Present Darkness Read Online Free PDF

my darling. Don’t fret.”
    Cassie eased into the woman’s arms. She shut her eyes and shut Emmanuel out. The police secretary held Cassie close and whispered to Emmanuel, “Let it rest, Detective. The poor thing has suffered enough tonight.”
    Emmanuel retreated. He’d made Cassie wary with that earlier look. If he got within a foot of her without tears spilling it would be a miracle. The girl enjoyed being the hurt one.
    “Where are you off to for Christmas, Cooper?” Dryer asked from his moonlight perch.
    “I’m staying in Johannesburg.” That was a lie but a necessary one. His private life was private. “And you?”
    “Me, the wife and children are off to Kosi Bay. Ten days in a cabin by the sea.” Dryer cast an imaginary line into the garden. “Fishing, swimming, eating prawns. It will be good. Why the hell would you stay in Jo’burg, my man?”
    “I like it here,” Emmanuel said. This conversation, he realised, followed the pattern of every single work interaction. The other detectives gave him facts and family stories and he replied with bullshit.
    “Sergeant.” The milk-faced policeman appeared from the garden path, flashlight waving in panic. Whiter now, his pale eyes huge in his face, he stammered, “Come. Please. It’s the man. There’s a rattle in his chest, only wet. What should we do?”
    “There’s nothing you can do,” Emmanuel said. The black man needed medical attention immediately. Not at dawn or whatever time the native ambulance arrived. “Stand guard till I come out and relieve you.”
    “Yes, sir.” The constable retreated into the tangle of fruit trees.
    Emmanuel moved to the top stair, dry-mouthed and searching for a plan. Ian Brewer was glory-bound but Martha Brewer would likely survive the night thanks to a fully equipped “Whites Only” emergency ward. The black man in the garden had no such hope. He’d be dead within hours and any evidence he had would die with him. If Aaron Shabalala and his schoolmate provided an alibi for the time of the robbery they might get clear. If they didn’t, then Cassie’s word would remain the gospel and every detective on the case with holiday leave pending would happily sing from her hymnbook.
    There was one avenue open to him. Taking it meant stepping into the world of police who played by their own rules. Emmanuel considered his situation. As a lying European Detective Sergeant with a mixed-race woman and daughter stashed away from public view, he broke the law every day. He was, in reality, already across the line that divided the dirty cops from the clean ones.
    “Head home if you like, Dryer,” he said. “Things are pretty quiet. I’ll stay on here.”
    “No way, man,” the Afrikaner detective said. “Mason will have my guts if I leave before this is closed.”
    “Mason won’t know.” Emmanuel smiled reassurance. “Go on. You have a wife and children at home. I don’t have anybody.”
    “It wouldn’t be right leaving you with all this.” Dryer rummaged around in his jacket pocket, searching for car keys, his commitment eroding.
    “A beaten up kaffir and a girl … Having two detectives on the scene is a waste of time. Or would you rather stay and keep me company till the native ambulance shows?”
    “You sure you don’t need me?”
    “I’ll be fine,” Emmanuel said.
    “All right.” Dryer found his ring of keys and swung them around his index finger. “You should come over for dinner some time, Cooper. Meet the brood.”
    “That would be nice,” Emmanuel said. He’d take up the invitation right after he started performing his own dentistry for pleasure.
    “I owe you.”
    “Don’t mention it.” He clapped a hand to Dryer’s shoulder and gently guided him down the stairs. It was hard to keep smiling. He wanted the Afrikaner detective gone five minutes ago.
    “See you tomorrow.” Dryer squeezed between the house and the garage wall and out to the driveway. Emmanuel waited till the car’s red tail