The helicopter whirs Zandile and Station Commander Ncube away. They are barely a minute into the flight when Gloria hits them with the first update.
“The cellphone belongs to a Dr Jonas Dladla, fifty-five. He lives in Sandton, Johannesburg. It pinged off a cellphone tower in Port Shepstone when Philasande made the call. It has been pinging off a tower in Scottsburgh for the past hour.”
“Does he have a criminal record?” asks Zandile.
“No. Not even a warrant for a traffic ticket,” says Gloria.
Commander Ncube turns to Zandile in the helicopter and says, “What do you think, Detective?”
“It seems this doctor is travelling up the coast. Let’s fly low until we get there.”
Commander Ncube nods in agreement, taps the pilot’s shoulder and says, “Fly low and slow over the coast. What will be our ETA if we do this?”
“Thirty-five minutes, Commander,” says the pilot.
Zandile and Commander Ncube are scanning the ground below, through binoculars, when Gloria gives them another update.
“We are in Mrs Kweyama’s compound Commander. We have hit a goldmine of evidence!” Gloria can’t hide her excitement. “There are rooms and a dorm, totalling twenty beds, at the back. Lockers with lotions and girls’ clothing. Twenty girls live here. And they were here not long ago. The shower doors are still misted up. I’m looking at a … um … shrine, in what seems to be Mrs Kweyama’s office. There are pictures of all the girls below a small statue of the Virgin Mary.”
“Good work,” Commander Ncube says. “Make sure you–”
Zandile lets out a sharp gasp that stops Commander Ncube midsentence. She thinks she is seeing an apparition through her binoculars. A child, in all white, running all alone across beach sand down below. She is eating up distance with her thin legs.
“There, I see something!” Zandile screams, as she focuses the binoculars. In the lenses the fear in the girl’s face is amplified. She runs with too much determination for so young a face. Her braids have been shaved off, but, by the way she is running, it can only be Philasande.
“Set it down!” Commander Ncube shouts to the pilot.
Philasande sees the helicopter land and falls to her knees on the sand.
“Philasande?!” Zandile screams, running to her.
Philasande is so exhausted she can only answer by nodding. Zandile cradles her in her arms, and gives her water. Philasande gulps down water, catching her breath at the same time. Zandile gives her an energy bar.
“All the missing girls are alive. Back there on the beach with Mrs Kweyama. You have to find them. It was Mrs Kweyama and another lady …”
“Another lady?”
“Yes, there were two of them. The minivan’s number plate is NX 231 5672. You were right there at the house this morning; we were screaming inside. Let’s go get them!” It all tumbles in a rush out of Philasande’s mouth.
“You are a brave and amazing girl, Philasande,” says Commander Ncube. “But right now we need to get the paramedics to check on you. You are safe now. We’ll get Mrs Kweyama.”
“The phone you called us on?” asks Zandile.
“It belonged to a man who was swimming at the beach.” She is jogging to the helicopter. “He has nothing to do with any of this.”
Philasande directs the helicopter to the beach where she left Mam and the girls. They appear from behind trees and boulders as the helicopter sets down.
Zandile sees a panel van in the distance, leaving dust, as the girls rush to hug Philasande. Zandile sprints to the 4×4 and chases after the van, soon gaining on it. Mam and Yoli are cool, thinking they have got away, until Mam notices the police vehicle in her rear view mirror. Panicky now, she presses the accelerator pedal, but the 4×4 keeps gaining on them. Zandile flashes the headlights, has the sirens blaring, but it is obvious that Mam has no intention of stopping.
So Zandile rams her vehicle into the back of the panel van. The bumper buckles, but Mam keeps it steady in the gravel. Zandile uses her superior vehicle to sharply nudge a rear corner of the panel van. It loses control, rolls into bushes and crashes into a thick tree trunk.
Zandile gets out of the 4×4, her gun drawn. She can see the helicopter coming towards them in the distance, and hears Commander Ncube shouting into her radio, “Wait for back up! Damn it! They could be armed! We are a minute away, Detective!”
Zandile goes down to the wreckage. She finds the passenger unconscious. The driver is nowhere to be seen. Zandile hears the rustling of undergrowth and follows the sound. Mam has left an obvious trail of broken tree branches and blood. Zandile goes after her.
“We can see you, Detective, you are on her trail. She is just a few metres in front of you. Control the situation. She has nowhere else to go because she is heading for the edge of a cliff!” shouts Commander Ncube into Zandile’s radio.
Zandile comes to a clearing and finds Mam sitting – cool as a cucumber – at edge of the cliff. Blood drips down her face. She looks up at Zandile with a faraway stare.
“Hands up!” Zandile is out of breath.
“Why should I put my hands up? I have done nothing wrong,” says Mam.
“Abduction is nothing wrong to you?”
“Is it abduction, or is it salvation, Detective?”
“Salvation?” asks Zandile, confused. “I said hands up!”
“No, I won’t put my hands up.” Mam winces as she stands up. Her knee has swollen grotesquely.
Zandile takes a step towards her. Mam takes a step back, towards the edge of the cliff. Zandile stops.
“Hands up! And walk towards me!”
“I will do what you ask of me,” Mam shouts back at Zandile with shaking rage, “only if you listen to what I have to say!”
“Listen to what? Hands up! Walk towards me.”
“Listen to how I saved those girls from a fate of poverty! I saved them from mental, physical and emotional squalor. I saved them, transformed each and every one of them into a Mary. I gave them comfort and unconditional love.” A mixture of tears and blood is cascading down her face.
“Lady, please,” Zandile lowers her tone, “get your hands up and walk towards me”
“No! You listen to me! So that you can preach my good deeds to the world. I am a saviour! I am a saviour!” Mam beats her chest with her fists, wincing because she has to balance on her swollen knee.
Zandile realises she is unarmed and lowers her gun. “You can tell the world yourself, just come with me,” she says.
“No! No! I know the rules of you ordinary folks. You will send me to jail. I live by the rules of the holy! I am a saviour!”
“OK, lady. I hear you, I understand.” Zandile’s tone is close to a whisper.
Mam finally puts her hands up and walks towards Zandile, who has her hand on her Taser as she moves to let the injured woman pass. Mam stops as she is about to pass Zandile. She looks at her with the sickest look Zandile has ever seen. Zandile takes a step back and draws the Taser.
“You tell the world I did a good deed,” says Mam, nodding to Zandile. “You tell everybody I saved those girls. God picked each and every one of them. He whispered their names to me in my sleep. They are the chosen ones!”
Zandile is stunned motionless as Mam suddenly turns and runs – limping – to the edge of the cliff. Her brain is still trying to process what is happening as Mam dives over the edge.
Mam screams, “I am a saviour!” as she takes flight.
Her last words echo through the trees, valleys, rivers and mountains as Commander Ncube shouts into the radio: “Don’t look down, Detective! It is a messy scene. She fell forty, fifty metres onto a rocky, dry river bed.”
They echo in Zandile’s head as Commander Ncube says, “That woman developed psychological problems after losing her family in a fire. She stopped taking her medication two years ago. That’s when she started abducting the girls.”
*****
Philasande hugs her mom and walks up to the stage when her name is called. It is a month later, in a ceremony hosted by the Mayor to celebrate their freedom. She has not seen any of the girls since that day at the beach. She runs to the stage to hug the others. It is quite a sight as their tiny hands run through each other’s heads full of hair.
***
Tell us: How do you feel about Mam? Was she innocent or evil? What conviction do you think a court would have given her?
