Sleuth on Safari Page 4

  “What is ‘bitter lemon’?” Charlotte asked me.

  “I don’t know but don’t worry—if you don’t like it, get something else. Jack’s paying.”

  Jack and I exchanged a laugh at our inside joke. Charlotte watched the staff member return from escorting Geri and Sabrina. He then took Dr. Higgins to his room. I hoped Higgins would stay there for the night.

  “Why do we need to be escorted to our rooms at night?” she asked. “It’s a short walk. Not like we could lost.”

  “Do we really want to know?” I answered.

  “For your safety,” the bartender answered, setting our cloudy yellow drinks in front of us.

  He looked to Zonah for his drink order. He looked at ours and then to Jack’s. “Beer,” he answered.

  We used the swivel straw to stir our drinks before toasting. We each took a short drink. “I think we’ve found the drink of the trip,” Charlotte announced. “Delicious.”

  I agreed and thanked the bartender for the good drink and recommendation before he walked away. His nameplate said his name was “Advice” and I wondered if I was the only one who had noticed.

  “I mean specifically,” Charlotte asked. “What animals could get in here?”

  “Hyenas most likely,” Jack answered.

  “Hyenas?” she asked.

  “Yep, the spotted hyena is the biggest predator in the region, behind lions.”

  “Isn’t it just a dog? With a funny laugh? Right?” I asked.

  Jack cackled and it sent a shiver down my spine. “Not so funny when they hunt in packs.” He cackled again and I waved for him to stop. That noise was going to give me nightmares. “What? That’s what they sound like.” He finished his beer. “They are no joke. They have powerful jaws. I’ve seen them take down a buffalo.” He signaled for Advice, who promptly brought him another Castle.

  We said no to Advice when he asked us if we wanted another drink. Zonah waved him off as well.

  “Ladies! I’ve never heard of anyone getting hurt at these lodges. And Geri has dragged me to several. It’s just a precaution.”

  I’m sure he was right. Our mother would have warned us about it, like she did about the risks of malaria, if it were a real threat.

  “I hope he’s going to get Geri,” Jack said, watching a staffer head for the rooms.

  Charlotte and I finished our drinks. “Ready?” I asked her as I got up.

  She nodded and Zonah jumped out of his chair to help her. Charlotte didn’t need the help and looked at Zonah quizzically. He stood awkwardly. “Have a nice dinner, Charlotte,” he finally said.

  “Yeah, you too,” she answered.

  “You guys should join us,” Jack said before we walked away.

  Charlotte answered, “I’m sure your wife is looking for a romantic dinner with you.”

  “Romance,” he spat. “That’s all that woman wants. Are all women this needy?”

  That was not a discussion either of us wanted to get into. Fortunately, it was a rhetorical question. He pointed to the awaiting tables. “It’s more for your benefit than mine.” Only three tables remained. One set for two, for the Wallaces, and the other two set for three, one for the trio and one for us and, much to our horror, Dr. Higgins.

  I headed toward the Wallaces’ table and was surprised when Charlotte hesitated. “Won’t he think us rude?” she asked.

  “Who? The king of rude?” Jack asked as he sat down at their table. I sat down across from him. “You’re on vacation. You do what you want.”

  She hesitated and then acquiesced.

  The waiter moved our place settings to the Wallaces’ table and Advice brought us another round of drinks, including a white wine for Geri. The waiter brought the Vankeys their main courses.

  Sabrina returned, with an escort. Jack sighed when he saw Geri was not with them. Dinner would have to wait.

  Sabrina headed over to the table set for three. Zonah walked over, beer in hand, and sat across from her. The best seat for a view of Charlotte. Sabrina called out, “Zaden. Dinner.” Zaden was still in the lounge area, fiddling his phone.

  “I’m trying to call Dad.”

  “Your father is at work. We’ll try to call him after dinner.”

  I heard him mumble, “He doesn’t want to talk to you anyway.”

  Zonah got up to get him. “Now, Zaden,” he ordered. They wrestled over the phone.

  “I just want to talk to my dad!” The tug-of-war over the phone continued. “I hate this place!” Zaden shouted.

  “Zaden!” Sabrina rebuked and made to get up. Zonah waved her off. “I’m very sorry,” she said to the waiter.

  Zaden and Zonah continued to struggle over the phone. “You should be thrilled you’re out here. Most kids would kill to be on safari. They wouldn’t be wasting their time trying to call their father,” Zonah yelled at him.

  “You don’t have a father, so what do you know!” Zaden yelled back.

  Zonah reacted as if he’d been slapped. But he had won the tug-of-war over the phone, and held it in his hand.

  “Zaden!” Sabrina rebuked. “Don’t talk to Zonah like that!”

  Darn it! That would have been an ideal time for her to clarify their relationship. Don’t talk to your brother like that? Or cousin? Or my special friend? Or whomever? Charlotte was right. Watching the humans was fun.

  If I learned one thing on this trip, I was going to find out who they were to each other.

  I had no idea entertainment at dinner was a part of the all-inclusive package. I also had no idea the real floor show was only moments away. I was torn away from the boys’ drama when Jack spoke.

  “What the…” Jack said, staring over my head, in the direction of our rooms.

  “Uh-oh,” Charlotte muttered.

  I turned around to see Geri and Dr. Higgins walking up the walkway together. She had her arm wrapped around his. She seemed to be always touching someone, especially the men.

  Jack slammed his drink down. Beer spewed out of the bottle. “What the hell is this?” he asked, charging toward the pair.

  Geri smiled broadly and waved him off. “Oh, it’s nothing, dear.”

  Dr. Higgins answered, “She tripped on the walkway. I just steadied her.” He thanked the staffer for escorting them back to the common area. “Probably shouldn’t have had the second glass of wine.”

  Geri missed the insult but Jack didn’t. “Who the fu—”

  “Oh, Jack, please don’t be jealous. Dr. Higgins here was just helping a lady in need.” She placed her hand on her chest, only bringing more attention to her low-cut dress. She looked at Dr. Higgins and fluttered her eyes at him.

  “Oh my,” I mumbled. She was enjoying it. It was the most attention Jack had given anything other than his beer the whole trip.

  “You keep your hands off my wife,” Jack ordered him.

  Dr. Higgins ignored him and walked to the empty table, now set for one. Everyone watched him, but he seemed oblivious to the attention he was drawing.

  “Now I’m not so sure where it’s better to sit,” I said.

  “Who would have thought we should have sat with the old couple,” Charlotte answered.

  Jack escorted Geri to our table, holding her by the elbow firmly. He was scowling, while she could not contain her smile. Charlotte and I didn’t know where to look. Hazel and Colin finished their dinner, passed on dessert, and were escorted to their room.

  The first course arrived, a salad with beets tossed in a honey balsamic vinaigrette. Not wanting to linger at the table with the Wallaces, I dug in. So did Charlotte.

  Zonah and Zaden sat with Sabrina and also ate their starters, in silence. Zaden stared at his phone, probably willing it to ring a call from his father, unsuccessfully.

  The second course arrived and the uneasy quiet on the patio continued. Sabrina pushed her sautéed chicken around her plate, while Zonah took his frustrations out on the rare steak, using his steak knife with more force than was necessary.

  Dr. Hig
gins ate his dinner and drank his red wine quietly and kept his head in his book.

  The Body

  I woke up refreshed and eagerly anticipating another game drive. I looked at the bedside clock. I had five minutes before our wake-up call. Charlotte was already in the bathroom showering.

  I was glad I had passed on a drink at the bar after dinner. My hand had hovered over the phone’s 9 after Charlotte had gone to sleep, to call for an escort. My brief college self would have been disappointed at my current self for passing on the free drink.

  Several hours later I was glad I had. Despite having a nightmare about hyenas and their cackles, for which I blamed Jack, I had slept wonderfully. I finally felt acclimated to Africa, adjusted to local time. If you could say waking up before five in the morning was adjusted to local time.

  The phone rang and I greeted Sonny with a cheery “Morning,” which he reciprocated with less cheer.

  Charlotte and I swapped places. I took a brief shower. No need for coffee today. I was wide awake.

  Charlotte was gone by the time I got out of the shower. Her quest to avoid the dreaded passenger seat, I guessed.

  Wrapped in a towel, I walked over to the wardrobe to choose my outfit. I grabbed a blue T-shirt and khaki cargo pants and quickly dressed. My baseball hat and long-sleeved shirt were still in my backpack from yesterday. I grabbed it and headed for the reception area, with five minutes to spare.

  Charlotte threw her hands in the air when she saw me. “Blue! What are you thinking!”

  I looked down at my slim-fitting T-shirt. “It’s nice. I like blue.”

  “You cannot wear blue on safari. It attracts the tsetse fly. Every guidebook tells you that.”

  “Well, I didn’t read every guidebook.”

  “You probably didn’t read any,” she mumbled.

  I looked to the others for confirmation about the blue. Geri, a safari veteran, nodded that Charlotte was right.

  “Rookie,” Jack said, shaking his head but smiling.

  The clock in the reception told me I had two minutes to run back to the room and change. For everyone’s sake, I did not want to start the day with another outburst from Dr. Higgins. I looked for him for approval and was surprised not to find him, arms crossed and annoyed, standing away from the group.

  “Just go change. You have time,” Sabrina told me. The rest nodded agreement. “Although it is odd the professor isn’t here yet.”

  “We’ll wait for you,” Colin assured me.

  Thankful that no escort was required during the day, I ran back to our room. I was surprised I hadn’t passed Dr. Higgins on his way to reception. I hesitated at the walkway’s branch off to our room. Maybe I should knock on his door? But he was not someone I wanted to intrude upon.

  Something red on the walkway, about fifteen feet away from me, toward his room, caught my eye.

  I slowly walked toward it. From a few feet away, it looked like a blob, something spilled. As I stood over it, it looked like a paw print. Like the ones my childhood dog, Molly, would leave in the kitchen after playing in the mud. But it was red.

  I looked to my left, down the walkway, toward the fifth cabin, Dr. Higgins’ cabin. “Dr. Higgins, you there?” I shouted. There was no answer. I hesitated but then stepped off the walkway. Slowly, I walked toward his suite, listening intently for any sound. I stood at his door, which was ajar. “Dr. Higgins? It’s Naomi from next door. Everything okay?”

  With each step, I saw more red. Maybe he had spilled some wine. He liked the red wine. Not as much as Jack liked his beer but it was his drink of choice for the trip so far. He was still at dinner when Charlotte and I left last night. Maybe he came back to his room and had a few more glasses. And somehow spilled it everywhere outside his room.

  Standing at the door, I yelled in, “Dr. Higgins? It’s Naomi. I’m going to come in, okay?”

  No response. No refusal but no permission either. I went in anyway.

  Seated in the sitting area’s plush chair, facing the window and the beautiful landscape, was Dr. Higgins. His head was hanging back. His hand was hanging down by his side, a broken wineglass on the floor next to it. There was even more red everywhere inside the room too. Maybe he’d had a late night after all.

  I poked him on his shoulder and prepared for him to yell at me for entering his room unauthorized.

  Still no response.

  “Dr. Higgins, it’s time for our morning drive.” I tapped him again. “You’re late,” I added, just to annoy him.

  Still nothing.

  I walked around him to face him head on.

  And I screamed.

  “Charlotte!!! Charlotte!!! Charlotte!!!” I kept screaming until she arrived. “Charlotte!!! Charlotte!!! Charlotte!!!”

  She came running in and grabbed me. “Naomi, what are you doing? This isn’t our room.”

  I took her by the shoulders and turned her around to face him. “He’s hurt,” I yelled, pointing to all the blood.

  She recoiled at the sight. “He’s not hurt, Naomi. He’s dead.”

  Dr. Higgins’ mouth was open and his eyes were fixed on the ceiling. His head hung back. I didn’t know what was holding it on. His neck was ripped to shreds. All that red wasn’t wine. It was blood. Blood was sprayed everywhere. She leaned forward. “Man, I think something ate his throat.”

  Sonny and the rest of our group came running down the main walkway.

  “What’s going on, ladies?” Sonny asked, as he ran into the room. The rest stayed at the end of the path. He turned to see what we were seeing. “What’s going on! What happened?”

  “I don’t know,” I answered.

  “Why did you come in here?” Charlotte asked me.

  “I saw the red, the blood. Plus, I hadn’t seen him yet this morning. When I saw the door open, I…I…I just wanted to check on him.”

  Sonny mumbled something in another language, shaking his head and staring at the body.

  Sonny yelled to Ray, who was behind the group, “Go get Leticia. Everybody else….just…just go to reception. I…I just don’t know.”

  We all remained frozen until Jack took Geri’s hand and headed to the lodge’s main area. The trio, then the Vankeys, followed. Charlotte tapped me on the shoulder. “Let’s go.” I nodded but couldn’t take my eyes off of Dr. Higgins. “Naomi, let’s go.”

  I nodded again and walked out of the room, Charlotte behind me. Sonny said nothing as we passed him at the suite’s door.

  We trudged down the suite’s walkway. Our tracker, Ray, was examining the prints that had first caught my eye. I knelt down next to him. “What are those?”

  “Paw prints,” he answered.

  I was in shock but even I knew they were animal prints. I thought our tracker would be more specific as to what animal had left them. After closer inspection, he added, “Hyenas.”

  Maybe the laughter I heard during the night wasn’t in my dreams but from Dr. Higgins’ real nightmare.

  We sat in the reception area. The staff brought around coffee and tea. When not serving us, they huddled in a corner, talking in hushed tones.

  An ambulance arrived and the medics rolled an empty gurney by us and to the walkway. In silence, we all watched the progression. Fifteen minutes later, they returned the same way, this time with their patient in a zipped-up black bag.

  Ray returned to the reception area, slipping his cell phone in his back pocket. The lodge’s manager, Leticia, and Sonny were behind him and they addressed all of us.

  “We’ve decided to cancel this morning’s game drive but will resume the rest of the day’s activities.” She checked her watch. “It’s about time for breakfast. So please come with me.” Slowly, everyone followed her to the breakfast area, except for me. I remained seated, shocked by the morning’s sight and with no appetite whatsoever.

  Sonny sat next to me. “Not what you expected to see on vacation, is it?”

  “Not what you expected to see at work, is it?” I asked.

  “Oh go
odness no. All my years, I’ve never seen such a thing. Never even heard of such a thing.” He sighed. “We wouldn’t even tell that as a joke.” He eyed me and added, “Although maybe we should tell the story to get the attention of some guests who don’t pay attention in orientation about calling for an escort at night.”

  I knew he was talking about me.

  Breakfast

  We sat in silence, pretending to mourn a man we didn’t know and didn’t like, until the food came. The death of Dr. Higgins affected us and our appetites differently. The men didn’t seem fazed at all and dug into the full breakfast. The women, except Charlotte, ate little.

  “How can you eat at a time like this?” I asked her.

  She shrugged. “Not the first dead body I’ve ever seen.”

  “I’m sure it’s the first dead body with its throat torn out.”

  “You would think.” She lathered boysenberry jelly on her croissant. It conjured up images of gnarled flesh and clotted blood. I pushed my croissant away. “Well, at my last rotation I did see a guy treated for a gunshot wound to the neck. It was pretty similar.”

  “Yikes.” This was why I never asked Charlotte how school was going. She took a big bite out of the croissant and jelly squirted out, sliding down her hand. I cringed. If I were in medical school, I’d probably never eat again.

  “No surprise, he didn’t make it either. Can you pass me the butter?”

  “Charlotte!” I rebuked.

  “What? I want butter for my pancakes.”

  I passed her the butter and she smothered her pancakes with it. The table was quiet, save for the utensils scraping on the plates.

  I got up for some juice. No caffeine for me today. A good night’s sleep had left me rested and the shock of finding a mangled body had inundated my system with adrenaline. I was fully awake.

  I approached Hazel, who looked like I felt—shell-shocked. She stood at the beverage table frozen. I lightly tapped her on the shoulder. Deep in thought, she flinched at the touch. “Sorry. But something’s bothering me,” she said. Something was bothering all of us, you would think, after one of our group was found dead.