Elephant Dropping (9781301895199) (30 page)

‘Pull over and
wait here,’ Daniel said as he got out to investigate, but instead
of walking to the lorry he walked to the driver’s window, pointed a
gun in Kamau’s face, reached in and took the keys from the
ignition.

‘What the hell
are you doing?’ Kamau tried to retrieve his keys.

Daniel hit him
across the side of the face casually, the gun butt splitting his
upper lip. ‘Behave yourself.’

Kamau began to
wail. ‘What? Please don’t kill me, please.’

Two men from
the lorry walked up and joined Daniel.

‘Listen I have
money, please.’ Kamau pleaded.

One of the men
grinned and slapped Daniel on the back in greeting. ‘Aha, he has
money,’ he bent down to peer at Kamau as he made a futile attempt
to get out, only to find the way blocked by the second man.

‘Do you have
the woman?’ Daniel asked.

‘Yes she is a
sweet one,’ the man laughed, an ugly cackle.

‘Get her. Ok
sir, this is it,’ Daniel announced to Kamau.

‘No, no,’ Kamau
wailed, ‘look what I have.’ He reached into his pockets and took
wads of cash out. ‘Please don’t hurt me.’ The onlooker gleefully
snatched the money. The other man appeared in the headlights
dragging a young half-naked woman behind him. She was struggling
for all she was worth as she tried to release his grip, her screams
echoing down the valley in a blood chilling repetitive rhythm. He
slapped her very hard twice and she collapsed in the road
unconscious. Breathing hard and trying to kick her awake he called
to his companion. ‘Give me a hand,’ the two of them half-carried,
half dragged her round to the passenger door.

Kamau sat in
shock. ‘No please, I have children, have pity.’

Daniel spoke
sharply. ‘Listen to me! We can do this easy or we can do this hard,
it’s up to you sir.’ He handed some pills over to Kamau. ‘Now take
these, you won’t feel a thing.’

‘What what are
they?’

‘Sleeping
pills.’

‘You want me to
sleep?’ Incredulous, despite his fear.

‘Yes and when
you wake up it will all be over,’ Daniel smiled reassuringly. ‘If
you don’t take them we will have to force you,’ and pointed the gun
in Kamau’s face.

‘How can you be
so heartless a young man like you?

‘It’s over Sir,
I will shoot you if you don’t take the pills.’

‘I can’t
swallow,’ Kamau gasped, his mouth dry.

‘No problem,’
said Daniel and handed him a half bottle of whisky, ‘this should
help.’

Kamau took a
swig. ‘May you rot in hell,’ he said staring directly into Daniel’s
eyes as he swallowed them. ‘You bastard,’ he swore, ‘you bloody
bastard,’ and took another swig. Suddenly his body went rigid and
he gasped for breath, the blood from his cut spraying the
windscreen. Daniel stood back watching in fascination as Kamau went
into death throes, gurgling and spasmodically moving violently,
then all of a sudden he was still.

Daniel looked
at his companions. ‘He is gone,’ he announced and poured the rest
of the whisky over the lifeless body.

‘What happened,
what was that?’ the second man asked in awe.

‘A heart
attack, nasty eh. Ok, get the girl in the car,’ Daniel ordered.
They bundled the almost lifeless body of the woman in beside
Kamau.

Daniel turned
the steering wheel and took the car out of gear. ‘Is this the right
spot?’

‘Yo, non-stop
to the bottom,’ one of them answered.

The three of
them grunting with effort, pushed the car over the lip of the
escarpment. Lights still blazing, it toppled down going end over
end in graceful slow loops, crashing through trees and dislodging
boulders on its way. The lights flickered and went out only the
noise marked its progress down the slope, then there was silence
and the watchers exhaled, one of them gave a half hearted cheer.
Even these hard men were shocked at the violence they had just
witnessed. Incongruously, the noise of a mobile phone ringing
reached them from below, it rang eerily until the caller gave
up.

‘Wild eh,’
muttered Daniel to his companions and tossed the keys over the
cliff. ‘Let’s get out of here!’

The men trotted
over to the lorry, climbed in, gunned it into life and headed back
down the escarpment. In the cab Daniel used his radio. ‘Ok sir, you
can release the traffic we are on our way.’

‘Good,’ came
the crackling reply. ‘Where was the woman from?’

‘From the Rise
and Shine bar in Naivasha, a Ugandan, illegal immigrant,’ he
answered.

‘Excellent,
good work’ said Rubia. ‘The boys will meet you in Naivasha. Come to
my office in the morning.’ He then told his driver to take him back
to Nairobi, pleased to have cleaned up this loose end. With Kamau
out of the way it mattered little if they found the stupid
mzungu
. Now he wanted to go in pursuit of Patel. Follow the
money, always follow the money.

FOURTEEN

Early on Monday
morning Azizza took a call from a very anxious Evans. ‘Have you
read the papers?’

‘Yes Evans, I
have.’

‘It’s terrible.
Nicholl’s car has been found at this falls place, he must have been
eaten by crocodiles by now!’

‘It’s
possible,’ she agreed.

‘What are we
going to do? I told him not to drive through the park, I warned
him.’

‘Do? It’s sad
yes, but we carry on as normal. What’s the problem? Pull yourself
together,’ she told him.

‘I don’t know
what to do.’

‘About what?’
She asked getting impatient.

‘About
Nicholls, he was supposed to be here this morning. He was a nice
man he said I had potential.’

‘I’m sure he
was right, anyhow, it looks like you will get your Mercedes back
now.’

‘Oh, I hadn’t
thought of that.’ Evans brightened.

‘Yes it is
good. I will see you later on.’ She shook her head - what a fool -
and busied herself with more loan applications.

*

Detective
Katana also read the item in the Nation newspaper that morning. A
range rover, it must be the one that that shit Rubia and his men
were looking for. The phone rang on his desk, it was the provincial
boss. ‘Good morning Katana.’

‘Morning Sir.’
Katana ever alert recognised the voice.

‘Detective I
have had a call from Chief Rubia. He is on an important job right
now and I want your full co-operation.’

‘Sir, there has
been a murder and what looks to be a carjacking.’

‘I don’t care,
it is not our affair. I want you to extend any help you can to
Chief Rubia without question. Is that understood?’

‘Yes sir, very
good sir.’ After the call Katana sat at his desk, fuming.
‘Corporal!’ He yelled out. ‘Tell the driver I want the land rover
ready, I’m going to Lugard’s falls. Who is on duty this
morning?’

‘Moses and Ali
Bakari Sir!’

‘Tell Moses I
want him with me.’ Katana could smell a cover up a mile away. He
knew he should leave it alone, but it was within his jurisdiction,
and he was annoyed Rubia had gone over his head. He picked up the
phone and called the Wild Service office in Voi. ‘Hello, can I
speak to the Chief Warden, Justin Bazo. It’s Detective Katana, Voi
Police.’

‘Morning, what
can I do for you?’ Bazo responded.

‘Have you read
today’s paper, the range rover at Lugard’s falls? What can you tell
me?’

‘Not much, the
first I knew of it was when I picked up the paper,’ Bazo
replied.

‘Who is this
spokesman they refer too?’

‘Not me that’s
for sure, I radioed Manyani Gate and asked the rangers to
investigate.’

‘Can you
contact your rangers and tell them not to touch the car, very
important. Do you want a trip to Lugard’s falls?

‘Yes, why not,
will you pick me up?’

‘Ok, see you
soon.’

*

Cyrus had a
hangover and a dry mouth. Sleepily he scratched his crotch, trying
to recall how he got here. Looking around the room he spotted
female clothing slung over a chair and on the bed, a sleeping form
was beside him.

‘Ahh,’ he
pulled back the sheets. The woman stirred, he recognised the
barmaid from the hotel. ‘Out -
toka
,’ he prodded her
roughly. She woke up and looked at him in panic.

He walked naked
across the room to the bathroom and pissed noisily into the toilet
bowl farting loudly as he did so. Finishing, he turned to see the
girl still in his bed; she smiled at him coyly and lifted the sheet
to show her breasts. Cyrus picked up her clothes off the back of
the chair and threw them at her. ‘Get out you smelly whore,’ he
told her.

The girl
scowled at him. ‘You think you fuck me for nothing? Give me my
money,’ she demanded, ‘or I go to the police.’

Cyrus in one
stride reached the side of the bed and seized her by the arm
roughly pulling her out, with his other hand he grabbed her
clothes, and hauling her across the room pushed her out the door.
‘I am the police you silly bitch,’ he said as she fell on the floor
in the corridor.He tossed her clothes after her, turning back into
the room he gathered up her shoes and hooked her wig on a shoe heel
and threw these at her, ‘so fuck off.’

He showered and
rubbed himself down as best he could with soap. ‘I hope that bitch
was clean,’ he muttered. He dried his body with a small threadbare
towel and with no toothbrush hand rubbed his teeth with his index
finger. He then rang his companion on his mobile. ‘Come on let’s
go. See you downstairs.’

Cyrus sat in
the dining room and dunked lumps of bread into his tea. He sipped
and chewed at the same time, nodding wordlessly as the other man
joined him.

‘Shouldn’t we
call the Boss?’ his companion asked.

Cyrus frowned.
‘The hell with him, he can call us, he knows where we are.’ They
didn’t have long to wait, Rubia was on the phone issuing
instructions for a new assignment.

*

Katana and Bazo
reached the park gate at Manyani. The detective leapt out of the
car and barged into the office. ‘Let me see the park entries for
yesterday,’ he demanded.

The man
hesitated. ‘Sir?’

‘It’s ok
ranger,’ Bazo said entering the office behind Katana. ‘He is a cop,
do as he says.’

The man passed
the entry book over. Katana ran his finger down the list and found
what he was looking for. ‘Tell me about this Range rover?’ The
detective continued to quiz the ranger closely as Bazo looked on.
Katana finished and stepped out of the office. ‘Ok, shall we
proceed to Lugard’s falls?’ An hour later Katana and the chief
warden drove up to the look-out point for the falls, immediately
spotting the rover. Two rangers sitting in the shade of a nearby
tree watched as they arrived. They quickly stood to attention when
they recognised Bazo.

‘It’s ok men,
stand at ease,’ he told them.

Detective
Katana walked around the rover first, examining the ground for
tracks. There wasn’t much to see, most of the tracks were of
baboons and as he looked inside the open window, his fears were
confirmed, they had been inside. Faeces and urine were smeared all
over the interior of the car obliterating any fingerprints. The
back seat was a mess; the monkeys had got the top off the cool box
and spread its contents everywhere. Brian’s rucksack had been torn
open, a field day with the wash bag, deep puncture marks in the
toothpaste tube.

Katana opened
the passenger door and found an earring in the foot well and a
crumpled bloodstained T-shirt. Gingerly he fished out Brian’s
rucksack, opening it on the ground and taking out the clothes. He
looked through them for any identity of the owner while the others
stood around watching idly. Other than obviously male, there was
nothing else. A further search in the car revealed a locked brief
case lying on the floor between the rear seats. He took it out and
tried the catches. The others looked on curiously.

‘Aren’t you
going to open it?’ Bazo asked.

‘No, it’s
locked. Can you send your men downriver to look for a body?’ Bazo
instructed his rangers to walk to the bottom of the falls and check
along the length of the river.

Katana called
Moses over. ‘Get some water from the river and clean up this car. I
want to drive it back to the station.’

Moses looked
helpless. ‘There’s nothing to carry the water in sir.’

Katana pointed
at a barrel with the word rubbish painted on it.‘See if you can
find an empty water bottle in there.’

Bazo asked.
‘Did you find any clues?’

‘Not really,
the earring could be the Indian woman’s. I’m sure this is the same
car that your rangers refused entry earlier, the one with the
motorbike.’ He pointed at the tow hitch. ‘It was driven here by
someone who switched the number plates. After some physical
violence took place in the car. There’s no point in taking
fingerprints, as you can see, the baboons got in.’

Bazo nodded.
‘It’s amazing how people don’t read the signs,’ he pointed to a
signpost clearly stating not to leave car windows open.

‘So if this
driver didn’t end up in the river, someone else must have met him
here to get him out of the park. Can you get me the vehicle entry
list for the past 24 hours at the other gates?’

‘Yes, once we
get back to my headquarters. How did the report get into the paper
so quickly?’ Bazo asked.

‘That’s a good
question, looks to me like a premeditated crime has taken
place.’

‘Why don’t you
open the briefcase? Do you think it’s full of money?’ Bazo asked
grinning.

Katana laughed.
‘If it is, I will let you know of course.’

‘Yes of course
you will. You know it’s not the first time someone has disappeared
at these falls,’ Bazo announced, ‘local legend says there is a
devil that lives here that will lure you to your death.’