I got ready for the game drive. Sunblock. Hat. Camera. Ready to go. I just needed my mosquito repellant. I tried to remember the last time I’d worn it. Yesterday’s afternoon game drive. Where had I put the clip-on when we had returned last night?
I retraced my steps in search of my fan.
“Charlotte, have you seen my mosquito repellant fan?”
“Do you think it works?”
I checked my body for little pink bumps from mosquito bites. “I don’t have any mosquito bites, so I’ll say yes.”
“Well, I don’t wear that ridiculous fan on my pants and I don’t have any bites either.”
I continued my search. “But you stink of that repellant.”
She finished wiping herself down with her mosquito repellant. “Thanks.”
“I’m just saying it has an odor.”
“Time to go.”
“But…I need that repellant. Mosquitos are the biggest killer of humans. I need that repellant!” I got on my hands and knees and slid under the bed for the gray unit.
“This coming from the person who was almost killed by a snake just days ago.”
“Sonny told me. Mosquitos are our biggest threat here.”
“And that’s why we’re on the malaria pills.” She grabbed her bag. “You have been taking them every day, right?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Because I remind you every day?”
“Yes, of course.”
She was annoying about it but not as annoying as our mother would have been about it. Mom would have reminded me, then hovered around me until she saw me take it and then force a visual inspection of my mouth to ensure I had swallowed it.
Charlotte would simply say, “Naomi, malaria pill,” when she took her own after returning from breakfast. I didn’t want to admit it was actually helpful, and only a touch annoying.
“We gotta go, Naomi.”
“Fine.” I ran after her and out the door.
Knowing more repellant was in her bag, I asked, “Can I have some of your repellant?”
To my surprise, she held her tongue and tossed me a mosquito repellant wipe. She resumed her walk to the common area and I trailed behind.
“Thanks, sis.” I slid the wipe into my pocket. I’d put it on later, once we loaded onto the cruiser. I didn’t want to join the group stinking of the repellant.
Charlotte mixed with the fellow travelers while I tried to search my mind for the last time I’d seen the fan.
Sonny called the group and we headed toward our ride. Ray was waiting by the car and called me over.
“Naomi, I think this belongs to you.” He tossed me my mosquito repellant fan.
I caught it and cheered, “Yeah! Thanks!” Now, I wouldn’t have to stink of the repellant. I looked around for Charlotte to share the good news. She was busy climbing into the first row.
“You are some tracker. You even tracked me!” He smiled broadly. I turned the fan on and clipped it on my belt. “How’d you know it was mine?”
“No one else wears one.” He pointed to the group. “Never seen one before, actually. It’s how you’re able to sneak up on all of us.”
Sneak up? I didn’t know I had done that to the staff. “What do you mean?” I asked.
“The other guests wear the mosquito repellant sprays. We don’t have to,” he said, motioning to himself and Sonny. “And neither do you. And we can’t smell you coming!”
We laughed in unison. I told Charlotte that stuff stunk!
The bandage on his arm was gone. Only a small red line was on his arm. “Your arm okay?”
“Yes, thank you.” He held it up and looked at it. “Just cut it on some glass,” he told me, confirming what Sonny had also told me. I’d already cleared Ray for the murder, but it was reassuring Sonny had told me the truth. If Sonny had been the guilty party, maybe he would have lied about Ray.
I recalled Ray on the morning the body was found. I remembered seeing him with his phone. “Did you take photos of Dr. Higgins?”
“What?” he asked.
“The day I found him,” I clarified. “I saw you with your phone out. But Leticia called the police from the front desk.”
“I wasn’t taking pictures of him,” he answered. He appeared horrified at the thought. “What a mess.”
“But you took pictures?”
“Yes.” He put his head down. “But not of him.”
“Then what did you take pictures of?” Finding a guest’s dead body surely wouldn’t make their next catalog.
“I’m a tracker. I took pictures of the tracks they left.”
“‘They,’” I repeated. “Who?”
“Who else? The hyenas.”
“Can I see?” In the blur of that morning, I couldn’t remember what I had seen. I recalled seeing a lot of red as I walked up the walkway to Dr. Higgins’ suite, but I hadn’t put together that it was blood. I couldn’t remember seeing animal tracks, not that I would have never known what animal had left them.
Ray pulled up the photos on his phone. Crime scene photos, I called them. I started to ask him to text them to me but didn’t know if that would cost him, or me, a lot of money. Email would be best but who knew when that would work again. We’d probably be home by the time I got it. Separated from the suspects and thousands of miles away from the proper jurisdiction, it would do me little good.
“What are you guys looking at?” Sabrina asked.
“Nothing,” I answered, not wanting to share evidence with a suspect, but Ray’s voice overruled mine.
“Tracks.”
Ray quickly tapped his phone and brought up another photo album. One full of tracks in the dirt. Neither of us wanted to be caught looking at bloody footprints.
“Are you looking at scat?” Colin asked.
“Tracks,” Ray corrected him. “Not scat.”
“Every trip, Geri. Every trip there’s one asking about scat,” Jack shouted. “I want to go on one vacation, one vacation, where people don’t ask about sh—”
“Jack!” Geri rebuked. He shook his head but kept his mouth closed while storming off.
“I think he’s the one who needs to talk about poop. Always gets constipated on vacation.”
“Time to go, everyone,” Sonny said.
“Later,” I told Ray and he nodded.