The Shudder Lingers Read online

  Stacey just frowned. “More seriously, what scares me is that we walked in and did not even see the two henchmen.”

  Stacey cautiously glanced around the room, half expecting another henchman to come at them. Satisfied that no one was approaching, she whispered, “What struck me is that we have found a serious weak spot in her.” After Slade settled the coffee bill, they headed to the car and called Gerald.

  Gerald replied immediately, “Hi guys. We have success. Gavin and Sipho managed to briefly land the drone and intercept the package. Magriet and I are trying to follow the drone to its destination. We will rendezvous back at my office in two hours.”

  Slade looked across to Stacey, “Well done. It seems as if your master mind plan is working.”

  “We have a long way to go, but every little victory is getting us closer.”

  They all arrived together at Gerald’s office at the appointed time. Gerald pulled out a bottle of whisky, pouring a glass for each, “I can’t help but have a small celebratory drink.”

  Gavin spoke first, “Well Sipho and I were waiting in an open field not too far away from the Rondebosch house. As soon as we saw the drone move, we activated the program we had developed. Thank goodness we had tested it first on another drone. Anyway, it turned out to be really easy in the end. We landed the drone, detached the package and then flew it up again. One click of a mouse, and the drone resumed its original flight pattern. I don’t think anyone would be any the wiser.” With that Sipho proudly placed the small canister on the table. Everyone stared in silence at the canister, which was closed with a four-digit lock.

  Magriet then picked up the feedback, “Gerald and I then tried following the drone flight path. Obviously it was hugely challenging, as the drone flight path was straight, and we had to follow conventional roads and highways. At least we had a reasonably accurate final destination of the drone. We arrived well after the drone had left the scene and there was no trace of any thugs in the park where the drone should have landed.”

  Stacey’s shoulders dropped slightly, “That’s a pity.”

  Gerald laughed loudly, “Not really Stacey. What we did see was Daniella leaving the park with the two henchmen. Confirmation that she is at the centre of the whole thing.”

  Slade noted, “Well that explains her outburst at the coffee shop. She was annoyed at losing the package. So, Gerald, what next?”

  Gerald replied, “My guess is that the Rondebosch home will be very active for the next day or so as Daniella tries to find the mole. Now that we have evidence, I will arrange for a police raid on Tuesday. We don’t yet have enough on Daniella to make any arrest watertight. We will need to hatch a new plan to lure and catch her. Right now, I don’t know how, but given our collective brains, we will find a way.” With that he raised his whisky glass and took a sip, closing his eyes to savour the moment.

  Stacey was the least enthused of all of them, “I just hope that Daniella does not make any connection between the drones and us meeting her for coffee. I would hate to be in the cross-hairs of her criminal gang.” Her statement soured the celebration, as they all reflected on the harsh reality of what they were up against.

  She reached for her phone and sent Daniella a text, “Just to let you know, I have not heard anything further from Lizzie or her kidnappers.” She got no response.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  On Tuesday morning, news came through from Gerald on the police raid in Rondebosch. The raid had been unsuccessful, as the criminals had clearly been spooked by the loss of the package. The police found only one man in the house, who was defiant at being targeted by a police raid. According to the information Gerald got, there was evidence of the home being occupied by several people, but on the day of the raid, it was largely vacated.

  Gerald confided in Stacey, “I think someone in the police tipped off the criminals. We had them cornered. I need to figure out who is on the inside. One of my new team members is shadowing Inspector Jonas. He has to be the link and have someone else working with him. Maybe he will lead us to more answers.”

  Elon flew into Cape Town on Tuesday morning. Stacey had agreed to collect him from the airport and take him to visit Lizzie. On the short drive from the airport Stacey updated him on the latest events and the drone sting operation.

  They parked at the medical centre, before heading inside and were shown to the visitor’s room. Lizzie was shown in a few minutes later. As far as Stacey was concerned Lizzie was looking a lot better, but she could see the look of shock on Elon’s face. Stacey quickly jumped in, “Hi Lizzie. You are looking great.” She moved forward and gave Lizzie a big hug.

  By now Elon had recovered from seeing her and pulled her close to give her a long embrace, “My dear Lizzie. I have truly missed you.” The two of them held on, not wanting the moment to pass.

  Eventually Lizzie replied, “I have missed you too, Elon. Please promise me that you will stay with me.” Elon nodded in agreement. She then turned to Stacey, “Thank you my friend. I was angry when you left me here the other day. After four days however, I began to realise what you had done for me. Please forgive me and I apologise for letting you down.”

  Stacey felt relieved that she was on the mend, “No problem Lizzie. I’m sure you would have done the same for me.” They hugged each other again. Stacey excused herself, “I’ll leave the two of you alone. I’m sure you have lots to catch up on.”

  While she waited for Elon, she took a slow stroll around the secure garden. At first she was drawn by the tranquillity of the gardens and the birds singing in the trees, and then she became aware of the patients around her. Almost without exception, each carried a sad or anxious look, an external view of the internal battle each was going through. A certain peace came over her, as she realised that part of her greater purpose was to keep fighting, so that maybe one day, this facility would have no patients. She saw a girl, probably in her late teens sitting on a bench, crying softly. She was drawn to her and sat down next to her. She looked at her, and gently said, “Everything will be OK.”

  The young girl looked up, her eyes showing just a hint of a sparkle, “Thank you. I hope so.”

  Elon was approaching and watched the girl shuffle off, “Do you know her?” Stacey shook her head. Elon looked intently at her, “When I sat with Lizzie now, I made a commitment to stay in South Africa and fight this drug curse. I’m with you on this Stacey.”

  She stood up and met his eyes, “Thanks so much, Elon.” A meeting reminder popped up on her phone, “Oh my goodness. I am going to be late for the shareholders’ meeting. Best we get going.”

  They drove in silence, each absorbed in their own thoughts. She dropped Elon at the apartment which he always rented and drove speedily to the office.

  She rushed into the boardroom to find only Clyde and Gavin present. Clyde looked up in surprise, “You are late, but as it turns out, so are Daniella and Cheung.”

  Stacey replied, “Now that you mention it, Daniella has not been seen all week.”

  Clyde replied, “Well, I guess that shelves her attempt to have the shares transferred to her name. Maybe she came to her senses. I guess it saves me a difficult meeting. By the way Stacey, I did a quick review of the latest numbers you sent me. Well done, the business and cash position are looking great. I’m glad I stayed invested, and more importantly that I backed you.”

  “Thanks Clyde. As always, I appreciate your support.”

  She was grateful that another potentially volatile situation with Daniella was averted, even if only temporarily. She took advantage of the cancelled meeting and walked around the office, connecting with staff. As she was walking through the open-plan office, she noticed Slade beckoning her from the far end. She followed him to the pause area, “What’s up?”

  Slade stood with his arms folded, “I’m rather annoyed. Our top young drone engineer has not come into work since Tuesday. I thought he might have been ill. He called me a few minutes ago, saying that he had been made an amazing jo
b offer, and that he had already started today. He did not even work his notice month. Not even a damn apology.”

  Stacey paced around the small pause area, “I am going to hazard a guess. I think he might just have been employed by someone who has recently had their drone hacked and lost a small package.”

  Slade shook his head in disbelief, “You are probably right. Why else would he leave us? We are becoming a favoured employer in Cape Town because of the cool projects. I just hope he is not in trouble with drugs.”

  She replied, “Nope, I think Daniella needed someone to protect the drones and her delivery system.”

  Slade pondered for a moment, “I have a bad feeling about this. Please do me a favour and check your drone-tracking app.”

  Stacey pulled out her phone and opened the app. She found the drones in the Kruger and then looked up in dismay, “Your hunch was correct. They have found the RFID tags and removed them. The two stolen drones are no longer sending us a signal.”

  He through back his head, “Damn, that is a setback for us.”

  Her thoughts were racing, “Have you told any of your team about the RFID tags?”

  “No” he replied, “I even swore Gavin to secrecy when we took him on Operation D.”

  Stacey rubbed her eyes. “Then I guess we may not only have underestimated Daniella; we may have stirred a hornet’s nest.”

  Slade nodded, “Yip. I will give Gavin a heads-up. Please will you let Gerald know?”

  She nodded. “By the way, have you seen Cheung around? I know he took some leave to go visit family in Asia. I thought he would have been back by now.”

  She replied, “No, I have not seen him. He was due back last week. I’ll follow up. And how is Jackie doing?”

  Making light of the situation, he teased, “Not jealous again are you?” The chirp was met with a vicious look. “Just kidding. She has been somewhat subdued since the two of you had a fallout and she has been keeping a low profile.”

  Stacey murmured, “Interesting. If she is subdued, then it means she is up to no good.”

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Stacey and Slade had agreed to a night out at the movies, to be followed by dinner. It was to be a welcome distraction from the constant churning and stress related to Daniella. The movie turned out to be super boring, not living up to the expectation created by the billboard outside. Stacey checked her mobile phone and saw three missed calls from Gerald and a text message to come to their offices as soon as possible. She showed Slade the message and they agreed to leave.

  Once they were outside, he said, “Three missed calls and them still at the office at this time of night, it must be something big.” No reply was forthcoming.

  Gerald opened for them and ushered them into his office. Magriet was sitting at his desk staring at the computer screen. He waved them to sit down.

  Stacey said impatiently, “OK. You dragged us out of a movie. What have you found?”

  Magriet whistled softly, before turning the computer screen so that they could all see it, “This is big, but at the same time dangerous.” She looked at Stacey and Slade for a few moments, so that the importance of her statement could sink in. Stacey tapped the desk impatiently.

  Magriet continued, “When I joined Gerald’s team, I took over the laptop that Simon was using. Earlier this evening, I found this video.” She opened the video file and sat back in her chair, arms folded.

  The video started to play, and at first the camera was pointed at a ceiling and there was a lot of background noise. Then a door could be heard closing and the noise dissipated. The video angle then changed and showed a pale and very scared Simon. He cleared his throat and started a statement, “I have prepared this video, primarily because I fear for my life. If you are watching this, then I am probably dead.” He sniffed loudly before continuing, “I hereby admit to the contract killing of Kirsten Spectre. However, I need you to know that the killing was ordered by Daniella Arundel. I reluctantly agreed to the killing to spare the lives of my family and erase my son’s debt to Daniella’s drug lords. I also want you to know that the manner of Kirsten’s killing, the hiding of her body in the void and the plastic bag, were all at the instruction of Daniella Arundel. Finally, I want to say sorry to my family and the Spectre family. I am not proud of what I did. Please forgive me.”

  Stacey stood up slowly and stared at the computer screen, “Wow, wow, wow.”

  Magriet repeated herself, “Like I said this is big.”

  Slade whistled. “That’s a bit of an understatement. Gerald, we have to get this to the police right away.”

  Gerald raised his hands, “Not so fast. If we give this to the police, it will just get squashed. I have no doubt that Daniella’s network is far larger than we can imagine. Magriet and I have another idea. We are going to release a copy of the video simultaneously to the local television networks and various social media platforms. Sipho is busy working on how to release the video without having any links back to us.”

  Stacey stated, “Well, if it is attention you want, I have no doubt you will get it. When will you release the video?”

  Gerald replied, “In a few days. I have my team working on how we can expose many of her henchmen at the same time. Not easy, but let’s see. I also want to ensure that every police station in Cape Town also gets a copy. She can’t possibly have them all under her control.”

  Slade responded, “Nothing surprises me anymore. Is there anything you want us to do?”

  Gerald replied, “No. I suggest you lay low and steer clear of Daniella. This could get ugly. I don’t want her to link the release of the video back to you.”

  Stacey replied, “I can live with that. I certainly don’t want to be around when the tigress explodes, although I would love to see her face when the video comes out.”

  The next day or two passed painstakingly slowly, as they waited for the final moment of the video release. Stacey was becoming more anxious, to the point where she said to Slade, “I have a bad feeling about this video. Do you think we should ask Gerald to stop it?”

  Slade paused to reflect on her question, “I think it should go ahead. If we continue to place her under pressure, eventually she will crack and make a serious mistake.”

  “I hope you are right.”

  Slade was on his phone checking the latest news, when he jumped up, “Oh my goodness, the video has been released, and it’s all over the media!” Even though they had both seen the video clip, they watched it with captivated fascination. He continued, “Now the sparks should fly. I guess we should delay going into the office for a few hours.”

  Stacey nodded, but she had a constant feeling of uneasiness. They sat in silence for a while, before refreshing their coffee, unable to find anything to say. Probably an hour passed, when they both received a text from Magriet, “Switch on the local news.”

  Slade jumped up, fumbling with the remote in his haste. Eventually he landed on the local news channel, where the video was playing, and again they watched the video, as if for the first time. As the clip ended, a news reporter came on and to their surprise was standing alongside Daniella. The news reporter stated in a stern voice, “Well folks, many of you have seen the rather startling video that surfaced today, showing the admission by an investigator called Simon, who coincidentally died several weeks ago. In the video, he accuses a successful local businesswoman of the murder. Well, I have Daniella Arundel here with me today.” He turned to Daniella, and asked, “I’m sure that you are as shocked as the rest of us were by the release of this video. What is your comment?”

  The camera turned squarely onto Daniella, the anger in her face clearly visible, “I just want to publicly state that the video is an utter lie. It is clearly fake news, made up by someone who has a very sick mind. I was never involved in the death of Kirsten Spectre. After all we were close friends. Rest assured, I will seek police help to go after the mindless creators of this video. If you created the video, and you are watching this televisio
n broadcast, be warned, I will find you and ensure that justice is served. I will do everything in my power to clear my name.”

  The news reporter took a small step backwards, “Well there you have it folks, stern words from the victim, and also a tough message to those who keep themselves busy with fake news.”

  Slade was thumping his fist into the palm of his hand, “I can’t believe that she can stand there lying and probably get away with it. As for the victim, what garbage.”

  Stacey gave a wry smile, “I can believe it. She never ceases to surprise us. This uneasy feeling that I have had all week is that she would pull some rabbit out of the hat. It would appear as if she has. We need to stop focusing on being one step ahead and focus on being three or four steps ahead.” She picked up their coffee cups, “I guess we better be heading off to work.”

  Slade nodded, “Quite a setback week for us with the loss of the drone tracking, the engineer defecting and then supposed evidence being so easily crushed. Are you sure we should not give up?”

  As the image of the young girl at the rehab centre flashed before Stacey’s eyes, she loudly replied, “Never.”

  As they were driving in to work, she received a text message from Daniella, “I hope you and Slade are not behind that little video prank. If I find out that you are involved all hell breaks loose.” Stacey felt agitated with the audacity of the message. In moments like this, she wished that she was living some other life.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Needing quality thinking time, Stacey blocked out time in her diary, and left the office without telling anyone. She headed out of the city and headed to Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, where she bought a coffee and a sandwich and started meandering through the gardens. She spent the first hour just absorbing the beauty and the colourful bird life. She started to have a strange feeling that someone was following her but could not see anyone. She found a park bench in the shade that had spectacular views and allowed herself to meditate and think through some of the strategic issues for the business. She also assessed how she could minimise the impact of Daniella and her thugs on herself and her marriage. She reflected on Slade and what a wonderful support base he had been. After several hours she had cleared her mind and was focused in terms of the way forward. Feeling energised she walked briskly back to her car. If anyone had been following her, they were nowhere to be seen.