Death in Kenya (32 page)

‘Because they both knew that Gilly hadn't died from snake-bite, and that Ken had been hanging about
Flamingo
on the evening that Alice was murdered, hoping to see her, and that Gilly knew it. They also knew that Ken had quite a collection of poisoned arrows – they are a dam' sight too easy to come by in this country! And the knife was Ken's. Hector had borrowed it earlier in the day. Mabel threw it into the lake, and Hector apparently did the same thing with the iodine bottle because it had come out of Mabel's pocket. They both seem to have acted on a silly spur-of-the-moment panic.'

‘But it wasn't Ken's knife!' said Victoria. ‘It was Eden's. Or rather, his father's. It's here. In the office. I found it.'

Greg did not show much interest. He said: ‘Did you? Eden said it was somewhere around, but he couldn't remember what he'd done with it. It had been lost; which was why Em said she'd taken it to the picnic, and described it in detail. She thought it wouldn't turn up again, and she'd realized by then that no one thought Gilly's death was an accident, so that laying claim to it made it look as though she were shielding someone. It was quite a good line in double bluff, when you come to think of it. Em was a good poker player.'

‘I suppose she killed Kamau too,' said Victoria, looking very white and sick. ‘She went out shooting that evening too, after Mrs Markham had been over. Like – like she did that other time; and last night. Did she kill him?'

‘Yes. And it was poetic justice, as it happened. Em thought she knew a lot; but she didn't know that she had killed the man who half the security forces in the country have been hunting for years. Kamau was “General Africa”.'

‘Good Lord!' said Drew, startled. ‘Are you sure of that, Greg? How on earth do you know?'

‘Wambui told us,' said Greg. ‘She knew. And so did old Zacharia. In fact you'll probably find that there's hardly a Kikuyu from here to Nairobi who didn't know it, but they kept their mouths shut. They were frightened stiff of that man. Specially after he'd killed his only real rival, “Brigadier” Gitahi, and actually collected the Government reward for doing so!'

Greg looked from Victoria to Drew and back again, and said ‘You don't know how lucky you are, Miss Caryll. If it hadn't been for Wambui, you'd probably have gone the same way as Alice. It was Wambui who knifed your aunt. She'd been laying for her. She said Kamau had told her that it was the “Memsahib Mkubwa” who had killed the small memsahib, and she was sure that she had also killed Kamau; and now he was avenged. I don't know what the hell we're going to do about that one. Technically, she ought to hang for murder; but actually she saved your life. We didn't hear until pretty late that you had tried to ring Drew, and we wouldn't have got here in time.'

‘And – and if you hadn't, you would have thought it was someone else,' said Victoria in an almost inaudible voice. ‘Eden, or Mrs Markham, or one of the Brandons. Or an African.'

Greg shook his head. ‘Not this time. The pattern was becoming too plain and she wouldn't have got away with it again. Also I think Mrs Markham had tumbled to it at last. It seems that Em had told her that she was going to send you over to get some account books that were of no immediate interest. And Em had asked Alice to pick some flowers too: the knoll was out of sight of the house. I think Lisa guessed.'

Victoria nodded, remembering that curious interview in the Markhams' drawing-room and how it had seemed to her that Lisa was deliberately delaying her – until it got darker. Lisa who had loved Eden, and been driven frantic by jealousy.

A car drew up outside the house and they could hear voices on the verandah. Greg Gilbert looked at his watch and said: ‘That will be for me. I must go.'

He turned to Victoria and said: ‘I'm afraid you're going to find that there are a bad two or three days ahead of you, and a lot of police procedure to be got through before you can put all this behind you and try and forget it. But I've promised Drew that I'll leave you alone until tomorrow. Goodbye.'

He went out of the room, closing the door behind him, and Victoria was silent for a long time, twisting her hands in her lap and staring before her.

She said at last: ‘You thought it might be her, didn't you.'

Drew did not answer for a moment or two, and she turned to look up at him.

‘I – wondered,' said Drew slowly.

‘Why?'

‘I don't know. A lot of trivial things. But they added up. The first time was when Kamau had disappeared. Even Greg thought that he had just made a bolt for the Reserve, but when Em spoke of him she used the past tense. As though he were dead.'

‘Was that all?'

‘No. She couldn't stop talking about the things she had done. Remember the times she accused herself of killing Alice – and Gilly? She put it in such a way that we didn't take it seriously. But it was interesting. And then suddenly she said something that was more than merely interesting, and I began to wonder again. She quoted something from Macbeth; do you remember?'

‘Yes,' said Victoria. ‘Something about if she had died before, she would have lived long enough. I didn't know it was from Macbeth.'

‘Had I but died an hour before this chance, I had liv'd a blessèd time',
quoted Drew. ‘Macbeth says that, when having murdered Duncan, the murder is discovered. I was interested in the workings of Em's mind; and I didn't like it. I was afraid for you then, and I began to consider seriously the possibility of Em being the murderer. I went to see Greg, which was why I was out when you telephoned. I was at his office until about six, and when I rang my house to say that I'd be back late I was told that the new memsahib from
Flamingo
had wanted to speak to me. I knew it must be you, and that you wouldn't have done that unless you had been frightened.'

Victoria nodded without speaking, and turned to look out of the window again; and presently Drew asked a question that he had asked her once before in that room: ‘What are you thinking about?'

‘Eden,' said Victoria, as she had said then. ‘Drew, you don't mind about Eden, do you?'

‘Do I have to?' asked Drew.

‘No,' said Victoria, ‘Not any more.'

She did not turn her head, but she groped for his hand, and finding it, held it to her cheek; and he felt the wetness of it and knew that she was crying: for Eden and Alice – and Em.

Outside on the drive a car started up and drove away with an impatient blare on the horn. Greg and the police had gone, and the house was quiet again. But there was no longer any awareness in its silence. The tension and the trouble that had filled it had departed from it at last. It had ceased to be a Graven Image demanding sacrifices, for its High Priestess was dead, and it was only a pleasant, rambling house whose windows looked out across green gardens to the wide beauty of Lake Naivasha and all the glory of the Rift Valley.

A
LSO BY
M. M. K
AYE

F
ICTION

The Far Pavilions

Shadow of the Moon

Trade Wine

Death in Zanzibar

Death in Cyprus

Death in Kashmir

Death in Berlin

Death in the Andamans

The Ordinary Princess
(for children)

A
UTOBIOGRAPHY

The Sun in the Morning

Golden Afternoon

DEATH IN KENYA
. Copyright © 1958, 1983 by M. M. Kaye. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

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First published in the United States under the title
Later Than You Think: A Tale of 1958
by Coward-McCann Inc.

First St. Martin's Minotaur Edition: November 1999

eISBN 9781250089250

First eBook edition: May 2015