Black Mischief

by Carl Hancock

  ‘I was really scared. He led me into a large room. There was a fire and that was the only light. When I saw him walking towards a bed in the far corner, I wanted to run away. He slipped off his dressing-gown. Underneath he was wearing a, a safari suit, green. He poured two drinks. “Bwana, I cannot drink alcohol. It makes me dizzy”. I began to cry. He laughed and he patted the bed beside and pointed to a silk nightie. “Put it on, over there, in the darkness”.’

  ‘Why was he bothering? I supposed that he would want it off again pretty quickly. He watched me closely as I took off my clothes. I have learned to be shameless about these details. I make more money that way. It was a very expensive garment. And I did not take it off. We sat in the bed and talked. He talked mostly. One hour, two maybe. He said that I was a very patient young lady and that I was helping him to return to a kind of life. He liked my hair, he liked the smell of my skin. It was good to be alone with a young woman again. Not for a single moment did I feel relaxed. Suddenly he was on the phone and the car was waiting outside to take me home.’

  ‘Not many days later, the car came again, after dark. This happened …’

  ‘Rebecca, how could you know this? Yes, and there was another expensive nightdress that he gave me as a present, like always. There was always an envelope with many thousands of shillings. More and more the talk was about Julius. Often his eyes were full of anger. He could see that I was frightened. “Oh, no, my dear, you must not fear me, but there are others, but they will not be so lucky. When I am ready. When I am ready. The day of reckoning will come”.’

  ‘Oh, my God!’ Rebecca covered her eyes. Instantly she was back in the depths of an old terror. In the sanctuary of her bedroom, she was struggling against the savage passion of the naked Julius Rubai. Inch by inch he was forcing her thighs apart. The sweet smell of his breath was with her again as vividly as ever, the wet slipperiness of the powerful body pressing down on her. Even now, in the cool safety of a place of healing, her instinct was to run to the arms of Tom. She forced herself to stay to hear Lydia out.

  Lydia was fighting a mounting tension of her own. ‘Three nights ago the car came to my house for the last time. This time the meeting was very different. He did not want to talk. He wanted me. There was no tenderness. He was like a crazy man. He kept calling out his wife’s name, saying how sorry he was for his sins. For sure I thought I would not leave that room alive.

  ‘In half an hour he lost his patience with me. He was deeply troubled and, how do you say, elated in the same moment. As we dressed, a kind of miracle happened. He became calm. He told me how much I had helped him. “I am my old self again. Yes, I am ready now”.’

  ‘He placed a large envelope in my hands. “Wait outside. The car will come soon”.

  ‘But the car did not come. I sat on a bench near the gate. I began to pick at the flap of the envelope. With my nail file I made a little opening. Notes. Cash money. I was shaking as I counted. I had never seen a ten thousand shilling note before and there were a hundred of them, a million shillings. I counted again and a third time and still the car did not come.

  ‘I knew some bad thing was going to happen. It was a trap or some kind of trick. Perhaps he had made a mistake.

  Perhaps he was testing me. I must take it back. He was not in the big room, but through an open door I could hear him talking on the phone. He must be calling the driver. But he was not.

  ‘I have taken a long time. I wanted you to hear the whole story. This is my only chance, perhaps. But …’

  ‘Lydia …’

  ‘Rebecca, I am saying only what I know I heard. Other things … “Good work. And where is the body now? Keep it there ‘til after midnight. Then dump it. There are trees in front of the Wilson plantation. Yes, even the dozy Kericho cops won’t miss it there. Oh, yes, the hands. Smash them. Use a hammer. Don’t worry about the white bitch and the brood … Yes, later. And the black whore? Not yet. Patience, Ochome! That one is cooking in the pot. There will be big numbers. Big payout for you, too! They made a bad, bad mistake. I will see to it that they are paid in full”.

  ‘Oh, my God, why did I hear these things? What if he put the phone down? I must get out. I took off my shoes and crept to the door. Outside, no car. The lights of the city were far away, but I must start to walk towards them. Quiet like a mouse, so the guards don’t hear. Are there guards? The road is through woodland. Jesus and Mary, where is my bag? Where is the envelope?’

  Lydia gathered herself before going on. Sounds were coming to them through the windowless gaps high in the walls around them. Hundreds had come to the wake. Respects had been paid, but already for most of those decent people in that beautiful garden setting, the shock and horror of the senseless killing of a selfless man were fading. The buzz of animated conversations was a clear sign that, out there, normal life was being resumed.

  ‘Rebecca, I am sorry to have brought you this trouble.’

  ‘Lydia.’ She could get no further. The threat from Rubai. She had never fooled herself into thinking that it had gone away. But to hear it spelt out so graphically was an unexpected shock. She needed time to be alone, to talk to Tom, to be on her way home to Naivasha to be with her family. How many of her loved ones would now be in mortal danger?

  ‘This afternoon I saw him talk to you near to the clinic. Rebecca, I want someone to know these things. He will find a way of killing me.’

  Lydia did not expect to survive the week. She had gone beyond terror and was ready to live out the rest of her life recklessly.

  ‘I was watching from a safe place, waiting for my sister to come out. I went home with her. Our people had the chance to kill him. In such a crowd who could have been arrested? We were too afraid.

  ‘I am a nobody. He will flick me off like some unpleasant insect that has dared to climb up his sleeve.’

  ‘That is foolish talk, Lydia. You and I are like sisters in this danger. It is our only chance. We must begin to look at him in a new way. Our way, not his way.’

  ‘But what difference will that make? We know that he is like this giant you spoke of. But he is no good giant. How do you stand against him?’

  ‘You do not try, Lydia.’

  Rebecca looked up at the apertures set high in the walls. The dark blue of the evening sky had changed to the violet of the night. There were stars. Inside her head the weight of heavy thoughts lifted enough to let a bright gleam shine like a thin strand of gold on the margin of her mind.

  ‘Lydia, you are not going back to your house. We will get a message to your family that you are well and in a safe place. You have friends to protect you. More than you know.’

  Chapter Twenty

  test of Rebecca’s confidence came more quickly than she could have feared. They had taken no more than a dozen steps on the short walk between the surgery and the main house when they were confronted by the newly minted son and heir of the Rubai family. From his manner it might have been thought that Reuben had been on the path, waiting for them. Lydia had a momentary spasm of fear that he might have just got up from the bench close to the surgery door and had been listening in.

  It was a Reuben she had never seen before. The immaculately cut white suit, the elegant leftwards lean of the head, the amused condescension in the arched eyebrows and the tone of familiarity made a convincing picture of the Rubai arrogance. For Rebecca it was as if she had come face to face with a younger, smaller version of Julius.

  ‘Ladies, how fortunate to find you in this crowd so quickly. There must have been a guiding hand.’ The smile was swiftly and theatrically changed to a look of sympathy. ‘Such a sad occasion. I cannot tell you how shocked and upset I am by the terrible news. I come with a message for the widow from our family that if there is anything we can do to help in some way. Perhaps you could tell me where I could find the lady.’

  He did not pause as he shifted his attention to Lydia. He was revelling in his new role of the superior being passing down his gifts of consolation and concern. Papa’
s confidence in him was working better than Reuben could have hoped.

  ‘Lydia, where have you been hiding yourself? I cannot count the number of times we have sent our people to your house to check on your welfare. Your mother says that you have not been home for days. Even my father is worried about what might have happened to you. He needs to speak to you about some small matter. But you probably know that.’

  He bent to look closely into her face. ‘My dear, those awful wounds. Our doctor could help. No need to go to that terrible place.’

  Lydia had had enough of his false chatter, his empty concern. ‘What is the matter, Reuben? Why do you talk like some idiot? Have you been drinking, taking a few puffs of bhang?’

  Rebecca’s reaction was a badly stifled laugh. This girl had the gift and her admiration for her deepened by the minute. She herself had seen through Reuben, but she would not have had the words to derail his effort to play the role of a mini Mister Big so easily.

  ‘Lydia, you must want to go home. Your family is anxious. There is a car and a driver waiting for us outside.’

  ‘When I am ready to go home, I will know how to find a matatu going my way. Remember the day when we met? Tom Mboya Street?’

  ‘You asked me for a light.’

  ‘And you could have been my first customer. I liked you better in those days. We took a matatu from the city.’

  ‘So, the car is over there, just outside the gates. Matatus don’t come around these parts. Let’s be on our way.’

  Rebecca was ready to join in the fun. ‘Oh, that’s all taken care of, Mister Rubai. We were on our way to a meeting. Sonya, Doctor Mboya, the widow I think you called her, has this plan, a memorial to her husband. You said that your family wanted to help in some way. We must find her. I think that a donation …’

  It was Lydia’s turn to feel admiration for her companion. She was enjoying the growing agitation revealing itself in Reuben’s expression.

  ‘Donation? What is this?’

  ‘She wants to open another clinic. Money, Reuben. Your papa has some of that stuff, doesn’t he?’

  ‘This is your last chance. This is a serious matter, Lydia.’

  ‘Is it though, Reuben? Shall I tell you something that is really important? Rebecca and I have been talking. She thinks that I would make a good nurse.’

  ‘Nurse?’ Reuben was highly amused by the idea. ‘Nurse? Make sure they don’t put you on a men’s ward. You’d be jumping into bed with the patients. Anyway what would a wash girl know about nursing? Oh, but I forgot. Mama told me you were there this afternoon when they took her in.’

  He focused his attention on Rebecca. He talked as if they were alone.

  ‘Rebecca, we keep on bumping into each other. Not his afternoon, though. I missed the funeral, but I got to come over to that place anyway. Mama’s little accident. I was called in to rescue her and Papa, take her off to a proper hospital. They told me you were there, but perhaps you were busy, or hiding somewhere.’

  ‘And why would I want to hide from you?’

  ‘Of course. And I had driven fast hoping, but there you are. Mama told me later that you looked stunning in black. This death business. I hate it. Don’t you? And, yes, how’s the farmer boy? I think I noticed him as I came in. Seemed to be talking to three little kids.’

  ‘Shall I take your questions in order?’

  Without another word of his own, Reuben turned away and trudged towards the gate on his way back to the pink palace and an inteview with his father.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  nly an hour before he had left the sitting room where his mama was stretched out on a sofa, still in shock. The fleshy part of her upper arm where the bullet had struck was swathed in a thick dressing. She was too upset to take in the final instructions of her husband to their son who was eager to set out for the Daniels’ house, very confident that he would please his father for the second time.

  ‘My spies tell me that she was hanging around with Mboya’s lot this afternoon. There hasn’t been a sniff of her at the shack on Ngong Road. She owes me a few, Papa.’

  ‘Tell her that we need to clear up a misunderstanding. Tell her that I have something that she left behind at the farm a couple of nights ago.’

  Sally was beginning to lock in to what was being said. She wanted to know more. After Reuben left the room, she sat up and asked casually, ‘Anyone I know?’

  Abel realised that he had made a miscalculation. He was surprised to notice how alert Sally had become. Had she been doing some faking of her own? He tried the vague, reassuring bluster that Sally was usually happy with.

  ‘Of course, Sally. One of Reuben’s friends. Poor family. One of the kids is sick and they are trying to pay for a house near the hospital. We thought we could help but … well, we think she is more likely to accept a gift from you. But after the accident and all that …’

  * * *

  ‘So, where is she?’ In the hour Reuben had been away, his father had moved to a back veranda where he was on to his third Tusker. He was looking out over the lawn towards the tall fence separating the house from a patch of unspoilt bush. One of the askaris had spotted a family of leopard out there a few nights before.

  It relaxed him to sit in luxurious safety and remember the days of his youth, walking back to the shamba after a night out with his friends. Every sense was alert. One time he had been scared to hear coming to him across the fields the screams and shrieks of someone in big danger. Abel, the would-be bush boy, gave up his game of careful glances to left and right and with silent, padded steps ran for home. Just after midnight news had come that Gabe Ndoto, a good friend from Kakamega High, had been taken by a lion.

  That had been a memorable night for Abel, too. His father, Nathaniel, had not allowed him to go to bed until they had visited the Ndoto home and his boy had viewed for himself the mangled remains of his friend.

  They were still within hearing of the wailing and the keening of women gathered to mourn the hideous death, when his father explained: ‘Did you see that, boy? Did you take notice? Gabe was a fine, fine boy and now he’s just bits of flesh. No future for him. Abel, try to keep risks out of your life. Be in control. Control, do you understand me, son?’

  Abel had made the dutiful, expected reply to his father’s brief advice but, as the years passed, he came to see the truth of it more and more. It pained him to acknowledge that he had failed to impress his oldest boys with this same truth.

  ‘You tell me that you know this girl well, that she owes you something, but you cannot persuade her to travel a couple of hundred metres to speak to me. Julius was right. He said that you were weaker than mouse piss.’

  This time Abel had made sure that Sally would hear nothing of the exchanges with their second son.

  Reuben bit hard on his lip but held his ground. ‘Papa, give me another chance.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘I will take a car and wait outside the house until she goes home …’

  ‘You think she is going home? And I have boys over there watching all the ways out, just in case I’m wrong.’

  ‘So, I will not be standing in the election.’

  Mister Big frightened his son with a long burst of uninhibited laughter. The noise attracted the attention of Mama who came rushing out onto the veranda on her well-upholstered, electric wheelchair.

  ‘Abel, Abel, what is happening? I thought there was a breakin.’

  Abel’s laughter shrank to a chuckle. ‘Sally, calm down. You must still be in shock. Either that or this household is heading for the loony bin. I laugh and my wife thinks that the robbers have arrived. I tell our son and heir that he is about as useful as a cockroach in a plate of rice and he thinks I’m going to pull him from the election.’

  ‘But, Papa, if you think that I am stupid …’

  ‘What’s that got to do with it?’

  ‘But to be a good member …’

  ‘Son, have I ever told the most important word in a successful man’s voc
abulary?’

  ‘Many a time, Papa. Control. Mzee Nathaniel told you.’

  ‘But like your big brother you never understood it. Listen. Me and your mama here have a heap of money. Control. I have two hundred men working for me. Control. If one of them makes a foolish move, he knows what will happen. You are going to win the seat of Nakuru South. Being a winner, that’s my business.’

  ‘So, you are going to be controlling me?’

  Sally could hold her tongue no longer. ‘Abel, can’t you see that you are scaring the boy out of his wits? Reuben, you will be the MP. The people will love you and Papa will be around to help you to learn the business. Mind, you will have to ask him exactly what this business stuff is.’

  ‘Plenty of work down there. You will have a house, perhaps a woman. When we take over our first flower farm …’

  ‘Abel, please, no farms for a while. Look what happened last time we went hunting for a farm on the side of the lake.’

  ‘Unfinished business, my dear. Oh, things are going to be mighty different and sooner than you think. And, by the way, that girl. Has she come to her senses yet? That’s the trouble with some poor people. They want the money but don’t know how to behave when you try to give it to them.’

  ‘Mama?’

  ‘It’s all right, boy. There’s been a lot of excitement around this place today. Let’s all go inside. Time for some of that new season’s coffee from the farm. Samson brought it back this afternoon. And when I checked earlier there was half that chocolate cake left, enough for four big slices.’

  Sally was ready to turn her chair around and escape from the chill air of early night. On her way back to the warmth of the south sitting room an uncomfortable thought was nagging at her. Was he trying to hide something from her? This girl, did he owe her something? Had Reuben got her into some trouble? She could have coped with this, but why was Abel making a fuss over something that he wanted her to believe was a nothing?