A faint smile touched Rebecca’s lips, “Thank you for the offer. I know. I need to find a job and a place to stay.” Rebecca shrugged, “I just don’t know where to start. It’s all rather overwhelming.”
“I’ve got nothing on today. How about we go looking together?”
“Are you serious? Why would you do that for me?”
Shane lifted an eyebrow and stared at her as if she were mad, “What knight in shining armor would rescue a princess from the dragon—or in your case, a roaringly drunk bunch of dragon’s—and then dump her halfway to the castle? I’ve read the books. I know what the ending needs to be.”
“Oh? And what ending is that?”
“They all lived happily ever after, of course.” Shane’s face was so sincere, that Rebecca burst out laughing. She just couldn’t hold it in.
“Oh Shane. You are so good for my soul.” Warm relief flooded through Rebecca’s insides. At least she didn’t have to tackle this alone.
“Of course I am, dear. Now, let’s get some more coffee and figure out what you are good at doing.”
Chapter 19 – Pursuit and Success
This really was the perfect time of day for long-distance travel. The sun was just starting to tickle the sleepy sky with bright fingers and a Midas touch that turned everything to gold. Beautiful.
Jason took the steaming mug of coffee from Tim, holding it gingerly on the rim to avoid scalding his fingers. They had this travelling refreshment thing down to a fine art. Glancing to where Kenneth sat in the middle of the back seat of the car, Jason asked, “You sure you won’t have any?”
Kenneth was having great trouble sitting still. “Nah, I’d either burn myself or need to find a loo. I’ll give it a miss.” His long legs stretched into the space between the Jason and Tim’s seats, stopping just short of interfering with the handbrake. His toes tapped non-stop, with an intensity that was beginning to wear on Jason’s patience.
“Uh, Kenneth? Could you stop the foot thing please? It’s horribly distracting.”
“Oh sorry! I wasn’t thinking.” He withdrew his feet from the gap and the toe-tapping stopped. Without missing a beat, his mouth took over where his feet had left off. “I still can’t believe my Dad let me come with you guys. You should have seen him a week ago; he nearly bit my head off for suggesting that I go look for Rebecca.”
Jason felt a sharp stab of something he didn’t care to identify. Kenneth was obviously smitten. “You aren’t here to look for Rebecca, remember. Your Dad sent you with us to find Claude and take him home. We are looking for Rebecca.”
“I know. I know. Trust me, where you find Rebecca, you will find Claude. I just hope we’re not too late.”
“What do you mean by that?” Tim and Jason blurted out the question together.
“I’ll be honest with you, my brother is really messed up inside. Even from little, his sanity was a little bit suspect. Mom always knew just what he needed, she understood him in a way no one else did. Dad expected him to be normal and wouldn’t treat him any differently to how he treated me. Dad and I enjoyed the same things and got on really well. Claude was Mommy’s boy. She was the only one keeping him afloat, so to speak. When she left, he toppled. I don’t know what goes on in the dark depths of that mind.”
“What about Claude and Rebecca?” Jason pressed.
Kenneth paused, trying to capture vague impressions into a legitimate concern. “I picked up on a few things that made me uneasy. Never anything so wrong that I could actually confront him.”
A sliver of anxiety shot through Jason’s insides. “What then?” He spoke sharply, earning himself a shocked look from Tim. Trying to cover up, he forced himself to speak more calmly, “What did he do?”
Kenneth was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn’t seem to notice Jason’s anxiety. “It was a lot of little things. The way he looked at her, how much time he spent hanging around her. The look in his eyes when she wasn’t looking at him—” Kenneth trailed off bleakly.
Jason cleared his throat, “What you’ve just described sounds like jealousy. Yours. You obviously both have feelings for this girl.” Jason choked on the thought but kept going, “You can’t handle the thought of him being around her, when you’re not.”
Kenneth’s answer was bald in its candor, “Look, I won’t lie to you guys and pretend that I don’t have feelings for Rebecca. But this is more than that. I overheard something the afternoon before Rebecca disappeared that confirmed all my previous suspicions.” When nobody spoke, he continued, “I was about to walk into the kitchen when I heard Claude talking to Rebecca while she was baking. Something inside me compelled me to hang back, which I did. Then I heard the one sentence that turned my blood to ice.”
Jason couldn’t help himself, “Kenneth stop being dramatic and spill it! What did you hear?”
Kenneth took a deep breath and spoke, “Tonight is the night, Babe. Ready or not, it’s you and me, I’ll come to you.” He quoted verbatim, as if those words had repeated in his head a thousand times since he’d heard them uttered. “I wanted to run into the kitchen and punch him in the face. It took every scrap of self-control to walk in normally as if I hadn’t heard a thing. Claude left the room without a word. Rebecca was pale and shaking, very close to tears. She pretended that everything was fine, but I knew that she was shaken to the core. That night she disappeared. The last time I saw Claude was the next morning, but he has been gone since too.”
No-one felt like talking. Jason found his foot growing heavy on the accelerator as the urgency in his gut grew by the second.
***
Clive Sheldon threw the phone down in disgust. His mousy-blonde receptionist stared at him with wide eyes, and asked, “Is everything okay Mr. Sheldon?” Even as the question left her lips, Clair winced. Everything was very obviously not okay. In fact she could tell that something was seriously wrong. Clive Sheldon had passed up a perfect opportunity to comment on the color of her hair, relative the size of her I.Q. Unheard of.
Face pale, Clive turned to her. “That was our chef. He has come down with—” he paused a moment, cradling his forehead in his hands, “—chickenpox.” He grabbed her by the arms and whispered fiercely, face millimetres from hers, “Why him? Why tonight? Why ME?!”
Trying not to choke on his cigar tainted breath; Clair gently extricated her arms from his grip, talking calmly all the while. “It’s okay Mr. Sheldon. We’ll find a replacement. It will all work out. You’ll see.”
Like a barge cut loose from its anchor, he began pacing with an urgency that threatened the well being of the carpet. “Do you know how much money I’ve spent in establishing this place? Do you have any idea how much I’ve got riding on tonight being a success? For crying out loud Clair, I’ve invited every food critic from the Cape to Cairo. Mega Marketing has pulled out all the stops to make sure that everyone who is anyone in the food industry is here tonight. It’s all under the guise of a charity event, but make no mistake Clair, tonight is make or break for me.” His stopped and swung towards her, face as pale as death. “I’m sunk. This is the end of me. I might as well climb to the top story of this black hole and throw myself off.”
Clair opened her mouth to say something soothing, but before she could utter a word, the front door intercom buzzed loudly. “Just a moment, Mr. Sheldon.” Lifting the handset she answered, “Manager’s office. Now is a bad time. Could you call back in half an hour or so?” The question was rhetorical and she hung up the phone without waiting for an answer, or finding out who was on the other end.
***
Shane turned to Rebecca with a shrug. “They are obviously not hiring at the moment. Sorry Rachel.”
Rebecca winced at being called Rachel, but shoved it aside for the moment. The problem at hand was more important than her moral dilemma. “Are you telling me that you are willing to give up just like that?”
Shane looked puzzled. “Well, let’s see… The doors are locked and the lady at the other end of the buzz
er is not going to let us in. Maybe you’re seeing an option that I’m not?” There was a certain smugness to his tone that raised her eyebrows.
“Of course. Watch and learn.” Sauntering over to the intercom, she pressed the button long and hard.
The voice on the other end sounded frazzled, “What?!”
Rebecca winked at Shane and answered quickly before the lady cut her off, “Fresh cream and milk delivery.”
In a voice thickly edged with frustration, the lady answered, “Delivery entrance is at the back. Oh what the—” The intercom went dead, but the door buzzed and popped open.
Rebecca grinned, face beaming. “Voila!”
Finding the manager’s office was a simple matter of heading towards a male voice in full bellow. Rebecca knew that she was on the right path. They soon stood outside a door, partially ajar, the origin of the shouting pacing to and fro within. His gruff belly-aching was interspersed with the slightly forced tones of a female voice, tinged with panic.
Rebecca took a deep breath. Shane squeezed her shoulder, winked and showed her a thumbs-up, all in one smooth move. Leaning toward her, he whispered, “You go knock ‘em dead, Sweet Pea. I’ll come rescue you if they get out of hand.”
Rebecca threw him a grateful grin and headed into the Manager’s office.
***
Clair was trying to convince Clive Sheldon to take a calming tablet, when a striking raven-haired young woman walked into his office. Shocked by her sudden appearance, they both fell silent and stared at her. She stared back, her pale eyes wide. Then she spoke, “I’m so sorry to interrupt.”
Clair took the opening, grateful for a victim to vent her frustrations on. “Well then don’t! You are not allowed in here. Who let you in?” For a small, mousy person, Clair had a fierce temper when provoked. She started towards the woman to shoo her out, when Clive Sheldon stepped in. He had a notoriously soft spot for beautiful women.
“Not so fast Clair. I’ll deal with this. You go catch up on your typing or something.” Clair gaped at him. “But Mr. Sheldon—”
“Now Clair, you must have so many things to do on such an important day. Off you go.” Clair left the office, her face a frightening shade of puce.
The change in Mr. Sheldon was nothing short of miraculous. Rebecca smiled brightly to cover her desire to laugh.
“What can I do for you, young lady?”
“I was wondering if you have any vacancies in your restaurant. I’m new in town and in need of employment rather urgently.”
Clive Sheldon was a short man, though he carried himself as though he were 10 foot tall. At the mention of his restaurant, the weight of concern bore down visibly and his shoulders drooped. “Unfortunately, I don’t need any more waitresses. Though I’m sure with your looks, you’d have them lining the streets to get inside. Can’t help you there. Now, if you could co-ordinate the kitchen staff and pull off the duties of a chef, then we’d have something to talk about.” The last was said in a ‘wishful-thinking’ tone of voice. He turned away, pre-occupation with his current dilemma out-weighing the attraction of her good looks.
Rebecca spoke softly, as if discussing the matter with herself, “The Chef thing would really be no problem. Waitressing—now that would be disastrous.” Rebecca stood chewing her lip thoughtfully; unaware of the bomb she’d just dropped.
Clive Sheldon spun on his heel and rounded in on her. “What did you just say?”
“I am a Chef, sort of. I’m definitely not a waitress.”
“What do you mean ‘sort of’? I need to know if you can run my kitchen.”
“I’ve catered for dinner parties of well over 200 people, with the help of one other staff member. How many kitchen staff would I be working with?”
“You’ll be part of a team of 10. Can you do this?” He was hardly daring to breathe.
Rebecca’s insides trembled, but her voice was confident. “I believe I can help you, Sir.”
He studied her warily, but with a glimmer of hope in his heart. “You just might do, young lady. You just might do. Come with me. I’ll show you the kitchen.”
Turning back, he held up a hand to stop her, and said, “There’s one other thing. For this first week at least, I’ll need you round the clock. You will need to move into the staff quarters as soon as possible.”
Rebecca beamed. “That would suit me perfectly!”
He held out his hand, “Clive Sheldon. Welcome aboard.”
Rebecca shook his hand, and hesitated briefly before responding, “Rachel Jonas. Happy to be aboard.”
***
Shane was out somewhere, when the three guys arrived back at the flat. They’d made good time to East London, spending little more than an hour with the Goodwood’s in Stutterheim. The elderly couple was anxious for Rebecca’s safety and had eagerly shared all they knew with the young men. Pete had confessed to being a ‘very astute judge of character’, and all three of them had obviously passed his test. The only light they could shed on Rebecca’s whereabouts was a hunch that she’d taken a Taxi to East London. Jason consoled himself that there was a good possibility that the 8 other provinces in South Africa could be ruled out. What a tremendous help.
Without further ado, they’d headed for home, and—they all hoped—Rebecca and Claude.
Tim showed Kenneth to the lounge and gestured to the 3-seater. “This will be your room for the next couple of days.”
Kenneth dumped his bag, rubbed his palms together and looked from Tim to Jason and back again. If he had a tail, it would have been wagging. “Right. What’s the plan? What’s our next step?”
Jason caught Tim’s eye and rolled his heavenwards. Tim laughed and gave Kenneth a friendly shove on the shoulder, sending him crashing onto the couch. “Chill out! Relax. At this stage there is no plan. Halloway?”
Jason shrugged, looking distracted. “Now that we’re here, I really don’t know where to start.” He shrugged, “There’s something I’ve got to take care of. You two hang out here for a while. Make yourselves useful – make a list of all the B&B’s in the area around Gonubie Beach where the Taxi dropped Rebecca. She would have had to find somewhere to stay. Claude too, for that matter.”
He’d no sooner been into his room to put his bags down, when he came out looking befuddled. “There’s something weird going on here. I have a suitcase full of ladies clothing in my room. Not to mention other unmentionables which have taken up residence in my living space. Shane’s Brenda is away, so it can’t be hers.” He shook his head, face grim, “I’m gonna kill Shane.”
Tim looked equally shocked, “You’ll probably have to wait until Brenda has killed him first.” He shook his head with a frown, “That’s just not like him. There must be some explanation.”
Kenneth chipped in, “Apologies for being dim, but if Shane was shacking up with a girl, surely they would be together in his bedroom?” He had a way of stating the obvious with a sweet innocence that made Jason want to punch him in the face.
Fighting the urge, Jason picked up his car keys. “Tim, get hold of Shane and tell him I want my room back. I’ll be back later.” Tim reached for his cell phone, and Kenneth stood in the middle of the lounge looking lost.
Chapter 20 – Stone of Stumbling
Outside, Jason breathed deeply of the fresh winter air, trying to clear his mind. The subtle female scent that had caught him so off guard in his bedroom still lingered on his senses, unsettling him completely. His downhill slide to insanity was picking up speed.
Since heading for Gauteng, Jason had been hankering after his Mom. Nothing deep, he told himself, just the normal way a young man who had been fending for himself and eating his roomies cooking, would.
What he wasn’t willing to face was that the episode with Maxine Rochester had brought all the memories of Nicole flooding back. Memories that carried with them unresolved emotions. Jason was having little success in dealing with these unruly feelings, and was downright disgusted with himself for the fact. So
he convinced himself he missed his Mom’s cooking, and headed out her way.
True to her regular routine, Faith Halloway’s ancient VW Beetle was parked outside the school hall where she conducted her Ballroom Dancing lessons. Jason could hear the sounds of a strict-tempo tango number coming from the hall as he pulled up outside. Just above the frantic violins, he could just hear his Mom’s voice, “Sharply, people. Slow, slow, quick-quick, slow. Don’t be sluggish on the quick’s.”
Jason’s rear remained glued to the seat. In an instant he was not so sure that this was the right thing to do. “I don’t know why I’m here. What would I say?” He chewed his lip for a moment, caught in indecision.
“Stay, Jason. Speak to your Mom.”
Jason’s teeth ground. Rebellion stiffened his spine. “This was a mistake. Forget it.” Turning the key, he shoved the gearlever into reverse. Checking behind, he floored the accelerator. He was winding the steering wheel to the right to pull off forwards, when his Mom tapped on the window. Checkmate. He wound down his window, his face a bleak grin. “Hey Mom.”
“Jason! I’m glad you’re here. This class is just finishing. Come inside.”
Jason parked the car again. Faith held his door open for him as if he were back in pre-school. With a sigh, Jason got out the vehicle and closed and locked the door for himself. There was nothing to say. Sensing his mood, Faith chattered away, filling the silence with her gentle voice.
“It was the strangest thing. Right in the middle of teaching, something told me to come outside. I did, and here you were. Amazing, hey? Well, I shouldn’t say ‘something’; I know exactly who it was. That still, small voice.” A radiant smile lit her lined face. “It was obviously the Lord. Ah, here we are.”
Jason’s ears pricked at her mention of a voice, but he said nothing.
20 pairs of youngsters were moving round the hall, with varying measures of competency. Faith turned the music off and announced, “That’s all for today. You all did very well. You can give each other a pat on the back. Don’t forget to practice and I will see you again next Saturday!” A happy buzz filled the hall as they changed shoes, and collected bags.