Killed in Kruger

by Denise M. Hartman

  “I know there’s a better way,” Tabitha muttered, digging through the camera case. She realized too late that the hand holding the camera body was pressed firmly on the shot button. She’d just run through an entire roll of film with the terribly efficient motorized film advance. “You are kidding me! This isn’t my forte.” Daniel didn’t seem to notice her discomfiture and sat in placid silence, watching the animal chewing the leftover meal in his mouth.

  “Aha.” She pulled a mini-beanbag from the bottom of the larger camera tote. Nesting this on the car window and resting the lens on it, she finally felt ready to shoot again. Then she remembered the need to change the film. Sighing, she propped the camera body on her knees and reached down for a new roll of film. This was not her idea of fun. She wrestled her tiny Swiss Army knife from her pocket. At home, she carried it always and had made sure to put it in her checked luggage on the plane, so she’d have the handy little blade. She swiped open a film package and loaded. Now she was ready.

  A safari bus pulled between them and the Cape buffalo in question. Tabitha gave out an unhappy grunt. “Of course. Oh well, time for tourist pictures.” She finally squinted into the lens and pressed the trigger.

  The heat increased when the sun broke through the morning haze. Tabitha left the window down as Daniel steered them through the park. He picked up the conversation as though no break had occurred.

  “So none of the film was with your uncle’s possessions? None at all?”

  “There was a new box of unexposed film in the back here.” She pointed over her shoulder to the back of the truck. “If the containers he used to store them were found all chewed up,” she shivered in spite of being warm, “maybe that would make sense.”

  “But what about the cameras?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They are all here or not?”

  “Not the digital one, but all the others are intact. Ohhh.” Tabitha caught Daniel’s wavelength. “What was he doing outside the car if he didn’t have a camera with him? What was he doing? Maybe he had the digital camera with him, but wouldn’t Souli have found some pieces?” Tabitha felt an eerie fear, thinking of those last moments for Phillip. He wouldn’t have risked it out here unless it was important. “I wish he could come back and tell me what he was doing.”

  “Don’t wish people back from beyond. It’s not right. God takes them on to the other side. It is not for us to bring them back,” Daniel said with more force than she’d seen in him.

  Tabitha found this idea sobering. She stared out into the golden grasses of the thorn veldt. Perhaps she didn’t wish to speak to Phillip after all. She rubbed goose bumps off of her arms. She would figure out what had happened, though. It wasn’t right for him to just disappear into the bush and die. She would find the reason.

  “I can think of one thing that would get him outside the truck without the equipment,” Daniel said.

  “What’s that?”

  “I think you say—the call of nature.” Daniel gave a lopsided grin.

  After his earlier sermon, the humor and logic of it melted Tabitha into a pile of possibly hysterical giggles. She tried to stifle the laughter. “I think I’m under too much stress here, Daniel, because that wasn’t that funny.”

  He smiled, a man who seemed to dole out words with the frequency of rainstorms in a drought. Quite a contrast to Tabitha’s constant stream of consciousness and sarcasm.

  “I have an idea,” Tabitha said. “Can we go look around where they found him?”

  “Where was this?”

  “I think it was a little road off the S84.”

  Daniel frowned. “It is not far, but it is a sand road. I believe that area is forbidden to the public.”

  Daniel’s profile didn’t change so Tabitha furthered her strategy. “Look, Daniel, I need this. I need to see where this happened to make it real. I want to see if I can see anything that would draw him out of the car. Well, besides needing, uhm, the call of nature.” She knew the vehicle had been found several kilometers away. If he was only going to relieve himself, he wouldn’t have walked kilometers to do it. Was he chased?

  “How do you know this is where they found him?”

  Tabitha flushed with guilt. “I don’t know for certain. I saw a, uh…I saw the map in the radio room and his initials were on this road, so I thought…” she let it hang.

  “Ahhh.” He drove on for a moment and then smirked. “You are what we call in Zulu, kubi kubi.” He winked at her. “Bad, bad. We will go explore this sand road of yours, Tabitha.” He pointed a finger toward the sky. “Carefully.”

  “Thank you. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we found some of his film? Or the digital camera?” Tabitha watched the dense undergrowth as they made their way. It didn’t seem possible that the shrubby landscape could hide such large animals, but twice they came up on zebras or giraffe so suddenly that they passed the creatures before Tabitha registered seeing them. Daniel stopped once on their way for her to shoot another roll of film as two young giraffe accompanied their mother across the road to richer browsing. She listened to the snap of the branches on the tree as they munched. Tabitha swallowed back tears, recognizing how much Phillip would have loved these kinds of moments.

  Daniel turned the bakkie back onto the main road away from the giraffe. “Watch for the sand road. It will be coming on our right.”

  Soon the dusty track emerged, blending into the roughened landscape. Daniel waited for a safari van to pass before he made the turn. The truck skidded a little and adjusted to the loose surface. The noon sun beat down on the truck. After a kilometer, they came to a good lookout point, and Daniel halted the car where they could see a small pool of water with a nearly dry creek feeding into it.

  “This time of the day isn’t good for animal viewing,” Daniel said. “Your uncle would probably come to this place in the evening if he came down this road. The water would draw the animals and be a busy spot at dusk.”

  Tabitha nodded and opened the door.

  “What are you doing?” Daniel’s voice rose.

  “I’m just going to get out and take a look around.”

  “This is forbidden. People are not allowed out at this location. There is a stop a few kilometers away where you can wander out. Please, Miss.”

  “I just want to see if I can find the film.” Tabitha was already outside the truck. “I’ll be quick.” She faced the bush that rose up around the road, taller than she had expected from inside the truck. She took off for an area of dense growth on the other side of the curve.

  “This is a dangerous place. Remember your uncle,” Daniel called from the window.

  This stopped Tabitha in mid-trek across the road. She turned and faced the truck again. “You said this wasn’t a good time for animal viewing. Why?”

  “They aren’t usually active in the heat of the day.” He pointed to the sun. “But it is still springtime and not so hot.” His voice pleaded with her to get back in the vehicle. “I’ll drive the side of the road and you can use the lenses to look further into the bush.”

  Something rattled the grasses near Tabitha. Probably the wind. She turned and looked. Nothing. Tabitha felt the hair on her arms stand up and charged the truck at a full gallop, flinging herself into the seat.

  Daniel jumped back in surprise. A baboon burst from the grass with a grunt and sauntered over to inspect the vehicle. Daniel’s laugh began. “Oh, oh, oh.” But he managed to say, “Push your window up. They steal.”

  After the baboon finished inspecting the truck, Daniel inched around the turn and Tabitha inspected the surrounding area. She shot a few pictures of a rocky area between some trampled shrubs. Perhaps this was where it had happened. She felt the futility of looking at an empty stretch of land. No film waved at her from the soil. She knew after looking around that she wasn’t going to find film. The land wouldn’t communicate the truth of what had happened here, and she didn’t know where else to look for it. Daniel turned the bakkie toward the main road
when she was done shooting. Shooting nothing, she thought.

  Chapter 12

  Souli touched his bicep, and Mpande noticed the gesture of respect with satisfaction. He had worked hard to get to the position of assistant park director, and respect was important to him.

  “What have you learned?” Mpande asked.

  “Mostly Daniel took her game viewing, but they did get off the permitted roads.”

  “Where?” Alarm rang in his voice.

  “It was the S84 where we found her uncle.”

  “Why would she do that?”

  “I don’t think it had anything to do with the investigation,” Souli said.

  Mpande sat staring at the blank spot on the desktop, fingers pressed together.

  “Sir, she’s trying to learn about her uncle’s death. We have other things we can put our energies and efforts to in the investigation.”

  “No. We have much at stake. You must follow her and keep track. Perhaps Daniel could be useful.”

  Souli made a soothing sound. “I believe Daniel is a faithful employee, but I do not want to take information outside the investigators unless absolutely necessary.” He smoothed the front of his dark green park uniform sweater. “I will watch the situation.”

  “Make sure you do that, Souli. We can’t afford to bungle this with the director gone. Also, she asked questions about the Schopenhauer Factor.”

  Souli shook his head and clicked his tongue.

  “You understand, this may complicate things further. You’ll have to try to find out how she picked this conservation group and what the story is all about. Stick close, Souli.”

  Souli nodded and left the office. Mpande turned to gaze out the window. He wiped his wet palms on his trousers. He needed clarity, but the situation was not that simple.

  Chapter 13

  The gray light crept into the bungalow. Pieter rolled on his side and into an upright position. He leaned over and slapped the side of Johanne’s bed to wake him. The noise sounded painfully loud. He used the toilet and dressed quickly. The two men were in the bakkie in a matter of minutes, facing a dim dawn. Johanne cracked a window and lit a narrow black cigar. Pieter rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. They rode over the road in silence except for the squeaking of the seat springs and the sounds of the engine. Pieter thought the sky looked like it did in the Netherlands, with a heavy low plateau of clouds marching above. He would miss the warm weather of South Africa, but it was time to go home.

  They pulled off on a dirt track and bounced to the end. They hadn’t seen a single car. Pieter sharpened a long hunting knife. Johanne finished his cigar and stubbed it out in the ashtray.

  “Is it there?” Pieter said, breaking the silence at last.

  “I can’t tell. Maybe behind those boulders.”

  They got out and approached the rock in question, speaking quietly in Afrikaans. “Dit daardie?”

  “Yes, that’s it. He could have at least done some of the butchering.” Johanne’s protest sounded loudly through the quiet of the bush.

  “No, it would have brought out the predators before we got here. Give me a hand, before I take my knife to you.” Pieter swore.

  “Ja, ja.” It was Johanne’s turn to roll his eyes.

  The two men set about the considerable task of taking the skin off the rare black leopard. Pieter knew they didn’t turn up much in Kruger. The skin would fetch an enormous price for an African black panther, as the market would call it. From time to time, Pieter stood and scanned the countryside with mini binoculars he drew from his pants pocket.

  “It’s a beautiful animal, really,” Pieter said, rejoining Johanne who was kneeling on the ground. The smell of blood was strong in the air. The knife scraping along bone made a loud crusty sound. A crack off in the bush made both men look up. Pieter stood and surveyed the area, but the dense gray-brown grasses challenged sight distances. A row of trees down the slope, already greening from the few spring rains, further obscured the view.

  “You better hurry if you intend to be in one piece when you get done, Johanne.”

  The younger blond man glanced up, face full of concern. “Luiperd?” he asked in Afrikaans.

  “I can’t see anything, but the bush feels awake. The vultures will spot this soon and we need to be well clear of the area before anyone notices.” He slowly turned 360 degrees again. “We can only hope our friends in the bush dispose of this carcass before the rangers investigate. I wish Mhlongo had left it near the river.”

  “You know that wouldn’t have worked. The crocs would have done her in before we got her caped.” Johanne snorted.

  Pieter watched as he salted the fresh skin and rolled it into a tarp. Johanne took a flask from his pocket and cleaned the residue of blood from his arms. He scooped up the tarp, and they turned back to the car at a trot. A hyena stepped from the row of trees and lifted his nose to the air.

  Chapter 14

  Tabitha and Daniel spent the afternoon at Skukuza, as Daniel had some things to attend to in the offices, and Tabitha wanted time to work on her stories. When they pulled around to the offices to drop Daniel off, Tabitha went in to ask about the paperwork for Uncle Phillip’s remains. Daniel said goodbye and Tabitha felt alone.

  Mr. Mpande’s shy secretary sat behind a metal desk, typing away at her old computer. A name plate on the desk announced her to be Kindness Radebe. She wore the dark green common to all the employees, with the Kudu antelope park symbol below her right shoulder. Her round dark eyes smiled at Tabitha as she nodded.

  When she smiled, she pressed her lips together, hiding her teeth. Tabitha introduced herself and asked, “Are the papers ready to start the process of moving my uncle’s remains?”

  Kindness covered her mouth with her hand for a moment, then said, “No, I’m sorry, Miss, but we don’t have them.” She must have read the disappointment on Tabitha’s face. “Have you arranged for everything at a mortuary? You should have this arranged, so we will know where to send the body when the paperwork is ready. You will need to furnish us this information.” When the hand fell from Kindness’s mouth, Tabitha saw that one front tooth protruded beyond the other teeth.

  “I haven’t thought through this at all. It’s such a shock. Where would I find a mortuary?” Good grief, this was all so surreal. She still had the feeling Phillip would come walking in anytime.

  “It may be easier for you to drive to Nelspruit and take care of things there, even though that is a distance. Here is my direct number. You can call me and I will keep you informed.” Kindness pressed her lips in her closed-mouthed smile.

  This was sounding complicated, but Tabitha thought perhaps she could look for a film processor in Nelspruit, which apparently was the nearest civilization.

  Tabitha drove back around to the camp and parked near the public phones. Her driving was still interrupted by lots of restarts and lurches, but seemed to be getting a little better. A slight breeze pushed back the prickle of heat that touched her skin. Tabitha walked over and punched the numbers for her phone card and then the telephone number. She could get a chip for her phone while she was in Nelspruit and not have to find pay phones anymore. A familiar voice answered the ringing in her ear.

  “Aunt Rose, it’s me.”

  “Tabs, I’m so glad you called. Your mother is ballistic with distress. Have you called her yet?”

  “What’s going on?”

  “Well, honey, in case you haven’t heard, your Uncle Phillip was killed in Africa and your mother’s only daughter is over there with God knows what happening to her.”

  Tabitha laughed. “Sounds just like Mom. I get the picture, but who told?”

  “It slipped, but you should have told her anyway.”

  “I was going to tell her once everything was sort of settled. I’ve got to arrange something with a funeral parlor. Do you have any suggestions? I mean, I’ve never done this.” Tabitha watched her feet as she scuffed a brown sandal back and forth through the dust on the pavement. This
was not an experience she wanted to have.

  “I don’t know either, sweetie. Just do your best. Don’t go too extravagant. I don’t think poor Phillip would like that. My call waiting is beeping. It’s probably your mother. I trust your judgment; just let me know what to do at my end. Call her, okay? Gotta go.”

  The line disconnected. Tabitha sighed. This called for a new calling card, which she shimmied out of her wallet and held up to the phone as she pressed numbers. Mother dearest, oh my. She heard the ring and the double click of her mother switching lines on call waiting.

  “Lo?” Half a breathless word made it through.

  “Mom?”

  “Tabitha oh, thank goodness you’re okay. Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. It’s Uncle Phillip who hasn’t made it.”

  “I’m just terrified that you are in mortal danger. Over there in Africa with all those wild animals. I never did want you to go on this trip. Why don’t you get on the first airplane out of there and come home? Do you hear me? That’s what I want you to do…”

  And people wondered why she didn’t want to live at home and save money. Tabitha interrupted. “Mother. Have you and Jeffrey been conspiring? I’ll come home very soon, but for now I’ve got to make arrangements for the transport of Phillip’s body.” This idea still troubled Tabitha and she shivered despite the sunshine. “It’s still not been released. Apparently I’ve got to go through a bunch of red tape. I’m fine. No one is bothering me, but I need to stay and take care of things.”

  “Tabitha Cranz…”

  “Mom, I am going to fulfill the contracts Uncle Phillip and I had. I need to do this.” She spoke firmly, but Tabitha held her breath, wondering how her mom would react.

  She only went on pleading with Tabitha and cajoling her to drop everything and run to the airport. Tabitha chewed the loose skin on her well-worn bottom lip and only halfway listened. “I’ll see you soon, Mom, my card’s running out. Love you. Bye.” She put the receiver gently in place and leaned her head against it. One relative thinks she can handle anything, the other thinks she’s completely helpless. Will the real Tabitha please stand up? She shook herself. She needed to find out what had happened to Phillip. That was what was truly important here. She snatched her bag up off the ground and straightened her shoulders. She would do this, whatever the complications.