Everyone has a dark side...some just know how to use it. Three different women with three different secrets, but secrets can only stay buried for so long...
This was the most disturbing crime scene that Detective Abigail Dlamini had ever seen. Although, she still wasn't even sure it was a crime scene.
A dead man in a chair doesn't make a crime scene. But it was what was playing on his TV that had caused the pastor to call the police in. It was the grainy image flashing on the screen that made this a crime scene. Something about this bothered her. Everything about this bothered her. The man in the chair bothered her, a lot.
Grey haired, seventy-years-old and living in a retirement village. His days were spent doing pottery, walking his dog in the nearby park, art, aqua-aerobics and singing alto in the church choir. When he hadn't shown up for choir practice this morning, the pastor had gone looking for him. The door was unlocked and he let himself.
His body was found sitting in his favorite lazy boy chair, reclined all the way. The TV was on, his legs were folded and he had a small blanket pulled up onto his lap. The pastor had immediately assumed natural causes. Old age. But then he saw the frozen image on the scene. At first he wasn't sure what he was looking at.
The TV was old, not one of these flat screen HD monitors. He needed to know. He pressed play on the VCR and the frozen image sprung to life. The pastor had fallen backwards, knocked over a vase of flowers on the table and then vomited on the floor. Inconvenient. Contaminating a crime scene. And that's how she'd landed up here.
"Fucking pervert! He deserves to be dead." Jake, her partner came up behind her and said. This had gotten to him. He had three daughters of his own.
"Yeah. Fucked up," she said. "Fucked up."
She moved her attention away from the body and started looking around the room. It looked like the kind of room you would expect an old man in a retirement village to have. He had been widowed a few years ago, married for fifty years though.
His walls were plastered with pictures of his family. Children, grandchildren and his wife. There was a beautiful old black and white photo of the two of them on their wedding day. They both looked so happy and in love. He was young and handsome.
She walked into his bedroom. It looked pretty normal. Pictures of his grandchildren on his nightstand. A photo of his wife next to the bed. Neat. Tidy. Perfect.
She sighed. This was too fucking puzzling for a Monday morning when she hadn't even had her cappuccino yet. She didn't even know how Eddy Lambrecht had died. There was no visible evidence of foul play. Suicide? Heart attack?
"I've got to get out of here!" Jake walked into the room still looking ashen. I bet he wishes he could un-see what he saw. Only, you never can un-see something like that. It's the kind of thing that stays with you forever- she knew that all too well.
"Let's get the body to the morgue, determine cause of death. Let's get that tape to the lab and have it analyzed, see if we can find out where it came from and where he got it. And then let's fucking strip the place to see if there's any more."
Jake nodded and left.
She looked around once more before leaving to talk to his neighbors and friends. Still, there was something so odd about this- other than the obvious. She couldn't put her finger on it. But something was bothering her.
Maybe it was her supposed "psychic abilities" kicking in? Her grandmother was *Inyanga who insisted that the gift ran in the family. Not that she believed in any of that crap. Ancestors, the *Tokoloshe, curses...
She needed coffee.
"Where the hell can I get a coffee around here?"
*Inyanga/ Sangoma/ Witch doctor- A type of traditional South African healer. Like a Shaman. Sangoma. The Sangoma is a diviner and a mystic. They heal physical and mental/ emotional ailments, all the way to dealing with curses and black magic- this is very much an accepted belief held by many South Africans across many cultures. A sangoma can be a man, or woman.
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*Tokoloshe- In Zulu mythology, Tokoloshe is a dwarf-like sprite. It is considered a mischievous and evil spirit. Tokoloshes are called upon by malevolent people to cause trouble for others. The Tokoloshe has made a move into popular culture with the band "Die Andwoord" making a documentary on it and one of our local singers, Jack Parrow, doing a satirical song about it. (Link above)But for most, the Tokoloshe is not a laughing matter, instead he is a terrifying presence.
