Chapter 10 - The Call

Steven picked up on the third ring and simply answered "You're late"
"By 2 minutes" Mel quipped, "sorry, I had to get a phone"
"Do I even want to know how you are traveling or how you got a phone?" He asked
"Probably not. Does anyone know I'm calling?"
"Do you really think I would tell you even if they did?"
"Good point." Mel sighed "Look, i'm on my own out here, I was set up, turns out by someone I was really close to and by some pretty scary people. I need to trust someone along the way, I cant do this alone. Maybe it was a mistake calling you and getting you involved, I'm sorry Steven. Bye"
"Wait," He said before she hung up "wait, please."
No dial tone meant she must still be listening, so he continued "I dont know why, but I feel I need to help you. I know you didnt do this, but you've been incredibly good at getting evidence to prove your innocence as it is. I'm a cop, its our duty to protect the innocent, and others may not have, but its my duty as a cop, and as a decent human being to do what I can to help you"
"Thats the nicest anyone has been to me all week" Mel answered.
"Its about time someone helped you out a little" He smiled, thinking this girl had more balls than the average guy, "what info do you have that you can tell me?"
"Well, turns out this Felix Osaba guy has been smuggling drugs and guns into the country through the harbour, some he drops off for distribution in jozi,"
"Stop, did you say Felix Osaba?"
"Yeah, why?"
"You're in way deeper than you know!"
"Why?" Mel was now puzzled "You've heard of him?"
"Mel, that guy is wanted for war crimes in 5 African countries, he's suspected of sex slave trafficking and he is one of the most wanted men in South Africa, heck even the US has Felix Osaba on their wanted list."
"Oh" a feeling of sick dread came over her
"Unfortunately there are many in the south african police force who are in his pocket. Considering how Detective Shabane stopped searching once he found you, I'm going to hazard a guess that he's also in Osaba's pocket."
Silence, Mel's mouth had gone dry and the road ahead was looking awfully blurry. She pulled the truck to the side of the road, "So what can I do? I'm basically on a suicide mission going in alone here. But if I stop running, I'll be falsely imprisoned." She gave her first sob since the whole ordeal began, it seemed there really was no way out and she was just collateral damage.
"Mel, its going to be ok. We'll work it out. I promise" He tried to reassure her, "What other information have you found out? I know you've been resourceful."
"Well, I tapped his phone, he's in joburg right now, they're offloading part of the shipment at 8:30 this morning and then heading straight for the border. I was planning on following them to their warehouse when they go to offload and take some photos, then try to get the upcountry cops to stop hi before he gets through the border." She took a breathe, "But now that all seems so stupid."

"Thats actually a really good plan." He admitted "But, like you said its a suicide mission on your own. There is nothing I can do to get up there in time to help you today. However, I have some buddies up on the reef who can help. I know Joburg, even if you can make it to the city in time, you wont make it to the warehouse in time."
"What are you suggesting?" she half pleaded, half asked
"There's a guy I know who used to be head the anti corruption unit. Unfortunately because the unit was actually doing its job, it got closed down and all the guys working it lost their jobs. I'll ask him if he can stake out the place and try get the evidence needed."
"Ok" she dryly stated. Exhausted and suddenly feeling like the damsel in distress from a fairy tale, even Steven could hear the defeat in this strong woman's voice. "What should I do then? Should I hide? Head up towards the border just in case?"
Scratching is his head, he knew a guy who might be able to keep her hidden and be resourceful enough to help. But if he sent her there, this guy could decide that the reward on her head was worth turning her in. With Jake it could go either way. But what choice did he have?
"Steven, are you ok?" Mel asked
She had the kindness in her heart to think of his feelings and his well being while he was part of the organisation hunting her. "Yeah, thanks." He responded. "Do you have a piece of paper and a pen, I need to give you a phone number and  address for someone who will help you hide. He owes me a favor."

Chapter 9 - On The Run

"A prius, Pavlo just had to own a prius didnt he?" Mel thought to herself. A prius was an eyesore and stood out like a sore thumb out here on the roads that were frequented by SUVs and big horse and trailer trucks.
She knew she needed new wheels pretty soon, otherwise she was toast. But she also knew out here where each town was at least an hour's drive apart, it wasnt going to be as easy to come by a ride as it would have been in the big city. Plus there were requirements, these days everyone knew any car was a potential hijack or theft item, and most of the modern cars and almost all fleet cars had trackers installed and she needed to not be tracked.

As her mind wandered on this, she saw the sun rising over the mountains in her rearview mirror. Realizing that she had been driving for 6 hours straight, well maybe the prius wasnt so bad after all with such good fuel economy, but she knew it was time to stop for a rest and food. Seeing a fuel station sign up ahead was just what needed.

Sitting on a picnic bench munching a burger at 6am, Mel tried to sort out what to do next. She knew that keeping still was out of the question, that is how the cops would track her, but if not that, where to? She had never handled a gun in her life nor for that matter knew where to acquire one. With some distance from that city, being betrayed and for now completely on her own, what match was she going to be against a ruthless Nigerian druglord and arms smuggler?

She had stuck around at Pavlo's place for a while after he was out, long enough to drag him to his bed and cabletie his hands to the bed posts, and write a letter apologizing for leaving and promising that she would not damage his car. She had managed to find out that Felix was heading to the Musina border, she had learnt to tap a phone from an ex who for reasons unspecified had known that skill and been listening to Felix's calls since Pavlo's last night. Obviously being the middle of the night, he hadnt had much communication, apparently Nigerian Criminal kingpins didnt particularly feel the need to hide in the shadows of the night. His only outgoing call was to someone called Shan saying that there was "a delivery in Jozi at the regular rendezvous at 8:30am and then the shipment needed to get to the Musina border post by 2pm when the shifts are changing at the border", come to think about it, she could make it to JoBurg by 8:30, but she would need faster wheels if she was going to make it before they had finished unloading.
Looking at her watch, she had another pressing matter to attend to also, calling Steven and bringing him up to speed. By her calculations, there was enough time to use Pavlo's cell to call him for 3 minutes, then leave the cell in the car and get a new ride. Or she could swipe a phone, at this time of the morning on a Sunday the only people around were devout people on their way to Sunday services and folks taking the overnighter bus between the big cities.

Looking around she spotted a truck driver let out flat across the ground fast asleep in the warm morning sun after a long night's drive. Next to him was his bag, keys and cell phone conveniently on top. Smiling to herself, she strode over and in one smooth movement swapped Pavlo's car keys and cell for the one the trucker had and moved towards the trucks parked at the other end of the lot.

The truck was easy to find and Mel only felt a small twinge of guilt as she entered the highway. She kept telling herself that it was just borrowing, no harm would come to the vehicles she was borrowing, and this was a small price to pay for her name being cleared and an international drug and arms smuggling ring being brought down. Hold on, she was about to blow open an international drug and arms smuggling ring?!?! Little insignificant Mel, who had no training with weapons or police and had no backup was in deeper than she knew and had to learn to swim with the sharks now. That thought really caught her throat. But there was no going back, not after all she had done now, including this ginormous 18 wheeler truck she was cruising in.

Enough thinking, she told herself, time to call Steven.

Chapter 8 - A new perspective

Steven tossed and turned in his bed, each night was getting harder to sleep. This whole case was just not making sense and he could not stop thinking about it. He had met the main suspect before she was their main suspect, she had volunteered to give information when she didn’t have to. She had come into the station, and waited over an hour only to be questioned by the detective in a harsh manner. He had watched in silence and seen in her the eyes of an innocent by-stander.
When the detective had decided that she was the main suspect, the only suspect for that matter, he had tried to reason with Det. Shabane that this girl was innocent, but Shabane had said this was 'a high profile case that had links back to a drug & weapons smuggling ring and he needed a fall guy, or in this case a fall girl'. Steven then had called her from a payphone, there were still payphones around and he didn’t want the call traced back to him, he had warned her of Shabane’s intentions and told her to run. If he got busted for this, he would not only lose his job, but he would probably be incarcerated too. It wasn’t all because she was a pretty girl, ok yeah she was that too, but this was about justice! He just knew it wasn’t her.
Still, Shabane had been furious when somehow Ms Cooper had gotten hold of O’Brian’s email address and emailed him with the photos from the docks. It was a huge break in the smuggling case. Shabane, and the Capitan, in fact everyone involved in this darned case thought by sending in the photos she was admitting guilt and trying to clear her name.
They immediately got to tracking her phone when they discovered she was nowhere to be found. Now that had been an interesting event. They traced in to a little dirt road in the middle of the forestry about a hundred kilometers north of the city, but when they got there, all they found was a bag of men's clothing with her phone jambed in the bottom. Suspecting she may have headed out on foot, they explored the area. They didnt find Cooper, but rather they found the man who was in the photographs. Andre was wondering around the forest, quite lost and only in his underwear. He swore that it was Mel Cooper who did this to him. That was yesterday, today they had had no new leads.

He wasnt interested in this case just because she was a pretty face, heck she wasnt like your regular bleached blond babe who frequented the beaches. Those girls were smoking hot, but they had no flesh to them, always stick thin, and a personallity almost thinner than their waist, if that was even possible. He was amazed at Mel Cooper's tenacity, her sheer will power and keeping her head under these circumstances. She was pretty, in a home-grown-goodness kind of way, but she had a personality and a good head on her shoulders. Although Steven was rooting for justice, he was also rooting for this lady.

At the briefing the next morning it turned out that Shabane was trying to do all he could to turn this into a countrywide witchhunt for Mel Cooper. He had brought in the special forces with the assumed statment that "Cooper is the head of the smuggling ring and must be brought down immediately"! Steven couldnt believe this, he thought it was crazy. This was starting to turn into a full blown circus, the only thing that made him realise they were not in some half-rate American cop drama was that Shabane had actually taken this to the press (they never do that in the movies, Steven thought to himself) and openly stated that "Mel Cooper is suspect number one and has gone on the run. Any information about her whereabouts would be greatly appreciated by the South Africa Police force"
Steven shook his head while watching this pathetic fanfare, it had certainly gotten out of hand. He had to wonder, with the way Shabane was gunning for the innocent girl, was he on the payrole of the smuggling ring?

"Whats's wrong with me?" Steven mused over a cold mug of beer sitting on his couch "I'm just a beat cop, I'm not a detective. I should just give up and go back to life as it used to be." Shaking his head, he stood up and walked to the fridge. There was nothing there to eat, so he phoned for pizza.
The Pizza guy arrived fairly soon, he paid and turned around. As he opened the pizza box there was an envelope on the pizza with his name hand written on it! "What the heck?" He carefully put the steaming pizza onto the table and opened the envelope.

"Sorry for being so stealthy and quite likely freaking you out. I know I can trust you, I dont know why, but you are one of the few people who believes in my innocence. Thank you for that.
I have crossed a few lines in the last couple of days in order to clear my name, sorry.
I kept a trace on your phone in hopes that I could get through to you fairly soon, the pizza seemed a fitting choice, I know all of the delivery guy's secrets.
I'll call your cell at 6:30am, if you dont answer, I understand. But I figured you deserve to get some credit for this case, since noone else is even looking for the real killer."

He went over the note a good 5 times before finally looking at the clock, it was obvious who it was from. He had never expected this though. She was quite the woman if she had the guts and the brains to do this! Well, until morning there was nothing for him to do. When the call came he would know what she had and could take it from there. Maybe he wouldnt be stuck as a beat cop all his life!

Chapter 7 - A Lead

Standing in the Kitchen of Jen's house, with the various scents of cinnamon and spices from Chris' legendary cooking, Mel was still in shock. For the time being she had forgotten about Andre's betrayal, the murder, everything from the past week just seemed like a distant mist in her mind because of the latest bombshell dropped in her world.

She had arrived barely an hour ago, and been surprised by both Colleen and Anele being there. The group of friends had of course been disappointed with Andre not coming. Mel had explained that 'his little sister who was just about finished school had said she was going to sleep over at her boyfriend's house, and Chris being the man of the house since his dad had died, had to sort it out'. The group understood, and Mel was relieved that herquickly concocted story was holding out.
When she had asked what the occasion was, knowing that there were no special dates of any of her friends at this time of year, they merely invited her inside. She had guessed for a while that Chris and Jen had been dating, but no one had ever told her, and living so far away from them both, despite the constant texting with Jen, she had never known if her suspisions were right.
She had walked into the house and was given a glass of fresh OJ, and watched silently as Jen strolled to Chris and kissed him. It had not been just a peck either, but by Mel's own slack jaw and wide eyed reaction, she knew this was a passionate kiss that easily lasted over a minute. Jen and Chris then turned to face Mel, Chris spoke first saying "Well, the occasion for Colleen, Anele and me to fly in to Jen's tiny little town and you being invited for the drive up here was our engagement party!" and he squeezed Jen tightly as she showed off the rock on her hand. Mel snorted the orange juice up her nose with such a shock. Sure, she had figured maybe they would finally come out that they were dating, but never had she imagined for a second they were already engaged!
The subsequent conversations, questions and arrangements which took the better part of an hour had left her brain feeling like mush. She had not brought with any party dresses for the weekend, in fact with the events of the last week, she had barely planned on staying for more than just the night and leaving at the crack on dawn. But they had a whopping big engagement party planned for the next evening being a Saturday. Jen being ill and tired so much, had allowed Colleen and Anele to do all the planning, with the provision that the evening's events were not too exhausting for Jen. And Mel didnt dare skipping out on such a big event for two of the few people she cared about the most. Jen already had her dress for the party, but Colleen and Anele had known that Mel would not have a dress, they knew if she came with more than just a pair of jeans and a bikini they would be lucky, so they had decided to make a day where the 3 girls would go dress shopping and get their hair and nails done for the party the next day.

Mel was overjoyed for Jen and Chris. At the same time she was feeling gutted, she looked at how happy they were and wondered if she was ever going to find a man of her own, who would treat her like a real woman. She didnt want a repeat of the men she had dated, like the Momma's Boy who had her doing his laundry and cleaning his apartment before they were dating for even 3 weeks. Or the Control Freak who 'confisctated' her phone because she was talking to other men (the other men happened to be Chris, Andre and her dad) on the weekend. Or Mr Emotional who had cried and needed constant reassurance just because she had not answered his 15 text messages and 7 missed calls during a single day's work time. Ugh, she shuddered. No, she probably would never find that happiness. The problem with finding a perfect man was that there is no such thing as perfection in the world. Anyway, she had bigger things to think about right now, like being a fugitive, and finding a dress that fitted, and finding a murderer, and getting an engagement present. Definitely no time for a man in her life just yet.

Sitting at the bar, sipping a gingerale and watching the dance floor with fascination, Mel admitted to herself that it had indeed been a glorious party to end a fantastic day. She actually felt like a whole new woman; her hair had been layered and given honey hilights which really brought out its lustrious and rich brown curls like never before, every time she turned her head the curls would bounce around her shoulders, now just longer than shoulder length. The new black halterneck dress that reached the floor in a heavy fabric that hid any unwanted bumps and showed just the right amount of curves and the silver kitten heels. For the first time in a very long time she felt like a woman, unfortunately the men at this party had been noticing. 'Where did Jen & Chris find all these wierd people' she absent mindedly wondered as she watched another poor dejected fellow slink away after she had turned down another offer to dance. It wasn't that there were no ellligible guys here, nor that she wasn't interested in them, it was just that she had bigger fish to fry right now.
"Is this seat taken?" a plain little man asked her nerveously. He was about her height, which was not that short, but he stooped in his boring brown twaid suit. His hair thinning far too early in his life, he couldnt have been more than 35 years old.
Not in the least attracted to him, but rather out of pity for him, she consented to his joining her hoping the guy just wanted a drink. Although she was in no mood for small talk, or any conversation for that matter, the little plain man introduced himself as Pavlo, and begun telling her his life story. She listened to him telling her his father was from Brazil, his mother a South African and he grown up here, then she stopped listening. "What on earth did I do to encourage this annoying narration" she asked herself silently as he explained how his second wife had run off a few years back, and then started on describing his career. Only half listening, his voice was becoming a white noise only paused by his frequent gulps of the beer in his hand. After 20 minutes Mel was begining to get irritated and was about ready to snap at the guy to shut up and leave her alone, she took a breath and turned to face the man she was about to yell at, when something he said caught her attention.
"So now I'm working at a dead-end job in a cell phone company where we track stolen phones and occasionally help with the police tracking fugitives via their cells. You'd think its exciting, I thought so when I took the job. But all I really do is log onto the website and type in a phone number, and watch a little red dot blinking over a map. Thats it, I never get to go out there, I never get to have any fun." He took a huge gulp of the third beer he had ordered in the last 20 minutes and continued bitterly "I'm single, I'm balding before my time, and I'm stuck in a boring dead-end job."
She smiled as a plan hatched in her mind. For the first time since he sat beside her she decided to really engage "But Pavlo, you are an important part of society! And just think what fun you could have tracking random people when you are not busy tracking fugitives." She gently placed a newly manicured hand on top of his "It sounds fascinating to me, I would love for you to show it to me."
"I dont know, I'm not supposed to use it out of ofice hours or for personal use." He replied halfheartedly.
'hmm, this might not be as easy as I had hoped' she thought. Deciding to up the game a touch, she moved her hand up his forearm a little, and tried her most seductive voice "But Pavlo, how else are you going to make an excuse to invite me back to your place?"
His eyes lit up as he realised the implication "Well I suppose just tracking someone once wont hurt, especially if is someone we know."
"Are you sure? I really dont want to get you into trouble." She looked up at him through her long lashes and blinked "Maybe we shouldnt."
"Of course we can!" He emphasized, adding "Who would you like to track?"

Gently rubbing Pavlo's shoulders as she stood behind his chair. She watched as he typed in his username and password, it was even a regular website that could be accessed anywhere in the world. Mel shook her head in disbelief. It had worked, her first time flirting. Heck, she knew there must be some kind of serious judgement reserved for the freaks who used flirting and their bodies to get what they wanted. She figured this was special circumstances and gave her a free pass, plus it wasnt like she was going to sleep with the guy. Yes she had led him to believe that she wanted to jump his bones, but hell it wasnt actually going to happen.
"Lets track Chris' number, see where him and Jen are." She whispered lips brushing against his ear.
He shivered with excitement as he furiously typed in Chris' number. He glanced at her, stating "It takes a couple of minutes to load."
"Ok, I'll go grab us something to drink" and she turned towards the kitchen.
She quickly crushed 3 sleeping tablets into his drink. They were strong enough to knock him out until the middle of tomorrow, but not strong enough to hurt him. She had about 20 minutes before they fully kicked in, but her flirting had maybe been a little too much, she hoped she could hold him off until he was knocked out.
Ten minutes later, they had finished looking at Chris' movements over the last 12 hours. He had been all over the town. They had looked up Jen's number and seen she had been to most of the same places at the same time Chris had. They looked up Pavlo's own number, and even Mel's mom's number.
But Pavlo was now getting impatient. He yawned, and swiveled in his chair, staring at Mel he said "goodness woman, you are gorgeous!"
She blushed, he was mildly attractive and it was so nice to hear the compliment, but she really didnt want to sleep with this guy. After all Mel Cooper had standards, and these were not her standards!
He took her hand and kissed it. Standing up he leant in towards her, his nose only millimeters from hers, he whispered "I'm done looking at the screen, I want to drink you in and really get to know you"
She shuddered, now what?
He led her by the hand to his bedroom, and she quickly said "Can I use your bathroom please?"
"Sure babe, its" he yawned again, stammering and looking for the words "its, its just down the hall, second door on the left."
"I'll be a couple of minutes" She said, fleeing down the hall.
'Oh crumbs! How long can I stay here before he comes looking for me?' She wondered in panic. If she said no to him now after all that flirting and he was slightly drunk, she feared he might force her or hurt her. She knew nothing about this man really. Darn it, why did she have to lay it on so thick? She sat on the closed pot, head in her hands for a couple of minutes. Standing up, she quickly rumaged through the medicine cupboard, there were a few condoms there, she tossed them into her handbag to hide them. Flushing the loo, she washed her hands and face, touseled her hair a little.
Dropping her bag on the floor, she sat on the bed next to him, he was still awake but fading fast.
"Pavlo," she started, he grinned at her "do you have protection?"
His smile dropped and he stood up, swaying a little "I'll go fetch."
He staggered as he walked away. Mel heard him go into the bathroom and scratch around in the cupboard, he was in a hurry and knocking things around.
He staggered back, "Could have sworn I had in the bathroom" He held onto the doorframe for support "I know I have in the car, I'll be right back, dont move."
She watched him stumble out and a few seconds later she heard the thud of him colapsing.
With a sigh of relief she jumped up, grabbing her bag, she decided to take his car and carefully picked his keys out of his hand.
Her's was still at the engagement party, when she was leaving she left Anele with the keys after grabbing her backpack out the boot and telling her she wasn't going to be back for the night. Plus, she thought, it wont do any good to be driving around in the black hatchback when the cops are sure to be looking for it.

She looked at Pavlo snoring on the floor, thought about the sleeping tablets she had drugged him with, and decided it was safe to use his computer to see where Felix was now. She sat and typed in Pavlo's username and password, the website opening up, typing Felix's number in the search bar.
Silently thanking the programers who created this tracking equipment and Chris & Jen for inviting a lonely and sad man to their party.

Chapter 6 - Revealing

Andre gave up asking her anything after she refused to answer or even look at him for at least 3 minutes. She just stared straight ahead and drove. Andre had never seen Mel like this before, quite frankly it scared him. He knew Mel was capable of a lot; she was a tough cookie and not a woman to be messed with. He had read articles where people had cracked, they had been fine the one minute and then suddenly they had a psychotic break and became a completely different person. He really hoped that had not happened to Mel.

She eventually stopped the car after about 12km from the main tar road. There was nothing out here. She turned off the lights and the engine. The silence was almost deafening. The beautiful sunset had disappeared and now there was merely the rapidly fading gray sky. This place was so lonely and so calm that it was eerie. Mel took a deep breath, turned to Andre and commanded "Get Out!" in such a strong and cold voice that he knew he dared not disobey. He stepped out of the car, and Mel grabbed something from behind her seat. She climbed out and stared at him, her anger so deep, and her face so dark that he wondered if he ought to run. In her hand was not a knife or a gun, just an envelope and a torch.

"Mel, I can see you are angry about something. But can we please talk now?" He asked, his voice nearly breaking.

"Talk? You want to talk? You lied to me. I don’t even know how long you have lied to me. I want you to talk. But I want the truth. I want the truth about what the hell is going on here!" She said as she took a handful of photos out of the envelope and put them on the bonnet of her car and pointed at them.

"What is that?" he asked without moving

"Look at it." she spat at him

He stepped forwards and spread the photos across the car, she handed him the torch and he bent down to look at the photos. He wiped his hand over his brown mop of hair as it fell into his eyes.

The photos were of the harbor, the SUV and the truck where the men were making the shady deal. One photo had a perfectly clear shot of Andre's face as he turned to climb into the SUV with the metal briefcase in his hand!

"Andre, give me a good reason not to tie you to the nearest tree and leave you here to freeze or be eaten by wild animals." She said

"I can explain." He started saying "It’s not what it looks like, its...."

"Oh really" she cut in "Because you know what it looks like? It looks like a really shady deal going on. It looks like you just received a bucket load of cash to let an illegal shipment get through customs!"

"Well," he quietly said "maybe it is what it looks like then. You know what? I'm sorry Mel, I don’t know how or why you thought you should get involved or why you are following me, but you shouldn’t have been doing that."

"Are you threatening me? What is wrong with you, does our friendship mean nothing to you? And before you start thinking this was all about YOU, you conceited piece of rubbish, this was about someone else!" She angrily shouted at him. She pulled out a final photo, a picture of Avesh and thrust it at him "How are you involved and how was Avesh involved?"

He stared at the photo and muttered "oh crumbs, Mel I didn’t know YOU were working for Avesh. No no no!!"

"I am stuck in the middle of this! I have been framed for his murder. The cops are after me. I just caught you red-handed taking bribes for allowing heaven-knows-what into the country illegally. And all you can say is that you didn’t know I was working for him!"

She grabbed and twisted his arm, pushing him against the nearest tree. He groaned from the force that she used to shove against his back, his chest pinned to the tree. Although he was 6" tall, she was a good 5"7' tall and grew up working on an animal farm so she was strong, easily a match for him.

"Start talking" She whispered in his ear.

"The shipment is from China, its plastic dolls filled with cocaine. The Nigerian imports it, once it is in the country I clear them through customs as children’s toys, they truck it out, and I'm told half of it stays in SA and half gets trucked to our bordering countries." He paused; talking while pinned against a tree was difficult.

"And the plastic guns or are they real?" She pushed him, he tried to wriggle free but she brought her knee up hard against his leg, simply stating "Next time it’s the groin."

"Today was the first time the guns came through my checkpoint. They’re real but packaged to look like children’s toys. Same story."

"And it doesn’t bother you one iota that you are helping get drugs and guns into this country? Your own father died in a car crash because some bratty kids were high and drove into him. What are you thinking?"

"Look, they didn’t give me much choice ok. They said if I don’t help them, bad things are going to happen to me. You saw the Nigerian's face, would you doubt if he threatened you?"

"No, dumbass, I would go to the cops. Looks like you were not just scared, but also liked the bonus factor of all that money. So how does Avesh fit into the whole thing?"

"Well, Avesh is into real estate as well as advertising. He owns some warehouses that they store and the shipments in as soon as they get past customs. Unfortunately for him, he had a big gambling problem too. And the Nigerian is a big time loan shark. He got to owing a huge amount of money, and begun asking for more. It would have been fine for him, except he started threatening that he would take the whole operation to the cops if his demands were not met. That’s why he ended up dead, the Nigerian's henchmen did that and framed his PA for it because he was always calling her pet names and had sexual harassment suits filed against him before by other employees."

"So if you are just the 'customs' guy in the operation, how come you know all of this?"

"When the Nigerian came with the guns this morning, I told him I didn’t like this and didn’t want to do it. The Nigerian proceeded to tell me if I tried to back out, I would land up just like Avesh, and he proceeded to tell me in great detail what happened to the guy. But Mel, I swear I didn’t know it was you that worked for Avesh!"

"Really? Is that the honest truth?"

"Yes, I promise I didn’t know you were their fall guy or girl."

"Funny, I don’t believe you. You see, I just figured out where they got a picture of me at a fancy dress party some years ago, they got it from YOU, you took the damn picture! That’s a picture that is playing a part of me being framed for a bloody murder I had nothing to do with!" Tears started running down Mel's face. She didn’t really care much for Avesh, but the fact someone she trusted and such a close friend could betray her so severely, could do such bad things and join in placing the blame on her was almost too much for her heart to handle.

"Oh, I didn’t know you got hold of those too" Andre sounded defeated. Not even remorseful, just defeated.

"Yeah I did. Now does the Nigerian have a name or have you saved his phone number under the unoriginal name of 'the Nigerian' on your phone?" She was so angry now.

Andre grunted, he really didn’t want to get her more involved than she was. He didn’t know what she would do to him, and didn’t like the way things were currently going. He had already actually gotten her into his mess; there was nothing he could do to get her out. She dug her knee into his thigh again, and asked "Does the man have a name or not?"

"What are you gonna do if you know his name, Mel? The guy's a cold hearted murderer and gangster. He won’t think twice about having you killed. Heck, he'll probably make it look like suicide"

"Well you obviously didn’t care about what he might do to me when you decided to help him frame me. Now quit stalling and give me his name!"

"Ok, ok. Stop shoving me, I can barely breathe. The man's name is Felix."

"Are you kidding me?" Mel laughed, "Such a typical Bad Guy name, if you're going to lie, be original Andre!"

"Unfortunately I am telling the truth. Check my phone contacts." He dryly responded, and taking his loose hand he pulled the phone out of his pocket and handed in to her.

After checking the phone and seeing with her own eyes that Felix was really a number saved on the phone, Mel pocketed Andre's phone, never loosening her grip on him. But not much, just enough to relax her now cramping hand.

"Thanks" She whispered, her breathe warm on his ear "and Sorry"

"What for?" He asked with confusion.

"For what I'm about to do to you. You see, I can’t very well trust you again.” She explained “So I am going to knock you out, and tie you to a tree. Don’t worry, I'll tie you fairly loose, once you come round it should take only an hour or so to loosen yourself. Unfortunately for you, I'm also going to remove your shirt and jeans and leave them along with your duffel bag about 2kms down the main road. You’ll be left in your underwear. That's going to slow you down enough for me to get a head start. I am going leave you with my phone, as the cops are going to be tracing that, and they should pick you up easily. And don’t even think about pinning it on me, because I've already emailed those photos to the cops from an untraceable email account. And you won’t find me at Jen's place, because that’s far too obvious!"

Andre grunted and tried to get free "Mel, you're crazy! Let me loose I can help you with this." he begged

"Yeah, I am crazy! Sorry buddy, I really did care for you. But I cannot trust you now." and she knocked him out with a carefully placed hand on his neck and elbow to his temple. After he was out she rubbed her elbow, which had hurt more than she expected.

With a gentle peck of a kiss on his lips, she began her job just as she had told him she would while tears streamed down her face.

An hour later Mel pulled up into Jen's driveway and honked the hooter. She had lied to Andre about this one thing, and although she knew it was a risk, she really didn’t have anywhere else to go. At least for tonight she would fabricate some excuse for why Andre was not with her and try to figure out her next step. She couldn’t stay here long though, the cops would figure out she was here fairly soon.

Chapter 5

Mel parked her little black hatchback in between a row of boring black and white cars in the shipyard. For the first time since she had bought the car, she was glad it was black and blended in with the other cars around her, just another boring black car.

She had a good view of the ship in question from her parking, so decided not to even exit the car. With her camera zoomed in, she actually had a fairly good view of the dockyard goings on and the workers off loading the ship. She tried to locate the container with the number she was looking for, but it just did not seem to be that easy. Of course not, this wasn't those fictional movies or books, and she wasn't Nancy Drew, Mel told herself yet again.

After watching them for 30 minutes she had a pretty good idea of how the routine worked. The crane operator would offload containers directly onto trucks from the ship, the trucks would dive forwards to a checkpoint, there a guard would check that the paperwork produced by the driver matched the paperwork on the labels on the shipment. Then the truck would be free to go.

'What am I doing here or even hoping to accomplish?' Mel wondered 'There must be at least a thousand containers on that ship, looking for this particular one is like finding a needle in a haystack.' It was getting dreary and downright boring. She figured she would take a few more photos of the area and then leave, this was doing no good.

Just then she noticed something near the back of the line of trucks waiting to have containers loaded onto them. There was a big white SUV stopped next to an empty truck. Between the two vehicles looked like something shady going on. But from the angle Mel was at, she couldn’t quite see what was going on, she took photos anyway. There were two men there.

The men were standing, one with his face towards her looked like a Nigerian in his colorful abstract print full length dress and turban. She could even see his gold tooth sparkling in the sun, his scarred face telling a story of things he was willing to do to get what he wanted. He was holding a metal briefcase.

'Seriously?' Mel wondered, 'can I really be seeing this? Is that a briefcase of money?'

He handed it to the man whose back was to her. That man was wearing a cheap looking navy blue suit and sneakers; he was at least 6" tall and had a mop of unruly brown hair. She could have sworn he looked familiar, but she just couldn’t quite place him. With his back still to her, her placed the briefcase on the hood of the SUV and popped it open. She was sure inside there was at least R100,000!

Mel held her breath, was this for real? Was it really happening, and she was the unlucky person caught in the middle? What these men were doing, was this what Avesh was involved in?

The man in the cheap navy suit handed the Nigerian a clipboard with some papers on it. Mel was willing to guess those must be the papers that were later checked by security at the checkpoint. So this was what was going on. Then he handed over two boxes with plastic windows. The one was a cheap knockoff of a Barbie doll, the other a cowboys & indians toy gun. Why would they be exchanging money for that kind of rubbish, Mel wondered. It was just cheap Chinese junk. The men shook hands, and the Nigerian walked to the passenger side of the truck and climbed in, the driver gave a toothless smile at their new friend and closed the tinted window.

Then the man in the cheap suit turned around to get into his SUV, Mel saw his face and let out a gasp "It can’t be you!!"

She sat stunned with tears in her eyes. The betrayal and lies were unreal. How could he do this? But how in the hell did stupid Avesh fit into this lot? She was so confused and upset that she didn’t notice when the line of trucks moved, nor when the SUV disappeared around a warehouse.

Mel was brought out of the mind-fog she had been in suddenly by her phone singing Billy Joel's Piano Man in her pocket. She glanced at the screen; it was a number she did not recognize.

"Hello" she answered simply

"Is this Miss Cooper?" a quiet but urgent male voice came over the phone

"Yes"

"Miss Cooper, my name is Steven O'Brian. I'm a police officer; we met a couple of days ago when you came in for some questions. Do you remember?"

"Oh, hi Steven." she breathed a sigh of relief "Please call me Mel. What can I do for you?"

"Well, there is no easy way to put this. Miss Cooper, Mel, remember Detective Shabane who interviewed you? He has been working the case of Avesh Singh... I am so fired when they catch me..... um, well Shabane has been working with some really good tech guys. And here's the thing, they think you murdered him. They say there is evidence that points to you."

"WHAT?" she silently cursed. Maybe the SAPS were good at their jobs. Just not quite good enough to prove she was being framed. "But I didn’t do it"

"Well Mel, I honestly dont think you did do it. I believe you are innocent. And that is why I am calling you.... when I get caught I am so fired.... normally it’s a bad idea to run. Sticking around and fighting your innocence is normally the best way to do it. But Shabane has been looking for days now, and you're not only the best suspect, but his only suspect. He's tired and he's going to pin this thing to you. Mel, I'm sorry. But you either need to run now or you are going to end up in jail for at least ten years."

"Steven, are you absolutely serious"

"I wish I was joking. I liked you, and you seemed like a nice person. I've dealt with murderers often enough to know what a murderer's character is like. You're a strong willed woman, but you're no murderer. Shabane is on his way to the court to get a warrant for your arrest and to search your things. You have maybe an hour before he’s at your home."

"Thank you O'Brian. I owe you!" and she put down the phone as she was starting her car.

Trusting a total stranger she had only met once for ten minutes might be a bad idea, but she had bigger things to worry about and this time it was worth it to run, she knew he was right. She drove straight home, ran inside to grab her weekend bags that were already packed. She knew the cops would freeze her bank account as soon as they knew she had run, plus there was that huge and incriminating deposit that had come in. Fortunately she kept a few thousand in cash hidden in her apartment; she grabbed the cash, her passport and her laptop. Locking the door, she closed her eyes and wondered when, if ever, she would come back.

Forcing herself to walk not run, so as to avoid attracting attention, she got into her car and drove to the nearest busy shopping mall. Knowing that in a crowd it would be a little harder to spot a 27 year old in basic jeans and plain black t-shirt, driving a boring black hatchback.

She found a parking as far from the doors as possible and stopped to think what her next move would be.

If she headed straight for the border they would find her easily. She had about 2 days before they realized she had run though, and fortunately South Africa was big enough to hide in for a while. Her phone beeped, and she realized she had nearly forgotten her plans to send the weekend with friends. Looking at the screen it was a text from Jen.

"Looking forwards to seeing you. Chris phoned, he's coming here directly. So looks like you and Andre travelling together. I've seen how you look at him Mel, I'm not blind. Don’t let those feelings wreck our weekend! Love you and can’t wait to see you."

"Thanks Jen" Mel muttered to herself sarcastically. But she knew she didn’t mean it, she was so fond of Jen, how could she ever be upset with that sweet friend? Jen had been right too, but Mel knew she would never look at Andre that way again, never!

Actually it seemed like a good idea, at least stick with the plan for now. The plan was for Mel to pick up Andre at his work at 3:30 when he knocked off, he said he had packed and brought his bags with to work, and then they were going to take the two and a half hour drive up the coast to Jen's place. Mel looked at the time for the first time since arriving at the harbor earlier and saw she had just 15 minutes to go pick up Andre.

She texted Andre as soon as she was outside the building he worked in, and just a moment later he walked out with a duffel bag in his hand. Dumping the bag in the back of the car, he jumped in the passenger side.

"Is that all you're bringing?" Mel asked in surprise

"What can I say, I'm a guy." He responded with a grin.

What could she say? Mel just shook her head.

She turned off her phone, didn’t need the tech guys at the SAPS tracking her now she told herself silently, and put the car into gear.

They drove in silence, bar the Bryan Adams cd that was playing, until they got out of the city. Out on the open road, with sugar cane fields turning to pine tree forests, the road would curve every now and again enough for them to see a panorama of the ocean. Being a Friday afternoon, just before rush hour and out of holiday season, the road was fairly quiet. There were a couple of cane trucks and lumber trucks they passed, but generally it was just the little black car on the road. Mel loved the feeling of the open road. It reminded her of her dream to travel the world. In her teenage years she strongly considered doing her world travel alone, thinking it would give her more freedom to chop and change her plans as she pleased. But now, with the wisdom of years, she realized that despite being a loner, traveling alone would be terribly lonely. She had just never found anyone who wanted to travel with her, and now under her current circumstances it looked like she was going to have to run on her own.

"You seem pretty deep in thought, care to share" Andre pulled her out of her inner thoughts.

With so many things going on in her mind, she dared not even glance over at him. So she merely answered "Nope, just girl stuff"

He sniggered "If you say so. So you mentioned the other evening that you had a pretty annoying boss, what company are you working for now?"

She tried to prevent the emotions of the past week from flashing across her face and tried to steady her voice. She hated lying to her friends, so she kept her answer as true as possible but not giving too much information either by saying "He's a deadbeat boss. I resigned. Did a temp thing on Thursday as a tour guide. And when we get back, I'll be looking for another job." Wanting to direct the conversation away from herself she added "What about you? You've been working for Transcorp for 5 years now and I still don’t know exactly what your job description is?"

Andre didn’t expect that question, he stammered a little, looking for the right words "Well, I kind of deal with customs. I check incoming shipping loads at random, and I file the paperwork with the customs department on what type of load it is and what taxes they require. I then contact the owners of the shipment and send them the paperwork......"

Mel stopped listening and tried to just focus on the road ahead, the beautiful sunset colors in the sky all around them. She tried not to let the tears out. When she heard his voice stop all she could bring herself to answer was "That’s interesting"

"Mel, you haven’t heard a word of what I’ve been saying. You're acting so strange. What’s going on" Andre demanded ten minutes later, putting a hand on her shoulder.

She hadn’t even realized he had been talking all this time. The forests on both sides of the road were tall, the setting sun casting long shadows through the trees. She saw a little dirt road off the highway into the forest and turned off into it. Still not answering Andre, she drove a few hundred meters until they were well out of sight of the road and just on their own in the quickly darkening forest, the car bumping along the dirt road.

Andre trying to remain calm despite Mel acting so strange said "I know I haven’t visited Jen up at her new place, but I'm fairly sure she stays on a tar road in a little town, not on a dirt road in the middle of an eerie forest. Mel, you want to tell me what we are doing here?" 

Chapter 4 - A Mellow Day

Could this week even begin to get any weirder? Mel was really freaking out now. It was beginning to look like Avesh had been in deep trouble, and she had been set up to take the fall for it!

On Avesh's email account she had found a few emails that had come in today! They had timetables and numbers. After checking them against a few databases it turned out he had been sent timetables for 30 airplane flights coming into the country, as well as for 15 different container ships coming in from the far east. Some of these incoming freights had already happened over the preceding weeks, some were still due. However what shocked her the most, is when she had run a search on some of these freights, there were more than a few news articles of police busts, cocaine and guns often being found. If she had to hazard a guess, Avesh had been meddling with gang lords in the drug & gun running businesses. But surely not, she kept telling herself, this wasn't Hollywood, it wasn't the movies. This is mellow South Africa, this sort of thing didn't happen here. Or did it?
She was so confused.
Next Mel opened an email from Tuesday night, it was time stamped just an hour after her fight with Avesh. It had a photo attachment, the photos were all of her. One of her talking to Andre at the shop, another of her sitting next to Avesh at Yolo's with the sunset behind them. One she was sure was taken as she had just kneed Avesh in the groin, because it had him doubled over on the pier and her striding away with a face of steel. The last two pictures however were not very recent pictures, one was a picture that must have been taken over a year ago, she was artfully using one of her larger hunting knives to carve a piece of braai meat, she had never seen herself look so vicious and dangerous, it would have been funny under other circumstances. But the final picture made her gasp, it was taken from a fancy dress party some time ago, she knew that, not so sure if others would have known, it was an outfit that included cat burglar clothing, a trick knife with fake blood splatters, and and she had posed for this photo with her most evil and menacing grin. Where had this mystery person come across there photos?
This was fake evidence that seemed so damaging. If the cops were good enough to get this information, she highly doubted they would bother to look further than blaming her.
But why would anyone frame her? What could she do yo prove her innocence?
She decided to quickly look at his bank account, but just before she did her phone buzzed, glancing at it, she saw it was a text from the bank, an incoming transfer! Mel's heart started to race, she had a bad feeling about this! She had just received R100,000!  There was no reference number or name.
This was terrible. It looked like someone was paying her for a murder she didn't commit!
She quickly got into Avesh's bank account and saw that the last transaction had been ten minutes after he paid with his card at Yolo's, it was a transaction that took every single cent out of his account. His account was dry!
This whole thing was getting stranger by the second. She opened the incoming transactions and noticed a pattern, glancing back at the flight and ship arrival dates, she saw it clear as day!
For every shippment that had already come in, he had been paid R10,000 6 hours after its scheduled arrival time. Except the shipments that had been intercepted by police, those had been only R1000! He was definitely into something shady.
It was nearing 9pm and her mind was reeling, she had to be up early tomorrow to be tour guide to the Swiss group, but she couldn't very well leave this alone. So she poured herself another cup of coffee, and came back to sit at the desk.
That's when she noticed, there had been a R20,000 deposit come in the day Avesh died, but this time it was not 6 hours after a delivery, she looked again at the delivery schedule for that day, and realized that he must have gotten the delivery while she was at the shop chatting to Andre that night.

Hmm, Andre. The guy she had taught to stand up straight, and then immediately regretted it. Before she taught him to stand up straight, he was a wirey teenager, skinny as a rake and looking a bit like a slaap chip. He was brow beaten by his cute little sister and just too soft and sweet, a bit like a little puppy dog. But then soon after he had graduated high school, she looked at him and decided he needed to man up. That's the kind of woman Mel was, she could see potential in people, but Andre surprised even her. She had been bugging him for the whole summer, it was the last summer the whole gang had spent together, having beach parties and braais almost every day, she had bugged him at every opportunity to stand up straight, be a proud and tall man, telling him that he'll get the girl's attention and look so much better when he would stand tall. Well, more like reminded him, Mel corrected herself. And wow did that work, when Andre started standing up straight, he was at least 6", and there were suddenly a lot of "oohs and ahhs" from random girls they would pass. That was the summer he became a man, he developed muscles, he tanned, and he got tall. It was quite a striking conversion, one that made her want to kiss him, more than a few times. But she never did, he was like a little brother to her. But anyway, she reminded herself, that was shallow to think that way. Getting distracted from the topic at hand was not helping much either.

She rubbed her eyes and realised it was past midnight already. But she had done a lot in that time, she had printed all the schedules and number notations, the photos too, and the news clippings about the freights, pretty much all the information she could find. She had then wiped as much of Avesh's email accounts, and changed the passwords to a few random things. Hopefully that would keep the tech guys at the police station a busy for a while, if they had tech guys, and she thought back to the queue of cops waiting to share the computer. This isn't the movies or america she found she was telling herself for the umpteenth time today. Maybe she was going above and beyond what she needed to do here, but just in case they did get onto it, she would have slowed them down.
That's when Mel remembered she had been doing ALL of Avesh's accounts, not just some but all, that included his cell phone contracts, so she decided to try get into his call records too.
"Bingo" she shouted, and then wondered why she bothered talking aloud when she lived alone, but carried on anyway "Gotcha now suckers." As she printed out his call records from the last week. Thank goodness for itemized billing!
After logging out, and remembering to clear her history, she headed for bed.
But sleep was not easy. She tossed and turned and every time she just begun to fall to sleep, she would have an image of the slain man come into her mind. And who could possibly sleep with that image in their mind? Even though Mel had actually not seen the pictures or the scene, her imagination was quite good at doing its own thing.

Eventually at 6:30 the sunshine forced her tired eyes to open. She rolled out of bed, and put on a pair of dark blue jeans and a black tank top, donning her signature flip -flops, she headed out the door with all her papers from the night before in her messenger bag. She didn't even bother to try tame her long brown curls today, hair was the least of her worries. After stopping for a take-out breakfast, she drove to the beach and parked facing the bright rays of the morning sun over the sea. It was beautiful, it always was, but Mel had never been a morning person, so the sunrises and early mornings were always made that much more beautiful to her because of their rarity. Sitting there eating breakfast, she opened the messenger bag and begun pouring over the information she had collected last night. She figured she might just as well do it, because if she didn't, either the cops were going to be good enough to find her and look no further, or they would just end up leaving the case cold. Neither option sounded good to her, but Mel especially did not like the former, for good reason of course.

Mel arrived at 8 sharp in the lobby of the upmarket Azure Seas hotel, where her Swiss friends were staying. She glanced around and spotted the unmistakeable blond mop of hair belonging to Julian sitting in one of the plush leather couches, along with all his friends there. She strode up to them with a grin on her face, determined to keep the information and the tough night she had just had to herself, and enjoy today.

The hustle and bustle of the street market in the mid morning rush was surprising and yet invigorating. Being asked to take them to the spots the locals enjoyed, not so much the tourist aimed spots, she had chosen a few of her favourite spots. These epitomized her view of this city. The market they were in had the smells of curry powders and incense wafting through the air, the loud shouting and bargaining of shoppers and stall holders, the bright saris that were so common of the vibrant Indian population, the wooden carvings and colourful glass beads that the african nations displayed and sold, not to the tourists that frequented the beach front, but to the locals.
After shopping themselves to capacity, and trying out rotis and bunny chows, the group were introduced to a wonderful piece of the city that even few of the locals and almost no tourists ever went to. A beach that sported octopus and urchins, tiger fish and commorants, even cowrie shells and coral still washed up on this beach. They relished in this wonderful piece of what was still wild Africa. Rounding a corner on the rocks they were walking and climbing over on this wonderfully warm March afternoon, they came across the most magnificent cove the Europeans had ever seen, and one of Mel's favourite spots in the whole province! Like a natural tidal pool this cove had a barrier of rocks on three sides and a lovely sandy beach. With water still and crystal clear the group hurriedly stripped to their bathing costumes and dived in.

That evening, sitting around the braai that Mel's friend Mfundu had set up for them in Umlazi for a Shisa Nyama evening, Mel had almost forgotten about the stress of the past few days. She looked up at the puffy pink and purple clouds showcasing the stunning sunset above her and smiled, thinking 'this really is the life'.

The next morning she awoke, finally well rested. It was Friday morning, she had just been told that Chris was coming to the coast for a week's leave and arranged that for the weekend she'd be going with Andre and Chris to visit Jen. It was going to be awesome having the gang together, well mostly anyway.
And then when she got back into Durban, she'd start looking for a new job. After all, she had to have a job to pay the rent, otherwise it would be moving back in with Mom and Dad.

Her mind had not quite closed down this story about Avesh as yet. She had seen there would be a ship arriving at the harbour at a very normal hour of 1pm, the container that would be unloaded today would be ZN7F58. So what, Mel asked herself, would be the harm in going and snooping around the docks? So after packing her weekend bags, she headed to the docks.

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Author's note
Thank you for taking the time to read this story. I guess maybe by now it is taking some time to get to the action, but I am looking to find a nice balance between action, adventure, a touch or two of romance and intrigue. Those my favourite type of novels to read and I hoped I could find a way to express my own person creativity like that too. If you are enjoying reading this story, or even if you have any suggestions or thoughts on how it might pan out, please do post a comment below. I would really appreciate that.
TBA

Chapter 3 - Breathe, while you can

Mel sat at her desk staring at a blank screen. She hadn't  had the heart or the stomach to go into the conference room to see everyone and their shock. Her mind was spinning, she couldn't possibly concentrate on anything.
She kept going over the events of the night before, was there anything that linked? More importantly was there anything that would make them think she had done it? She knew full well that she was innocent, she could never have killed another human being. But would they see it that way when it turned up she was likely the last witness to see him alive and had at least ten strangers witness her very vocal threat of killing him? What was she going to do?

"Mel!" a head popped around the corner pulling her out of her thoughts. "What are you doing here still?" asked the floor manager.
"Oh hi Mark." She glanced up smiling at her coworker "What do you mean?"
"Didn't they tell you, the cops want to question those he was working closest with, that includes you, since you were his PA" He said matter-of-factly.
"Right, makes sense. No one told me, when and where am I supposed to go?" She looked at him and hoped her expression showed confusion and not guilt.

She had been sitting in the police station for over an hour, realizing just how different from the movies South Africa's police force really was, with dingy and dirty walls, too much paper work all over the place, and too few computers so there was a queue for officers and detectives to get to their business. It didn't help that the power had just gone out, so they were all trying to get the back-up power on before any work on the computers was lost. The smell though was what had hit her the worst, it was a mixture of second-hand cigarette smoke, beer breath, day old urine and old sweat was about the closest she could get to explaining it, and it made her nauseous.

"Dumbass boss was found dead this morning by the pier. I'm in police station for questioning. This place stinks. Hope your day is going better. Mel" She hit the send button to Jen.
The reply came almost instantly 

"Just the usual meds that make me feel like crap. Took a stroll through the forest this morning, got some awesome pics of spiderwebs with dew drops.

OMG what the hell??????? You a suspect? You would never kill anyone! Need bail?"

"Nope, just coz I worked with the guy, so they going to question me about his work life. If they ever get to it, looks like power is cut in here and computers & aircon are all down. Gotta go, here comes a cute guy in uniform" and she pocketed her phone as the uniformed officer approached her with a bottle of water.

"Miss," he said "you've been waiting here so long so I thought I would bring you a bottle of water. Has anyone seen to your interview yet?"

"Thank you so much officer" she smiled sweetly at him and seriously considered playing the damsel in distress card, but decided against it. She knew she was better than that, so instead she said "No, I have not been interviewed yet, but I'm really keen to get it over and done with."

She was glad when the officer had kindly reminded the detective that the interview could still be done, even while waiting for the power to come back on. The questions had been the usual run-of-the-mill type: How long have you known Mr Chetty? What was his work ethics like? Did he ever mix work and family life? Did he have any enemies? Did she hear anything unusual when he was leaving the office last?

She answered as openly and honest as possible without actually telling hem that she was with him at Yolo's last night. They didn't ask her directly and she didn't want to give them too much information. If they found out about her being there, she wanted to be absolutely sure that she could prove it was not her first.

After the interview in the hot and stuffy station all she wanted to do was take a cool dip in the ocean. Thankfully she always kept her hot little black bikini and a towel in the boot of her car, so she headed straight for the golden mile. It was midweek and out of the holiday season, so the beach was quiet. After changing, Mel stopped by the lifeguards whom she knew by name and chatted to them a little, non-chalantly asking them if they had heard about the murder on the beach last night. They had indeed heard about it, it was another life guard, now off duty, who had found the slain man. Apparently the weird thing about the murder was nothing had been taken, he still had is wallet, phone, and even his gaudy gold chain necklace when he was found this morning. The word on the street was it was either a crime of passion, or a warning to others.

Faking morbid curiosity was easy, she had always chatted to the life guards when she came to the beach, she knew their children's names and even what schools they went to. It was always useful to be friendly with the type of people who did the day to day mundane jobs. She made most of her friends in adult life that way, cleaner ladies, garbage men, street sweepers, security guards. She would always go out of her way to greet them, thank them for the thankless job that they did, introduce herself, and find out their names. To tell the truth, the habit had come in useful more than a few times, it had gotten her some good information and out of sticky situations. And today was another of those days, thanking the life guards for what they always did to look after people, she headed into the sea.

After nearly an hour of swimming, she pulled herself out of the surf. She loved the sea, and the swim had been just what she needed. But she always held a deep respect for the ocean and knew better than to swim when she was tired. Strolling up to the local kiosk, she bought herself an ice cream, it was such a hot day for autumn. She was thinking his would be sure to be another shockingly cold winter for Durban. It had been hitting record lows every winter for about 5 years running now, each summer would seem longer and hotter and each winter sudden, short and cold. There was even speculation that it might just snow his year. Boy, that would be amazing,snow in Durban she mused as she begun licking the ice cream. She planned on taking a short walk on the promenade, she needed some "alone time" to do some thinking, and there was no place better than a busy public area to keep strangers out of your hair and away from talking to you.

She had wondered along aimlessly, considering the events of the past couple of weeks and especially the past couple of days. She wondered if there was any way for her to do a thing about the case she now felt she was a part of and seemingly could not escape from. She decided that she was going to attempt to conduct an investigation of her own.

When Mel eventually reached the end of the promenade at the lagoon she was shocked she had actually walked so far. The promenade and in fact the entire beach front always looked stunning nowadays. Ten years ago it had been a dodgy place for a single woman to walk along, but the city had upgraded the whole beach front a few years back. With regular security patrols for safety. It now looked like it was taken from a Hollywood set, the typical palm trees, the wide promenade with roller skaters and cyclists ambling along it, the tourists taking snapshots of the ocean, the blond surfer babes in their wetsuits and salt bleached hair. Starting to head back to her car she happened upon a group of tourists from Switzerland who stopped her asking if she would take a photo of them, she got chatting with them about Durban and its history after taking a few photos.
Before long one of the Swiss men who's name was Julian, asked her to please be their tour guide of the city for the next 2 days while they were in the city, they would pay her, and pay for her meals and activities. She thought about it for a moment. She had handed in her resignation this morning, she knew the city inside out, and it included free food.
"Ah, why not? Sure I will." She eventually answered them.
Cheers came from the group, and she smiled. Her smile faded when she realized this would interfere with her unofficial investigation in Avesh's murder. But too late to back out now she decided.
She arranged to meet the group at 8 the next morning in their hotel lobby for a typical tourist day in and around the city. They were a group of ten, 6 men, 4 women. They ranged from about 24 years old to to about 31 she figured. This would be fun she decided, just the "holiday at home" that she was needing. She took a few more photos of the group with their cameras and said goodbye until tomorrow, then started back towards her car.
Suddenly Julian was next to her, he handed her a 20 euro note, as well as a 200 rand note, and stated "This is for your trouble, I look forwards to seeing you tomorrow"
She wasn't going to refuse, so she politely thanked him.

Back at home, she turned on the air con, after taking a nice cold shower. It had been a hot day and she had been out in the sun in her bikini for much of the day. Flicking on her PC she went to get a cup of coffee while the computer warmed up.
Because she had been doing all of Avesh's work for the past 8 weeks, including paying his home bills, he had given her all of his passwords, so she had instant access to his work and private email accounts, as well as his bank accounts. It was time to do some digging and see if she could figure out what was really going on.

Logging in, nothing could have prepared her for what happened!

Chapter 2 - A close call

Life wasn't like all the movies she had watched and the books she had read.
She relished on the escapes, the way the heroes & heroines were always on the run, clearing their name, changing their identity, and yet still discovering a world of possibility all around them as they went.

She supposed it was the gypsy blood from the grandfather she had never known that made her always want to be on the move. Her grandmother had always told her stories of how he had always been on the move, never settling anywhere. And that was how she felt most of the time, a free spirit. When things got too comfortable and settled, all she wanted to do was hit the road.

She had been saying for years that she wanted to travel, travel the country, travel the world. Never really setting down roots anywhere. But when she finished school she had no money to her name. Getting money meant working, it meant becoming responsible and reliable, settling down. Sadly she relented and got a job. She knew she should not complain, she had the ability to think out of the box, and that is what landed her the jobs that most people were green with envy over. She enjoyed the work, but always resented that it was holding her back from her dreams.
Nevertheless a job was a job, and she worked. She always saved and put away what she could into her "Dream Box" account, the one she would use to fund her dreams. For ten long years, she worked. Making new friends, but never truly getting close to anyone from her adult life. She was a loner, despite some calling her a social butterfly. Thing was, she never thought anyone truly understood her.

This week had been just the final straw.
The no good guy she worked for had pushed her to the limit. Avesh, had his manicured finger nails, spiky gelled hair, and his BMW with custom rims. And boy did he think he was the next best thing to breyani. He would have been ok enough actually, a good looking and wealthy man was the dream of most women. But this guy, was a particularly large pain in the butt. You see, he thought the world revolved around him, and others, but especially women were the dirt of the land. To be used, and trampled on. A stepping stone to success. But most of all, Avesh enjoyed hitting on all the ladies, especially Mel.

Tuesday, as usual he had given her all his work to do. Her job title was "Personal Assistant" and the pay was reasonable enough, but seeing as she was doing every ounce of his work at the job while he was juggling phone calls between his private estate agent and his bookie, she was getting a bit sick of having him order her around to do his personal grocery shopping, and pay his personal bills. She had had enough. This was not in the job description, and she was tired of having him ask her out every week.
Granted, she had only held down this job for 8 weeks now.
Most jobs she held down for 2 or 3 months before getting bored out of her mind and quitting. Or after a couple of months of getting annoyed at the hypocrisy, the lies, the ordering around, the flirting, she would eventually stand up to her boss or even the boss' boss and tell them exactly what she thought of it all. The next day she would be looking for a new job. Truth was she actually liked it that way. It was part of her desire to never settle in, this thing of not settling into a job.

So being Tuesday, she was catching up on all the work Avesh didn't feel like doing Monday (which was all of it), being rushed already because people wanted it done urgently. At the end of the day, despite having no time for a lunch break, she realized she was going to have to work late, again.
Then Avesh walked into her office, all suave and yet again said "Mel, I'm exhausted, its been such a long day. I don't feel like going home to cook, so I'm going out for dinner. Please join me."
"Avesh, I'm not interested." Mel wearily answered without looking up from the screen in front of her, "I still have to do the poster for the fundraiser that YOU were supposed to do last week and didn't tell me until this afternoon. I also got that spreadsheet to finish, and a mailing list to send. So I'm not only not interested, I don't have time. And guess what, you ain't the only one who is tired."
Silence, she looked up and he was still standing there "Aw come on Mel, its not like I'm asking you on a date this time. You've worked hard with all these deadlines and I'm offering to buy you dinner. Plus its at Yolo's, that awesome place on the pier. Its been a clear day, so there is bound to be an a lovely sunset. You deserve it, these things can wait till tomorrow." he said with a smile on his face.
She sighed, a free dinner that she didn't have to make sounded good, and it had been a long couple of days. He owed her anyway for keeping her mouth shut to his boss about his deals on the side. And Yolo's was a really nice place, it had the best view back over the golden mile and the city, the sunset would be a stunner, she knew that.
"Whatever Avesh. I'll come, this time only. You're paying, dont you forget that." she muttered as she shut down the computer and stood up. Grabbing her car keys, she told him she'd meet him there but had to run to the shop first.

"Mel?" a voice behind her called. She spun around, red faced at being caught in the feminine hygene isle to see Andre standing there grinning, apparently oblivious to their position in the shop. "I thought it was you," he said "what are you doing on this end of town?"
"Uh, um," she stammered, caught off guard "shopping".
He chuckled "ah Mel, only you would answer like that. I thought you were working on the other side of town?"
"That job was so boring, I could not take another day of it. So I quit." She explained "Now I'm a personal assistant to an executive at an advertising company a block away from here. Just got off work, popped in to buy a few things, and am headed for supper"
Andre just then realised what isle he was standing in and flushed red. Now it was Mel's turn to chuckle "Tell you what Andre, I'm headed to Yolo's for supper in a few mins, why don't you join me?"
"I wish I could, but mom asked me to just pop into the shop for milk on my way home. She'll worry if I don't get home soon." He answered with a sigh. "Pity, my boss is buying and I fully intend on ragging him. He's an idiot, and I'd love to have someone to share the ripping off of him with." She laughed, "Anyways send your mom my love."
Andre smiled "I will. Come visit us sometime soon"
"You know I will" she said as he was walking away.

Arriving at Yolo's it was not too busy, midweek evenings were never that busy. She quickly spotted Avesh sitting in one of the lounger chairs out on the deck overlooking the sunset. She walked up quietly behind him while he was on the phone to someone saying "look man, I don't have your money. I'll get it together soon. I know I owe you a lot. Don't you make threats, I'll pay you when I pay you" he paused while yelling came over the phone, and she walked into his sight "Look, my date just arrived I gotta go" and he put the phone down.
"Avesh, this is not a date." Mel told him as soon as he had turned the phone off. "Remember, you said that yourself"
"Ahh, but darling..."
"Don't darling me, don't give me nicknames" she interrupted him "I'm here to eat, and then I wanna go home. I'm exhausted from doing all of YOUR work."
"Fine, sorry." He answered "Let me try again, the gentleman's way"
She glared at him
"Mel, thank you for agreeing to meet me here. Please, sit down" he gestured to the seat next to him "I have taken the liberty of ordering us something to drink, and here's the menu. I'm buying so pick whatever you want, don't worry about the price."

She smiled, it had been years since she had allowed any man to treat her to a night out. But with Avesh, really? No she was not going to fall for his fake chivalry, she already knew his game plan and wanted no part of it. But she didn't mind a free meal at a place that she never allowed herself to buy at. She always ate in, cooked her own food. She may be nearly 30, but she was still saving every penny she could for the dream box.

They sat and chatted, watched the sun setting over the city and the city lights come on. They ate a fantastic meal, and had desert. Mel was trying not to snort her cuppacino from laughing so hard because Avesh was describing how stupid he had been when he got pulled over by a cop for driving and talking on the phone. He stopped at the end of the the story and just looked at her, she was so relaxed, smiling so widely. She looked up at him, and asked "so you're a real bad boy huh?"
"I used to be, not so much anymore. But Mel, you didn't want me to keep you out too late, something about being exhausted. So let me walk you back to your car."
"Alright" She replied, and stood up to leave.

They walked down the pier, chatting and laughing about how crazy some people were when younger. Suddenly Avesh stopped, grabbed her arm and asked "you keep talking about other people being crazy when younger, but did you never do anything crazy?"
"Nothing that I'm ever going to tell you about Avesh" she said looking straight at him, just inches from his face "Now release my arm please"
"No," he said "not until..." and he leaned in to kiss her.
She was ready for it, with a knee into his groin in record speed and a slap to the cheek, she twisted her arm free, and marched away leaving him groaning.
It only took him a few seconds to regroup, she was near a group of people by then, he ran up to her and said "Wait, please Mel' I'm sorry"
"Not today smart ass" she responded, and twisted out of his reach as he tried to grab her again. She knew he was two faced, but still shocked at his next response.
"No woman gets away from me like that" He stormed
"Avesh, you touch me one more time, and I swear I'll kill you. No one will ever find your body!" She vehemently shouted at him, successfully getting every head on the pier to look at them.
He withdrew away back into the shadows and she stormed off to her car and sped home.

That night she couldn't help but think how stupid she had been. She knew his play book, she knew she would never be interested in him. But why had she gone along with it for the evening. And allowing herself to relax, again stupid teenager style mistake. Stupid, she kept told herself over and over.
She needed to talk to someone, so she texted Jen. Jen and her had had a good laugh about it after a few dozen messages. They had discussed the various ways Mel could have reacted, knowing that Mel still always kept at least 3 knives on her body at all times, and a pepper spray and a tazer. It wasn't so much about personal safety, but more for the fun of knowing that she had more power with her. Guns were always out though, she never ever wanted to be lethal.

Wednesday morning, she got to the office right on time, walked in and saw everyone grouped in the conference room. Supposing the meeting was Avesh cooking up some lies about her, she didn't care, her resignation letter was ready to hand in. She had been up since early looking for a new job.
They saw her walk in, and the receptionist, who never left her desk but today was even in the conference room stepped out to greet her. Thats when she realized this was something bigger!

"Jodene, what's wrong?" Mel asked when she saw how Jodene had been crying.
"The police" sob "are here. Avesh" sob, gasp "Avesh was found dead this morning." sob "he, he was stabbed" sob "on the beachfront" sob "last night" was all Jodene could get out before she had to run to the ladies room crying.
Mel just stood there stunned!

Chapter 1 - Her Background

She had a few friends from school days who she did truly value and knew would always help her.

There was Jenny de Swart, the sweet 4'8" girl who may have been a bit younger and smaller than her, but had the biggest heart of gold. She loved the outdoors as much as Mel did, knew some of the best hiking trails, the ones off the map. This little Afrikaans brunette had always had spunk. Jen always stuck by her friends, and Mel knew she could always count on her. Jen was sick a lot nowadays, they often texted. They didn’t see each other often anymore, when Jen got sick, her parents took the ultimate sacrifice, quit their jobs and moved her up the coast, away from the big city so they could look after their ailing daughter. It was sad to see such a lively young person getting sick. And scary, scary that although Jen was younger than Mel, they were both still under 30, sickness could pull one of them down like this.

Then there was always Colleen O’Neil, the red headed Irish friend. Colleen's family moved in right next door to Mel when the girls were ten, they were similar enough to become instant lifelong friends, but different enough to enjoy their space and not annoy each other. After they had graduated Colleen got a job and moved to Cape Town.

And there was always Anele. This was new South Africa, and there was nothing wrong with growing up with friends of all colors, in fact Mel was probably closer to Anele than anyone else. But after graduating Anele had gone up to live in Jozi, she had an aging mother and Jozi had the best jobs so she could support her mom. Life had been tough on Anele, she had had to grow up too fast. But she was sweet, and caring.

The girls had spent a ton of time together growing up, but you couldn’t say they were inseparable. There was an age gap of a few years, and when they were kids it had mattered; now obviously that seemed so petty. But it was still there, slightly.

Mel was still a loner. She could never really call anyone her best friend, because truth be told, those she viewed as her best friends always actually had another best friend. So she remained a loner, social, friendly, but never too close to anyone.

In the teen years she was always closer to the boys anyway. Not flirting or dating them, but being one of the guys. Some thought she was lesbian, but that was not it. She was attracted to the guys, very, dangerously attracted to them. But they were less messy than teenage girls with their make-up & gossip, pms and hairspray. Guys were straight forward, no drama. Ok, they spoke about boring stuff like cars & sports, but they liked her collection of pocket knives, she could beat any of them at arm wrestling, and they were willing to take her on at a tree climbing duel. The girls, well not so much.

But as adolescents became teens & teens became adults, the guys began to notice her, not for the knife collection anymore, but as a woman. And most of the friendships there fell to pieces because she would never risk their friendship for a possible 6 months of dating.

The only guy friends she had left, she was pretty sure were just short of being gay, the way they acted, even into their 20s, and the way they dressed always hinted at it. But maybe that was just because of this being the age of geeky guys.

There was Andre Swart, a tall skinny guy with a mop of brown hair. He was always a bit of a momma's boy, but had never been anything but kind and sweet to Mel. Even when he knew she needed something from him. She had to be careful though, there had been more than a couple of times they had been chatting when she was almost ready to grab him and kiss him. Problem being she didn’t want to ruin their friendship. So she always put those feelings down to stupidity and hormonal imbalances. Thankfully that had not happened any time recently. They both had jobs that took much time and energy out of their lives and meant they didn’t get to hang out much, except the occasional movie when the rest of the gang was visiting.

Lastly there was Chris Moore. He was not even that close to Mel, more a friend of Colleen's, he was quite similar to  Colleen, a bit geeky with a quirky side. Sarcastic, but a good sense of humor. Fun to hang out with, but not for too long. He too had moved out of Durbs, all the way up to Pretoria. When his parents got divorced and things were rough in his home, he moved to live with his married sister to do his final year of schooling. Turned out that he enjoyed it so much up there that he stayed.

And those were the 5 people in the world that she was closest to. The only ones she knew she could always trust.

She had her parents, but her relationship with them was such that she knew she could always take the good things to them and they would be happy. But she never could take the bad things to them, last time she tried that was 7 years ago, and they stopped talking to her for over 3 weeks.

This is the story of Mel Cooper, her friends and her escape from the city called a paradise!