29 | Ahab, Starbuck, Ishmael

Eitone led the frightened villager away from the tree. He was still babbling and pointing, his face covered with tears. Malinga took her camera from her pack and had finished photographing the area by the time Eitone returned.

“That’s one of the most barbaric killings I’ve ever seen,” Eitone said. “It’s Chief Kaingu’s son by his third wife. He volunteered as a community game guard just last year.”

“Why do you think he was killed that way?”

“He startled the man with the chain saw. He was patrolling with the man who was shot.”

“Cut to pieces with the same chain saw used to butcher the elephants.” She stopped walking and turned back toward him. “It’s too vicious to be an accident. Do you think the dead men were working with the poachers? Maybe they decided to increase their share by eliminating them.”

Eitone shrugged. “I don’t think so, but it could be. We have to talk with Chief Kaingu tomorrow, and find out what he knows.”

“That’s going to be tough. No one wants to lose a son, especially in a horrible way like that.” Malinga sighed. “Let’s tell the villagers they can take the men’s bodies now. We’ve got all the evidence we’re going to get without a forensic team. By the time one got here from Lusaka, the bodies would be reduced to shreds by the hyenas.”

 

“They’ll move in fast, that’s for sure.”

She nodded. “By the way, have you seen the knife I picked up? I can’t find it anywhere.” Eitone shook his head. “It must have dropped out of my pocket when we were loading the babies. I’ll have another quick look around for it before we go.”

As Eitone spoke to the villagers, Malinga came back. “I can’t find the knife anywhere.”

“None of them saw it.”

She frowned, then shrugged. “We wouldn’t be able to pull much by way of prints from it anyhow.” She looked around, exhausted. “We should go. We’ve done all we can.”

Eitone led Malinga and Rainford back along the path to their vehicle. Rainford wiped his forehead with the tail of his shirt and climbed into the back seat. “What a mess! I had no idea things like this were happening. It makes me sick to my stomach.”

He smiled and leaned forward as Eitone started the Land Rover. “I hope you two are satisfied. I’ll never make it back to the university before the external examiners arrive.”

Malinga laughed. “At least you’ll have a good story for them when you do get back.” She turned her eyes back to the road and gasped. A man-sized lizard had crossed and was clawing his way straight up a teak tree. “Good heavens,” she said. “What is that?”

“A spotted brown savannah lizard. It’s a type of monitor lizard,” Eitone said, laughing. “They look as fierce as crocodiles but they’re shy and never bother humans unless they’re threatened.”

“What a relief!” Malinga said, laughing. “I thought it was a komodo dragon!”

“Sounds like too much Nature Channel, Inspector,” Rainford said.

“Oh, my kids love it. But I’m never home to watch TV. I’m too busy working.”

“Then you know what the life of a game guard is like,” Eitone said. “Fourteen-hour days, and then you’ve only got half the work done.”

“Amen.”

Rainford sighed. “I’m sorry to say that this massacre proves my theory about human nature.”

Malinga laughed. “I suppose we’ll have to hear what that is.” Eitone glanced over at her and winked.

Rainford drew in his breath. “For a long time, I’ve believed that there are three kinds of people in this world. I call them Ahabs, Starbucks, and Ishmaels. You know, like the main characters from Moby Dick.”

Malinga shook her head. “Moby Dick. What in God’s name is that?”

“You haven’t heard of it?”

She laughed. “I can’t say that I have, Rainford. I haven’t heard of it or seen it. Or danced to it, for that matter!” She laughed again. “Don’t make me feel even more ignorant than I already am. Pray tell, what is a Moby Dick?”

“Sorry, Malinga. It’s a book. I love it so much, I think everyone knows about it. Moby Dick is a wildlife biology classic because its characters embody conflicting human-animal relationships.”

“I’m more likely to know about Star Wars,” Malinga said, “or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Things the kids watch. I get precious little time for serious reading these days.”

He nodded. “Me, too. I’m always playing soccer or reading books to my kids. Or helping Martha prepare dinner. I read Moby Dick in college. Back then, I was single and had lots time on my hands.”

“Isn’t that the truth,” Malinga said. “I barely have time for the Daily Mail or The Guardian. Or all the reports I have to read and sign!” She laughed. “Give me a quick summary.” Rainford drew himself up in the seat and Eitone’s smile deepened.

“The characters in Moby Dick embody three ways of understanding human-animal relationships,” Rainford said. “Humans like Ahab, a whaling ship captain, think that animals are conscious and will do anything to gain the upper hand over humans. He believed the whale he was hunting had deliberately tried to hurt him and he wanted revenge at any price. He represented a medieval, quasi-magical mentality prevalent when the book was written.

“The only sailor who opposed him was Starbuck. The majority of humankind are like him, practical and anthropocentric. They think animals are here to serve us. We can murder them at will. Species extinction is no big deal. The animals we need will survive and we can keep the rest in a gene bank.”

Malinga nodded. “Most people I know feel that way. They couldn’t care less if every elephant or rhino in the world was dead. In fact, they’d help the Chinese kill them if they stood to make a profit – and owned an AK-47 and a chainsaw.”

Eitone snorted. “That’s true, I’m sorry to say.”

“But you said there was a third man, Rainford.”

“Ah, yes. His name was Ishmael. He sensed the ecological interdependence of humans and animals and grew to love the whale. He was the only survivor of the three.”

“If there were more people like that, our world wouldn’t be such a mess,” Malinga said.

“A Starbuck definitely killed those elephants and murdered those villagers,” Rainford said. “An Ishmael would never do it. Ahab would fear retaliation by the villagers and the elephant spirits. This whole thing is the work of a profit-driven modern man, a Starbuck for sure.”

Malinga frowned. “Eitone, is your man Elvis anything like that?”

Eitone laughed. “He sure is. He’s pretty slick. When I first met him, I wondered if he was a pimp or some kind of gangster.”

Rainford cleared his throat and glanced at Eitone. “Some time ago, Malinga, I had him as a student at UNZA. He was doing very well in his second year as a wildlife biology major but his uncle made him quit and go to work in the family business.”

A smile sneaked onto Eitone’s face. “Guess who his uncle is, Malinga.”

She threw up her hands. “God? The President?”

Rainford chuckled. “Almost as good. The Minister of Defense!”

“That fat so-called general who’s always embarrassing us in front of the international press? You’re joking!”

He shook his head and smiled. “No, I’m not. I wish I was.”

Her face lit up. “That would mean Elvis is related to one of the few people in this country with easy access to a helicopter.”

“Right!” both men said at once. “You got it, Malinga!”

She laughed, clapping her hands. “That makes him our top suspect! Good police work, fellas! I can’t wait to talk to him.”

“You may have missed your chance. Batuke said he couldn’t come in today, but I bet he’s disappeared completely.”

“If he’s responsible for this tragedy, we’ll find him, lock him in jail, and throw away the key. Do you have his picture?”

“Sure do.”

“Great! I’ll run it through our data bases and tell Interpol to keep an eye out for him.” She frowned. “But like you said, he’s probably miles from here, headed for the border.”

“We have to stop him,” Eitone said, “even if it’s just to keep our tourist business alive. We had sixty thousand tourists last year and each of them spent thousands of dollars . . .”

“But Eitone,” Malinga interrupted. “There’s more important reasons to keep the elephants alive. The bull that put me up a tree had a soul, I know he did.”

“I know that, Malinga, but let me explain it in my own way or you’ll never understand what I’m getting at. You police are always rushing the punch line!”

She laughed. “You’re right about that. I’ll shut up and you tell me what’s going on here.”

“Here’s my theory, Malinga. Let it settle into your brain before your react. That elephant singled you out because you know that communication with them is possible. Remember how you felt drawn to the elephant at Chaminuka – what’s his name?

“Duff.”

“Yeah, Duff. I bet when you met him, he let you get very close.”

“I looked straight into his eyes for a long time. It was eerie. He never moved.”

“That’s what I mean,” Eitone said. “Think about your dog. Do you talk with him?”

“My dog? Of course I talk with him. Everyone I know talks with their dogs and cats. And pet rabbits, for that matter!”

“We can speak with our domestic animals because we’ve hung around them for so many centuries we’re on each other’s wave lengths. If we learned enough about wild animals, we could speak to them as well. You ever hear of an American known as the Horse Whisperer?”

“Horse Whisperer? Can’t say that I have.”

“He could ‘talk’ with horses, tame even the wildest ones. He couldn’t speak with them in any real sense, but he watched them for so long, he learned their vocabulary of body movements and signs. He mimicked the way they signaled dominance and submission, affection, love, anger, and hate as best a human could with only two legs and no ears or tail.”

Malinga turned in her seat to look at him. She knew exactly what he was saying.