier to face the thought of being an unwilling soldier than to go to one of the special camps as a prisoner.

“

The Star’s morgue occupied a windowless basement room, but powerful fluorescent lamps lit every corner. Scarred and stained worktables and chairs were scattered haphazardly around the room, seemingly moved wherever deemed convenient by the last reporter to use them. Two elderly, grayhaired women circulated through the morgue, carefully refiling clippings and old newspapers.

Pakenham introduced her to the older of the pair.

“Miss Cooke’s our own special genius. She’ll help you find whatever it is that you’re looking for.” He turned to go.

Emily put a hand on his arm.

“Good luck, Brian. I thank you for your help. Be safe.”

Another sardonic half-smile surfaced briefly and then vanished.

“I’ll try my best, Em. I just hope they send me to Namibia and not anywhere else.

I’d much rather shoot at some Cuban than at some poor black or student.

” He straightened to his full height.

“Hey, who knows … maybe I’ll run into your ex-fiance out there. He’s a soldier, isn’t he?”

Emily nodded.

“Yes. Perhaps you will.” It surprised her that even the thought of Henrik Kruger still hurt. Not because of anything he’d done.

Far from it. It was the memory of the anguish she’d caused him that was still painful. He’d been a good man, a kind man-just not the right man.

Not for her.

She watched Pakenham take the steps two at a time until he was out of sight. Then she turned to find the helpful Miss Cooke hovering nearsightedly at her shoulder.

It was time to buckle down to work.

Emily van der Heijden straightened her aching back and rubbed at weary, bloodshot eyes. The low, persistent hum and white glare of the morgue’s fluorescent lights had given her a pounding headache-a headache magnified by the hours spent combing through fading press clippings announcing births, store openings, and church outings. All the humdrum tedium that made news in the rural Transvaal.

So far she’d come up with nothing of any real use. The date of Erik

Muller’s birth, for instance. Something readily obtainable from public records. The fact that he was an only child. Unusual in an Afrikaner farm family, but not unheard of. Or the discovery that Muller’s father had died in a car wreck when Erik was seven. Again, nothing strange there.

Back in the early fifties the northern Transvaal’s roads had been rudimentary at best and accidents were common. At least the military expansion of recent decades had changed that. Now a web of multi lane superhighways crisscrossed the high veld, more superhighways than the rural towns and villages in the region needed. Some cynics suggested they were intended as alternate airstrips for jet fighters in case of war.

Some cynics were probably right.

Emily shook her head in exasperation. Her brain was wandering too far afield. Muller. Erik Muller. He was her target, her mission. She pushed the last yellowing scrap of newspaper aside and leaned backward, straining against the uncomfortable, straight-backed wooden chair.

“Miss van der Heijden?”

She opened her eyes.

Miss Cooke stood in front of her worktable, another pile of clippings clutched in eager hands. The librarian had proved an avid, enthusiastic helper. And one who seemed to possess an infallible, inexhaustible memory.

“I thought you might want to have a look through these. As background material for your project. ” Miss Cooke spread the handful of articles out across the table.

“None of them mentions the Muller boy by name. But they all deal with events in the same town and from around the time he and his mother were still living there. ” Her thin lips pursed in disapproval.

“There seem to have been some most unusual goings-on in that little place.”

Intrigued, Emily sat forward.

“Unusual, Miss Cooke? In what way?”

“See for yourself, Miss van der Heijden.” The librarian tapped the first clipping with a delicate, wrinkled finger.

Emily scanned the story quickly, reading only for the essentials. The details could come later. The minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in

Muller’s hometown had been defrocked for a series of what were referred to only as “shocking misbehaviors.” No specifics were provided.

And that meant the minister’s “misbehaviors” must have involved some kind of sexual misconduct. She felt the beginnings of a smile. Nothing made an old-style Afrikaner retreat into embarrassed silence and sanctimonious circumlocution faster than the barest hint of sex. Especially when it was a member of the clergy who’d gotten tangled up between the sheets.

She checked the month and year. Muller would have been about eleven.. Not much connection there. Still, the experience of seeing his family’s minister, the dominie, drummed out of the church must have made some impression on him.

She jotted a rough note to herself and moved on to the next item.

A murder! Now that was more interesting. A young black boy, Gabriel

Tswane, had been found dead in a field just outside Muller’s hometown.

Again, the details were sketchy, but Emily’s reading between the lines left her fairly convinced that the young man had been beaten to death.

The unbylined reporter hadn’t bothered to hide his own belief that Tswane had been murdered by “black bandits and cattle thieves,” but had also been forced to admit that the “police still had the case under investigation.”

Emily noticed the date. October 22. Less than two weeks after the dominie’s downfall. Was there a connection? If so, what kind of a connection?

She felt her temples pounding again and slid the article on top of her burgeoning pile for further study. Thirty-year-old mysteries and clerical misdeeds might make interesting reading, but they weren’t moving her any closer to uncovering information about Muller’s role-if any-in the Blue

Train massacre.

“Were the articles of any use, Miss van der Heijden?”

Emily looked up into the librarian’s anxious eyes and smiled.

“They were very helpful, Miss Cooke. Very much so.” She glanced at her watch.

“But perhaps we’d best move on to Meneer Muller’s early days in the security services. Have you been able to-” She stopped suddenly.

The thick stack of file folders the librarian plopped onto her desk answered her still-unasked question. Emily stifled a groan, converting it with tremendous difficulty into a simple, quiet sigh.

Who’d ever said a journalist’s life was glamorous?

SEPTEMBER 24-JOHANNESBURG

Shelby’s Olde English Pub wasn’t very old and it certainly wasn’t very

English. Its chrome fittings and hard plastic tables reminded Ian more of a slapdash, drink-on-the-run airport bar back in the States. But at least

Shelby’s had all the elements so essential to a private, conspiratorial meeting: it was dimly lit, smoke filled, noisy, and crowded.

The government’s new limits on the hours during which liquor could be served hadn’t cut South Africa’s alcohol consumption. They’d just forced people to drink their booze faster. A classic example of the law of unintended consequences, Ian thought sourly as he sipped the warm pint of beer in front of him.

He’d come here to play a hunch-a hunch backed by tidbits he’d picked up in an earlier, off-the-record conversation with the U.S. embassy’s CIA station chief.

“Political Counselor” Frank Price hadn’t confirmed his belief that South Africa’s security services had a high-ranking mole inside the ANC, but he had drawn Ian’s attention to an operation that seemed to indicate it just might: the surgically precise SADF commando raid into Zimbabwe back in May.

Although Price hadn’t been willing to say more than that, the mention of the attack on Gawamba had been enough to put Ian on what he hoped was the right track. He’d spent the several days since then arranging this meeting with a man he hoped could take him even further toward the truth.

The bar’s front door swung open, briefly admitting a swirl of fresh, cool evening air along with a new customer. Ian watched through narrowed eyes as the man, self-conscious in an unfamiliar civilian suit, made his way through the tangle of portly businessmen and loud, off-duty soldiers. The newcomer was looking for someone.

Ian waited until the man’s eyes focused on him and then tapped the empty place across the table.

Capt. Michael Henshaw, SADF, slid gingerly into the booth, sweat gleaming on his brow.

“Are we safe here? Were you followed?”

Ian shook his head impatiently. He’d taken a lot of precautions to dodge any kind of a tail-feeling spectacularly silly all the while.

First, Sam Knowles had bundled their driver and suspected informer,

Matthew Sibena, off on an all-day wild-goose chase across Johannesburg.

The two were supposed to be filming a whole new slew of background shots for use as filler in

news broadcasts. Ian only hoped Siberia didn’t know that the network’s files already held more footage of Johannesburg street scenes than could possibly be used in a dozen years.

Once they were gone, Ian had slipped quietly out of the studio and followed a long, roundabout path to the pub one designed to shake loose anybody dogging his footsteps. Sudden changes in direction. Rapid taxi switches.

Even a quick stroll through a department store teeming with lateafternoon shoppers. Hell, he’d used every trick he’d ever read about in espionage thrillers. And all without seeing any sign of anyone trying to follow him.

He signaled toward the bar.

“A beer for my friend here, please. “

Henshaw watched in silence as the white-jacketed barman deposited a tall glass in front of him. Once the man was safely out of earshot, he pushed the glass aside and leaned across the table.

“Well, did you bring it?”

“Yeah.” Ian risked a quick glance around the haze-filled room. Nobody seemed to be watching. He slid an envelope across into Henshaw’s hands and looked away as the South African tore it open and riffled through the stack of crisp bank notes inside. Five hundred pounds’ worth of tax-free British currency. Henshaw was one of those people who wanted to do the right thing, but only at a profit.

Ian frowned. He hated paying for information. Bribing somebody, even to tell the truth, always left him feeling soiled. He forced himself to smile.

“Satisfied?”

The South African officer nodded abruptly and slid the envelope inside his suit coat.

“You may ask your questions, Mr. Sheffield. I will do my best to answer them.”

“Did you get a chance to check the records I mentioned earlier?”

“About the raid on the ANC’s command center in Zimbabwe? Yes.” Henshaw took a cautious sip of his beer.

“It was a classic hit-and-kill op. Very well handled. “

Ian grimaced.

“I didn’t ask you here to grade the damned thing for me. ” He lowered his voice.

“What I want to know is, was there anything out of the ordinary about the raid? Anything that struck you as unusual?”

Henshaw hesitated and took another look around the crowded bar. Then he turned back to Ian.

“There were three things, okay?”

He traced numbers on the table while he talked.

“One, the par as who went in on the assault had a complete readout on the target before they went in.

Enemy strength. Building plans. Everything. It was like they’d been talking to somebody who’d worked there. Right?”

Ian nodded his understanding.

“Okay, two. There weren’t just par as on the op.” Henshaw’s voice dropped even lower.

“I saw the orders for the mission. It listed a special intelligence-gathering unit besides the parachute company. “

Curiouser and curiouser.

“Who’d they work for?”

Henshaw looked even more nervous. He took another pull at his beer, this time a sizable gulp. Then he leaned forward.

“For a man named Erik Muller.

You’ve heard of him? The director of military intelligence?”

Jackpot. Ian nodded again, casually, as though the information were of little importance.

“All right. What else?”

“Something very odd. The brass said this raid was an outstanding success.

Medals galore for the par as involved. A unit citation. The whole works, right?”

I “SoT I

Henshaw shook his head.

“So where were all the captured documents? Nothing came through my section. Not one scrap of paper! “

Ian shrugged.

“Maybe your troops didn’t find anything worth bringing back.”

The South African officer looked annoyed.

“No . no, you don’t understand!

We don’t mount these kinds of commando assaults just to kill guerrillas.

There are easier ways to do that! With bombs, for example.” He shoved his beer aside again.

“The reason you put troops in on the ground is to seize and hold buildings so you can search them for useful intelligence-for documents!”

Ian sat back, beginning to understand Henshaw’s puzzlement. The commando raid on Gawamba had been intended to capture ANC documents. South Africa’s high command

viewed the attack as a stunning success. But nothing Muller’s intelligence boys had found had come back through regular military channels. So what kind of information had they uncovered? And where was it?

He sat motionless for a long while after the South African left the pub.

Muller had played some part in the Blue Train massacre. He was sure of that. Every piece of evidence pointed in the secret-service man’s direction.

So far, so good. But all he had right now was a collection of what could be passed off as pure supposition, malicious rumor, and drunken barroom gossip. Turning any of that hodgepodge into solid, substantial proof was going to be tough-damned tough. Unfortunately, Ian didn’t have the faintest idea of how he was going to go about doing that.