Killed in Kruger

by Denise M. Hartman

  Something didn’t seem right, though. So what’s wrong? She rubbed her hands up and down on her pants. She tried to put herself in his shoes. Shooting pictures, getting film developed, making appointments, picking her up at the airport. She couldn’t see anywhere he would be derailed. This led her mind to terrible imaginings. She shook herself. Don’t go there.

  Film. Where was all the film? He normally kept a thermal container of unshot film, and another for exposed rolls. She searched through his bags, dumping everything out onto the extra single bed. Other than the single unexposed roll she’d pulled from a vest there was nothing. The man had been here for nearly ten days shooting. He had releases from people and locations he’d taken photos of, but no film. This didn’t make sense. He had brought a new digital camera to do some of the work, but he still preferred film. Now that she thought of it, the new digital camera body and cards were gone too. Do lions eat film? Do vultures carry off digital cameras but not the lenses? She would have to ask Souli. She needed that film, or the memory cards from the digital camera. Was this a key to finding Phillip? Besides, she couldn’t turn in articles with no pictures. Tabitha’s eyebrows pressed together as she tried to think through this, but she couldn’t find an instant solution. But she would find an answer.

  She wondered if the Kruger Park officials weren’t being completely honest, or perhaps it was just an oversight and the bags were at the offices. She’d go find out right now. She jumped in the truck to dash around to the park offices, which were becoming familiar. Dash was definitely the wrong word. Chug, die, lurch forward. Where was that Daniel guy?

  It took her so long to get around to the offices that Tabitha realized it was after hours, but thanks to Daniel she knew the park workers lived in the complex. The office door gave under her tug. She pulled herself up to her full five feet and one important inch to look like she was supposed to be here.

  “Excuse me.” Tabitha stretched a hand out to a curvaceous black woman in a park uniform coming out the door. “Can you tell me if Daniel is still here, or Souli?”

  “Ah, yes. I think I saw Souli, hmm, over toward the biology offices.” The woman pointed and gave Tabitha a gracious smile.

  Tabitha wound her way through the now dim hallways, checking each door label. The door marked biology opened to her pull, but no one was behind the lone desk. Voices led her down a corridor between more desks to another double door. Tabitha felt like an intruder, with the empty desks and the silence of the office.

  “Hello?” She could hear voices behind the door, but they hadn’t heard her call. She pulled at the door and entered a lab area. Her senses were immediately assaulted. The smell of decay and chemicals combined in a sickening odor, like something terribly rotten. The middle of the room held a table piled with a large rib cage and other parts of a body. She saw Souli bent over the table, but Tabitha quickly turned her back to the carnage.

  One of the men called out, “Yes? May we help you?”

  Tabitha turned partway back toward the people in the room and Souli recognized her. She pushed her way back out to the fresher air of the office and he followed. Tabitha coughed, trying to free her lungs and nostrils of the stench.

  She squeezed her eyes shut. “Tell me that wasn’t a person?” The reality of the danger here sobered her.

  “Oh, no. No.” Souli almost grimaced, but held back. “That’s an animal carcass. We are testing it for tuberculosis. We’ve had some outbreaks among the lions. I’m sorry you saw that. What can I do for you?” The slim African wore a dingy lab coat over his khaki green uniform. He held out his hands to her, fingers splayed.

  Tabitha took a deep breath and exhaled. “I’ve been going through my uncle’s belongings and realized some things are missing.”

  “Oh, this is very serious, Miss. We train our people carefully but…are you sure?”

  “No, I don’t mean to say someone has taken it. I’m asking, was there anything else? Some thermal containers?” Tabitha held out her hands to indicate a small lunch-size bag. “They would have film in them.”

  “Bags of film?” Souli seemed perplexed by the concept. “I did not see anything like that.”

  “Also a digital camera and memory cards are missing.”

  “No, we haven’t had anything like that turn up. The Hospitality Department was very cautious when they removed his things from his rondavel.”

  “What about in the area where…” Tabitha bit her lip. “Where you found the truck?” That sounded better than where he went missing.

  “No, there were no bags or cameras.”

  “I really need that film or the memory cards from the digital. I’ve got to, uh…” What if those photos held a clue to his whereabouts? Was the park trying to hide something? “I have to have something to give the editors,” she finished. Would Phillip have gone off with just the digital and his film? Why would he do that? Tabitha could think of no reason to walk around with already exposed film.

  “No, perhaps you should look in the bakkie. Perhaps he put it there.”

  “I’ve been through it, but maybe…” Tabitha bit her lip. She hadn’t looked through the lens cases in the back of the little truck.

  “This is a difficult time for you, I think,” Souli said.

  “Yes, it is.” Tabitha hesitated but relented. “I’ll look around some more, but if anyone finds any bags or any camera equipment, I’d appreciate it if you could get in touch with me.”

  Souli nodded.

  An idea occurred to her. “I’d still like to fulfill our contracts, but I need a little help with tracking animals and doing some photographing.” She didn’t want to admit she needed help driving and wanted to get under the skin of someone inside the park who might tell her more. “I’m afraid I need to do that work myself since Phillip is missing.” She cleared her throat and rushed on. “I was wondering if you could lend me a guide?”

  “Oh, my. Yes, I’m sure something could be arranged. Although the guides’ time is very costly, since they are specially trained. Perhaps someone from hospitality could assist you.” Souli squinted at the ceiling as if the schedules were posted there.

  Tabitha was disappointed, since a guide might have been able to track her uncle further, and it would be good to get inside the mind of one of their ranger- guides. But if she could get help with the driving, that would at least free her mind to work on the photos and concentrate on finding the people who Phillip would have contacted in the last week. She had to do something.

  “Someone from hospitality? Could it be Daniel?” She’d enjoyed visiting with him on the ride from the offices, and it might as well be the one person on this continent she had already met.

  “This is a possibility.” Souli began to nod. The door behind Tabitha opened and a thin African face poked in through the crack. “We need you, Souli, please.”

  Chapter 4

  In the darkness, Mhlongo backed the truck up to an abandoned park shed. He could hear mewling sounds, but he paid no attention. His job was just to move something to a new location and ask no questions. For 10,000 Rand he could be deaf and blind. With luck, Pieter would never miss the truck for one night.

  He heard the doors on another truck open and heard voices in the dark. The weight of his truck began to shift as it was loaded. He glanced in the side mirror and saw the man who had contracted him, holding a rifle and gesturing to someone in the dark.

  Someone yelled, “Stop. Stop.” A shot cracked the night’s quiet.

  Mhlongo knew no one was scheduled to patrol this area of the park, so he didn’t worry about rangers. He did wonder what was happening.

  A few moments passed. He heard a woman shriek, and then nothing. He frowned.

  Finally, Sy approached the driver’s window. Mhlongo nodded to him.

  “Man, we had some problems.” Sy scratched the back of his neck, then adjusted his flat cap. “We have some rubbish for you to dispose of after the drop-off point.”

  Mhlongo squinted.

  “
I will double your fee. It will be no trouble.”

  “Says you.”

  “Yeah, what of it? Says me.” Sy twisted the rifle in his hands. They glared at one another in the dim night.

  “Double?”

  Sy nodded.

  “Yeah man. Okay.”

  Mhlongo followed Sy’s beat-up white Toyota to a deserted-looking warehouse near the highway. He backed it up and the mewling and shifting of the truck began again until all was quiet. No shots this time.

  Sy came up and handed him an envelope of money.

  Without a word, Mhlongo drove off. As soon as he was back on park territory, he got out and shone a flashlight in the back to see this rubbish he was to dispose of. He’d assumed it was animal poaching of some kind that Sy was doing, since the truck was for animal transport.

  A young Mozambique girl with braids lay at an awkward angle on the floor. Maybe fourteen years old. Damn. He knew Sy was trouble, but dealing in humans was low. He would not work for Sy in future. It wasn’t the killing. It was the dealing. Even Mhlongo had his limits.

  He grunted and drove to Crocodile Bridge. The crocodiles would take care of the “rubbish.”

  Chapter 5

  Tabitha screeched the bakkie to a halt in front of the Skukuza visitors’ center. She’d go call her fiancée, Jeffrey, and assure him she was alive. She walked toward the phones over by the shops, feeling a touch of heat in the sun breaking through the clouds. She thought over the fight she’d had with Jeff before leaving the States. It was always a power struggle between them. What he wanted, what she wanted. Yet he seemed like the only guy she’d ever dated who let her be herself when it came right down to it. Was this what it took to make it permanent?

  She chewed her lip and dialed the number. The conversation started out fine, but then she mentioned the disappearance of Phillip.

  “C’mon, Jeff.” Tabitha tried to lower her voice, but they were about to break into a shouting match over international telephone lines. “Look, I’m already here. Can we not have the discussion about ‘I shouldn’t have come?’”

  “I kept telling you I had a bad feeling about this.” Jeff’s deep voice was full of concern. He didn’t sound like he was trying to pick a fight.

  Tabitha took a deep breath. They’d fought for weeks before she’d come, not announcing a break of their engagement, instead calling it postponing the wedding. “I know. Do you want me to say you were right? I still need this, to go to the next level with my writing career. I can’t live on $125 an article for the rest of my life. Now the point is that my uncle is missing.”

  “You know I support you in your writing. It was just this trip I felt weird about. Why don’t you come home now? Phillip’s not there. Where’s he at?”

  Tabitha had instinctively twisted her shoulder length sandy hair up and away from her hot neck with one hand while holding the phone with the other. She dropped her hair and pulled the orange silk scarf from her neck.

  “I’m not coming home. I’m going to do the interviews that Phillip set up and find him.” She wadded the scarf into a ball in her fist and felt her self flush. She didn’t like being told what to do.

  “What if he doesn’t turn up? Doesn’t your Aunt Rose think he’s unreliable?”

  “He’s not punctual or neat, but big stuff he’s good about. That’s what worries me. Maybe something serious has happened—otherwise, he would have met me at the airport. Look, if he hasn’t turned up by the time my ticket is scheduled, I’ll come home.” Tabitha felt a clamping down in her stomach at the thought of Phillip not turning up. She suddenly felt homesick and wanted to cuddle with Jeffrey. That would bring her comfort; it always did. “I wish you’d come with me.” She heard a sigh from the other end of the line.

  “I know. Rather than just thinking I could persuade you to stay, I should’ve come. Then we could be stranded together. Find Phillip and come back soon, okay?” His voice was soft now.

  “I will. I’m not stranded, by the way,” she teased him. “I’ve got a car, make that a mini-truck, to drive around. They call it a bakkie here.” She looked over toward the parking lot where she’d parked the yellow Nissan. Phillip had picked a doozy.

  “Watch out world—she’s on the opposite side of the road in a foreign country,” he teased back.

  Tabitha was relieved.

  “Jeff, will you do me a favor?”

  “Mmm, probably. What?”

  “Don’t mention Phillip’s disappearance to Mom if you see her.”

  “What? Oh, don’t do this to me. You’ll have me lying to my potential mother-in-law already.”

  “I already called her and said things were fine. I just didn’t mention Phillip wasn’t around.” She could hear Jeff groaning. “You know how freaked out Mom gets. I didn’t want to get her started. She’d be calling the military about her daughter lost in South Africa.”

  Jeff chuckled. “You’re right, she’d be chartering a helicopter to evac you out.”

  “Exactly. So just say I’m fine if she calls.”

  “Oh, all right. I still say you’re wandering around a foreign country alone.”

  “I’m not a child. I can handle myself. This is my career. Am I supposed to discontinue travel writing when we get married?” Tabitha heard the defensiveness in her own voice. Not pretty.

  Jeff’s sigh came down the line. “I keep wondering about that. I know you’ll do whatever you set your stubborn mind to do. So what am I supposed to do if you disappear too?” Tabitha recognized real concern in his voice.

  “Look, I’ll call every other day and give you a progress report. Okay? I’ll be fine. I should call Aunt Rose and ask her about Phillip.” She wished she felt as tough as she tried to sound.

  “Do they still talk?”

  “Not much, but I thought she might know if he’s gone off like this before.”

  “She won’t tell your mom?”

  “No. She knows how Mom freaks out. We’ll tell her if it becomes necessary.”

  They ended the conversation with I love yous. On the one hand, Tabitha was irritated at Jeffrey for carrying on his odd feelings about this trip. The other side of it was trying to dispel her guilt for not having listened to him. Or maybe it was guilt about not coming at the same time as Phillip, but she just hadn’t had the money.

  What awaited her out there in the wild? The facts she knew didn’t tell her anything about the reality of being here. It was a park bigger than Ireland and the animals lived completely wild; this was no drive-through-feed-the-animals zoo. What did wild mean? Was she running wild, in her own way, even coming on this writing trek with Phillip?

  She freshened up in her rondavel and walked out into the darkening twilight. For a moment she stood on the small porch, looking across the grounds. Round cabins identical to hers dotted the watered green lawn. In the fading light, it looked like a black and white picture—all shades of gray and black. A cool breeze rattled the leaves on the trees overhead. Tabitha pulled her light sweater over her head and gave herself a good spray with mosquito repellent. It really wasn’t mosquito season yet, but Uncle Phillip had recommended erring on the safe side. She quickly braided her thick hair into a loose rope, wrapped her orange scarf around the end and tossed it behind her shoulder.

  She’d persuaded Daniel to meet her at the restaurant, so she could buy him dinner as a thank you for driving her and being so kind. He’d laughed in his hearty way and said it was part of his job, but she’d finally convinced him. It would be nice to have someone to eat with, since Phillip wasn’t here.

  Tabitha’s steps quickened as she walked along the sidewalk that vaulted above the Sabie River, which edged the camp. Lights up ahead dimly lit a watering hole. A crowd of tourists gathered, watching a few elephants drink the water, the green glint of the faint light refracting off their eyes in the night. Tabitha shivered and hoped that Phillip wasn’t lost or hurt out there somewhere.

  Daniel held the door of the restaurant for some patrons as she approached.r />
  “Good evening, Miss Tabitha.”

  “Good evening, Daniel. How are you?”

  “I am fine. Did you want to get a drink?” He stopped near a counter where the restaurant hosts waited to seat them.

  “No. If it’s okay, let’s go ahead and eat. I’m starved.”

  They were escorted to a table in a high arched room with a thatch roof and the ever-present yellow on the walls. Tabitha could glimpse the glory days of this place. It still held the old-world safari charm with heavy British overtones. Each place setting contained a staggering array of flatware for the meal. Even soft drinks had to be ordered from the wine steward.

  “It is a buffet now. In former times, we had wait staff for each table,” Daniel said.

  “How long have you been working here?”

  “I am fortunate to have this job. About eight years now.”

  “I noticed the staff seem to all know you and cater to you.”

  “Oh, oh, oh,” came Daniel’s gentle laugh. “I suppose I have worked many hospitality jobs since I have come here and do know many of the workers.”

  They walked up to the buffet as they talked, and took warm plates from the stack.

  “I get the feeling you’re more like the boss.”

  He smiled. “There are many bosses here. Oh, this is buffalo. It’s very good.”

  Tabitha was helping herself to what she’d assumed was prime rib. “Buffalo? As in—?”

  “Not bison that you have in your country, but our Cape buffalo. I think you will like it.” He seemed to enjoy her discomfiture.

  Tabitha went ahead and lowered the suddenly intimidating piece of meat to her plate. “Did they kill it here?”

  “No, no. They are not allowed to hunt within the park. I’m not sure where it came from, perhaps a farm nearby.”

  The rest of the buffet seemed fairly mild, heavy on the British influence in the kitchen too, Tabitha noticed with a spoonful of mushy peas, and spying a bread pudding for dessert.