Chapter Thirty
Simone sat up and gazed at the aquamarine waters through the gauze-covered windows. Sarah was waking up, and soon she’d be able to go to the main guest area and find Sheila. The need to phone Carlo was reaching a boiling point. She’d already decided to phone Dino, in case she couldn’t get hold of Carlo.
Sarah whined, and she tucked the bedcover tightly over her tiny shoulders. The wind blew in from the sea, and it was cool for an early morning. The sun lay in promise on the horizon, and she could see a handful of dhow boats going out for their morning’s fishing.
In the past, she’d always stayed with Sheila in her chalet, but Sheila’s daughter was here for a week. Luckily there had been a chalet available for them. The knowledge that this would be her last stay at the camp settled and regret washed over her. She drew her legs to her chest, wrapping her arms around them.
Someone whistled and she saw a figure strolling on the beach. A dog bounded into view, chasing crabs into the surf, followed by Sheila, who took wide strides toward her chalet.
She shot a glance at Sarah, who had gone back to sleep. She got up and opened the door as Sheila came up the short path to her veranda.
“How did you sleep, honey?” Sheila asked as she met her gaze.
“Not very well, but it’s okay.” Simone felt exhausted but gave Sheila a hesitant smile. Sheila had acted as substitute mom these past three years, and she’d told her everything about the poaching, the video clip and her resignation.
“I’m switching the generator on in ten minutes if you want to come over for some coffee? Also…” Sheila stopped mid-sentence, glancing away.
“Yes?”
“James King called.” Sheila looked up, almost apologetically. “The Carlevaros are searching for you. They’re coming to fetch you this morning.”
Simone frowned, shaking her head. “I’m not hiding, Sheila. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
“I know, honey, I believe you.” Sheila sucked her lips, which accentuated every wrinkle on her sun-ravaged face. She took Simone’s hands in hers. “But what if the police throw you in jail? You know how they can react if something is not to their liking. Just see how they parked those army trucks on the airstrips.”
Simone squeezed Sheila’s hand and then let go. “I’m sure it won’t come to that.” Maybe she was projecting overconfidence, because her heart dropped an inch at the thought. The Carlevaros…Carlo…wouldn’t do that to her, not once she’d explained her findings to them. But Carlo wasn’t here, and he had for some unknown reason scrapped her for the promotion. She had no idea what his intentions were.
If the police did come, or if the other Carlevaros came, what would happen to Sarah? They hadn’t listened to her when she’d told them it wasn’t her in the video clip, and there was no reason to believe they would listen to her any better now.
“From what I understood they left Dar already, so they should be here within the hour.”
“Did James specify who was coming?” Simone asked.
“No, he just said he had Mr. Carlevaro with him.”
It had to be Angelo. Carlo was in London. She closed her eyes, wishing it were anybody else. After her dealings with Angelo she wasn’t sure she could make him listen to her for five minutes, let alone long enough for him to understand what she had discovered.
“Okay,” Simone said. “I’ll get dressed.”
Sheila sighed. “I’ve got to oversee breakfast. Come have some when you’re ready.” She ambled off, whistling for the dog to follow her.
Angelo would be there soon enough. Whether he had the police with him or not, she wouldn’t let go until he had listened.
****
Simone strolled with Sarah on the beach away from the row of chalets. The rising sun dazzled the early mother of pearl waters into a translucent aquamarine. A breeze blew in from the east, lapping at the hem of her white dress and taking the edge off the promising heat of the day.
Every nerve in her body was wound tight and Sarah had picked up on her mood. Sarah had been quiet, holding her hand, letting go every now and again to pick up a shell to add to her collection.
“This one’s for you, Mommy,” Sarah had said with the first shell, then they’d run through their circle of friends with her subsequent finds. When Sarah stumbled across a beautiful clamshell, still intact, opening and closing like a little purse, the radiance in Sarah’s smile had been catching, until she said, “This one is for Daddy.”
Her throat tightened at Sarah’s words, but she held out her palm, taking the delicate gift from Sarah. She hadn’t had the guts to ask Sheila for her phone to call Carlo. She might have told Sheila a lot, but she hadn’t told her everything. Maybe, after her interrogation with Angelo, and her explanation of who Sarah was, he’d give her his phone to call Carlo.
The camp’s guests slowly surfaced, scattered over the wide stretch of beach, climbing the rocks that created a natural pool away from the breaking waves, gathering shells or swimming.
Simone continued to stroll on for about three hundred meters. She didn’t want to face Angelo with guests within earshot. If nothing else, she wanted to avoid a scene. She swept a wisp of hair out of her face and turned to face the sea breeze.
Sheila’s dog ran in her direction, with Sheila following, waving frantically. She rushed toward Sheila, who held her phone out.
“Carlo Carlevaro,” she said between gulping breaths. “He wants to talk to you. Urgently.”
Her heart lurched in her chest. He was phoning her. He hadn’t forgotten. He’d tracked her down. She closed her eyes for a second, listening to Sheila catching her breath, trying to gather her own emotions.
“Here honey, you just press the dial button,” Sheila said between heavy heaves. “Good grief, he shouldn’t do that to an old woman like me.”
“Thank you,” Simone said, taking the satellite phone from Sheila.
“I’ve got to run, I’ve two guests departing. Everything always happens at once.”
Simone nodded and watched as Sheila trotted toward the main guest areas.
With a pounding heart she dialed and Carlo answered almost immediately.
“Simone, I need to make this quick while I still have network coverage. What do you know about Ross O’Connor?”
“I—” She swallowed to get a grip over the unexpected question and his skipping the niceties completely. He sounded so far away, but his voice was serious, if no longer angry. Part of her was thankful that he hadn’t mentioned their last conversation, when he’d been furious with her about leaking the poaching.
She wanted to tell him how sorry she was about the whole mess, wanted to demand why he’d sunk any hope of her being promoted, but something in his voice told her he didn’t have the time for that right now. “I think he is involved in the poaching ring, with Michael Flynn. What’s going on?”
“I’ve been looking at the graphs,” Carlo said, the urgency in his voice palpable. “Between Ross and Michael, they are at Rufiji almost every day.”
“Yes, I figured they would be able to plant the aircraft keys at the airstrip for the poachers to stow the tusks in whichever plane flies the next day.”
“Yes, but Michael isn’t involved,” Carlo said. “He’s the only other pilot who knows we’re investigating the poaching syndicate. If he’d spread the word, the guilty parties would have fled by now. And if he was involved he wouldn’t be sticking around to find out what happens next.” He sighed into the phone. “Help me make sense of this.”
She dropped her head, the need to tell him about Ross’s assault overwhelming her. “Ross tried to…intimidate me the other day on the flight.” She broke off as the memory rushed back, crystal clear. Ross’s hands were on her as if he’d groped her minutes ago and she shuddered.
“What did he do?”
As she told him about Ross’s assault and his threats regarding the promotion, Carlo cursed over the phone. “But there it is!” he called out. “The fleet manager position.” He spoke fast. “As fleet manager he’d be in control of our planes, he’d be able to set up the whole operation so smoothly no one would be the wiser.”
A shudder rushed down her spine. “Of course,” she murmured. “God, I never thought about that.”
“He must have a team of locals working for him at the lodges.” He cursed. “We’ll smoke them out.”
She couldn’t believe it. Ross wanted the fleet manager position so he could carry on his poaching and smuggling. As fleet manager he would have command of everything…could expand his horrid operations to every lodge they flew to.
The video image came back to her, and she inhaled sharply. In the dark blur of the footage the body shape had been misleading, disguised by the loose wrapping of her club jacket around male hips. The way he’d retreated, never showing his chest to the camera, hiding his lack of breasts, now made perfect sense. “The person in the video has Ross’s body shape.” She pressed down on her excitement in realizing she was right. “Ross has been to my apartment. He rummaged through my clothes, probably took my jacket, my missing uniform. I—”
Carlo said something, but the line was breaking up on his side. “I’ll phone Dino…go back a few kilometers…Simone…won’t be long—”
The network broke up and she glared at the satellite phone’s screen. The call had cut off by itself.
An hour later she was still on the beach, waiting for Angelo’s arrival, holding on to the phone in case Carlo phoned back. Why had his phone cut the call like that? Surely the network coverage was better than that in the UK.
When the phone started ringing she checked the screen. James King.
Without thinking further she answered, “It’s Simone, James. How is Liz? How is the baby?” She’d been praying that everything was still fine.
James breathed heavily into the phone, “Simone, thank God I get hold of you. Liz is gone. Is she with you?”
She froze in her tracks, her blood stalling in her veins. “No? What do you mean she’s gone?”
“She left the clinic early this morning, she wasn’t discharged but just walked out. She left me a message—” His voice broke, his agony obvious. “I didn’t see it until later, when I left the apartment to go to the clinic.”
“What did it say?” Simone asked, dreading his answer.
“It wasn’t what she wanted, it got out of control, that Ross won’t stop, that she only wanted to help their dad.” The words spurted out, mangled in his distress. “I have no idea where she is.”
“Her phone?” But as she asked, the answer was obvious. Liz wouldn’t be taking any calls.
“She left it at the hospital. Any idea where she could be?” He sounded desperate.
With Ross. She couldn’t stomach the thought. “Have you tried to get hold of Ross?”
“His phone is switched off.”
There was some hope. “Ross must be flying. I’m so sorry, James, but I really have no idea where she is.”
“Ross isn’t flying today. Our baby—” he wailed, and the sound tore at her and she had to blink. He must have come to the same conclusion as she had. Ross and Liz were operating the poaching and trafficking syndicate. She didn’t want to believe it.
“You know what this means, Simone?”
Yes. They were on the run. Her shock was too raw and she didn’t know how to comfort him. She closed her eyes, speechless. In the silence over the line she could feel his heart breaking. “Don’t believe the worst, please, James. She loves you. She will contact you. It sounds like she’s been intimidated by Ross…and only wanted to help their dad—”
He sobbed into the phone. “I don’t know.”
“Where are you now?”
“At your apartment.”
“Have you spoken to anybody else?”
“No…I’ve been hoping to track her down…by myself, before—”
He didn’t need to elaborate. The police would get involved now.
“I’m going to the airport,” James said, “Maybe I can find out if they’ve flown out to somewhere.”
It was unlikely. It would be easier for Ross and Liz to disappear in Dar es Salaam, or flee by road, skipping border crossings and avoiding police. Especially while they still had time on their side. It would take the police some time to get a search party going, once the Carlevaros alerted them to search for Liz King and Ross O’Connor.
“Keep me posted if you find out anything, okay?” Simone begged.
As James rang off she stepped away from Sarah, who was busy building a sand castle, to calm down. She wanted the criminals to be caught, but that Liz was involved was hard to stomach. With her being pregnant…Liz didn’t make any pretense of that, too? Did she ever really know Liz? Her heart ached at her friend’s duplicity.
Half an hour later she still couldn’t get her head around what had been happening. She had returned Sheila’s phone, and had helped Sarah decorate her sand castle with little enthusiasm. She kept glancing back at the main lodge, waiting, anxious to hear from Carlo. Did Angelo know about the call between them? Or about Ross and Liz? She didn’t understand why he would waste his time coming all the way here if he knew about the call. It didn’t make sense.
There were more guests on the beach now, lounging around and swimming. Between them the tall figure of a man, jeans rolled up to his knees, a white shirt with sleeves scrunched up, strode toward her with such determination, he was totally out of place.
She looked again at the fast-approaching figure and had to blink. That purposeful stride…that body… Her heart bolted and she turned to face him, just as Sarah saw him too.
“Daddy!” Sarah called out, running toward him.
He laughed as he grabbed his daughter, swinging her into his arms as she shrieked with joy. Simone closed her eyes and tried to bite down on the flood of emotions that broke free. His breath sounded in her ears as he drew her to his chest, and his free arm circled her body.
“Thank God you’re safe,” he whispered against her curls, his own body quivering against hers. He kissed her cheek. “Cara…Mona.” He found her lips.
She kissed him back, relief seeping through her. He had come for her. He had found her.
He let Sarah slip to the sand in order to take her fully in his arms. “I thought I was going to kill Ross with my own hands when you told me he’d molested you,” he murmured in her ear.
She pulled away to look at him. “What’s happened?”
He cupped her elbows in his hands and searched her eyes. “Are you all right?” The intensity in his gaze made her knees weak. “Promise me that the incident on the flight with Ross was the only one.”
She nodded. “It was. I should have known he’s the type.”
He searched her face, then he dropped his forehead to hers with a sigh. She leaned into him, sensing his relief in his fingers that loosened their grip to stroke her arms. “What’s been happening? Have you heard about Liz?”
“James phoned me.” He locked his gaze with hers. “Seems we all got taken for a ride on that one. After our call this morning I asked the fleet manager to search Ross’s locker. He found your aero-club jacket and a cheap blonde wig.” He shook his head. “He’s gone. He clocked in early this morning, as normal, but nobody has seen him again.”
“James phoned me to ask me if I knew where Liz was. She’d walked out of the hospital and left everything behind.”
“They’re on the run together.” Carlo sighed. “James took the photos. He didn’t speak to Liz about it, wanting to protect her, unaware that she was involved. I can’t help thinking how it would have panned out if he’d told her about the trafficking when he made the discovery.”
Sarah clung to her leg and they looked down at her. Inside her the love for her daughter drew to a sharp point, and she held her breath for a second. How far would Ross have gone to get what he wanted?
“Ross intimidated Liz.” But she couldn’t stomach that Liz had been involved in the first place. She dropped her head to Carlo’s chest and he pulled her close.
“The stalking…I won’t be surprised if that whole business was set up to stop James from investigating further, or to intimidate Liz into silence.”
“Ross stalking Liz? With the dead animals?” It was hard to believe he could sink so low. “Do you think she knew it was him? Her own brother?”
“Possibly, we’ll find out,” Carlo replied. “But the pregnant dik-dik…he gave her something to give her the gap to leave the lodge legitimately.”
Simone frowned, feeling even more uncomfortable with misjudging Liz. “Do you think Liz’s pregnancy was a hoax?”
“Who knows.”
“I don’t think so…James have been with her for the scans, there was a little heartbeat—” Her voice broke.
“The miscarriage was a hoax then,” he comforted her.
It didn’t help. Pretending to have a miscarriage was even worse and she found she couldn’t reply.
“It will be resolved soon, cara,” he said in a softer tone. “Dino is getting the police involved, they’ll catch them at the borders. If not soon, eventually. And we’ll get the whole story out of them.”
For a long time they stood, digesting what had passed. She shifted on her feet, snuggling closer. “I thought you were in London,” she whispered against his neck.
“I was, but then…” He claimed her mouth and kissed her so possessively that she molded against him, letting go of every other thought, except him.
When he finally pulled away he gazed at her. “I thought I’d lost you.” He hugged her so close she could hardly breathe. “Please, cara, don’t ever disappear on me like that again.”
“I didn’t disappear, you had to go slay dragons.” She dropped her gaze. “I thought Angelo would be coming this morning. Sheila’s message…” Had been very cryptic.
“Angelo is in Dar, hopefully learning how to wield a hefty sword.” He cupped her face, tracing a line down her cheek. “I don’t care, to be honest, what Angelo is up to right now.”
He kissed her again, even more deeply, setting desire alight inside her.
Sarah giggled and Carlo lifted his head. They both looked down to where their daughter was happily anchoring them to the ground, an arm around each of their legs.
He took her hand and they walked along the beach, with Sarah running ahead of them, chasing tiny crabs into their holes. She breathed in the humid air, the saltiness of the water starting to cling to her skin. The heavy weight had slipped off her shoulders.
Except… “Carlevaro Air will be without a fleet manager soon, and I heard that you took me off the list of candidates?”
He heaved a sigh. “Are you going to hold that against me forever?”
“I might. Messing with my career,” she said, then added, “Mind you, that’s not the first time you’ve done it.” The last time he’d made her pregnant, but she got Sarah in return, and wouldn’t give her up for anything in the world. She glanced down at her daughter, who was picking up shells and forcing them down a crab hole. Maybe letting Carlo mess with her career wasn’t all that bad.
He started to say something, but stopped. After a few seconds, he said, “I was hoping you’d come fly my Cessna 206 that’s standing at the Rome aero club with me. I still need to do some hours this year to keep my license.” He faltered. “There are private charters that fly from Rome, if you want to carry on working. If that’s not enough—”
She looked at him, slow heat curling up to her heart, where the beats picked up pace.
He took a deep breath and turned, taking both her shoulders in his hands. “I’m such an idiot. I’m never leaving you again.” He rested his forehead against hers. “You’ve always been the one, Simone, always. Yesterday, this morning…I was lost, going crazy not knowing where you were, whether you were safe with everything that has been going on. Not being able to get hold of you when I needed you.” His voice broke, and he hugged her tighter. “And Sarah…”
At the thought of Sarah and what they shared her heart almost burst. Simone had to swallow her emotions. “This whole mess, Carlo, I never thought, never knew it would spin out of control so fast.”
“It’s over now. We know who the culprits are.” He brushed her windswept curls from her face. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it does. The company—”
“You mean more to me, Simone,” he said simply. “And to think I nearly made the same stupid mistake twice.” He shook his head. “To have left you again…please forgive me.”
She reached for his rough cheeks, his stubble deliciously scratchy under her fingertips. “There’s nothing to forgive. You are here now, that’s all that matters.”
He held her for a long time, nuzzling her hair. Simone pressed her nose into the smooth skin of his neck, savoring his manly scent. The tide was coming in and water pooled around their feet.
He took a deep breath and pulled her even closer. “If you can bear to marry me, we can fill that old Carlevaro house with so many children that there will be no space for the shadows of the past.”
She melted under the intensity of his gaze.
“I love you, Simone, I always have. Marry me, and fly with me to Rome.”
Her heart hammered in her chest, her mouth dry with the sudden fulfillment of her dearest wish. “Can’t we fly first? It seems rather rushed.”
“Is that a yes?” he asked, a smile playing on his lips.
She chuckled, kissing his neck. “It’s been yes from the first time I saw you.”
He kissed her and she knew she would finally be flying home.