The Crocodile's Last Embrace (9 page)

“Really?” asked Mary. “And did
you
ever get in trouble?”

Jade recalled the paddling she’d gotten on her backside when she’d put a dead snake under a parlor chair just before her mother’s library committee meeting. She grinned. “Yes, I did. But it was worth it.”

Jade called to Biscuit and went off to wait for Beverly away from the crowds. Even though the girls had come up with this prank, it didn’t lessen Jade’s unease. That paint had looked too real to her, throbbing with a life of its own. She wanted to escape the noise and go home, something she couldn’t do without Beverly, since they’d arrived together. Dr. Mathews followed close by as though reading her mind.

“If Lady Dunbury is unable to leave now, I’ll be happy to see you safely home,” he said. “Indeed, it would be best if you did go. I saw how you reacted. You’re not well.”

“I’m only tired,” Jade said. She caught Beverly’s eye and waited while her friend excused herself from Lady Northey.

“Are you ready to leave?” asked Beverly. She studied Jade’s face.

“Yes. How much trouble are the girls in?” asked Jade.

Beverly grinned. “The little darlings created quite a stir with their prank. I shouldn’t wonder if I was deposed as patrol leader soon. But I believe we can drive home now. I’ve already made my good-byes to our hostess. Having a baby waiting at home with a nanny is a wonderful excuse for leaving early.”

“I’m glad Miss del Cameron has a good friend to watch out for her,” said Mathews. “But I am still happy to follow. I could prescribe a sedative for you.”

“Thank you, but no, Dr. Mathews. I’ll be fine. I just want to sit on my porch, put my feet up, and drink a cup of coffee.” She looked at Beverly during the last part, hoping her friend would take the hint. She didn’t.

Mathews frowned. “I would not advise it. That would only agitate you more. You must get some rest. I’m leaving early tomorrow for Fort Hall and some of the native villages. I’ll be absent about a week, but I intend to look in on you as soon as I return.” He bowed to both of them.

“He’s a good man,” said Beverly after he’d gone. “Though I’d advise caution, Jade. It’s entirely possible that he’s interested in you as more than just a patient.”

“All the more reason for not letting him tend to me.”

JADE’S REST PERIOD, once she was home, lasted three-quarters of an hour. She’d changed out of her skirt, made a cup of the spiced tea, and settled herself on her porch with Biscuit at her feet. The tea wasn’t half-bad, but she still missed her coffee. She’d have to talk to Bev about that or just sneak off and buy some without telling her. But try as she might to relax, she couldn’t stop fidgeting. She kept envisioning the pulsing red liquid that had flowed from the target.

Jade decided to get her camping gear together instead. Most of the older girls were counting on a little safari, and Jade and Beverly planned to take them next weekend to Fourteen Falls, on the Athi River. Jade intended to leave after tomorrow’s Mass to scout out a good spot. The falls were also near enough to Jelani’s village to allow a visit. She owed one to the young Kikuyu healer whom she’d befriended on her first trip to Africa.

She pulled out a thin bedroll, her cooking kit, a tin mug, and her coffeepot, then stowed all but the bedroll in a canvas rucksack along with her tin of tea, matches, and a long-handled fork. She set the bundle beside her wooden chop box, which already held a small cast-iron skillet, a tin of flour, baking powder, a bit of lard, a wooden bowl, and a few tins of beef. Jade took her fishing rod from the wall along with her Winchester, a newer model that her father had given her for a birthday gift. Not that she planned on hunting for game. But this was Africa and it didn’t hold to go out unprepared. She set her tackle box atop the chop box. With any luck, she’d have some fresh fish to go with her biscuits. If not, she’d have the canned beef.

Biscuit padded through her open door and sniffed the boxes.

“Don’t worry. You’re coming, too. But if I don’t catch any fish, you’re going to have to hunt for yourself.” The cheetah brushed lightly against her exposed forearm, and Jade felt her skin prickle. A vague shadow darted just out of view and she turned her head to see if a rodent had come in through the open door.

Not likely. Not with Biscuit on patrol
. She turned to her packing and shivered again. This time her back irritated her, as though she had returned to the war and was living in that flea-bitten farmhouse cellar.

“I need some air,” she said as she stepped outside. She spied Beverly and Avery walking her way. “I thought you two were going to the theater tonight,” Jade said.

“We are,” said Beverly. “And we’re dining at the New Stanley first. I wanted to see how you were before I dressed for dinner.” She studied Jade’s face. “You didn’t rest very long.”

“Didn’t try to.” She pointed to the pile inside the door. “I’ve been busy.”

“Ah,” said Avery. “So you still plan to scout out a camping spot for the junior Amazons?”

Jade nodded. “Getting out of this crowded city will do me good. I plan to see Jelani, then do some fishing.” She sat down on the step and motioned for her friends to join her. “What did you think about Steven Holly’s gold mine announcement? Do you really think there’s gold up north?”

Avery shook his head. “I shouldn’t think so, but then, in point of fact, I have no idea. There’s gold in the Belgian Congo and I believe someone found traces in the Tanganyika Territory, but no one has ever found much in the way of minerals in Kenya Colony. I’m wondering if Holly didn’t invest in a pig in a poke.”

“Oh, dear,” said Beverly. “He may be a bit of a scamp, but I’d hate to see someone take advantage of him.”

“Aren’t you both jumping to conclusions?” asked Jade. “We know nothing about this gold mine beyond Holly’s boasts.”

“You’re probably correct, Jade,” said Avery. “It’s just that I think it would be rather simpleminded for Mr. Holly to enter into something unproven. He’s a bank clerk. I’d expect him to know something about business.”

“But he said that this man Waters had samples,” said Beverly. “Isn’t that proof?”

Avery smiled at his wife. “You are too trusting, my dear. Anyone could carry in a bit of gold he had purchased and say it came from his mine. Mr. Holly would have done better to go to the site himself and take a sample of the area for assay.”

Jade rubbed her arms and twitched her shoulders. Beverly frowned. “You’re very agitated this evening, Jade. You might be catching something. Are you feverish? Have you been drinking your tonic water and using the mosquito netting?”

“Bev,” said Jade, “I love you dearly, but I’m not sick.”

“I could call old Dr. Burkitt in,” Beverly said. “Malaria is nothing to be sneezed at.”

“I don’t want or need a doctor.”

“Then at least stay at the house tonight. Let our cook prepare something for you. Matthew
mpishi
makes lovely chicken soup.”

The left side of Jade’s mouth twitched. “I don’t have malaria. I need solitude, Bev, not mothering. And I don’t need a personal
mpishi
. I can cook for myself. I plan to scramble some eggs over my little spirit stove, butter up a slab of bread, and call it an early night.”

“You’re not riding your motorcycle on the trip tomorrow, are you?” asked Beverly. “I don’t think—”

Avery coughed and shook his head, hinting to his wife to drop the matter. “Our Jade knows that she can have the use of my new motor truck anytime she wishes. I shan’t need it for a few days. I’m sure Biscuit will be much more comfortable riding in it than running alongside the motorcycle for such a distance. There won’t be room in the sidecar with the gear.”

“Thank you, Avery. I thought about going into town to hire a truck.”

“Nonsense. It’s too late in the day for that. And she’s full of petrol and ready to go.” He stood and gently raised his wife to her feet. “Come along, darling. Time to get ready. Jade’s a big girl, you know.”

Beverly laughed. “You’re quite right, Avery. I’ve been horrid. It’s motherhood, you know. I suddenly want to fuss over everyone. Forgive me, Jade?”

“Nothing to forgive, Bev. You’re a good friend. Have a lovely time and if I don’t see you early tomorrow morning, I’ll see you when I return.”

She watched them stroll arm in arm back to their house, waiting until they were inside before she gave in to the shudder that she’d tightly controlled. Her right eye twitched twice. “Some peace and quiet is all I need, Biscuit. That and a good night’s sleep.”

She got neither.

She tried reading, but the letters on the page jiggled like crawling bugs. Jade put aside the book, a Jack London adventure, and undressed. She lay on her bed, wearing her camisole and linen drawers, and prayed for her skin to stop creeping before she shed it like a snake. Waking reality blended with her sleeping dreams. The very walls of her bedroom shifted and moved, sometimes receding, sometimes closing in on her.

Her heartbeat echoed in her ears, and a cold sweat broke out on her forehead. She felt as she had when she’d sat in the bait half of a leopard trap. Jade’s fingers clawed at the bed frame, fighting for a way out. Her chest tightened as her lungs struggled to pull in enough air.

Maybe I do have malaria!
Jade struggled out of bed, intent on pouring a glass of tonic water, but she spilled half the bottle onto the floor.

Then she heard Biscuit’s soft growl, an agitated churring sound. She froze, listening.

Something moaned outside, and her nose caught the faintest whiff of smoke.

She stumbled into her trousers and stepped outside in her bare feet. She looked first to the main house, then to the stables. Nothing. Biscuit churred again and she followed his gaze. Her darkroom stood several hundred feet away, and the hazy white smoke of a smoldering fire wafted in front of it.

Jade started for the tool hut, intent on finding a shovel, when a flickering movement caught her eye. Out of the haze emerged a figure, shifting and shimmying with the smoke.

He wore his leather flying jacket and a silk scarf, and raised his hand in greeting. Jade blinked twice, then a third time, hoping each time that the vision would disappear.

It didn’t. Instead, as she watched, his face melted into nothing and, in its place, a skull grinned back at her. The apparition moaned again.

Jade collapsed to the ground, her own anguished cry ringing through the night.

—The Traveler

BISCUIT NOSED JADE, prodding her with his big head. She felt him, but didn’t move. She was too terrified, frightened in a way she hadn’t experienced since she’d fought the rising panic when a shell-shocked victim had broken into insane laughter in the back of her ambulance. A hyena’s warbling laugh had triggered the reaction, too, at least until she’d faced it and fought it down.

She lay on the ground huddled in a ball, clutching herself and trembling, afraid to open her eyes for fear of seeing that hideous apparition. She’d seen soldiers react to firecrackers popping or to wafting scents. Some became belligerent; others cringed. Many never knew what set off the attacks. Why was she seeing apparitions
now
? What was triggering
her
terrors?

Am I going insane?
She recalled Sam’s violent ravings during a recent illness.
Maybe I do have malaria.
At present she’d take the disease over losing her mind.

Biscuit’s raspy tongue scraped her cheek, and Jade drew reassurance from the cheetah’s solid presence. She raised her head and risked a glance at the darkroom. Nothing. Barely a remnant of smoke.

Suddenly, Jade felt embarrassed. “Sweet Millard Fillmore’s bathtub, what is the matter with me?” she muttered. “Overreacting to nothing!”

Well, not entirely nothing. Someone had sent her the bloody scarf and the first letter. Those items were real, and Jade had an idea who was behind them. David’s mother, Olivia Lilith Worthy, hated her and had tried to kill her once before. That she was in prison in London only meant she must have a confederate in Africa doing her bidding. A minion could be dealt with. Jade had done it before. The problem was in discovering who it was. And it still didn’t explain her hallucinations.