The Leopard's Prey (34 page)

His reaction told Jade she’d struck the mark. She simply folded her arms and stared at him. It worked. He shifted in his seat like a guilty child caught in the act.

“You’ve got a suspicious mind, lady.”

“Made even more suspicious by the fact that you’re not answering my question.”

“Look, no matter who ratted on him, I have it on good authority that he’s dangerous.”

“On good authority? That means
you
didn’t see anything.” Jade snorted. “You really hate pilots, don’t you?” He didn’t reply. Instead, he kept glancing nervously at her right hand. Did he think she was about to belt him or pull her knife on him?
Tempting, but not while he’s driving.

“Who told you Sam hit Stokes?” she asked after she let the silence drag on. He fidgeted in his seat again. “One of our bosses? Or Cutter?” A twitch of his lips told Jade she’d struck pay dirt on that last name. “Cutter said Sam hit Stokes?”

“Look, after they found this Stokes fellow dead, we talked about it by his store with some of the farmers. Cutter said he saw an American man arguing with Stokes. Waving his hand in the air all mad. Took a swing at him. One of those farmers allowed that there’d probably be a reward for that information.” He thrust out his chin. “It was my duty to report it.”

“But
not
to
embellish
the facts,” Jade said softly, in a voice that sounded suspiciously like a low growl. She let the matter drop, satisfied that Finch’s so-called eyewitness wouldn’t hold up in court. She just wondered who had egged him on with the promise of reward. Something told her that it could have been the real killer looking for a scapegoat.

She ended the conversation with a “Hmph” and turned back to the surroundings. They should be coming up on Sam’s plane soon. Jade didn’t believe for a moment that Sam would turn her away, especially if it meant she had to ride with Anderson.

She was wrong. Another ten minutes brought them to the spot where the plane had been. Jade called a halt and got out, hoping to find a message left behind by Sam.
Nothing!

“Looks like he didn’t want you after all,” said Anderson. “I told you he was no good.”

SAM WATCHED THE last of the lake disappear beneath the cockpit. He could still see it if he leaned over and stuck his head out into the slipstream. It felt so good just to be flying again, as far from that hospital bed as he could get. He loved how his Jenny responded to his commands. A nudge on a foot pedal, a slight shift in the stick, and he was banking gently. Why couldn’t women be that way? Why did they always have to fight back? It made him wonder why in thunder he or any other man referred to an engine, automobile, boat, or airplane as a “she.”
Wishful thinking, probably.

He’d seen the look on Jade’s face when she left this morning. He knew the set of that mouth and the snap of those eyes. She had every intention of flying back with him, as if he still needed mothering.
Probably would have insisted that Avery fly back and she drive me home with a blanket tucked around my lap.

Well, he’d told her no and he’d meant it. No one was going to risk themselves in his plane until he was absolutely certain they’d gotten her all cleaned out. And they had. She was running like a dream.

She’ll be mad at you, you know.
That was a perfect example. If he’d told Avery or Neville that he’d be gone when they returned, they’d nod their heads and accept it. And they wouldn’t expect him to change his mind and wait for them anyway. After all, saying what you meant and acting on it should be a sign that you could be trusted. Not a woman. A woman would be completely surprised by the fact that you meant what you said.

A little voice in his head nagged at him that Jade wasn’t like other women, which was why he loved her so much.
She’ll be madder about having to ride back with that jerk, Anderson.
He had to give her that one. He would be, too. Well, if she was mad, he had a plan in mind for how to soften her up.

JADE CLIMBED BACK into the truck after inspecting the ropes holding the cage in place. All the knots held. “Let’s go.”

“See, I told you that man’s trouble,” said Anderson. “Now,
I’d
never go off and leave
you
behind. He deserves to lose you.”

“Will you be quiet?” Jade muttered. “Why should Sam and Avery have waited? They had no idea how long we’d be gone.” She leaned her elbow on the door top and rested her cheek against her fist. Actually, she had been angry, but listening to Anderson made her ashamed of the way she’d felt initially. Still, she was disappointed.

“What I’m saying,” Anderson said, “is that he’s taking you for granted. He’s assuming that you’re stuck on him. That’s what
all
those flyboys think. That they’re God’s gift to women.”

Jade groaned and wished she’d ridden in the back, next to the rhino cage.

“Now you take me for instance,” continued Anderson.

“No,” Jade interrupted. “Wayne, I’m flattered, but please stop.”

He looked over to her, his brows arched in confusion. “You getting one of those female headaches?”

Jade stifled a laugh. “Yes, that’s it. Some quiet would be good.” She leaned out the window and saw the second truck trundling along behind them. They’d taken the lead so that the others could keep an eye on the restraining straps holding their prize rhino in place. The slightest hint that the cage was coming free, and they’d beep the horn for a stop. Not that they intended for anything to progress that far. They’d stop again along the way to check the cage. Jade had even suggested a good spot, the old farmhouse near Mount Longonot. But she had another reason for stopping there. Ever since Daley said he’d accidentally followed tracks to a shack, she feared that someone else had been there. But were they friend or foe to the runaway woman?

A warthog disturbed from his dust bath raced off to the south, his tail sticking straight up. To her right, Mount Longonot rose, its gently sloping blue-gray mass blending into the sky. From Jade’s vantage point, it appeared to be supported by all the candelabra-shaped euphorbia growing at its base, like hundreds of slender arms pushing it upward as an offering. Six giraffe browsed among the scattered acacia trees in the foreground. The bulk of the wildlife, Jade knew, resided closer to the lake. She made a note to come back sometime and photograph the animals, especially the hippos and the colobus monkeys, with their stark black-and-white fur, like some bizarre cross between a skunk and a monkey.
A skunkey.
The zebra would photograph well, too.

Thinking of zebra made her reconsider Sam and his movie. What would he do when he completed it? Would he go back to America to try to sell it? Would he tour with it? Would he return to Africa? The thought of him so far away disturbed her.
You know he’s in love with you. And yes,
came the returning voice,
you’re in love with him
. But Jade wasn’t sure which she
needed
more: Sam or her independence. Somehow she didn’t think she could have both.

The hot afternoon air and the rocking truck made Jade drowsy. She fought sleep by pulling her notebook out of her pack and writing some impressions of the morning’s visit to the Maasai warriors’ camp. She would have at least one article for the
Traveler
out of this, perhaps two. She wished she knew more about those enigmatic people.

Jade thought about her promise to Jelani. She knew that her magazine would not be interested in an in-depth look at Kikuyu life and their current problems. She’d already given them a glimpse into village life when she’d written about the
ngoma
during her first trip.
A book? Jelani’s story?
Maybe. It would be good if Jelani could sell his own story. Not that she was shirking her duty, but making the boy dependent on any of them would not help his cause.

The boy!
She had to quit thinking of him that way. The boy had grown up. Children in difficult situations always grew up fast. How was it that the British system saw Jelani as a man now, but still saw sixteen-year-old Harley as a boy? Sam’s plan to take Jelani aloft and let him see Africa from the air was a good one. Leave it to Sam to give the boy wings. It was just the sort of thought that she admired him for.
What are you going to do when he goes back to the States?

“Is that the farmhouse you said we should stop at?” asked Anderson.

Jade gazed ahead to her right. “Yes.”

“Don’t look like much of a place to live. Why’d you suggest stopping here anyway?”

“There’s a well pump in back in case the radiators need water. We can also refill our drinking-water supply.” She jerked her head to the cage behind them. “Junior might be thirsty, too.” What she didn’t say was that she wanted to check on the woman inside. If she was actually Alice Stokes, as Jade suspected, then she might be in need of help but afraid to ask for it.

Anderson stopped about fifty feet away from the dilapidated house. “I don’t think anybody’s home,” he said when no one appeared at the door. The second truck pulled alongside. Jade got out, leaving her Winchester in the truck, and motioned with her palm out for the others to wait where they were. She didn’t relish someone pulling a shotgun on her, so she took a moment to not only show that she had no weapon with her, but to scan the doors, windows, and assorted cracks for anyone pointing one at her.
My knee doesn’t ache. I’ll be fine.

“I’ll just go ask if we can have some water,” Jade announced loud enough for anyone listening in the house to hear. “Anyone home?” she called as she walked to the door. No one answered and she didn’t detect any motion at the windows. She rapped loudly on the warped wooden door. “Hello? Can we use your well?”

Jade listened carefully for a cough, a sigh, any little noise that a human might make when trying her best to lie low. Dead silence. Shouldn’t that baby she thought she heard on her last visit wake up and whimper? Her stomach knotted. What if something had happened to them? They could both be inside, injured. Or worse!

She tried the door. It was unlatched and opened easily. Jade stepped inside, warily sniffing the air. No stench of death and decay. She heard three truck doors open and shut behind her. Reinforcements coming.

“Jade,” called Daley, “what’s going on?”

“I’m not sure, Hank,” she called back. “It looks like the person here cleared out.” It didn’t take much looking to see that the two-room house was empty. The boxes of supplies were gone as well. “The pump’s around back,” she hollered. “I’m going to look around in here a bit more.”

She walked into the back room, the one that had been a bedroom and also a nursery. The only furniture was one worn-out cot with an old mattress stuffed with dried grass, a few empty stacked crates for a dresser, and one empty wooden crate on the floor at the foot of the cot. Inside were a scrap of a blanket and a broken baby’s rattle.

Mrs. Stokes and her child had disappeared again.

Had they gone willingly?

CHAPTER 18

Not all warriors are brave, trusted, or follow the Maasai culture.
Some cut their long hair before the appointed time, just before becoming an
elder. Others shirk their duties. The embikas punish these men.
It is imperative that this generation of warriors retain its honor.

—The Traveler

AFTER JADE HAD bounced about for more than four hours in a decrepit truck, her headache was no longer a pretense. The grasslands had been rough enough, but once Anderson turned onto the road from Naivasha to Nairobi, he sped up. What he didn’t consider was that the dirt of any murram road remembered every rut run into it during a rainy season, and this particular road had a long memory. The colony’s public works department didn’t do much to erase it either. Since Anderson hit every blasted rut, some deep enough to lose a goat in, Jade’s spine soon learned everything the road had to tell.

At least the little rhino fared all right. The cage was just large enough for him to stand with no extra room to be bounced back and forth and slammed around like a tennis ball. Once they arrived at the warehouse, Jade coaxed the little fellow out to drink and have a dinner of goat’s milk and a bit of hay.

“That’s a fine specimen,” declared Perkins. “We’ll pack him back up as soon as he’s finished eating.” He had stayed behind to orchestrate the loading of most of the hoofed animals. “I’ve got an engine heading south late this afternoon. We’ll start boarding those animals, then come back for the rest of them, saving the big cats for last.” He reconsidered a moment. “I’ll take those kittens down on this first trip, too.” He handed two checks to Jade. “One of these is yours. Give the other to that pilot fellow for me.”

“What do you want me to do here today, Mr. Perkins?” asked Jade, slipping the checks into her shirt pocket.

He took off his hat and scratched his head. “Well, we won’t be needing your roping skills anymore, so once you’ve got some photos of the animals going onto the train, you should be clear until the others come back. They’ll need your help again with that lion Percy. He seems to respond to your voice better than ours.”