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20
20THE HOLY GRAIL MINISTRIES
REITU’S OFFICE
Ntando sits shyly on the other side of the room while Seipati relaxes and heavily sighs sitting on Reitu’s desk. After a long service and chat with the bishop Ntando asked if they could hang out for a while before she goes home and she said yes without thinking twice. Now seeing how he’s suddenly shy and straying from her she feels a bit impatient and somehow ticked off by this behaviour.
Seipati: I thought we were on the same page. Why the cold and mixed signals suddenly? I thought you liked me.
Ntando: I do.
Seipati: then what is this baby, huh?
Ntando: I’m just a little nervous.
Seipati: and I’m running out of patience. It’s been a whole 3 weeks for crying out loud. You’ve been ignoring me. I thought you enjoyed my company as I did yours. And here’s something you don’t know—I usually don’t chase men, I attract—not chase. This is a whole new thing for me. I’ve never been so desperate to be wanted and loved. I mean I can get over you, but I just don’t know how…
She gets off the table and starts walking towards the man crumbled up on the on the other side of the room. She kneels before him and intensely look him deep in the eyes, her hands running all over his crotch area.
Seipati: I can’t help but cling onto you, I’m addicted to you, your everything, hell I even smile by myself when thinking of you. You haven’t even laid a finger on me but my body itches for your touch, my back arches involuntarily for you.
Ntando: but—
Seipati: I’ll take care of you.
Ntando: no, the door…
Seipati: already took care of it.
Ntando: well then…
Ntando sighs with relief and cups her face making her look directly into his eyes. His eyes immediately change to that of his true form, his tongue snails out of his mouth and slithers all over Seipati’s face.
Ntando: so, how’s the family? How’s aunty?
Seipati: she’s alright. She has been very happy these days. She’s also going back to work tomorrow.
Ntando: and that bratty cousin of yours… how is she?
Seipati: she’s still very closed off… we don’t talk much lately but she’s fine as far as I’ve seen.
Ntando: any suspicious acts?
Seipati: no.
Ntando: has she been up to anything lately?
Seipati: nothing. She goes to work and back home, nothing much.
Ntando: her attitude?
Seipati: unchanged.
Ntando: that’s good then, you’re doing so well. I’ll think of a reward later.
Ntando finishes his string of questions and hypnotises the girl inducing sleep by staring directly in her eyes again. He puts her on the chair and leaves the place without being seen.
KWANELE’S PLACE
Reitu: glad I was not called into the police station this time; I was starting to feel like a criminal a little bit.
Kwanele: hectic. I’ll make sure to remember that next time. Here.
Kwanele hands his guest some snacks and sits down on the couch next to her with a laptop open in front of them placed on the small glass coffee table.
Reitu: thank you.
Kwanele: my pleasure… so, before we start, anything new?
Reitu: nothing, did you find anything in there?
Kwanele: a lot. Look…
He inserts the flash drive on his laptop and starts going through the many files in it saved by different dates, years and dates.
Reitu: whoa... it’s like a diary…
Kwanele: that’s because it is, your sister was a very smart person. I can’t believe she did all this.
Reitu: what are all these files?
Kwanele: there’s 10 of them and notes on each. Together they all spell a name, Alena Smith, registered under the American Government, age 28, and currently living somewhere unknown.
Reitu: Alena Smith? What does that have anything to do with what we’re looking for and what we want?
Kwanele: the letters… solely poses as a foreign bank account for some charity involved with the church.
Reitu: and?
Kwanele: each month there’s a constant deposit made to each of these account or charities. This has been consecutively happening for the past 7 years.
Reitu: great... so, this is just a bunch of notes about some of the good deeds bad those bad people actually do? They do charity and donations. So what? How is that going to help with our investigation?
Kwanele: that’s because these are all fake, they’re only written on paper, the money goes to one account, the one registered under an Alena Smith—this is fraud! Those people pay money into a foreign account to avoid taxes and that’s illegal. With this we can get them audited, get their stocks and properties seized, we can actually get them in jail but—
Reitu: but what?
Kwanele: but it’s not really enough all on its own.
Reitu: of course, it’s not! We can’t lead with this, we were going for the sexual assault and murder cases, we have to prove that first, we have to find evidence they can’t rebuke. There must be something somewhere… or someone who knows something.
Kwanele: I know…
Reitu: this auditing and tax thing can be the last nail in the coffin, we must lead with the other allegations.
Kwanele: but how? The guy’s immaculate.
Reitu; yes, but he’s human—there’s gotta be someone who knows something. He can’t be that careful, humans make mistakes all the time.
Kwanele: that’s right, I can look into some old cases involving that damned church then. I’m sure there’s many.
Reitu: how did it go with the missing people from the last time?
Kwanele: dead end. Noth cases went cold, there's nothing at all. Cindy was last seen with Lesego who was last seen at that church and never seen again. So, whatever happened to them must have happened while they were in that place… only if we could prove that. Things would be some much better.
Reitu: I know. But still, I have hope. This is just the start, at least we have something on them. We sure still have a long way to go.
Kwanele: yeah, we do.
Reitu: thank you… for this and the snacks and for last time.
Kwanele: no, thank you.
Reitu: modest I see.
Kwanele: mom raised a gentleman.
Both fall into comfortable silence while one scrolls through the endless files on the laptop, with the other indulging on the snacks. A perfect Sunday afternoon it is.
THE HOLY GRAIL MINISTRIES
REITU’S OFFICE – AN HOUR LATER
Seipati wakes up from a deep sleep she’s been induced to feeling all queasy and lost. She looks around, stands up and stretches her body while reaching for her bag to get her phone. She checks the time and it’s in the evening, 16h25 to be exact. She tries to recall how she got there in the first place, but nothing comes to mind. She collects her stuff and leaves the strange room with sleep leaving her eyes. Her phone vibrates from her bag, she retrieves it and checks the notification—it’s a text from Ntando.
[on text]
Ntando: miss you, hope you enjoyed the service today. Wanna hang this weekend?
Seipati: missed you too. I enjoyed the service. Sure, let’s hang.
She smiles to herself and replies to the text immediately before putting the phone back inside the bag leaving the place all merry and giggly forgetting that she was just worrying why she just woke up from an office she doesn’t remember entering.
THE FOLLOWING DAY
THE MOHLALA HOUSEHOLD
The bishop stretches his arms and turns from his side of the bed waking up. He gates on his feet though his body tempts him to go back to bed. he looks on Mfundo’s side and she’s sound asleep. He leaves for the bathroom and comes back all fresh, a clean face and clean teeth. He shakes Mfundo trying to wake her up.
Bishop: we have an appearance to make today, the school tours pop-ups have started. I don’t want to be late, I’m sure you don’t want to be late too. So, please wake up.
She doesn’t respond let alone move, his heart starts racing fats, his mind runs wild. He shakes violently but there’s no answer.
Bishop: Mfundo! Hon!! Honey!? MFUNDO, ARE YOU OKAY?!! Honey, wake up!! Honey?!
His mind goes back and forth recalling the conversation they had weeks ago about executing the master. He remembers passing the news to him without Mfundo’s knowledge and he was not very pleased and swore retaliate one way or the other. His mind goes blank as he sinks on the floor feeling breathe escape him rapidly and his chest closing.
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