The Shudder Lingers Read online

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Refreshed from their honeymoon in Mauritius which included a mini electronic sabbatical from her phone, emails and social media, Stacey was excited to be heading back to work. The break had been a tonic for her mind, body and soul, and she smiled as she thought of each magical moment that she had spent with Slade. Back to reality she mused.

  By midday, the peaceful honeymoon was shoved to the back of her mind. She was swamped by emails, client requests, contracts to review, staff who popped in to chat, project updates and phone calls. The only reprieve was the coffee that Emily regularly brought in. She also connected with Lucy and the rhino project team who were located out in the Kruger Park for the next phase of the project. The project feedback was positive, and they were making great progress. It gave her great comfort that despite her having been away for a week, the business was fine and there were no major issues.

  It was late afternoon when her thoughts returned to the shooting at the wedding and the two drones that had been stolen. Her thoughts drifted to Daniella and how she might be involved. As if on cue, she heard the familiar sound of Daniella’s high heels coming down the passage. Following normal Daniella protocol, she pranced in, a smug look all over her face, “So how is the newlywed?” she asked sarcastically. Without waiting for a response, she sat down opposite Stacey, “It is time for a little chat again. I think it is time for you to resign as managing director. You should be enjoying the brief life you have left, instead of wasting it pretending to run a business.”

  Stacey felt the tension rise in her body, but kept her cool, “What is it this time Daniella? Do you honestly believe that you can waltz in here regularly and keep threatening me? I know that I am running a good business, despite your tirades to the contrary. I don’t know what your latest game is, but quite frankly I don’t care. I strongly suggest that you and your henchmen go away and play your games elsewhere.”

  Daniella’s stare drilled right into Stacey, “What do you mean my henchmen? What nonsense did you dream up on your honeymoon?”

  Warning lights flashed before Stacey’s eyes. She realised that she had given away information that would further antagonise Daniella. She floundered for words, only to find Daniella laughing at her. “I knew it. You are being paranoid over some wild figment of your imagination. Clearly, you are not of sound mind. Maybe you should carefully consider stepping down, before your craziness destroys my business.”

  Stacey took a deep breath, prayed in silence, and then boldly stated “Forget it, Daniella. I will never give in to you. I will never let you defeat me.” For the first time ever, Stacey saw just a shadow of doubt in Daniella’s eyes.

  Quickly regaining her composure, Daniella rose in slow motion from the chair, “Time will tell. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure you and Slade have a decent funeral,” she hissed, as she walked out of the office.

  Stacey noticed herself standing, both fists tightly clenched and her jaw locked firmly in defiance. She became aware that she was not scared, but emboldened. She whispered, “Have the past few years hardened me that much?” She felt an adrenalin rush in her veins, realising that she actually relished taking on Daniella. She paced around the office for a few minutes, mulling over her latest interaction with Daniella. She called Gerald, “Hi. How are you? I was just thinking about the shooting and the guy you cuffed at my wedding. Did you get any information on what he was doing there?”

  Gerald replied, “Hi Stacey. Unfortunately, we did not get much out of him. He took a few days to recover from the gunshot wounds. We managed to establish that he is a well-known gangster from the Cape Flats, with a history of violent crime. According to police records he was a small-time drug peddler and has been suspected of previous gang murders. However, before we could properly interrogate him, he escaped. I suspect that someone paid off the police to get him out of custody. So, I don’t really know if he was acting on his own or under instruction. I think the latter, as he was clearly far from the Cape Flats.”

  Stacey took it all in. “So you cannot link him to Daniella?”

  “No, I can’t. I don’t have much to go on” he replied.

  She sighed, “OK thanks Gerald. We’ll chat soon.”

  Stacey was deep in thought when a text message came through. She reached for her phone, but it was an annoying text marketing message. She deleted it and saw the icon for the app on which she was tracking the drones. She opened it and searched through the icons for the drones. The first few reflected them as having last been seen near Satara in the Kruger Park.

  She quickly found the two drones that had been stolen and followed their flight patterns. It showed that the two drones had tracked together following the highway to the southern suburbs. From there the drones had flown direct routes, one to the Cape Flats and the other further south. The patterns then zig-zagged around a bit before returning to the southern suburbs.

  She found this to be intriguing, but the strange patterns made no sense at all. The only observation was that one drone had flown to an area of abject poverty and the other to an extremely affluent area. She made some notes on the flight patterns before closing the app.

  Stacey paced around the office for a few minutes before she had an idea. Prior to her being locked out of the secondary server, she had saved a few files under a secure password. She scoured her laptop files and found the file reflecting the maps with the red circles she had once found when the perlemoen smuggling was at its heights. She jumped up in surprise, as two of the red circles correlated with the areas where the drones had been flying! Excitedly she closed the files, knowing she was onto something but not quite sure what. Again, she paced around her office, trying to make sense of it all.

  Emily interrupted her train of thought, “Hi Stacey. This envelope has just been hand delivered for you.” She placed it on the desk, “Have a good evening.”

  Intrigued by the possible content of the envelope, she walked over to pick it up. She noticed the logo of a law firm who just happened to be in the same office building as WKJD. She tentatively opened the sealed envelope and found a three-page letter. The title of the letter was a claim for damages for assault, and the claim, of one million Rand, was in the name of Jackie Parush. Although her hands were shaking, she burst out laughing, before loudly saying, “Is she mad? This must be a joke.”

  She recalled the shoving incident from a few weeks before, and her stated intent to fire the woman. Daniella had stymied her by drafting an official letter to indicate that Jackie was not fired. The letter had gone as far as apologising to Jackie for an unfortunate misunderstanding, which should never have taken place. Stacey was tempted to storm down the corridor and find Jackie, but she held back, thinking I’ll deal with that tomorrow.

  Slade stuck his head into the doorway, “Are you ready to head home Mrs Kent? I’m cooking dinner.” He smiled and held out his hand. She smiled, grabbed her bag and followed him out. During the short drive, Slade was jabbering away about what a great day it had been. It was only when they arrived home that he realised she had not spoken a word. In a gentle tone he asked, “What’s wrong Stacey? You have not said a word and have a very pensive look about you.”

  It was only when they were inside the apartment, that she responded, “I suppose I just had a lousy day. I honestly thought that after the honeymoon, the first day would have been better.”

  Slade held her closely and hugged her, feeling the tension in her body, “What happened?” he asked gently.

  She sat down on the sofa, while he poured them a glass of wine, “Well two annoying things, firstly another annoying interaction with Daniella and then a legal letter from Jackie claiming damages of one million Rand for assault.”

  Slade jolted at the news, “Why would Jackie lodge a claim for assault?”

  Stacey felt a tinge of suspicion, and thought to herself, why is he reacting over Jackie and not Daniella? Slade was staring expectantly at her, waiting for some form of response. Stacey chided herself internally
, after all it was their second week of marriage and she was second-guessing her husband. She took a gulp of wine and recounted the incident with Jackie and the photo she had taken.

  Slade held her hand and stroked her cheek, “I’m confident that the courts will throw the claim out. However, your constant interactions with Daniella concern me more.”

  Stacey mulled over the statement, “I agree. What I can’t get out of my mind are her ongoing threats about our short lives, implying we are going to be killed off soon.” She felt a shudder running down her back and leaned into Slade’s arms.

  He held her tightly, “To be honest, I am not sleeping well because of Daniella. The ongoing smuggling saga, Simon’s and his son’s death, the threats against you, the shooting at the wedding and now Jackie. I really don’t like it. Don’t you think we should quit WKJD and go somewhere else?”

  Stacey was somewhat surprised by Slade, who had always been strong and not visibly shaken by the various events that had embroiled their lives since they met, but here he was showing signs of surrendering. She had contemplated telling him about the two stolen drones, but somehow she could not get herself to mention it. She looked up at him and kissed him tentatively, “I’m sure we will be just fine. I would like to believe that Daniella is just hot air. I doubt that she would actually follow through on her threats against us.”

  With a smile that was not convincing he got up and headed to the kitchen to rustle up dinner.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Stacey was preparing for work when she received a text message from Gavin Spectre requesting to meet for breakfast. She had last spoken with Gavin at the wedding. She was surprised at the request, because he could easily have just met her at the office. She arrived at the agreed location that doubled as a bakery and coffee shop. While waiting for Gavin, her senses were aroused by the tantalising smell of freshly baked bread and the aroma of freshly-roasted coffee beans.

  She had not noticed Gavin arriving, and was snapped out of the sensory experience, “How are you Stacey? I bet you’re thinking you should come here every day.” She nodded. They exchanged pleasantries before ordering coffee and breakfast.

  Leaning forward, Stacey asked “Besides reminding me to come here more often, what’s going on Gavin? Why did you want to meet?”

  Glancing around cautiously, he leant closer and whispered in a hushed tone, “I’m worried Stacey. I have been observing some strange behaviour from Lizzie of late. I cannot seem to put a finger on it. You will recall how critical she was of my dad’s spending habits, but I see that she is spending lavishly of late, buying fancy clothes, eating in pricey restaurants and socialising as if there is no tomorrow. It does not feel right.”

  Stacey pondered over the comment, “It may well be that she has a lot more money because of Elon, who comes from a family of great wealth.”

  Gavin shook his head and whispered again, “No Stacey, there is something more to it than that. Anyway, maybe after my dad’s death, I might just be overreacting.”

  She replied, “I’ll meet up with her and see what I can gather. Thanks for reaching out to me.”

  He smiled, “Sure. You are like a sister to me. Anyway, better be heading off, we have lots to do on the rhino project.” He rose to leave and shook her hand.

  She watched him leave and contemplated involving him in helping her with the stolen drones. She called after him, but then stopped herself. He turned with an enquiring shrug of the shoulders. “Not to worry. I was thinking about something else.” She broke the eye contact and focused on the credit card machine that was being held out by the waitress.

  As she got into her car, a call came through. She answered, and Gerald’s voice came through on the car speakers, “Hi Stacey. I thought you would like to know that some of my men saw a delivery of more of those stainless steel boxes at the harbour in the early hours of the morning. In addition, some of the containers from the previous perlemoen smuggling were also being offloaded. With the extra manpower that Elon gave us, we were able to actually follow the two black SUVs. One went to Rondebosch in the southern suburbs and the other to an apartment block fairly near to your office. We think that the stainless steel boxes were delivered in Rondebosch.”

  As she absorbed this information, Stacey’s mind was racing to the drone’s flight patterns of late, “Thanks for the update Gerald. Can I ask a favour, please send me the address details of where the SUVs were last seen?”

  Immediately Gerald reacted, “Why Stacey? Please don’t get up to any antics.”

  She cautiously offered, “Relax Gerald, I have had enough close encounters with our unwanted friends. I just wanted to see if there was any correlation to the old maps with red circles we found a while ago when we had the smuggling invoices on our computer. Probably nothing, but I’m just curious.”

  Gerald breathed a deep sigh, “OK. But promise me that you do not go there. I’m just nervous about what you might encounter, especially if you ran into any more of Daniella’s henchmen.”

  “I promise,” she uttered, while keeping her fingers crossed, “I’ll call you if anything comes up.” She hung up and stared out of the car window. Things are getting rather interesting, she thought.

  As she arrived at the office, a message arrived from Gerald with the location details of where the two SUVs had gone. She went to Google maps and checked the addresses against where the drones had travelled to. She whistled softly as she realised the close correlation between the addresses and the drones’ flight patterns.

  She immediately opened the app that tracked her drones, it opened on the history when she had last checked, and she confirmed the location. As she was staring at the screen, the app refreshed itself to the latest information. Stacey stared in disbelief: the drones had made flights from the same address in Rondebosch only a few hours before. It began to dawn on Stacey that there was no coincidence between the arrival of the stainless steel boxes and the drone flights from the same location. She had a strong conviction that the drones might well have been used to carry drugs.

  She felt her chest close in, as the impact of the knowledge suddenly weighed her down. She felt giddy and headed for the elevator, needing fresh air. She walked down the road at a brisk pace, and only after fifteen minutes had passed, did she feel the pressure on her chest subside. Her mind furiously tossed the information from side to side, unable to decide what to do with it. She found herself walking and talking to herself, “Who do I trust with this?”

  As she passed a coffee shop, her attention was drawn inside. The unmistakable sight of Daniella and Lizzie having coffee together hit her like a ton of bricks. She was tempted to walk past again and confirm it but dared not risk being seen. Once again, she felt her chest closing in, an almost crushing pain hitting her chest. She held onto a lamp post for a few moments to steady herself.

  As if expecting someone to jump out and grab hold of her, she spun around several times, but there was nobody. Breathing hard, she headed across the street, and found a bus shelter. She stood behind the bus shelter and stared back at the coffee shop, waiting to see if perhaps they would come out. She did not have to wait long before Daniella and Lizzie appeared, flanked by two bodyguards, dressed as some of the previous henchmen had been. Stacey could not believe what she was seeing, and her mind was now scrambled, unable to cohesively connect any of the data points. She peered around the corner of the bus shelter again, but they had gone.

  Slowly she started ambling back in the direction of her office, but she had gone no further than two blocks when she sensed someone approaching her from behind. She increased her pace, only to hear that someone start running. She prepared herself to start running, before uneasily glancing over her shoulder, and to her surprise saw Lizzie.

  As they made eye contact, Lizzie called out abruptly, “Stacey! Stop!” Stacey stopped and stared wide-eyed at Lizzie, who responded, “My word Stacey, what is wrong with you? You look like you have seen a ghost. Are you OK?”

  Stacey
realised how silly she must have appeared. Feebly she uttered, “I’m so sorry Lizzie, I sensed someone approaching me, and I stupidly thought in my mind I was going to be mugged. I feel so silly.” She feigned a smile, “How are you?”

  Lizzie shifted her stance, “I’m great thanks. What are you doing in this part of town?”

  Having regained her composure, she replied, “Oh, just taking a walk, trying to figure out a solution to a commercial issue at work. I do my best thinking when I take a walk. How about you?”

  Lizzie squirmed ever so slightly, “I just had to meet someone for Elon. Anyway, I must run. We should arrange dinner for the four of us before Elon heads back overseas. I’ll check and perhaps we can meet up this weekend?”

  Stacey nodded, “Sounds great, we have no plans. I’ll call you on Friday for details.” She stared as Lizzie walked off, while her mind replayed the comment about meeting someone for Elon. Why would Lizzie meet Daniella on behalf of Elon? Was Lizzie lying? If it was not for Elon, what on earth was Lizzie doing meeting with Daniella? Why the bodyguards?

  Walking back slowly to the office, she had way more questions than logical explanations. If ever she was confused about what was going on, now was the time. She stared heavenwards, silently praying for wisdom. The last two days had taken an extraordinary emotional toll on herself, and as she approached her offices, she whispered, “Who can I really trust?”

  As she exited the elevator, she bumped into Daniella, who stared at her, “Slacking off again I see. I hope you were out finding a new job.” Without allowing for a response, she sauntered off, letting out her usual eerie laugh.

  Stacey rubbed her head; a major migraine had taken hold. She headed home, as there was no way that she was going to focus on work for the remainder of the afternoon.

  By the time Slade arrived home, she was feeling better and had cooked dinner. He seemed to be full of the joy of life, kissing her on the cheek, “How are you feeling?”