White Bone by Ridley Pearson

Author:Ridley Pearson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mystery, Action & Adventure, Thrillers & Suspense, International Mystery & Crime, Crime, United States, Suspense, Thrillers, Thriller & Suspense, Thriller, Literature & Fiction
ISBN: 0399163751
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Published: 2016-07-19T05:00:00+00:00

34

The envelope Ava’s housekeeper had retrieved from Grace’s room had contained a second thumb drive. Now, once again, the screen presented Knox with a question.

Pulled from the fire (nickname):

He entered: Sarge. He didn’t like being asked to remember that day.

The screen refreshed.

The bottle opener:

Knox had gotten stuck on this second question. He’d sat there for ten minutes, wondering what Grace was asking, if he was the right one to try to answer the question. Fearing the program would only allow a finite number of tries—three?—he’d withheld from wild guesses.

The small drive was currently zipped into his Scottevest. Until he could solve the second clue, there were better uses of his time.

Olé wore ceremonial Maasai dress, a colorful waist skirt and a sleeveless scarlet tunic decorated with beads, bone, carved wood and gems. He wore neck bangles, too, which set off his fierce but handsome face, all chiseled, aristocratic bone structure and blank dark eyes. He carried a small, menacing machete in his waist belt.

Another guide, so far nameless, rode standing in the far back of the truck, also dressed in a tribal costume. He carried a bludgeoning weapon, a lump of metal attached to a strong handle. The two spoke intermittently in Swahili.

Heeding Ava’s advice and insistence, Knox was on his way to vacate his Nanyuki hotel room—false passport or not—and take a guest room at Solio, where he would be an unregistered guest. The interview with Benson, arranged for later, following the man’s afternoon rounds, necessitated the quick trip into town.

“Everything okay, John?” Olé asked.

“Not exactly okay, no,” Knox answered honestly. “I’m on a bit of a schedule. Behind schedule.”

“This is just the place to forget such things.”

“I appreciate that.” Knox looked over again at the man, wondering how transparent he could be with him. No; why was he hesitating? Grace didn’t have time for subtlety. “A Chinese woman visited, last week. Do you remember her? Grace Chu?”

“Miss Grace. Of course, sir.”

“You drove her then?”

“I did, yes. My pleasure.”

“She’s a close friend of mine. You two talked.”

“Of course, sir. A most interesting woman. Very curious.”

“She is, isn’t she?” Knox’s stomach knotted. He didn’t trust the tense he was using. He appreciated being reminded of her endearing qualities and how easily likable she was. Painful at the same time. Knox took in the surrounding landscape, all grass and mountains, sky and clouds. No structures. A few fences. A hawk, its wings set, gliding low over the swale.

“What’d you two talk about, if I’m not being rude?”

“Not at all! She asked questions”—Olé gave him a wide smile—“but not like the other guests. Miss Grace is a special woman.”

In spite of himself, Knox wanted to snap at the man, tell him to shut up. “In what way did her questions differ?”

“Guests usually ask only about the animals. Similar questions, all the time. We are happy to answer these. This is the joy of Solio Ranch, so many animals, so beautiful.”

“But not Grace.”

“She was more interested in . . . me, sir. As a man.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.