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The follwoing day on a Saturday night Ntokozo is in this seemingly abandoned warehouse in the middle of nowhere and he looks to be in a different mode as he is dressed in a black shirt, black pants and a black leather jacket. The place could have been an old steel manufactoring warehouse some decades ago as it's almost falling apart and Ntokozo has a man tied up in chair in the middle of the hall. He looks terrified as he tries to free himself but it's no use as his hands are tightened into the armchair. He can't scream either because his mouth is taped. Clearly he has been getting a beating for a little while since he has blood on the side of his left eye.

Ntokozo pulls down the tape from his mouth and says, "Okay are you ready to talk now or you still want to play tough, huh?" as he punches him hard on that left side again that the man falls down to the floor with the chair, but Ntokozo helps him up. Judging by the blood on the floor, this has been happening atleast for a few times now.

"Please sir I don't know what you are talking about okay? You got the wrong person, please...please let me go..." the man shouts as he looks to be in agony. His teeth are red with blood from Ntokozo's fury punches. His left eye is begining to swell a little bit and a few more punches, it will close. Ntokozo on the other hand looks a little scary as his eyes are red with rage. He is nothing like the Ntokozo whose heart was soften by a beautiful lady yesterday. Tonight he looks like a deadly mecenary that is on a mission.

"Oh so you think I'm stupid huh? You see, I know all about you surgent Sbongiseni Nxumalo..." Ntokozo says as he looks at his target in the eyes. "I am asking you to tell me what happened to docket opened for a rape case against Philani Masondo two years ago? I swear to you, if you don't give me the information I'm asking for I will do things to you that you have never imagined."

"But sir we have many rape cases everyday and I don't know who Philani Masondo is..." the police officer screams as he begins to cry in fear but Ntokozo cuts in, "Oh but you will know who Philani Masondo is..." he says softly as he goes to the wheel table that is next to the chair that Sbongiseni is tied in. On the table are are different kinds of instruments that if you didn't know you'd think someone is in surgery and being operated upon. Ntokozo picks up what looks like a little sharp knife, he looks at it and then puts it down. He then picks up what looks like a pair of ceasers...he looks at the Sbongiseni and then looks at the instrument before putting it down. Lastly he picks up a plier and comes back to his target.

"Now listen to me carefully police officer, if you do not give me the information I need things will get really bad for you, you hear me?" he says as he looks at the mini plier. "Now, what happened to the docket opened against Philani Masondo who was charged for rape in 2021 September 11? Are you going to tell me that or we should begin?" He shouts at his target with rage.

"But I told you sir, we deal with many rape cases every single day I wouldn't know which case was that..." the terrified and crying police officer says but Ntokoz once again cuts in, "Oh so you mean to tell me making dockets dissappear is your thing huh? You do this all the time that's why you don't even remember which docket I'm talking about, huh? You corrupt bastard..." he shouts as he presses Sbongiseni's hand down on the armchair and use the plier to pull a finger nail from his thumb, leading to the police officer to scream on top his lungs in agony. "Oh no please no...please no...I don't know no what you are talking about..."

"Don't worry Sbongiseni, your memory will come back soon..." Ntokozo says with a calm voice. "You see...you have 10 fingers so we will play your game and you will tell me when you are tired of playing it, okay? I have all day for this and you can scream all you want...no one will hear you from this place."

Drops of blood from Sbongiseni's thumb start driping to the floor as he looks to be in excruciating pain but Ntokozo has no sympathy for him as his eyes are filled with rage. He is beginning to run out of patience as he holds the officer's hand down again and says, "Should we continue?" as he fiercely pulls another nail from the index finger leading to a loud scream from the police officer, "Aaah...Please stop, I will talk okay? I will talk...I'm begging you, please stop..." he shouts as tears fall down his face. Blood is all over the floor as it drips from his tied hand.

"Alright then, you will talk? Okay good...talk" Ntokozo says with a calm voice as he wipes sweat from his forehead but suddenly Sbongiseni looks hesitant as he shakes his head in fear. "Look here...I don't have all day okay? You said you will talk right? Now talk damnit..." Ntokozo shouts in frsutration as he goes over to the table to see what other effective instruments he can use.

"Alright sir look...I'm just a low level police okay? I do what I'm told...I don't ask questions" Sbongiseni says as he cries in pain but Ntokozo says "Oh you do what you are told while you take bribes to make dockets dissapear, right?" as he comes back to him. Sbongiseni nods to the question as he looks sto be running out of breathe. "Alright then who gave you money to make the docket disappear?" Ntokozo asks with an angry face, "Look, I don't care about all the sh*t you do with whoever...but I'm asking you about this particular case okay? I know that you have been doing this for a very long time because you are a useless pice of sh*t, but I don't care about all that. I wanna know who paid you to disappear the docket of Phlani Masondo..."

The bloody-faced Sbongiseni thinks for a second as panic sets in his eyes. "Okay look, I will tell you..." he says with a trembling voice. "Uhmm...it was a gentleman by the name of Luke Collins a white guy. I think he was Philani's lawyer or something like that. He gave me R10,000 to make the docket disappear...I was desperate for cash, so I took the money okay?"

"You useless piece of sh*t, did you even think about the victim, huh?" Ntokozo shouts as he punches the police hard across the face again. "How many people do you think this guy has raped and got away with it huh? He does this to women all the time because he knows he has rubbish police officers like you, right? Where is this Collins guy now? And where is Philani Masondo? I want their address and particulars, right now..."

"Look, I don't know where Collins is but Philani Masondo is a known businessman I'm sure you can easily get his particulars..." the panicking police officers says with a trembling voice. "All I did was taking the money and got rid of the docket...sir I am not part of any criminal syndicate with these people, please believe me." he says but Ntokozo cuts in, "No, you didn't just take the money...you denied justied by getting rid of the docket..." he says as he pulls a gun from his back and points it at Sbongiseni's face. Suddenly his face changes to being a face of a killer.

"Please sir, I have a family...I have already told everything I know..." Sbongiseni begs with a trembling voice as he looks at the burrel of the gun pointed at him. "You should have thought about that before you denied my sister justice, you pice of sh*t..." Ntokozo says as he squizes the trigger to put two bullets in the officer's forehead.

***

 

Later on that night at the Gumede mansion Ntokozo arrives home just in time for supper. He has changed from what he was wearing earlier on at the warehouse and now in his smart casual outfit of a white shirt, blue jeans, brown shoes and crem blazer. He walks into the dinning room where his mom, his sister and an unknown man are sitting. 'This must be an occassion of some kind...' he thinks to himself as he lets out a half smile. "Good evening everyone..." he says as he pulls a chair and sits down opposite the stranger who is sitting next to Lungile. This man smiles at him so he smiles back just to be polite.

"Well, right on time...we almost started without you..." Lungile says with a smile, which Ntokozo find a little strange because she is usually cold towards him. 'Maybe we should have a stranger in this house every now and then...' he thinks to himself as he smiles back at his sister.

"Uhmm...so I would like to introduce you to Thulani Zulu, my boyfriend..." Lungile says with a nervous voice as she avoids eye contact. She looks a little embarrassed or worried about her brother's reaction to this and certainly Ntokozo looks a little caught off guard by this. After what he had to do a little earlier to find people responsible for his sister's pain, his trust levels are on an all-time low it comes any element near his family. On the other hand Dora and Lungile are a little anxious about his reaction as they wait breathlessly to hear what he is going to say.

"Oh uhmm...it's nice to meet you Thulani Zulu, I'm Ntokozo..." Ntokozo says as he extend a hand to shake, which Thulani accepts nervously as he looks like a guilty person. Immediately, the moment becomes a little awkward in the room as it seems everyone has run out of something to say.

"Uhmm...sweetheart can you come help me in the kitchen please?" Lungile says as she looks at her daughter Mbali who was sitting next to Ntokozo. Mbali duly oblidges as she quickly stands up and follows her mom to the kitchen, leaving Ntokozo, Thulani and Dora on the dinning room. "Uhmm...so Thulani, where are you from man?" Ntokozo asks as he pours himself a glass of orange juice. "Oh uhmm...ngokokuzalwa(by birth) I'm from Ndwedwe but now I live in Umhlanga..." a nervous looking Thulani says as he takes a sip of his dry red wine, probably to calm his nerves.

"Oh uhmm...I see. How old are you?" Ntokozo probes as he wears a straight face. "35..." responds Thulani. "Only child?" Ntokozo throws another one. "No, I have a younger sister who is 28..." Thulani says as he seems a little uncomfortable with the questions a little bit. "I see...What do you do again?" Ntokozo probes some more but before Thulani could respond, a voice coming the kitchen calls out "If you must know, he is a medical doctor..." Lungile says with a smile as she and daughter come in with platters of food to the dinning room. "Oh really? That's really nice..." Ntokozo says as he forces a smile.

This seems to be a little relief for Dora who didn't want things to turn awkward in the table but as Lungile and Mbali sit down a call comes through for Ntokozo. ''Oh uhm...excuse me guys, I have to take this." he says as he looks at his phone. He gets up and goes through the glass sliding door off to the veranda.

Ntokozo: "Hey man..."

Man: "Hey bro...I thought I should check in..."

Ntokozo: "Okay but before we even go there, I need you to check somebody out for me alright?"

Man: "Oohkay...who?"

Ntokozo: "Uhmm...his name is Thulani Zulu. I will give you his full details in a moment..."

Man: "Uhmm...I don't see any problem in that man..."

Ntokozo: "Okay good...So what were you saying?"

***

 

A day later, on a Sunday afternoon, Ntokozo and Dora are sitting in the lounge watching the news on TV, while Lungile and Mbali are in their respective rooms. It seems dinner with Lungile's boyfriend Thulani went well without any akward moments, even though Ntokozo had asked his contact to do a background check on the man who is dating his sister. Now he is hoping that nothing sinister comes up because by the looks of things Lungile really likes this guy. But he feels obligated to do this after he failed to protect his sister on three occassions and now he feels prssed to make up for it.

"Son, can you please up the volume on that..." Dora says as her eyes pops from what is being said on the news.

'48 year-old Surgent Sbongiseni Nxumalo who was found dead with bullet wounds in his head and his body burned inside his car that was also torched was a husband and a father of two teenage girls. The police spokesperson in KZN that we spoke to earlier on says the motive for this gruesome murder has not yet been established as the forensic team is still swifting through things to try and establish what exactly may have happend to the police officer who was tortured by having his finger nails removed...' the news anchor says,

"Lungile...Lungile....Please come quick..." Dora shouts for her daughter as she is shocked at what she is hearing on the news. Lungile comes down as fast as she can, "Mama what's wrong? What's happening?" she says as wonders about what could be important that her mother had to shout that like.

"Look who it is...the police officer that was investigating your case two years ago..." Dora says as she points to the TV. Lungile comes and sits down on the couch to listen what is being said on the news.

'KZN Police Commissioner Mthokozisi Ncube has vowed to find the perpetrator and bring him or her or them to justice because the department has lost a great servant of the people...' the news anchor continues but this seems to upset Lungile a little bit as she says, "Great servant my ass. I say good riddence...That man got what he deserved, corrupt bastard..." she says as she looks away from her mother. "Oh baby, come on now..." Dora says with a low voice but Lungile cuts in sharply, "No mama, it's true alright? That man deserves this..." she shouts as she looks upset. "I say welldone to whoever did this to him. Do you forget that he lost the docket that would have taken Philani behind bars? He probably was killed for one of his corrupt activities..."

"I know sweetheart what that man did but I was just saying that..." Dora says but doesn't finish as Lungile interrupts her again, "No mama...the world is a better place without that man nxa..." she says as she stands up and goes back to her room, leaving Dora a little shock. But perhaps though not as shocking as seeing how calm her son is about all this.

"Are you okay my boy?" she asks with a raised eyebrow. Ntokozo looks at her and says, "Yeah mama...why you ask?" while fixing his eyes on the TV. He is clearly avoiding eye contact. "Oh no...nothing son...I was just thinking that, why would anyone kill a police officer like that..." Dora says as she looks at her son who is still looking at the TV. "Just like Lungile said mama...if he was a corrupt person, maybe the world is a better place without him...excuse me" Ntokozo says as he stands and goes upstairs to his room, leaving his mother confused by that reaction.