Ndlovu - The White Elephant

Peter Good

Description

Ndlovu - The White Elephant is a pacy story set in Zimbabwe during the turbulent years that followed Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence. The story highlights the dangers of police work in the explosive climate of a troubled country during years of the terror war and is woven around human suffering, painful endurance, and horrors that confronted the peoples both black and white. The narrative is loosely based upon the author's own experiences in the police force of what was then Rhodesia. Thus the action of his story is set against an authentic background which the author experienced and the impeccable writing style gives a palpable vividness to the events. A retired ex-police constable, commits murder, he flees the country but has now returned as a leader of a 'terrorist gang', he is on a diabolical mission, he is wily and ruthless but he has one fear-a reoccurring dream in which he is crushed and gored by an elephant. Tony is a police officer determined to track down a cunning and callous murderer ... will he succeed and live up to his name ... NDLOVU-The White Elephant?The author has succeeded in producing a narrative with great feeling, what sets this work apart from any other similar books is the remarkable attention to detail. Not only is there the skill with words that paint a picture, but there is also an incisive insight into the characters-brought to life with vivid description and credible dialogue. From the way the author creates scenes and characters, captures the atmosphere of the moments and the emotions of the protagonists -there can be no doubt of the author's real involvement in the events recorded.Book reviews online @ www.publishedbestsellers.com

Sujets

• Historical fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Pneuma Springs Publishing
• Date de parution: 05 août 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781782281658
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

NDLOVU!
The White Elephant







Peter Good
Copyright
First Published in 2011 by: Pneuma Springs Publishing
Ndlovu - The White Elephant Copyright © 2011 Peter Good
Peter Good has asserted his/her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this Work
Pneuma Springs
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Good, Peter. Ndlovu : the white elephant. 1. Police--Zimbabwe--Fiction. 2. Ex-police officers-- Zimbabwe--Fiction. 3. Zimbabwe--Social conditions--1980- --Fiction. 4. Murder--Investigation--Zimbabwe--Fiction. I. Title 823.9'2-dc22
Kindle eISBN: 9781782280026 ePub eISBN 9781782281658 PDF eBook eISBN 9781782280866 Paperback ISBN: 9781907728228
Pneuma Springs Publishing E: [e-mail] W: www.pneumasprings.co.uk
Published in the United Kingdom. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, save those clearly in the public domain, is purely coincidental.
Dedication
To my Darling wife Cheryl – without whose insistence, this would never have been written.

To ALL those members of the then British South Africa Police Force, especially the late Gus Armstrong.
Foreword
The first rays of light from the rising sun shone their faint, golden shafts over the distant hills onto the whitewashed house nestled between the green trees. Through the open window and the gauze fly-screen the beams lit up the figures in the bedroom. Away in the distance, a cockerel crowed, immediately its crowing was answered by other cockerels; some close by and some far off—barely audible.
Tony and Cheryl lay side by side. As the sun’s rays settled on their faces, little drops of sweat could clearly be seen on Tony’s face, his face twitched and his eyes darted about. Slowly, gradually his body started to jerk, and then suddenly in one movement, he jumped—eyes opened wide and yelled.
“NO, no - you beasts - I will get you…, if it’s the last thing I do... You murderous swine...yeah you too Ngonga…you can’t hide from me... I will get you...so help me....”
The vivid nightmare, that had now haunted him for years had woken him once more. His wife woken by the noise, cradled his body next to hers as she tried once again to hush his vivid dream with soothing words. She gently hugged him. She had had to do this so often now since their marriage, that she was becoming adept at it, but prayed with all her heart that these dreams would stop. Watching him going through this reminded her of how she had had to cope with her own troubled thoughts every time he went out on anti-terrorist operations when he was still in the police force, prior to their marriage. Tony slowly calmed down.
“Thanks Honey” he said. “Sorry I woke you again” he apologised.
“That’s OK” Cheryl replied. “I just wish you would get over those memories sweetheart—they drain you so...go and sit down and I will make you a coffee” she added as he got up from the bed and walked out to the lounge.
He sat down on his favourite arm-chair, looking out over the mine where he was now the Compound Manager. He watched as the sun’s rays crept over the hills and its light touched the houses of the African miners’ village. As he sat there and watched, he shifted his gaze sideways and saw on the wall, the police plaque he had been given on his retirement from the British South Africa Police some six months ago. Next to it was a crystal beer tankard and an engraved coffee mug. He wiped the beads of sweat that remained from his face as his mind drifted off again.

He could still clearly see the brutally butchered bodies of those loyal African policemen who had served under his control, at the Mambali police post on the banks of the Shashe River. He shuddered, and shifted his gaze once again out of the window, where the magnificent rays of the sun were now lighting up the whole scene before him. Slowly the nightmare faded away from his memory.
Cheryl came over, and placed a cup of coffee on the table by his side, she stood behind him, and once again, slowly massaged his neck and shoulders as she always did when he has these vivid nightmares. She felt the tenseness subside and went back to the bedroom. He sat there for a while, slowly drinking his coffee and as he did so, his memory drifted back—back to the very beginning—it was as clear as yesterday. The start of his fabulous career in the British South African Police Force—a police force he had loved and looked forward to working with after his initial training in the Salisbury Depot.
His mind took over as he sat looking out over the landscape, he could recall it all...once again, so clearly as if it had just happened...
PART ONE

1
The steady swaying of the train’s carriage and the “Clickety click” of the wheels on the track brought Tony to his senses. He had left Salisbury, the capital city of Rhodesia, the previous evening, on his posting to Matabeleland Province. He was now on his way to Bulawayo - Rhodesia’s second biggest City.
He still found it difficult to believe that his six month intensive police training course was finally over. As much as he had enjoyed or perhaps endured the training, he could not wait to get into what he had been waiting for—the actual police work and what made him happiest of all was the fact that he had been assigned as a ‘District Policeman’ as opposed to being a ‘Town Policeman’. This meant he would be going to one of the smaller towns or isolated areas, he relished this because he was born in Kenya and had been brought up in various out-of-the-way places. His childhood memories of living in a ‘mud and wattle’ building, going to sleep at night listening to the mournful baying of the hyenas, followed by their almost giggle-like sounds, or the roar of a lion in the distance, and the calls of jackals or the chirping of crickets. These were sounds that he loved to listen to, while growing up—sounds of Africa.
He remembered standing on a galvanised iron bath with his older brother David; watching as a herd of elephants went down to the Mara river to drink their fill, mingling with the zebra, wildebeests, gazelles and Rhinos. These were the peaceful scenes of Africa that he would always cherish. How dearly he loved the Africa that he had been born into—its ways, its peoples its vastness and animals. These were things that would remain forever with him and within him. He was truly ‘African’ regardless of being of European origin—Africa was and would always be his homeland.

The tapping of the carriage door shattered his memories and brought him back to reality.
“Yes” he replied from within his two bunk compartment. The voice from the other side called out,
“Coffee or Tea?” After choosing coffee the door was opened and an immaculately dressed Rhodesian Railways steward entered with a piping hot cup of coffee.
“We will be in Bulawayo in approximately two hours” he stated as he put the cup of coffee down and continued, “the dining car is open for breakfast” and with that he closed the door and proceeded down to the next compartment, where the tapping continued, and so on till he was out of earshot.
Tony rose, moved to the foot of the bunk, opened the wash basin and washed his face with cold water—that woke him from his sleep quickly. He sat down again had his cup of coffee and then dressed in his starched khaki summer uniform, as he did so, he caught the whiff of perfume and his memories of the journey the previous night from Salisbury flooded back.
Having said good-bye to his parents, brothers and sister at the station, as the train got under way, he had gone down from his compartment, to the dining car, and onto the bar. It was whilst sitting there having a cold glass of Lion Lager that he had got into conversation with a stunning brunette called Felicity. He remembered how they had got on well during the trip as they took their drinks to a vacant table and looked out of the train window, viewing townships and villages passing by. He recalled that when the train stopped at each station, multitude of African children would swarm round cheerily waving and holding out their hands, those accustomed to this always brought along plenty of sweets which they tossed out of the window, and the children happily scrambled to pick up as many as they could, shouting their gratitude as they did so.
Tony remember how he had walked Felicity back to her apartment later that evening, and the embrace and kiss that had followed, and how they eventually made their way to his compartment. They sat for a while till he had slowly put his arms around her and she did not draw back. They kissed passionately, he slowly lifted her onto the bunk, and slowly caressed her, but as his passion got inflamed, she had suddenly said ‘No...please no–not now...’ as Tony enquired why, she replied ‘Tony, we have only met...you don’t even know me and the circumstances of my being on this train’ and Tony his passion dampened—gave in to her, and said ‘Sure, sorry, I just got carried away.’ Before he could continue she reached over and got off the bunk, she straightened herself and realigned her clothing, kissed him tenderly and thanked him for the drinks and company they had shared, then quietly slipped out of his apartment, and made her way back down to her own apartment.
Ah, that no doubt accounted for the smell of perfume still clinging to my uniform, he mused.
He put on his boots and leggings, and his belt and brace, all of which had been highly ‘spit and polished’ to a glass-like finish by his batman—Elliott, for his passing out parade.
“Heck, glad that was over.” Tony exclaimed loudly as he r