is not good these days, huh?’ Zandile shouts at him.
‘No. It is not,’ Primo mumbles.
‘Well, you should not be in business at all. Seems you have not been true to your word. Remember what we told you last time?’
‘Yes, yes, I remember. You said not to sell drugs in this section. And I have stopped, I swear.’
‘Lies, Primo. That is your problem.’
‘True, sisi, I have not sold a gram here.’
‘Lies. You supply all over Umlazi. Little birds tell us. The very same birds that you supply. It is for this reason that we are arresting you. All the evidence is here,’ Zandile points to the white powder.
Backup arrives. The two constables take both Primo and the other man to the back of the police van.
‘Please, please, sisi, let’s work something out,’ Primo pleads.
‘We can’t deal with you, Primo. You have already not kept your word. Trust is a fickle thing,’ says Zandile.
‘I know, sisi, I have not been –’
Zandile slams the van door shut and says to the two constables, ‘Get what you can from him. He is a cash cow.’ The van drives off.
‘This should help with January’s expenses,’ Zandile hands Gloria half of the bounty from Primo’s drawer when they get to her house.
‘True, my friend. Thank you so much,’ says Gloria. ‘Let me be off. I have to buy electricity before mine runs out. And get meat for the braai today. Where will you celebrate New Year’s Eve?’
‘With my sister in Ballito. We will talk later, friend. Bye.’
Zandile is stashing her share of the dirty money – relieved and light of spirit – when the station commander calls.
‘Another girl has gone missing,’ says Station Commander Ncube, his voice heavy with worry.
Zandile draws in her breath as he gives her the location. She had investigated the disappearance of two other girls in that area when she first became a detective. A spaza-shop owner stood trial for murder when human body parts were found in his establishment. DNA confirmed that they belonged to the missing girls. But he was not convicted. It could not be proven that he had killed them. He claimed not to know that the parts were hidden in his shop and blamed it on a cousin with a criminal record who had disappeared into thin air. The owner even had a cleansing ceremony to rid the shop of his cousin’s dark arts. But Zandile knows he is guilty. She just knows it. And now he might have found another victim.
Station Commander Ncube is giving her details and sending her to the girl’s family, but she knows where she must go instead: to Mthunzi’s shop.
She puts her siren on and races there.
Mthunzi is serving a customer when she grabs him by the front of his T-shirt and slams his face down on the counter. While he is stunned by the unexpected attack, she jumps over the counter and into his shop.
The woman Mthunzi had been serving shrieks and runs away.
He tries to fend Zandile off, but she grasps his wrist and hooks a handcuff around it, clicking it shut. Then she twists his arm behind his back and grabs the other wrist, securing both his hands behind his back.
Grabbing the back of his neck, she shoves his face into the counter. A blind rage has come over her.
‘You filthy dog, where is she? Where is the girl?’
‘What are you talking about? You’re mad!’ Mthunzi says through lips crushed against the wooden surface.
She pulls his head back and slams him into the counter again. He screams.
‘Nandi, the girl who went missing yesterday afternoon, where is she? Are you keeping her somewhere? Have you killed her? I know you killed those other girls, you piece of shit.’
‘I was acquitted.’ Was that a smirk she heard in his voice?
‘You make me sick!’ She hits his face once more, causing his nose to bleed.
Then she frogmarches the still-dazed Mthunzi to the waiting van; pushes him in the back and locks the door. She searches every nook and cranny of the spaza shop, fearful of what she might find. She saw the bloody body parts found in Mthunzi’s shop last time. She still has nightmares about those severed hands and feet, the torsos of young teenage girls. But she doesn’t find anything now and she doesn’t know if that is better or worse.
Station Commander Ncube is not pleased when Zandile shows up with the bleeding Mthunzi. She is not allowed to interview Mthunzi as Ncube doesn’t trust her to keep her anger in check.
‘He has an airtight alibi,’ the commander tells her when he emerges from the interview room.
‘What?’
‘He was buying goods from a supplier and was there the whole afternoon, during the time that Nandi disappeared. We phoned the supplier and he confirmed.’
Zandile is shocked. It doesn’t make sense.
Ncube goes on: ‘The circumstances in the two cases are also different. The other girls were seventeen and fifteen years old. Nandi is eight. The other girls disappeared at night, Nandi during the day. I don’t think this is our man.’
Zandile puts her head in her hands. She was so sure.
‘Detective Cele, if you do something like this again, I’m going to have to suspend you,’ Ncube warns. ‘They’re coming down hard on police brutality.’
‘He deserves it!’ Zandile snaps her head up. ‘Even if he isn’t involved in this abduction, he must have known about those body parts. I can’t believe he wasn’t convicted. Where’s the justice in that? Women and children are being murdered and no-one is paying for it.’
The commander sighs. ‘Look, it’s been a long year. Your shift’s over. You should get out of here.’
Zandile takes out the money she confiscated from Primo. She rubs the notes between her fingers, feels the texture. She stops at the China Mall and with a few of the notes she buys fireworks. Then she heads to her sister’s house in Ballito. Her children are staying there for the holidays while Zandile works during the whole of the festive season.
She lights the fireworks and holds her son and daughter as they watch the display of light and sound. The children squeal with joy. Zandile squeezes them so tightly that they start to protest. She thinks of Nandi’s parents and what they must be going through, not knowing where their daughter is. She does not drink a drop of alcohol because she is due back at work by six in the morning.
Later that night, she watches her children sleeping. Here, now, all is as it should be. All is well.
She goes to bed, but it is hours before she finally falls asleep. In a dream, her legendary ancestor, the great Zulu warrior Mmeli, appears to her and assures her that she will find the missing girl. Next to Mmeli stands a girl but Zandile cannot see her face. She tries
