Banana Whip Safari Trip: A Culinary Cozy Mystery With A Delicious Recipe (Slice of Paradise Cozy Mysteries Book 4)

by Nancy McGovern

  After a few moments, she tiptoed toward the edge of the veranda, where it was closest to the lake. She was about to sit down and take in the view, as it was perhaps the most breathtakingly beautiful one she’d ever experienced. But it was then she noticed a lump in the water, and her breath caught in her throat.

  She frowned, peering at the dark lump and wondering what on Earth it could be. Her racing pulse told her something was up, before she’d admit it to herself. But deep down, she knew what it was. A dead body.

  *****

  Jasmine sobbed into Laura’s arms. “What am I going to do now? What am I going to do now?”

  Everyone sat around, somber faced, in the lounge area, while Jasmine’s cries seemed to carry clear across the plains. No one knew how to answer her. Even Laura, who had great emotional intelligence, looked way out of her depth as she patted Jasmine’s hair and stared into space.

  Faith’s brain had revved into overdrive. So the killer had been among them all along, just waiting to make their next strike. Unless… as Faith looked over at Mary, a new idea popped into her head. Maybe Roy killed Solomon, because of some issue with the competing safari companies. Then Mary found out, and made her own plan to kill Roy in revenge for his killing her colleague.

  Moses came out of the kitchen, his face gaunt and drawn. “The police are very busy subduing a protest and will take a day to get here. At least.”

  “This trip has got to end,” Joseph said, making a Catholic cross hand gesture as he spoke. He hadn’t stopped doing that since the second murder. “I am leaving with the body for the airport, and sending another driver to take you back to the airport. I do not want to travel with a murderer.”

  “But you are happy to leave us with a murderer?” Mary said.

  Joseph shrugged. “All I know is the murderer is not me. I do not know who it is, so how can I rescue any of you? I could be rescuing the killer.”

  Mary was as furious as Faith had ever seen her. “You behave like a coward,” she said. “But you are right about one thing. This trip has to finish right now. We need to send for another driver to bring us back, if Joseph is too cowardly to do so himself.”

  “I have to take the body!” Joseph flung his hands up in the air and stormed out of the tent and out of sight behind some trees.

  “I think we should stay right here.” Richard was leaning back in his wicker chair, eerily still. His eyes were narrowed and he had been peering at everyone in turn. “Now, this is getting ridiculous. As much as I disliked Roy, I didn’t want to see him dead. And now for sure I know the killer is here among us. Whichever of you killed my friend Solomon had better be ready for hell, because pure hell is what you’re going to get.”

  Sophie leaned forward in her chair. “Dad, please don’t—”

  “No, Sophie,” he said firmly. “I mean that. I truly mean that. Now, tell me, who is the snake in the grass? Come on. Speak up.” He peered around them all again, his narrowed eyes making him look rather snake-like himself.

  “I don’t think anyone here did it,” said Greg. “I think Roy killed himself. He had all the signs of a person with mental disturbance. Maybe he was the one who killed Solomon, and then he crumbled under the weight of the guilt.”

  “He would never do that and leave me,” Jasmine wailed. “Someone killed him. Someone took him…” Then her voice cracked as she cried “…away!”

  Richard shook his head. “No. A man like Roy would never kill himself. He thought he was always right. I doubt he had the capacity for shame or despair. He would have projected it onto someone else.”

  Laura, who had really gotten into psychology since starting college, chimed in, “That’s what I thought, too.”

  “He was more of a killing type, in my view,” Richard continued.

  Jasmine looked up from Laura’s shoulder, fury in her eyes. “Never!”

  “Maybe not,” Faith hurried to say quickly, trying to smooth things over, since Mary looked so disturbed and didn’t seem to have much energy left for diplomacy. “Probably not. We’re all very shaken up right now.”

  “Yes,” Grandma Bessie said. “We should all retire to our rooms and rest while we wait for this new driver.”

  “It will likely be three or four drivers.” Mary shook her head. “There is nowhere to get a big bus like ours nearby. We will have to travel in individual cars.” All her stress lines were back, plus some new ones. She got to her feet. “This trip has been a disaster from start to finish. And now we sleep with a killer amongst us this evening. No, no.” She began to pace. “This is not good.”

  Richard stood up too, then, but with an ice cold ease that put the whole room on edge. “No, it is not,” he said. “But you, Miss Mbiti. You would be the prime suspect, wouldn’t you?”

  “What?” She looked up at him, her brow furrowed in confusion. “Why?”

  “You think I haven’t been watching you very closely? You think I will just forget Solomon and enjoy the safari as if he never existed? Ever since the moment he died, I have been studying all of you, each and every one of you. And you’re the only suspect who makes sense, Mary. You’re the only one who really knew Solomon, except me.”

  Mary was wide eyed and bewildered. “So why would that make me kill him?”

  “I don’t know.” Richard walked forward in steps so smooth he was almost gliding. “Maybe an argument about money. Maybe a romantic attachment gone wrong. Maybe your jealousy over his position.”

  “No!”

  “Dad, please, stop—”

  But Richard was so caught up in his own fury it was like he was in a trance. Faith doubted he could even hear his daughter. His eyes were locked on Mary. “So you killed him. Then later Roy found out, so you had to finish him off, too. You thought sending him away would help, but then he blackmailed you or threatened to tell last night. That’s what happened, isn’t it?”

  Tears were streaming down Mary’s face. “No!” She turned to the others. “This is not true, I swear on my own life!” Then she turned back to Richard. “Please, stop. Please.”

  Richard stood still as a statue for a heavy moment, staring at her with a piercing intensity Faith had never seen the likes of. Then he cleared his throat and broke his gaze away, coming back to some sort of normality. “The truth will out,” he said. “It always does.”

  Faith happened to be watching Sophie at that moment, and frowned as Sophie looked down, uncomfortable, and rearranged herself in her chair. There was something strange about the way she did it that caught Faith’s attention. It wasn’t incriminating, and if she’d tried to explain it to Laura or Nathan they probably would have brushed it off, but Faith knew from Sophie’s expression that something wasn’t right. Something wasn’t right at all.

  *****

  Chapter 11

  During breakfast no one spoke. Just like it had done after Solomon’s murder, Faith’s appetite leapt into overdrive, and she found herself putting back three bowls of cereal and plenty of grapefruit juice. She could have kept going after that, too, but Grandma Bessie kept giving her funny looks, so she put the metal cereal scooper back in the jar and came back to the table.

  Faith felt anxiety buzz through her. They had the tent wall that faced the lake rolled down, of course, but from where Faith sat she had a partial view through the plastic window. She could see figures moving about, presumably Joseph and Victor removing Roy’s body. Faith shivered, wondering at how alive he had been the previous night. It was weird that someone could exist and be so lively, and then just… not exist.

  She looked over at Jasmine, who had stopped sobbing a while before and had returned to her bedroom to reapply her makeup. She now looked quite fierce, if anything. All her vulnerability had evaporated. She stared resolutely at her pastries, and tore off pieces like she was tearing a man limb from limb.

  Victor came in a little while later. “I have called into a nearby town and found a suitable minibus vehicle,” he said to Mary, at the next table over from Faith. “But they c
annot reach here until sunset. I think we have to run activities for today.”

  Mary sighed. “This would be better than cars,” she said, then lowered her voice. “Though I want to get out of here as quickly as possible.”

  “I understand,” said Victor.

  She rummaged in her bag. “What was on the itinerary for this morning? I have forgotten.”

  “The boat ride,” he said.

  The room was so quiet that everyone could listen in on their private conversation, but everyone pretended that they were not doing so. Only Jasmine, emboldened by her grief, made no secret of her eavesdropping. “If you think I’m getting on a boat with these people, you can think again. One of them will probably push me off. I think it’s you,” she said, pointing at Roy. “I’ve always hated Canadians.”

  “Now, now,” Mary said, standing up. “No one has to go on this trip if they don’t want to. The minibus will be here for us at dusk. Everyone wants to leave and go home, even me, but until then, let us try to keep the peace.”

  “You can find me in my room,” Jasmine said, gathering up pastries in her hands. She tried to sound tough, but a hiccup leapt up in her throat and made her voice wobble.

  “All right,” Mary said after watching her go. “So now is time for our little cruise on the Lake Naivasha.”

  “Good,” Richard said. “That will take our minds off things. We can spot the resident hippos and keep an eye out for birds.”

  “Yes.” Mary’s voice was sharp as a knife. Of course she had not forgiven Richard for turning on her the previous night.

  *****

  Faith had been somewhat ambivalent about the boat ride, but out on deck, overlooking the rippling Lake Naivasha, she felt differently. The serenity of the rippling water, reflecting the bright azure sky above, gave her a sense of peace. And being in the middle of a huge body of water, the land so far away that anyone who stood on the lake edge would have looked like a tiny insect, gave her a sense of perspective. Despite death, life went on. The world continued, slightly different from one person’s absence, but more or less the same.

  That reminded her of the opening scene of the movie the Lion King, one of the few Disney movies she’d lapped up as a kid – her mom thought most of the main characters in those films were too ditzy and passive, waiting on a prince to save them instead of sorting out their own problems. The epic tune of the Circle of Life song rumbled through Faith’s head as she looked over the lake and over to the trees in the distance, and up to the sky.

  Nathan came over and put his arm around her waist. “Hey,” he said softly.

  Faith broke into a spontaneous smile. “Hey.”

  “Looks like I was a bit of a jerk then, huh?”

  Faith was in such a calm mood that she laughed. “I was going to say maybe I was wrong. This view truly is spectacular. And being in the present moment, taking it in, is a lot better than twisting murder mystery theories around in my head.”

  “It is amazing,” Nathan said. When he was out in nature, he looked much more handsome than usual, Faith noticed. Sometimes he got a pinched, boxed-in look when he’d been around crowds and buildings and technology for too long. But there on the boat deck, with his auburn hair being licked up by the wind and his dark eyes deep and shining, Faith thought him stunningly… well, beautiful. She reached out and stroked the side of his cheek, and he looked at her, a smile from deep within spreading across his face.

  A couple moments later, he looked away and coughed. “I feel too happy considering someone’s just been murdered. You were right that we should have been investigating properly. Maybe his death… could have been avoided.”

  “I don’t know,” Faith said. “I’ve been thinking about it all the time and I didn’t really have any idea who Solomon’s killer was. If anything, I’d have probably guessed Roy himself. It seems so random, Solomon’s killing. It’s not like he was unpopular or people hated him. People loved him. I thought it might have been Roy, because he couldn’t handle Solomon contradicting him and stuff. Maybe he just lost it. I don’t know. I can’t figure out the inner workings of Roy’s mind.”

  “Huh, who can.” Then Nathan drew closer to her so he could drop his voice down into a whisper and she’d still be able to hear. “So maybe the theory that Mary killed Roy because he killed Solomon is right.”

  “Maybe.” Faith looked over at Mary, who was down at the front of the boat on the lower level, talking to Sophie and Greg. “I can’t picture it, though. Can you?”

  “She doesn’t seem like the type,” Nathan said. “But you never know, do you?”

  Faith remembered what Jasmine had said at breakfast. “What about Jasmine and the whole Greg thing, you know, her accusing him?”

  Nathan screwed up his nose. “I don’t see why Greg would be interested in killing either of them. She just said that because she wants to be loyal to Roy. And what better way to be loyal to him than by declaring she hates something he hated?”

  Faith gave him a sardonic smile. “That’s true enough. Though maybe there is something to it.” There was something strange about him that she couldn’t put her finger on. Something that made her feel uneasy. She nuzzled up to Nathan’s ear. “I don’t know what Sophie sees in him.”

  “Oh, don’t be hard on him,” Nathan said. “He’ll find his groove soon. He’s just lost, that’s all. Trying to find a way.”

  Faith looked down at Greg as he put his arm around Sophie. “Maybe you’re right,” Faith said, hoping she hadn’t been uncharitable in her judgment. Perhaps his lack of direction was what gave him his uneasy vibe. Another part of her mind told her perhaps it was something more.

  “I think it was Grandma Bessie,” Nathan whispered in Faith’s ear.

  Faith flapped at him. “You shouldn’t joke about it,” she said, but was secretly glad for the light relief.

  “You know,” Nathan said, “she was secretly married to Solomon, and killed him for the inheritance money – he was secretly a billionaire. Then Roy was blackmailing her, so she had to do away with him, too.”

  Faith rolled her eyes. “You.”

  “Yes?” he said innocently.

  “You,” she said again, shaking her head, though she’d begun to feel more affectionate about him already.

  They settled down into a comfortable silence after that, which Richard promptly filled with his plethora of safari knowledge.

  “The common hippopotamus is actually primarily herbivorous. Because of their reputation to be highly aggressive and unpredictable, people believe that they eat humans, but that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Richard said. “They do, however, charge small boats.”

  Laura turned around to face him, her eyes wide with alarm. “Oh, that’s comforting.”

  “Nonsense,” Grandma Bessie said, pretending like she wasn’t gripping onto the railing.

  Mary shot Richard a daggered look. “There is nothing to be concerned about, anyone. Our driver is very experienced and we will only look at the hippos from a distance. You have no need to fear. People should not spread fear about these animals.”

  Sophie had been leaning against the railing, talking in a low voice with Greg. From the intimate smiles and hushed laughter and soft touches on his arm, Faith could tell their affection was really blossoming into something.

  “Please, dad,” Sophie said. “Mary’s right. You’re freaking everyone out.”

  “Fine.” Richard’s voice was heavier than usual. “The name hippopotamus comes from the ancient Greek term for river horse. And its closest living relatives are cetaceans, that’s whales, dolphins, porpoises, etcetera. Hippopotami fossils found have been dated to around 16 million years in the past.”

  “Goodness,” Arthur said. “16 million years?”

  “Indeed.”

  Mary’s voice quivered. Her eyes shone with unfallen tears. “Someone could wonder why we need so many facts and statistics about hippopotami. One would think that a man so educated and knowledgeable and intelligent wo
uld not go about accusing people of murder in such a callous way.”

  Everyone went silent.

  “Despite its stocky shape and very short legs,” Richard said, refusing to look at Mary, “a hippopotamus is capable of running at about 19 miles per hour over short distances.”

  “Solomon is dead!” Mary said, sounding as if she were about to burst at the seams. “A guest is dead and his wife mourns back in the tent! Do you not have anything to say about that, except to accuse innocent people?”

  “When everyone thinks about ivory poaching, elephants immediately come to mind,” Richard pressed on, his voice starting to shake, too. “But hippopotami are also poached for their ivory canine teeth.”

  “Dad,” Sophie said.

  Everyone else stood around, looking worried. Mary’s skin tone was taking on a distinct reddish shade under its deep brown. Then suddenly she burst out in a sob. “How could you accuse me? Of killing Solomon? He was like my brother.”

  Arthur patted her on the arm. “Richard is just upset. He did not mean to accuse you.”

  “He’s right about that,” Sophie said, then turned to the driver of the boat. “Please can we go back to the tent now?” She got an unsure look back from the young man driver, who looked like he was unsure whom he should be taking orders from.

  Her pinched face and her forehead creased with worry wrinkles betrayed everyone’s worry. They were in a very unstable situation on a moderately unstable boat floating in the middle of a lake inhabited by aggressive hippos.

  Faith looked down at the rippling water with a gulp. “There aren’t any crocodiles here, are there?” But the water was dark blue and she couldn’t see anything lurking under the surface. Then she started thinking of Roy’s body floating and couldn’t get the image out of her head. Suddenly her pulse had quickened and all she wanted to do was step back on land.