Laurie smiled. ‘It’s charming. I’m happy. There’s not a bug in my room.
That had been my main worry.’
The proprietors, Esteban’s brother-in-law, Florenico, and his wife,
Celestina, had prepared a huge feast. The main course was a local fish
served with a turniplike plant called ‘malanga.’ For dessert there was a
type of pudding along with exotic fruit. An ample supply of ice-cold
Cameroonean beer helped wash it all down.
The combination of plentiful food and beer took a toll on the exhausted
travelers. It wasn’t long before all of them were fighting drooping
eyelids. With some effort, they dragged themselves upstairs to their
separate rooms, full of plans to rise early and head south in the
morning.
Bertram climbed the stairs to Siegfried’s office. He was exhausted. It
was almost eight-thirty at night, and he’d been up since five-thirty
that morning to accompany the animal handlers out to Isla Francesca to
help get the mass retrieval under way. They’d worked all day and only
returned to the animal center an hour earlier.
Aurielo had long since gone home, so Bertram walked directly into the
manager’s office. Siegfried was by the window facing the square with a
glass in his hand. He was staring over at the hospital. The only light
in the room was from the candle in the skull, just as it had been three
nights before. Its flame flickered from the action of the overhead fan,
sending shadows dancing across the stuffed animal trophies.
‘Make yourself a drink,’ Siegfried said, without turning around. He knew
it was Bertram, since they’d talked on the phone a half an hour earlier
and made plans to meet.
Bertram was more of a wine drinker than an imbiber of hard alcohol, but
under the circumstances he poured himself a double scotch. He sipped the
fiery fluid as he joined Siegfried at the window. The lights of the
hospital lab complex glowed warmly in the moist tropical night.
‘Did you know Taylor Cabot was coming?’ Bertram asked.
‘I hadn’t the faintest idea,’ Siegfried said.
‘What did you do with him?’ Bertram asked.
Siegfried gestured toward the hospital. ‘He’s at the Inn. I had the
chief surgeon move out of what we call the presidential suite. Of
course, he was none too happy. You know how these egotistical doctors
are. But what was I supposed to do? It’s not like I’m running a hotel
here.’
‘Do you know why Cabot came?’ Bertram asked.
‘Raymond said that he came specifically to evaluate the bonobo program,’
Siegfried said.
‘I was afraid of that,’ Bertram said.
‘It’s just our luck,’ Siegfried complained. ‘The program has been
running like a Swiss clock for years on end, and just when we have a
problem, he shows up.’
‘What did you do with Raymond?’ Bertram asked.
‘He’s over there, too,’ Siegfried said. ‘He’s a pain in the ass. He
wanted to be away from Cabot, but where was I supposed to put him: in my
house? No thank you!’
‘Has he asked about Kevin Marshall?’ Bertram asked.
‘Of course,’ Siegfried said. ‘As soon as he got me aside, it was his
first question.’
‘What did you say?’
‘I told the truth,’ Siegfried said. ‘I told him Kevin had gone off with
the reproductive technologist and the intensive care nurse and that I
had no idea where he was.’
‘What was his reaction?’
‘He got red in the face,’ Siegfried said. ‘He wanted to know if Kevin
had gone to the island. I told him that we didn’t think so. Then he
ordered me to find him. Can you imagine? I don’t take orders from
Raymond Lyons.’
‘So Kevin and the women have not reappeared?’ Bertram asked.
‘No, and not a word,’ Siegfried said.
‘Have you made any effort to find them?’ Bertram asked.
‘I sent Cameron over to Acalayong to check out those cheap hotels along
the waterfront, but he didn’t have any luck. I’m thinking they might
have gone over to Cocobeach in Gabon. That’s what makes the most sense,
but why they didn’t tell anyone is beyond me.’
‘What a God-awful mess,’ Bertram commented.
‘How did you do on the island?’ Siegfried asked.
‘We did well, considering how fast we had to put the operation