The Hunt and The Kill by Holly Watt

Author:Holly Watt [Watt, Holly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Published: 2021-05-25T16:00:00+00:00

40

‘The Njana ranch used to belong to an old arms dealer called Jacques van de Berg,’ Kizzie explained. ‘Back in the seventies, van de Berg managed to sell guns to not one, but both sides of the Bush War, which required a certain dispassion.

‘Then he got out of the country altogether for a few years when things got too lively. He managed to hang on to Njana for all that time though, God knows how. He used to do business all over Africa, and eventually he came back to Zimbabwe. I don’t know when, but things didn’t go so well for him after that. He was too old school. Couldn’t keep up when the world went electronic and no bad thing, as far as I am concerned.’

‘What happened to him?’

‘The van de Bergs ran out of money pretty fast,’ said Kizzie. ‘Jacques van de Berg held on to the ranch until he died, but only just. The son sold it as soon as the old man journeyed on. Maybe five, six years ago? Not for much, although Bailey probably paid a bit more into some overseas account that the Zim authorities couldn’t track. It’s meant to be beautiful, Njana. All the land up there is stunning, hey?’

‘Do you know how much time Bailey spends at the reserve?’

‘No idea,’ said Kizzie. ‘Van de Berg was certainly a big deal in Harare for a long time. I think Oscar knew his son. Not especially well, but Harare is not a large place, as you may have noticed, so they would have crossed paths a lot as they were growing up. I could ask Oscar if he knows anything?’

‘But Bailey isn’t the same presence locally as the van de Bergs?’

‘Not at all. Bailey’s ex-wife is South African, lives down in Cape Town, and even when they were married, she had zero interest in Njana, by all accounts. Presumably he must spend a lot of time in Europe and the US too?’

‘Yes,’ agreed Casey. ‘Being the boss of Adsero can’t leave much spare time on his hands.’

‘Sure.’

‘What’s he doing up there?’ Casey was almost speaking to herself. ‘He’s having lots of samples taken there. He could be testing them … ’

‘There might be some sort of facility,’ Kizzie murmured.

The thought hung menacingly in the air.

‘What’s it like,’ Casey asked. ‘The Njana ranch?’

‘I’ll call Oscar.’

A few minutes later, Oscar was on speakerphone. He sounded as if he had just woken up, but glided easily into memories of the old game reserve. His voice was deep and slow, the strong Zimbabwean accent never far from a laugh. Casey could see how he and Kizzie made a good team.

‘The van de Bergs used to have parties,’ Oscar said. ‘Such parties, my friend. They were held in the main house, right at the top of a hill, looking straight across at the sunset. Then in the daytime, we’d go on game drives, and they were just amazing. Old man van de Berg used to collect black rhino, as well as giraffe, sable, eland, zebra, so it was incredible.

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