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!