Stalking Ivory (28 page)

R
EINFORCEMENTS ARRIVED
at Harry Hascombe’s camp the next day in the form of Lieutenant Fitzpatrick, of the King’s African Rifles, and his fifteen askaris.

“Well, this is certainly one for the books,” said Fitzpatrick. “First your runner staggers into Isiolo with some story about poachers shooting at you and killing one of our men. And just as I get my men together and come out to lend the captain a hand with some reinforcements, I meet up with Lord and Lady Dunbury, who lead me to believe that everything from kidnapping to a potential insurrection is taking place. We come on the double-quick and now you tell me that my own superior officer is a traitor and a murderer.”

“With his own little militia,” added Jade. “I hope your men manage to round up the rest of these Abyssinian poachers. It seems some of them played the role of his own askaris.”

“Quite so,” agreed Fitzpatrick. “All but that first poor chap. No wonder Smythe shot him. He couldn’t have the man get back to the post and report on his activities. I always wondered why the captain insisted on our patrolling separately. Now I know. But you suspect that he once worked for Germans under Prince in Tanganyika?”

“He admitted as much,” said Jade. “Let my headman, Chiumbo, take a look at him. I suspect he can identify him as one of the men that killed his family. And take a good look at any of Smythe’s personal communications. If my suspicions are correct, someone else was in on this with him. He mentioned as much.” She smiled at the young lieutenant and held out her hand. “By the way, congratulations.”

He shook her hand, a bewildered expression on his face. “For what?”

“I suspect you’ll be receiving a promotion soon. I don’t doubt you’ll be the next captain.”

“S
O
S
MYTHE PLANNED
to eventually become a ruler in Abyssinia,” summarized Avery when everyone but Harry, who had quickly found another client, had returned to the Dunburys’ new home ten miles outside of Nairobi. They sat on the veranda of the two-storied stone house, lemonade glasses in hand, and watched the sunset over Beverly’s garden. One lone yellow-fronted canary sat on a rosebush and warbled. To their left lay the foundation of a stone stable under construction, where the Dunburys planned to keep horses.

“Yes, a veritable ‘man who would be king,’ as Kipling put it,” said Jade, Biscuit at her feet. “He promised von Gretchmar to make Mercedes his queen in return for supplying arms, but he promised the same thing to Claudia behind Otto’s back if she returned his gold. In truth, he used both of them and planned to sell them off to someplace like Algeria as soon as he could. The man was totally unscrupulous, doing anything for money.” Jade sighed. “Ivory poaching, slaving, and gunrunning aren’t Smythe’s only crimes, intended to fund his dream kingdom. Looks like drug smuggling may have been a side business. He admitted to having worked with Roger Forster before arranging the ambush that killed Captain Ross. Then he headed north into the frontier as the replacement officer.”

“Wasn’t Forster the man who smuggled heroin from Mombasa?” asked Sam. “The man who tried to pass himself off as David Worthy’s brother?”

“That’s right,” said Jade. “He also killed David’s father, but it was a murder for hire. We always suspected Mrs. Worthy paid him to kill her husband before he could produce his illegitimate son.”

“That’s a cold woman,” said Sam as he sat back.

“So Smythe stole Jelani as part of his slave trade?” asked Madeline Thompson, who had joined them along with her husband, Neville.

Jade shook her head. “Jelani was bait to lure me away. His men shot Chiumbo to get us to leave, but I think he knew we came back. And von Gretchmar surely saw Jelani spy around Mercedes’ tent, another reason to take the lad.”

“But how did von Gretchmar manage to get all those rifles in under Harry’s nose?” asked Avery.

“They were all in boxes labeled as the women’s personal items. As far as Harry knew, they had crates of cosmetics and lingerie and other frippery.” Jade laughed. “Almost makes me feel sorry for Harry, getting duped again like that. At least we got our rifles back. Smythe had them in his cache.”

Sam’s opinion of Harry’s predicament came out as a snort. “I’m glad we found Vogelsanger alive,” he said. “He’s fortunate that Smythe only beat him up and left him bound and gagged in that pit.”

“Why didn’t Smythe shoot him?” asked Avery.

“Too many people running around the mountain,” said Jade. “He probably didn’t want to call any more attention to himself with a gunshot.”

“It appears all Vogelsanger was guilty of was trying to protect Mercedes. We know Otto von Gretchmar was up to his neck in this, but whatever happened to Claudia or this other partner Smythe talked about?” asked Avery. “Didn’t he tell you he’d been warned about you?”

Jade leaned back in her chair with her hands behind her head. “No one could decide how culpable Claudia von Gretchmar was, so the district commissioner settled for chasing her and her companions out of the Protectorate. The last I heard, Smythe refused to speak any more about his so-called distant partner, but they found a letter in his possession written in a woman’s hand and signed with an
L
.”

“An
L
? Then you don’t think either Claudia or Otto was this partner he spoke of?” asked Neville.

Jade shook her head. “I’m guessing the
L
means Lilith, as in Olivia Lilith Worthy. The woman has a double life. To the genteel world, she’s Olivia Worthy, grieving widow, but for her illegal activities she uses her middle name. Mr. Percival had sent word to Isiolo that I was coming up, so Smythe had time to send a wire and get information about me. Neither of the von Gretchmars had ever heard of me before, but she’s one person who had who meets all the qualifications.”

“Lilith Worthy,” repeated Avery in a whisper.

Jade nodded. “And it appears that she hates me with a passion, presumably because I stopped part of her drug-smuggling ring when I shot Roger Forster, and because she lost half her estate when I produced her husband’s other heir.”

Sam leaned forward again. “Wait a minute! You think this woman, despicable as she may be, is guilty of
more
than hiring her husband’s killer?”

Jade nodded. “Think about it. How would she know who to hire in Africa to begin with unless she already had a connection there? I assumed she’d made contacts from England and built on them, but we’ve never had direct evidence. Anything in Forster’s home that might have incriminated her went up in flames when his house burned down.” She looked over to Madeline in time to see her hastily scribble some notes in a little booklet. “Wait a minute, Maddy. You’re not going to write this up as another novel, are you?”

“And why not?” she said. “I just received a letter from a publisher in London. They’re printing
Stalking Death
and sent a very tidy advance, which will go a long way towards covering the overdraft on our farm. I’m certain they’ll buy this one as well. I plan to call it
Ivory Blood
. Doesn’t that sound frightfully romantic?”

Jade rolled her eyes and sighed. “Frightfully.”

Beverly returned from a guest room and sat down on a stuffed chair next to her husband. “Shhh,” she cautioned. “Jelani’s asleep right now. He’s recovering pretty well, but I expect by tomorrow he’s going to be demanding to be up.”

“Thank you for keeping him here, Beverly,” said Jade.

“Well, he certainly is better off here than in what passes for a hospital for natives. He’s lucky he didn’t lose his foot to gangrene. As it is, he’s going to be missing a chunk off his heel and it looks like he may lose a few toes. Dr. Burkitt hasn’t made his final pronouncement yet. I’m just glad that Chiumbo recovered so well. He plans to go home to his people.”

“He left this morning,” said Jade. “I think he finally feels he can quit searching for his father’s murderer.” She closed her eyes and reflected for a moment on her farewell to the man who’d become a true friend.

“You’re going home?” she had asked him.

The tall Tanganyikan had nodded. “My search is over. I no longer need to walk the lands as a guide. I can go back to my people. Perhaps we can begin trading again.”

“And bring the moon to Dar es Salaam,” added Jade with a smile. “They probably miss it.”

Chiumbo laughed. “Maybe it found its way to them without us excreting it.”

Jade chuckled. Then her smile took a sad turn. “I will miss you, Chiumbo. You are a good man and a trusted friend.”

“And you are a good woman, Simba Jike. I am glad to have known you. But a lioness should not live alone. She lives with a lion lord, does she not?” He held up his hand when she began to protest. “The stone feather man, he is a good man.”

Jade sighed. First Madeline and Beverly—now Chiumbo seemed to think he needed to play matchmaker. “He is a good man, Chiumbo.”

Chiumbo smiled. “When I go into the
mahoka
huts to pray to my ancestors, I will pray for you, Simba Jike. May your journeys have happy endings and always lead you home.”

“Where
is
my home, Chiumbo?” asked Jade. “I can’t seem to find it anymore.”

His black eyes peered for a moment into her questioning green ones before he gently laid one finger on her forehead. “You have been looking for it here,” he said softly, then lightly tapped her chest above her heart. “But you should look for it here.”

“I only wish Chiumbo was with us that day we first met Smythe,” Beverly now said, her gentle voice breaking into Jade’s reverie. “It would have saved us a lot of trouble.”

“We’d be dead,” said Jade. “Smythe wouldn’t have let anyone escape knowing his past.”

“Is Jelani still insisting on going back to his village?” asked Sam. “I thought you were all schooling him.”

“We were,” said Jade. “He’s a very bright lad and reads and writes English very well. But he’s got this idea that an elephant told him to learn the ways of the
mundu-mugo
. We’ve actually spoken with the tribe’s old healer. He’s a great-uncle or something of that nature to Jelani and has been anxious to train him as his replacement. Hopefully, with the education we’ve given him, he can be a better leader for his people, one that’s not so easily taken advantage of by us outsiders.”

Beverly jumped up from her chair. “Oh, speaking of outsiders, I forgot to give you your mail. Sam, you have a letter from Indiana, and Jade, you have a letter from your mother.” She handed the envelopes around, then waited on the edge of her seat to inquire as to the contents.

Jade studied the rumpled envelope. “It’s been opened already. Bev? Did you open this?”

“Of course not!”

“Well, someone did,” said Jade. “You can see where the glue tore away part of the paper.” She held out the envelope for them to inspect. Sam took it.

“Jade’s right,” he said after a brief study. “Now, who would want to read her personal mail?” He handed the envelope back and opened his own letter.

“Maybe Mrs. del Cameron opened it herself to add to the letter and didn’t reseal it very carefully,” suggested Avery.

Jade didn’t bother to reply. She knew her fastidious mother too well to imagine her doing such a thing. Oh, she might decide to add to a letter, but she’d have made out a completely fresh envelope. No, someone was prying into her personal business.

Jade felt a prickling of her neck hairs and wondered if David’s mother had hired someone to spy on her. She seemed to have people in her pay all over British East Africa, so it wasn’t any stretch of the imagination to think she had an accomplice in Nairobi to keep track of Jade’s actions. Maybe she wanted to find out where they’d tucked away the heir to half her husband’s fortune, and hoped a letter might reveal it. The prickling increased. She shoved the thought aside and turned to her letter.

“Well,” Beverly said impatiently after a few minutes, “what does she write?”

Jade folded the letter and smiled at her friend. “Honestly, Bev, you’d think she was
your
mother. She says she is going to travel to Spain soon to once again try to bring home an Andalusian stud for the ranch. She wants me to join her in Morocco.”

“How nice,” exclaimed Beverly.

“Is your father going, too?” asked Neville.

“No. Dad apparently has his hands full between lambing season and installing a new irrigation system or something.” She sighed. “I suppose I should go, although I have no idea what use I’ll be. The Spaniards are very possessive of their precious Andalusian horses, and if Mother can’t talk someone out of one of those stallions, no one can. Saying no to Doña Inez Maria Isabella de Vincente del Cameron is impossible.”

“By the way,” said Bev, “speaking of your mother, you never finished your story about that lovesick bull elk.” She settled back into her seat with her arms folded. “I demand to hear the end of it. You left off when you got some huge mixed-breed dog you named something absurd,” Beverly reminded her.

“Right, Kaloff the dog,” said Jade. “Not very bright. He preferred picking up sheep to herding them.”

“Yes, yes, you told me he did something to a skunk once,” said Bev.

“And he picked up a dead raccoon carcass,” added Sam. Both Bev and Jade glared at him, Beverly because he knew something she didn’t, and Jade because Sam had blabbed.