The look on Ms. Nkabinde’s face indicates that he told her the exact opposite. And now I understand where this fear comes from—this belief that my father has to be shielded from me lest I attack him physically. It comes from him. He asked the lawyer to protect him from me. Now that he feels safe again, he is withdrawing that request and painting her as the anxious one.

He is light-headed with relief. “Didn’t I say she would understand? She knows what’s what, this girl.”

CHAPTER 16

My father is denied bail.
One of the police officers at Mowbray police station testifies that my father tried to bribe him to fetch his passport from the apartment. The state uses this as evidence that my father is a flight risk. The magistrate agrees, and my father is sent to join the awaiting-trial population at Table Bay Prison.

I don’t attend the bail hearing, but I read about it on every news site in the country. Interest is not quite at Oscar Pistorius levels, but it is higher than it was for the Monster of Modimolle trial. This case ticks all the boxes. The protagonists are white, middle-class and English-speaking. In media terms, that is the perfect trifecta.

When the protagonists in a crime are black, the matter is believed to be of interest to the black community only. When the protagonists are white and Afrikaans-speaking, it will be covered by the Afrikaans press, with limited spill-over to other media. But when they are white, middle-class and English-speaking, the matter is presumed to be of interest to everyone, and will receive blanket coverage. If there is a celebrity angle, or salacious sexual details, the international media will also take an interest.

The international media is taking an interest.

I receive interview requests from CBS, ABC and the Independent of London. I take my phone off the hook, block their domains on email, and screen all calls on my mobile phone.

I puzzle over why my father didn’t ask me to fetch his passport for him. Did he think of it only after I had already brought him the cigarettes and money? Was he afraid I would say no? That I would rat on him? Did he trust a chance-met security guard more than his own daughter?

What would I have done if he’d asked me? Probably agreed, going on past form. My track record of turning down morally dubious requests from my father is not good. Inflate the value of home furnishings in order to defraud the insurance company? Sure. Pretend we owned items that we didn’t? Of course. Slip him his passport so he can flee the country to avoid prosecution before the court requires him to hand it over? Why not?