Free The Soldier who Said No by Chris Marnewick Page A

said, a subtle rebuke in his voice. ‘They are giving me some blood to help me get better quickly so that I can be home for your birthday party.’
    Henderson gestured to Kupenga to follow him. They went for a walk around the hospital. There was a garden under tall trees on the eastern side and parking behind. They took their time, but when they returned to Room 6, they were just in time to hear the girl ask, ‘Tell me another story, please.’
    Henderson rolled his eyes. Enough was enough. He was about to barge in when Emma de Villiers said, ‘No Zoë, that’s enough. We have to go now. Daddy needs to rest.’
    The girl started to complain, but her mother held firm.
    Henderson and Kupenga took positions on either side of the hospital bed. De Villiers appeared to be asleep. He was very pale.
    ‘Are you awake, De Villiers?’ Henderson started tentatively.
    Pierre de Villiers opened his eyes slowly and sighed.
    ‘I need to talk to you about a new case.’
    De Villiers mustered the strength to speak. ‘I’ve been suspended.’
    ‘That has nothing to do with the case we are investigating. I can have your suspension reversed any time I want,’ Henderson said.
    ‘No, you can’t,’ said De Villiers. ‘Wellington sent me a letter saying I’ll remain suspended until a disciplinary enquiry has been finalised.’
    Henderson cleared his throat. ‘Your suspension and the new case have nothing to do with each other. And you remain a member of the unit until the enquiry has been finalised.’
    They looked at De Villiers. He had closed his eyes and gave no sign that he was listening.
    Kupenga looked at the prone figure. ‘You will have to talk to us, you know. Eventually you will have to cooperate.’
    ‘Up yours,’ De Villiers said without opening his eyes. ‘I don’t have to listen to you.’
    Henderson was surprised at the vehemence.
    ‘And if you ever push my wife around again, I’ll kill you.’
    Kupenga took a step closer to the bed. ‘What did you say?’
    De Villiers ignored him.
    ‘I’m going to lay a charge against you,’ Kupenga said, ‘for threatening to kill.’
    Henderson pulled Kupenga aside and whispered in his ear. ‘Stop making a fool of yourself. He’s lying here connected to machines and high on drugs. You shouldn’t have pushed the door.’
    De Villiers surreptitiously pressed the alarm button under the sheet. Seconds later a nurse and the ward sister walked in.
    ‘What’s going on here?’ she demanded. ‘Visiting hours ended an hour ago. What are you still doing here?’ Her name badge said Staff Sister Florette Appollus and Henderson took her to be Fijian Indian or Filipina, but she was Malay, from the other side of the world.
    ‘Hierdie ouens pla my,’ De Villiers said. These fellows are bugging me.
    Henderson presented his warrant card but Sister Appollus ignored it. ‘Toemaar,’ she said to De Villiers. ‘Ek sal hulle regsien.’ Not to worry. I’ll see to them.
    ‘We’re here on a police investigation,’ Henderson said. ‘And it’s a very serious case, so don’t even think of intervening.’
    Sister Appollus was unmoved. ‘You’re a detective, I see, and you can’t work out for yourself that this man is too sick to be bothered?’ She had read his warrant card after all. ‘You see this stuff here?’ she didn’t wait for their response. ‘It’s blood. We’re giving him a blood transfusion, and you want to interrogate him?’
    De Villiers suppressed a smile.
    ‘Get out,’ she ordered.
    ‘When can we see him?’ Henderson asked.
    ‘Leave your details at Reception and I’ll ask his doctor when next I see him.’
    Henderson remembered that it was Christmas Eve and turned at the door. ‘And when will that be?’
    ‘The day after tomorrow, or perhaps the day after that,’ she said with her back to them.
    Kupenga followed Henderson to their car while Sister Appollus fussed around De Villiers’s bed. ‘The blood is nearly finished. We’ll take that line out