Leopard Hunts in Darkness b-4

by Wilbur A. Smith

  "So what were your feelings?"

  "I was anticipating trouble." "What happened then?"

  "Two of my bodyguards left the Mercedes, and went to speak to the driver of the truck."

  "From where you were seated in the Mercedes, could you see the truck-driver?"

  "Yes. He was a complete stranger to me. I had never seen him before."

  "What was your reaction to this?"

  "I was by this time extremely wary."

  "Then what happened?" "Suddenly there were other headlights on the road behind us. A voice on a bull-horn ordering my men to surrender and throw down their arms. My Mercedes was surrounded by armed men and I was forcibly dragged from it."

  "Did you recognize any of these men?"

  "Yes. When I was pulled from the Mercedes, I recognized General Fungabera."

  "Did this allay your suspicions?"

  "On the contrary, I was now convinced that I was in danger of my life."

  "Why was that, Mr. Minister?"

  "General Fungabera commands a brigade which is notorious for its ruthless acts against prominent Matabele-"

  "I object, your lordship the Third Brigade is a unit of the regular army of the state, and General Fungabera a well-known and respected officer, "Abel Khori cried.

  "The prosecution is totally justified in its objection." The judge was suddenly trembling with anger. "I cannot allow the accused to use this courtroom to attack a prominent soldier and his gallant men. I cannot allow the accused to stand before me and disseminate tribal hatreds and prejudices. Be warned I will not hesitate to find you guilty of gross contempt if you continue in this vein." Joseph Petal took fully thirty seconds to let his witness recover from this tirade.

  "You say you felt that your life was in danger?"

  "Yes," said Tungata quietly.

  "You were strung up and on edge?"

  "Yes.) "Did you see the soldiers unloading ivory and furs from the truck?" 11 did."

  "What was your reaction?"

  "I believed that these would somehow, I was not certain how but I believed they would incriminate me, and be used as an excuse to kill me."

  "I object, your lordship," Abet Khori called out.

  "I will not warn the accused again," Mr. Justice Domashawa promised threateningly.

  "What happened then?"

  "Miss Jay left the vehicle in which she was travelling and she came near me. The soldiers were distracted. I believed that this would be my last chance. I took hold of Miss Jay to prevent the soldiers firing and attempted to escape in the Land-Rover." "Thank you, Mr. Minister." Mr. Joseph Petal turned to the judge. "My lord, my witness has had a tiring examination.

  May I suggest that the court rise until tomorrow morning to allow him a chance to recover?" Abel Khori was instantly up on his feet, lusting for blood.

  "It is barely noon yet, and the accused has been on the stand for less than thirty minutes, and his counsel has dealt with him recte et suaviter. For a trained and hardened soldier, that is a mere bagatelle per se." Abel Khori, in his agitation, lapsed into Latin.

  "We will continue, Mr. Petal," said the judge, and Joseph Petalshrugged.

  "Your witness, Mr. Khori." Abel Khori was in his element, becoming lyrical and poetic. "You testified that you were in fear of your life but I put it to you that you were attacked by guilt, that you were in deadly fear of retribution, that you were terrified by the prospect of facing the exemplary process of this very people's court, of facing the wrath of that learned and just scarlet, clad figure you now see before you."

  "No." That it was nothing more than craven guilty conscience that made you embark on a series of heinous and callous criminal actions-" "No. That is not so."

  "When you seized the lovely Miss Jay, did you not use E excessive physical force to twist her young and tender limbs?

  Did you not rain brutal blows upon her?"

  "I struck her once to prevent her hurling herself from the speeding vehicle and injuring herself seriously."

  "Did you not aim a deadly weapon to wit, a military assault rifle which you knew to be loaded, at the person of General Peter Fungabera?"

  "I threatened him with the rifle yes, that is true."

  "And then you fired deliberately at his nether regions to wit, his abdomen?"

  "I did not fire at Fungabera. I aimed to miss him."

  "I

  put it to you that you tried to murder the general, and only his marvelous reflexes saved him from your attack."

  "If I had tried to kill him," said Tungata softly, "he would be dead."

  "When you stole the Land-Rover, did you realize that it was state property?

  "Did you aim the rifle at Mr. Craig Mellow? And were you only prevented from murdering him by Miss Jay's brave intervention?" For almost another hour Abel Khori flew at the impassive figure in the dock, extracting from him a series of damning admissions, so that when at last Abel Khori sat down, preening likea victorious game cock, Craig judged that Mr. Joseph Petal had paid in heavy coin for any small advantage he might have gained by placing his client on the witness stand.

  However, Mr. Petal's closing address was finely pitched to incite sympathy, and to explain and justify Tungata Zebiwe's actions on that night, without flouting the judge's patriotic or tribal instincts in the process.

  "I will reserve my judgment until tomorrow," Mr. Justice Domashawa announced, and the court rose, the spectators humming with excited comment as they streamed out into the passage.

  Over dinner Sally-Anne admitted, "For the first time in this whole business, I felt so try when Sarah went on the stand she is such a sweet*hild."

  "Child? I guess she ois a year or two older than you," Craig chuckled, that' makes you a babe in arms." She ignored his levity and went on seriously, "She so obviously believes in him that for a moment or two even I began to doubt what I knew then, Of course, Abel Khori brought me back to earth." r Justice Domashawa read out his judgment in his precise, old-maidish voice that somehow did not suit the gravity of the subject. Firstly, he covered the events that were common cause between prosecution and defence, and then went on, "The defence has based its case on two main pillars. The first of these is the testimony of Miss Sarah Nyoni that the accused was on his way to what, for want of a better word, we are led to believe was a love-tryst, and that his meeting with the truck was a coincidence or contrived in some unexplained manner by persons unknown.

  "Now Miss Nyoni impressed this court as being a naive and unworldly young lady, and by her admission is completely under the influence of the accused. The court has had, perforce, to consider the prosecution's postulation that Miss Nyoni might even have been, in fact, so influenced by the accused as to consent to act as an accomplice in arranging the consignment of contraband.

  "In view of the foregoing, the court has rejected the testimony of Miss Nyoni as potentially biased and unreliable "The second pillar of the defence's case rests on the premise that the life of the accused was threatened, or that he believed it to be threatened, by the arresting officers, and in this belief embarked on a series of unreasoned and unreasoning acts of self-protection.

  "General Peter Fungabera is an officer of impeccable reputation, a high official of the state. "Me Third Brigade is an elite unit of the state's regular army, its members, although battle-hardened veterans, are disciplined and trained soldiers.

  "The court, therefore, categorically rejects the accused's contention that either General Fungabera or his men could have, even in the remotest possibility, constituted a threat to his safety, let alone his life. The court also rejects the contention that the accused believed this to be the case.

  "Accordingly, I come to the first charge. Namely, that of trading or dealing in the products of scheduled wild animals. I find the accused guilty as charged and I sentence him to the maximum penalty under the law. Twelve years at hard labour.

  "On the second charge of abducting and holding a hostage, I find the accused guilty as charged and I sentence h
im to ten years at hard labour.

  "On the third charge of assault with a deadly weapon, I find the accused guilty and sentence him to six years at hard labour Assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm six years at hard labour.

  Attempted murder six years at hard labour I order that these sentences run consecutively and that no part of them be suspended-" Even Abel Khori's head jerked up at that. The sentences totalled forty years. With full remission for good behaviour, Tungata could still expect to serve over thirty years, the rest of his useful life.

  At the back of the -court a black woman shrieked in Sindebele, "Babo! The father! They are taking our father from us!" Others took up the cry. "Father of the people!

  Our father is dead to us." A man began to sing in a soaring baritone voice.

  "Why do you weep, widows of Shangani... Why do you weep, little sons of the Moles, When your' fathers did the king's bidding?" It was one of the ancient fighting songs of the imp is of King Lobengula, and the singer was a man in his prime with a strong intelligent face and a short-cropped, spade shaped beard barely speckled with grey. As he sang, the tears ran down his cheeks into his beard. In another time he might have been an induna of one of the royal imp is

  His song was taken up by the men around him, and Mr. justice Domashawa came to his feet in a fury.

  "If there is not silence this instant, I will have the court cleared and the offenders charged with contempt," he shouted over the singing, but it was five minutes more of pandemonium before the ushers could restore order.

  Through it all, Tungata Zebiwe stood quietly in the dock, with just the barest hint of a mocking smile on his lips. When at last it was over, but before his guards led him away, he gazed across the courtroom at Craig Mellow and he made a last hand-signal. They had only used it playfully before, perhaps after a hard-contested bout of wrestling or some other friendly competition. Now Tungata used it in deadly earnest. The sign meant: "We are equal the score is levelled," and Craig understood completely. Craig had lost his leg and Tungata had lost his freedom. They were equal.

  He wanted to call out to the man who had once been his friend that it was a sorry bargain, not of his choosing, but Tungata had turned away. His warders were trying to lead him out of the dock, but Tungata pulled back, his head turning as he searched for someone else in the crowded court.

  Sarah Nyoni climbed up onto her bench, and over the heads of the crowd she reached out both hands towards him. Now Tungata made his last hand signal to her. Craig read it clearly. "Take cover! Tungata ordered her. "Hide your se If. You are in danger." By the altered expression on her face, Craig saw that the girl had understood the command, and then the warders were dragging Tungata Zebiwe down the stairs that led to the prison cells below ground.

  raig Mellow shoved his way through the singing, lamenting crowds of Matabele who overflowed the buildings of the Supreme Court and disrupted the lunch-hour traffic in the broad causeway that it fronted.

  He dragged Sally-Anne by her wrist and brusquely shouldered aside the press photographers who tried to block his way.

  In the car park he boosted Sally-Anne into the front seat of the Land-Rover, and ran around to the driver's side, threatening with a raised fist the last and most persistent photographer in his path. He drove directly to her apartment and halted at the front door. He did not turn off the engine.

  "And now?" Sally' Anne asked.

  "I don't understand the question, "he snapped.

  "Hey!" she said. "I'm your friend remember me?"

  "I'm sorry." He slumped over the wheel. J feel rotten plain bloody rotten." She did not reply, but her eyes were full of compassion for him.

  "Forty years," he whispered. "I never expected that. If only I'd known-"

  "There was nothing you could do then, or now." He balled his fist and hammered it on the steering wheel "The poor bastard forty years!"

  "Are you coming up?" she asked softly, but he shook his head.

  "I have to get back to King's Lynn. I've neglected everything while this awful bloody business has been going on."

  "You're going right now?" She was startled.

  "Yes."

  "Alone?" she asked, and he nodded.

  "I want to be alone."

  "So you can torture yourself." Her voice firmed. "And I'll be damned if I'll allow that. I'm coming with you. Wait! I am going to throw some things in a bag you needn't even kill the engine, I'll be that quick." She was five minutes, and then ran back down the stairs lugging her rucksack and her camera bag. She slung them into the back of the Land-Rover.

  "Okay, let's go." They spoke very little on the long journey, but soon Craig was thankful to have her beside him, grateful for her smile when he glanced at her, for the touch of her hand on his when she sensed the black mood too strong upon him, and for her undemanding silence.

  They drove up the hills of King's Lynn in the dusk.

  Joseph had seen them from afar, and was waiting on the front veranda.

  "I see you, Nkosazana." From their first meeting Joseph had taken an instant liking to Sally-Anne. Already she was his "little mistress" and his welcoming grin kept breaking through his solemn dignity as he ordered his servants to unload her meagre luggage.

  "I run bath for you very hot."

  "That will be marvelous, Joseph." After her bath she came back to the veranda and Craig went to the drinks table and mixed a whisky for her the way she liked it, and another one for himself that was mainly Scotch and very little soda.

  "Here's to judge Domashawa," he lifted his glass ironically, "and to Mashona justice. All forty years of it." Sally-Anne refused wine at dinner despite his protest.

  "Baron Rothschild would be frightfully affronted. His very best stuff. My last bottle, smuggled in personally." Craig's In gaiety was forced.

  After dinner he lifted the brandy decanter and as he was about to pour, she said, "Craig, please don't get drunk." He paused with the decanter over the snifter and studied her face.

  "No," she shook her head. "I'm not being bossy I'm being entirely selfish. Tonight I want you sober." He set down the decanter, pushed back his chair and came around the table to her. She stood up to meet him.

  He paused in front of her. "Oh, my darling, I've waited so "I know, "she whispered. "Me too." He took her carefully into his arms, something precious and fragile, and felt her changing slowly. She seemed to soften, and her body became malleable, shaping itself to his own, so he could feel her against him from knees to firm young bosom, the heat of her soaking quickly through their thin clothing.

  He bowed his head as she lifted her chin and their mouths came together. Her lips were cool and dry, but almost immediately he felt the heat rising in them and they parted, moist and sweet as a sun-warmed fig freshly plucked and splitting open with its ripe juices.

  He looked into her eyes as he kissed her, and marvelled at the colours and the patterns that formed a nimbus around her pupils, green shot through wid-i golden arrowheads, and then her eyelids fluttered down over them, and her long crisp lashes interlocked. He closed his own eyes, and the earth seemed to tilt and swing under him, he rode it easily, holding her to him, but not trying yet to explore her body, content with t4b wonder of her mouth, and the velvet feel of her tongge against his.

  Joseph opened the door from the kitchen, and stood for a moment with the coffee tray in his hands, and then he smiled smugly and drew back, closing the door behind him.

  Neither of them had heard him come or go. When she took her mouth away, Craig felt deprived and cheated, and reached for it again. She laid her fingers across his lips, restraining him for a moment, and her whisper was so husky that she had to clear her throat and start again. "Vt