Bad to worse
It has been about a week since this drama started and it has not died down by any stretch of imagination. Work has temporally stopped because the workers are somewhat not happy over the conditions. The media is keeping tabs on the matter as well. Qhawe, ever since he has taken leave of absence, he has been working hard in finding out who set him up and why. As far as he is concerned there has never been an unhappy employee in his company.How did his signature end up in the invoices and receipts without anyone noticing? And who the hell is Steward and how did he manage to get into Monica’s office and used her phone? These are the questions that have been playing in his head for a while the past week.
“Hey, Themba how are you?” Qhawe says as he is talking on the phone with Themba... “Yeah man I’m holding on” … “Nothemba is on a business lunch, promoting her book.” … “Hahaha, yeah man I guess it’s my turn to be a stay- home dad, hahaha”… “Yeah man, I will have to hang in there.”
“So tell me, any new info that you have found out?”...He sighs, “This does not make any sense, there must be at least a digital footprint somewhere.” He is frustrated, “Demit”…. “Ok keep me posted man. Sharp.” He hangs up!
The whole day he is he sits home trying to keep busy but his head is not straight. He can’t even sit for more than 10 minutes. He goes to the fridge, grabs a beer, looks at it and thinks for a second. He decides that he needs something a little stronger. He goes to the side shelf, he takes out a bottle of Whisky, and he pours himself a glass. He needs something strong to calm his nerves down. He sits down and takes a huge sip…it takes so good. Before he could even put down the glass, someone is coming through the door.
“Daddy, daddy.” Naledi shouts coming through the door. “Hey princess.” He says as he lifts her daughter. He has to be strong for his kids. “How are you little man?” as he brushes Mholi’s head. He waits for a while hoping someone else is coming through the door. It takes a moment, “Kids, where is your mom?” he asks but before he could even finish the sentence his phone rings. “Baby, where are you?” he answers anxiously.
“What? What do you mean you are at work.” He raises his voice as he panics… “What the…., Then who brought the kids home?” He is shocked, and clearly Nothemba on the other side of the line is horrified. “Okay, okay baby, please calm down. I will find out…okay, okay love bye” he quickly looks through the widow and he sees that there is no car parked outside. He then comes to his kids and sits them down.
“Kids who brought you home?” He asks politely. “Did Aunt Buhle bring you?” He is hoping for a yes. “No daddy. A friend from your work. He said you were held up at the shop.” Answers Naledi, clearly oblivious to whatever has happened. Qhawe almost falls from the chair with shock. “How did he look like, this man?” now he is panicking. “He was tall and big with a black suit. He said his name is Garry.” Says Mholi
For the next 30 minutes he is cracking his head thinking how this could have put his family through a very difficult position. A moment later Nothemba comes through the door shouting, “Mholi, Naledi..." When they came to her she dropped everything on the floor and hugged them tight.
“Babies, can you please go watch some cartoons, mommy is coming in a minute.” She says as she lets them go to the living room. “Baby what is going on?” she whispers. “I don’t know baby.” Qhawe whispers back. She can’t control her voice, “What do you mean you don’t know? I left you with my kids and the next thing a stranger picks them up from school calling himself your colleague?” She is raising her voice. “Baby lower your voice please.” Qhawe says as he pulls her close in order to have a quiet conversation.
“Baby we agreed that you will pick them up, right? The next thing they walk through the door and I was expecting you to walk in with them and I was trying to find out where you were when your phone rang.” as he holds her close. “They say the man called himself Garry.” he whispers.
They stand here for a moment in quietness. “But who is Garry?” Nothemba whispers, “Baby, I don’t know, but I have been trying to figure this out and I think this could be the guy who was following you a few weeks ago.” Qhawe says as he tries to think. With loss of strength, Nothemba sits down, “Oh no baby, what do these people want love?” Qhawe sighs, as he says “I don’t know baby but clearly we have to report this to the police.” They are both shaken. They talk for a while and Nothemba goes to check on the kids.
Later on, on the dinner table there is quietness. But the kids don’t seem to see anything going on. “Kids, is food good?” Nothemba asks so that he can kill the dull mood in the room. But the kids are oblivious, “Yes mom,” they both say.
While Nothemba is washing the dishes, a call comes through to Qhawe, “Hello,” he answers. “Who is this?” he is edgy. “Mr. Nkosi.” Hmmm this voice sounds familiar, Qhawe thinks. “It’s Mr. Smith. Remember me?” He gets up from the sofa, “Oh yeah, uhmm what can I…” He is interrupted by Smith, “I hope your kids got home safe…” He almost falls down. He then goes to the kitchen where his wife is busy, he puts the phone on speaker. They stand there to listen together. “What did you say? How on earth…” he doesn't finish as Smith interrupts again, “I had one of my guys to pick them up. I felt it was no longer safe there. I hope they are okay.”
Smith sounds like he is pleased with himself. “Now you listen here, bastard” furious Qhawe says but he is interrupted again by Smith, who says, “Whoa, whoa, whoa Mr. Nkosi, that is rude. That’s not a way to say thank you to someone kept your kids safe.” He chuckles.
Nothemba is just stone-faced with shock, she can’t say a word. Qhawe is smelling blood. “What the hell do you want?” He asks violently. “Oh no, I don’t want anything. I just wanted to let you know that you should not worry about your kids. They will always be safe…your wife too. Because we are watching over them.” He says with pride.
“What do you want?” Nothemba shouts. “Well Mr. Nkosi I have a feeling you will have to go to the office tomorrow, there is a board meeting. Now I suggest that you keep an open mind to whatever you will be told there…you know, for the sake of your family.” Suddenly the call cuts off. Nothemba just burst out crying, “Oh my God baby, what is happening…no, no, no…not my kids baby.” She cries helplessly. “Shhh” Qhawe pulls her to himself. “Shhh, it’s going to be okay, I won’t let anything happen to you nor the kids I promise” he says as he holds her tight. She is devastated. They stand there in the kitchen holding each other for a while.
***
In the morning Qhawe gets through the office door, he looks straight ahead, there Grace is looking very uncomfortable and it is obvious as to why. “Hi Grace” he greets with a mile. “Sir!” Grace nods and looks away. Qhawe decides to ignore that. He goes straight to his office. Before he could sit down, a knock on the door.
“Hey man…” it’s Themba standing right there. Qhawe decides to come over and give him a hug. “How are you holding up…” he asks they break the hug. “Arg man, long story. I will tell you all about it later.” Qhawe says he sighs.
“I came in because I heard there is a meeting with the Dept. of Housing this morning.” he says. They both take their seats. “Yeah man…” Themba says, “Uhmm do you think it’s a good idea that you attend, I mean so far we haven’t even found out what happened in this mess. Are you sure you want to be there because they will grill you hard.” as he looks down. Qhawe leans back, “Look man, this wasn’t my choice. I was told to come in.” he says much to Themba’s confusion, “by who?” he asks.
They are interrupted by an incoming call, Themba picks up, “yes Grace…Oh already? No it’s okay we are ready. We will be there in a minutes.” He drops the phone. “The delegation and the board members are already waiting for us in the boardroom. They want to start things as soon as possible.” he says.
This is surprising Qhawe who feels nothing is going right at the moment. He hasn’t told Themba about what happened last night and the call from Smith. They both go out to the boardroom.
***
At the boardroom the meeting is heated, everything is laid on the table and everyone has their say. The emotions are a little high. In the meeting there’s board members and Dept. of Housing delegation but Themba and Monica, the HR head are the only ones on Qhawe’s side. All the while he is sitting quiet.
Board member 1: “Qhawe this is pretty much simple; we have decided as the board that you lay low for a while. Take leave of absence while this matter is being investigated.” Another commotion ensures. “But on what grounds really?” Monica protests. “There isn’t any findings or evidence of foul play.” Board member 2: “Except that the building that collapsed was built using a material that was poor. A material that we have never used before and may I remind you that Mr. Nkosi’ signature is all over the invoices which suggests that he changed suppliers without consulting anyone. So who do we blame for that?” he says as the room goes quiet.
Qhawe can’t take it anymore. He can’t just sit there and let people accuse him of something he didn’t do. Just when he was about to open his mouth, he remembered last night’s call and he realized that this also involves his family now. He is being threatened.
He stands up and walks out the door, as he opens he turns, “Yes I will take leave of absence. Do what you have to do.” he says as he leaves the room and leaving everyone stunned. They expected a little bit of a fight. Frankly Themba and Monica are just as shocked.
“Excuse me a minute.” Themba says as he rushes through the door. He chases Qhawe down the corridor, “Hey man, what the hell are you doing? Why are you giving up on this? You can’t let these people win.” Themba shouts as he follows Qhawe to his office. They get in.
“Close the door.” Qhawe orders Themba. They both sit down. “Look man, all evidence point to me. I have to step back for now so that the company is not contaminated by this scandal” he leans back and wipes his mouth. Themba also leans back. Both of them look shocked. “Man, I have known you a long time, is there something you want to tell me?” Themba asks with a worried face.
Qhawe stands up and he goes to the window and pulls down the blinds. He takes a deep breath. Now he is self-conflicted, he is not sure whether to tell Themba or not. He is one of the very few people he trusts but the way things have been going lately do you blame him for finding it hard to trust anyone right now? He comes back to his seat and leans back. He breaths big again and straightens up.
“Okay, okay” he says softly, “Do you remember John Smith?” Themba straightens up as well, he is trying to think. “John Smith the guy who came with a business proposal?” Qhawe asks again as he raises his voice a little. “Oh yeah, Mr. Smith from the…Corner…” Themba says but can’t remember the rest.
“Cornerstone Build industrial” Qhawe interject. “Yeah, yeah. What about him?” Themba asks keenly. “I think, I think …” Qhawe whispers again, “I think he’s behind this whole conspiracy.” Out of shock Themba raises his voice. “Oh come on now brother, don’t do that. Yeah you really do need a break. Are you kidding me with that right now?” Themba can’t believe it. Qhawe raises his voice as he interjects, “I am telling you.” he hits the desk. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay” Themba says as he has never seen Qhawe losing temper like that
“Okay tell me why you think that is.” he says. Then Qhawe starts to relay the events from the past few weeks starting from the day Mr. Smith walked into his office to the change in suppliers and everything. They locked themselves in the office for two hours.
“Man this is becoming dangerous. Now we have some spy surveillance program on us?” Themba says as he is shocked. “This is turning into a Jason Bourne movie on us man.” as he stands and looks through the window. “Tell me about it man.” Qhawe says with a low voice. “Look, now you know why I have to distance myself for now. For the sake of my family. And quite frankly my friend, you are my lawyer meaning if they are watching me they are more than likely watching you and your family. And probably Monica as head of HR. For Christ’s sake they are probably watching the rest of the board and management at site.” He leans back in shock as he realises the magnitude of this problem.
“And your family? Do you have someone watching them?” Themba asks as he comes back and sits down. “Yeah man someone is watching the house I have another watching the kids and another watching Nothemba. I think we should do the same with your family. Our people should watch over them.” Qhawe says to which Themba nods and says, “But I don’t think we should tell Zinhle what is going on just yet. We don’t need unnecessary panic.” Qhawe nods and then takes a pen and write something down. It seems to be a long note.
He passes it on to Themba, it reads, ‘get forensic people to come over and sweep the offices for bugs and also at site offices When you call, don’t use you’re your phone or office lines I have a feeling they are all compromised We need to get that done today!!!’
Themba reads the note and nods and says “Well man I better go back to the meeting. Just go home I will come and see you later at your home.” Qhawe nods, “Yea man please bring Zinhle so that we can have dinner.” He says as he leaves. Themba is a little shaken because this starts to feel like a movie and he fears for his wife Zinhle.
***
Later at home Qhawe has discussed with Nothemba the events that took place in the office earlier. Themba and Zinhle had joined them on the dinner table. Everything seem to be okay. Everyone is laughing and enjoying dinner. It was a smart move by Qhawe and Themba to have both families sit for dinner in order to make sure Zinhle doesn’t suspect anything. She’d have wanted to find out why Themba is going to Qhawe’s house at night and it would have been hard for him to lie to her.
Themba and Qhawe move away from the table and sit by the pool area leaving the ladies at the lounge, they are busy having a girl talk with a bottle of wine.
Themba pours a whiskey for both of them, “Where are you parked? I didn’t see your car?” Qhawe asks, “Nah, I suggested to Zinhle that we take Uber because since we are dinning we might just have one too many.” Themba says as he smiles, “but the real reason is I didn’t want to take any chances in case someone wanted to follow our cars.” Qhawe nods, “So, what did they find?” Qhawe asks anxiously.
Themba downs the double of whiskey in one go. Whoa this must be big news. “Well,” he says as he frowns, “They found about 30 surveillance bugs in total, they were in all our offices including the freakin’ toilets.” he says which makes Qhawe pour a little more than a double for himself and downs it all at a go and frowns, “You got to be kidding me bro.” They both take a glance at the wives who are having a ball in the lounge. That must be a second bottle they are having now.
“Man, how did this happen? How did someone have access to all the offices? That must have taken an amount of time and…” Qhawe says but Themba interjects, “and some help. Help from people on the inside.” he says. They are stone-faced, “You know what, we have to look at surveillance footages. We may recognize faces we don’t know. That Steward guy who claimed to be an HR head, who changed our suppliers and faked my signatures could have been a spy.” Qhawe says as they take a stiff and both nod. “Yea of course he was a spy. But we need be careful from now on because clearly we are being watched. No one is safe.” Themba says.
“Bro, we have to tell Zinhle”, Qhawe suggests. Themba is a little surprised, “Are you sure?” as he pours again. By the look of things, they will need another bottle.
“Look man, it’s only fair that she knows. I mean Nothemba knows, you know and I know. She can’t be kept in the dark. She may have seen and noticed things that didn’t make sense to her at the times but once she knows everything that is going on, then somethings may come back.” Qhawe says and they both agree on this. But they decided to not to inform her that night because they doubt she will remember anything in the morning.
“I will speak to her in the morning man, I doubt she will want to go anywhere since its Saturday.” They agree on it. They decide to re-join the ladies. They all have a great time.
***
In the morning Themba decides to tell Zinhle everything that has been going on. She only knew what she saw on the news. And Now they have arranged security for Themba’s family as well. The security is there 24/7 wherever they go. They organized for bug sweepers in both families and they came clean which was a relief. Though Themba was still working at office, he kept a low key with all that has happened.
Even though the bugs were swept, he can’t help but feel someone is always watching. He takes comfort at the fact that he has a bodyguard outside his office door throughout the day and one guarding his car in the garage. He also has one guarding his friend, Qhawe’s office. That one has a bold written sign that says Restricted area Entry prohibited
Though the staff find this strange but no one would dare ask. One of the board members, Dan Audrey is overseeing the project in Qhawe’s absence.
Things seem to be back to normal even on site. Themba can’t use the computers he used before. He used a third party to purchase one for him and one for Qhawe so that they can both work without being watched. This must be frustrating for Smith who may suspect that these two are working on something.
At home Qhawe is working using a new laptop that Themba purchased and it’s not easy to watch him now. Nothemba travels a lot lately promoting her book. She needs that to keep busy. The kids are mostly with Qhawe in the house and if they are at school they have a security detail with them.
While he is busy on the computer a phone call comes through, “Hey man, how are you….” Themba is on the other side on the line. “Oh great news for a change man. Thank God…” Qhawe seems relieved. Themba continues to talk from the other side… “Oh yeah sure please come over later both of you.
Nothemba comes back in an hour’s time, I will go pick her up…” Qhawe listens to Themba… “Yeah I will see you later man.” He hangs up. He seems excited a little. Now he can’t wait for the afternoon to come.
***
Later on Themba and Zinhle come over for dinner. They have a great dinner. Nothemba puts the kids to sleep and she re-joins Zinhle, Themba and Qhawe in the study room. “So guys I finally got to pick up some few unknown individuals on the surveillance footage. It seems this was the week you were away to Canada.” Themba plays footage and they discuss it at length for hours, studying every suspect in detail trying to link them with calls made from the office around that period. They are trying to figure out who invited them to the office and why.
“It seems you guys will sleep here tonight because this will take all night.” Qhawe says jokingly. “If we ever are going to sleep” adds Zinhle. They continue watch and cross reference with all calls made from each office.
“Wait, wait, wait” Zinhle says in a hurry. “What’s wrong sweetheart?” Themba asks attentively. “I know this guy. I have seen him before. I can’t recall where.
It could be from the mall or work or somewhere but I know him. ”Zinhle says as she seems worried.
“Could he have been following me all along?” she stands up with panic. Themba comes over to console her, “Shhh its okay baby he is not here now. He won’t hurt you.” He says. Nothemba also comes over to her. “Shhh, Themba is right, he won’t hurt anyone. We are safe.”
They all sit down again. “We need facial recognition for all these faces we have identified as people of interest. These people have been watching us all along. And we must find out who Mr. Smith is connected to. We must find out who else is involved in that Dann City project. There’s clearly high level of political maneuvering happening here and we are in the middle.” Qhawe says deeply.
“I will get in touch with former minister of housing. I mean we got this tender under her right? Clearly her removal was political and we are finding ourselves in the middle of it.” Themba says with a worried face. “Zinhle you work at the embassy; you have some level of clearance there. Do you think you can find something from your contacts?” he asks as he looks at Themba.
“Yeah sure, I will call my contact.” she says as she sighs. “Wait, I’m a qualified investigative journalist I think I should be able to dig in…” Nothemba says but she doesn’t finish as the room resounds “NO!!!”, much to her disappointment.
“Baby you are not going to get involved.” Qhawe says. “We are being watched as it is already. We must all keep a low profile. Just ask one of your contacts who have done pieces on high profile politicians. We may just get lucky.” Themba and Zinhle nod. “yeah my friend. Qhawe is right, none of us must be seen to be working on something. Let us all just keep a low profile.” Zinhle says as she brushes Nothemba in the shoulder. “Good thing is both Zinhle and myself have taken leave of absence for the next week.” Themba says.
“I also won’t have any tours for the next two weeks or so. This will give us amply time to work on the plan forward.” Nothemba says. They all nod. “I think we should get away Sunday night, for a week. Somewhere quiet where we can work without being seen.” Nothemba says.
“You think that’s a good idea babe? I mean these people are probably watching everything and every step we take.” Qhawe says but Themba interjects, “We can sneak out. Nothemba is right, we need to work away where it is quiet and we can’t be dictated. Schools are closed. We can take the kids with us.” he says, but this idea doesn’t feel right to Qhawe. “They will see something is up if we all disappear. They need to see that we are still around,” he says.
A little moment of silence in the room, “If we keep meeting like this, every other day, on its own raises suspicion because they are out there watching.” Themba says but Another moment of silence, “So what are we going to do?” he asks.
Qhawe takes a deep breathe, “For now let’s keep meeting like this. Maybe we can alternate between our house and yours but use Uber as means of travel. We then make contact with our people as agreed. Themba will arrange a meeting with the former minister and Zinhle will dig at the embassy and Nothemba will use her journalist contacts. Once we find out what we are up against then we can talk about meeting away.” This seems to please everyone. They talked until 03:00 in the morning. Zinhle and Themba slept over as it was almost in the morning anyway.
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