The Valley of Longing 10

‘If that’s the hole out there, then yes,’ Melissa said. ‘The ball bounced twice, then rolled down into the water.’ Visagie’s smile broadened. ‘A lot of people make that mistake,’ he said. ‘There’s a bit of a nasty bunker to the right of the green, you have to aim just past the edge of the bunker if you want to stay on the green, and not many people manage it, especially if they don’t know the course.’ ‘That doesn’t sound like much fun.’ ‘Depends on how you look at it. I’m paid to make the course a challenge for people who know how to play a good round of golf.’ Mitchell had no interest in the golf talk, and paid little attention to it, instead he focused on watching out for Oliver Hendricks. His vigilance was rewarded when a short while later he saw Hendricks. ‘He’s here,’ he told the other two. It was another couple of minutes before a knock sounded. ‘You asked me to come in, Mr Visagie,’ Oliver said as he entered the office. He stopped the moment he saw the two uniformed officers with his boss. ‘What’d you want?’ he asked of Mitchell, his dislike of the sergeant evident. Stefaan Visagie took his cue from the look directed at him by Mitchell, and excused himself. ‘Hello, Ollie, how are you?’ Mitchell asked. ‘How does it feel to be gainfully employed for the first time in your life?’ ‘What d’you want?’ Oliver repeated his question, ignoring the pleasantries. ‘We need to speak to you about something.’ Mitchell said. ‘A couple of somethings, actually.’ ‘Yeah, well, I don’t wanna speak to you, so you can get lost,’ Oliver told him. ‘You only ever come looking for me when you think I’ve done something. Well, I ain’t done shit, other than go straight. I’ve got a legit job, I’m leaning to be a groundskeeper, and you’d better not have messed it up for me coming here, If you have I’ll …’ He cut himself off before he could finish the threat he was thinking of. ‘We’re not here because we think you’ve been involved in anything,’ Mitchell said, ‘We’re here about Lynne.’ ‘What about Lynne?’ Oliver demanded. ‘Don’t tell me you useless cops have actually managed to find her. No, if you’d found her, Uncle Stefaan would’ve called to tell me, he wouldn’t have left it to you lot.’ Mitchell hesitated for a moment before saying, ‘We have found Lynne, or rather, she has been found.’ ‘Then why hasn’t Uncle Stefaan called to tell me himself?’ ‘Because, and I really hate to have to tell you this, Oliver, Lynne was …’ Mitchell paused before plunging on. ‘Lynne is dead, she was killed,’ he said that in a rush, and braced himself for the inevitable reaction - he was not disappointed, though he was not sure that was the right word. For several, long seconds Oliver simply stood there, staring at the sergeant. His fists were clenched at his side, and his chest rose and fell heavily as he sought to control himself, without success. After about three or four seconds, Oliver gave up trying to control himself, he turned and ran from the office, surprising both the sergeant and the constable, both of whom had expected him to explode and rage at them. He was gone before either officer could recover from their surprise. Melissa recovered first and quickly set off in pursuit, unsure why Oliver was fleeing, only that she had to catch him. She stopped to look around when she reached the outside; at first glance it seemed as though Oliver had disappeared, but she guessed where he must have gone when she heard the roar of an unruffled car exhaust. She hurried for the corner, so she could make for the car park at the side of the building, and reached it just in time to be forced to dive out of the way to be avoid being run down by Oliver Hendricks’s speeding car. ‘How could you let him get away?’ Mitchell demanded when she caught up with Melissa, who was still on the ground and saw the VW GOLF disappearing rapidly down the road. ‘I didn’t let him get away.’ Melissa said, disbelief on her face as she pulled herself up from the ground. ‘Oliver’s faster than me, always has been. In case you’ve forgotten he was the hundred metres champion for the District, two years running. He was already out of sight by the time I got out here, and in his car by the time I got to the corner. I didn’t have a hope in Hell of stopping him. ‘Oh, and I’m fine by the way, thanks for asking.’ Mitchell fumed, but didn’t allow himself to react to the sarcasm in Melissa’s voice. He had more important to worry about, namely the fact that Oliver was getting away. Without checking to see that Melissa was with him, he hurried away so he could give chase. Melissa felt like swearing but resisted the urge, instead she followed the sergeant. She caught up with him just before he reached the patrol car they were using, and slid into the passenger seat, while he got behind the wheel and started the engine. ‘Why d’you think he’s run?’ Melissa asked as they raced down the narrow drive that led to the rear entrance of the golf course. ‘We’ve got no reason for thinking he’s involved in what happened to Lynne, at least we didn’t til now; running definitely makes him look like a suspect. And where’s he running to?’ He can’t be heading home, that’d just be asking for him to get caught.’ ‘He’s not heading home, he’s got someone he wants to talk to,’ Mitchell said.’ ‘What are you…’ Melissa was interrupted by a crackle for her radio before she could finish her question. ‘Control to one - four, come in, over.’ ‘One - four to control, receiving, over,’ Melissa responded. ‘Are you still looking for Ollie?’ Heath asked. ‘Yeah, we caught up with him at the golf course, but he did a bunk. Have you seen him?’ Melissa asked of her fellow constable. ‘He just blew past me like he’s at Silverstone, and gunning for the finish line.’ ‘Is he heading for home?’ Melissa peered ahead through the windscreen, hoping for a glimpse of Oliver’s Golf, while she waited for an answer. ‘Not unless he’s got Hamilton’s brakes,’ Heath said. ‘He just blew past home like it wasn’t even there.’ That left Melissa confused. ‘If he’s not going home, where is he going?’ It was Mitchell who answered. ‘He’s heading for the Wright farm.’ That answered the question, but left Melissa just as confused. ‘Why would Oliver be heading there? He’s got nothing to do with the farm or the family.’ ‘Because he thinks Kerwin is responsible for Lynne’s disappearance, it’s why he attacked him last weekend; if we don’t get there quick, I hate to think what Oliver’s going to do. ‘He pressed his foot down on the accelerator, making the car leap forward as it picked up speed. If Melissa had any doubts, they disappeared when they reached the Wright farm, and she saw the mess Oliver had made of the gate, and his VW Golf a short distance away - abandoned rather than parked, the driver’s door wide open. Mitchell brought the patrol car to a stop in front of the house and hurriedly got out, as did Melissa. They had no sooner done so than they heard a scream. ‘That didn’t sound like Ollie or Kerwin,’ Melissa said as he hurried around the car so she could make for the front door, which stood ajar, and form which came the sounds of a fight. ‘I know, it sounded like a girl,’ Mitchell said, unhappy with the development. ‘You take the front, I’ll go round the back; give me a minute to get there, then we’ll both go in.’ Melissa could not remember a longer minute as she counted slowly. The moment she reached sixty she burst through the partially open door; she expected to find Oliver on the other side, instead she found an empty passage and had to hurry down it to the kitchen, where the sounds of fighting were coming from. She threw open the kitchen door the moment she reached it, and heard a sudden cry of pain, high - pitched and obviously female. Melissa guessed that the person she had just hit with the door was one of Kerwin’s sisters, the other being a short distance away; she didn’t have time to worry about her, though, for in the middle of the room, Oliver was wrestling with someone. She couldn’t see the face of the person Oliver was wrestling with, but she assumed it was Kerwin, since it was clearly male. Without waiting for Mitchell, who should have already been there, Melissa moved forward to try and break the fight up. If she didn’t, she suspected Kerwin was going to be killed, or at least left permanently injured, given the energy and enthusiasm with which Oliver’s fists. She reeled away from the fight, but the moment she recovered her balance, she threw herself back into the fray. As best she could, she avoided the flailing arms as she sought to separate Oliver and Kerwin, with only minimal success. Fortunately, Mitchell arrived before she could receive more than a few painful and annoying bruises; between them they managed to drag Oliver away from Kerwin, and hold him long enough for his wrists to be secured with cuffs. ‘It might be a good idea if you take the girls into the living room, while I speak to Oliver and Kerwin,’ Mitchell said to Melissa, once he had the two young men on opposite sides of the kitchen. ‘Okay.’ It took Melissa some persuasion to get Amelia and Tara, Kerwin’s sisters, out of the kitchen and along the passage to the living room. Amelia went willingly, but Tara had to be all but dragged from the kitchen. Mitchell waited until he was reasonably sure Melissa and the two girls had reached the living room, and then he turned to Kerwin. ‘Are you alright?’ he asked. ‘What the hell are you asking him for?’ Oliver demanded. ‘He’s the sick bastard who killed Lynne.’ He launched himself across the room, catching the sergeant by surprise, and threw himself on Kerwin, The fact that his hands were cuffed behind his back didn’t stop him, he rammed into Kerwin with his shoulder, driving him backwards into the upturned table, which had clearly suffered as a result of the fight between the two, and when Oliver stepped back, Kerwin fell to the floor. There was just enough time for Oliver to lash out with a booted foot, burying it in Kerwin’s stomach, before he was dragged away. ‘You okay?’ Mitchell asked of Kerwin. He shoved Oliver across the room, out of the way, and then bent to help Kerwin to his feet. ‘Sure. That pussy couldn’t hurt a flea,’ Kerwin said dismissively, ignoring the fact that the so-called ‘PUSSY’ had just floored him. Oliver sneered at that. ‘Who the hell are you trying to kid?’ he wanted to know.’ If anyone’s a pussy here, it’s you, and you know it. You couldn’t fight your way out of a wet plastic bag. If your daddy hadn’t been here with his shotgun last week, I’da had you in hospital, and if the cops hadn’t turned up today, I’da finished the job I started the other month. You’re a sick sonofabitch and you need to die.’ As he raged, he struggled against the handcuffs that kept him restrained, even though he had enough experience with handcuffs to know that it was impossible for him to break out of them. ‘Shut up, Oliver,’ Mitchell ordered. He righted one of the upturned chairs that had previously been around the table and pushed him down onto it. ‘You sure you’re okay?’ When Kerwin nodded, Mitchell got down to his reason for being there. ‘I’m sorry to have to be the bearer of bad news, Kerwin, but…’ ‘You never said you were sorry when you told me,’ Oliver butted in angrily as he half rose from the hard, wooden chair he had been put on. Mitchell pushed Oliver back down onto the chair, glad of the handcuffs that made the violent twenty - year - old easier to deal with. ’I would’ve said sorry, but you never gave me a chance,’ he said, fixing him with a hard look. ’You ran off the moment I told you what’s happened, before I could say something else, so you could come here and attack Kerwin, for no reason other than you don’t like him.’ ‘Don’t like him, I fucking hate him,’ Oliver snarled. ’Uncuff me, I wanna kill that sick sonofabitch.’ He continued to struggle against the cuffs. ‘Shut up and behave yourself,’ Mitchell told him. He shoved Oliver down again, this time with enough force to rock the chair back on two legs momentarily. ’If you don’t I’ll have Melissa take you out to the car while I talk with Kerwin.’ ‘Fuck you.’ Oliver leaned forwards to stop his chair falling over and then surged to his feet so he could launch himself at Kerwin. Before he could cover half the distance, he was dragged to the floor by Mitchell. ‘Mel,’ Mitchell called out as he struggled to keep Kerwin on the floor. Melissa skidded to a halt in the kitchen, having run down the passage to find out what was going on. It didn’t surprise her to find that Oliver had been causing trouble. ‘What do you need?’ It looked to her as though her superior had everything under control. ‘Take this pain in the ass out to the car,’ Mitchell told her. ‘Shove him in the back and lock him in there, we’ll take him to the station once we’re finished here.’ Melissa nodded and moved to take charge of the prisoner. She got him to his feet, with help from Mitchell, and then led him from the kitchen. ‘Okay, now Oliver’s out of the way,’ Mitchell said once he was alone with Kerwin. ‘I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news…’ ‘It’ okay, sergeant, I know why you’re here,’ Kerwin said sadly. ‘You’re found Lynne.’ He Didn’t look at Mitchell as he said that, instead he focused on righting the table and chairs overturned during his fight with Kerwin. ‘How do you know that?’ Mitchell asked, bending to help with the table. ‘I must have been called or text by half the Dorpie in the last hour and a half,’ Kerwin said. He gave a short, humourless laugh. ‘You know how it is around here, nobody can wait to pass on any news they hear, especially if it’s bad news.’ Mitchell nodded, well aware how much the residents liked to gossip. ‘So what has everyone been telling you?’ he asked, wondering how accurate the gossip had been - not very, was his guess. ‘They all said pretty much the same thing.’ Kerwin said. ‘That Lynne was found this morning, and that she was - she was killed.’ He could not bring himself to say murdered.