One Hundred Degrees

Chapter 5: The Crew

"It's so much darker when a light goes out then it would have been if it never shone"

John Steinbeck, The winter of our discontent

Del turned to face the rest of the restaurant staff sitting in the station. They look completely knackered out from the morning events.
"Poor souls this must have been a shocker to their system ", she thought to herself.
"Sorry for the wait guys, I know it's been a long morning for y'all, but we'll try to move along quicker. Um, Mr Thebza Mthethwa you are up next."
A smartly dressed , young guy stood up and followed Del and Dev into the interrogation room. He seemed quite at ease , chattering as they entered the room, "That's me , shoo and here I was thinking I'd make my Mamma proud and never step into a police station!"
Del smiled at him politely, "No stress Mr Mthethwa , it's just procedure. Ok, so whatever you say will go on the record. We shall start the interrogation now."
"Right-o, and don't stress with the Mr thing, I've just finished school ma'am so you can call me Thebza or Thebz."
"Ok Thebza, so you were second on the scene after Tristan found Miss Smiths body, this morning, can you recollect what happened."
"Eish, I wish I never saw those things. I got to the kitchen round about half 6- I was supposed to meet Bell at 7. That's generally the time the stuff comes in from the fisherman and I wanted her to give me a cooking lesson so I decided that the spare time would be beneficial.
When I got to the kitchen, Tris was kneeling and crying next to her- the poor guy was so shocked, I don't think he even realised I was there. Bell was lying there, her face all red and swollen, she was not breathing and her body was cold when I tried to feel for a pulse. I quickly sussed up the situation, and figured the police and ambulance were the ones to call.
After I made the calls,I took Tris aside, sat him down, mixed some sugar water for him and tried to calm him down. I also called Pops, just told him there's a crisis at the restaurant and that I've contacted the relevant authorities. I didn't tell a Pops it was Bell- I couldn't, not over the phone, not like that.
Haibo, whoever did this deserves the death sentence-honestly, it seems like such a swak thing to do- killing a defenceless woman, and for what?!"
Thebz shook his head in anger, his whole body was shaking with rage, he deeply inhaled and exhaled. As he looked up at them, Del noticed tears welling up his his eyes.
"I only know her for just under a year, I finished matric and wanted to become a chef- but my family can't afford it-what with Ma being a single parent and heading a household of five. So, I started doing part-time work as a waiter last June, and got to become a full time kitchen hand once matric was over. Honestly Bell was amazing- she understood my situation and always made time to mentor me out of working hours , so I didn't fall behind. I was really sad that she was going to be leaving us soon, but she gave me the strength to believe in myself. I will always be grateful for that."
"She sounds like such a wonderful person from what we've heard about her today, I promise you we will seek justice for her Thebz.", Del heard herself say despite trying to hold it all in.
"We don't have too many questions as you actually gave us all the answers so far, but where were you this morning, before you came into work?"
"I was at Addington hospital-my Ma is a nurse there, so she was coming off night shift at 6, I went to drop off Tupperware's she's selling to the sisters there, before heading to work. That must have been around half 5ish."
"Ok and how was Miss Smiths relationship with the rest of staff."
"She was the apple of Pops eyes and I think we all loved her. Tristan was frosty with her when I joined, but that seemed to have cooled down-probably because he was finally getting that promotion once she left." Thebza rolled his eyes.
Del nodded her head, cast a glance over at Dev who had sat silently throughout this interview.
"No questions from your side Officer Govender?"
"Nope."
"Thanks for talking to us Thebza, if anything comes up you can always contact one of us while this investigation is underway."
"No problem, thanks and I hope you guys catch the skebang who did this ."