Retribution Book 3 - Twilight Revenge: Retribution, #3

By David Harvey

When Dimitri Alfieri was ambushed, he was shot twice as a lesson. The money he was carrying to be laundered, was stolen.

He never saw who it was, he can't prove anything but he believes the Hout Bay family need the money, they have the military experience so they had to be behind it.

When a significant portion of the money is subsequently dumped in a public park, he becomes increasingly unravelled.

Cesar Quevedo, the abalone poacher, his ally and only friend, is no stranger to ruthless violence. But he has his own problems. His earlier killing of an abalone poacher to send a message comes back to haunt him when an attempt is made on his life, leading to more violence and deaths.

Now it is about to become personal. Dimitri Alfieri vs the Hout Bay family. He would like to believe that his friend Cesar, has his back. But Cesar is, inexplicably, in love and revenge is no longer part of his thinking.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dave
• Release date: Aug 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393316145

Book preview

Chapter 1

Dimitri Alfieri thought about pounding his head against the wall. If his ass wasn’t so painful already, the head banging might have been a welcome release from his intense frustration. If he couldn’t beat himself senseless, then screaming at the people in his office as his level of rage rose until it threatened to overwhelm him would probably not achieve the desired result either.

‘Am I the only one who can see this?’ he eventually snarled, after staring at the wall for a full ten seconds while he pulled his rage back into its cage. ‘None of this is rocket science. Look at the goddam video and see how professional the ambush was. I only know of three people who could do this and we all know where they are.’

‘You should probably calm down,’ Cesar said, ‘before you have a stroke.’

‘Cesar, just listen to what I’m saying,’ Dimitri tried again more calmly as he sat at his office desk in the specially adapted chair that kept his stitched-up butt from touching any part of the slowly healing wounds. It allowed him to sit for an hour or so at a time in reasonable comfort before he had to stand.

But sitting, standing, none of it made a lot of difference because the constant pain of the healing wounds was like a terrible toothache. He’d had the chair changed on Saturday when he had nothing else to do because his only friend Cesar Quevedo had been in Langebaan again and he’d finally realised just how small his social world was.

For the last fifteen minutes, he’d been trying to convince the other three people in his office that the Hout Bay people had been behind the ambush and it unnerved him they either couldn’t or wouldn’t see the answers as clearly as he could.

The three people were Cesar, Ivanna, and Camilo. Guido had told Benito to help Dimitri get this problem sorted out and Benito had used that excuse to get Ivanna and Camilo involved. But he’d sort of pushed it on them in such a way they felt obligated to help, so long as they understood their focus was the money stolen initially and the primary reason for them being in Cape Town. If they had something to add, or could find out something new, that would be a bonus, within one rigid rule.  No-one outside of the office could ever learn about the robbery.

‘This is what I think. That Hout Bay car business is not making money. Those people have all that military experience and this has military all over it. They created the whole fake scenario and you and I walked into it. That one person – that Ethan person? Lategan said he’d been with the American Rangers for ten years. I did some of my own research and guess what? Those Ranger people come from another planet. Three of them could have done this in their sleep.’

‘And so could a bunch of gangsters from Cape Town,’ Cesar interrupted. ‘Half of them have done military service in the army here. Besides, you saw the video. You saw the so-called police from the tow truck. They were Asians.’

‘I don’t know why you seem to be on their side suddenly, Cesar? I went past the Hout Bay garage a few days before the ambush,’ Dimitri retorted. ‘There were no cars in their garage and they told me they believed I was with you the day that car crashed with those two black people inside and I would pay for that. Now I’ve been shot twice like you had two fingers broken and our money is gone? I’m telling you this is how they pay for all their shit. They steal money. They don’t need cars now for the rest of the year because they have four million seven hundred thousand rands of our money. There are too many coincidences there to ignore them.’

‘Just explain the bit about the car crash and the broken fingers to us,’ Camilo interrupted Dimitri before he could head off on another tirade.

‘Before I do that, you tell me how many cars do they have to fix to pay for their fancy houses, their cars, that boat, their building? Go on, you all tell me. Because I’m telling you it’s impossible.’

There was silence in the office as they all thought about that, and then Camilo answered. ‘I don’t know. That’s a fair question and something to think about. Now answer my question.’

‘There was an accident one afternoon out near their farm which involved two of their hired help and they said Cesar and I caused it. So they broke two of his fingers. It was an accident and they have no idea who was in the car but they blamed Cesar and attacked him.’

‘Did Cesar cause the accident?’ Ivanna asked.

‘Of course not. It was just convenient to blame him.’

‘Dimitri,’ Ivanna said sharply. ‘Don’t talk like I’m stupid or patronise me. The problem with a lie is that it gets bigger all the time and more difficult to keep things simple. Let me ask Cesar instead. Did you have anything to do with the accident? I know Dimitri’s lying, let’s see about you.’

‘I might have caused them to go off the road, yes.’

‘You might have caused them to go off the road? What the hell does that mean? Or do I understand what you’re saying is you had everything to do with it? Is that correct? And they subsequently came after you and you ended up with two broken fingers?’

‘If you look at it like that, I suppose yes, the two things could be connected.’

‘How would you prefer to look at it?’ Camillo asked. ‘I don’t think they needed to be rocket scientists to put two and two together.’

‘They had no actual proof it was me. They took a chance it was. Besides, how could they even know we were anywhere near their place?’

‘Because it was you and Dimitri was with you and the people you hurt saw your registration. You keep forgetting that. Now he’s been shot twice in the ass, not so?’

‘So what’s your point?’

‘They didn’t just suck a name out of a hat and that name was yours. You don’t understand who you’re pushing around, do you? We’ve met them and we can tell you,’ she gestured at Camilo, ‘that if you keep after them, they will come for you again. And maybe it was them who ambushed you and you getting two flesh wounds was the same message as Cesar’s two broken fingers. And maybe it wasn’t. But if it was, you need to be worried about how they might be involved with some Asian people. Because then they’re playing way out of your league.’

‘Ivanna, you and Camilo can admire them as much as you like, because you’ve met them and you think they’re so wonderful,’ Dimitri sneered. ‘The point is, we’re missing nearly five million rands your new best friends might have stolen from your boss. You should have fun explaining that you don’t want to investigate whether I’m right because you admire them or some such rubbish.’

‘Except we don’t have to explain anything to Guido, Dimitri. That’s the bit you’re missing. It’s money you are missing, not us. You need to explain it to him. We’ll help you find the money, but we won’t underestimate that if it was your Hout Bay friends, they had some powerful help. And if you are so convinced, then find proof because without it, you have nothing more than a coincidence and we can’t take that anywhere.’

Cesar spoke up again. ‘I have no love for those people in Hout Bay Dimitri and I am not taking their side as you think. But chasing in one direction won’t find out who did it if it’s the wrong way. I went through that video a few more times and initially thought I could see something reflected on the roof of the tow truck, so I went back to Lategan and we went through the video again and stopped it at the same place and blew it up. But it was rust marks on the cab. That’s the only thing of interest in the whole video, other than the Asian connection that immediately stood out. But somewhere in that video or something about that video will point us in the right direction.’

‘Can we see the video?’ Camilo asked.

‘The I.T. guy, Lategan, he’s the one who received it,’ Cesar replied. ‘He can show it to you. If you want, I’ll take you to him now and you’ll see what I mean.’

Camilo stood up and looked at Ivanna. ‘Let’s have a look.’

She stood up and the three of them walked out Dimitri’s office and down to where Frederick Lategan was sitting in one of the other I.T. offices, in a meeting with some of his team. Sticking his head through the door, Cesar said. ‘Sorry to interrupt. Can we look at that video again quickly? If you get it running, I’ll show them what’s happening and you can go back to your meeting.’

Lategan excused himself, came out of the meeting room and they followed him to his office where he set up the video on the same PC he’d done previously, started it, looked at Quevedo and said. ‘Here you go. You know how to work with it. If you need me, I’ll be where you found me.’

He walked away as Cesar started the video, showed Ivanna what to do and walked away, but then came back and stayed. If they saw something he’d missed, he wanted to be first to hear about it.

They watched it through without comment and then Ivanna said. ‘If we assume one person was handling the drone, there are four people around the two trucks, another three people who come from nowhere and put guns on you, that’s at least eight people, maybe more. There are three people at that Hout Bay set up who might have been the three people with guns, but that still leaves another five and where did they come from? And you can see that two of them are Asian. In fact, given that the three who do the gun work are wearing balaclavas, they could also be Asian for all anyone knows.’

‘Should we visit them?’ Camilo suggested. ‘See if we pick up anything?’

‘As much as I don’t like those people in Hout Bay,’ Cesar said, ‘I don’t share Dimitri’s views it is automatically them. But I’ll concede that whoever it was, they planned and executed it well and those Hout Bay people have those skills and they wouldn’t be scared to pull something like this off. Deep down inside, I have to think it is always possible it was them, but there’s just nothing in the video to tie them to it.’

‘I think Dimitri’s blowing smoke out his ass,’ Camilo said, realised what he’d just said and then laughed, joined a second later by Ivanna and then they watched in amazement as Cesar made a small strangled sound, somewhere between a cough and a choke which he couldn’t hold for longer than a second or two and next thing, he too laughed.

Chapter 2

Cesar was feeling expansive. He probably shouldn’t have laughed in front of these two, but he was still hung-over from his weekend with Melissa. It wasn’t an alcohol hang-over as they’d had very little alcohol the entire time. It was more of a craving for her kind of emotional hang-over thing.

When he’d gone down last week, and she’d opened her front door for him, she was dripping water from underneath a thick dressing gown she held closed with one hand. She’d pulled him inside with the other, cupped his face with her hands, her eyes staring into his and shining with a radiant intensity that seemed to come from deep inside her. She kissed him hungrily, let her dressing gown fall open, letting him look before she turned around, shrugged it off onto the floor and said. ‘You know where to go. I’m waiting for you.’

And that was just the beginning.

By the time he left Langebaan early on Monday morning, Cesar Quevedo’s mind was in a turmoil; a whirlwind of swirling thoughts bouncing inside his skull, leaving him needing more of her and their time together. That there would be more was a virtual guarantee as he’d mentioned to her while they were lazing together in the lagoon, she’d said at the beginning she had something to talk to him about.

Her response had been telling. 'Sometime in the future Cesar. Right now let’s get to know each other.’ He had quickly forgotten the events of the past week and Dimitri’s issues in a weekend of Melissa magic which included sun, swimming, some steaks, a few beers and a lot of sex. As he was discovering, she had a large appetite for life and enjoyment.

So when Camilo had made his off-the-cuff remark about Dimitri, the thin ice he’d always felt he was treading on around these two, especially back in Bogota, suddenly felt a lot thicker as he let his feelings out and he flashed back to the here and now.

‘So how do we go forward on this?’

‘You’re convinced the answer lies in the video?’ Camilo looked at him.

‘If not in the video then about the video. Why?’

‘Because I’d like to get a copy of it and watch it frame by frame as you suggested. If there is something to find, it will be there. Otherwise, we should leave it and not waste our time.’

‘Let me ask Lategan for a copy. Can he email it to you or do you want it on a flash drive?’

‘Let’s speak to him.’

Going back to where Frederick Lategan was in his meeting, Cesar interrupted him again and asked him to step out quickly.

‘Can I have a copy of that video?’ Camilo asked.

‘Sure – have you got a flash drive?’

‘Can you email it? I have nothing on me at the moment.’

‘What’s your address?’

Camilo gave it to him, checked what Lategan wrote to ensure it was correct and asked for it as soon as possible.

‘I’ll be in my meeting for a couple of hours still. I’ll do it after that.’

‘Thank you.’

Chapter 3

On Saturday morning, while Cesar was still fast asleep in Melissa’s bed, Ajax had a sudden change of mind while he, Tulley and Dallas were running. ‘What if ...’ he suggested as they wound their way up Chapman’s Peak Drive, a challenge even without conversation ‘... we change what we’re intending to do tomorrow with the money?’

‘Again?’ Dallas laughed.

‘Yeah, just hear me out and then you can make fun of me. We’ve sent a big message to Camps Bay, especially to our fat friend Dimitri, and with luck, they’ll never be able to find anything that points to us directly. But if we just dump the money in the middle of the ocean, it somehow doesn’t give me the vibe I’m looking for.’

‘You mean like Ethan on the actual ambush when Dimitri and Quevedo were already out the car before they’d even made it across the road? He’d been hoping for some fun.’

‘That’s exactly it.’

‘Can we stop running and talk?’ Tulley asked. ‘Remember, I’ve got a hectic morning coming up and talking and thinking and running uphill at the same time is beating me up.’

‘I’m glad you said it and I didn’t have to,’ Ajax said, moving off the road and stopping immediately. ‘What I was thinking was that dumping the money immediately was more because I wanted it out of the house and somewhere nobody knows about than anything else. The logistics around the donations was just too complicated, so we decided to take the uncomplicated way out and dump it into the sea.’

‘Do you want to go back to the charity story?’

‘No, but, what if ...’ he looked around, watching the trees and shrubs bend and move as the breeze swirled around the Bay and the Mountain ‘... we dump it in a bunch of different streets when the wind is blowing like this and let Nature do what it wants with it? Just think how many homeless people and anybody will suddenly find banknotes all over the city?’

‘You know you could get arrested for that kind of littering don’t you,’ Dallas said, a faraway look on her face.

‘Nobody will see us or even remotely connect us to it if we do it right.’

‘So we change tomorrow?’ Tulley asked.

He shrugged. ‘Why not? The money’s hidden away and we’ve got the storage unit for six months. Let’s add insult to injury.’

‘God but you’re an evil swine,’ Tulley said.

‘I know. I used to be a nicer person, but I want to stick it to these guys. I want to rub their noses in it. What about you, Dallas?’

‘I like it. That amount of paper money blowing around the City streets will make the news. Dimitri will pop his stitches.’

‘Are you seeing Makulu and Boykie later?’

‘Yes.’

‘Bounce it off them won’t you?’

‘Then what about tomorrow?’

He shrugged again. ‘We could all go to the farm and bug Marion and Angelique, which is what we were originally going to do. We changed that plan only because I wanted to dump the money as fast as possible. I’ll talk to Oscar as he was also bringing that Ruger out tomorrow, in case any of the cooler boxes needed a few holes in them to help them sink. I’ll tell him we’re probably going to the farm and let him take it from there.’

‘If we’re going to talk about it more,’ Tulley suggested, ‘let’s do it while we run back.’

‘My brain’s all fired up now,’ Dallas said. ‘Let’s turn around like Tulley’s suggesting, get Ethan’s view and then unpick it. The first step, if we do it, is that I need to find out where the City keeps all its cameras.’

Because the way back was all downhill, it was easier to bounce ideas around and run, giving Tulley enough of an outline to discuss the idea with Makulu and Boykie. They’d all achieved the original goal of making Dimitri pay for his part in the accident which had injured Joshua and Wendy and subsequently injured Dup when he and Gavin rescued them from the about to-catch-fire car.

The insult on top of the injury that Ajax was now looking for was not necessarily within Makulu’s game plan, but he controlled the second padlock key.

Which meant he had a lot of say in what they did with the money.

Dallas called Marion as soon as they were at the office to be told that because they weren’t originally going to be coming out, she and Angelique were having a weekend olive and wine exhibition together. She would, however, be thrilled for them to be there, but then they’d have to help with the wine tasting.

With the hindsight of experience, Dallas nixed that idea. ‘Sorry Ma,’ she laughed. ‘Can you see Makulu and Ajax teaching your customers about the different wines? I don’t think you want those two anywhere near them. We’ll see you next weekend.’

Going through to the workshop she told Ajax, asked him to tell Ethan and between them, tell everyone else that the farm was out and maybe they should go back to the boat, but not sink any cooler boxes, or they could just get together for a mid-afternoon braai and discuss the money.

From there, she went back to her office and searched through the City of Cape Town computer systems for all their cameras. She could either make a note of streets to avoid, which could cut down on their movements dramatically and inevitably up their risks, or she could take them down for two or three hours while they ran around anywhere.

She would bring up the options when they got together, but backing out of the City systems, carefully erasing all traces of ever being there, she went into their Bitcoin account and studied her charts for the next hour.

Bitcoin prices had flourished during the last twelve months but over the last month especially, had gyrated wildly as speculators moved in. The word Bitcoin seemed to be the new gold rush and her trend analysis was showing a steep increase in price, seemingly based more on speculation and greed than any kind of sound foundation.

Irrespective of the reasons though, right now the price was showing an all-time high of two thousand three hundred and forty dollars a coin, so she sold four and a half thousand. The sale generated over ten million dollars, which she thought ridiculous, given it had initially cost them probably less than seven thousand dollars in total and they still had over twenty-five thousand coins.

If they moved the proceeds to South Africa, by the time she’d sorted out IRS issues and exchange control in South Africa, the current rate of exchange would net them close to a hundred million rands, which was even more ridiculous. But that call needed to come from Ajax.

Idly watching the live Bitcoin trading screen for several minutes, she drummed her fingers rhythmically on the desk while she thought, then stood abruptly and told Carol-Anne she was going to the house on Albert Road to collect a screen.

Twenty minutes later she was back with the screen, its connections, and power supply and connected it to the computer in her office. Placing it next to her primary screen, she plugged it in and split her system so the live Bitcoin feed now ran on the new screen and she could monitor the price continuously. With the price increasing the way it was, she wanted to be on top of what was now happening every day.

At twelve-thirty they closed up shop and waited for Tulley, presumably having spoken to Boykie and Makulu. Hearing cars, Ajax looked out the window and then moved to the office door which he opened, letting in Tulley with a hug and a handshake for Makulu and Boykie.

Moving inside, Makulu went straight behind the bar, took out a glass, put a block of ice in it, looked at the choices, selected a single malt whiskey, poured some into his glass and looked at everyone watching him.

‘What?’

‘Nothing,’ Ajax replied. ‘Just not your standard poor behaviour, that’s all.’

Boykie, who was sitting in one of the lounge chairs, chuckled. ‘She kicked his ass, is what’s got his panties in a wad.’

‘No, she didn’t,’ Makulu snarled. ‘That’s a lop-sided perspective. I slipped, and she got lucky. That’s all.’

While Boykie collapsed laughing, Ajax looked at Tulley who shrugged slightly and winked, and then looked at Ethan and Dallas who both looked slightly confused but amused by the banter. Walking to the bar, Ajax sat on one stool, looked at Makulu carefully and grinned. ‘If you weren’t already black, I’d say you’ve got the beginnings of a heavy black eye coming, but with a face like yours it’s difficult to say.’

‘I hear you want to change the plan again,’ Makulu stated, avoiding any reference to his eye which looked as if it had definitely taken some punishment and was slowly swelling shut. ‘That’s why I was distracted. Tulley told me and when I stopped to think about it she pulled a dirty move.’

‘Jeez but you lie,’ Boykie laughed. ‘Tulley said nothing until we were all finished.’

‘Well, she was thinking about telling us. Same thing. I picked up the vibe, and she took advantage of that.’

‘That’s okay,’ Ajax laughed, swinging the chair around, ‘you can sulk and we’ll talk to Boykie.’

‘Tulley sort of gave us an idea of what you want to do now, but explain your feeling of unfulfilled a bit more clearly.’

‘Let me answer that slightly differently. Ethan – how did you feel after the ambush?’

‘Unfulfilled. We practised on Dallas’s simulation several times, we spoke about it, walked it through in our heads many times – well I did and then what happens? As we get ready for the big action move of shooting through windows, scaring the shit out of them, pulling them out the car, all that adrenaline shit happening, what do they do?’

‘They opened their doors and got out?’

‘Exactly. It was like huh, WTF man? It was depressing.’

‘That’s what I’m saying,’ Ajax said. ‘We’ve got the money, now we want to dump it in the ocean? Why? I say let’s rub their faces in it first before we dump it. The last time our friend Dimitri popped past, we had just finished the two cars we had been working on and we were all sitting around driving Carol-Anne crazy. His first comment was so what guys, no more cars? I’d bet you he thinks we stole that money because our business is doing badly and we needed the money to keep going. His thoughts, not our reality.’

‘So if all the money is blowing around the streets of Cape Town it’s like poking him in the eye with a big stick?’

‘Much more satisfying than dumping it in the ocean.’

‘Now if Tulley had explained that properly,’ Makulu said from behind Ajax, ‘I wouldn’t be standing here all grumpy like.’

‘You’re grumpy because Tulley beat you up,’ Boykie laughed. ‘That’s why you weren’t listening properly.’

‘I slipped, and she took advantage.’

‘Doesn’t matter, big guy. Someone’s coming at you with a big knife and you slip and they cut your throat open, you’re still dead.’

‘You know I’m not really grumpy. The last person who gave me a black eye was about thirty years ago. I wanted a proper drink while I plotted revenge. Next time Tulley, I won’t slip again.’

‘I look forward to it,’ Tulley laughed. ‘I enjoy watching you grovel. But you needed a small lesson because you weren’t paying attention.’

‘You know that’s fighting talk?’

‘You could always try Tuesday. By that stage, your eye should be nicely closed up.’

‘Ajax, help me here please,’ Makulu said as he took another small sip of whiskey. ‘I’m being ganged-up on probably because I’m the black guy.’

‘Yeah right, what I’m hearing is you weren’t paying attention. If you think we’re picking on you, wait until Alison sees you.’

‘To come back to the proposed plan,’ Ethan said. ‘We refined our thinking. There’s no wine farm tour tomorrow unless you want to go out there and explain wine tasting to Marion’s customers, but she was hoping Dallas would say no.’

‘What did she actually say?’ Tulley asked.

‘A big thank you but no thank you,’ Dallas replied. ‘All we’d do is chase her customers away. Can you imagine Makulu, this huge big black guy with a swollen black eye, the eye-ball itself all red and angry, looking like he’s been in a bar brawl? He’d be bending over a table and saying, "here you go Ma’am, a very dry, slight tannins in the aftertaste wine, but you can taste the guava if you let it roll around the back of your tongue?"’

Makulu laughed. ‘My eyeball is not all red and angry looking. Besides, I would pretend I knew exactly what I was saying.’

‘Which is exactly why Marion doesn’t want us there.’

‘Okay then,’ Ajax brought them back to the point. ‘To paraphrase what we have said so far, how do we all talk about this?’

‘What about an afternoon braai tomorrow?’ Dallas said. ‘Chilled out, relaxed, let the guys do the cooking, spoil the women kind of day.’

‘Brief notice but elegant,’ Boykie said. ‘We’ll bounce it off our loved ones and confirm this evening. Has anyone told Oscar?’

‘I mentioned it,’ Ajax replied. ‘But we left it to confirm once I heard from you guys.’

Chapter 4

They had confirmed an afternoon braai, so early on Sunday afternoon, Ajax had an extra-large side of beef on the spit going, getting a long slow roast, given that feeding Makulu was like feeding three normal adults. There were vegetables ready for the oven and the women were being waited on carefully, especially after Ajax and Ethan’s previous grill where they’d mostly forgotten their roles.

They were sitting on the patio, protected from the breeze which carried a chill and cold squalls of light rain. So far, the heavier rains were still missing and what did occasionally fall was fleeting and not enough to do more than hurry through it with sometimes an umbrella but generally, just a quick walk to shelter.

Unbeknown to them though, this was Cesar Quevedo’s desired weather, although heavier rain would be better. He wanted people to be hurrying along the sidewalks, their faces mostly buried into waterproof coats, keeping their eyes down and out of the rain, where no-one would see what other people around them were doing.

So when he used his knife on that woman, he’d be fast and would make it look as though in the rain, he’d partially collided with another scurrying pedestrian. But so far the Cape winter rains had been a spectacular failure and talk was turning to a looming drought and empty dams.

Right now though, his target was sitting comfortably smelling the food and talking about the best way to dump several million rands in cash, out the back of a vehicle driving randomly through the streets of Cape Town, without being seen.

‘What you want,’ Gina said, ‘is people to get access to some of the money, without getting themselves killed as they run around in the road. You don’t want two hundred collisions as people suddenly stop their cars in the middle of the road because they want to pick up a handful of notes. So Ajax, is this about getting a lot of money to a lot of people, mostly the homeless I’m guessing, or about making a statement?’

‘Ideally, it’s both,’ he replied, ‘and your thoughts have bounced through my skull a few times.‘When do you want to do this?’ Katie asked.

‘Oscar – what’s the news from your part of the world? That will dictate how long we’ve got.’

‘Very unhappy and running around like headless chickens. Dimitri is going through that video ten times a day, I think. They are desperate to find out who did this and make an example of them and get the money back. There’s a view that a Chinese triad is behind it because of the Asian policemen, but it is also not the news the Alfieri’s want