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  “Even yours?”

  “You think I’d be married thirty-five years if I didn’t have a few secrets?”

  I returned my attention to the altercation. Zaden poked his mother in her side when he saw the two onlookers. Jack and I awkwardly waved when the three faced us.

  “Welcome back! How was the treehouse?” Jack asked.

  I hung my head and retreated to the bar.

  There would be no search of room two tonight.

  Morning Game Drive

  My time at the bar had been short the night before. My plan had been thwarted by the trio’s early return. I left after drinking only a few sips of my cocktail once the escort returned from dropping off the trio at their room.

  I arrived at reception alert and ready for the morning’s activity. The morning game drive seating arrangement turned awkward, as each of the trio sat in a different row. The rest of us stared at them, not knowing where to sit. The Vankeys and Charlotte had no idea why the family wasn’t speaking. I assumed Jack had told Geri. But based on her look of confusion, I doubted myself.

  Sensing the tension of the family, Jack guided everyone to a seat. I was glad Jack cued me to a side seat. I didn’t want to sit next to anyone in that family right now.

  Sonny and Ray gave their regular morning greeting. Six of us cheered back when he asked if we were ready for a game drive. The trio did not join in.

  We drove around for a while, seeing small clusters of animals we’d seen before. Sonny stopped occasionally for us to take photos. He always glanced back to ensure everyone’s cameras were down before he took off again.

  I got a great shot of a warthog and her three piglets. I added to my photo collection of elephants. Really, could you have too many?

  I enjoyed the views as we drove around more. The early-morning mist was evaporating off the land. The first rays of the sun awakened us and brought the heat of the day. Even without the Big Five, or other majestic creatures roaming the area, the natural beauty surrounded us. There was always something to see. The pillowy white clouds floating in the sky. A sky that ranged in color from pink of early dawn to pure blue midday to the orange glow of sunset. The countless shades of green of grasses and leaves. Even the heat, as it shimmered on the horizon, was something to take in. Nothing man-made in sight, except us.

  We stopped again, but I didn’t see any animals in view. I took a photo anyway. The landscape was breathtaking, and my memory card was far from full.

  Ray jumped off the front and called for the group to join him. We did, except for the trio.

  “We haven’t seen any zebras yet, have we?” Ray asked. I shook my head no, as did the others. “Well, today is hopefully the day!” He pointed to a print in the dirt. “You see this? That’s a zebra’s track.” He knelt down and pointed closer to the hoof’s print.

  “Let’s go,” Sonny instructed us. Five minutes later, after several points from Ray, we came upon a grouping of zebras. “Anyone know what a group of zebras are called?” Sonny asked.

  “A dazzle!” I yelled out.

  Charlotte elbowed me in the side. “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s a herd.”

  I looked at Sonny. “Sonny told me it was a dazzle.”

  “No, she’s right,” Sonny told Charlotte. “Some will call them by different names. But my dad, also a field guide in this area, called it a dazzle. Gold star to my favorite student!”

  “OHHH!” Jack yelled. “Smarty pants isn’t going to like that!”

  I gaped. Was he trying to start another argument within the group?

  “Jack!” Geri yelled.

  “What?” he answered. He leaned in and whispered, “I’m trying to defuse the tension.”

  It had the opposite effect.

  We stopped for juice and coffee. I too wanted to defuse the situation among the family. Also, I had an ulterior motive of wanting to solve a murder. A family divided might spill some secrets.

  “You must have been excited to see zebras,” I said to Sabrina.

  “Why?” she snapped.

  “You obviously like the letter ‘Z’.” She looked at me as if she had no idea what I was talking about. “Zonah, Zaden,” I reminded her, pointing to her sons.

  She looked in their direction. The trio had positioned themselves as far from each other as they could, without being so far from the group that Sonny would have to reel them in. “Oh, yeah, I guess.” She sipped her juice. “They’re named after their fathers.”

  “Their fathers? How nice.”

  “Yeah, I thought so at the time,” she mumbled and walked away.

  Sabrina had been so sociable when we had started the trip. So sociable I thought she’d annoy me to death. As I was closest to her age, I thought she’d latch on and make me her best buddy for the trip. Two college dropouts forming their own clique. I preferred drinking at the bar with Jack.

  But as the trip proceeded, she retracted more from the group, even from her boys. Maybe the fact that her husband hadn’t joined them on the trip was hitting her harder the longer we were here.

  Or maybe it was something more sinister?

  Sonny and Ray huddled over markings in the dirt as we finished morning refreshments. “What are you looking at?” I asked.

  “She just sneaks up on all us, doesn’t she,” Sonny said to Ray. I started to ask what he meant but he continued, and answered my original question. “You’ll see,” Sonny told me. “Everyone ready?” he announced.

  Once settled in our seats, Sonny spoke. “I heard there was another request for a leopard?” A few nodded but Sabrina remained quiet. Looking at me, Sonny continued, “Ray and I have found some more tracks. So we’re off to find another leopard! And maybe more zebras!”

  I held on to the bar to brace myself as we took off. Ray kept his trained eyes on the dirt path and then signaled for Sonny to go off-road. I held on tighter as the terrain became bumpier. The four-by-four trampled grass and low bushes until we came to an abrupt stop.

  A thorny branch slapped me in the face and I didn’t see why the others gasped. I rubbed my temple, hoping the branch didn’t draw blood. Glad that my hand was dry, I looked up to see what had stunned the others into silence.

  A leopard hunched over a dead zebra.

  The leopard looked up from its prey at us. The zebra lay on its right side. Its left legs were stiff and jutting into the air.

  “Geez, that thing’s in rigor. That zebra’s been dead a while,” Jack said, when the leopard returned to its meal.

  “Yes, we can’t tell when tracks are left.” Sonny looked over his shoulder and put the vehicle in reverse. This was not the photograph we wanted for our albums. He stomped on the brakes when most of his guests squealed in horror.

  A gush of blood spewed from where the leopard had been munching at the carcass’ stomach. The leopard was equally startled by its meal’s response and jumped away, until the flow of bodily fluids stopped.

  Charlotte and Hazel covered their eyes. Colin put his arm around Hazel and used his other hand to block the sight. Jack looked away while Geri buried her head in his chest. Zaden was getting it all on video, seemingly immune from the revolting scene.

  “I think I’m going to be sick,” Zonah said, before leaning his head over the side of the four-by-four.

  I glanced at Sabrina to monitor her reaction, expecting her to soothe her son. But she didn’t. She stared at the scene.

  Had she seen something like that before?

  Had she caused it?

  Bar

  “Jack,” I greeted the lone customer at the bar.

  “It’s a little early for your arrival isn’t it? Colin is usually my daytime drinking partner. He’s kind of grim. Always talking about death.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I guess when you get that old death is all that’s on your mind.” Jack took a long sip of his beer. “So what brings you here so early, Rookie?”

  “Family,” I answered.

  “Enough said. Get my friend here
a drink, Advice.”

  I sat down and Advice handed me a tall glass of bitter lemon, garnished with a lime. He held up the vodka bottle. I nodded and he poured some in. I took a gulp and sighed.

  “Rookie! Relax. You’re on vacation,” Jack said from his side of the bar.

  I spun my barstool and looked around the common area. My investigation was going poorly. I had yet to think of a way to get access to the surveillance camera recordings, without getting caught. I had no safe way to get into the area below our rooms to find a murder weapon or soiled clothing. I finished my drink with a second sip.

  Sonny passed through the dining area and a plan hatched in my mind. “Sonny,” I called out.

  He was probably on a break and I shouldn’t bother him. He was stuck with us hours every day, and I hounded with him questions often. We had our next drive in just a couple hours. This might be the only time he’d be free.

  I ran up to him and asked, “What would happen if I lost something here?”

  “You check with Leticia in lost and found.”

  “Well, I mean, if you lost something into the area off the patio?”

  “Where?” he asked.

  “Off the patio, off the room.” He waited for me to explain. “My hat. A big gust of wind came and it blew off the patio. Into the grasses.”

  “Oh,” he said. “You can get another hat in there.” He pointed to the boutique.

  None of the hats in the gift shop appealed to me and none of them appealed to my budget either. I couldn’t admit that to Sonny. Plus, I reminded myself, my baseball hat wasn’t gone. It was sitting on my backpack, waiting to be worn during the next game drive. I struggled to find another way to get Sonny’s help to search the area below the rooms.

  I could ask another employee to help me, but I doubted anyone would think searching the deep grasses sounded like a good idea.

  “But you really like that hat?” he asked.

  “Yes.” I nodded.

  “Okay, let’s go.”

  “Now?” I asked. I couldn’t believe he’d agreed, without me begging or pleading or bringing out the waterworks.

  He checked his watch. “Sure. You’ll need it for tonight’s game drive so let’s go.”

  “Great! Thank you!” I hesitated, knowing I’d somehow have to get my hat down into the area. I didn’t want to completely lie to him.

  He looked down at my bare legs. “You need to put on pants, though.”

  “Great!” I responded, glad I had changed into shorts after breakfast. “Meet you outside my room in five minutes?”

  “Okay.”

  I ran to the room, startling Charlotte from her book when I barreled in. I grabbed my hat off my backpack, ran onto the patio, and flung it like a Frisbee off the patio, to the left.

  “What the—”

  “Don’t worry about it,” I told her and ran back in the room to change into pants.

  She looked from me to where I had flung the hat and back again, trying to make sense of it. She followed me back into the room. “Why did you do that?”

  “Sonny is going to help me look for it.”

  She peered at me and back out onto the patio. “I’m missing something here.”

  “I told him I lost my hat.”

  “Which you didn’t.” With her hands on her hips, she stared at me.

  “Well, I have now. It was the only way I could think of to get a closer look down there.”

  “And why would you want to?”

  “Because if someone threw evidence down there, who would find it? It’d be gone forever. But they didn’t plan on me!”

  “Did this sound like a good idea before you had a drink?”

  “I didn’t have the idea until the drink so…no. But it would have been if I had it.”

  “Why did you throw it that way?”

  “Because if something was thrown out from one of the other guests’ rooms, it would be to our left. If I threw it straight down, we’d find it right away. And we know neither of us threw evidence off the patio. The only room to the right is Dr. Higgins and…” I suppose the killer could have thrown it off his patio. I looked that way. I shook my head. I would have seen a trail of blood to the patio door if the killer had thrown the murder weapon off of his patio. “Nope, if any evidence was tossed away, it would be from their room.” I pointed to the left, and rooms one through three.

  “And they wouldn’t have just thrown it in the garbage?”

  “No, Coral would have found it there. Plus, I went through the garbage. Didn’t find it.”

  “You did what?”

  “Don’t worry. I wore gloves.” I ran to the wardrobe and grabbed the pair of pants I had ready for the afternoon game drive. I changed into them while trying to explain myself to Charlotte. “So after killing Higgins, they would have panicked, fled the room with the weapon, and then have to decide how to get rid of it.”

  Charlotte looked again in the direction I’d thrown the hat. “I cannot imagine you will ever find that hat again.” She returned to the couch and her textbook. “Not a bad thing, if you ask me,” she mumbled. “Who wears a baseball hat on safari? You should be wearing a safari hat.”

  There was a knock on my door. “Ready?” Sonny asked, when I opened it.

  “Ready,” I answered.

  Charlotte called out from the couch. “Better take my flashlight, Naomi.”

  “Good idea.” She got up, took it out of her backpack, and tossed it to me. “Thanks.” I was shocked she provided any help. Part of me had feared she’d tell Sonny the truth and spare the man the trek into the land below.

  “Just follow me,” Sonny instructed and headed around the perimeter of the suite. “I can’t guarantee we’ll find it but we’ll take a look. Couldn’t have gone far, right?”

  “You’d think,” I answered.

  “Tuck your pants into your socks.”

  I did as instructed, but asked, “Why?”

  “Snakes,” he answered as he walked down the slight incline along the outside wall of our room.

  With his back to me, he missed my look of fear and horror. “Snakes?” I croaked.

  “Yes, snakes.” This plan was sounding like a bad one. “There are some insects too. Don’t want them crawling up your pants either. But that’s really not my area of expertise.”

  This plan was sounding like the worst plan I had ever come up with. “Ray knows about the insects and snakes better than I do. You can ask him.”

  “I’d rather not,” I mumbled. I cleared my mind of all things creepy crawly. I assured myself that the itching sensation on my legs was my imagination. The imagination, which Charlotte would tell you, had gotten me into this situation. Why couldn’t I just sit by the pool and relax? Nope, trudging through high grasses, infested with snakes and insects I’d never heard of, sounded more vacation-like to me.

  “So, Ray told me you drive him to the other lodge every night so he can stay with his wife and child.”

  “Yes,” he answered.

  “That’s nice of you. You do that every night?”

  “Yes,” he answered with a shrug, unknowingly confirming Ray’s alibi.

  “That’s some gash on his arm.”

  “Oh, not too bad. His son Amiri broke something and Ray cut his arm cleaning it up.”

  Now I felt completely comfortable marking Ray off my list. Another suspect off the list but yet not any closer to finding the killer.

  In silence, I followed Sonny as he looked for my blue baseball cap. I looked for any evidence of Dr. Higgins’ murder—a knife, bloody clothing, anything out of the ordinary. After ten minutes, Sonny announced, “I found it!”

  He smiled broadly, pleased with himself. “I’m still a good tracker.”

  “Thank you,” I told him, as I took the hat.

  “That was some gust of wind.” He looked up. “We’re all the way in front of room two.”

  We’d passed the trio’s room and the Wallaces’ room and I’d found nothing. Room one was
the Vankeys. My gut told me it wasn’t them. But I had no proof. The pair often stopped talking when I approached and with Jack’s report of Colin’s frequent talk of death, I wondered.

  “Ready to go back?” he asked.

  I looked in room one’s direction, wishing I’d thrown the hat farther.

  I made one more look around. I’d have one more pass, on our return trip. But this seemed like a bust.

  “We’ll go back the way we came. Easiest way, I think. Just follow me.”

  I continued my scan for anything out of the ordinary while Sonny escorted me back to my room. I was going to have to significantly increase his tip for this. It may have been a wasted effort for me but a success for him.

  “You’re quiet back there. Everything okay?”

  “Yep, everything’s fine.” Except I wasted an hour of our lives searching for signs of a murder. I hoped I had time to shower before our next game drive. I looked down at myself and I was covered in dirt and dust. “Oh, wait. My shoelace is untied. Give me a sec.”

  I squatted down to tie it and heard Sonny stop a few feet ahead. He stepped closer and his shadow blocked the blazing sun.

  “Naomi,” he said softly.

  “Yes, Sonny.”

  “I need you to listen to me.” I didn’t like his tone. He was usually cheery but his voice had no evidence of cheer in it now. I looked up at him and didn’t like his expression either. More alarming was he wasn’t looking at me, but to my left.

  “Sonny?” I said again.

  “I need you to listen to me,” he repeated, still looking to my left.

  “Yes.” I watched him, instinctually knowing that I didn’t want to see whatever caused that look of fear on Sonny’s face.

  “I need you to get up very slowly.”

  I raised myself as slowly as I possibly could, keeping my gaze fixated on Sonny. It took all my will not to look to my left.

  “You can move a little faster than that, Naomi,” Sonny said, through clenched teeth. I popped up the rest of the way. My hand hit the bug repellant fan clipped to my waist and it dropped. Reflexively, I reached for it. “Naomi, no!”