by Susan Harper
Kendell made her way through the manor, eventually arriving outside one of the smallest guest rooms in the building, which was being shared by the photographers. She knocked, and Rider answered with a pleasant, surprised smile. “May I help you, Miss Kendell?” he asked in his thick Kenyan accent.
“I was just checking in on you two,” Kendell said. “Neither of you came down to tea, so I haven’t seen you guys since lunch. Just making sure everything is fine?”
“Oh, yes, everything is fine,” Rider said, opening the door wider so she could peer inside. A part of her instinctively jolted back. There was a killer loose in the manor, after all, so someone abruptly swinging open a door was alarming. Was he planning to grab her and yank her inside? Did Rider and Landon kill Zachariah? Maybe Zachariah hadn’t planned on paying them for their services, and they had found out and decided to take what they had earned? Had anyone scavenged Zachariah’s room in search of money after his death? She didn’t know, since she hadn’t looked with that in mind. But, she saw Landon sitting quietly across the room. Neither of them reached for her or made any sort of threatening move. No, they were just working. They had all of their equipment set up, and Kendell could clearly see Landon sitting at a small table with two laptops set up, working away and not at all interested in grabbing her and severing her head or whatever the true murderer might want to do now that they had a taste of blood. Kendell shook her head, realizing how quickly she had overreacted. This whole thing has me on edge more than I thought.
“What are you two doing?” Kendell asked curiously.
“Downloading all of the pictures we took during our safari,” Rider said. “Would you like to see?”
Kendell smiled and took up the invitation. The two men seemed rather down, but still quite proud to show off their pictures. Most of them were of Zachariah, seeing as how he had intended to pay them to be his personal photographers for his hunting trip, but there were a few of the other guests. “I would love to buy that picture,” Kendell said after sitting down for several minutes, enjoying the slideshow the gentlemen had proudly put on for her. It was a photograph of herself, Pauline, Lil, and Dot all squished together in one of the seats of the safari bus. You could see an elephant’s trunk reaching toward them, and they were all smiling and laughing like a group of old friends on the adventure of a lifetime.
“Of course, Miss Kendell,” Landon said. “What size would you like it in?”
“I’d like to have it framed in my apartment when I get home, so maybe an eight-by-ten?” Kendell asked. The men nodded and promised to get one done for her, even offering her a discount rate seeing as how they had all spent time together at what was now basically a fancy, giraffe-filled prison.
“I’m sorry you guys lost your big booking for the week,” Kendell said sympathetically. The two of them had seemed very excited about Zachariah’s offer, and she was under the impression they were not usually paid such a substantial sum for their work. The two men were just getting going in their professional career, from what Kendell understood, although their pictures were simply marvelous. In addition to taking pictures of guests, the two men had certainly taken the time to do some more artistic shots of some of the wildlife during the safari. They had also spent quite a lot of time around the manor, taking shots of giraffes as well as the manor itself.
Landon sighed. “Yes, while the loss of life is most certainly sad, we are quite selfishly upset about the loss of income we experienced from it,” Landon admitted. “We certainly could have used that money.”
Kendell continued to look through the pictures on the laptop. “You took some amazing pictures of the manor. You should show these to Jahi. He might be interested in purchasing some for himself to put on his social media pages,” Kendell suggested, and the men smiled and nodded in agreement. Some more shots from the safari appeared, and something stood out to her. In half of the pictures, Mr. Duffey was looking at Zachariah, and he did not look pleased. Kendell didn’t have to point it out for the two men to know what she had spotted.
“You see it too, then?” Rider asked. “The way he is looking at Zachariah in all of these pictures?”
There was so much hate in those eyes, like it was taking so much restraint to keep him from pouncing and strangling the man right there. “I sure do,” Kendell said. “But why would he look at him like that? I found the paperwork Zachariah was talking about. He was going to do his hunt on Duffey’s preserve, and Zachariah was going to pay him two hundred thousand dollars. According to the paperwork, he had already made his required down payments and he had another hundred and fifty thousand dollars waiting to be transferred to Duffey. Why would Duffey hate him for that? The money would have done wonders for the wildlife preserve that Duffey is so passionate about?”
“Maybe he doesn’t like trophy hunters?” Landon said.
“Duffey makes his money off trophy hunters,” Kendell said. “So, that doesn’t make sense. The man loves his animals, but what he was saying about how preserves take advantage of trophy hunters is a good plan. They get rid of animals they can’t take care of for one reason or another, and they get paid to have someone else handle the carcass. I imagine that kind of money to lose one animal goes a long way to take care of the animals they actually can save. Something else is going on here that has Duffey looking at Zachariah like that.” Kendell tapped her finger against the laptop. “Do you have this set up to access internet?”
“Go ahead,” Rider said.
It was a lot easier to do research on a laptop versus her phone; the more she thought about it, the more she realized she needed a new laptop. The one she had back at home had just about had it. She made up her mind to find a tech shop in Nairobi to buy herself a new laptop to have with her on her journey and to take back home with her. Just something about the bigger screen and the way webpages converted onto it made it simpler for searching.
She was convinced that there had to be something she was missing. Sure, Mr. Ashley had had it out with Zachariah over the company they were looking to buy, but there was just something about Duffey that was setting an alarm off in Kendell’s head. He seemed like a nice man, but there was just something in her gut telling her to look into him more. But how was he connected? What motive could he possibly have?
Finally, she found a connection, but it wasn’t much. The company Mr. Ashley and Zachariah were fighting over—the tech startup here in Nairobi—was right next door to Duffey’s wildlife preserve. So, what did that mean? Well, for one thing, it meant all three of these men were somehow connected, a fact both Ashley and Duffey had neglected to share.
Kendell thanked Landon and Rider, paid for her picture, and left the room. Before venturing back downstairs, she decided to do a little more snooping in Zachariah’s room. There wasn’t anything new that hadn’t been there before. The same piles of paperwork from his case. But, this time, she was looking with a different perspective. She dug through the paperwork, and now something stood out to her that had not the first time around. Blueprints.
The blueprints were of the tech company in Nairobi, except it wasn’t the same as the current building in existence. It was expanded. Kendell’s eyes widened. “The current owners allow Duffey to use their land for his preserve, but if Zachariah bought the land…he could push Duffey out…” Was it possible that Duffey cared so much about his animals that he would murder someone who was planning on building over a wildlife preserve? Did that make more or less sense than Mr. Ashley’s motive?
Kendell put everything back where it had been and headed downstairs. She pulled Pauline aside, excitedly sharing with her what all she had discovered—the pictures of Duffey that Rider and Landon had taken, the fact that Duffey’s preserve was right next door to the tech startup that Mr. Ashley and Zachariah were competing over, and the fact that Zachariah had blueprints in his belongings indicating that he intended to wipe out half of the preserve’s land.
When she was finished explaining this all, the woman looked shocked. S
he put her hands on her hips. “You only ordered one picture?” she asked. “Oh, no, that won’t do. I’m going to have to go talk to those boys myself and order me a few copies as well! How rude of you not to think that I would want one as well, Kendell!”
Kendell felt like palming her face. She shook her head. “Pauline, that was hardly the important part of my story. Were you not listening to me at all?”
Pauline huffed. “It was important to me! I would love some of those pictures. You know, I did take one lovely picture of us on my phone at the theater in London. We should certainly start taking more pictures, don’t you think? Oh, when this trip is done, I could make a lovely collage of all of our adventures! We have so many lovely places to go. I cannot wait! I’m a very crafty person, you know. I would just love to create something lovely in my home with lots and lots of pictures… Maybe I could buy some burlap and do something rustic… Ooh, I saw online, someone who took an old window and hung it on a wall, covering the glass with black and white photos, and it was just—”
“Pauline, focus for a second, would you?” Kendell said, trying to remain serious rather than burst out laughing at how ridiculous her elderly friend was being. Note to self, Pauline loves arts and crafts. “I’ve pretty much narrowed this thing down to two suspects—Mr. Ashley or Mr. Duffey. So, how do we find out if Duffey knew about Zachariah’s plans to demolish his preserve? Because, if he knew, that would give him a serious motive. If it was a secret, Duffey probably just thought his future business neighbor was about to write him a big paycheck for his trophy hunting, and that wouldn’t make much of a motive at all.”
Pauline paused to think for a moment, tapping her chin as she contemplated. She then smiled and looked over her shoulder toward where the Duffey children were still on the floor playing with Dot. “I think I know of something we could do,” Pauline said, smirking. “But first, I’m going to place an order for Jina to whip up a special batch of chocolate chip cookies just for us.”
“Chocolate chip cookies?” Kendell questioned. “Now is hardly the time for you to lose control of your sweet tooth, Pauline.”
“Oh, Kendell, they’re not for me! Well… I’ll probably have me a taste, of course,” Pauline said, laughing. “But I believe they’re going to be just what we need to crack this case wide open!”
12
After Pauline paid Jina for the extra treats, Kendell and Pauline snuck off to the manor’s patio to enjoy some fresh air. Pauline had casually asked Abella and Victor to take Dot outside to use the restroom a few minutes before. They had happily obliged—anything to allow themselves some more playtime with the small white pooch to pass the hours as they ticked on by. Once the cookies were ready, Kendell and Pauline brought them out to the patio where they could see the children were still happily playing with the dog. This plan was incredibly sneaky, and Kendell loved it. Something about how easily Pauline had come up with this plan led Kendell to believe that this was not the first time she had bribed children for information using sweets. She was a grandma and great-grandma, after all. She had numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren to bribe if she needed to find something out about members of what she considered to be a very unappreciative family.
Pauline put the cookies down on one of the patio tables, and Kendell joined Pauline in nibbling on some of the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies—taking her time to savor the one cookie she had picked up, knowing the plan was to give as many of them to the children as possible. It only took about thirty seconds before the smell of cookies made its way over to the children playing only a few yards away. They were both incredibly polite children, so they didn’t ask for any of the women’s goodies, but they definitely kept glancing over and smiling at the smell.
Kendell grinned in Pauline’s direction. Sneaky old bat, Kendell thought, taking note as the two children’s game of chase started to wind down. They slowly inched their way closer and closer to the patio, and they started inserting themselves into Kendell and Pauline’s conversation. They were just casually chatting about the manor, nothing special, just something for the children to eavesdrop on. “Would you kids like some of our chocolate chip cookies?” Kendell asked after they had been lingering for some time.
“Chocolate chip?” Abella asked enthusiastically.
“You like chocolate chip?” Pauline asked, picking up one of the small cookies and popping it into her mouth. “Mmm…. So very good,” Pauline said as she reached for yet another cookie.
Victor and Abella both nodded. Victor grinned. “Chocolate chip is my favorite,” Victor said, his eyes widening in anticipation.
“Have at it,” Pauline said, and the two of them scurried up onto the patio, Dot yapping and following them closely. “Just don’t give any to Dot. They have chocolate in them, and that’s very bad for my little pooch.”
They had these kids’ full, undivided attention now. Good move, Pauline, good move, Kendell thought. “So, it must be very exciting having your father running a wildlife sanctuary. It must be fun being around all of those neat animals all the time,” Kendell said, hoping to get the conversation moving.
“Yeah,” Victor said. “But Papa only comes here once or twice a year. We live in France, and Papa doesn’t usually take us with him. This is only my second time in Nairobi, but I love coming to Nairobi. I wish we lived here instead of France. I love being around the animals all of the time. It’s so neat!”
“We only got to come this time because of Esme,” Abella moaned as though in physical pain.
“Sounds like you two aren’t a huge fan of the new stepmom?” Pauline asked gently, shaking her head slightly.
“She’s okay,” Victor said. “She’s just kind of boring. She tries too hard to be fun, and she really isn’t.”
Kendell smiled. Esme sounded like she really wanted to be a part of this family. It was a shame that the kids hadn’t taken to her. “It’s funny because she doesn’t really speak any English, so Victor and I can have secret conversations in front of her,” Abella said, giggling. “It makes her mad when we don’t speak French to her. It’s so funny.”
“Oh, that’s so mean, you two!” Kendell said, but she laughed slightly. Sounded like Duffey had his hands full with these two. “You know, she probably really likes both of you. Maybe you shouldn’t give her such a hard time?”
“We know,” Victor admitted. “But she makes it too easy.”
Kendell laughed. “You two are a couple of troublemakers, aren’t you?”
“Maybe,” Abella said with a giggle. “We’re not mean to Esme. We just didn’t want a stepmom.”
“May I ask where your birth mom is?” Pauline asked cautiously.
“She died two years ago,” Victor said. “She had cancer. I knew Dad was going to get married again eventually, but it just sort of happened really fast.”
“I’m very sorry to hear that,” Pauline said.
“I remember her funeral,” Abella said. “Mr. Zachariah brought that big bouquet.”
Kendell raised a brow. The Duffeys knew Zachariah that well? “Oh, yeah?” Kendell said casually, not wanting to alert the children into believing they had said something condemning. They wanted them to keep talking. “How big of a bouquet was it?”
“It was huge,” Abella said. “It was taller than me.”
“Did your father work with Mr. Zachariah?” Pauline asked.
“No,” Victor said, “but Papa always said Mr. Zachariah was just trying to butter him up.”
“What for?” Kendell asked.
“He wanted some land or something,” Abella said. “But Papa said the animals needed it, so he wouldn’t sell it. Papa cares a lot about the animals.”
So Zachariah had been after that land for a while, Kendell pondered. “So, Zachariah has been trying to get to the tech startup for a long time?”
“You mean that company that lets Papa use some of their land?” Victor asked
“Yes, that’s the one,” Pauline said.
“Y
eah, I think Mr. Zachariah thought Papa owned part of the company since he used the land,” Abella said. “But the company just lets him use the land. Papa was worried about Mr. Zachariah taking over the company, though, because then he would lose all that land for the animals. That’s why Papa invited him to come hunt.”
“He was invited?” Kendell asked. This was a new revelation. From the way she had understood it, Zachariah had just found a place that permitted big game hunting and it just so happened to be Duffey. Knowing that Duffey had known Zachariah for at least a couple of years and that he had actually invited the man to come with them to the preserve, well, that certainly changed things.
“Yeah,” Victor said. “Papa invited him to come hunt so that he could talk to him about letting him still use the land once he takes over the company.”
“Interesting,” Pauline said. “So, who was paying for Mr. Zachariah to do his hunting trip?”
“I don’t know,” Abella said. “Not Mr. Zachariah. I think Papa was just going to let him hunt at the preserve for free. He said he wrote him a receipt, but I don’t think he ever paid anything. But, I don’t know.”
The cookies were gone. And clearly, that meant the children were done talking about this boring adult stuff. That hardly mattered, though. Kendell and Pauline had uncovered a major hole in Mr. Duffey’s tale. If he was letting Zachariah hunt without charge, that meant he didn’t lose any money from the man’s death as he had stated.
Pauline and Kendell took Dot back up the suite, and they hid out as they discussed what they had learned. “So, it looks like Duffey was fibbing,” Kendell said. “He wasn’t out two hundred thousand dollars. He was just trying to butter up Zachariah. He even invited him here to talk. I wonder if he paid for his room here at the manor? This didn’t really seem like the type of place a man like Zachariah would visit. It could have been Duffey just trying to win his favor this whole time.”