It was 4:30 already and she looked around the cafeteria. She felt awkward. It looked like she had dressed up, and been stood up. There were only a few students sitting at one of the tables. One of them kept looking at her. They were probably feeling sorry for her she thought, and that made her angry. Maybe they had even seen Quinton in here with other young students, chatting them up. Playing his lines.

It was twice now that he hadn’t pitched.

Then he was there, by her side. She hadn’t even seen him entering the cafeteria. He had a way of suddenly appearing. Like he’d been beamed down from a spaceship or something.

“Here, I bought you a drink,” he said, as they sat down. “In fact I bought two.” He slid them over to her, looking slightly embarrassed.

“Oh! Thanks, that’s …er … really sweet of you.”

“I didn’t know which you would prefer.”

“Coke,” she said popping the tab. It was sweet of him. How could he have ulterior motives, and be so sweet?

“That’s lucky because I really felt like the Fanta,” he said.

Then they laughed and the tension was broken. She knew then, in the way he was awkward, and from his shy smile, that he wasn’t playing her. That he was genuine and wanted to help her, and something relaxed inside her.

“So, where to start…” he sighed.

“At the beginning is always a good place.”

“Well, I’ve only been working for Liezelle for a couple of months but in that couple of months I’ve been watching her closely.”

“Like stalking her, you mean.”

“No … I wouldn’t …” he began, then smiled as he could see she was joking.

“I’m like that,” he laughed. “My mom always says I would have made a good detective. I notice things. I listen to conversations. I can’t help it.”

“Detective Quinton …” And she realised she didn’t even know his surname.

“Appolis. Quinton Appolis.”

Suddenly it felt easy to talk to him like this.

“Liezelle told me, the first morning I started, to knock on her door whenever I wanted to talk to her. ‘Never barge in. Never disturb me when the door is shut. Ever!’ she said.”

He did a good impersonation of her. It made Naledi laugh. So there was more to Quinton than that serious, shy face, and manner.

“Well that’s fairly normal, isn’t it? ”

“Yes, but then I was talking to one of the other women in the office, Nontombi. We were sitting outside having tea, during our break.”

“And?”

“I didn’t say anything. She started talking about Liezelle. She told me that she must have won the lottery the way she was spending money, and how it wasn’t fair that Liezelle had bought a new car, because on her salary there was no way she could afford one. Then she looked at me. I don’t know if I was imagining it but I could swear …”

“Was she hitting on you?”

“No,” he laughed. “She’s like, fifty, married – happily – and has two grand kids already.”

“So she was trying to warn you.”

“Something like that. And then I started to notice stuff at work. Like the students coming to register, and I couldn’t find them on the system. I told myself it might be a mistake with data capturing, but I checked, and there were no records. I was a student last year. I know how it feels to be turned away. And I began to get angry. I asked myself: What if all of this is because of one rotten apple on the tree?”

“Or a rotten tree.”

“I don’t know. But when she was out of the building at a meeting I got into her office. I started to look around. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, then I found a pile of records. They were loan applicants who hadn’t qualified for loans. I wrote the names down. Back at my computer I checked for them on the system.”

“And?”

“They didn’t come up … until the last one. He didn’t qualify for a loan but on the system it said he had an NSFAS loan. It didn’t make sense.”

“So why was she putting them on the system if they didn’t qualify? Presuming it was her.”

“The only reason would be for her benefit.”

“She was accepting bribes?”

“I think so.”

And then Naledi thought of Thando Mbuli, and the way he had been laughing with Liezelle.

“I think I might know someone who might have paid her to put him on the system. When you’re in the office tomorrow, can you look up his name?”

“Sure,” he got out a pen and piece of paper. “There was something else,” he said, when he had written down Thando’s name. “I saw two student’s letters. They had dropped out. They weren’t at varsity anymore – and guess what?”

“They were still on the system?”

“Yes. So someone is getting their NSFAS loans? Liezelle? But surely there is someone who is checking up on Liezelle? There is a line manager. Someone at the University must know. How is she getting away with it?”

“That’s another thing Nontombi hinted at. She said there used to be someone who monitored what was going on in the office. They came to check the database regularly, and to train them if anything changed in the way the information was captured and the loans were allocated. But no-one has come for a long time and Liezelle insists on doing the loan applications herself these days.”

“Maybe Nontombi is afraid of losing her job, so she won’t say more.”

“I don’t blame her. She has children and grandchildren to support.”

“Yes. But, coming to me. Why would she take students like myself off the system? What’s the pay-off?”

“That’s what I need to find out. I think NSFAS continues to pay the loans for students like you, but the money goes into her account somehow. I think it’s more complicated. That’s why I need to find someone who will investigate the whole system. I can’t do it on my own.”

“No Detective Appolis. You can’t. As you say, it might be bigger than just her. It could be really dangerous. But do you know anyone?”

“That’s where Google comes in. I found an organisation I think I can speak to about this. They are an NGO and they deal with cases of corruption – at all levels. They investigate and expose things just like what’s happening to you. I’m going to see if I can speak to someone there.”

Quinton looked at his watch. “I have to go. I’ve got a long ride home. I have to take the train and a taxi.”

“Me too. Well, two taxis,” Naledi said. The time had flown. The cafeteria had closed. There was only a cleaner left mopping and they were about to lock up.

“I’ll walk you to your taxi.”

It felt good. In fact Naledi felt better than she had in a long while, walking with Quinton. She suddenly felt safe, like the world wasn’t quite such an uncertain, scary place. For the first time since this all started she felt that everything might just turn out alright.

At the taxi there was an awkward moment when she didn’t know what to do – shake his hand, wave? But then he leaned in and kissed her lightly on the cheek, and then looked embarrassed, like it might have been too much.

“Are you on campus tomorrow?” he asked.

“I have to help my gran go to the clinic tomorrow, but Monday …” She hesitated. “Quinton, be careful. It could backfire.”

“See you Monday. Lunch in the cafeteria. I’m not working, but I’ll be around.”

She watched as he squashed into the taxi. She watched until she couldn’t see the taxi any more.

When she reached home she sent him a message.

Thanks. For caring ☺

It felt good. Someone fighting in her corner. Someone who cared enough about things that were wrong, to do something about them. It really was going to be alright, she thought.

But by Sunday night the anxiety was back. She began to doubt everything again, and fear crept in. Her thoughts raced. What if Quinton was playing with her? What if everything was just one big story and she had fallen for it, and him? What if he got caught and was fired? It all came back down to her life as she knew it, ending. Grinding to a halt.

She couldn’t rely on anyone else, she decided. She needed to do this herself. It would be dangerous but it felt like her only chance. And she needed to involve Tshepo deposit, and call in Gift. She needed money – a lot of it.

She wouldn’t tell Quinton. He would try to stop her, or worse, he would tell Liezelle, if being the ‘good guy’ was just an act.

Or, if he was genuine, she needed to try and help him any way she could. It was her fight as well. He was doing this for her. And the other students. What about all those students in the same position as she was in?

But what if it went wrong? She would be on her own. And she would be more in debt than ever.

***

Tell us what you think: Why does Naledi need lots of money? What might she be planning to do?