Chapter 16

Morningside Meadows, Caledon District, Overberg.

Everyone took off sprinting. Some sprinted towards the flaming feed barn; others were gathering hoses and water. Solomon managed to start a tractor and drove a water bowser towards the burning barn.

The effects of the “Vaaljapie” vanished as it became clear that the barn was on fire, with the farm animals’ feed inside. Hay bales, horse power feed, milk cow power feed, grain and maize for chickens, ducks, and geese; everything was inside the burning barn.

The automatic gunfire ceased as quickly as it began. In the orange glow of the fire, TC’s men were visible as they approached the farmyard fence, rifles drawn. I simply ran towards the improvised stage, which had become a mess of inverted milk crates and scaffold boards. Andie was struggling to get up on her feet somewhere inside the chaos, but she was pinned down by a hefty plank.

Ash, Angie, and Lorie arrived at Andie’s side at the same time I did. With Ash, Angie and Lorie, no words were needed, and together we headed right to the hefty scaffold plank to free Andie from its weight.

“Slow! She could have been hurt. Maybe broke something,” Ash said. “Now heave ... slowly...”

“Together!” I huffed, and the four of us heaved the heavy plank off Andie.

The removal of the scaffold plank pressing down on her chest released her breathing, and she took in a deep breath and coughed as the weight came off. She opened her eyes and attempted to sit up.

“Slowly, pumpkin!” I warned. “Take it slow. Where do you hurt?”

“I ... don’t... (cough, cough) hurt...” Andie stammered. “I ... must get ... up...”

“Let me help you,” Angie directed, and I found myself helping Angie get Andrea up on her feet.

“My shoes ... Where’s my shoes?” Andie asked and frantically looked around.

“Here they are!” Lorie piped up, and she picked up the missing shoes and helped Angie get them on her feet.

“The feed store! It’s burning!” Andrea exclaimed as she saw the orange and red flames shoot up out of the shattered roof.

“It’s being taken care of! The workers are busy with the water hoses and water bowser.” I soothed Andie.

“Yeah, Andie, you can’t do anything there. You will just be in the way,” Angie said. “Sit down here on this crate and catch your breath.”

“The feed! I must get the feed out!” Andrea replied.

“Stuff the feed! We can get fresh feed! Now you listen to me Angie, and SIT DOWN!” I commanded. With big eyes looking at me, and her mouth half open in astonishment, Andrea sat down on the milk crate.

I took her hands in both of mine and softly said to her: “Relax Andie. There’s nothing you can do right now. Go with Angie to the house. Let me and Ash handle the fire.”

“But...”

“No buts! Go! Now!” I instructed. Andrea looked up at me, and mechanically got up,

“Okay, Arno,” For the first time Andrea addressed me by my name. As she came erect, I folded her up in my arms and hugged her close. I kissed the top of her head.

“See ... See if you can save some of the feed ... At least some for tomorrow...” And with that Andrea followed Angie to the house, Angie supporting the stressed girl with her arm across Andrea’s shoulders.

“Come! Let’s go see the damage!” I said to Ash, and together we sprinted to the burning barn. The flames now looked like they were dying down.

Ash and I reached the feed store and ran into Solomon. “The security boss has made an arrest!” he shouted above the noise of the crackling of the fire. The workers were making progress at putting the fire out. “It must have been petrol or something they used. We got the burning timbers out but there’s still some cans or something burning.”

“Good work Solomon!” I replied. “Douse those cans with sand. Water won’t work if it is gasoline or some petroleum product.”

“Mister Dusty,” Apie, one of the workers’ sons, said to me. “We got out much of the hay bales and cow feed. The bags of chicken feed are okay ‘cause they’re in the back of the store with the horse feed, and the fire did not reach there.”

“Thanks, Apie! Good work from you and the others that helped you!” I thanked and praised the boy.

“Get shovels and throw sand on the fire!” Solomon instructed the others that were fighting the fire. There were about ten or twelve of them.

I turned to Ash, just as TC came up to us.

“I told you we must be awake! My guys saw four guys sneaking up to the barn with some funny canisters. One went inside and detonated a flare or something and THEN only did he dump some liquid on it. Then the thing exploded in his face, and he is toast. The others tried to run, and my boys opened fire. Got two down and one arrested,” TC reported.

“Where is the one you arrested?” Ash questioned.

“Tied up to the Land Rover bumper. He’s going nowhere,” TC replied.

“I better get hold of Brigadier Franks,” Ash stated, stepped away, pulled out his cell phone and speed dialled a number.

“Good work, TC. Your squad is a fine bunch,” I said.

“All in a day’s work. That’s why Ash pays us the medium bucks!”

“Where’s the one that is toast?” I asked.

“Under the rubble there. The roof came in on him. But he was a human torch before that!” TC Chuckled. “Serves him right, the bastard!”

“Yeah,” I commented. “One must first drop the gasoline, step away and then throw the flare on it to ignite the lot. Not the other way around.”

“I told you these guys are unprofessional sods. They think they are God’s gift to the world, but the intelligence is lacking.”

“How did Ash put it? Three brain cells: Must eat, must breed, must drink!” I commented.

“Yeah! And nowhere there’s a brain cell that say: ‘Hey! Think before you do’!” TC chuckled.

Ash walked up to us while putting his cell phone back in his pocket.

“Joe is on his way,” He declared. “It looks like the fire is out. Let’s see what the damage is, and then ... I’d like to interview that scumbag at the Land Rover!”

“I’ve got first dibs on him!” I replied. “You’ll have to take a number and wait your turn...”

“Guys!” TC said. “Let’s wait for Brigadier Franks. Don’t interfere with his investigation.”

“I’m going to see how Andrea is doing...” I sighed, turned and left towards the house.

So far as I could tell, the damage was limited to the front of the feed store. Several hay bales were damaged, but the green Lucerne feed bales, the fodder for the cattle and horses, were not. Those were completely intact and had been brought out through the side entrance by the children and ladies.

The front section of the roof did crumble in and fall into the front of the food store, trapping the arsonist. In the flames, he burnt to death. I hoped that Andrea would be okay with the news that most of the feed and fodder were saved.

Andrea was at the kitchen table, flanked by Lorie and Angie. They were sipping tea, and I could see by the expressions on Lorie and Angie’s faces that it took some convincing to keep her still and quiet. She didn’t seem completely at ease, but she was gutsy. I’d be upset as well if my feed shop was assaulted and set on fire.

What a series of circumstances this girl had to go through. Things may have turned out differently if I hadn’t intervened. She’d have had nowhere to go, no money to study for her degree, and no way to pursue her ambition of becoming a pilot.

“What’s happening?” Lorie asked as I entered the kitchen.

“The fire is out. Only a few bales of hay did not make it, but the rest of the feed and Lucerne are intact.” I summarised for them. Andrea looked up, there was a wetness shining in her eyes, and her lips were quivering.

“And the barn?”

“The front part has been destroyed. The roof caved in, but nothing that could not be reconstructed again,” I answered. “We’ll tear that part down and do it over.”

“Thanks, Dusty ... You are always so positive; seeing the good where I just see doom and gloom...” she replied. I stepped around the kitchen table and sat down beside her. She reached over and took my hand in hers, leaned sideways, and rested her head on my shoulder.

“Drink your tea. Tomorrow when the sun shines, you’ll see everything clearly, and then we can decide how to go on...” I soothed and draped my arm over her shoulders.

“Well, it’s good news that most of the feed survived,” Lorie commented. “At least the animals will have their tummies taken care of.”

“You have a bunch of good people around Morningside, Andie. They pulled through for you even if the ‘Vaaljapie’ was still flowing through their veins,” I chuckled. “Anyway, if you girls will take care of Andie for me for a while, I need to go help Ash and TC. Brigadier Franks is also on his way here.”

“Why would he be coming here?” Andrea asked.

“Because the fire was caused by someone setting the barn alight,” I explained.

“Someone set it alight!” Andrea exclaimed, and I realised that she was missing many of the facts as she had been half incapacitated in the process of the explosion.

“Andie, someone set the barn on fire, but did it the wrong way around and blew himself to pieces in the process.”

“So that was the shooting I heard?” Lorie asked.

“TC’s men. They saw the four guys creeping into the barn and before they could confront them the one guy blew himself up. A premature detonation and all. The other three tried to run away but two got ventilated by TC’s men, and one got himself arrested.”

“Gee whiz! TC and his men always get to do the fun part,” Angie replied, pouting her lips. Andrea just looked at Angie and shook her head.

“Now why would you want to have THAT kind of fun?” Andrea asked.

“The adrenaline rush! It’s better than sex!” Angie exclaimed, making Andrea blush.

“I better go to the dining room and get me a brandy...” Andie commented. “Are you coming, Dusty?”

“Yeah, I could do with a brandy now, but first let me go and help Ash and TC.”

“Well, I’m not going to drink a brandy all by myself...”

“We’ll join you, Andie,” Lorie said. “Let Dusty go do what he needs to do, and we, Angie and me, will keep you company.”

“Dusty has been doing so much for me, I don’t know how I can ever repay him!”

“That’s what friends do, Andrea,” Lorie replied.

With a final squeeze for Andrea, I left.

By this time, all of the outdoor lights were on, and the flat green grass in front of the house sparkled under the bright overhead floodlights. Andrea’s father, at the very least, had the foresight to have those lights installed and set on high poles. The floodlights all around the outbuildings and three barns were the same.

About an hour and a half after talking on the phone with Ash, I could hear the deep throaty sound of Brigadier Joe Franks’ incoming police helicopter.

The pilot attempted to assess the wind direction and circled the farmyard. Boomer, one of TC’s men, fired a green smoke grenade, and the pilot quickly reacted by turning into the wind and landing on the grass in front of the Morningside Meadows homestead.

I watched with my pilot’s eye as the Eurocopter AS350 B3 lightly touched its skids onto the flat surface of the lawn, the rotor wash still kicking up grass cutlets, and ruffling the low shrubs and smallish tree branches.

The AS350 family of helicopters may be faster out of the gate than other helicopters, but I still don’t like the model. Because of the length of the tail boom and the proximity of the tail rotor to the ground, this aircraft is difficult to slow down and land. Because of the lengthy tail-boom, one is always afraid of smashing the tail rotor into the ground. Except from being a pain to hover and susceptible to ground resonance, she flies fast and is steady in level flight.

While the crew were shutting the bird down, and the rotors still spinning, Joe and another guy got out of the back of the helicopter and made their way over towards Ash. I walked up to them.

“Can’t I leave you alone for a day without you guys causing some mayhem and trouble!” Joe said as he shook our hands.

“This is not our doing! Why can’t you just keep your Cape Flats gangs where they belong ... in jail!” Ash chuckled.

“Easier said than done! Now, what have we here?”

“A burned-out barn and three very dead crooks!” I responded.

“ ... And you’ve already briefed the masses in what to say in their statements, Counsel?” Joe replied.

“Nope! I was too busy helping to put out the fire and consoling the owner of the farm.”

“I suppose the ‘consoling’ part was good.”

“Hey, Mister Policeman, watch what you say ... it might be used in evidence...” I cautioned.

Joe turned to the guy next to him, “Captain Aubrey, don’t take these guys seriously, and watch what you say to the Advocate here, you might not survive it!” Joe warned. Aubrey just shook his head and chuckled.

The investigation took a while to conclude. Captain Aubrey interviewed the sole survivor of the failed attempt to cripple the farm. Aubrey spent some time with the suspect and in his expert way, he extracted a lot of information from the guy still bound to the Land Rover bumper.

Joe Franks orchestrated the rest of the investigation like a music maestro conducting a symphony orchestra. One by one the relevant units arrived and started to unravel the scene, gathering evidence.

A policeman came in a nice 4 × 4 marked in the usual SAPS markings. Scrolled across the back of the truck was: “Fire Detection and Investigation.” The other “policeman” in the truck was a three-year-old black and tan German Shepard dog, named “Sherlock”.

A working harness was put on the dog and then all four of his paws were wrapped in thick leather “boots,” to protect his tender paws from injury while the dog searched the rubble for traces of ignitable substances. With his keen sense of smell (which is more accurate than technology designed to detect the same substances), it was only a matter of minutes before he explicitly pointed out something he found.

The handler was fast to scrape at the object and place the scrapes into an evidence bag. Sherlock was rewarded with a tennis-ball thrown out of the barn, and he scampered out after it, returning it to his handler with a wagging tail.

By the end of his stint in the barn, Sherlock had identified places on the sandy ground, a melted up mess of plastic, leftover pieces of a signal flare, and some other substance that required the services of the morgue van to remove the “evidence” in a body bag.

“Brigadier, I do believe that out of all this stuff Sherlock pointed out, Forensics will be able to identify the igniter and fuel used.”

“Thank you, Sergeant! You may go and feed your dog a turkey! He did good work.” Joe praised.

“Thanks, Sir! But the Forensic Laboratory still needs to work their magic and confirm what it was Sherlock found. If there’s nothing else, I will go now.”

“Very well! Go and be good.” Joe dismissed the police dog and handler.

Captain Aubrey came up to us. “Now, I think it’s going to be a late night for me. The singing canary out by the Land Rover has given me some nice leads,” Aubrey reported. “Do the names Ludwig Aldermann, and Ibraham Plaatjies come to mind?”

“Those names do ring a bell, Aubrey. So, what do you have?”

“Mister Plaatjies gave the four their mission to come here and burn down the barn. They were just to burn the feed barn as a warning to Miss Louw.”