Blue Peter

I was standing on the beach, at Bloubergstrand, admiring the view. I was looking across the bay at Table Mountain, framed by Devil's Peak and Lion's Head. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and from where I was standing you could have believed that Table Mountain was on an island. It’s true that many years ago large areas of the Cape Peninsula were under water. Most notably the Cape Flats - notorious for its gangsterism and murders.

My name is Drew Summers, my partners were Gadija Samuels and Lundi Ntsimango. Together we ran the Uphendlo Private Investigation agency. I was on my way to the Blue Peter hotel, Gadija was gong join me there for dinner. It wasn't just a social event we were there on business. Piet Nel from Port Nolloth was booked into the hotel, with him a young lady. No doubt Mrs Nel according to the hotel registry, we knew better though. Petronella Nel was at home in Port Nolloth but we weren't really here for reasons of fidelity. There were bigger fish to fry here. Piet had a reputation for moving large quantities of uncut diamonds, not that he had ever been caught or should I say convicted of anything. Smuggling diamonds in Port Nolloth was rife, it was after all the major industry there. Divers had limited life spans, somewhat akin to a professional athlete. When they first start the money is over enough but then the old income effect kicks in, they want bigger houses and bigger cars and so it spirals. Piet is the man that helps you when you reach that stage however, after it’s all said and done they still get peanuts for what they smuggle out and the risks they take. De Beers are the major players there and in the world markets. But as they say in the classics where there is a will there is a way.

It was the first time our agency had undertaken any work for De Beers. Make no mistake they have their own, fairly elaborate security network, as I am sure you can imagine. They have certain mining towns which are completely sealed off from the outside world. You enter by invitation only with large swathes of land surrounding them, which is completely desolate. It is a rather an inhospitable part of the world and they make sure large parts of it stay that way. We had been contracted to do this because they weren't sure whether their operatives were known to Piet or whether some of them were on his payroll. Our job was to keep an eye on things, monitor the comings and goings as well as any contact that was made. Lundi was already working at the hotel, which made things a little easier. We had a microphone hidden at his table and it was on a tip-off from Lundi, who was monitoring his communications as well, that was why we were here. Something was going down. There had been a flurry of text messages between Piet and a mobile phone registered to a Carbon Trading company. We'd run a check on the company but it was a paper trail which ran dry with a chartered accountant in Gordon's Bay who was paid a retainer to do the books of another company which owned that company, you know the story. We had a name Serge but thus far it meant nothing to us, so we wanted a visual and we wanted to know what was being discussed.

So there we were half past seven and Gadija and I had just taken our seats in the upstairs restaurant. We looked out over the bay, the lawn downstairs, in front of the hotel bar, was full of people that had come to watch the sun disappear into the sea, or that was how it looked every evening. Hotel staff weaved in and out of the crowd serving drinks to those seated at the tables. There seemed to be quite a buzz this evening I suppose in retrospect I should have surveyed the crowd more closely but as far as I was concerned it was pure recon and we weren't really expecting anything else. We ordered drinks and took our time seemingly making small talk. Piet and the supposed Mrs Nel were sitting about five tables away and also had a table overlooking the lawn and the bay. I had an audio feed from the microphone as did Gadija if anything was going down we would both know simultaneously. We had been working together for eighteen months now and between the three of us we had built up a rapport and understanding of how we worked and we had an idea of how we would each react in different circumstances. I was comfortable with both of my partners and we had been in a few ugly situations where we had to depend on each other. South Africa has a gun culture which when you are in my line of work you do not take lightly. Some people do shoot first and ask questions later.

The terms of our agreement with De Beers was simple recon as long as Piet was here in Cape Town - hand over the dossier and that was the end of the story. Our being here was merely for the visual identification, to back up our electronic surveillance. We had briefed our De Beers contact this morning on the unfolding developments, that was in our contract as well. Everything seemed to be going smoothly. A tall distinguished looking man entered the restaurant exchanged words with the hostess and was then shown towards Piet's table. Piet showed no sign of recognition but when they person mentioned his name as being Serge he was on his feet. I was surprised at how fast Piet had moved and made a mental note that he was more dangerous than he looked. Mrs Nel left shortly afterwards. Something happened to our microphone not long after Serge had sat down. Was he wearing a scrambler of some sorts, we couldn't detect any interference it had just gone dead. We had a directional microphone and it took a while to zero it in - we had to guide Graeme, my nephew, in by giving him the location – the microphone was in a van in the car park. Reception was not good but we had audio again and they were discussing the economy. Talk then moved onto shares and if I wasn't mistaken this was all a front for the diamonds. We didn't expect any transactions in front of us and we did not recognise Serge. We would sorely like to get his fingerprints but he wasn't drinking so that made things difficult.

I thought of placing a call and having the phone taken to him but I thought that would be too suspicious. Then things became a bit heated between Piet and Serge, they seemed to be disagreeing about which way a specific share was going to react to the market. Serge stood up and said that that was his final word on the matter. Piet was quite red in the face and clearly agitated. I heard some tyres screeching outside and was just in time to see Mrs Nel being pushed, hustled, into a car which barely stopped long enough to pickup its passengers, the car was still rocking from the brakes being applied when its tyres were screeching again as it sped off. Piet froze in his tracks and Serge smiled and donned an imaginary cap and walked out. We had not known but Piet must have had his own goons and we heard a scream from the lawn downstairs followed by the sound of shots. This was followed by the sound of automatic fire which in turn drew more fire. Gadija and I were on the floor, safely behind the wall looking down on the lawn. All hell seemed to be breaking loose as I peered over the wall I picked up at least three armed groups or were they just well dispersed. Then it struck me De Beers were here as well but why were they intervening. Then there was an explosion out back, smoke everywhere followed by even more chaos, people screaming and running in every direction. When we had collected ourselves Serge and Piet were missing. Lundi came running in his hand hovering close to his gun but stooped short of drawing it. He was acting as a concerned hotel staff member ushering people outside and waiting for a chance to ask us what the hell had just happened. Which is what I wanted to know but I had no intention of sticking around to find out.

I gave Lundi a quick run down summary of what we had heard and then Gadija and I made for our cars. As we approached the car park I noticed that the van door was slightly ajar. My heart skipped a few beats as I raced to open the door. There was Graeme lying sprawled on the floor. I felt sick. All I could think of was what was I going to tell my brother. Whilst I was thinking this Gadija was checking to see how Graeme was - she felt for a pulse and told me he was OK probably just unconscious. We could see the equipment was wrecked plus any recordings were now missing. I was getting pretty upset, things were not going according to plan. Graeme came to, as we were bent over him, groaning and rubbing his head. I'm sorry Drew, he started to say. I cut him off and told him to keep quiet and told him that he had better not mention this to his dad if he everwanted to help us out again. Gadija just shook her head and said we'd better be off before things get any worse here. Graeme said he was OK and told us to get a move on. We split up, I headed out of town towards Melkbos and Gadija turned back towards Town. I hit a roadblock just being set up by the Scorpions (South Africa's version of the FBI) and who should be there but Max Diamond who recognised me immediately. He pulled me off and started asking me where I had just come from, whilst listening to feedback via his communications link. I said I was on my way to Malmesbury. He nodded his head and smiled and then asked me whether I had just come from the Blue Peter hotel and told me to think before answering as he was not in the mood to repeat the question. I wondered if I should deny it and then did anyway. He sighed and said that's strange because my colleague, Andile, is talking to Lundi at the moment and he seems to be working at the Blue Peter now? Didn't he used to work with you? Seems like too much of a co-incidence to me? What do you think Drew, your the Private Investigator?