A Delicious Mistake Page 6

  There was nothing Sarah wanted more than to have her brother back. That wasn’t possible. So there was really nothing she wanted more than to find his killer.

  Chapter Five: Continental Crossing

  Despite her trying not to think, there wasn’t much else to do on the flight from England to Africa. She had to endure three plane changes, the last one taking her onto a chartered six-seat, twin-engine aircraft. The small craft shook and trembled with every billowing current it encountered, leaving Sarah clutching the seat in front of her and swallowing pretzels and soda water to combat a fluttering stomach. She had brought a book with her, but she couldn’t read without feeling like she might throw up on the pages at any given moment. She really wasn’t programmed for travel. She liked home and comforts and good restaurants and soft beds. She wasn’t like Luke.

  Sarah sighed heavily as thoughts of her brother invaded her mind for what had to be the millionth time. She leaned against the window and shut her eyes tightly—both against the aircraft bouncing and the memories that rose up so easily, ready to assault her with a fresh wave of regrets.

  Anger, she thought desperately. Find your anger and hold on to it.

  It really wasn’t healthy, but what else could she do?

  Late in the afternoon she finally landed on Tanzanian ground. The arrival seemed to have been timed perfectly by some higher power from above with a sick sense of humor. She got out of the cramped airplane and stepped onto the narrow, pathetic excuse for a landing field. It looked more like a dirt patch. Landing airplanes kicked up more dust than a passing twister. But Sarah was treated to a view that anyone else would call “breathtaking.” The Serengeti plains out to the horizon. Further along still, the red globe of the setting sun lit the savannah with reds and golds and colors that could take anyone’s breath.

  Despite everything, Sarah found a small, nostalgic smile had begun to form on her lips. She snapped herself out of it, wiping away that moment of melancholic longing with a deep breath. She didn’t have time for being sentimental. She couldn’t fall into the trap of Africa’s charm—she would not fall back in love with the place. Not now, and not ever. The memories were too painful now, and if she wasn’t careful, she would have to come to terms with her grief while she stood on the solitary plains of Tanzania. She couldn’t do that. This wasn’t the right time or place.

  Retrieving her bags from a disgruntled pilot who hadn’t quite appreciated her scathing looks during the flight whenever the aircraft fell into a new turbulence, Sarah gave the man a few extra bills for his trouble. He smiled widely, his bad mood seeming to lift in an instant. She barely refrained from rolling her eyes. She hoisted her duffel over her shoulder, grabbed her suitcase, and walked away from the hellish plane.

  It wasn’t long before she spotted the car that was supposed to take her from the scant airstrip to the Hutton Game Lodge. The vehicle was a Jeep much like the ones she knew the rangers used, although somewhat less equipped. The rest of the lodge staff didn’t have to fight off poachers. She walked briskly up to it, already working furiously to form an action plan. She needed to do this methodically or else she risked getting lost in her African past.

  The driver stepped out of the Jeep as soon as he saw her. She knew at once he must be Maasai, no other tribe produced men so tall or so handsome. A flicker of disappointment caught at her, followed by relief. She had thought Benjamin might meet her, but she wasn’t ready to face him. Not with her clothes rumpled and her nerves exhausted from travel and worry. And did it say good things or not that Benjamin hadn’t come? She didn’t know. Instead, she studied the man who had come from the Lodge. In his forties, with deep brown eyes, she decided he had an easygoing air that she liked.

  He greeted her with a smile and extended his hand. “Tendai Conteh.”

  Sarah shook his hand, brisk and businesslike. She wanted to be friendly, but she found with some dismay that she had no idea whom she could trust. “Sarah Hutton.”

  “Miss Hutton.” His smile dropped away. “I’m so deeply sorrowed for your loss.”

  Sarah nodded, startled by the lump that suddenly squeezed her throat. This was the first time she had acknowledged Luke’s death with anyone outside of her family. She hadn’t even said anything to her girlfriends back home. She hadn’t known how to even begin to explain the enormity of the situation to them. She had only told them she was taking a trip to Tanzania to visit her family’s holdings, and she had to do her best to ignore their proclamations of envy.

  She cleared her throat and managed a thank you that she was proud to realize sounded clear and devoid of tears enough to fool any stranger into believing she was actually handling this well.

  Tendai took her bags and put them in the back seat. He even opened the passenger’s door for her, and Sarah found herself offering him a genuine smile. “Thank you,” she said and hoped she sounded a lot more sincere this time. “You’re a gentleman, Mr. Conteh.”

  He smiled shyly at her and went around the car to climb behind the wheel. He lurched the vehicle away from the airstrip, taking off with such a sharp movement that Sarah fell back and then almost slammed her nose against the dashboard.

  “Apologies,” Tendai said. He spoke well enough but his accent betrayed his broken English. “The ground is tricky and I’m not used having a lady on board.”

  Sarah laughed. It was probably the first one since she’d had since she’d heard the news of her brother’s death. It felt good. “I’m no lady, Mr. Conteh. Not on this trip.”

  Tendai shot her a sideways glance. “What do you mean?”

  “I’m not here on vacation, Mr. Conteh.”

  “No, of course not—”

  “I intend to find out what really happened to my brother.” She stared at him, daring him to say something. He might as well know now. Everyone might as well know.

  If Tendai Conteh was surprised to find out that Luke Hutton’s little sister, who hadn’t set foot outside of the comfortable Western world ever since she had hit puberty, had come to the Serengeti on a mission by herself, he didn’t show it. He nodded wordlessly, as if he understood. Sarah had the distinct feeling he truly did, and for some reason that upset her.

  After a few minutes, she said, “I don’t remember you from the last time I was here.” She had been trying to place his face, and couldn’t. It was probably a good idea to get acquainted with anyone who worked at the lodge—anyone who might know something.

  “I have only been working for Mr. Hutton for four years,” the man admitted.

  Sarah instantly realized that by Mr. Hutton he meant Luke and not her father. A hint of melancholy in the man’s voice told her just how fond he had been of her brother. She wondered if the rest of the staff and the rangers had held Luke in such high regard. Somebody clearly hadn’t.

  No, Sarah berated herself. Don’t go there. Don’t fire off accusations yet. Don’t jump to conclusions. You don’t know that it was one of them. You don’t know that it was Benjamin. You don’t know anything.

  “He was a very good man, your brother,” Tendai said, startling her out of her bleak reverie.

  Sarah nodded. “Yes, he was,” she said quietly.

  The rest of the drive was spent in blissful silence. She stared out of the Jeep at the savannah speeding by. The small roads around the airport gave way to dirt paths. Just as she had predicted, the endless plains of the Serengeti didn’t bring her any relief. She didn’t feel free and she most definitely was not at peace. The beneficial effect Africa had had on her when she had first arrived—and when she’d been a girl—was gone, possibly forever. As they drove on and the distance to the Hutton Game Lodge shrank, Sarah’s heart grew heavier and heavier. The knots plaguing her stomach grew tighter and tighter. The weight of the pressure she had chosen to put herself under by taking on this mission began to make itself painfully known.

  This wasn’t a pleasure trip—it was the furthest from a pleasure trip as humanly possible. She hadn’t been as fond of Africa as Luke wa
s, but she had been fond of it to some notable extent. Not anymore, she realized as Tendai Conteh brought her closer to the place she had once called her home away from home. This trip didn’t feel the same as it had when she had made the journey alongside her family. Luke’s death had changed Tanzania for her, and Sarah found no pleasure in the stark beauty of the sun setting over the Serengeti plains.

  She stole a sideways glance at her driver. He seemed like a good man, but who was to say? Could you ever really know anyone? If she couldn’t even trust Benjamin Ndlovo, who had been a brother to her own brother and almost a son to her parents, whom could she trust? Was there anyone in the district where she was headed she could truly turn to in case of necessity?

  Perhaps she hadn’t thought this through. It was one thing to set out in search of the truth. It was another thing not to know to whom she could present that truth. Well, she could certainly always go to the police—assuming she didn’t get herself killed.

  No, I won’t think along those lines.

  She pushed a hand into her hair and pulled its heavy weight away from her face and neck. She had pulled it back but the wind from the open Jeep whipped loose long strands. In the setting sun, she thought her hair looked almost like it had caught fire—perhaps it was that anger still burning in her leaking out. She clung to that and pressed a hand on her stomach. She would find her truth, and she would find a way to make sure that it was heard.

  When her family’s lands and the lodge finally came into view, Sarah’s heart skipped a beat. She recognized most of it. The compound which had been fenced in to keep out most of the wild animals. A half dozen mud huts around the edge of the compound. A few canvas tents, one of which would feed the staff and the other for basic nursing care. And the main lodge—a two-storey building made of local woods with a deep, wrap around veranda. It alone looked to be a building from another era, for it had been built by her grandfather. She forced herself to maintain her composure, which she felt was beginning to slip out of her grasp. Tears stung her eyes. Luke wouldn’t be stepping from the veranda to greet her. He wouldn’t be grinning at her, his blue eyes alive in his tan face. She bit her lower lip. No one seemed to be here to greet her.

  Tendai parked in front of the lodge, and Sarah sat there for a few moments listening to the engine pop in the cool evening air. Tendai sat with her. She didn’t know whether he would mark it down to exhaustion from her long journey that she didn’t move, or if he could see into her. She didn’t care. She needed a minute and she didn’t have to justify it to anyone.

  She looked up when the passenger’s door opened for her. Tendai Conteh had gotten out of the Jeep and walked around it to show her one more gallantry. Apparently, he had decided her time for sitting and taking in her old home was up. Sarah nodded absently to him and stepped out of the vehicle. She glanced around, taking in her surroundings once again. There had been a time when she had known the modest main house and the huts and the lands around it like the back of her hand. Now, without Luke here to greet her, it all felt like unexplored, potentially threatening territory.

  “Here are your bags, Miss Hutton.” Tendai placed her duffel bag and suitcase by her boot-clad feet. She had dressed for Africa and that had made her flights and the airports even more exhausting.

  Sarah turned to him and forced out a smile. “Thank you, Mr. Conteh.” She gave him a nod, genuinely gratefully for his kindness, but dismissingly. She wanted to go into the lodge on her own.

  He hesitated and then asked, “May I be so bold as to offer you a piece of advice?”

  Sarah frowned. “Of course,” she said warily.

  Tendai took a few steps toward her so that they now stood very close. She had to fight the instinct to back away at this unwelcomed invasion of her personal space, but she soon realized he had done it so no one would hear what he had to say. Intrigued, she found herself leaning toward him, as if preparing herself for the sharing of a secret.

  “You have done well to come here to find your truth,” he said, his voice quiet but firm. “But you will not find it where you think.”

  Sarah blinked at him. “What do you mean?”

  “This is Africa, Miss Hutton. Truth is not amongst men. Truth is in the land. It’s in the savannah.” He reached out and grabbed her arm, squeezing so urgently it almost hurt. “To find your answers, you need not to listen to men. You must listen to the voices of the ground and of the animals. You must listen to the voices of the Serengeti. That is the only way you will find your truth.”

  Sarah recoiled from his hold. She searched his face, wary and suspicious. “Do you know something?”

  “I know nothing.” He shook his head and looked genuinely saddened. “I wish I did. But the Serengeti knows.”

  Sarah stared at him. He finally released her arm, dipped his head in salute, and headed back to the driver’s side to climb into the Jeep. As she watched him drive away with his riddles, she drew in a deep, shaky breath. She had barely set foot in Tanzania and she was already exhausted. For a minute she doubted her strength to see this truth, but once again she quickly dismissed those thoughts of defeat. She wasn’t leaving without answers and without action having been taken against Luke’s killer. The man responsible for this, whoever he was, was going to be apprehended, and then justly punished. That was all that mattered.

  “Is that who I think it is? Is that my Nzuri Malaika?”

  Smiling, she thought one thing had not changed—the voice of her beloved Lindiwele still filled her heart with warmth. Feeling suddenly more relaxed than she had in days, Sarah turned around. She was shocked to see a stooped, frail old woman making her slow way toward her with the aid of a cane. Quickly, Sarah hurried to meet her. She was instantly enveloped in a surprisingly strong hug.

  “Welcome home, Nzuri Malaika!” Lindiwele cried. Her dark eyes filled with tears. She ran an appraising gaze over Sarah. “Oh, you have become such a beautiful, beautiful woman!”

  Sarah laughed. She was about to say something predictable along the lines of how Lindiwele hadn’t aged a day, but she couldn’t bring herself to lie so shamelessly. Instead, she grasped the old woman’s hands. “I am so glad to see you, my Lindiwele.” That was very, very true.

  Lindiwele had been the home cook at the lodge for as long as Sarah could remember. She had also taken up the role of a nanny, and Sarah remembered long afternoons and evenings spent in the kitchen, helping Lindiwele and listening to her beautiful stories. They both had cried hot tears the day they had to say goodbye to each other.

  Lindiwele had never called Sarah by her name. She had always used the endearing term of Nzuri Malaika, which in her native dialect, a language Sarah had tried to learn more than once, meant “beautiful angel.” That the woman was still using the nickname for her filled her with a security and feeling of homecoming she had not thought she’d find. Even if it turned out that Benjamin was no longer anyone she could trust, it appeared that she would have an ally in the district after all.

  * * *

  Sarah longed for nothing other than a shower and a bed, but she held off seeking out those comforts. Instead, she had Lindiwele take her around to get reacquainted with everyone. A few members of the staff Sarah remembered from her childhood days, and she had to smile at their warm, open-hearted welcomes. After such a long absence she wouldn’t have expected them to remember or even to recognize her. She introduced herself to those she didn’t know. They seemed pleased to be meeting Luke Hutton’s sister. Apparently, Luke had been genuinely popular among these people. Beneath their kind greetings, she glimpsed a thick layer of sadness that no warm smile could have hidden. A mood of mourning hung in the air in the lodge and it dampened what she thought would have otherwise been a more exuberant reception.

  Sarah couldn’t blame them. She walked from the house to the park rangers’ headquarters, where she met and introduced herself to every man who wasn’t out patrolling the lands. As she let them show her around, she momentarily forgot about her fatigue and lost hers
elf in the process of learning to know these grounds once again. It was odd to not see Luke among the faces—black and white—or hear his mirthful laughter. Her throat tightened and her heart clutched with anguish. But she concealed her painful thoughts for these people’s benefit and forced herself to focus on them. She asked questions about their jobs and their families. The more she could learn about each of them, the better—and not just for the good of her investigation. To her surprise, she found she needed the human contact.

  Later on, after unpacking her bags and refreshing herself with a quick shower, she also found hunger was going to win over exhaustion. She wandered downstairs to the kitchen. She wasn’t surprised to find Lindiwele sitting at the table with a book in her hand despite the late hour.

  The old woman looked up and smiled brightly. “What is it, Nzuri Malaika? Are you hungry?”

  “Well, yes,” Sarah admitted. “But please, let me do it.” She held out her hand to stop Lindiwele from getting up.

  The old cook shook her head, already halfway to standing. “Nonsense, I insist.” When Sarah opened her mouth to protest, she shook a finger at Sarah. “I haven’t prepared a meal for you in eleven years. Let me do it.”

  Sarah smiled and relented. “Thank you,” she said sincerely, walking to the oak kitchen table and sitting down.

  She watched as Lindiwele busied herself in the kitchen, the woman’s movements sure and quick despite her age. It was such a familiar sight and the sounds of the pots and pans were so comforting that for a moment Sarah forgot about everything that had happened. For a few precious minutes she was just a girl sitting in a kitchen with her favorite adult. Then reality set back in.