The Shudder Lingers Read online

  Arriving back at the office she was met with the sight of several people milling around in the passages and in the pause areas. She found Lucy and asked what was happening. Lucy replied, “Some virus has attacked our systems. Cheung is busy running tests on our servers. I’m not sure what it was, as my machine seemed fine.”

  Sensing an ulterior purpose, she briskly headed for the IT office, where she found Cheung, Daniella and two unknown people. Her trusted IT technician and administrator were nowhere to be seen. She stood with hands on her hips, “Cheung, what is going on here?”

  Without waiting for a response, she walked over to the screens that the two strangers were working on. She could see that they were searching for videos, and immediately made the connection. Daniella suspected that the Simon video had emanated from WKJD. She turned to Daniella, “You really are pathetic. All we are trying to do is run a decent business, and here you are playing Sherlock Holmes, because someone released Simon’s video.” She stared intently at Daniella, leaving an awkward silence, “I saw your television interview, denying any involvement with Simon’s video, calling it a prank. The fact that you are searching our servers for the source of the video tells me you are guilty. I hope you get what you deserve.”

  Daniella was taken aback by the direct confrontation in front of others, and battled to find an adequate rebuttal. She lamely said, “I’m just trying to protect and clear my name.”

  Stacey walked up to her and stopped less than two feet away. “As I said you really are pathetic. Just remember one thing, evil people never win in the long run.”

  Although Daniella was blushing she leant in close to Stacey and whispered, “We’ll see about that. If it is the last thing I do, I will wipe you out. That’s a promise.”

  Stacey knew the threat was real, but disengaged by turning to the two technicians, “As the real boss of this business, I consider you to be trespassing. You have exactly one minute to leave these premises or face being kicked out.” Having witnessed the intense interactions, they needed no second invitation, and left in a hurry, with Daniella sauntering after them.

  Doing his best to avoid eye contact, Cheung said defensively, “I was only following instructions.”

  Stacey moved closer to Cheung, “Well let’s get something straight, you will only follow my instructions. If you are not careful, your girlfriend will get you into trouble, just like she did with your father.”

  Cheung recoiled at the mention of his father and was about to reply when he looked into Stacey’s eyes. He saw a steely determination that frightened him, and he slowly backed away and left the room.

  Pausing to reflect on the last few minutes, Stacey realised that she was not shaking or feeling any adrenalin. She knew that her resolve was growing, and that slowly she was gaining the psychological upper hand in these small encounters.

  Slade walked in, “Are you OK?”

  She calmly nodded, “Of course. Today I decided that Daniella will never get under my skin again. I am going to take her on with everything I have.” She saw the panic in his eyes, “But rest assured Slade, I will do nothing stupid.” She kissed him and left the room.

  Stacey headed back to her office and opened her laptop. Earlier, when she was in the Botanical Gardens, the previous name of WKJD kept playing in her mind. She entered ‘Backstop Consulting’ into the search engine, and a few items came up, but nothing of real relevance. Wilson’s name came up once or twice, but it was fairly innocuous. She went onto the WKJD servers and entered the company name again. To her surprise she found a folder named Backstop, but it was password-protected. She tried to enter the old password that she knew they often used. The password was rejected. As she gazed at the screen it started flashing red, with a warning sign, Trespasser. She tried the escape button, but it would not go away. Not wanting to be caught she turned the laptop off and rebooted.

  She knew there was something there, but needed to find another way to get in. She asked Emily to call Gavin. When he arrived she briefly explained what had happened and asked him to see if he could hack the system.

  It was well after six when Slade knocked on the door, asking if she was ready to head home. She asked, “Has everyone left for the day?”

  He nodded, “Yes, I only saw Gavin. He said he was working on some research.”

  She replied, “Do me a favour, please stand guard by the elevators, I want to check Daniella’s office.” Receiving a raised eyebrow, she said, “I’ll only be a few minutes.”

  She went in and headed for the locked cabinet. She was aware that the cabinets often had the same key, she tried the one from her office and was surprised to see that it actually opened the cabinet. She quickly went through the cabinet, but nothing caught her attention. It was only when she got to the bottom drawer that she found a folder with copies of signed leases. There were four leases, one for the Rondebosch property, one for the apartment and two others. She took out her phone and photographed the key pages and addresses. She replaced the folder. Finding nothing else of interest, she closed and locked the filing cabinet before heading out.

  Slade had been waiting anxiously at the elevator and was relieved to see her.

  She pointed at the elevator with her eyes and he asked no questions. Only once they were in the car did she say anything, “I did find something, leases to four properties including the apartment and the Rondebosch house. Most interesting though is that all the leases are signed in the name of Backstop Consulting. It seems as if Daniella has resurrected the old name for her shady dealings.”

  Slade asked, “So what are you planning to do with the information?”

  She replied, “I’ll give it to Gerald to follow up and check out the other two addresses.” She sent him a text and the photos of the four leases.

  Stacey and Slade were side-by-side in the kitchen preparing dinner, when he piped up, “Stacey, I’m worried about you. Over the last few days you have often stated or implied your determination to keep fighting against Daniella. I know what we are up against and given her connections and thugs, if she snaps it will mean nothing for one of her henchmen to take you out. I just don’t want to lose you.”

  She put her arms around his neck and kissed him, “Thank you for caring Slade. I promise that I will be cautious. I spent some time thinking about it all today, and realised that from time to time Daniella makes basic mistakes. At some point she will trip herself up, giving us the opportunity to end it all. I just know that my energy comes from doing what is right, hers doesn’t.”

  He smiled, “Now I know why I married you. You are a very strong woman. I pray that this works out well for the two of us.”

  “Me too.”

  While they were sitting down to enjoy their meal, she received a text response from Gerald, “Interesting people at the other two addresses. I have my people on it. Will keep you posted.”

  She showed Slade the text, to which he responded, “Once again, your instinct was right.” He raised his glass and offered a silent toast.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  The sun was streaming through the small cracks in the blinds, and a ray of light caught Stacey in the eye. She glanced at her watch and was surprised to see that it was almost midday. She turned to see Slade also fast asleep. That’s odd she thought, neither of us are late sleepers. She strolled through to the kitchen to make some coffee, rubbing her eyes. She was almost in the kitchen when she stopped dead in her tracks. One of the chairs was placed in the middle of the dining room table. She recalled the same happening several months earlier.

  She screamed to alert Slade, and he came stumbling through, “What is it?” She pointed at the chair on the table, to which he replied, “It’s just a chair on the table. Why are you screaming?”

  “Did you put it there?”

  “No” he replied.

  She felt a shudder running down her back, “Slade that’s the second time. Someone has been inside our apartment while we were sleeping.” She went to the door, but it was firmly
locked. “This is really strange.”

  Slade was walking around the room, “It looks as if my iPad is also gone. I left it here last night to charge, now it’s gone.”

  She said, “Please can we get the locks changed. Someone must have a key.” He nodded in agreement.

  While they were standing there puzzled by the chair and theft, there was a knock at the door. Slade opened and found Magriet at the door, “Morning, please come in.”

  Magriet entered, greeted Stacey and asked Slade, “Don’t you guys check your phones? I tried calling several times this morning.”

  Apologetically Stacey replied, “Sorry Magriet, for some reason we overslept and did not check phones. We are just reflecting on the strange theft of Slade’s iPad and this chair on top of the table when we woke up.”

  Magriet stared at the chair, “Odd, that. But hang on, I have seen this somewhere before. I’ll wrack my brains on it. Anyway, that’s not why I’m here. Gerald has sent me, we need your help today. Can you join us at the offices in about an hour?” They both nodded, “Great, see you shortly.”

  They arrived at Gerald’s offices to find a buzz of activity and the excitement from the extended team was palpable. Gavin smiled broadly at them before diverting his attention back to his laptop. Gerald greeted them, “Afternoon. I’m glad you finally decided to wake up.”

  Ignoring the jibe, Slade commented, “This is a hive of activity. What’s happening?”

  Gerald stopped to sip at his coffee, “We checked out the addresses you sent last night, and it seems like there has been quite a bit of activity at each address. We staked them out last night, took a few photos and have found matches to several well-known gangsters and drug pushers. Last night Sipho suggested we send up a miniature drone with a camera on and fly over the premises. Although the footage was grainy, we could see several armed men patrolling one of the addresses. We suspect that the remaining drugs are being kept there. One of the images shows a woman inside, and she bears a close resemblance to Daniella.”

  “Wow, that’s fascinating,” said Stacey, “What’s with all the activity here though?”

  Magriet interjected, “We are going to do a simultaneous police raid on all four properties this afternoon. We are convinced that this time we will catch them and avoid coming up empty handed like last time.”

  Slade said, “Sounds great, but why do you need us?”

  “Good question Slade” replied Gerald, “We believe that as we enter the premises some guys may slip out of the back of the houses or have other entrances. I want all of our teams to be covering back entrances, and if anyone escapes to follow them and alert me. If they do get away, we want to find out where else they are hiding out.”

  Slade chirped, “Sounds like a good plan. We can do that.”

  The next few hours were a flurry of activity as Gerald coordinated their efforts including phone calls to the various police units that would be supporting them. Gavin and Sipho were fiddling with a small drone that they would use to hopefully capture some more footage. Each eventuality was reviewed in meticulous detail including giving each of them Google map images of each of the addresses and likely escape routes. It was near five in the afternoon when Gerald gave the signal for everyone to move out, “Good luck out there today, be safe.”

  Stacey gave Slade a kiss, “See you later.”

  He replied, “Absolutely. Look after yourself.”

  Communication between everyone was established on a WhatsApp group, but with specific code words. Stacey headed out to the apartment block and parked in the side street, where she could watch the back wall. She reported that she was in place. It was several minutes before she heard the sirens blaring as the police approached the apartment block. She nervously looked around, feeling scared, but not sure why. It was several painstaking minutes before the first WhatsApp response came through, “Success at Rondebosch.” Then it was silent for a while, before Gerald sent a message, “One escapee, onto him.”

  It wasn’t long before another message came through, “Apartment clean.” She had braced herself for some unknown action, but when nothing materialised, she felt somewhat let down. She sent Slade a text to check if he was OK, and he responded in the affirmative.

  A few minutes later, Gerald sent through a coded message, “Show is over, please meet backstage.”

  About an hour later they were all gathered in the loft area of Gerald’s office, with him standing in the middle, “Well done everyone. I’m glad you are all safe. The good news is that we managed to round up twelve gangsters and an estimated two million Rand worth of drugs. A huge success. The best of all was that the police captured one of their own. Stacey you will recall Inspector Jonas. He was apprehended red-handed with the drugs. Good riddance.”

  Stacey felt a sense of relief, recalling how he had intimated her several months earlier. She replied, “That is good news. I hope he stays behind bars.”

  Gerald nodded, “I hope so to. More importantly, is that I feel as if we have once again weakened the criminal networks. I’m sure Daniella will be fuming by now. This is a serious haul.”

  While Gerald had been talking, Sipho had been downloading the images he managed to capture on the small drone. He displayed the grainy photos on one of the screens in the office. One showed a very annoyed-looking Inspector Jonas being dragged away. As they passed one image, Slade exclaimed, “Go back to the previous image. That’s our drone engineer that left us this week. Ha-ha, his new career did not last long.”

  Gerald wrapped up the evening, “Thanks for the great work. Go and enjoy a good night’s sleep.”

  Stacey was in a pensive mood, and she said softly to Slade, “I have a deep feeling that we are about to see a massive retaliation from Daniella. She must be spitting mad right now.”

  He put an arm around her, “I hope you are wrong, I really do.”

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Having agreed to play the guitar in church on the Sunday morning, Stacey was up early practicing. Although her fingers were strumming, her mind was not on the music. She had tossed and turned all night. Probably because I slept so much the day before she mused.

  Slade came through, “Ready when you are.”

  She passed him the guitar and grabbed her handbag. As they were leaving the apartment she received a call from an unknown number, “Hello. Who is it?”

  An electronic sounding voice answered, “Your constant meddling is now frustrating my masters. I have been tasked to hunt you down. I will hunt and kill you in the next two weeks. In the meantime, I want you to be scared. I suggest you be very vigilant; you never know when I am going to strike.”

  Stacey sagged to the floor; her legs unable to support her body weight. Slade leapt to prevent her from falling. “I heard that Stacey. Are you OK?”

  She replied, “I’ll be fine thanks Slade. Just get me a glass of water.” She drank the whole glass before getting up. “I feel slightly better now. Let’s get to church.”

  As they drove in silence, the message replayed several times in her head, seemingly getting louder each time. It was only once they entered the church that the voices in her head stopped, and she felt peace surrounding her. Playing the guitar and singing was a welcome distraction from the noise in her head. She sat quietly listening to the sermon, a message seemingly meant only for her.

  As the service ended, she found herself reluctant to leave. Even though she had decided to mentally block out the threat, she found herself imagining someone gunning her down. It was only Slade’s firm hand that steadied her, and she was relieved when they got outside, and everything was peaceful.

  After church they headed out to the rehab centre where Lizzie was being treated. Elon had arranged with the rehab centre to allow them to have a picnic lunch in the gardens with Lizzie. They arrived to find Elon waiting for them in the carpark with several baskets stacked. He greeted them both warmly.

  Slade lifted two of the baskets, “Geez Elon, with so much food, are you feeding th
e whole facility?”

  Elon laughed, “Not quite. I just brought a few extras, I want the day to be special for Lizzie.”

  Stacey placed a hand on his arm, “Thanks Elon. I’m sure she will love it.”

  Getting into the rehab centre was a challenge, as each basket had to be checked. The security officer asked Elon to take the alcohol out and return it to his car. He sheepishly carried the two bottles of champagne back to his car, “I guess I should have known.”

  Once they had cleared the security entrance, they found Lizzie waiting on the other side. She looked as beautiful as ever, and any signs from the drugs were almost entirely gone. Stacey noticed how both she and Elon’s eyes lit up when they saw each other. They are clearly meant for each other, she thought to herself.

  They headed outside into the beautiful park-like surroundings and found a quiet area below some leafy trees. Slade unfolded a portable table and set out some chairs, while Stacey opened the baskets and unpacked some of the lunch. Elon had laid on such a spread that it was hard to know where to start.

  Lizzie paused midway through a mouthful, “Thank you Elon. I really appreciate this gesture. I’m so sorry that I have disappointed you. I promise you in front of my friends that I will remain clean. I only have a week left here.” Elon smiled. He looked emotional and was unable to respond. Lizzie then turned to Stacey, “Thank you again. I know you saved my life, again. You really are like the sister I never had. Thank you.”