Mackenzie Ford

by The Clouds Beneath the Sun (v5)

  They reached the remains of the axes they had left behind, and both stooped to collect what was left.

  As they did so, Natalie said softly, “You remember you said to me, that time we were discussing obsidian mirrors, when you first told me you were homosexual, that Richard Sutton was also that way inclined.”

  Kees nodded, but immediately looked around, to double-check no one else was within earshot.

  “Do you still stand by that?”

  “Yes, I think so. Why do you ask?”

  She picked up a number of stones. “Well, you couldn’t have known this but, once, before Richard died, I went into the storeroom, to return Ndekei’s Wellington boot—which had got lost and I had found—and Richard was there and he and Ndekei were standing very close. Richard said he had indigestion and was there for some bicarbonate of soda, but… well, I wonder if he was, really …” She tailed off.

  Kees whistled. “What are you saying? That you think Richard and Ndekei …? Is that why you asked if married men could also be homosexual?”

  She nodded.

  “But that means … if you are right, the real reason Ndekei acted as he did was not … was not what he told the police.”

  She nodded again. “Maybe the two reasons coincided. But you see why your hunch about Richard is so important. It’s important to me, because if Ndekei killed Richard for—oh, let’s say for something having to do with sexual jealousy—then that changes the whole picture, and it means the Maasai threat to destroy the gorge is founded, at least partly, on a lie.”

  Kees nodded. “I can see that, yes. But I can’t give you a firmer answer, Natalie. I did notice that Richard looked at me in a way that… that I am familiar with. If he had looked at me in that way in Amsterdam, I would have had no hesitation in approaching him. But in Amsterdam rejection, if it happens, is fairly anonymous. Not here, which is why we never … why nothing ever happened. I can’t be much more help, I’m afraid.” He tailed off.

  She nodded. “I did wonder, at one point, whether to talk to Maxwell Sandys when he came in from Nairobi the other day, to test how what you know changes things—”

  “You didn’t say anything did you? You promised!”

  “No I didn’t! Don’t worry, Kees. I didn’t. But … but I do think … things will only change, Kees, if you make them change, stand up for yourselves, get organized politically—”

  Kees was shaking his head and biting his lip. “I can’t think politically, not for now.” He hesitated. “I remember that last time we spoke I told you I was in a minority, like you. Well, my minority just got smaller, by one.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Remember I told you about Hendrik, the man I share a house with in Amsterdam?”

  “Yes. Yes, I do.”

  “And you may remember I told you he is a wine merchant. I had a letter from him in the last batch of post. He’s been to California, to buy some wine from their phylloxera-resistant vines, because the European vines have this disease and it’s affecting wine production, and therefore prices.” He paused, his features clouding. “While there … while there he met someone else.” Kees breathed in, and swallowed hard. “He means a lot to me, but his letter said he has met someone else and that he is emigrating to America, to San Francisco, with this other … person. That it is all over between, us. So now I feel …” He caught his breath and resumed picking up the hand axes.

  Natalie didn’t know how to respond. She had no experience with this kind of situation.

  “I don’t know what to say, Kees,” she whispered, as they both headed back to the Land Rover.

  She was about to say that she, too, had recently split up with someone when she realized she hadn’t thought about Dominic for days. She said nothing.

  • • •

  “Ah, here’s Naiva.” Eleanor reached out and gripped the other woman’s arm. “Before we start dinner, can you tell us, Jack, are you going to do this Christmas what you did last time—for the children of the staff, I mean?”

  Jack, swallowing some water, nodded his head. “Circuits and bumps, you mean? Yes, I don’t see why not? They seemed to enjoy it, all those who weren’t scared stiff of flying.”

  “What’s all this?” said Arnold.

  “It’s Jack’s idea … a collective Christmas gift, to all the children of the ancillary staff.” Eleanor held out her glass, so Jack could fill it with water. “If they want to, and if their parents give them permission, he takes them for a ride in his plane—not long, they fly over their own villages so they can see them from the air, they look at some animals from the air, and he lands and takes off again immediately, so they have some impression of speed. One or two of the very young ones were scared of the noise and the idea of leaving the ground, but most of them loved it.”

  She turned back to Naiva. “There you are, my dear, you can tell everyone that Mr. Jack will fly anyone who wants to go—let’s say on the afternoon of the day before Christmas Eve, December 23. Is that okay, Jack?”

  Jack nodded.

  Naiva beamed.

  “Now you can serve dinner,” said Eleanor, sitting back.

  She waited for a moment, as Naiva moved around the table.

  “Where’s Kees?” Eleanor said. “He wasn’t here at lunch. He must be back by now.”

  “I’ll go look for him,” said Jack, getting to his feet.

  Naiva placed a large bowl of pasta, smothered in a tomato sauce, in the middle of the table, from where they could help themselves.

  She was just bringing a jug with more sauce when Jack arrived back, running. “There’s no sign of him. His bed is all smooth, his tent flaps were tied, everything inside is neat and tidy.”

  “He’s never gone off before,” said Eleanor. “I don’t like this. What can he be doing?”

  Natalie put down her water glass and relayed the substance of her conversation with Kees a few days before, about looking for a chert mine.

  “Oh dear,” breathed Eleanor and looked from Jack to Christopher to Daniel. “If he got too much sun, became sick, delirious, he might have lost his bearings, stumbled across all manner of predators.” She got to her feet. “We must go and look for him. Jack, you take one Land Rover and head south, Daniel you take another and drive east, I’ll drive the third and go north. If he’d gone west he’d have been back in the camp. Arnold, you come with me, Natalie go with Jack, Christopher with Daniel. Jonas, you stay here in case your medical skills are required. If anyone finds him, we’ll radio in and you can drive the other Land Rover to wherever he is.” She turned to Naiva. “Sorry, my dear, keep some food warm if you can. I don’t know how long we shall be.”

  She led the way to the Land Rovers.

  “Don’t forget the game lights,” shouted Jack to no one in particular.

  He took the second Land Rover and made sure a game light was in the back. He drove down into the gorge and up the other side, turned right, along the northern edge, driving as fast as he dared. After about twenty minutes he turned right again and sank down back into the gorge and up the other side, on the southern bank.

  “Kees said that chert is a hard rock and that it probably supported only grassy vegetation rather than lush trees, but is sometimes found in riverbeds.”

  “So we keep to the open spaces rather than the thickets and forests, that’s worth knowing. And we look out for dried riverbeds.” Jack pointed to a socket near the transmission. “If you plug the game light in there, you can use it to shine to the left and right of the vehicle. It’s far more flexible than the headlights.”

  Natalie did what he said.

  The game light, she found, was not only more flexible than the headlights, but far more powerful.

  “Keep an eye out for animals,” said Jack. “You’ll notice their eyes first—their eyes reflect the light, like cats’ eyes on a road. If Kees has been attacked by a predator, then those eyes may be the first sign we have that we’ve found him, or his remains.”

  “Bit ghoulish
, aren’t you?”

  “It’s nighttime in the bush, Natalie. You know full well that most of the animals we see during daytime are resting in the heat, and they come alive at night. Kees is in even more danger in the dark than he was during the day. During the day, his chief enemy was the sun. If he was searching less-covered areas, less covered with trees, I mean, he was at risk of sunstroke. If that’s what happened, I don’t think he will survive the night. I’m sorry, but that’s the reality.”

  They drove on in silence, Natalie playing the game light in all directions. They saw impala, a lynx, countless baboons, wildebeest, foxes. At one point they saw four lionesses and Jack brought the Land Rover to a halt. “I’m going to approach them slowly. Wind up your window. Look for blood, signs of human remains.”

  Natalie looked at him. “You really think—?”

  “Yes, it’s possible. Of course, it’s possible. That’s why we are out here, now, looking for him.”

  But they could see no signs of blood near the lions, nor any other suspicious remains, and they pressed on.

  At midnight they heard Eleanor’s voice over the walkie-talkie.

  “Anyone seen any predators?”

  “No,” said Daniel’s voice.

  “Lion,” said Jack. “Four lionesses, by Kilkoris Stones, but no blood, nothing.”

  “I’m with some elephants now,” said Eleanor. “Near Sekenani, but they’re not moving.” She was silent for a moment. “Let’s give it another hour.”

  When Eleanor came back on the walkie-talkie after another hour, however, there was no better news. “We need a change of plan. Daniel, you have the best eyes, so you and Christopher can continue looking. Jack, assuming Daniel doesn’t find him during the hours of darkness, you need to take off at dawn, so you and Natalie should get some sleep. I’ll turn in too, so I can raise the alarm at dawn and get some of our neighbors to lend us the use of their planes. We must pull out all the stops at dawn. Is everyone clear?”

  “Understood,” said Jack.

  “We’ll keep at it,” said Christopher.

  “If you find him, radio in, whatever the time. Clear?”

  “Clear.”

  Jack turned the Land Rover and headed for home. “Keep looking,” he said to Natalie. “You never know.”

  As they drove, he said, “If we have to go looking for Kees tomorrow—by plane, I mean—if Christopher and Daniel don’t find him tonight, are you okay about that?”

  “What do you mean? Why shouldn’t I be?”

  “The hairy landing the other day. It didn’t put you off?”

  She thought. “I can’t say it’s up there with Brahms’s German Requiem as one of life’s must-have experiences, but… well, I don’t have much flying experience but you seem … you seem … I’m not put off.”

  He nodded and changed gear, to negotiate ruts in the track. “And when I dared to kiss you the other night, during our other nocturnal adventure, did that put you off?”

  She didn’t say anything.

  “If you don’t answer, I’m going to stop the Land Rover and let you walk the rest of the way home.”

  “That puts me off.”

  She grinned and let another silence elapse, and so did he.

  “How long can someone survive in the bush?”

  He swung the wheel over, to avoid a rock. “Well, obviously it depends on whether he meets any predators, whether he has the sense to keep in the shade, whether he knows which plants are edible, so he can take on water.” Jack took some chocolate from the breast pocket of his shirt and handed it to Natalie. “Four days, I’d say.”

  Natalie stripped the silver foil from the chocolate, broke off two squares, and handed them back across to Jack.

  He held her hand in his, moved her fingers to his mouth, took the chocolate, and brushed his lips across the back of her hand. Then he let go.

  It took them almost another hour to reach the camp, so that it was two o’clock before Jack reversed the Land Rover under the acacia trees where it was normally parked. Someone had kept the campfire going, the hurricane lamps were still burning in the refectory tent, and they could see three or four thermos flasks on the table, alongside a tea towel draped over something. Naiva was in bed but she had left them coffee and chicken sandwiches. They had gone without dinner.

  There was no sign of Jonas either. He must have gone to bed.

  “Do you have an alarm?” said Jack, as they stood, munching sandwiches and washing them down with hot coffee.

  “Of course.”

  He nodded. “Let’s meet at the Land Rovers at five. It gets light around five-thirty but Naiva will be up, with breakfast, and we need to get the plane ready. We take off at six, once we can see clearly.”

  When Natalie reached her tent, she realized she was exhausted, and she felt as though she was covered in dust. Part of her would have loved a shower but there was no Mgina at this hour, and certainly no water. The other half of her was longing to collapse on the bed, but she forced herself to clean her teeth and, after she had got undressed, she brushed her hair for a few minutes.

  She set the alarm; five o’clock was now just two and a half hours away.

  She lay back and thought of Kees. How terrified he must be, right now, if he was still alive. She had listened to the theater of the night so often from the safety of her tent in the camp, but to be out there, amid the screams and skirmishes, the sudden rush of hooves, the roar of lions, the sudden, menacing silences … if the sun hadn’t driven Kees mad, nighttime surely would.

  She turned on her side. She realized she was still hungry. The sandwiches had simply stimulated her appetite. The camp kitchen was closed but there were the remains of Jack’s bar of chocolate which she had left in the Land Rover. Should she get them?

  Jack. Once again he had gently touched her but made no attempt to press himself further. He was letting her get used to him, showing her how he felt but leaving her breathing space.

  She liked that. He was willing to wait.

  Like Dominic had been.

  • • •

  Jack slumped into a chair next to Natalie and they both stared at the flames of the campfire.

  “What can you see in the embers, Dr. Nelson?”

  It was three nights later. Despite daylong searches, by plane and Land Rover, Kees had not been found. This evening, at dusk, the search had been called off.

  She shook her head. “I’m not looking and I’m not thinking. My mind is numb. Say we never find Kees’s body … how are we going to deal with that? I mean, there’ll be no end, always a doubt—not just as to whether he is, actually, dead but as to how, exactly, he died, if he did die. It’s all so … so cold. If my father were here, he would pray for Kees. I can’t do that but not being able to do anything … it’s worse.”

  “How well did you know Kees?”

  She shook her head again. “Not well, not well at all. He talked to me about his beloved hand axes and the stone they were made of, that’s about it. You?”

  “Some. He was interested in flying, mainly because it helped him see rock formations from above. He was one of the most interesting passengers I ever gave a lift to, explaining what we were overflying all the time.” Jack shifted in his seat. He let a few moments go by. “I can see you are upset, Natalie. Why don’t you let me take you to Lamu for Christmas—just a couple of days. It will take our minds off things. It’s only about three hours by plane.”

  Natalie didn’t seem to hear him. Then, “What’s at Lamu?”

  “It’s on the coast, an old Swahili village that used to be a center of the slave trade. Totally different from here. There’s also a very nice reef, we could go snorkeling, work on our tans.”

  She looked across and gave him a sad smile. “I don’t know, Jack. I don’t think … I’m not ready to have a good time, while we don’t know what’s happened to Kees. It doesn’t seem right.”

  • • •

  Eleanor stopped buttering her toast and tapped her enamel bre
akfast mug with her knife. “Now, it’s going to be a difficult day today, and there’s no point in hiding it. We have got to try and get back to a normal routine, doing what we came here to do. We’ll go through where we are on the press conference before dinner tonight, but as for the gorge we need to keep sieving and digging; we have a few days yet and we may still come across more bones of our man, or woman, which may enlarge on what we already know.”

  She drank some tea. “But … and I know this is bolting the stable door after the horse has escaped, but, from now on, we only dig in pairs; outside the camp, we only do everything in pairs. I don’t want anyone else straying like Kees did. I shouldn’t need to say this but … do I make myself absolutely clear?”

  “Don’t worry, Mother,” breathed Christopher. “There’s no need to rub it in.”

  She nodded. “Good, good. So, how shall we pair off—?”

  Suddenly a Land Rover drove into the camp at high speed and sounded its horn. The horn sounded again and again. A black driver got down. “We’ve found him! We’ve found him! Doctor Jonas, come quickly, he’s very weak! By the Nimanu Road.”

  Jonas was running to his tent, to fetch his bag.

  Jack was on his feet, pulling Christopher with him. He stopped for a moment and shouted, “Remove the back seats from the plane and put in a mattress. I may have to fly him to a hospital. Hurry!”

  Christopher had started the Land Rover’s engine and Jack jumped in alongside him. Jonas got in the back and the two vehicles accelerated away through the camp gate.

  They returned in just over an hour. “He was six miles away,” said Christopher, getting down. “He’s conscious, but delirious—and he’s lost a lot of weight, a lot. Dehydration.”