The First Rule Of Survival Read Online Free Page B

‘The moment this breaks, there won’t be a parent in Cape Town letting go of their child’s hand.’
    2014
    To support power-saving, the SAPS hierarchy have decreed that at the SAPS central building after dark, all non-essential lights are switched off. De Vries, glad to be rid of the pervading fluorescence, has only one small Anglepoise lamp illuminating his office and conference room. He sits, head in hands, nose low over a large beaker of whisky. He’s meditating – something he would never do consciously. Steven . . . Bobby . . . Toby . . . : mug-shots, school photographs, headlines, bylines, memories, the file cover closing over them.
    From the squad room, Don February has watched him like this for the last fifteen minutes; he is thinking, too. Dr Harry Kleinman enters the squad room and knocks briskly at de Vries’ door. Don gets up and follows him into the office, staring at the coroner’s thick bare legs in shorts and his short-sleeved pilot’s shirt with epaulettes.
    De Vries looks up, gestures them to sit down, but Kleinman starts talking immediately.
    ‘It’s pretty much confirmed,Vaughn. I went back through the records. Toby Henderson sustained a multiple break in his left ankle, aged six years, seven months. That matches exactly with what I can see.’
    De Vries shuts his eyes. Steven . . . Bobby . . . Toby . . .
    ‘I’ve viewed the case photographs at the time of their abduction, and I believe that the other boy is extremely likely to be Steven Lawson. I’ve cross-checked the blood type, and that’s a match. His group’s AB, which is less than five per cent of the population, so it’s strong, but certainly not conclusive. We should be able to DNA a confirmation from a hairbrush, or something that his family have kept. In any case, the age, physical features, all seem right.’
    ‘Jesus Christ. What do I tell their parents? After seven fucking years, we’ve found your son; he was alive until forty-eight hours ago, and now you have to come identify your lost, dead child. I fucking hate this job.’
    Harry Kleinman slumps down in the chair directly opposite de Vries, his voice weary but soothing.
    ‘In my experience,Vaughn, however traumatic the news, in the long run, the parents of missing children just want to know what happened. They can bury their sons, grieve properly, find closure.’
    ‘I hate that fucking word,’ de Vries spits, looking up from his desk.
    Kleinman continues smoothly, ‘This is what we do,Vaughn. We find out what happened to them. We tell the parents, we catch the bad guy.’
    ‘If I’d caught him seven years ago – Jesus, any time in the last seven years – those boys would still be alive. I should have revisited the files more often.’
    Don February asks: ‘The third boy . . .’
    Kleinman says, ‘Bobby Eames.’
    ‘Surely this means that
he
could still be alive? Two bodies, but three abductions.’
    De Vries looks at his Warrant Officer. A tiny light illuminates inside his consciousness.
    ‘One boy unaccounted for,’ Don says quietly. ‘One to be saved.’
    Vaughn sits up, focus coming slowly to his eyes.
    ‘Listen, both of you,’ he says. ‘This goes far deeper than either of you know. You see the name of the Superintendent back in 07, Harry?’
    Kleinman looks at his sheets.
    ‘Don’t bother,’ de Vries tells him. ‘It’s du Toit. That means we have our Director back in the headlines for the one big case that nearly screwed his career.’
    ‘He’s a grown man.’
    ‘He’s in a dog-fight,’ de Vries retorts. ‘So am I. That slimy little shit, David Wertner, at the new Internal Investigations Bureau, is on my back, and he’s looking to pay back some old favours to our almighty General. Discrediting me, and ousting du Toit; we’re top of his list.’
    ‘And that means?’
    ‘I don’t know,’ de Vries replies, losing momentum. He frowns, takes a deep breath, counts his decisions off his fingers. ‘Nobody hears about this until the