“To get any answers you might have to delay them.”
Aidan nodded. “Put them under pressure to prove innocence or possibly culpability. The easiest way to put them under pressure is take them on another trek.”
At the other end of the verandah, raised voices ended their conversation. Aidan could see one of the men, the thickly set man, Sid, waving his arms around. His face was red, and although the words weren’t clear, it was apparent he didn’t like what he had been told.
“I better handle that.” Aidan clapped his hand briefly on Akan’s shoulder.
“I sure don’t envy you.”
Akan’s words followed him as he headed toward the mismatched group of highly excitable scientists. How this particular group ever entered the forest on their own and how they had survived with or without a guide was difficult to comprehend. He wouldn’t give them odds of survival past a few hours, they were all that incompetent. Except for Garrett. It was rather a harsh name for a woman. Chauvinist. It was the distinct voice of his mother and he grimaced. Her dictates still returned to him, even now as an adult. He supposed it was true with most people. He had no personal experience, having no children himself, although there had been one child—the child who had adored him. The child he would never forget. The child he refused to remember.
Chapter Ten
Her slight frame rose and fell softly with the rhythm of her breathing. Sedated she would sleep and, as the shaman promised, gain strength. Emotional strength was what Garrett needed and what he knew on first meeting her that she had in spades. This was just a recharge of her batteries. Aidan had no doubt that tomorrow she would face what was ahead better than any of her team. Lightly he brushed a finger across her brow, lifting her hair and settling it off her face.
“Sleep,” he murmured before heading outside and down to the river, where he could see Mark bent over one of the fishing nets.
“They’ve been keeping you busy?”
Aidan nodded. “It’s been a crazy day. Look, I want to hold Garrett’s team up, delay a return to Kuching.”
“Put the heat on?”
“When is Harold’s Otter scheduled back?”
“He’s not coming in until Monday at the earliest.” Mark pulled a white, dirt-streaked cloth from his pocket and wiped the palms of his hands. “I wish they came in more often. It would make getting in and out incredibly easier.”
“Monday. That’s days away. I’ll tell them communications are down. We’ll get Eric to take the body out.”
“And they won’t notice a slightly decrepit Otter roaring in here?” Mark laughed good-naturedly. “I’m assuming you have a solution for that too.”
“A day trip into the jungle. I’ll get them deep enough so they won’t hear a thing.”
“What’s the scoop?” Blue asked as he came up on the two of them. His wire-rimmed glasses gleamed in the sunlight. He smiled broadly at Aidan and thumped him on the back. “Hey, bro. Hear you’ve caused some excitement.” He hitched up his belt before leaning into a hip-thrusting slouch.
“That’s one way of putting it.”
“Hell of a way to go,” Blue continued. “Some animal got him?”
“Not likely,” Aidan said. “He was shot.”
“What the hell?” Blue pushed his glasses higher on his nose. “Accident?”
“Maybe.”
Mark shielded his eyes and looked across the distant bank. “Blasted monkeys are heading for the rice field again.” He turned to Aidan. “Did you light the smoke pots?”
“Forgot.”
“Can’t see why.” His tone was slightly teasing. “Never mind, you’ve got your hands full. I’ll get one of the boys to do it.”
“You’ll never get the body out of here in time for an autopsy,” Blue stated.
“Maybe,” Mark replied with an edge in his voice.
“I say we make them trek out, that way if any of them were involved they’ll break soon enough. It’s three days out on foot, plus a day trip waiting in hopes of a plane makes four,” Aidan said, reiterating the plan.
Blue swung on him. “Unbelievable! You’re taking them straight through the forest.”
Aidan nodded.
“Missing the road?”
“It’s eighty-six miles by road, under twenty through the forest.”
“Twenty miles of dense jungle in places,” Mark said. “But you know that. You think one of them is guilty?”
“No, probably not, but if someone knows something it will be the easiest way to get it out of them. When they’re least expecting it and the most stressed. One-day reprieve and then . . .”
“You hit them with full artillery.” Blue frowned. “I’m sensing it will be futile.”
“I’m sensing you may be right,” Aidan agreed. “But it has to be done.”
He left Mark and Blue standing there and headed up to the verandah and his temporary charges.
Garrett awoke to the sound of Sid and Ian on the edge of an argument. She sat up. Her head ached dully and her mouth was thick and dry. Beside her was a glass of something that looked like juice or could be another dose of what put her out in the first place. For she had no doubt that’s what had happened. She passed on the option.
Sid was getting wound up again. She could hear it in his voice. She dragged her hand through her hair and stood up.
“We could make a break for it early tomorrow morning. We don’t need them.” Drew was sounding panicked.
“That’s insane,” Sid snapped. “You don’t even know where you are.”
“What would you suggest?” Burke asked, and the usually calm man had an edge to his voice.
Silence brought Garrett to action. Silence with Sid was not a good sign. She pushed open the door. They stood in a cluster on the verandah in front of her.
The door thumped shut behind her and got their attention as they all faced her. Ian’s face was flushed and Sid looked ready to hit someone.
“We don’t have any choice,” Garrett said. “We’re here for the night. Tomorrow we’re out of here.” She hoped that was true.
“You’re feeling better?” Aidan asked as he walked up to the group.
“We’re leaving tomorrow?” She faced him with the question and statement both. “I’m assuming by boat, or can I optimistically assume plane?”
He slowly shook his head. “We autopsied the body.”
“What!” Ian burst out.
Aidan held up his hand. “It had to be done.”
Ian’s lips tightened and he looked away.
Aidan’s attention turned to her. “Mark,” he added to her unspoken question. “He has medical knowledge and some training with the Kuching pathologist.”
“Mark?” Garrett asked and a chill shot through her.
“It couldn’t wait.”
Her stomach churned and for a moment the ground weaved beneath her. “I hoped it could.”
He touched her elbow briefly, gently, steadying her.
His touch was oddly comforting and disturbing at the same time. She pulled away. “What did you find?”
“Nothing more than you already know,” Aidan said.
“It gets worse, doesn’t it?” She bit the edge of a nail, realized what she was doing and dropped her hand. She hadn’t come this far to resort to nervous nail biting. She was long over all of that. She rubbed her fingers together, thumb across forefinger. “We can get out of here tomorrow?”
“Probably, as long as the communications are up, we’re good. We can phone for an Otter.”
“Phone?” Garrett asked. This was sounding way too civilized in what appeared to be the middle of nowhere.
“Satellite, phone’s out right now. Might be up tomorrow,” Aidan replied before he turned and headed for the stairs and the river.
Garrett hurried after him.
“Hey,” she called as they reached the boat dock. Vaguely she noticed that there weren’t any boats, only one very worn-looking longboat. “What are the odds?”
/> “Fifty-fifty.”
“You’re kidding me.” Her voice wasn’t much more than a croak.
“Unfortunately, I’m not. But there are two options. Fly straight out to Kuching tomorrow, obviously best case. Or . . .”
“Or?”
“Actually three options.” He cleared his throat. “Stay here for a couple of weeks, or head to Rumah Muleng on foot and get the plane or a boat out of there in three days.”
“Three days?” Her head ached worse than it had a few hours ago. “What about closer settlements?”
“Few have communications at all. Akan was more advanced than most. He got satellite in as soon as it was available.”
“Three days.” What an impossible situation.
“Communications aren’t predictable around here. With any luck this isn’t going to be a problem and we can get out of here by the day after tomorrow.”
“You’re not sugar-coating the possibilities, are you?”
He didn’t answer.
“What about Malcolm?” She spoke to Aidan’s back, his bulk silhouetted in the darkness as he faced the river.
“I think you know the answer to that.”
“You’re right,” she whispered and knew he meant that they weren’t getting Malcolm to Kuching, that they were burying him here.
It was silent when she returned to the verandah. The longhouse appeared tucked in for the night. Only her team, who had returned to the verandah, sat waiting for her, refusing to settle down where blankets and reed mats had been laid out for them.
“Let’s get some sleep, guys. It’s going to be an early call tomorrow if we want to get to Kuching.” She cursed herself as she played the same empty promise game that Aidan had played with her.
“Malcolm?” Ian murmured.
“Burial,” Garrett said simply. “Unless a miracle happens tomorrow.”
“Christian,” Ian’s voice trembled.
“Christian,” Garrett agreed. Ian would know more about Malcolm’s preferences than they would. She hoped that local tradition wouldn’t cause yet another problem in an extremely difficult journey.
Chapter Eleven
“Mark, you’ve got everything you need from the body?” Aidan asked later that night.
“Yeah. Eric just confirmed he’s flying in tomorrow for sure. Especially once he heard about the cargo. I swear that man has a slightly macabre streak.” Mark grimaced. “Eric shouldn’t even be flying that thing. More than him and a couple of hundred pounds and I can see it crashing again. But if we don’t get the corpse out of here, it’s going to be too late.” He straightened the collar of his polo T-shirt. “What about your scientists?”
“What are you talking about?” Blue asked as he joined the two.
“The investigation,” Mark said shortly and turned his back, facing Aidan.
Aidan frowned as he looked at the two men. What was the deal? It was just Blue, a man they’d known from childhood, Aidan’s adopted brother. And yet every time Blue was around, Mark acted strange, almost distant.
“The headless guy?” Blue asked. “What makes you so sure they’re not guilty?”
“If they were guilty, why wouldn’t they have left the corpse? Dumped it in the river or something. No, I have a good idea that they’re not guilty. But it’s better to ask the questions and make sure. They may have heard something, seen something.” Aidan shrugged.
Blue pushed his glasses up his nose and hitched up his belt. “You’ll let me know what you find?”
“Of course.”
“Before you leave. I don’t have time to stick around or I’d help. Might have another group to guide—big money if it doesn’t fall through.” He began to walk away, and then dead-stopped and swung around. “I’m serious. Whatever the outcome, this could affect the tribe. Tell me everything before you contact the authorities.”
Aidan nodded and Blue returned the acknowledgment before disappearing into the forest.
“Why’d you agree to that?” Mark asked.
“Why not?” Aidan shrugged. Everyone was getting too hypersensitive about this whole thing. This death was falling close to a cultural sensitivity that had the potential to have everyone on edge. The missing head was a bigger deal than Malcolm’s death. Considering that, Blue’s request was reasonable. After all, he was a member of the tribal administration. He shook his head. “Blue’s never gotten over Anne’s death, after all this time.”
“He should have married again.”
“He still can.”
“Maybe.”
“He’s changed,” Aidan replied. “And I regret we lost touch. He’s my brother, I shouldn’t have let it happen.”
“I think you’re making a mistake,” Mark continued. “Agreeing to tell him anything, like you said, he’s changed.”
“My mistake.”
Mark shrugged. “So, like I said, they can’t see Eric’s plane.”
“What?” He tried to shift back to the original conversation.
“Eric. The plane.”
“What about it?”
“The men, at least some of them, would try to get on. They wouldn’t listen to us.”
“That would bring the plane down.”
They were silent, thinking of the tragedy last year when Eric had picked up a mother and her two daughters as well as a hundred-pound box of cargo. The plane had come down just across the river and one of the girls had died. It had been a sad time. Unfortunately, the plane was still in the air. Except now the only human cargo it carried was its pilot. Eric refused to be grounded. He flew cargo back and forth and nothing else. This time the cargo would be very different—one very dead human.
“In the meantime we keep the body on ice, so to speak. Until tomorrow.”
“Ice,” Aidan murmured.
“Kind of makes you think of something long and tall, with a twist of lime and . . .”
Aidan grimaced. Ever since Mark had learned the rudimentary elements of autopsy and assisted the Kuching coroner for over a month, he had developed the disturbing ability to divorce himself from the gruesome to the mundane like he flipped a switch in his brain.
“Sorry,” he said easily. “I’m torturing myself with tempting thoughts of cocktails while you can’t get your mind off—” He hesitated. “The body.”
“It is rather a disturbing talent.”
“Sure hope Eric keeps his word and gets in here tomorrow. I’ve autopsied what I could and we need the body out of here.”
“And they won’t leave the body.” Aidan scratched the back of his neck.
“Bang on. So we tell them he’s buried. Tonight.” Mark stuck his hands in the front pockets of his shorts and rocked back on his heels.
“Iban tradition.”
“Exactly.” Mark laughed. “I’ll leave the lying up to you. But I think it’s important that what we tell them, the rest of the tribe doesn’t hear.”
“What are you suggesting?” Aidan frowned.
“I don’t know. Call it a gut feeling. I’m not so sure that it wasn’t an Iban involved in this one.”
“That’s a big leap.”
“And it will need further evidence. Which I can . . .”
“I trust your skill, Mark.”
“But you’d like to call on the experts.”
“I’d like to consult with Andrew,” he said, referring to the Kuching coroner.
Mark nodded. “I’ll get the body on the plane and keep it as quiet as possible.”
“Thanks for that. So we get them out of here. Plane or no plane.” Across the river, the trees presented a dark, thick outline.
“I don’t envy you. Three days trapped with them could drive any man insane. Of course, if you count tomorrow’s day trip you’re going to be doing four, probably five. Almost a life sentence, my man.” Mark smiled easily.
“I thought we were leaving that to you.”
“You’re the investigator.”
“I was hoping to see about the real estate in Kuching. Besides
, I want to get back out there as soon as possible, alone.” Aidan emphasized alone. That was what he craved in his life. A childhood raised with a mother who seemed to trail white noise made him crave silence and solitude, preferably amid the rain forest, where he could disappear easily. While he wasn’t a loner, he loved his time alone. And that meant women too. He had no need of marriage for the sake of marriage, as so many of his cohorts had done. He grimaced. He was no better, divorced once. But at least he had decided that once was enough. Marriage to a woman like Penelope and all the women that had preceded and followed her had only confirmed for him that women loved conflict. Aidan hated conflict.
Conflict reminded him of much of his childhood and all of his marriage. His ex-wife had always been high-maintenance. She had been all quick wit and lanky beauty. He’d loved her. He just hadn’t loved her enough and she hadn’t loved him at all. And definitely not when she discovered he wanted to spend half his life here in the Borneo rain forest. But he had spent a year of his life in London for her. He couldn’t tell exactly when it had happened, but one day he had looked up over the clear glass dining table, shifted the delicate wrought iron chair back, and met the distaste in her gaze. It was as simple as that. It was over.
“And you are, getting out there, I mean, just not alone.”
“Pardon?” He frowned as Mark’s words brought him out of his thoughts.
“I said you are getting out there. This trek takes you right back where you want to go.”
Fatal Intent Page 6