Windfall

Chapter 18

Dirk Hendriks drove down the winding road of the escarpment towards the Rift Valley and Naivasha and towards what he always held in his mind but never mentioned aloud – die Kenya Stasie. Not that it was fully operational yet but it would be once this business was over. Still, Frans Potgeiter had done a good job considering the slim funding that had been available. He was a good man.

He passed the church at the bottom of the hill which had been built by Italian prisoners during the war and turned towards Naivasha. His eyes flitted over the signpost that indicated the road to Narok and he smiled. Potgeiter had succeeded in the Masai Mara, too, after others had failed miserably. There had been too much bungling, too much interference. As the English proverb said: 'too many cooks spoil the broth'. But everything was coming right at last.

He turned off the main road short of Naivasha and took the road which ran back along the lake edge past the Lake Naivasha Hotel and on to Ol Njorowa. It was precisely midday when he pulled up outside the gatehouse and blew a blast on his horn. The gate keeper came running. 'Yes, sah?'

'Mr Hendriks to see Mr Brice. I'm expected.'

'Sah.' The gate keeper went back and the gates opened. As Hendriks drove through, the gate keeper shouted warningly 'Pole pole!' Hendriks did not know what that meant until he hit the first sleeping policeman at a speed which jarred his teeth. He slowed the car and reflected that he had better learn Swahili. It would be useful in the future.

He parked outside the Administration Block and went inside. In the cool hall he approached the reception desk behind which sat a muscular young black who was dressed neatly in white shirt and shorts. Another young Kenyan was sitting at a side desk hammering a typewriter. 'Mr Hendriks to see Mr Brice,' Hendriks repeated.

'Yes, sir; he's expecting you. Come this way.' Hendriks followed, passing through a wicket gate and along a corridor towards Brice's office. He nodded approvingly. Potgeiter had it organized well; no one was going to wander about the place unobserved.

Brice was sitting behind his desk and looked up with a smile as Hendriks came in. The Kenyan left, closing the door behind him, and Hendriks said, 'Goeie middag, meneer Potgeiter; hoe gaan dit?' The smile abruptly left Brice's face. 'No Afrikaans,' he said sharply. 'And my name is Brice – always Brice. Remember that!'

Hendriks smiled and dropped into a chair. 'Think the place is bugged?'

'I know it isn't.' Brice tapped on the desk for emphasis. 'But don't get into bad habits.'

'I'm a South African,' said Hendriks. 'I'm supposed to know Afrikaans.'

'And I'm not,' snapped Brice. 'So stick to English – always English.'

'English it will be' agreed Hendriks. 'Even when we're conspiring."

Brice nodded – a gesture which closed the subject. 'How did you get on in London?'

'All right. That old fool, Farrar, is making the distribution next week.' Hendriks laughed. 'He gave me a cheque for a hundred thousand pounds on account as soon as we got back. Your coffers should be filling up soon.'

'And about time,' said Brice. 'I'm tired of working on a shoestring." He shook his head. 'The way it was set up in Europe was too complicated. We ought to have had direct control. Farrar asked some sticky questions when he was here.'

'It had to be set up in Jersey,' said Hendriks. 'Do you think we wanted to pay the British Treasury death duties on forty million pounds? This operation wasn't set up to give money to the Brits. As for Farrar, Mandeville kept a tight rein on him. Farrar is a legal snob; he likes working with an eminent British barrister. And Mandeville is a good man. The best.' Hendriks smiled thinly. 'He ought to be considering what we pay him.'

Brice made a dismissive gesture. 'I never understood the European end of this and I didn't want to. I had my own troubles.'

You had troubles! thought Hendriks bitterly, but said nothing. His mind went back to the moment when Alix happily announced that she was pregnant. That had come as a shock because if the child was born before Hendrykxx died it would automatically become one of his heirs and that could not be allowed. The kid would inherit two million of their precious pounds and it would bring Alix right into the middle of the operation.

He had thought of having the will changed and had talked it over with Mandeville but Mandeville had said they would not get it past Farrar. Hendrykxx was then senile and not in his right mind, and Farrar was rectitude itself. So Hendrykxx had to go before the baby was born. It had been risky -murder always was – but it had been done. And all that was on top of the trouble caused by Henry Hendrix who had dropped out of sight in America. Still, that problem had been solved – or had it?

Brice said, 'Your cousin Henry was one of your problems you wished on me. Why the hell was he allowed to come to Africa?'

'We lost him,' said Hendriks. 'And Pretoria was asleep. By the time they woke up back home to the fact that Henry was important because the old man was dead Farrar had employed an American agency and was looking for him himself. The agency man got to Henry about ten minutes before we did.' He snorted. 'Ten minutes and three inches.'

Brice raised his eyebrows. 'Three inches?'

'Our man took a shot at him. Hit him in the shoulder. Three inches to the right and Henry wouldn't have been a problem ever again.'

'Well, he's no problem now,' said Brice. 'I've seen to that. Have you read the papers lately.'

Hendriks nodded. 'It made a couple of paragraphs in the English papers.' He leaned forward. 'You're wrong, Brice. Henry is still a problem. Where's the bloody body? We need the body. His three million quid is tied up until death is proved. We don't want to wait seven years to collect. As it is he's just disappeared.'

Brice sighed. He stood up and went to the window. With his back to Hendriks he said, 'He's not the only one to have disappeared. Two of my men didn't come back.'

'What!' Hendriks also rose to his feet. 'What did you say?'

Brice turned. 'You heard me. I've lost two men.'

'You'd better explain,' Hendriks said tightly.

'It all went exactly the way I planned. You've read the newspaper reports. The stories those tourists told were exactly right except for one thing. They were supposed to see the body and they didn't. It wasn't there – and neither were my men.'

'Could Henry have jumped them and got away? How were they armed?'

'Standard Tanzanian army gear. Kalashnikovs.'

Hendriks shook his head. 'I don't think Henry would have the stuffing in him to tackle those. In any case if he got away he'd be back by now.' He thought for a moment. 'Perhaps the Tanzanians got him. The real ones, I mean.'

'I doubt it,' said Brice. 'The Legislature is in an uproar and the Foreign Minister is putting pressure on the Tanzanians. Some of my boys are on the border with a watching brief. The Tanzanians are scouring the area south of the Masai Mara. Why would they do that if they already had Henry – or his corpse?'

Hendriks said coldly, 'So that leaves one answer. Your men are cheating on you.'

'Not those boys,' said Brice decisively. 'They're two of my best.' He paused, then added, 'Besides, they've got their families back home to think of.'

'So what's the answer?'

'I don't know.' Brice rubbed his eyes and said sourly, 'Who dreamed up this crazy operation, anyway?'

'We did,' said Hendriks flatly. 'You and me.'

Brice said nothing to that but merely shrugged. 'Well, we'll get most of the money in soon.'

'That's true,' said Hendriks as he sat down again. 'But it irks me to have three million tied up. I worked damned hard to get this money in here.' He changed the subject. 'Why did you announce an inheritance of only seven million? Isn't that risky?'