Chapter 5 — Lockdown

The police hammered on my door at 3 AM, their fists echoing through the empty street like gunshots. Sunnyside had been dead for weeks—no taxis, no street vendors, just the stale smell of fear seeping through every sealed window.

"Marcus Ndaba, open up!"

I cracked the door, chain still latched. Two officers, masks pulled tight, eyes hard above the fabric. "What's this about?"

"Your neighbor reported screaming from your flat. Where's your wife?"

My throat closed. Sarah had been gone three days. I'd called her mother, her sister, anyone who might know. "She left. We... we had a fight."

"About what?"

The apartment behind me felt cavernous, too quiet. I could smell her perfume still lingering in the bedroom, mixed with something else. Something sweet and wrong.

"She wanted to visit her mother in Cape Town. I said no—lockdown regulations."

The taller officer pushed past me. His boots thudded across the floor, each step like a countdown. I followed, hands shaking.

He stopped at the bedroom door.

"Sir, step back."

But I couldn't move. Couldn't breathe. The smell hit me again, stronger now, and I remembered Sarah's face when she'd raised the knife. How surprised she'd looked when I'd grabbed her wrist. How still she'd gone after.

"We need to search the premises."

I nodded, watching them discover what I'd spent three days trying to forget.

The screaming they'd heard hadn't been hers.