Random Violence Read Online Free PDF

decided to move.”
    “Did she get a good price for it?”
    Piet dragged his gaze away from the photo to look at her.
    “How would I know? I’m no good with money. I’m an artist. She wouldn’t discuss the sale of her property with me.”
    “How often did you speak to Annette?”
    “Every few days. We had a lot to talk about, with her moving to Cape Town.”
    “Did she mention anything unusual to you in the last week or two? Anything she’d noticed? Any cars near her place, any people outside watching her? Any strange incidents?”
    Piet buried his bristly chin deep in his hands and stared ahead. Jade watched him closely. He started to speak, then stopped himself and shook his head. She wondered what he had decided not to say. Then he straightened up and turned to her. “There was something, yes. I don’t know if it’s impor-tant or not, but she did ask me an unusual question a couple of weeks ago. She wanted the number of a private detective.”
    Jade put the newspaper back down on the table and turned to Piet. “Did you tell the police?”
    He spread his hands. She noticed his fingers were stained brownish-yellow on the tips. Paint, perhaps. Or nicotine.
    “I forgot about it till now.”
    “It could be important.”
    “I suppose so. I’m sorry.”
    “Who was she trying to contact?”
    Piet rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a battered pack of cigarettes. He put one in his mouth. He didn’t light it. He spoke with the cigarette in his mouth. It moved up and down, punctuating his words.
    “She wasn’t trying to get hold of anyone special. She just told me she needed a private detective.”
    “Do you know why?”
    “She never said why. I didn’t ask. That’s what I learned from being married to her. She didn’t like to be quizzed. She’d tell you when she was ready.”
    “What did you tell her? Did you give her any names?”
    He shook his head. The cigarette followed the motion. “I told her she should look in the Yellow Pages. She said she didn’t know if she would be ripped off by a person from the Yellow Pages. She was like that. Careful with money.”
    “Did she mention it again?”
    Piet’s cigarette waggled to and fro. “No. She never spoke about it again.”
    “Did she sound scared or worried when she asked you?”
    He thought for a minute.
    “She sounded the same as always. Curious, maybe. If she’d sounded scared I would have been worried. But she didn’t, so I forgot about it.”
    He patted his pockets, looking for a lighter. Finding none, he took the cigarette out of his mouth and put it back in the packet.
    After Piet had pushed the gate closed behind her, he walked over to the yard and let the dogs out. They bolted for freedom. One of them lunged at him as it ran past, forcing him to leap aside.
    Jade shook her head as she pulled out onto the lonely road. She had a feeling that the dogs preferred women to men. Which was unfortunate for Piet.

5
    Jade drove back to the cottage and rechecked the information in Annette’s file. There was one other avenue that she wanted to explore.
    She had to sign an entrance register before the security guard allowed her to park outside Annette’s workplace. The building was a mishmash of steel, glass and face-brick. She supposed the architect had been aiming for a modern indus-trial effect. She wondered if he’d burst into tears when he viewed the finished result.
    She asked the receptionist to call Yolandi Storr, Annette’s colleague.
    Yolandi was a small, frail-looking woman with a mop of badly dyed hair and a stooped posture. Her face looked as if, over the years, it had been etched into a permanent expres-sion of dread.
    “Come through, please,” she said. She pushed open the security door that led to the offices.
    Jade followed her down blue-carpeted corridors, listening to the hum of the air-conditioning and the muted noise of phones ringing and business being done. She wrinkled her nose at the strong camphory scent of Yolandi’s