The Leopard's Prey Part 8

He released her and she ran to the foyer, grateful the temptation had been removed. Jade half expected to see Inspector Finch coming to arrest them.

"Wayne," she said when she saw Anderson, "has something happened?"

Sam came up behind Jade. "Anderson," he said, a growl edging his voice.

Jade jabbed her elbow into Sam's ribs.

"Featherstone, fancy seeing you here." Anderson gave a curt nod, then ignored Sam entirely. "Brought back your big camera, and the boss needs you at the compound."

"Thanks. I was just about to head out," said Jade. "Is something wrong?"

"No. Bob is trying to train some of the hired natives to take care of the cubs, and he wants you to show 'em how it's done." He set her Graflex on a chair.

In other words, thought Jade, everyone's afraid of getting scratched or peed on.

"Tell Mr. Perkins that I'll be right there, please."

"I can drive you in," said Anderson.

"Thanks, but that won't be necessary. I've got my motorcycle." She smiled, trying to look polite and grateful without appearing encouraging.

Anderson spared a quick glance at Sam, frowned, and nodded at Jade. "All right then, Jade. I'll wait for you in case your motorcycle doesn't kick in right away." He walked slowly back to his truck and leaned against it.

Jade rolled her eyes and turned away from the door. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, Sam." She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. "Don't forget the journal."

"Right. I'll be at the grand stand at half past seven."

Sam reached for her journal on the table, and Jade deliberately turned away to get her Winchester. When she returned, he'd left, allowing them both the chance to maintain their facade that he'd grabbed the wrong notebook. Jade shoved the other one into her day pack along with her camera equipment, locked the door, and headed out to her motorcycle.

The 1915 Indian Big Twin had a second seat, but Jade had installed a rack over it from which draped a set of panniers. She put her pack in one, slung her rifle over her back, pulled on a set of goggles, and kick-started the engine. It responded immediately, testimony to her careful maintenance. She waved her right hand in the air, a signal for Anderson to lead the way. While she didn't really want to eat his dust, she didn't like someone at her back either.

THE ANIMAL COMPOUND was set up in one of the large warehouses that had cropped up along the railroad tracks. The buildings were initially intended for a lumberyard, but the warehouse's owner had filed for bankruptcy in a year's time and left everything to the city managers in return for an end to his debt. Perkins and Daley had immediately seen the advantage to being so close to the railroad when it came time to ship the animals to Momba.s.sa and a waiting freighter. The fact that the warehouse was also near a poultry and pig slaughterhouse made getting meat for the carnivores that much easier. It also meant Jade could smell the location long before she saw it. She pulled her motorcycle up on the far end of the vehicle line and cut the engine.

"Ah, Miss del Cameron. Good, you're here," said Perkins. "You did such a keen job earlier today that I wanted you to demonstrate to the crew how it's done." They walked past an open trough full of cattle dip used to treat the herbivores for mange and went inside.

"You mean they haven't been fed since this morning?" asked Jade, aghast.

"I fed them at noon," said Anderson.

"You see," said Perkins as he drew Jade aside, "a few of the men seem to be a bit superst.i.tious about this pair. They seem to respect you, so I thought if you showed them it's all right, they'd stop balking."

Jade looked at the men, primarily Kikuyu, hoping to recognize someone from Jelani's village. She saw the young man she'd interviewed more than a year ago concerning Gil Worthy's death. "Wachiru," she said, calling him by name, "how good it is to see you."

They exchanged pleasantries in "kitchen Swahili," which all the Kikuyu spoke, but which the other Americans did poorly. Knowing the language afforded Jade a degree of privacy. After she inquired after Wachiru's family and that of the other men from the village, she pursued the matter with the leopard cubs. "Bwana Perkins says no one will feed the chui totos. Is this true?"

Wachiru, acting as spokesman for the group, replied again in Swahili, "We are not afraid of the totos, Simba Jike, but the big leopard watches us when we touch them. His eyes, they glow with his hatred, and he attacks the cage when we wrap them up."

Jade nodded. "I understand. Then we must move the totos so he does not see them." She wondered why no one had thought of such an obvious solution. Then it came to her. Because they never asked the men what the trouble was. They just a.s.sumed they were afraid of the cubs.

She explained the problem and the solution to the Americans. "It makes more sense to put the cubs over by the goats anyway," she said. "Then you don't have to carry their meal so far once you've milked the nanny." After the cubs and their pen were relocated away from the other carnivores, she once again demonstrated on the sc.r.a.ppy female how to feed and clean them. Wachiru followed her example with the more docile brother and everyone laughed to see how eagerly the little fellow attacked the bag of milk.

"You need some baby bottles," said Jade. "This bag is getting ripped by their teeth."

"I'll send Frank out to buy some," said Perkins. "Thanks for the help. What did you ever do to get so much respect from those men?"

"I once killed a hyena that was bothering them, that's all."

"Really? What is that they call you?"

"Simba Jike, 'lioness.' " She changed the subject by asking what their plans were for tomorrow. Both Cutter and Anderson came up to listen. Cutter had changed his trousers, but the aroma of polecat still clung to his shoes. Anderson took three steps away, waving his hands in front of his nose.

"Since that big agricultural fair starts tomorrow," said Perkins, "we thought we should take advantage of the crowd to see if anyone else has animals to sell. That's a lot easier than rounding them up on our own. Maybe locate some ostrich. We're also having trouble filling the order for a young rhino. Do you think that pilot friend of yours could go up and scout around for us? If we knew where to go, it would sure save us a lot of time."

"I'm certain Sam would do the job, but you'll have to haggle payment with him. The cost of fuel's gone up with the shortage. But he'll be at the fair, too, so you can ask him yourself. In the meantime, what do you want me to do?"

"Now that the men are feeding the cubs, we don't need you right now. But we will in a day or two to help wrangle into the trucks those zebra your friends caught. And we're taking them up on that big lion of theirs. We'll need your help with him, too."

"I'll let the Thompsons know," said Jade. "Well, if that's it, I'm going to take some pictures of the stock. Have you given any more thought about my writing up an article for you?"

"Certainly. The story of how we safely captured these animals and all the pictures will be a great a.s.set to us. We'll have copies sent out to circuses and zoos all over the States. Should bring us a lot of business."

Jade went back to her motorcycle and retrieved her Kodak and a magnesium-powder-flash apparatus. First she photographed the leopard kittens outside; then she asked Wachiru to help her move an empty crate in position to use as a support for setting up a flash shot. She wanted a photo of the myriad animals in the warehouse, or at least one corner of it.

"How is Jelani?" Jade arranged the camera and the flash powder. "Does he still study with the mundu-mugo?" she asked, calling the village healer by his t.i.tle. Jade directed Wachiru to turn his eyes away from the bright flare as she took her picture.

"I have not been back to the village." Wachiru waved away the residual white smoke and fingered his kipande. "I cannot go back yet or I will be arrested for not working and for not paying my hut tax."

Jade moved the camera and set up her next shot while she considered Wachiru's statement. When the colonists first arrived, they thought they'd found a wealth of labor in the local tribes. They quickly discovered that the natives weren't interested in the colonists' money. It held no value to them. Besides, they had their own shambas to cultivate. So, in order to make the natives work for them, the British decided to make the men pay a hut tax. There was, Jade admitted, some justification in that. Part of that tax paid for soldiers who patrolled and protected the agrarian tribes from the raiding tribes, but the tax quickly became a monster.

If a man had more than one wife, each with her own hut, and an aging parent unable to work, he might have to pay four hut taxes. And while the men were only required to work six months out of the year, it was often the same six months they needed for their own farm plots. Since most of the men worked on farms far from their villages, they could not go home daily to their families. The wives at home carried the full burden of village work alone, and many of the men took up with temporary wives to cook for them while they were away from home. Other men never went back home. The missionaries wrote letters in the newspaper decrying the breakdown of the tribe's social life and the decline in the birth rate, but the letters usually fell on deaf ears.

Eventually, each man had to wear his kipande and was heavily fined if he didn't have it. Natives were also required to have permits to walk anywhere outside of their villages. Most of this trauma fell on the agrarian tribes since they were seen as the more docile labor force. Beyond relocating the Maasai to a large reserve, the government gave up trying to mold them into anything other than what they were: a proud people with no use for anything but their cattle.

Jade wondered what would happen to Jelani. By her reckoning, he was nearly thirteen years old. Would he be allowed to stay on as the mundu-mugo's student? Or would the officials decide the village didn't need another healer? Perhaps she should pay a visit to the village sometime, after this job with the collecting crew was over.

"Do you like this job?" Jade asked.

Wachiru nodded. "It is good, but it will not last long. Then I will have to find another. My brothers work for Bwana Harding. Perhaps I will go there, but I hear he keeps strange creatures."

Wachiru went back to distributing hay and water to the large number of penned antelope. Jade finished her picture, picked up her equipment and wandered up and down the rows of pens and cages until she found the male leopard.

He'd been moved into a wood-and-wire cage three feet wide by six feet long and four feet high. A metal pail half full of water sat in one corner, and Jade saw a box close by on which a man could stand to pour the water through the top slats to refill the bucket. The stained floor showed where buckets of water were hurled into the cage from the sides to wash out some of the wastes. She wondered how they fed the leopard. Then her gaze rested on several long, stout poles. The cat was probably forced to the back of the cage and held there with the poles while someone would quickly opened the cage and tossed in some meat.

As Jade approached, the cat crouched low and followed her every move with his hypnotic yellow eyes. The animal had definitely fed better in his captivity. Gone was the gaunt look about his ribs and middle. In its place were rippling muscles, tensing under the gorgeous spotted fur.

"Jambo, chui," Jade said in greeting. "You look well."

The cat launched himself against the front wires, slamming into them with enough force to bow the wooden braces. Jade jumped back, nearly dropping her camera. The animal hadn't lost any of its hatred. Did he respond that way to all humans or did he remember her role in his capture? The leopard screamed, enraged by his inability to reach her, the shrieks echoing back from the warehouse walls till it sounded as though several cats were loose. Wachiru, hearing the noise, ran to see what was amiss. He held a pitchfork in front of him as a weapon.

"I thought he broke free," said Wachiru in a hushed voice.

"Does he attack when you feed and water him?"

Wachiru shook his head. "He tried the first time, but now he knows that we bring him things he wants. We still use the long sticks, but he goes back willingly. He did not like when we put the cloth around the cubs, though."

"He's probably the father, but that is still very odd," said Jade. "The male leopard doesn't have anything to do with his young."

Wachiru studied the leopard, which never took his eyes off Jade or ceased growling. "Simba Jike, you handled the cubs and the towel. I think this animal smelled you. It is you he hates. It is not safe for you to be around him."

Jade couldn't agree more, and together, they quietly backed away from the area. Jade mounted her motorcycle and returned to Parklands. But while her eyes and ears tried to keep alert for road hazards, all she saw was the hot, burning glare of yellow fire in the leopard's face, and all she heard was the blind woman's warning.

CHAPTER 7.

The Maasai may have descended, at least in part, from the

Hamites of North Africa, where Roman legions held dominion in

ancient times. Certainly, they show a strong Roman influence

in their togas, their short swords, but most distinctly in their hairstyles,

which resemble Roman helmets.

-The Traveler SAM DIDN'T WAIT to get back to the Thompsons' before reading Jade's journal. He found a quiet spot close to the generator flumes and pulled off the road. Once he shut down the engine, he raised his goggles and took out her notebook. For a moment, he glanced through some of her notes and pencil sketches, admiring her ability to capture the form and feel of the animals in so few lines. He found the section on the leopard-trapping expedition and hissed with a sudden intake of breath as he read of her ordeal in the pen.

Reckless little nincomp.o.o.p. Ought to turn her over my knee.

Sam scowled in a way that would have put Jade on the defensive. Then, suddenly feeling sheepish about reading more than he was supposed to, he flipped past the remainder of the notes and found her interrogation account. Heat radiated from his neck as his anger grew.

How dare that d.a.m.ned Finch suggest Jade is a murderess! His fist clenched as he longed to connect with Finch's jaw. Then he realized what he was doing.

That's what got you in trouble to begin with, buster. You're his chief suspect.

Sam started at the beginning and reread everything, trying to absorb all the details, the fact that Stokes had drowned after someone slugged him in the jaw. The bruise on the side of the head was suggestive. It sounded as if Stokes had spun around, hit his head, and landed unconscious in some water, and the killer had left him there. The second time through he noted that Jade had defended him, a thought that made Sam smile.

What's she going to think after she reads my account? Will she still believe I'm innocent? Or will she think I hit Stokes hard enough to make him fall and drown?

He needed to think, and the best place to do that was fifteen hundred feet in the air. Fuel was hard to come by, but he had two barrels at the hangar. And when that ran out? Well, he'd worry about that later. This needn't be a long flight. He'd head west over those farms Jade's crew had visited. He stopped long enough at the Thompsons' house to borrow one of their men to help him take the plane out of the hangar and pull the propeller.

ONE OF THE first things Jade did each morning was to light the Dunburys' new oil-burning range and start her breakfast of coffee, bacon, one egg scrambled, and pan-fried potatoes. This morning that ritual took a backseat to reading Sam's journal. She'd read it twice last evening, but she still felt the need to review it one more time, one section in particular.

Finch knew how to get under my skin. First all those questions about Jade, insinuating that she was capable of killing someone, then twisting my words until it looked like I was defending her because she's my lover (his words). I told him that he was no gentleman if he spread any more of his bullshine against Jade. Then his next question made it seem as though he was changing the subject completely. He asked me where I purchased my airplane fuel. I explained that the Jenny's OX-5 engine runs on regular gasoline that I order by the drum from Stokes and Berryhill. Finch made one of those meaningless "Ah" sounds and asked which man I dealt with. I told him Stokes took the last order. I a.s.sumed he also delivered it but I wasn't around when he did. I knew where Finch was going with this. The exchange went something like this: Finch: "I heard you had a bit of a row with Stokes over by the yards." Me: "The charges were all wrong on the bill. We had words." Finch: "You shook your fist at him." Me: "With the billing. I waved it in his face." Finch: "But that is not what I heard from an independent witness. This person said you hit him on the jaw." Me: "It was an accident, and I barely grazed him. I didn't kill him." Finch: "Stokes was struck. You hit him. His wrist was cut with that maize knife. You knew all about the knife, and I'd bet we'll find your prints on it, too. You're familiar with the Thompsons' equipment as well."

Jade scanned the remainder of the account, which differed little from hers. Finch went on to ask Sam how long he'd known what a corn knife was. Sam repeated his previous statement, that he'd only seen them in his father's catalog when he had gone home in February. Then Finch asked Sam if he'd handled the one on display in the store. Sam didn't record his answer.

Jade closed the journal and went out to the kitchen to cook her breakfast, starting coffee on one burner and a pan of bacon on another. Who is this independent witness? Did someone come forward on his own or was Finch interviewing regular customers? No wonder Sam looked so angry and upset when he had come out of Finch's office.

She turned the bacon, then sliced two small potatoes into a bowl and salted them. Once the bacon was done, she put the strips on a plate and fried the potatoes in the drippings, adding a generous amount of pepper. Eggs or toast? Toast! She cut a thick slab of bread and propped it close to the flame.

If Finch thinks Sam is a suspect, he's not going to look anywhere else. She thought about Finch's points as she stirred the potatoes and turned the bread. Sam was seen arguing with Stokes and supposedly taking a punch at him. Stokes had a bruised jaw. Sam knew what a corn knife was, and the body was set out to look as if Stokes had taken his own life using one. The killer had even added animal blood when he found out that slicing the wrist of a dead man didn't produce much blood. But Sam knew about those serum tests, which made it unlikely that he'd try to fool the police with animal blood. If she told that to Finch, maybe he'd look elsewhere.

Flames coming from the toast interrupted her meditations. Jade grabbed the burning bread and smacked the fire out with the palm of her hand. It was still edible, by and large, and the parts that weren't? Well, that was what preserves were for. She removed the skillet of potatoes and turned the k.n.o.b to shut off the oil. Jade smeared a large dollop of Maddy's mango pawpaw preserves on her burned toast and bit in, chasing the mouthful with a gulp of coffee.

Did Sam handle that corn knife? And what if he did? Surely a lot of other people touched it. Finch can't make much of that, can he? She hoped by now the inspector had found another print and matched it to a known criminal. That would be the end of it. She finished her breakfast, pumped water into the sink, and washed her dishes, then set them in a rack to dry. After locking up, she motorcycled out to the racetrack's grounds, where the fair was being held.

The track facilities needed work, probably one of the reasons the town fathers had decided to hold a fair to begin with. If a few people were inconvenienced because the grounds were dilapidated, or because the fence work was rotten in a few spots, they would rally to improve the area. Not in time for the upcoming races, but hopefully before the New Year's race week.

At present, no one seemed to notice or mind any inconvenience. Hundreds of people from as far away as Voi, 230 miles to the south, had turned out to enter their produce, and an equally large group of Nairobiites had closed their shops and homes and come to see the exhibits. Stores catering to the needs of the farmer-settlers had set up closet-sized booths and hawked the latest tools, seeds, saddles, tack, and outdoor wear. Hastily built of spare lumber and corrugated tin with a sawdust floor, they reminded Jade of the small shops in the Moroccan souks.

While none of the fancy-goods stores dared risk displaying the latest French gowns or hats, some of the store owners had recognized that a large number of city dwellers would be in attendance, people with money who might want to buy the latest home or kitchen gadget or perhaps decide on a new pocketbook. Close by were purveyors of automobiles and motorcycles, most only with large pictures of the vehicles, although the newest Hupmobile was displayed next to a food stand that sold pork sausages on a hard roll.

By far, the proudest displays were those entered by the farmers. Restricting the entries to vegetable matter made the fair decidedly smaller than any held at Nakuru, but much sweeter smelling. Jade had never seen so many varieties of roses in one small s.p.a.ce, each one competing with the others in size and color. The brilliant tea roses with their tightly held petals stood as the epitome of grace and elegance next to the older variety cabbage roses, but the latter won in fragrances from sweet to spicy.

Jade had looked for Sam that morning, but after waiting for forty-five minutes, she went off on her own, disappointed, searching for Madeline. She saw her waiting anxiously nearby as two prim-looking women in broad, flowered, and feathered hats examined each entry for mildew or rust. Madeline was very properly dressed in a pale blue cotton dress and st.u.r.dy yet feminine walking shoes. She wore gloves like most of the ladies there, and a broad straw hat with a blue ribbon. Her graying brown hair, which Jade had cut short a year ago, was now pulled back in a low roll and held in place with a sh.e.l.l comb.

"Maddy," said Jade as she waved to her friend, "have they judged yours yet?"

"No. They're just finishing the tea roses. I entered two dark purple cabbage roses." She pointed to the end of the table.

"They're beautiful," said Jade. "You can't lose."