Virgo's Vice (20 page)

Chapter 36

Everyone stops talking and we all stare at him.

“I know what you’re thinking,” he says. “The battery would have died long ago, and you’re not wrong. But Mark helped me rig up my charger so it would work off the solar-powered charger for the cameras. So, you’ll see it’s working. The battery at least is good.”

“If there were any cell towers within a hundred miles that would be even better,” Rodriguez says in a sarcastic voice.

I’m thinking the same thing. I can’t imagine there would be a cell tower anywhere near here.

“Well, Mark said I should at least try. There are no bars here, but you know that hill over there?” He points to the boulder strewn hill a little way away. “It rises probably about two hundred feet. Countries like this do have cell service, so what if I climbed to the top of it and tried to see if I can get my phone to work?”

Everyone agrees it’s worth a try.

“I’ll go right away, then, while the battery is strong.”

“Who will you call?” I say.

“Will your phone even work here?” Stretch says. “They don’t have AT&T in Africa.”

Jared grins. “I bought a new SIM card at the airport, and made a note of the phone number of the airplane charter business that dropped us out here. It was posted on the notice board at the terminal, and I plugged it into my contacts when no one was looking, before we boarded.”

“Wow!” Sam says what everyone’s probably thinking.

“What does the SIM card do?” Lela says.

“It’ll hook me up with a local cell phone service.”

“If there is any service out here,” Stretch says.

“I’ll come with you,” Billy says.

“Me, too,” Stretch chimes in. “Don’t know if I’ll make it all the way to the top. That’s quite a climb and I’m not as young as I used to be, but I don’t mind waiting at the bottom.”

In the end, everyone wants to go and do what Stretch is gonna do. Wait at the bottom of the hill. I eye Trip. He doesn’t say anything, but I’m sure he’ll come. We are all feeling the desperation, and no one has any faith in the Old Man anymore.

“I wish I could come with you, but I don’t think my ankle will handle it,” Rodriguez says. “That’s a good five miles away at least.”

“Someone should stay and watch the camp anyhow,” Faith says.

“Maybe I’ll catch some more birds, now that I know how to set the traps,” he says. “I still can’t believe I was rigging them up wrong.”

We all have a drink of water. I pick up my camera. The battery is down, and I lift Mark’s from its place on his backpack. The battery is still good. I plug mine into the solar charger.

We all head out together. The tension in everyone is tangible. This is our one chance at communicating with the outside world. Hope is such a fragile thing and I’m so afraid to lose it, and I know everyone else is thinking the same thing. If it doesn’t work, what will we do? Someone will have to go for help and I am not staying here with Trip.

It’s really warm and I begin to wonder how smart we were to decide to all go on this long trek at this time of day. The sky is very blue, with just a few fluffy clouds floating around it. There’s a very slight breeze, but it’s not enough to cool anything. The camera is heavy, but I’m accustomed to carrying it around so I don’t mind. If Rodriguez doesn’t catch anything it’ll be too late to search for food and my stomach is already rumbling loudly. Now we’re all burning more calories, which is gonna make us more hungry.

“We need to find some food for tonight,” Billy says to me. “I can’t go without anything after this exercise.”

I’m usually always aware of where Trip is, and I make certain to stay far away from him, but I must have let down my guard. I jump at the sound of his voice from right behind us.

“I think there are more corn cobs at the ruined village,” he says. “I’ll detour over that way and see if I can get some.” He holds up the shovel and trash bag.

I grudgingly think how smart he is being.

Faith comes up behind us. “I’ll help if you like,” she says. “We have to have something. We should go there now to make sure we can eat tonight.”

“Yeah,” Trip says. “We should get food.”

I notice him staring at Lela, who is walking with Sam ahead of us. He’s probably wondering if she’s gonna tag along as she usually does. She seems unaware that Trip and Faith are going to a different location.

We continue in silence for a while and Trip and Faith branch off and head toward the ruined village where Andy and Kelli were murdered. I hate to think about it. I watch him until he’s disappeared.

“You really hate that dude,” Billy comments. “I do, too, now that I know what he did. Do you really think he’s the killer?”

“Yes to both,” I say. “And I still think you’re in terrible danger. He probably hasn’t found the right opportunity to do something to you yet, but he will.”

Chapter 37

“You too,” Billy says. “Maybe he won’t kill you, but he must have something planned for you now that the million dollars is not an option.” Sweat starts to run down my back. I wish we had thought of transporting water with us.

“What if this doesn’t work?” I ask Billy while I film the others walking ahead of us. I’ve left the sound on because I think it’s important to capture all our efforts at being rescued. The scary thing is that I’m actually thinking if we all die at least there will be a record.

“We’ll have to go and find help,” he says.

“I’ll go with you. Where will we go?” I focus the camera on his face.

“Probably follow the creek. There are usually settlements where there’s water. We have to hope they haven’t all abandoned ship like the ones around here.”

My going to get help with Billy is the most logical idea. We’re both young and healthy, and I know he’ll protect me and keep me safe. I can’t stay in camp with Trip, but he and Jared and Stretch will be able to make the trek to the creek to get water and to catch fish, and Rodriguez might even catch more birds. My mouth waters at the thought of that and my stomach rumbles and remember I lost all my food. Faith and Lela and Sam will be able to help get food and water, too.

If Jared can get through to someone on his phone, we won’t need to go, and that’ll be better, but I’m glad we, or I, have a Plan B.

After what seems an age, we reach the base of the hill. I collapse in the shade of a huge boulder and set the camera down. I’m weak and shaky. The others are not far behind us.

“You coming up?” Billy says.

I stare at the hill, thinking what a challenging climb it will be with all those rocks. “I know I should film it,” I say. “When Jared makes the call.”

“
If
he makes the call. If there’s service. That’s a big if.” Billy holds out his hand. “Come on. Let me take the camera, and show me how to work it so I can film the climb. You’ll need both your hands.”

“What about
your
hands?”

“I’m used to it. The boondocks.”

“I thought you had a horse back at home.”

“I do, but there are places like this where a horse can’t go. Just show me how to use this thing.”

Billy holds the camera awkwardly.

“Put the strap over your shoulder.” I show him. “Turn it on here, and here’s the zoom out and in. The sound is off at the moment, but to put it on you click this button. Think you can manage it?”

“Piece of cake,” he says in a cocky voice, and I can’t help smiling.

He grins back. “Let’s go,” he says and turns around and starts climbing. “Just follow me and I’ll guide you.”

Jared is already part of the way up in front of us. Everyone else is sitting in the shade under the boulder. We progress steadily up the rocky, twisty path. I’m not sure if Jared is making it as he goes, or if it’s an existing pathway worn by hundreds of years of animals passing up and down it. I stumble often, and grab onto rocks, branches, roots, whatever is available. I’m so thankful for Billy’s offer to carry the heavy camera. It doesn’t seem to bother him and he never stumbles.

My legs are burning after a while, and it’s hot. I’d like to have a rest, but I can’t be the one who holds everyone up.

It takes almost an hour from the bottom before we reach the summit. Sweat is running down my back, between my breasts, and I wipe it off my face with my T-shirt. I’m breathing hard and a little dizzy. I drop onto a rock and try to catch my breath.

“The view from here is amazing,” Billy says, pointing at the distant misty blue haze over the mountains. A sheen of sweat covers his forehead and his hair is sticking to his neck, but he doesn’t look tired. More like excited.

I take the camera from Billy and pan around three sixty degrees. Way in the distance the plain is dotted with a herd of animals, probably the same herd of zebra and wildebeest we saw together. I use the zoom to scan the scene in front of me for signs of settlements or other humans, and I don’t see anything that remotely shows signs of human occupation.

I set the camera down and squint at the phone. Jared is holding it up and staring at it. “Are there any bars?”

“Yes!” Jared shouts.

Billy grins at me. “Two bars.”

Jared scrolls through his contacts, and I hear the phone making a sound like it’s doing something. I hold my breath as he puts the phone to his ear. His mouth turns down and he moves the phone from his ear and stares at it. “There’s only one bar now.”

“Did it ring?” I ask.

“Yeah. Then it cut out. Must have lost service,” he says in a frustrated tone.

“Try again,” Billy says, peering over Jared’s shoulder.

“I will, dude. Just waiting for more bars.” Jared stares at the screen, and then punches in the number again.

I don’t dare breathe.

“Yeah, hello,” he says. “Is the pilot there? No? Okay, well anyhow, this is . . . the group you, he dropped by parachute. No. Mr. Allan Dockery. He hired your firm to take us to this remote place and we jump . . .” He sighs. “Hello, can you hear me?”

My heart sinks. I want to grab the phone from him and speak to them myself.

Jared curses and dials again. “Hello.” He shouts this time. “Can you hear me? I’m calling from the group you dropped off by parachute. Allan Dockery’s group.”

“Fuck it!” He makes as if he’s going to smash the phone on the rocks, but holds on to our only hope. “They can’t hear me.” He stares at the screen. “Now there are no bars.” He thrusts his glasses up his nose angrily.

I blow out air. Billy takes the phone from him and examines it closely. “There aren’t any bars now. Did you actually manage to contact someone?”

“Yeah.” Jared nods vigorously. “I heard the lady but she couldn’t understand or couldn’t hear me.”

“Try again,” I say.

“No bars,” Jared says.

We wait a while, but the bars don’t come back. I drop back onto my rock perch, set the camera down, and wipe the sweat from my brow. “So what now?”

“We wait,” Billy says. “That’s all we can do.” He sits beside me and pulls me into him. “Don’t look so sad. You mustn’t cry again.”

I sigh and try to smile back, but I don’t feel like smiling. I’m done crying, though.

“Oh no. Fuck it,” Jared says after a few minutes. “It’s losing its charge. The battery isn’t holding the charge for long enough. I can’t understand why.” He shakes the phone and stares at its screen again. “I’ll try one more time. There’s only one bar, though.” He scrambles up onto another boulder to get higher.

Billy follows him. It’s right on the edge of the hill and leaning outward. Did it just wobble a little?

“Watch out!” I yell, but even as I say it I know it’s too late.

Everything happens so fast and yet it seems to be in slow motion.

Jared loses his footing and scrambles to catch himself. The sudden shift in weight dislodges the boulder he’s standing on and it starts moving. I hear myself scream. There’s a loud scraping grinding sound and the boulder starts rolling. It grazes the ground, rocks back and forth, and then drops down over the edge of the cliff with Jared still trying to get his balance.

My heart catches in my throat. I watch in horror as Billy lunges for Jared and follows him over the cliff.

Chapter 38

Riaan Marais arrived at work at the normal time, just before eight on Monday morning. There always seemed to be so much to catch up on after he had been away, even if it was for a short time, and he had been away for five days.

“Hey man,” Hendrik came into his office and shook hands with him across the desk. “You look good.”

“Ya, it’s beautiful over there, in Kenya,” Riaan said.

Hendrik dropped into the chair across from Riaan and sipped from his cup of tea. “Glad you got to have a honeymoon. When Michaela and I married I couldn’t leave work.”

“What happened with the Hollywood crowd?” Riaan helped himself to two sugars and stirred the tea Mpili had just set on his desk.

“Nothing. Haven’t heard a thing and they haven’t paid the bill.”

“Shit. That’s strange. I got the impression this was being filmed from that day on. That poor little camera girl was terrified out of her mind. I don’t think she knew she was gonna be jumping with the others. I hope she’s okay. He also sent his dog down with one of the contestants. The cowboy.”

“You said that Hollywood guy who’s in charge would want to be dropped there with his crew and equipment while you were gone, and I had everything ready, but nothing happened. No calls and no money. I actually got to wondering about them, so I flew over that way and spotted their camp a couple of days ago.”

“And? Were they okay?”

“Ya. They were hanging out there and they waved. They’ve marked their camp with something bright in the trees, which was smart. I had a look at the airstrip and it’s still okay, although it’ll need mowing and checking again soon. Hell, if we had been paid I might have landed and spent a little time with them, but I figured I might be interfering with the game. Aren’t they playing some kind of game?”

“Ya, I told you it’s a reality show like
Survivor
. You must have seen that on the telly. The winner gets a million dollars or something like that. But I don’t understand why Mr. Dockery hasn’t contacted us. He knows there isn’t anyone else who flies over that way, and he definitely said he would be back to get the game going three days after I dropped them. He told me they had a sat phone, so I guess they would have called if they ran into any problems.”

Riaan logged in to his computer. “I hope the Internet is working today. I must have some emails to catch up with. At least we’ve got power.”

“For the moment.” Hendrik stood, drained his cup, and went back to his own office. “I’m taking some guys out to the river later today,” he yelled back.

“Mpili.” Riaan called the office assistant.

“Sir,” she said, and picked up his empty cup off the desk.

“Are there any phone messages for me?”

“No, sir. Hendrik took all your calls. Except for one day, yesterday. When he was out flying.”

“Who was it?”

“I don’t know, sir. I couldn’t hear him properly. It was a bad connection. It sounded like he was saying something like ‘mockery’, but I don’t know what he meant. I think maybe it was just a crank call.”

“Okay. Thanks. They would have called back if it was important.”

Riaan checked all his emails. He had hoped there would be something from Allan Dockery, but there was nothing. He checked his spam box. Still nothing.

Something wasn’t right. Allan Dockery had seemed like such a genuine person—a larger-than-life kind of man. He was obviously eccentric, but he didn’t seem like the kind of person who would go on his word. Riaan knew people were not always what they seemed to be, but he liked to think of himself as a good judge of character.

He had been so sure Dockery would pay, because he had told Riaan he would be coming back to Zimbabwe in three days and would need to have the rest of the crew and all their gear transported to the site.

Had he found another air charter group to fly him there to avoid paying? Nobody else in Zimbabwe had aircraft big enough to fit all the stuff Dockery was talking about. Could someone from Zambia have flown them? It was possible, just as it was possible someone from Mozambique, Botswana, or South Africa could have taken him to the site. There was one way to find out. He would have to dig into the flight plans that had been filed with the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe while he was away.

He checked his watch. The time difference was nine hours. It was eight-fifty, which meant it was almost midnight in California. Dockery would be at home and probably in bed asleep. His office number was the only number he had given. Riaan picked up the phone and dialed. He left a direct message for Dockery. “Please contact me via email or call me,” he said. “I’ll give you my office number and my cell phone. If I’m not at work when you call, use my cell phone and don’t worry about what time it is over here. I’ll answer it. It’s very important that I hear from you.”

When Trip and Faith reached the deserted village, Trip headed straight for the cultivated patch he had found previously. “I’ll break the corn off if you hold the bag,” he said. “I want to get enough for a couple of days. They’re pretty dry and old, but they’ve been good and even if we don’t get any meat some days, these will fill us up.”

“And those”—Faith pointed—“are what you got before, the green stuff.”

“Yeah. They’re weeds, but the locals call them ‘relish.’ We have to eat greens or we’ll get sick. Do you have the machete?”

Faith got it from her backpack.

“Maybe you could start cutting it, close to the ground.”

“I hope Rodriguez catches some birds,” Faith said. “I can’t tell the others there’s no protein tonight. The rice is finished, and it’s our only meal in the day. Everyone is so hungry.”

Trip stopped for a rest and wiped the sweat off his face with his sleeve.

“Why did you put that in Mark’s food?” Faith asked, suddenly breathing hard.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. You’re the only one who knew about mushrooms.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Faith lifted the machete and started cutting the weeds again.

Trip watched her for a while, his brows furrowed.

Once they had filled the black bag, Trip said, “Okay. I guess we should head back to camp.” He pointed. “I hope they manage to connect with someone, but I doubt they will. There are no cell towers around here.” He humped the bag over his shoulder and picked up the shovel. They walked in silence for a while before he said, “So you think I’m the killer?”

Faith stopped to stare at him. “Why do you ask?”

“What you said a while ago. About Mark.”

Faith started forward again. “Are you?”

“Why would I kill them? I have no fight with Mark.”

“Maybe he saw you do something. Maybe he got it on camera.”

“It wasn’t me,” Trip said.

“Must be someone from the outside, then,” Faith said. “But how did they poison him? That’s why I asked you if you did it. There wasn’t much chance of anyone putting poison in his food. No outsider could have done so.”

“It could have been any one of us.” Trip stopped. “I suppose you think it’s me, because of the way Lexie keeps trying to blame me.”

“No, I don’t think it’s you,” Faith said. “If it was you, you would have stopped when she accused you, because you would know everyone is watching you. Why does she hate you so much?”

“I wish I knew. I did know her before, but I didn’t do anything that would make her mad like that. I dated her aunt.” Trip started walking again.

Faith remained silent.

“What happened to Andy and Kelli?” Trip asked.

“What do you mean?” Faith’s voice rose an octave.

“You were the last to see them. You went back after me, and then they turned up dead. How did you do it?”

“So now you’re . . .”

“What was that?” Trip said. “Did you hear it?” He stopped to listen.

“It sounded like thunder but there are no clouds,” Faith said, staring up into the sky with a wrinkled brow.

“Look,” Trip pointed. “It came from there. See the dust?”

“Isn’t that the hill where they went to see if they could get the cell phone to work?” Faith asked, shading her eyes with a hand.

“Yeah. Come on, let’s hurry.”