“You’re thinking the murderers brought the Smith-Aidoos in here to kill them?” Chikata asked.
“I was entertaining the idea,” Dawson replied, “but seeing how difficult it was to make our way in here, I’m beginning to doubt it. Can you imagine dragging two dead bodies out back through that bush?”
“It would be tough-and a waste of time, too,” Chikata observed. “Better to flag down the vehicle, get the Smith-Aidoos out at gunpoint into another vehicle, and get them outa here as quickly as possible.”
“I agree,” Dawson said. “Anyway, we’re here, so we might as well check for any cartridges, or even a murder weapon. That would be a real stroke of luck.”
“Do you suspect Cardiman?”
“If his time frames are all correct, and it seems they are, then he couldn’t have taken part in waylaying the Smith-Aidoos. Again, just like DeSouza and Sarbah, the only way he could have been involved is if he had a partner.”
“But then he could simply have had them shot at the roadside and that would be the end of it,” Chikata pointed out, standing akimbo. “Why have them loaded into a canoe and taken out to sea and all that palaver? Doesn’t make sense.”
“Amazing how nothing ever seems to make sense, isn’t it?” Dawson muttered, bending down and lifting the fronds of a fern. Low-lying plants in a forest were of special significance to him. In the Ketanu case two years ago, the victim was found dead in a thicket with a shrub partially concealing her body.
As expected, they found nothing-not even any signs of disturbance of vegetation. Abandoning the “murder-in-the-bush” theory, they came back, dusting twigs and leaves off their clothes.
“Anything in there?” Cardiman asked them.
Dawson shook his head absently, looking around again. In the distance he saw towering kapok trees with long, straight trunks topped with branches shaped like a fan or umbrella. Much closer, about 200 meters along the road in the direction they had been traveling, Dawson noticed another tree of some size, this one not as tall as a kapok. Its sturdy, widely spread branches, resembling multiple tributaries of a river, overhung the roadway somewhat. He guessed it was a mahogany. It was well situated to function as a lookout for vehicles coming along the route, provided one climbed high enough. He took a photograph of the mahogany with his phone, several snapshots of the Hyundai and surroundings, and the red dirt road in either direction.
