Chapter 55

 

“I have a job for you to do.” Mhlongo fingered the telephone pressed to his ear.

“I am not your errand boy. I’m done. You are no conservationist. You’re a killer.” Christopher huffed on his end of the line.

“Ah, yes, but I kill legally. How about you, young American?”

The silence had a standoff quality to it that made Mhlongo grin.

“I heard there was a body in that shed you had me burn. You’re turning me into something I’m not. It’s over. I’m done. I’m no killer.” Christopher sounded near to tears.

“The man who died in that shed was a drug dealer, and he had taken lately to selling human beings.”

“What, you mean like slaves? That doesn’t happen anymore.”

“Young women and children are lured to come here for a better job, and then the drug dealer holds them captive making them do—” he hesitated, thinking of things he knew, “—horrible unspeakable things. This makes your worry over animal movements pale into a child’s game.” Mhlongo heard the disgust in his own voice. Could this fat man-child not understand? This was justice.

“People really do that? Can’t they just run away?”

Mhlongo’s mirthless scoff choked the phone line. “The man keeps their papers. They have no proof and usually the authorities are paid to look the other way. That man was less than trash. Nothing.” He let the silence take up space. “Listen to me. I cannot go to the camp right now, so here’s what I need you to do. Then I will leave you in peace. Or maybe you could go make trouble in the United States somewhere and leave the park in peace?”

When Mhlongo finished telling Christopher about the horrible woman promoting animal capture and relocation, and worse—tourism, the boy warmed to the task. He told him where to find a rock dassie to kill. They were easy to kill; even Christopher could do it.

Mhlongo disconnected the phone and turned up the radio. The tower must be up again. His jaw hardened as he heard what they were up to. Looking for him. He swore and slapped the steering wheel three times.

His eyes shifted focus to the horizon. He’d have to leave the park Jeep and smuggle himself out with Pieter’s giraffe shipment. A new life for him after all.