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

by Nancy McGovern

  “No,” Richard said firmly. “The altitude here makes the water too cold for their liking.”

  Mary folded her arms. “I would rather be killed by a crocodile or a hippo than be considered a murderer. So, Richard, are you prepared to retract your accusation?”

  Richard whirled around, his eyes on fire. “No,” he said.

  “Can we just stop this please?” Sophie said desperately.

  But Mary and Richard were advancing toward each other, their eyes locked onto each other like animals before a fight to the death.

  “I don’t have any proof,” Richard spat. “That’s true enough. But I will get it. There is no reason for any of these people to kill Solomon. None of them knew him.”

  “Except you,” Mary pointed out hotly. “I believe you accuse me only to throw attention away from yourself. Well, God knows the truth. God knows I am innocent. And you, sir, will get your reward.”

  Richard advanced up to Mary until they were chest to chest. “You can play the innocent act. Kind, sweet Mary, the innocent tour guide. But I know that you have a cunning heart underneath your smiles and good manners. And you know, Mary, that if the police do not come after you, I will. I am only biding my time.”

  “Father!” Sophie burst out.

  Grandma Bessie had been hanging back, looking annoyed. But at that moment she stepped forward. She waved her hand to the driver and said with authority, “Turn this darn thing around and take us back to the camp right away.”

  Her manner left no room for doubt, and the young driver swerved the boat around.

  “Now,” Grandma Bessie said. “You.” She pointed at Richard, then at the end of the boat. “Go and sit down there.”

  Richard began, “I want to say that—”

  “I don’t give a flying fig what you want to say!” Grandma Bessie barked. “Do as you’re told.”

  Richard rocked back in shock, but then actually did follow her orders.

  “Now,” Grandma Bessie said again, in her most authoritative grandmother voice. “I don’t want to hear a peep out of anyone. Not a single word. Not even about hippos, if we’re going to descend into this madness again. I want to get through this thing without someone else being killed, thank you very much. Has everyone got that clear?”

  “Yes,” everyone said, many looking relieved.

  Nathan flashed a smile at Faith, then whispered, “Your grandma’s a legend.”

  Faith couldn’t remember a time she’d been more grateful for Grandma Bessie’s straightforward attitude.

  *****

  Chapter 12

  “Oh, my goodness,” Laura said. “Grandma Bessie was spectacular.” She was sitting on the end of her single bed, trying to rethread one of the leather straps through her sandals where it had come loose. “She was like, have you all got that clear?! And everyone just shut up.”

  Faith smiled. “Well, when everyone needs to get in line, Grandma Bessie’s the woman for the job.”

  “I’ll say,” Laura said. “She could have actually prevented another murder there. I could so see Richard pouncing on Mary and strangling the life out of her.”

  Faith had been packing her suitcase. She flopped down on the bed with a sigh. “We literally have like, I don’t know…” She looked at her watch to find it was only 10 in the morning. The boat ride had been less than an hour but had seemed like eternity. “Sunset is about… 6.30pm, that’s when they said the minibus would arrive. That means we have eight hours to work out who did it.”

  Laura gave a grin. “Eight and a half hours.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Faith said. “Then about five hours on the bus, I think.”

  Laura chucked the sandal down on the bed. “I give up.”

  Faith had been looking up at the tented ceiling, but she flicked her eyes over to Laura, looking at her upside down. “What do you mean you give up?”

  “With the sandal,” Laura said. “But I think we can crack this case. I really do.”

  Faith flipped over onto her front. “Let’s do this.”

  Laura shoved on some flip flops. “Let’s go and see who’s around, and go weasel some information out of them.”

  “Oh, that sounds friendly,” Faith said, grinning as she got up from the bed.

  “Meh.” Laura gave herself a quick spray of perfume. “We’re just a couple of nice girls, okay? Just inquisitive, nice girls asking friendly questions and having friendly chats and making everyone feel better.” Then she turned to Faith and winked. “Tee hee,” she said, in a tiny squeaky voice.

  Faith couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re an absolute nut, you know that?”

  “Don’t lie, you love it,” Laura said. Then she strutted out, leaving Faith to follow behind, laughing and shaking her head.

  When they got out in the main room of the tented camp, they had to act more seriously, though. Faith really did want to find out who the killer was. Of course she felt much more warmly toward Solomon than Roy, but that didn’t mean that Roy deserved to get killed either. Both of them deserved justice. As did Solomon’s family, and Jasmine.

  “I wonder how Jasmine is,” Faith said as they approached the bar area. There was a young man there playing Candy Crush on his iPhone. Faith smiled at that, bemused. It seemed even if you travelled hours and hours into remote African plains, Candy Crush was still a thing. Strange.

  “Hi,” Laura said to him.

  He jumped, not having realized they were there, and shoved his phone on the side. “Hello,” he said. Faith noticed his name tag read Christian. “What would you like to drink?”

  “Um, gin and tonic,” Laura said. “I’ll walk on the wild side.”

  “And you, Miss?” the man asked Faith.

  Faith had never really been a big drinker. But somehow she was in the mood for something. Her eyes tracked over the range of bottles and settled on a dark Caribbean looking rum. “Do you do rum and coke?”

  “Sure,” Christian said, getting to work on fixing their drinks.

  “Has Jasmine come by here today?” Laura asked, getting up on a bar stool.

  He looked up at them and paused, as if unsure how to answer. “She has not come by here.”

  Faith sensed something was on the tip of his tongue. “But…”

  “But she has made many orders to her room,” he said, looking worried as if wondering if he had spoken out of turn.

  Laura nodded. “I’m not surprised. Drinking yourself into oblivion after your husband’s death is probably quite logical.”

  Faith frowned. “Not if you’re going to be getting on a bus in a few hours.”

  “Eight and a half,” Laura said, with a slight smile. “Plenty of time to sober up.”

  “That is if she stops drinking. I wonder if we’re staying the night in Nairobi, or getting straight on a plane.”

  Laura shook her head. “I don’t know. Isn’t the trip technically supposed to last like… four more days? What about the money Arthur and Grandma Bessie paid? Do you think they’ll get it back?”

  “Maybe they’ll put us back at the Hilton,” Faith surmised.

  “Maybe.”

  “Here are your drinks,” Christian said. “Enjoy.” Then his gaze darted over to another entrance door, where Sophie and Greg strolled in, arm in arm. “And what will the two lovebirds have?”

  Christian was sincere, not mocking, yet still Sophie unlinked her arm from Greg’s and looked a little awkward. “A white wine please.”

  “I’ll just have a beer, Christian, thanks,” Greg said. Then he puffed out a long breath and put his hands in his pockets. “What a vacation, huh?”

  “Tell me about it,” Faith said. “And still no idea who did it.”

  “Don’t even listen to my father,” said Sophie, rummaging about in her purse for who knew what. Faith thought it was just so she didn’t have to make eye contact. “I’m sure Mary had nothing to do with it. Dad’s just upset.”

  “We understand,” Laura said. “Solomon was his friend.”

&nb
sp; Faith twisted her mouth. “Looks like the only person in the world who might be upset about Roy is Jasmine.”

  “I wonder if he had any family,” Sophie said.

  “Doubt it,” said Greg. “He looks like the type of guy to throw his family under a bus if it would make him more money.”

  Faith sipped her drink. “You’re probably right.”

  “Yale told me you’re thinking of leaving Canada,” Laura said to Greg. “Won’t your family miss you? Won’t you miss them? I couldn’t even dream of leaving Paradise. That’s the town we live in.”

  Sophie laughed. “If my hometown was called that, I wouldn’t want to leave either. Unfortunately where I work is called Staines. Not so attractive, right?”

  “My hometown was Richmond,” Faith said. “A boring enough name for me to leave. But then I don’t have a big community down there or anything. And my mom’s left there now. She’s got a cabin in Ohio.”

  “I don’t have a big family either.” Greg’s face looked pinched. “I had a brother… but not anymore.” He nursed his beer and his eyes glazed over for a moment. “He died in a fishing accident. I was kind of wary of getting on the boat for that reason. But, yeah, that was a long time ago. Anyways, my mom will miss me, I’m sure. But I’m grown now.” That was an understatement. He was perhaps about forty. “So yeah, I have to live my life.” He looked Sophie up and down with a contented look, and she couldn’t help but beam back.

  “Looks like people will be flocking to Staines now, despite its name,” Laura said with a grin.

  “Maybe,” Greg said, still looking at Sophie with bright eyes. “Just maybe.”

  Sophie smiled shyly, then cleared her throat. “I wish this would all just be over, they’d find the killer, and we can go home. I didn’t even want to come here anyway. Having said that…” Her eyes tracked over to Greg again. “Not everything was bad.”

  Laura wiggled her eyebrows at Faith. She always loved to see people falling in love. “Yes. I wonder if the police from the Elephant Orphanage have any leads.”

  “That’s a good point,” Faith said. “They didn’t get much time to question everybody, though, and now we’ve all moved on.”

  “Come to think of it, a safari trip is a great place to kill someone, isn’t it?” Sophie said. “Miles away from anywhere.”

  Faith grimaced. “Unfortunately you’re right. But… I’ve been thinking, and I reckon there must be two killers. Because coming up with someone with a motive for killing Solomon is hard enough. Solomon and Roy? Whoever would want both of them dead?”

  “That’s a good point,” Sophie said with a sigh, slumping down on a bar stool. “Not that I even want to think about it anymore. The whole business is too horrible.”

  “Do you think your father’s right?” Laura asked. “You know, about Mary?”

  Sophie sipped her wine then shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. I’d say not. In all honesty… oh… well…”

  “Well…?” Faith asked, pricking her ears up.

  “We shouldn’t speak ill of the dead,” Sophie said. “And I’m always telling my children at school if they can’t say anything nice, they shouldn’t say anything at all. So I won’t say anything.”

  Faith cut right to the chase. “You think Roy killed Solomon, don’t you?”

  “Yes!” Sophie said, actually looking quite relieved. “Yes, I do. Then maybe…” She looked around and lowered her voice. “Then maybe Mary killed Roy in revenge, or got one of the other guys here to do it. And to be honest, I don’t think I could really blame her.”

  Faith nodded slowly. “I hear you. But why would Roy want Solomon dead?”

  “Oh!” Laura said. “Wasn’t he supposed to be part of a rival safari company?” She whipped her iPhone out. “Let’s check him out. What was his last name again?”

  “Daish,” Faith said. She’d always had a good memory for names.

  “Okay, Roy Daish safari,” said Laura, as she typed in her phone. “Nothing.” She scrolled down with her thumb. Something about Chris Daish and Roy Tremble on safari in Namibia. That can’t be relevant. Nope.” She looked up with raised eyebrows. “Maybe it was just a rumor.”

  “Maybe,” Greg said. “Or maybe he was on a sabotage mission and removed all search results so no one would put 2 and 2 together.”

  Faith made a mental note. “Why not just try Roy Daish and see what comes up?”

  Laura nodded. Then as she looked down at her phone, her mouth formed in a big O and her blue eyes widened. Her hair was back in her ever present little bun and she looked more pixie-like than ever. “It’s got some horrible article about him here. Saying all about that suicide thing Jasmine was talking about. It was a guy called Lyle Jarrett. Roy pretended to be on his side, infiltrated his company, then stole all his designs for some complicated electrical thing… I don’t really get it.” She frowned as she scrolled through. “Lyle was totally ruined. Shot himself.” Laura shivered. “Ugh, how horrible.”

  “What a horrible guy,” Faith said. “And that would tally with the story of him being from a rival safari company. Maybe he got out of that electrical business or whatever and started something different. Maybe he was here to infiltrate and check out what they were doing so he could go and report it back to his people.”

  Laura nodded. “I think that sounds likely.”

  Sophie shivered, too, then said, “Can we talk about something else now?”

  *****

  Chapter 13

  After a bit of chit chat about nothing much, Faith and Laura left Sophie and Greg at the bar and headed out to the veranda at the back. Though Faith had a jarring moment as she stepped out of the tent and onto the wooden boards, remembering where Roy’s body had been, she soon stood tall and shook it after her mind. There was no time to crumble. They had to find out who had killed Solomon and Roy, and to do so, she had to stay strong.

  “Look,” Laura whispered, pointing at Richard, who was at the other end of the veranda with a pair of binoculars to his face, looking over at the trees. “Hit the jackpot. If you ask me, he’s responsible. As nice as Sophie is, I think he’s strange. I bet there’s secret history with Solomon.”

  Faith wasn’t so convinced, but still, it had crossed her mind before. “Let’s find out,” she whispered back.

  They walked over, looking over Lake Naivasha, trying to seem casual.

  “Hello, Richard,” Faith said as they approached.

  “Oh.” He flinched ever so slightly, and didn’t sound at all pleased to see them. “Hello. I was just watching some birds.”

  Faith could hear the unspoken, “and I’d rather you both go away and leave me to it,” but there was no time for manners.

  Instead, she said, “Ooh, I bet there are some very exotic ones. What have you seen?”

  He paused for a moment, and looked at them, trying to suss out if they were genuinely interested. Faith put her best enthusiastic and earnest face on, and turned to Laura to see she was doing the same.

  Then he smiled in such a pleased way that Faith felt a tiny twinge of guilt. “I had spotted the most exquisite grey-crowned crane,” he said in his upper-class English accent. “A beautiful thing, the aforementioned crown a really spectacular one, tinged with gold. Unfortunately I had to clean the lenses on the binoculars. I took my eye off it for one second and it disappeared behind some reeds. So I’m keeping an eye out for that. Do let me know if you see it. In the meantime, I’m just zooming in on these tiny little starlings. Ever so vivid, the colors are. I’ve just seen one with bright blue wings and upper body, an orange lower body, and a black head.”

  “Wow,” Faith said, actually starting to be interested. She’d never even considered that birdwatching could be fun before, but he looked so engrossed she was drawn in a bit. “Have you been birdwatching long?”

  He chuckled as he lifted his binoculars. “Probably from before you were born, dear.” Then he handed them out to Faith. “Do you want to have a look?”

  Faith surpri
sed herself by actually wanting to. “Sure.” A quick glance showed her that Laura was getting frustrated – she wanted to solve the case – but Faith couldn’t resist a quick look. “I can’t see…” she said, disoriented by everything being so far zoomed in. But then she managed to get a glimpse of a little bird hopping along a branch. She saw the blue wings, which were a kind of iridescent indigo, and the orange, almost gold, body. “Wow,” she said, handing the binoculars back to Richard. “They really are beautiful, aren’t they?”

  He smiled at her as if she were his own daughter. “Yes, they really are.”

  “You know what’s not beautiful,” Laura said, in a segue so inelegant Faith could have burst out laughing if the subject matter weren’t so serious. “Murder.”

  Richard’s demeanor instantly changed. It was like a door had been slammed shut.

  Faith sighed. “We really are sorry about your friend Solomon.”

  “Thank you,” Richard said, then hid behind the binoculars like he was looking for a bird, but Faith knew he wasn’t.

  “Do you really think it was Mary?” Laura asked. “I don’t think anyone else does.”

  “I don’t know,” Richard said, resolutely staring through the binoculars. “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know. No one knows who did it.”

  Laura crossed her arms. “Except the person who did it.”

  “Obviously,” Richard said acidly.

  Faith, trying to defuse the situation, said in a calm voice, “Some of us think that it wasn’t the same killer. You know, that Solomon and Roy were killed by different people. What do you make of that?”

  “I cannot stand this! That’s what I make of this!” Richard almost flung his binoculars down, but then he thought the better of it and managed to catch them. “It’s absolutely ridiculous, all these rumors flying around. I know everyone is whispering about me, thank you very much, so you might as well come right out and accuse me, instead of beating about the bush and pretending you’re interested in birds. That’s actually very bad manners.”