A man is dead, thrown at the side of the highway. Detectives Jade Khan and Debra Botha discover that one of his kidneys is missing. Is there an organ smuggling ring in their area? What other sinister motive could there be for this murder? Meanwhile, as Jade follows the clues, she also has an unexpected personal issue to deal with.
Jade sat up in bed and waited a minute, to let the world stop spinning. She needed two things immediately: water and aspirin. After that she could start sorting out the particulars of the new day. She stumbled into the bathroom and collected those priorities then sat back down on her bed. She’d start with four aspirin and work from there. She lit a cigarette and waited for the painkillers to kick in.
Why? she asked herself. Why did she do this over and over again? It made no rational sense. She remembered going out to Parks Inn with Debra after work and coming home in the wee hours of the morning, but the rest was a bit cloudy.
She was drinking too much and acting recklessly because of it. Yes, one part of the night was crystal clear in her mind: going to the backseat of her car with Constable Owen. How could she have done that? And now she needed to get to the station; the station, where it would be impossible to avoid the perky Owen. Could she call in another sick day? But what would be the point, really? It wasn’t as if Constable Owen was going to disappear. God! How stupid can a person be? Jade wondered. He was twenty-two years old! Just out of the academy, a baby really, with his big blue eyes and spiky blonde hair, bouncing around like a hormone-driven teenager. How had she thought sleeping with him was a good idea?
But that was the problem. Lately Jade wasn’t thinking and that was getting her into all sorts of sticky situations. There would be no avoiding it. She took two more aspirin and got ready for work. There was nothing else to be done, she needed to butch-up and face her mistakes.
*****
When she arrived, her partner, Debra, was already at her desk. She smiled knowingly when Jade sat down.
“Don’t even,” Jade warned.
“What?” she said, feigning ignorance.
“Stop it, Deb. I’m an idiot, okay? End of story.” Jade shifted some papers around on her desk then lowered her voice. “Is he in yet?”
“Already been sniffing around here looking for you. I think he might be in love.”
“Go to hell. You’re not even funny, Deb.”
Debra laughed at her own joke. Jade heard someone behind her and turned, expecting the worst, but was happy to see it was the Station Commander, Superintendent Dikgang. He handed Debra a piece of paper.
“We’ve got a body out on the western bypass highway. Driver found him in the ditch. Looks like a vagrant,” he said.
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Welcome to Puku’s new website and children’s bookstore. We are excited to introduce a rich selection of children’s books in South African languages, to readers young and old.
