Sleuth on Safari Read online

  I knew I’d locked the doors. But it was a simple latch that anyone could open.

  I kept my eyes closed, pretended to sleep, until I hatched a plan.

  In one quick movement, I jumped up and turned the flashlight on, hoping to blind the intruder. Nothing was hovering in front of the bed. I scanned to my left, in the direction of the stairs. Nothing. Something rustled to my right. I snapped to the right, aiming the light at the height I expected the killer’s eyes to be.

  My “AHHH” was met with an equally loud shriek or whatever noise a monkey makes. It echoed through the night. I wondered if they heard me at the lodge.

  I mumbled profanities and put the flashlight down. The monkey was trying to open the cooler, which I hadn’t fully secured after peeking inside it upon arrival.

  I knew the dangers of the other wild animals on the trip—the rhinos who could ram you, the elephants who could charge at you, the crocodiles who would snap at you with those ferocious teeth. But the dangers of the monkeys I didn’t know. Could he carry rabies? Would he bite? Could he scratch me to death?

  With a thin layer of netting between us, I didn’t want to agitate him and find out. This monkey called out. I heard monkeys return his call in the distance and I became more anxious. “This is not a party,” I told the lone intruder. “More like a 7-Eleven. Take your snacks and leave.” I put the flashlight back on him and shooed him away.

  I was thankful when he left, bag of nuts in his hand. I counted to five. None of his friends had arrived, so I got up and closed the cooler. I double-checked the latch before returning to bed. At each entrance and exit, I closely held the netting firmly, ensuring no insects got into the bed. The flashlight had only drawn more insects to the area.

  I lay back down on the bed, still waiting for the time when I would enjoy my complimentary treehouse experience. I closed my eyes and took five deep breaths in hopes of calming myself down. My breathing and heartbeat returned to normal and I opened my eyes.

  I stared through the sheer mosquito netting up at the night’s sky. The winds had died down and there were no clouds in sight. The sky glittered with hundreds, thousands, of stars. The brilliance of the Milky Way, something I had never seen at home, shone above me.

  Finally, I learned why someone would want to sleep outdoors in the African wilderness.

  It was priceless.

  I awoke to the lightening sky, a light pink starting to appear on the horizon. The first hints that night was leaving and the day was beginning.

  The bugs were gone. The monkey hadn’t returned. The killer had never arrived. And I had never called for help. I had made it through the night.

  I got up and saw again why someone would want to stay here. A hippo and its calf walked along the river’s bank. The pinks of the sun’s approaching rays were lighting their way.

  I sat in one of the chairs and watched their progression until they were out of sight.

  I enjoyed nature for what I thought was five minutes, but was really half an hour, until my ride arrived.

  “Time to go,” Sonny yelled up.

  “Do I have to?” I asked.

  “Thank God you’re back!” Charlotte yelled as I opened our room door. She ran up to me and hugged me. “I’ve been up all night.”

  I had five minutes until we had to meet at reception for our morning game drive. I had not budgeted time for a big reunion. I’d been gone less than twelve hours.

  She pulled back and looked at me. “I was so worried about you.”

  “I think you were worried about you too.” She was right. She hadn’t slept. Her eyes were puffy and red.

  “Yes,” she admitted. “I…I think you’re right. I think Dr. Higgins was murdered.”

  She glanced at her watch. “We have to go. We’ll talk about it after breakfast. Just act normal.” She grabbed her bag and made for the door. “Well, normal for you.”

  I ran into the bathroom and did a quick wardrobe change. Fearing a nighttime visitor (or killer), I’d slept in my clothes. And I looked like it.

  “Hurry up!” Charlotte yelled. I could hear her pacing back and forth.

  I slathered on sunblock, pulled my hair back into a ponytail, without brushing it, and slapped on some lipstick. Not vacation photo ready but presentable.

  She grabbed my arm as I left the bathroom and pulled me toward the door. There was a chair sitting next to the door. It usually sat by the desk.

  “Did you sit by the door all night waiting for an intruder?” I asked. I looked around to see what she would have used to defend herself.

  “No, I put it under the doorknob to block the door.”

  I laughed. “That whole wall is glass,” I said, pointing to the far wall. “If someone wanted to get in they would have.”

  She ignored me and we ran to reception.

  We arrived just as Sonny was calling everyone out to the cruiser. I followed Charlotte and climbed in behind her. I started to sit next to her.

  “No,” she hissed. She pushed me toward the last row. “We can’t sit together.” Lowering her voice, she added, “He’ll know.” I nodded and stood to move. “Or she. I don’t want to be sexist,” she added.

  Now who was the paranoid sister? Two sisters sitting together was not suspicious, but I obliged and sat in the last row. Charlotte remained in the front. Normally, I would have been pleased to be away from her but I was intrigued. I wondered what had spooked her. Something had to have made her, one, change her mind and two, agree with me.

  Sabrina climbed into the truck and sat next to me, followed by Zonah. I started to get up and waved at Zaden. “You can sit here,” I told him.

  He had his earbuds in and didn’t hear me. Sabrina grabbed my arm, with more force than I expected. “Don’t worry. Just stay here.” Zaden sat next to Charlotte in the front. “Like your sister, I don’t think he wants to sit next to his family.”

  Zonah stared at them. Was he jealous of his brother’s spot next to Charlotte?

  I shrugged. I really didn’t care who I sat next to, as long as I could see the animals.

  “All we do is love them and all they do is push you away. Am I right?” she said.

  I looked at her, not knowing how to respond.

  “Sorry, that’s a little deep this early in the morning.”

  I smiled and nodded in agreement. Yes, that was way too deep for me before a cup of coffee and cavernous considering she was basically a stranger.

  “You still love me though, right?” She kissed Zonah and mussed his hair. He gave a meek smile. I still couldn’t figure those two out. And that gave me the heebie-jeebies. If I went somewhere with my father, I couldn’t imagine someone thinking we were dating. Anyone could see based on our body language, how we spoke to each other, any number of ways that we not dating. Same with my brother.

  Not once had I heard Zonah call Sabrina by her name or “aunt” or “mom.”

  The cruiser jerked and I turned my mind to the stunning views.

  Ray subtly guided Sonny through the seemingly endless dirt roads. We stopped and Sonny pointed to our right. “It’s a black rhino!”

  Sabrina leaned toward me and whispered. “Is that different from the ones we saw yesterday?”

  I shrugged. They looked the same to me. It wasn’t black, but a dark gray. Same as the ones yesterday. Two small birds, with taupe-colored bodies and red beaks, sat on the rhino, picking off insects off his tough hide. A symbiotic relationship, my sister would likely point out.

  After snapping several photos, Geri turned around. “Yes, there’s two types of rhinoceros here. The black and the white. The black are almost extinct.” She said it with a disturbing amount of glee. “We’ve only seen a few of them on our other safaris. This is very exciting!”

  She returned to facing forward and kissed Jack on his cheek. Like the rhino with birds on his back, he didn’t seem to notice. Geri settled back into her usual position, holding Jack’s hand.

  It saddened me that this black rhino was near ex
tinction. Geri’s glee seemed morbid. Did she have other morbid interests?

  I also still couldn’t tell a difference between the two types. Charlotte couldn’t either and asked Sonny, “How are they different from the ones we saw yesterday?”

  He pointed at the black rhino. “See the pointy upper lip. The white ones have more of a square lip.”

  Charlotte nodded, as if she understood. I still couldn’t see it. I’d have to compare the photos later.

  “They are considered critically endangered. I haven’t seen one in about a month,” Sonny continued, looking for confirmation to Ray, who nodded. “It looks prehistoric, doesn’t it?” Sonny asked.

  During our game drives, most of the animals ignored us. Sonny had assured us that while we were in the four-by-four the animals considered us part of the landscape. But this one took notice of us. Maybe because Sonny pointed at him? I didn’t know.

  An uneasy quiet came over us, until Charlotte asked, “Shouldn’t we leave?”

  “No,” Sonny answered. “In the animal world, retreating is a sign of weakness. We have to stand our ground.”

  The rhino continued his stare in our direction. Most of us stared back, unable to look away from an animal that weighed over a ton. He huffed and, to my horror, charged at us. Sabrina screamed and clutched my hand.

  Sonny and Ray started yelling and clapping at the rhino. He stopped but continued his glare at us. He kicked dust up as he plotted out his next move.

  “Can we go now?” Hazel asked.

  “After everything, this is how I’m going to die,” Colin mumbled.

  What did he mean by that? I wondered. The rhino snorted and I returned to our current peril.

  “When he concedes, when he turns around, we can go,” Sonny told her. “Don’t worry. He’s more scared of us than we are of him.”

  “I don’t think that’s true,” Sabrina mumbled. I agreed with her.

  The rhino charged again and Ray and Sonny yelled at it again, this time in English and in other languages, words that I assumed also meant “Stop!”

  It stopped once more and made a quick turnaround. A cloud of dust surrounded him. White air puffed out of his nostrils as he snorted. He shuffled from side to side, rousing more dust. His trumpeted ears wiggled front to back.

  From only fifty feet away, he glared at us again before a final charge. Louder than before, Ray and Sonny yelled at it. After closing half the gap between us, the rhino turned and ran away. Sonny turned the cruiser on and took off.

  While the rest of us caught our breath, Zaden marveled at his phone. “Cool,” he announced. “I got it all on video!”

  “That was a little too life-or-death for me,” Sabrina said.

  But that was what this vacation was becoming.

  Lunch

  I arrived at the dining area a few minutes before lunchtime. After the early-morning game drive, I had skipped breakfast and headed back to the room for a nap. I woke up ravenous. Charlotte had chosen the opposite schedule. Breakfast, then nap. She was sound asleep when I left.

  Zaden was on the phone. He was more animated than I had ever seen him.

  “Finally got a consistent signal?” I asked Sabrina when I sat down at the long table.

  “Yep.” She put down her romance novel. “On the phone with his girlfriend.”

  I pulled my iPhone out. I had no Wi-Fi signal. I went into settings and tried the lodge’s Wi-Fi name. Nothing. I did have a weak signal for calls—only one bar. With the expense of international calls, there was no one I wanted to call, even if I could.

  “He looks happy.” With each word he spoke I could see the phone bill chugging up as fast as when you gassed your car up. I was glad it wasn’t my bill.

  “First love. Nothing like it.” She wiped away a tear. “We only get it once.” She looked at Zonah, who was sitting by the fence, looking out onto the river. I tried to assess her look. It was love mixed with sadness. Or, more accurately, it was with longing.

  Was Zonah her first love? Or was he the product of her first love? The latter seemed more likely, but one never knows.

  If I was going to solve Dr. Higgins’ murder, I was going to have to ask some tough questions. No time like the present.

  “Hey, Sabrina,” I started. I stumbled trying to find a suitable, inoffensive way to ask whether Zonah was her boyfriend or her son. “Is Zonah—”

  Jack came over and sat across from me. “How are you, ladies?”

  “Fine, thank you.” Sabrina stood and walked over to Zaden. She made a signal to Zaden to wrap up the call. I doubted his allowance would cover that bill.

  “Oh, Miss Naomi…” Jack sang.

  “What?”

  He looked over his shoulder, to where I was looking. The trio now stood together. He returned his attention to me. “Tsk, tsk, tsk,” he said, shaking his head.

  “What?” I asked again.

  “What were you going to ask Sabrina?”

  I hesitated, not wanting to answer. He pounced on my hesitation, thinking it was embarrassment. “Caught you!” He continued to shake his head with a smirk on his face. “Were you going to ask if Zonah was single perhaps?”

  A look of confusion passed over my face. He clearly never thought Sabrina and Zonah were an item. Was that just the male ego thinking only older men would pursue a relationship with someone at least ten years their junior?

  “He’s too young for you.”

  “He’s too young for me?” I asked. Oh no, Jack thought I was interested in Zonah. The thought had never entered my mind. I definitely thought Zonah was too young for me. But not everyone held my view, and I wasn’t sure if Sabrina did. My only interest in the trio was their relationship to each other. And more importantly, were any of them a murderer.

  “Shh… don’t be ridiculous.” I leaned in, hoping to cover myself. I couldn’t possibly tell him the truth, that I was trying to find Dr. Higgins’ murderer but I hoped I could cover myself. “I was asking for my sister.”

  He leaned back and smiled. “Well, that would be more appropriate.”

  He glanced back at the trio. “I can’t see them together, though. She could do better.”

  Zaden was still gabbing on the phone. Zonah and Sabrina were off to the side, standing very close together. Conspiring? I wondered.

  Jack returned his interest to his usual, his beer. After taking a sip, he added, “There’s something about that group I don’t trust.”

  Hippo Walk

  After lunch, I couldn’t decide what to do. Everyone had chosen a rest in their rooms before the evening game drive. I had looked everywhere for any of my fellow travelers to talk to. Or more accurately, to interrogate.

  The pool, the reception area, the gift shop. I even checked the gym. Everywhere was empty. I pulled up my phone to try to do some research on Dr. Higgins. No signal. I wondered if this was typical for the area and for this lodge in particular. Or was it an attempt to keep us isolated?

  I was well rested, so this wasn’t paranoia talking. This was a feasible question. Was someone at the lodge responsible for Dr. Higgins’ death? And had that person disabled the Wi-Fi to contain us?

  I made for reception to ask and debated phrasing options. I didn’t want to sound like I was complaining—and end up murdered like Dr. Higgins—and I didn’t want to sound too nosy—and get murdered in order to shut me up.

  I paused and contemplated turning around. Enjoy the rest of my vacation, I told myself. Enjoy a safari like a traveler should and don’t turn it into a murder mystery vacation.

  “Ready for the hippo walk?” Sonny asked.

  “For what?” I asked.

  “The hippo walk.” He looked around me and saw no one else. “Looks like it’s just you and me.”

  “Okay,” I answered and followed him out to our ride.

  I didn’t know what a hippo walk was but I had nothing else to do, so hippo walk it was. Charlotte was right. I should pay attention more. I’m sure he had told us about it at the end of the
morning game drive but I was half asleep by the time we’d returned to the lodge. The only thing I could think of was climbing into bed for a nap.

  Charlotte always did her research. She definitely would know what a hippo walk was. She probably knew the exact star rating the lodge had and any internet availability complaints from recent stays. I made a mental note to ask her later.

  “No need for you today,” Sonny told the waiting Ray. “Just Naomi.”

  He nodded and took his hand out of his pocket, to wave a greeting, before turning to leave. Something fell out of his pocket and I ran over to it and picked it up. I flipped over the facedown photo. He snatched it from me before I could take a good look.

  He said something in another language, Swahili perhaps. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “Thank you, Naomi.” He ironed out the wallet-sized photo before shoving it back into his pocket.

  The quick movement caused him to cringe and, reflexively, look at the inside of his right arm. The bandage hung off his forearm. He quickly re-covered a long thin gash. It was long but not deep. It appeared to be healing well but what did I know? Charlotte was the one studying to be a doctor.

  Ray said goodbye again and Sonny got in the Land Cruiser. “Ready, Naomi?”

  Without hesitation, I jumped in the front seat. Something large in a green case lay across the dashboard. I hadn’t noted it during my previous ride up here. But I wasn’t known for my observation skills.

  I had a lot of questions: What was a hippo walk? Where we going? How long would be gone for? Did he think someone murdered Dr. Higgins? Did he know who did? But I stayed quiet and marveled at the view. Another question for Sonny. Did these views still take his breath away?

  Several turns down dirt paths and fifteen minutes later, Sonny parked.

  I jumped out my side and he jumped out of his side. He leaned back for the item on the dash.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “Shotgun.”

  I had been studying my fellow travelers as suspects but had never suspected Sonny. If he were the killer, what better way to get rid of the only one interested in Dr. Higgins’ death?