His eyes were troubled, like he too might have the same thoughts. She wouldn’t think about it.
“Promise me. It will save everyone a lot of time and trouble if we don’t have to send a team in to rescue you.”
“Don’t be utterly ridiculous. This will never happen again. It was a fluke, a horrible, horrible fluke,” she finished softly, thinking of Malcolm.
“Ridiculous?” Aidan smiled. “Am I? I don’t think so.”
“Garrett,” Ian butted in. “Don’t be difficult.”
She whirled on him and then deflated like a puff fish. She was being ridiculous, childish even. “You’re right.”
“Excuse me?” Ian’s tone was incredulous.
“Oh, hush,” she told him lightly and turned her attention to Aidan. “You are right.” She held up her hand, staving off his protest.
“I’ll be your guide and if I can’t, I’ll choose who will be. Deal?” His hand swallowed hers.
“Deal,” she repeated as she boarded the speedboat that was docked waiting for them. The boatman had seen their arrival and was already at the helm. It wasn’t difficult considering they were the only white faces around. There was no cultural mix this far into the rain forest. Not counting Aidan there was only the Iban and them.
“I’ll see you in Kuching.”
She wouldn’t say it and couldn’t stop herself. “Promise.”
“Promise.” He kissed her long and hard and deep before letting her go and swinging her knapsack into the boat.
Sadness seeped into her being and seemed to fill every pore. For no matter what their relationship was here, no matter what their promises, with civilization in sight the romance was well and truly over.
Chapter Twenty-four
It had been a relief to know that Aidan had found nothing. The woman and her group had provided no additional information. He could safely let them go as Aidan had planned, except for one very important detail. He sighed. There was always that one detail. Why could things never be simple?
He’d give Aidan credit—when he fell, he fell hard. And now the woman was the catalyst for Aidan to dig even deeper. Stubborn was etched in her dainty jaw just as it had been in Anne’s. Anne, he wouldn’t think of her, yet he couldn’t stop. Everything was for Anne. Anne—for a moment sorrow hit him, she was dead. She couldn’t be, he wouldn’t believe it. He would prove to her that he was more than just an Iban warrior. Soon she would be living in luxury.
Meantime he had to silence the woman’s questions. Questions that would only lead to answers—he couldn’t take that chance.
He pressed a finger to his aching temple. To think this had all started because of one mistake. He should not have let this become more than a one-man operation. Agreeing to a partnership was when the trouble began. When everyone had gotten greedy. It was really the only reason Malcolm had been shot, greed. Malcolm had wanted in on the game.
And now this group only posed a problem. He had to get rid of them. That was the only thing he knew how to do. The woman and her team had to disappear and the easiest way to do it was in the jungle.
As long as blood was not literally on his hands, it would all be okay.
Blue drew a shaking hand through his overlong black hair. “It’ll be okay, Anne,” he whispered to his long-dead wife. “Soon it will all be okay.”
* * *
“C’mon, guys, let’s get moving.” Garrett literally herded her team off the boat a few hours later and forward to the last leg of their journey and another short boat ride to Kuching. But as their transport gleamed under the tropical sun, its rounded metal hull riding low on the water and the hum of locals swirling around them, she could only think of Aidan.
The line up moved forward and they shuffled ahead.
“Garrett?”
Startled, she took a step back.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.” His voice was hesitant, his glasses glinting benignly in the sunlight.
She took another involuntary step back. “Blue?”
“I was hoping I’d catch up with you. Aidan told me about your find. That’s exceptional. Something you want to get on right away.”
“You know about entomology?”
“I live in the Borneo rain forest,” he said, as if that explained everything, and when he smiled only one side of his mouth turned up, giving him a slightly endearing, almost goofy expression. His hand slid to his belt and rested there. “How could I not?” He pinched the bridge of his glasses and dropped his hand.
“Where’s Aidan?” she asked. “He’s not with you?”
“Headed into Kuching. Got an unexpected ride just after you left. You never know when Eric will show or not.” He chuckled. “He was a little put out that he couldn’t put you and your team on that flight too. But like I said, it was unscheduled and you were already gone.” He shrugged.
“Kuching? He’ll be there when we get there then.” She looked back to where Sid was in what looked like a serious conversation with Ian and then turned back to Blue. “I thought he was going to tie up some loose ends.” She frowned. He had never clarified what those loose ends might be. “Why is he in Kuching?”
Blue shrugged. “Business of one sort of another. More than likely real estate, that would be the one thing that would make him rush back at a moment’s notice. He could be a while.” He eyed her, all friendly concern. “I suspect your find doesn’t have that kind of time so I suggested I meet up with you and take your team back in.”
Garrett frowned. “Aidan agreed to this?”
Blue’s nod was brief but his wide smile more than compensated. “I’m a top-notch guide. Although I have to say he was rather reluctant at first, but he knows how important that find is to you.” He hitched his belt up and dropped his hand. “He drew out a map so I can easily get you back to the site.”
“Wasn’t there a storm front moving in?”
“What? You don’t trust me?” Blue grinned boyishly. “I’ve been reading weather since I was a boy. This system is going to skirt us and move on.”
“I don’t know you.”
“Look, Aidan knows I’m one of the best. I’ll get you in and out of there, and if weather looks like an issue, we’ll take samples and run. With Aidan’s blessing.”
It was that last promise that had Garrett agreeing, that and the desire to succeed that drove her stronger than anything in her life.
“All right.” But somehow those words didn’t have the bright and cheery note she tried so hard to inflect.
* * *
Three hours later, Garrett was chilled to the bone. Her ears ached from the overloud Kung Fu movie that had played nonstop along with an air-conditioner running full tilt since the boat had launched. The lightweight jacket wasn’t cutting the relentless air-conditioning. She glanced at her watch, another hour of this slow torture. She longed for the heat. She shivered and wrapped the thin blanket that came standard for every passenger tighter around herself.
Beside her Ian dozed.
Despite the cold, Garrett relished the last bit of time she’d have when she wouldn’t be continually thinking on her feet. She had no illusions about that. No matter how good the guide was, it was still up to her to keep the team safe.
Beside her Ian shifted and jabbed her in the ribs with his elbow.
“Ian,” she hissed.
“What?” he mumbled in his half-awake state.
“Move over. Better yet, wake up.”
He curled up, flipped to his right side, and began to snore in sync with Sid across the aisle. She considered how this trip would play out. She wouldn’t have the fiasco of the last one. She bit her lip. She could hardly call it a fiasco. That was a major understatement of what had really happened. A man had died.
She focused on her current reality, the water spraying off the metal hull as the boat roared through the rough current, the chill air, the blaring movie. It didn’t work. Outside the forest was a blur of green, and in the water logs rushed by as the boa
t pushed at a breakneck speed against the current. Another boat passed beside them. The boat was the twin of theirs. It looked like an airplane fuselage or like an oversized Airstream trailer, metal with a round top as it pounded across the water at a speed of fifty kilometers with the overflow passengers clinging to the top.
It was a relief when the boat’s engines cut as it slid into the dock at Rumah Muleng. She was back, and despite her hesitant beginning she could hardly wait to get started. Garrett knew she would never again be satisfied with lab work like she had once been. She couldn’t imagine being under fluorescent lights analyzing someone else’s find. She needed to be in the field, breathing the excitement.
She took a deep breath. She finally understood why the rain forest drew Aidan.
When they mate, they mate for life.
Aidan had been talking about the hornbills. Yet the words had been so intimate. And she had dodged the implication despite an attraction like none she had ever felt before. She was so sure that it could never be. Now, she wasn’t so sure.
As they emerged from the boat, the smell of leaf mold was heavy in the turgid heat. The jungle rustled and screeched and Garrett knew that on the forest floor beneath the dead foliage were the bustling colonies of insects too numerous to count. She thought of everything that was to come and briefly the thought hit her that this might just be the illusion of calm.
Chapter Twenty-five
“Interesting case,” Andrew said, his black hair standing out at odd points around his ears. The Kuching coroner pushed the metal chair across the linoleum floor with a screech of stiff wheels. His white coat was already smeared with what looked like body fluid but what Aidan suspected was only the remains of the pathologist’s breakfast.
“So you told the scientists that you’d buried the body and then got it on the first plane out. Leaving them trapped in the jungle with you for days. Brilliant.”
“Stress tends to bring answers,” Aidan said dryly. He’d come alone; Andrew was easygoing except about whom he allowed in his autopsy room. Aidan was one of the few.
“So none of them suspected that they were trekking through the wilderness for no good reason and could have been sitting in an over-air-conditioned boat listening to a rather loud Kung Fu movie.”
“You got it. Nothing definitive but I can safely say with ninety-nine percent surety that none of them had anything to do with the death.”
“That’s progress. And our friend here?” He nodded to the corpse. “I just pulled him out of the drawer again this morning. Already filed the preliminary police report.” He paused, scalpel in hand. “By the way, they’re waiting on you.”
“I know,” Aidan admitted. “I’ve been duly notified.”
Andrew chuckled. “That’s what I like about you, Aidan. You’re consistent. Paperwork isn’t your forte and you make no bones about it. Unfortunately, that’s not making big points with the chief. Anyway, like I was saying, there was something nagging at me.” He waved the scalpel for evidence. “About the body, I mean.” He dropped the scalpel on the tray, pulled his gown off and tossed his disposable gloves into the disposal. He nudged the faucet on with his elbow and began to wash his hands. “I hate the ones that have spent time in the sun.”
“Isn’t that most of them?” Aidan asked. “This is Kuching.”
“You’re right. But I did my training in mainland China. Different decomposition rate there for sure. The sun is a killer.” He glanced over his shoulder as the water continued to run and he lathered disinfectant soap over his hands.
“So why do you stay?” Aidan asked, although he wasn’t particularly interested, he already knew the answer.
“Beijing’s too cold for me and too crowded.” He shook his hands over the sink and turned to look at Aidan. “This is a strange case.”
“You think?”
“Yeah, I think. He was shot and then beheaded. This is where it gets a little weird.”
Aidan strode across the room and then stopped, glancing back at the autopsy table, where the corpse now rested under a white sheet. “We already know that from your preliminary.”
“Exactly.” Andrew smiled broadly. “And he was beheaded about five hours later.”
“Five hours later? That makes no sense.”
“Exactly,” the coroner replied. “This is the third body we’ve had land in Kuching from the rain forest in the last week. The tribes aren’t taking well to some of the loggers. But it’s the Iban who have been winding up on my slab, and it’s almost impossible to pin responsibility on anyone. Not that I’m sure the authorities want to. This is different though. The others all had their heads.”
Aidan waited for Andrew to continue.
“Headhunters. If word got out, it would kill tourism. The authorities don’t want that. They might very well crack down on this one.”
“Headhunters? You’re insinuating that some tribesman hunted this chap down, shot him, and then five hours later beheaded him? That hardly makes sense.”
“Exactly.” The coroner’s smile widened. “There lies the mystery. But it gets more interesting. Cause of death had been pretty obvious. It was exactly like Mark said when he called. The bullet killed him. Tested him for chemicals and he was clean. There are scrapes on his belly, so after that he was dragged. By then, the blood had already drained and coagulated.
“Another thing. See the bullet?” Andrew held the bullet between his fingers. “It’s from a hunting rifle that’s uniquely Chinese-made. That’s different from the others.”
“Chinese?” Aidan took the bullet from Andrew. He rolled it on his palm. “Seems more and more likely that it was them.”
“Them?”
“Before I bumped into Rett and her group, there was another expedition that day.”
“A regular traffic jam in the rain forest.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought then. It’s becoming much more sinister the further we delve into it. I’m assuming their guide was one of the locals but I never saw him. He had dropped them off and then came and picked them up by boat. It wasn’t anyone I knew.”
“Are you sure?” The coroner took the bullet back and dropped it into a glass beaker.
“No.” Aidan ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m not. I guess I don’t want to believe that it might be someone I know. Frankly, I can’t imagine any of them taking blood money. They killed a monkey that day and later hornbills.”
“I did find something else rather interesting.” The coroner went over to the metal counter that lined the wall. “I don’t know what validity it has, but it seems to me either the deceased collected it himself or maybe the killer dropped it, some weird sort of way to put your brand on a crime. Either way, it’s not indigenous to Borneo. I didn’t include it in the preliminary report. I wanted you to know first.” He took something from a drawer. “So what’s the story on our Malcolm? Was he into collecting African bird feathers?” he asked as he turned around with a brilliant blue feather in his tweezers.
For a moment, Aidan weaved where he stood.
“Hey, big fellow. Don’t get that excited. It’s only a feather.” He laid it on the metal stand next to the corpse. “Or is it? Do you know something about this?”
“Where was it?”
“In his inside pants pocket.” Andrew flipped the feather thoughtfully. “Maybe it was a good-luck charm that he picked up somewhere and carried all the time.”
“No.” Aidan’s voice was stiff even to his own ears. “It wasn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing. Look, there’s something I need to check out. Could you keep this quiet until then?”
“The autopsy?”
“No, the feather. I need to take it with me.”
“You mean not mention it? That’s unethical.” He shook his head. “And the feather, no way.” He set the feather down and turned away.
“Write slow,” Aidan said as he quietly took the feather, knowing he was pushing their friendship to the limit
s.
“That,” Andrew said and beamed, “I can do. The chief has the preliminary to keep him busy. I sense a computer outage happening already.” He slapped Aidan on the back. “I’ll need it back in the evidence room before this case is closed,” he said in an undertone.
Aidan went back to where the sheet covered the body. He grasped the rough sheet, considered pulling it back, hesitated, and then dropped it.
“Yeah, he’s not a pretty sight. Even for me,” Andrew said as he came up beside him. “I’ve found over the years that even the absolutely bizarre can sometimes have a logical explanation. So I don’t mind providing a roadblock or two for the police.” He chuckled. “Yeah, some slow report writing should do it. I’d hate to see a hasty investigation.”
“You would?” Aidan frowned.
“All I’m saying is, if our cop force go riding out into the wide, wild jungle looking for the perp, there might be some innocent heads rolling.” He guffawed at his own joke.
Aidan didn’t laugh, somehow it wasn’t funny.
“It was a joke, man.”
“But some of the police were raised in longhouses.”
“Exactly. There are a few that would rather not remember that.”
Aidan nodded, beginning to realize the implications. It wasn’t so much the murderer that needed to be protected. It was plausible that it might be the beheader. “In case the murderer and the beheader aren’t one and the same,” he murmured. “Is it possible that the beheader was Iban?”
“Exactly,” Andrew replied, heading for the door. “C’mon, I’ll buy you a beer.” He opened the door and turned out the lights. The softer light in the hallway was a relief from the harsh fluorescents that flooded the aseptic, sterile autopsy room.
Aidan breathed in and almost sighed as the door shut behind them, separating him from that room of death, and from the body.
“Hurry up, man. A beer will clear the fur off your tonsils.” The coroner set out at a fast walk, actually an incredible pace for a man who didn’t quite crack five and a half feet. Aidan had to pick up his own pace to keep up, even though his six-and-a-half-foot lanky build could easily eat up the distance. Andrew held his own and marked the pace.
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