Like Clockwork Read online

  LIKE CLOCKWORK

  Crime novelist, award-winning journalist, film director and author, Margie Orford was born in London and grew up in Namibia and South Africa. She lives in Cape Town. Like Clockwork is her first novel.

  LIKE CLOCKWORK

  Margie Orford

  First published in 2006 by Oshun Books, an imprint of Struik Publishers (a division of New Holland Publishing (South Africa) Pty Ltd). New Holland Publishing is a member of Johnnic Communications Ltd.

  This revised edition first published in hardback and export and airside trade paperback in Great Britain in 2009 by Atlantic Books, an imprint of Grove Atlantic Ltd.

  This paperback edition published in Great Britain by Atlantic Books in 2010.

  Copyright © Margie Orford, 2006

  The moral right of Margie Orford to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, designs and Patents Act of 1988.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities, is entirely coincidental.

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  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  ISBN: 978 1 84354 943 7

  eBook ISBN: 978 0 85789 648 3

  Typeset in Meridien by Ellipsis Books Limited, Glasgow

  Printed in Great Britain

  Atlantic Books

  An imprint of Grove Atlantic Ltd

  Ormond House

  26–27 Boswell Street

  London WC1N 3JZ

  www.atlantic-books.co.uk

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Epilogue

  For Andrew

  PROLOGUE

  The man watches the cigarette burning between the fingers of his right hand. The cuff of his silk shirt strains against his lean wrist, the cuff link glinting in the artificial light. Although the room is hidden at the centre of the house – a warren of rooms and passages – he hears the thud-thud of slammed car doors in the garage. He raises his head, close-cropped and scarred in places, and listens. He waits. He knows how long it will take. Then he uncoils himself from the leather chair. He walks to the door that slides open at a touch. This room and its records are not visible from anywhere. No one ever enters it.

  Two strides take him to the room where they have brought the new consignment. She looks at him, terrified. He finds this provocative. He holds out his hand to the girl. Conditioned to politeness, confused, she gives him hers. He looks at it. Then he turns the palm – secret, pink – upwards. He looks into her eyes and smiles. He stubs the cigarette out in her hand.

  ‘Welcome,’ he says.

  The girl watches her heart line, curving round the plump mound of her thumb, burn away. Her sharp, shocked intake of breath breaks the silence.

  ‘What’s your name?’ he murmurs, smoothing her long hair behind her ear.

  ‘I want to go home,’ she whispers. ‘Please.’

  The man strokes the rounded chin, her soft throat. Then he turns and walks back to his office. He is used to power, there is no need to swagger. He knows that the girl will not take her eyes off him. He punches a number into his phone. The call is picked up at once.

  ‘I have a little something for you. Fresh delivery. No, no other takers as yet.’ He laughs, turning to watch as the girl is led out, before ending the call.

  Many hours later, the girl sits huddled in the corner of a room, unaware of the unblinking eye of the camera watching her. She is alone, knees pulled tight into her body. A blanket, rough and filthy, is wrapped around her. Her clothes are gone. She shivers, cradling her hand in her lap, the fingers trying to find a way to lie that will not hurt the burnt pulp at the heart of her palm. Her skin is tattooed with the sensation of clawing hands, bruised from her brief resistance. She hugs her knees. The effort makes her whimper. She cringes at the sound, dropping her head, unable to think of a way of surviving this. And she is too filled with hatred to find a way to die. After a long time, she lifts her head.

  Something that the camera does not see: to survive, she thinks of ways of killing.

  The door opens. ‘Dinner, sir,’ announces the maid, transfixed by the image on the screen.

  A finger on the remote and the bruised girl vanishes.

  ‘Thank you,’ says the host. He turns to his guests. ‘This way, gentlemen.’

  The maid gathers glasses and ashtrays after they have left the room. She switches off the lights and closes the door and goes downstairs to help serve the meal.

  1

  It was old Harry Rabinowitz, out for an early morning walk, who found the first body. Her throat had been precisely, meticulously sliced through. But that was not the first thing he noticed. She lay spreadeagled on the promenade in full view of anyone who cared to look. Her face was childlike in death, dark hair rippling in the breeze. Blood, pooled and dried in the corners of her eyes, streaked her right cheek like tears. Her exposed breasts gestured towards womanhood. One slender arm was lifted straight above her head; the fingers of the left hand were extended, like a supplicant’s. The right hand – its fingers clenched – had been bound with blue rope, and rested on her hip.

  A bouquet, just like a bride’s, had been placed next to her. Later on, in the ensuing jostle of people approaching, then recoiling, the flowers were trampled, becoming part of the gutter debris.

  He had stopped in shock next to the dead girl. The pounding of his heart deafened him. Darkness gathered in the periphery of his vision. He turned away from her and leant on the solid mass of the sea wall, gulping in the cold morning fog. He watched as a group of old women approached. He lifted his arm in a feeble effort to summon help. The women waved back. It was only when they were close to him that he could get them to stop waving and look at the dead girl. They flocked around the body.


  Ruby Cohen had recognised Harry and scurried over to take his arm. ‘You look terrible, Harry. Come and sit down.’ She led him to an orange bench. He sat down, waiting for his heart to quieten, grateful to her. Ruby made sure that he was settled before returning to her friends.

  ‘You call the ambulance,’ Ruby ordered. ‘I’m going to ask Dr Hart for help. There’s her flat, next to the lighthouse.’ Harry watched her stride off officiously.

  More people arrived. Some, he noticed, gagged at the sight of the dead girl. Harry pulled his coat closed. When I’m not so cold, when I regain my strength, he thought to himself, I’ll cover her.

  2

  Last night’s chill seeped from the floor into Clare’s bare feet despite the sunlight filtering through the window. But she was too lazy to go and fetch her slippers. The muted rush and retreat of the waves against the sea wall was comforting after the chaos of the storm that had spent itself an hour before dawn. As Fritz wound herself around Clare’s legs, she tipped a heap of crumbles into the purring cat’s bowl. The morning routine anchored her. She waited, watching the steam snaking up, her hand braced on the coffee plunger. The grounds formed a satisfying resistance to her hand as she pressed down firmly.

  Clare poured the coffee and sat down at the table. Fritz leapt into her lap and purred, kneading her thighs rhythmically. The pain was pleasant. Clare stroked her and straightened the newspaper. She read the surfing report. She drank more coffee and read the weather forecast. It would be fine weather for the next few days.

  It wasn’t working, but Clare had learnt not to panic if she failed to keep herself in the present. She tried a different tack.

  Shopping. She would go shopping. There was nothing to eat in her flat and she needed new towels. Clare picked up a pencil and started to make a list.

  Sugar.

  More coffee.

  Loo paper.

  Whiskey.

  Fruit.

  Soap.

  Cat food.

  Stockings.

  Clare leaned forward so that the sun warmed her back. Surely she needed other things. She had been living out of a suitcase for so long that she had forgotten what was needed to run an orderly home. Milk, she added after a while. She couldn’t think of anything else, so it was a relief when the phone rang. Clare picked it up, spilling the cat.

  ‘Hi, Julie.’

  ‘How do you always know it’s me?’ asked her sister.

  ‘You’re the only person who phones me so early.’ Julie’s voice filled the silence, its warmth chasing Clare’s shadows back into their corners.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  ‘I’m making a shopping list.’

  ‘You are being domestic,’ said Julie.

  ‘I’m trying,’ said Clare. ‘I felt so out of whack from being away from home for such a long time. Fritz is only just starting to speak to me again.’

  ‘We saw your documentary last night,’ Julie remarked. ‘Have you seen the review in this morning’s paper?’

  ‘I haven’t,’ Clare replied, turning to the arts pages. ‘“Clare Hart”,’ she read aloud, ‘“award-winning journalist, investigates the implosion of the eastern Congo.” Blah, blah.’

  ‘Come on, Clare, don’t be like that. At least you got it out there.’

  Clare scanned the article. ‘Look at it, Julie. It doesn’t even mention that the peacekeepers there are exchanging food aid for sex. That is not even a blip on the scandal radar.’

  ‘I know, but at least you’re putting the war into the public eye again.’

  ‘I don’t think people can tell the difference between a documentary and reality television any more,’ said Clare. ‘What makes me ashamed is how intense the pleasure to be had from power is. And when you have a camera you have power, pure and simple.’

  ‘It’s your work, Clare, it’s what you do,’ said Julie. ‘I’m not going to try and persuade you that you’re the best again. So tell me something else. How was your surfing lesson?’

  ‘Brilliant,’ said Clare. ‘Absolutely terrifying, but brilliant. I stood up for at least ten seconds. I’ve booked again for this weekend. You must let me take Imogen with me. How is she, by the way?’

  ‘She’s fine, I think. Quiet, but fine. Hard to tell with sixteen-year-olds,’ said Julie. Clare was close to her niece, but Julie did not always think that she was the best chaperone.

  ‘How’s Beatrice doing?’ Clare heard an enraged bellow. ‘Right on cue,’ she laughed. Beatrice was four, and steadfastly refused to compromise.

  ‘Oh, God, here we go,’ said Julie. ‘She’ll only wear purple at the moment and everything purple is wet. Poor Marcus is trying to persuade her that pink is as good as purple.’

  ‘Judging by the noise, he’s failing miserably,’ Clare laughed.

  ‘Utterly,’ said Julie. She closed her kitchen door and the noise was suddenly muffled. ‘Tell me about this new project of yours.’

  ‘The story about human trafficking?’ asked Clare.

  ‘That’s the one,’ said Julie. ‘Did you get the go-ahead?’

  ‘Not yet. I did get a scrap of research money so I’m ferreting anyway,’ said Clare.

  ‘Be careful, Clare,’ Julie warned. ‘Investigating those guys is like poking a wasp’s nest.’

  ‘I am careful,’ said Clare. There was a crash and Beatrice was shouting at her mother. She sounded apoplectic. ‘Jules, I can hardly hear you.’

  ‘That’s because I didn’t say anything,’ said Julie. ‘What you heard was a disbelieving silence.’

  ‘I’m going for a run now, Julie. Can I call you later?’

  ‘Ja, I want to see you,’ said Julie. ‘I want to hear more.’

  The phone was dead before Clare could say goodbye. Clare stepped out onto her balcony to stretch. It was cold despite the sunshine so she pulled on her sweatshirt. A decade of running had earned her a lean, supple fitness that still surprised her.

  The summons of her doorbell was intrusive. She went inside. ‘Yes?’ she asked, irritated. The intercom stuttered. Clare could not make out what was being said. ‘Hold on,’ she said. ‘I’m on my way out.’ She picked up her keys and cellphone and locked up. Two leaps took her to the bottom of her stairs but there was no longer anyone outside her door. It must have been an early-morning beggar. She was about to break into an easy lope when an old woman called to her from an eddy of people on the promenade along Beach Road.

  ‘Over here, Dr Hart. Help!’ It was Ruby Cohen. Clare’s heart sank. Clare’s single status offended Ruby’s sense of order, as did her refusal to join the Neighbourhood Watch.

  ‘Morning, Ruby,’ she said. ‘What is it?’

  ‘Dr Hart. It’s terrible. Come see. That poor girl is dead.’

  Clare saw the body lying on the promenade. A dead body was not that unusual in Cape Town. Ports discard human flotsam, and last night had certainly been cold enough to take a vagrant off before receding with the morning sun. The crowd pressed together, as if to reassure each other that they were alive. Clare went over, wondering if it was one of the homeless who sheltered nearby.

  The dead girl froze the blood in Clare’s veins. A lock of the girl’s black hair lifted briefly in the wind, then settled onto a thin brown shoulder. Clare was slipping back into her nightmare. It took an immense exercise of will to bring herself back to the present. To this body. Here. Today. Then her mind made the switch to trained observer, and all emotion was gone. She scanned the placement of the body, logging each detail with forensic precision.

  She noted the faint marks on the bare arms, bruises that had not had time to bloom. The girl’s right hand was bound, transformed into a bizarre fetish. It had been placed coquettishly on her hip. Something protruded from the girl’s hand, glinting in the low-angled sunlight. Her boots were so high that she would have struggled to walk. But she was not going anywhere: not with her slender throat severed.

  Clare instinctively switched on the camera of her cellphone and snapped a rapid serie
s of pictures, ignoring the indignant whispers around her. She zoomed in on the girl’s hands, but an old man stepped forward and covered the girl before Clare could stop him, separating the whispering living from the dead. The message encrypted in the broken, displayed body was obscured.

  Clare stepped away, flicked open her cellphone and dialled. She willed him to answer. ‘Riedwaan,’ she said, ‘you’ve heard about the body found in Sea Point?’

  ‘We just had the call,’ he answered, his voice neutral. ‘There is a patrol car coming with the ambulance.’

  ‘You should come, Riedwaan.’ She could sense his reluctance. She hadn’t called him since she had been back and here she was phoning him because someone had been murdered. ‘There is nothing straightforward here.’

  ‘What?’ he asked. Clare looked back at the small coat-covered mound. The sight of the slim, lifeless legs made her voice catch in her throat. ‘It’s too neat, Riedwaan, too arranged. And there’s no blood. It doesn’t look to me like an argument over price that went wrong.’

  ‘Okay, I’ll be there,’ said Riedwaan. He trusted Clare’s instincts. Her work as a profiler was hard to fault, despite her unorthodox methods. His voice softened. ‘How are you, Clare? We’ve missed you.’

  Clare heard, but she did not reply. She snuffed the emotion that flared in her heart and snapped her phone closed. The morning felt even colder.