The Serpentine Road Read Online Free PDF Page A

ahead.’ He watches De Vries shrug. ‘The rest of your team may not be so unconcerned.’
    ‘You’re right. We should ask people to be more considerate: kill on a Monday.’
    Du Toit looks around, through the window which separates De Vries’s office from the rest of the squad-room, and back again.
    ‘You almost seem cheerful,Vaughn.’
    ‘You know me, sir. Death enlivens me.’
    Du Toit does not smile.
    ‘Tell me what we have?’
    ‘The usual nothing. In a few hours, we’ll have too much. We think that Taryn Holt was killed between 10 p.m. Thursday and 1 a.m. this morning. No apparent motive. Warrant February spoke with the maid, says she seems loyal and reliable. She’s upset, probably for her job, but she says she can’t see anything missing. She claims she scarcely slept because of the smoke and the fear that the fires might spread to her street. She heard noises in the night, but put them down to the wind. When she woke at 5 a.m. she decided that she would not sleep, so she walked up through the garden, saw open windows and went to investigate. She found the body, and called it in at 5.14 a.m. Looks like the alarm had not been set. Central were there by 5.35 a.m. and it then came through to our desk. Warrant February was there by 6.40 a.m. I was there thirty minutes later . . .’
    ‘Any trouble with the Central guys?’
    ‘Not really.’
    Du Toit leans back.
    ‘You handled it diplomatically?’
    ‘Probably not.’
    Du Toit coughs.
    ‘Any thoughts from the scene?’
    De Vries scratches his ear.
    ‘You know I don’t like doing this . . . She was shot, several times, close range. Maybe there is nothing missing, and then we have a very rich single woman murdered seemingly without motive – until you think about the money.’
    Du Toit nods.
    ‘And, I can tell you now: whoever it was, he’s not going to leave us anything.’
    ‘Meaning?’
    ‘It doesn’t appear spontaneous.’
    ‘Then you’re exactly where you should be.’ He rises, and De Vries mirrors him. Du Toit moves towards the door of the office, turns back to him.
    ‘Bad timing if this gets complicated.’
    ‘Your leave?’
    ‘A week in Pretoria for some damn conference . . . Then, hard-earned leave. Keep me informed of major developments.’
    De Vries nods, and turns to open the door.
    Du Toit says:
    ‘You were serious, weren’t you? You’re pleased you have your murder?’
    De Vries gets through the door and turns back, says blankly:
    ‘It’s why I get up in the morning.’
    Although the building in the centre of town which houses the Special Crimes Unit and Administrative offices was built in the eighties, the Pathology Lab on the lower ground floor looks more like something from the fifties: iron where you might expect aluminium; fluorescent tubes on chains where you might expect recessed LEDs.
    De Vries knocks on the office door, lets himself in and glances immediately towards the two desks. One is empty but, behind the other, sits a short, very slim woman wearing a headscarf, head bowed over a keyboard. De Vries instinctively sighs, but she does not raise her head. He waits in silence until she stops tapping, looks up at him.
    ‘Good morning, Doctor.’
    Doctor Anna Jafari studies him calmly.
    ‘I am sure it is not. You are disappointed to see me, but that is beyond my control.’
    ‘Not at all . . . That is . . . We have a break on the Holt murder. She was discovered a lot earlier than the murderer might expect. I want to maintain that advantage.’
    Doctor Jafari leans back in her chair.
    ‘So, you tell me, Colonel de Vries . . . Shall I move your victim ahead of the four I have in the queue?’
    De Vries smiles thinly, tries to stay calm.
    ‘There might be a significant advantage in obtaining PM results quickly.’
    ‘But not with these other victims . . .?’
    ‘I don’t know who or what you have to examine today, but I know that I’m here, we have a team assembled and we need information fast.’
    Jafari shakes