Smith continues exposing the underbelly of Cape Town.
Nick Exley is a motion capture entrepreneur living on the
coast with his wife and 5 yo daughter. But all’s not idyllic. His wife is
cheating on him with a Slavic brute. Nick smokes dope regularly to escape his
failing marriage to this bipolar shrew. Daughter Sunny is his queen.
The story revolves around the collective guilt of the
parents. At a small party on their beach, the wife is inside being unfaithful while the husband is sharing a joint on the beach, both ignoring Sunny. The child
wades into the water to get her toy boat, gets caught in the current around the
rocks and drowns.
The whole episode is witnessed by one of the community’s
security who, having purposely waited too long, tries to save the child. Vernon
is an ex-cop who lives with his diabetic mother in the Cape Town slums and he
severely abuses his mom. Among others, he also has his hooks into Dawn, a stripper, and her
5yo child. Vernon takes great pride in manipulating people for money, drugs,
power, or just for the pure entertainment value. This guy is just mean once he
gets hold.
Nick and his wife fall further into their personal pits of
guilt and remorse while Vernon’s ‘help’ is meant to serve one purpose: his own.
Need a preacher for Sunny’s funeral? Need a dancer for a motion capture job? Need
a gun? Need to direct blame for a killing on to a stoner bum? No problem. Let
Vernon handle it.
“Capture” is the 4th in Smith’s continuing series
of tales of the people who inhabit some of the worst slums on the planet and
how their plight spills over to people outside. As with all Smith stories, this
noir tale is bleak, violent, remorseless, and ridiculously tense reading. It
opens up bright with Nick and Sunny, then spirals down, down, down after
Sunny’s death. And yet we keep on reading. Smith’s real skill is in keeping us
glued to the pages knowing full well that this probably will not turn out all
that well. It never does.
You don’t believe, me do you?
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