ut what else could I say, Alex?’ut what else could I say, Alex?’
‘Maura, Sally and the kids are fine and you women will be drooling over the baby, but I don’t fancy another meeting with that shameless thug and his demented son. Perhaps they’re coming to ask for forgiveness again!’
‘Spare us! And what was it, two hours notice? And, naturally, he gets his wife to do the phoning.’
‘We’ll be all right, Tom. I’ll be over the fields and you and Rebecca will be at the site. Debbie coming with you?’
‘Yep. Two truckloads of materials are due at eleven. Jim Sawyer has taken all his boys over. They’re pouring concrete. That’s why Debbie left early.’
‘Tom, I wonder what his real motive for coming is.’
‘I think that’s an easy one. He’ll be sniffing around, looking for Simon.’
‘And his two “missing” boys. Could be doing it in his trousers on that one. Have we got the old bugger on the run at last?’
‘I doubt it. One slip up, one loose word on our side and the fox will be in with the chickens again.’
* * *
No sign of the father and his sons. Abel Rubai saw this as good news. They were keeping away from him. Probably had something to hide.
‘Sally, Obi’s taking me and Reuben over to the Shell garage. They’ve taken the damaged Mercedes there.’
The men were away for two hours. Abel was surprised with the state of the car. It was not a write-off.
‘Tow it into the agent in Nairobi. Send the bill to my office, unless you want the cash now.’
Next stop was meant to be the site of the accident, but Obi pulled off onto the verge half a mile short of the junction.
‘Boss, take a look to the right. A lot of folks over there are busy, busy, busy.’
‘You two, stay inside.’
Abel stepped out and leaned his elbows on the car roof. He took in the activity with a narrowed gaze. The hard hats made it difficult to identify people moving in and out of the trucks and the machinery.
‘Yeah, of course, the Florence Nightingale of Naivasha, but the other bitch, flashing the site plan around? Never seen her before. Old Sawyer. Mmn. I’ll remember this Mister Building Man! And one, two, three white boys. Must be the illegals. I’m impressed. No idling there. Shame they’ll soon be tearing it all up. Ah, well, can’t say you weren’t warned, you bunch of losers!’
At the turn-off there was plenty of evidence to show where the milk truck had hit his car less than twenty-four hours earlier - skid marks, bits of metal and plastic, the rearranged branches of a couple of trees. But he discovered nothing to help him with the mystery of the disappearance of his boys. In a lull in the traffic he clapped his hands and called out.
‘Any of you people here yesterday when the accident happened?! I’ll pay for information! Come on! Come on! We’re not the cops! Come on, you faceless country boys!’ He waited, he glared, all in vain. ‘Obi, get me out of this jinxed town.’
There was one more call to make before he returned to Londiani. He stormed up the steps of the town council offices and threw his weight around the central office.
‘So sorry, sir, we are just office staff. We cannot …’
‘The name’s Rubai, Abel Rubai.’
‘We know, sir.’
‘A very angry Abel Rubai. One of you write this down and pass it on to the first of your bosses who shows his face in this place: “Take a good look at what is going on in a field on the edge of your town here. This is an illegal build, as you should know. Let me know when the land has been restored to its proper state. That had better be sooner rather than later!”’
* * *
Sally saw that the children were unhappy to be going home early.
‘But, Papa, we haven’t been to the lake to see the hippos. Can we stay the night? We could camp out on that big field.’
‘Hasn’t Mama told you that the hippos come out of the water in the night? They sniff around all over the place. They would come and check out something new, like a tent they had never seen before.’
Sally was relieved. It was her first long outing since Julius had been born. She had been up early and the journey had been tiring. She made a mental note not to try another family outing until Julius was walking and talking.
Obi was a fine driver and gave them a smooth ride. The children were more subdued than on the journey up and Sally was happy to come to the last crossroads before home. She glanced to her left.
‘Abel, they say that the Daniels family have a beautiful garden and it is so close. Do you think they might invite us over? You know how Europeans love to have company when they, how do they say, “take tea”.’
‘Perhaps, but could we leave it for a time, until Julius is going to secondary school? I don’t think I could find much to interest me in that place.’