Whitethorn (98 page)

‘Meneer Vermaak, was there any further occasion when you heard Mevrou Van Schalkwyk refer to the death of Mattress Malokoane?'

‘Yes, once.'

‘Can you explain the circumstances to the court?'

‘It was the Sunday, a week after the murder, and I had a bad cold so Mevrou said I must stay in the sick room. I was asleep and she made me wake up and she switched on the light. I could see she was very drunk and you could smell the brandy on her breath. She held up this canned-fruit jar.'

Pissy then explained what had happened when the drunken Mevrou had shown him the jar containing the sexual organs. He finished with Mevrou's final words: ‘ “Kobus, lissen to me, I want you to hold it so you know an Afrikaner child is always safe from a dirty
kaffir
's black
piel
. Here, take it, hold it against your heart so you'll
never
forget! Then I'll keep it forever for you. It's our little keepsake.” '

‘My Lord, I have no more questions for this witness.'

Judge Ludorf turned to Gawie. ‘Meneer Grobler, do you wish to cross-examine this witness?'

Gawie came to his feet. ‘Yes, thank you, My Lord.' He turned to Pissy. ‘Meneer Vermaak, we have heard in your testimony how you lied about the accident to Fonnie du Preez on the big rock, how “ostensibly” you told Mevrou Van Schalkwyk the truth that Fonnie du Preez
had
sexually assaulted you, then you withdrew this claim and told her that you had been sexually assaulted by Mattress Malokoane. Now you say Mevrou Van Schalkwyk believed your latest lie and threatened to kill, or cause to be killed,
Bantu
Malokoane.' Gawie paused, milking the moment. ‘Tell me, Meneer Vermaak, which of your lies are truths and which of your truths are lies?'

Pissy, not intimidated by Gawie, replied, ‘I already told you, man.'

‘So do you expect us to believe the last lie you told?'

‘You mean the one about the pig boy sexually assaulting me? No, man, that was a definite lie.' I have already remarked on Pissy Vermaak's mental acuity, he was not going to let my learned friend get the better of him.

‘Meneer Vermaak, I now ask you, is not this ludicrous story of a mythical canned-fruit jar yet another fabrication, a figment of your overheated imagination?'

Pissy smiled. ‘
Ja
, I admit, with me it's hard sometimes to tell what is the truth. But with a thing like a canned-fruit jar with somebody's private parts floating around, that's not something even a person like me can just go and invent all of a sudden, out of the blue.'

‘My Lord, I have no more questions for this witness,' Gawie said.

‘Thank you, Meneer Vermaak, you may step down,' the judge ordered.

‘I now call Doctor Van Heerden to the witness stand.'

Doctor Van Heerden told of examining Pissy and discovering severe bruising. I asked Janine De Saxe to hand me an envelope.

‘Doctor, will you examine the contents of the envelope, please.'

Doctor Van Heerden removed four small yellowed and cracked photographs. ‘Are these the photographs you took of the bruises sustained around the anus of Kobus Vermaak?'

Doctor Van Heerden looked at the photographs. ‘Good Lord, these are meaningless, I simply have no idea.'

‘Doctor, if you turn them around you will see that you signed and dated them four days before, or depending on the time the alleged murder took place, five days before the murder.'

Doctor Van Heerden turned each of the photographs over. ‘Yes, that is my signature,' he confirmed.

‘I tender these photographs to the court as evidence,' I said, handing the envelope to the clerk. ‘Doctor, did you operate on the jaw of Meneer Frikkie Botha on the Saturday two days after you examined Kobus Vermaak?'

‘Yes, he was brought into hospital with a broken jaw sustained in a boxing match at The Boys Farm. I wired his jaw and kept him in hospital that Sunday night and released him on the afternoon of the Monday.'

‘That was on the Monday afternoon of the morning the body of the murdered man was discovered?'

‘Yes.'

Gawie then cross-examined the doctor. ‘Doctor Van Heerden, when you discovered Meneer Vermaak's bruising, did you ask how it happened?'

‘I was well aware of how it might have come about, Meneer Grobler. I simply took the photographs and asked that the superintendent report the matter to the police.'

‘And you were not curious as to who the perpetrator might have been?'

‘I asked at the time, but the superintendent was non-committal. The Boys Farm tended to be a law unto itself. The photographs I signed later when Sergeant Van Niekerk brought them to me at my surgery.'

‘And the superintendent didn't volunteer who he thought might be responsible?'

‘No, he didn't.'

‘And you didn't find that unusual?'

‘No, as I mentioned before, Meneer Prinsloo, the superintendent, was a man who kept things close to his chest.'

‘Thank you, I have no more questions for this witness, My Lord.'

The next witness I called was Fonnie du Preez. Fonnie du Preez worked as a bouncer at the Lonely Hunter and Pissy had persuaded him to be a witness for the prosecution. Quite how he had done this I can't say, but he'd told me Fonnie had taken one hiding too many in the ring and he was looking after him. ‘
Ag
, what can you do, Tom, we go back a long way, man, even if it is the backside we go back to.'

‘Meneer Du Preez, will you tell me why you were sent from The Boys Farm to the reformatory?'

‘It was for misbehaviour, Sir.' Fonnie spoke slowly, his speech was slightly impaired.

‘Misbehaviour. Was it sexual misbehaviour?'

‘
Ja
.'

‘Can you be more explicit?'

‘Explis—? I don't know what means that word.'

‘Can you tell me who you sexually misbehaved with?'

‘Pissy . . . Kobus Vermaak.'

‘Will you tell the court what form this misbehaviour took?'

‘Lots of things.'

‘Come now, Meneer Du Preez, I am led to believe that as an adult you are not inexperienced in homosexual matters. What precisely did you do to Kobus Vermaak?'

‘I pissed on him and he sucked me off.'

‘Is that all?'

‘
Ja, nee
, also the other.'

‘The other. Did you sexually penetrate him?'

‘
Ja
, that.'

‘How many times would you say this penetration took place?'

Fonnie frowned. ‘I don't know, man. Lots of times. Pissy said he liked it.'

Fonnie then verified the true story of what had happened between us all at the big rock, graphically recounting the incident. He then verified the meeting where it was decided that Frikkie Botha would fight Mattress. While he was fairly slow-witted, he was a good witness, backing up what Pissy had maintained. Gawie declined to cross-examine.

The time had come to call Lieutenant Van Niekerk to the stand.

‘Lieutenant Van Niekerk, were you the investigating officer involved with the murder of Mattress Malokoane?' I asked.

‘Yes, Sir.'

‘Did you do this investigation on your own?'

‘Yes, Sir, the town only has one white police officer. I must do everything.'

‘Would this be true if Meneer Malokoane had been a white man?'

‘Excuse me, I don't understand the question,' Lieutenant Van Niekerk said, surprised.

‘Are you qualified to do a murder investigation, Lieutenant?'

‘For a non-European, yes, definitely. For a white man, no, I must call Pietersburg or Pretoria.'

‘In the case of a dead man and in the absence of a coroner, would you not be required to call a doctor to establish the cause of death?'

‘Not for a native boy. I would just ask the doctor to issue a death certificate.'

‘Without seeing the body?'

‘
Ja
, in this case the cause of death . . . a person doesn't have to be Einstein, you hear? You see, the body must be buried in three days. We do it quick, we don't have a place to put the body, only the shed at the police station. It was late summer and a body can stink very quickly.'

‘Lieutenant, can you describe the state of the body of the man when you found him?'

‘
Ja
, he had been dragged behind a vehicle, face down on a dirt road and his face was missing, and all the front of his body, the flesh and skin, was torn and ribs were showing, the bones themselves. Also the knees and the front of the legs and the insteps of the feet, they were worn down to the bones.'

‘So, would you say there was no way of identifying him?'

‘That is correct, but
ja
, I found a way.'

‘Can you tell the court how you identified the murder victim?'

Lieutenant Van Niekerk pointed at me. ‘
You
identified his platform feet from a photograph, Meneer Fitzsaxby.'

‘Ah, but as I was only seven at the time, my identification could not be accepted as evidence.'

‘That is correct. But I believed you. You were a
slimmetjie
.'

‘So, at the time, while you may have speculated, even
known
the identity of the murder victim, had
this
trial occurred at
that
time, you would not have been able to say with certainty that the murdered man was Mattress Malokoane?'

‘
Ja
, I knew it was him, but you are right, I had no means of identifying him, except for his platform feet and the word of a child.'

‘Would you say it could possibly have been someone else, another native with platform feet?'

‘
Ja
, it's possible, such feet are not uncommon with the black people. But,
ag
, man, I was certain it was the servant from The Boys Farm.'

‘Nevertheless you couldn't prove it?'

‘
Ja
, that is true.'

‘Tell me, Lieutenant, was there anything else unusual about the body?'

‘Yes, it had been mutilated.'

‘By the dragging of the body?'

‘No, Sir, at first I thought this, but then I saw it was deliberate, the mutilation had been done using a sharp instrument.'

‘Such as a knife?'

‘Yes, it was well done, a clean cut.'

‘What form did this mutilation take?'

‘The penis and testicles, the sexual organs, had been removed.'

‘I see, and was this discovery made known at the time?'

‘No, Sir, at that time it was my decision not to reveal this particular mutilation.'

‘Why was that, Lieutenant?'

‘I didn't think it was nice. If the newspapers heard about it they would have made a big story. Only last year there was a ritual murder in the Tzaneen District. But that was a thing black people do, not white men. All the newspapers made a big gerfuffle. Not just the
Zoutpansberg Nuus
, the big boys,
Die
Burger
and
Die Vaderland
, and also the English papers. I didn't think this was a ritual murder.'

‘What did you think it was, Lieutenant?'

‘Revenge for a sexual assault. Whoever did it wanted people to know why they did it.'

Gawie jumped to his feet. ‘Objection, My Lord. This is pure conjecture on the part of this police officer.'

‘Objection sustained. The witness's statement will not appear in the records. You may not proceed with this line of questioning, Meneer Fitzsaxby. The bench will accept that the police officer at the time did not divulge the fact that the body had been mutilated in the manner described.'

‘Thank you, My Lord.' I turned back to Lieutenant Van Niekerk. ‘So only you knew of the mutilation, Lieutenant?'

‘Yes, but, of course, also the person or persons who did it.'

I turned to face the bench. ‘My Lord and Your Honours, I have on two occasions attempted to brief my learned friend for the defence on the existence of the physical evidence I am about to produce. On both occasions my learned friend made himself unavailable. I crave your indulgences for this omission.'

Judge Ludorf turned to the assessors and a short conversation took place, whereupon he turned back to face the court. ‘Most regrettable, Meneer Fitzsaxby. However, under the circumstances you may proceed with your evidence. Both you and Meneer Grobler will see me in my chambers at the conclusion of today's hearing.'

Janine De Saxe handed me a small canvas bag. ‘My Lord, contained in this bag is the canned-fruit jar and contents alluded to by my witness, Meneer Kobus Vermaak, when the court reconvened after lunch.'

Suddenly the courtroom was in uproar.