The Crocodile's Last Embrace (43 page)

Lilith came from the east, the rising moon behind her, her boater-style straw hat pushed low over her light brown hair. She’d removed the oversized, gogglelike dark glasses and put them in a coat pocket. She held a pistol aimed at Sam’s chest. Sam had reciprocated, raising his Colt.

“I loathed having even that mustache in Morocco and I find the fake sideburns most aggravating, but necessary,” she said.

“They detract from your scar, don’t they, Lilith,” said Sam, no longer pretending to be an Australian. “And the sun protectors did the rest.”

“Ah, so you do remember me,” Lilith said. “So much the better. No more need for charades. You came to bargain for your friends, didn’t you?” She laughed. “Very clever, being O. Fairley in the paper. I thought it was Dunbury.”

Sam stepped forward for better aim, holding his Colt with two hands. “It seems you didn’t learn enough in your time as a reporter.”

Lilith chuckled. “Indeed, but try to shoot me and you’ll die first. For one, I have a man up top. And I believe you know something that I want to know. You
do
know where that bastard Pili is at, don’t you? Tell me. Tell me now, and I’ll let you live.”

Sam worried about the “man up top,” but did his level best not to let it show. He gauged the distance to the rocks. Could he shoot her and make it to cover in time? “Why should I trust you?”

“You can’t. Your little bitch, Jade, made enough of a mess for me here, ruining a perfectly good identity and scheme. So if I’m to leave, I’m going to do so with whatever information you have. Or I’ll be forced to get it from Dunbury. I’m sure he knows, too. Your choice, Mr. Featherstone.”

Sam had come so far to reclaim Jade. To die now and lose her for good was not his first choice. Did Lilith have a man up top? If she did, the moon would provide enough illumination to shoot by. Sam drifted backwards, closer to cover.
Can’t move too quickly or she’ll catch on.
“You can keep me as a security until you have Pili. I’ll take you to him,” he said.

“Ah, I’m certain of that, Mr. Featherstone, because, you see, I also have Jade, and she’ll die very slowly and painfully if you try anything.”

Rage welled up in Sam’s chest. He’d kill her now and be done with it. “To hell with this!” Sam roared, but the shot he heard was not his. His right leg flew out from beneath him and dropped him to the ground, his Colt firing high.

 

IN AN INSTANT, the gloved hands and the lack of pain when Mathews fell against the rock made perfect sense to Jade. He had leprosy, contracted in the Congo. The drugs in the shed were for him. The disease had already deadened his fingers. In her mind she saw him try to pet Biscuit and avoid shaking hands. He had had access to Dymant’s surgery to plant the suspicious documents and divert their attention. Jade now also understood that Farhani had not meant the cook, Matthew, when she’d asked if anyone had been to her bungalow. He’d meant the doctor, but his indifference to titles before names had misled her. She drew breath to shout for Sam, but Mathews prodded her back with his gun.

“Shh,” he whispered. “No noise or you die.” He took Jade’s Winchester with his left hand and slipped it across his back. Then he motioned for her to walk farther upstream to a place where they could climb unseen down the slope. “I’m going to take you to her. I was supposed to meet her to provide cover for her rendezvous, but I think this will please her more.”

No, it won’t. She thinks I’m locked in her cellar.
Her mind reeled under the new revelation.
Mathews. Mathers! Mathers Pellyn! And leprosy!
He, not Dymant, had been in the Belgian Congo on one of his many supposed tours to the outposts. He’d also been back in England for a few months, and Jade recalled that a minister had visited Lilith in prison last August. She had no doubt now that it was Mathews, arranging for her escape. She remembered he was freshly back in Kenya in September, helping Sam during the Kilimanjaro murders.

His disguise had been perfect. As a doctor he had access to poisons. As a medical officer assisting the police, he could easily withhold information when the victim was one who’d died by his hand. But he hadn’t been around when Waters was examined.
Waters had been shot with a Webley.
It was because Dr. Dymant had stepped in that they knew this.

And Dr. Dymant said he knew Dr. Mathews.
Jade had little doubt that Pellyn, who may or may not have finished medical training, had long ago killed the real Dr. Mathews and conveniently taken over his identity. Perhaps that man had no family or few friends to miss him. But there had been one, Dymant. And for that, Dymant had had to die. How convenient that a knife fight broke out in the Indian district when Dymant was there ministering. And with plague already a problem, who would be the wiser that the knife was tainted with diseased blood?

When they were out of earshot, the man pushed her east to the falls. “What do you plan to do with me, Mathews, or should I call you Pellyn?” Jade asked. “You really didn’t expect me, did you?”

“Ah, you have divined my real name. Then I’m certain you can guess what will ultimately happen. My Lilith wants you dead, but by her hand. You disappointed her by dying in that crash, but now she’ll have the pleasure of killing you. Still, I promise I’ll do my utmost to make it a quick death. Even at the risk of displeasing her.”

“Why? Developing a conscience after all these years?”

Pellyn chuckled. “Not one that you would approve of, my dear. But I do have a sense of honor, nonetheless. I’ve come to admire you. You don’t deserve to suffer any more than you already have, and our son did love you.”

Jade halted in her tracks and spun around. “
Our
son! David was
your
son?”

Pellyn prodded her in the side with his gun. “Yes. Sadly I never met him, but from what Lilith told me, he was one to make a father proud. And, unlike Lilith, I do not hold you responsible for his death.”

He pushed her with the gun barrel. “Now move along, my dear. This will be a lovely surprise for my lady.”

Jade again thought of screaming a warning to Sam, but she knew the intervening land and the falls’ muted roar would only block her cry.
And Pellyn will shoot me
. To be sure, the shot would warn Sam, but it was a risk she didn’t care to take. Not unless she had no other option. Better to get to Lilith and take them both. Pellyn’s diseased hand already suggested one idea to her.

“I can’t imagine she’ll keep you around much longer, Pellyn. Not with your leprosy.” Jade heard him sigh as they moved among the rocks, always heading back towards the falls. “She’s used plenty of other men before, on Mount Marsabit, in Morocco. Does she know yet? Or is that another surprise in store for her? I think she’d wonder when you start to caress her with gloves on.”

“Stop it!” hissed Pellyn. He punctuated his command with a glancing blow to the back of Jade’s head. “Those other men were only tools for her to use.
I’m
her love. I always have been.”

“Is your disease affecting your brain? The only person she’s
ever
loved is herself,” said Jade. “I thought she loved David, but now I see that even he was just a symbol, proof that she duped her husband.”

Mathers grabbed Jade and spun her around, his face inches from hers. “
I’m
her husband. She married
me
before she married Worthy. We kept it a secret.”

Jade shrugged. “So she adds bigamy to her list of crimes. I’m not surprised. But I am surprised at your blindness,
Dr.
Pellyn.”

He pushed her forward. “Silence!”

They were nearly to the falls. Another half dozen steps and they’d break the thin line of trees that hugged the lower rocks. From her vantage point, she could just make out Sam. Jade took the last steps slowly, as though she were picking her way carefully among the damp stones. She heard Sam’s voice not too far in front of her.

“You can keep me as a security until you have Pili,” he said. “I’ll take you to him.”

Sam was keeping his Colt trained on someone, but Jade couldn’t see Lilith. She hoped it meant that Lilith hadn’t spotted them yet, either.

Jade spun around, her elbow slamming back and up into Pellyn’s chest with a resounding thump followed by an explosive “Oof!” Anyone else could have reacted instantly, pulling the trigger, but Jade counted on Pellyn’s disease to diminish his abilities. She had no idea how far the leprosy had progressed, but if his fall was any indication, he probably couldn’t even feel the trigger.

She was only partially correct. The damage in his left hand was considerable. Unfortunately, Pellyn was right-handed.

As he doubled over, Jade darted down and to the side, keeping under his Webley’s firing line. She grabbed his wrist with both hands and twisted, trying to break his grip on the revolver.

The shot rang close to her ear. Besides its nearly deafening echo, she heard another shot from near Sam’s tent.

Pellyn kept his grasp on the gun despite Jade’s best attempts to twist it free. Perhaps he couldn’t feel her blows, or maybe he was incapable of relaxing his grip. All Jade knew was that the blasted thing went off. She thought she yelled, “Sam!” but if she did, she couldn’t hear her own voice over the percussive echo in her ear. And when she saw Sam fall thirty yards away from her, she shouted again, using the fear and anger to fuel her movements.

Again and again she stomped on Pellyn’s right foot while she wrestled with him for the Webley. He was twice her age, and even though he was riddled with one of the more horrifying diseases known to man, he fought with the strength of a madman.

From her vantage point, Jade saw Sam roll behind a rock.

But so was Lilith and she was advancing, her revolver held in front of her. Sam fired once and Lilith ducked for cover. Jade could see Lilith, nearly fifty yards away, edging her way through the rocks towards Sam, keeping low. Jade redoubled her efforts and raised Pellyn’s Webley.

“If you won’t let go, then shoot your bitch,” she growled as she squeezed his finger, which was still on the trigger.

The shot struck Lilith in her left arm, breaking it above the elbow. Her scream rang through the air, a harpy’s cry. Jade remembered that sound and, for a moment, she saw herself in a ruined palace in Marrakech, grappling with her assailant for a knife, the knife that had scarred Lilith’s face.

The outcry electrified Pellyn, and he lashed back at Jade with greater intensity, knocking her down. Jade fell to her side, the Webley flying away from them. It landed on the rocks with a clatter. Jade reached for Pellyn’s boots before he could either run to Lilith’s aid or remember that he still had hold of her Winchester across his back. She was nearly too late. He’d already unshipped the rifle and was looking for the expected bolt action.

“Wrong kind of rifle, mister,” she said as she yanked on one leg.

Pellyn, caught off balance, spread his arms to regain it. His damaged hands had a poor grip on the Winchester and he dropped it. It fell away from Jade’s reach and within Pellyn’s. His foot lashed out and kicked Jade squarely in the stomach, just below the ribs. Her breath rushed out of her and tears welled as the gagging pain shot through her. Jade fought to regain control of her breath. She needed to get to her rifle and help Sam. He’d scrambled into a kneeling stance behind a rock and was waiting for a clear shot at Lilith. It was Lilith’s charge that distracted Pellyn and bought for Jade a little of the time that she needed to recover.

Lilith seemed oblivious to her shattered arm. Jade had seen it before in animals from wounded rhinos to elephants. Pain and rage fueled the body beyond normal endurance, overcoming all but the need for revenge and destruction. There was no time for agony or even for death, only the desire to take all others down with them.

Lilith charged at Sam, her own pistol sending a steady barrage of death. But what drive her pain lent to her fury, it took away in her ability to focus on her target. Her shots struck the rock in front of Sam, spraying chips of hardened basalt and granite around him. Sam steadied his Colt on the rock and fired once, striking Lilith in her lower chest. She fell to the ground, skidding along the grass and gravel until she lay still in a pool of blood.

“No!” shrieked Pellyn. “You’ve killed her, damn you!” With a roar, he snatched Jade’s rifle and ran for Sam. He pulled down on the lever action to chamber a round and snapped the rifle to his shoulder.

“Sam!” Jade yelled as she struggled to her feet.

Sam turned in time to duck behind the rock near the shoreline as the bullet whizzed over his head. Pellyn rapidly closed the distance and hefted the Winchester as a club, ready to swing down at Sam’s head. Jade saw Sam take aim, then hesitate.

Sam turned his Colt into a club as well, his body tensing to meet and ward off the blow.

Sam struck first, launching himself up using his left leg, slamming Pellyn in the jaw. Pellyn’s head snapped back and, before he had a chance to recover, Jade was behind him, pulling the rifle from his grasp.

Despite his disease, Pellyn held on tenaciously, but the distraction gave Sam the time to hit him again with a left jab to the thorax. “See how you like it!” Sam shouted. Pellyn’s breath went out in a whoosh as he doubled over. Then, tumbling forward, he toppled with a splash.

The splash was echoed by a softer one farther downstream.

“Help!” Pellyn shouted as he floundered in the river.

“Dr. Mathews?” yelled Sam. Surprise riddled his voice, as if he’d just then perceived the identity of his other assailant.

For a split second, Jade considered letting him drown. But it was Lilith, more than Pellyn, who’d orchestrated all the crimes. And they needed Pellyn to stand trial or too many deaths would go unexplained.

“Grab this,” Jade called. She held out her rifle, butt first, for Pellyn to grab. But his gloves, slippery with the Athi’s mud, slid off. “His hands are useless, Sam. We’ve got to get him.”