Killed in Kruger

by Denise M. Hartman

  “I struggle to get art to go with my pieces. Obviously if I had the opportunity to take pictures of victims, I’d try to help. The police usually deport them so it’s not always a lot of help to get the authorities. My neutrality is no longer intact, with all I’ve learned.”

  “I can understand. Are there any names? Any park employees?”

  “Lots of names—mostly known criminals. I’ve not heard of any employees or involvement from park officials, but I suppose it could be occurring, or a payoff somewhere. Do you have a mobile where I could reach you?”

  Tabitha almost laughed. “Unfortunately, I bought a card, but I can’t get my American cell to work here.”

  “Sorry. Yeah, there’s a lot of disreputable dealers out there. We hear that a lot. Try another card. Keep in touch, will you?”

  Tabitha agreed, but felt she hadn’t learned much. If somehow those haunting slides of Phillip’s could be used in a story, and that’s what got him killed, that at least would be some measure of justice.

  She was waiting, arms crossed and pacing, in the main parking lot for Rian when he pulled in. She jumped in Rian’s small sparkly blue Opel sports car. Definitely not police issue. She pulled a map from her back pocket. She showed him the map briefly.

  “There aren’t a lot of places he could be between here and there.”

  “Assuming he didn’t go on further north or out around one of the forty-kilometer loops,” Rian pointed out, as they studied a map.

  Tabitha had thought of that, but all her experience with Daniel told of his honesty, so she felt sure he was near Satara or back toward this camp somewhere. They didn’t have to agree in order to be allies in the search. Plus Tabitha needed Minnaar for his wheels right now. It was a real-life glimpse into the interdependence of African life.

  “No, I really think he’s between here and Satara.” Tabitha also knew there wasn’t time to get all the way to Satara and back before the camp gates were closed for the evening. She’d deal with that when the time came. “It doesn’t show very many roads splitting off the main tar road.” She thought about Phillip, and swallowed hard. “We might want to check some of the dead-end roads in case he’s met with foul play.”

  “Right.” Minnaar’s skepticism showed through.

  “Also, they’re not wanting people to go north from the camp. Maybe you can convince them since you’re in uniform.”

  “What?”

  “There’s been some kind of brush fire to the north.” To emphasize the point, a puff of gray smoke drifted past the car.

  “You are kidding me…” Rian didn’t finish the thought, but backed out with a force that illustrated his frustration. Tabitha couldn’t fix the situation; she was asking a lot of Rian. She’d have to let his emotions ride.

  Not far after they turned north, a woman in a park uniform motioned for them to stop. The smoke was heavier here. They could see people on the side of the road with shovels and water tanks on their backs. The burned area went as far as the next hill, but looked as though they’d arrested it.

  The park employee argued with Rian. “No sir, you cannot go this way.”

  “Look, this is an investigation into the death of a guest at the park. I don’t think you want to impede that, do you?”

  “Sir, it is a matter of safety.” She determinedly shook her head.

  “I can see you’ve got it under control, so just let me pass.” She was still shaking her head. Rian continued, “Look, call Souli or Mpande for me. They’ll verify my story.”

  Tabitha thought this was a brilliant tack, but wondered what Souli or Mpande might actually say.

  The woman faltered and bit her lip. She looked out to the burning bush. Finally, she stepped back and waved them past.

  Rian turned on a police radio and found the park frequency. Tabitha was stunned at how devastated the area was in such a short time. Her heart skipped a beat, hoping that Daniel had not been out there somewhere.

  The voices on the radio were going furiously, but Tabitha had trouble following the exchanges. Finally one word came through clearly. Arson.

  “We need to hurry,” she said.

  They took two different loop roads off the main tar road, but only encountered a lone hippo grazing near a small pool of water. Tabitha knew this was crazy. If it was something like a flat tire, Daniel was more than capable of handling it. But urgency drove her onward. C’mon, Daniel. Tell me where you’re at.

  An early gray dusk began to settle on the veldt, threatening rain. The firefighters would be glad of the extra water. Tabitha begged the sky not to shut out their light. Not yet. Not yet.

  They drove on mostly in silence, after the radio traffic ran out. They went in and out of sand roads and small loops. A fine drizzle began to settle onto the windshield. Tabitha squinted through the mist for any sign of the yellow bakkie.

  A tiny dirt track ran off to the right. They passed it before Tabitha spotted it. This one wasn’t marked on the map. Raindrops erased any chance of spotting fresh tracks. “Stop.” With a screech of tires, they skidded to a stop on the slick asphalt.

  “What did you see?” Rian asked.

  “A small dirt track. There, you see?” She pointed across him out the right side of the car.

  Rian sighed. “I suppose you want me to drive it?” He grimaced, throwing the car into reverse. “You know this isn’t an off-road vehicle, here.”

  “I know, I know. How about I pay to get it washed?”

  This made Rian laugh, but didn’t completely remove the tension that had built as they searched. He checked for oncoming traffic before crossing to the small track. It was just wide enough for a single car to pass without having to bump into the scratchy vegetation lining the road.

  When it seemed the road was giving way to the bush and disappearing, Rian pointed. “I’ll be damned.” The back end of the yellow truck protruded from a dense thorn thicket. Rian stopped the car behind the truck. They gave each other a serious look but neither said anything. Tabitha left the car first. She squinted into the back of the truck bed but saw nothing out of order. All the extra stuff she had left in the truck lay buried under the canvas tarp.

  The rain started to fall more earnestly and a crack of lightning tore across the sky. The accompanying thunder echoed hard against the ground. It shook Tabitha loose from her fears. “Daniel! Daniel!” She yelled and turned in a circle, looking for a place he could be hidden. “Daniel!” Tabitha climbed onto the bumper and up on top of the bed liner.

  “Use caution up there,” Rian said, stepping onto the bumper for a better view also.

  Just in front of the truck was a large boulder emerging from the ground. From above Tabitha could see a slight trail broken through the gray dry bush. An animal trek, not a human one. This boulder bordered the trail. A perfect spot to leave someone you want disposed of by animals. If she could get the truck out of the way and look on the other side of that boulder…

  “Quick,” Tabitha said to Rian. “Help me move the truck.”

  Rian swatted at the undergrowth, trying to clear a pathway. Tabitha squeezed through the brush against the left side of the truck, realizing too late that the right side was the driver’s. She wedged open the door anyway and managed to climb into the cab and across to the driver’s seat. No keys. No keys. She searched frantically. She rolled the window down and called to Rian.

  “I can’t find the keys. I’ll put it in neutral and we can try to pull it.”

  “What is it you see?” he called from the back of the truck.

  “I’m not sure. Pull, Pull.” Tabitha tried to press her way back out of the cab to grab the frame and push, but Rian had swung his weight into it and the truck moved in slow motion as she climbed out. A branch smacked her in the face, making her eyes water. She swiped them on her sleeve and pushed the truck toward the dirt road. When she saw enough space in front of the bakkie she flung herself toward the boulder with Rian close behind her. She hesitated. What if Daniel was dead? What would she see?
Rian grabbed her shoulder, pulling her back and stepping ahead.

  “I smell something,” he said.

  Then Tabitha caught the scent of pure decay. No. Wasn’t it too soon for…?

  “Oh, God,” he said, climbing around the end of the boulder.

  Tabitha shoved her way forward to see, covering her mouth and nose with her hand.

  A mostly eaten impala lay putrefying, identifiable by the skin left on the skull and by the horns. A male.

  Chapter 49

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Johanne asked.

  Mhlongo grunted and went around to the back of the park vehicle they were driving, opening the hatch. “I’m taking care of it, like Pieter said.”

  “He didn’t say go make another bloody mess. He didn’t say go make another body turn up in the bush.”

  “Pieter said make certain the certificates were delivered and safe. The deliveryman opened the package and took a certificate. What was I supposed to do? Pieter will leave the country before this body is discovered. You and I will become rich. Lift.” The two men struggled under their burden, shuffling their feet through the loose earth into the bush. The man in the tarp groaned.

  “This is far enough,” Johanne gasped between breaths.

  Mhlongo indicated a little further along with his head.

  “I can’t believe you.”

  “This man never respected me anyway. He deserves what he gets.”

  They dumped their burden to the ground. Mhlongo shrugged and pulled the Velcro on a side pants pocket. He extracted a small caliber pistol. Johanne grabbed at it. They tussled for a moment.

  As they wrestled Johanne said, “Stupid idiot. I’m trying to stop you because we passed some rangers not a half a kilometer ago. Do you want them to find us before we get to the main road?”

  The struggle ended with Mhlongo’s harsh laughter. “There may be a brain inside your head after all. You are right. We won’t use the gun here.” He tucked it away and pulled a hunting knife from his belt.

  “Hurry, you kafir. I hear a car coming.”

  Chapter 50

  Tabitha scrambled onto the boulder and climbed higher. Above the shrubby veldt she got a gray view of bush not yet turned green despite the spring rains falling on her and Rian this afternoon. Spindly branches stretched out to her as far as she could see, which wasn’t far. They seemed to be in a valley or depression in the bush.

  “Daniel?” Tabitha called to the bush. Her voice echoed back to her on a wind that promised more rain. She couldn’t see any evidence of a human being out there.

  Rian called, “Give us a look then?” He climbed to the top of the boulder without much effort. “I don’t see anything,” he said after studying the landscape. “But let’s walk that trail and see where it goes.”

  She followed his finger to a slight ridge in the bush.

  “It’s an animal trek,” Rian said, crawling down the other side of the boulder and stepping gingerly around the impala carcass.

  The path was barely wide enough for a person, and even at Tabitha’s diminutive height she found the side branches dragging against her head. She jumped and slapped each time one caught in her hair. Rian crouched to fit into the space. The dry sticks cracked as their bodies brushed against them. The noise masked anything else that might be out there. Tabitha’s nerves cracked along with the bush. Daniel’s warnings about getting out of the truck flared in her memory, as did imagined images of Uncle Phillip’s demise.

  “Do you see anything?” Tabitha asked from behind Rian.

  “I’m not much of a tracker, but this sandy soil would show footsteps, and I don’t see any human ones. It hasn’t rained hard enough to erase them yet. Let’s try back the other direction.”

  Rian put his hand on her back to guide her in the other direction. Tabitha made an effort not to stiffen. Rian was only being polite. At least, she hoped that was all it was. She was too tense to think about it.

  As they retraced their steps, Tabitha could clearly see where she and Rian had walked. It would be easy to see Daniel’s big footsteps if he had been here. The plunk plunk of raindrops began in earnest again. One here, one there. Neither Rian nor Tabitha said anything. They just pressed ahead more quickly. They passed the boulder where the bakkie had been. They hadn’t gone far when Rian said, “I don’t see any tracks here either. I think this may have just been a good place to hide the bakkie. Let’s turn back.”

  Tabitha about-faced thankfully. The veldt closed in on her along with the rain, giving her a sensation of suffocation. Why hide the bakkie? Stealing or stealth?

  A crackling sensation well beyond that of Rian and Tabitha’s movement came to their ears. Rian paused to look back at Tabitha. A lone male elephant forged a new trail by pushing and eating his way into this little pathway. He was more than a hundred meters behind them, but they could see glimpses of him through the leafless veldt.

  “C’mon, c’mon,” Rian said, waving Tabitha ahead of him. “He won’t take kindly to human company out here.”

  Tabitha had a brief moment of panic. She wanted to run, but Rian said cool smooth movements would bring less attention, since elephants don’t see real well.

  They had no problem making it back to the vehicles ahead of the elephant. He was too busy tearing up bits of the bushveld to notice them. In the truck, Tabitha watched the elephant pull the branch off a tree and toss it aside. So much for his conservation tactics.

  Tabitha searched the cab again for keys. She fished them out of the door panel and waved them at Rian. Someone had been planning on coming back for it, apparently. Hopefully not right now. Rian pulled his car alongside the bakkie.

  “Are you okay to drive?” he asked.

  “Fine,” Tabitha answered, not quite feeling that was true. “You really don’t think Daniel is out here?”

  “No tracks away from the bakkie doesn’t make any sense. Especially since he’s only been gone this afternoon.”

  “So maybe this was a hiding place for the bakkie, then?” Tabitha asked.

  “Yeah, looks that way. Someone left the keys so they could send someone back for it. Maybe Daniel is planning to say it’s stolen.”

  “No, not Daniel. He wouldn’t.” She could sense Rian rolling his eyes, even if she couldn’t see it.

  “Someone, then, wanted you to think it was gone. We just happened down the right road.” The rain was coming in a steady flow now. “Someone who didn’t have enough time to take it further afield.” Rian stroked his steering wheel thoughtfully.

  “What about Daniel? We’ve got to find him.” Tabitha’s urgency hadn’t abated, even if Rian’s had. “Why don’t you go rouse the troops at the camp and I’ll keep looking.”

  “They aren’t going to be happy to see me. The administration, I’m sure, was instrumental in getting me called off the case already. Plus they’ve got their hands full with that fire. I think you need to get back and alert Mpande he’s lost a staff member. They’ll probably mount a more proficient search than we’re doing, if they can.” He looked at his watch. “I have to be back for a meeting tonight, so I need to take to the road. Sorry. Do you think you can convince them?”

  Tabitha felt disheartened. “I’ll have to, or Daniel will meet with the same fate as my uncle.” Tabitha looked up at the sky. The clouds pressed lower and darkened the evening sky.

  Rian led the way back toward camp, quickly disappearing ahead of her in the sports car. She was alone in the bakkie with her fears. Daniel might already be dead because of helping her. She gripped the steering wheel harder and accelerated faster. She would make them do something. She passed the burned-out area. Only a couple of cars remained. Looking out at the burnt black expanse, she bit her lip and willed herself not to think on the possibilities.

  Tabitha pulled up alongside Rian’s car outside the gate to Skukuza. He wasn’t in it, but the lights shined on the already locked gate. The windshield wipers screeched on the window, making her jump. The gate cracked open and Ria
n came out, pushing it.

  “I wondered where you’d gone,” she said, putting her window down. “You’re sure you can’t stay and help?”

  “No, they don’t want me around. I can talk to someone tomorrow if Mpande doubts your story, see if they’ll let me call.”

  Rian waved her through the gate and closed it behind her. Tomorrow would be too late. She drove over to the offices, but they were all dark. She got out with the intention of pounding on the door until she got attention. The twilight was gone and her sense of isolation pressed in tighter on her. She jumped at a voice behind her.

  “Miss, you must not be here. The offices are closed. Come back tomorrow.” A security guard had found her before she could find him.

  She used her most official voice. No more putting Tabitha off until later. “There’s an emergency with an employee. I need to find Mr. Mpande right away.”

  The tall man considered this for a moment.

  “It’s important. Do you know Daniel Kangala?”

  The guard nodded.

  “He’s in danger.”

  “Do you know the employee compound?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “Drive around the haggard tennis courts and turn right on the first street. His home is the first on the left.”

  The road was dark and her headlights only illuminated a small patch in front of her where the rain slashed the light. The bush night was complete. No street lamps to detract from the darkness. An occasional crack of lightning tore through the sky, lighting the homes around her. The air was warm and damp, choking. She missed the driveway and had to back up to make the turn, lurching the gears. As she shut off the engine, she listened to the rustle of the wind and rain in the leaves of the trees high above.