Treasure of the Golden Cheetah (43 page)

A tiny tear spilled from Abeba’s right eye and caressed her cheek. “It is well,” she said. “That is God’s will. The glory of Solomon must rest forever.”

“Not forever,” said Jade. “Just until it is time. Isn’t that what your prophecy says? After all, the scepter is still there as well. He is well hidden from prying eyes now.”

Abeba looked gratefully up at her and smiled. “You are indeed wise and descended from royal blood.” She handed the carved cheetah to Jade. “This is for you.”

“Thank you. Now, let’s block this back up and get off this mountain.”

 

 

THEY MET JELANI and Biscuit standing outside of God’s parlor room. Jelani hailed her with all the dignity of a serene elder. It seemed to Jade as though the youth had grown another inch or two since she last saw him. Then she realized it was due to his erect carriage and the set of his shoulders. But it was his eyes that stopped Jade in her tracks. From them seemed to pour all the wisdom of generations.

“Jelani?”

He raised his right hand high in a silent salute. Biscuit was less formal. He butted her thighs four times, then wound himself around her, his rumbling, rasping purr sending vibrations down her legs. When Jade tried to relate everything that had happened, Jelani stopped her.

“I know, Simba Jike. Save your air. You have been through much.”

They met Harry an hour later as he trudged back up the trail from Peter’s hut. When he spied Jade, he ran to her and grabbed her in a tight embrace, squeezing her so hard that she couldn’t breathe for several seconds. This time she didn’t push him away. She frankly didn’t have the energy left and she was glad to see him safe.

“Bebe said you were dead.” His voice was choked with emotion. “I didn’t want . . . I couldn’t believe it.” He noticed Abeba and Jelani for the first time, looked at the young Kikuyu with surprise, then at the Abyssinian woman with malice. “She said this woman attacked you—”

“Bebe’s lies are lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut, Harry.” Jade gently slipped out of his embrace and stepped back, putting distance between them. “I’ve no doubt she thought we were dead. It was what she intended. As long as Abeba was suspect, no one would ever look twice at her. But when you announced that I still suspected someone else of Wheeler’s death, then Abeba needed to die, and me too, so that no one would be left to question her story. She left Julian for dead as well.”

“She said something about you two grappling for a knife and then something about a leopard. It made no sense, but . . .” He trailed off. “What really happened?”

Jade explained everything that had occurred from the moment she’d left Harry and Julian, omitting only the part about seeing the cheetah and the inner cave.

“I don’t understand why that leopard followed us. Do you think it was the same one you saw earlier?”

Jade shrugged. “How’s Mr. Julian?” she asked, changing the subject.

They resumed walking, Harry giving an arm to assist Abeba over the rockier parts.

“Julian regained some of his senses along the way, but he doesn’t know anything that happened once he collapsed and not a lot before that. Once I made Peter’s hut, I had Nakuru and the men make a litter for him. Hall, Talmadge, McAvy, and Murdock carried him. They’ll rest at Bismark’s hut tonight and continue down tomorrow. Do you think you can make it that far today? It’s almost three o’clock now. It’ll be dark before we get there.”

“I can if Abeba can. I don’t want to let Bebe get back to base before us. She may convince Julian to leave right away and then escape on the first train out of Moshi. Or she may kill him. It wouldn’t take much and we’d assume he died of the altitude sickness.”

Abeba declared that she was fine, and together they made good time across the saddle, down the heath, and into the forest, using their flashlights to find their way. When they arrived at the hut, Nakuru clapped his hands and shouted his welcome, rousing the others. Bebe came out last, her face ashen.

And then she turned and bolted down the mountain trail.

“Where’s she going?” asked Talmadge.

Jade touched her pet’s shoulder. “Biscuit, take her down.”

The cheetah bounded after the woman, leaping over boulders. Within seconds he’d reached the panting murderess and launched himself at her back. When Jade, Harry, and the others caught up to Bebe, she was sprawled on the ground, Biscuit sitting atop her.

Harry hauled Bebe to her feet. “I’ve never hit a woman before, but—”

“Don’t worry, Harry,” said Jade. “I’ll do it for you.” She launched her right fist and punched Bebe in the jaw, knocking her flat on her backside. “Someone tie that thing up.”

 

 

THE NEXT MORNING, a very subdued crew rose after dawn and trudged the final distance to their base camp. Jade insisted on making a side trip to the Chagga village, allowing only Biscuit and Jelani to accompany her. As soon as she entered the village, she strode directly to the banana grove with its eerie carpeting of ancestral skulls, the villagers following at a discreet distance. Jade handed her rifle to Jelani and stood in the grove with her fists on her hips.

“I am Simba Jike,” she called out, speaking in Swahili. “I have faced your leopard and won. Not once. Twice. Now I am tired of your curses and your games. I will run no more. If you want me, here I am. Face me yourselves.”

She waited, turning slowly until she’d made a complete circle. The villagers, including Sina, watched her, some with awe, some with fear. No one had challenged the ancestral spirits before. No one had dared come without a goat to sacrifice. After two minutes passed, broken only by the soft call of warblers and the clucking of a few hens, Jade lowered her arms. “It’s over,” she said to Jelani as she took back her Winchester. Then without so much as a farewell wave, she strode out of the garden and back to camp.

 

. . .

BY LATE AFTERNOON on Thursday, Sam felt as if he’d asked everyone in Moshi where the safari had gone, but no one seemed to know what he was talking about, even though he showed everyone Jade’s photograph. It didn’t help that his Swahili was limited to “please,” “thank you,” and a few other words. Finally a Greek man recognized her and spoke enough English to pass on what he knew. He drew a map for Sam, but it didn’t appear that there were any vehicles for hire.

Sam was busy arranging for someone to guide him on foot when he heard the sound of motors. He hurried closer, as fast as his wooden leg allowed, and watched as first Harry’s truck, then one driven by McAvy rumbled and bounced into view. Sam saw Harry pull a woman from the back of his truck. Her hands were tied, but to Sam’s surprise it wasn’t Lwiza, but Miss Malta.

As his anxiety mounted at not seeing Jade, another vehicle pulled up. Relief flooded his arms and legs as he saw her at the wheel.
She’s all right!
Pride and passion warred for supremacy as he hurried to her side.
She’s alive! She’s all right!

“Jade!”

“Sam?” Jade leaped out of the box-bodied car and ran to him. “Oh, Sam, it’s so good to see you!” She threw her arms around him and hugged him close. Sam allowed himself the pleasure of embracing her in return, of scenting the outdoors on her skin, of enjoying how the sun reflected in a blue sheen off her black hair. But he couldn’t allow himself to kiss her.

“I’m so surprised to see you here,” she said, a bright smile on her dusty face. “But so glad! I missed you. I really did. And . . . ?”

Her eyes searched his. He could almost feel their cool green light penetrating through the darkness of his own eyes, searching out his soul.

“Sam, what’s wrong?” She took a step back, leaving her hands resting on his shoulders.

“Nothing’s wrong. You’re safe. We . . . I discovered that Lwiza was not who she said she was and . . . Well, we tried to wire Moshi to warn you, but the lines went down and . . .” He let it drop, feeling very tired.

“And you came yourself to warn me.” She cocked her head a little and her lips softened in a trace of a smile. “I’m . . . I’m touched, Sam. And honored. That was—”

“Probably an overbearing, untrusting thing to do,” he concluded for her. “And from the looks of things, I was wrong.”

“No, Sam! You were right. Wheeler
was
murdered. Lwiza wasn’t Swahili. She’s Abyssinian and came to protect the tomb. But it was Bebe all along. She had Wheeler killed because he wouldn’t leave his wife to marry her, and he was going to drop Bebe entirely out of the picture. She knew she could control Julian better and salvage something of her career. She’s been scheming all along and . . .” She stopped and ran her fingers through his hair. “And I don’t want to talk about that. I’ve been doing some thinking. I really missed you and—”

He put a fingertip to her lips to silence her. “We’ll talk about it on the way home.”

CHAPTER 27

—The Traveler

JADE AND SAM HAD LIMITED THEIR CONVERSATION ON THE TRAIN ride home to the safari and the crimes, refusing to discuss anything personal within earshot of Harry, but Jade knew something was brewing inside Sam’s mind. Then there were all the reports to make: giving statements to Inspector Finch, handing over rifles and ammunition boxes and bags while the police sorted through fingerprints. In the end, Bebe’s prints were all over Rehema’s compact, Cynthia’s box of supposed blanks, and the leather flask of drug-laced alcohol, as well as the old wallet found in Bahdoon’s room.

There was no doubt that Bebe had used many people: Bahdoon to kill Wheeler, Rehema to get a venomous snake, and Homerman’s incompetence to slip live rounds in to kill Zakayo. Finally she used Julian’s lust for treasure to try to kill Abeba on the summit and blame it all on her. Bebe was kept in the Nairobi jail while various officials worked out jurisdiction for crimes committed by an American in both Kenya colony and Tanganyika territory. But Jade didn’t care what they did with her. All she could think about was Sam.

There was little private time for them to talk, and Jade felt as if she were about to snap, waiting until they were free to meet alone at his hangar. She wore the sapphire ring that Sam had given her on her left hand. He tugged an expansive sheet of oil-cloth over his Jenny to protect it from the upcoming rains.

“It’s so good to be back, Sam,” Jade began as she straightened a corner over a wing. “I missed you so much.”

Sam kept moving, tying down the heavy fabric on the other side of the plane. “I missed you, too, Jade. I’m . . . I’m going to miss you.”

“Then you’re leaving soon?” she asked. She slipped around the plane’s tail to get closer to him. “For how long?”

“I don’t know,” he said, avoiding her eyes. “Certainly as long as it takes to sell my picture. Maybe longer.” He bent over and tugged at one of the tie lines. “If I don’t return, I’ll sell the Jenny to Avery.”

The words cut deep. After the wartime death of her pilot beau, David Worthy, Jade had thought that she was inured to such pain. She was wrong, and she felt as if old wounds had been sliced open afresh until she was numb.

“If you
don’t
return?” Jade’s eyes dampened with tears that wouldn’t fall. Her throat felt tight, her soul, her being knotted in it. “I’ll come with you then.”

Sam straightened and held her gently by the shoulders. “No,” he said softly. “I don’t know how to explain it. I’m not even sure I understand myself, but I know we need time apart from each other.”

“We’ve had time apart—”

“Listen to me, please. I worry about you too much. You’re the smartest, the bravest woman I’ve ever met, but I can’t handle the fear that rips through me every time you go off trying to set the world right. While you were gone, I had nightmares every night in which you were either poisoned, shot, gored, or mauled. I don’t think I can live with that constant fear for you.”

“I can change,” Jade blurted out.

“I don’t
want
you to change!” Sam’s voice boomed. “You wouldn’t be Jade anymore. You’re Simba Jike. The lioness doesn’t become a tame little pussycat. It would be cruel to expect her to try.”

“Then . . . you don’t love me?”

Sam grabbed her in a tight embrace, crushing her to his chest. He kissed her neck and hair again and again. “God help me I do. Passionately.”

She felt his chest expand and shudder as he sighed deeply.

“Do you remember why you trained Biscuit to hunt?” he asked. “You wanted him to have a chance to be free. Well, I love you enough to give you that same chance. Hell,” he added as he stroked her hair, “maybe I’m not the right man for you. Maybe you belong with someone like that damned idiot Hascombe.”

Jade wrenched free of Sam’s embrace. “Now, you wait just a blasted minute, Sam Featherstone! Don’t you tell me who’s right for me and who isn’t. And if you’ll remember, Biscuit’s not going to make it free any more than I will. I had to step in when that lion stole his food. And if you think I’m going to go off with Harry, then—”