Mackenzie Ford - The Clouds Beneath the Sun

And Eleanor went on to describe the murder of Richard Sutton, the reasons for it, what Natalie had witnessed, what defense Ndekei was expected to run, and why she had forced Russell North to leave the camp. And she had no choice but to speak about the Maasai threat to the gorge.

When she finished the questions came thick and fast.

“When is this trial?”

“Is it a jury trial?”

“Who is the judge? Is he black or white?”

“What is the penalty for murder in Kenya?”

“Have tribal defenses been used before in Kenya?”

“Is Ndekei in jail now? Which one?”

“Will you defend the gorge if the Maasai attack it, or occupy it? How?”

“Dr. Deacon, did you really try to get Dr. Nelson to change her testimony?”

“Maybe Dr. Nelson should answer that,” said another journalist.

Eleanor turned in her seat. “Natalie?”

All eyes were on her. A photographer’s light flashed somewhere.

“No,” said Natalie, in as deliberately flat a voice as she could muster. “Dr. Deacon was born and bred in Kenya, I’m new here. She’s been digging in the gorge for decades but she tells me this is the best season, in terms of discoveries, that there has ever been. It’s natural to try to preserve something as important as Kihara. I share her enthusiasm but I saw what I saw and will say so at the trial. I have never varied in my view and all my colleagues—not just Dr. Deacon but everyone else—know that.”

Natalie wanted the morning to be over as quickly as possible and the less she said the sooner it would be.

“Tom Jellinek again. I have a question for Dr. North—have I got the name right?”

Eleanor nodded.

“Dr. North, you were sent away from the camp because of your part in this … raid on the cemetery. In the circumstances, in view of the dreadful fate that occurred to Professor Sutton, do you accept that Dr. Deacon acted responsibly, that—in effect—she saved your life?”

Russell stood up. “Ndekei had already been captured and arrested by the time I was made to leave, so no, I don’t accept that reasoning. I don’t believe anyone else would have come looking for me—an eye for an eye, so to speak, had already been achieved. I accepted because I had no choice, Dr. Deacon’s authority on her digs is absolute. But I left reluctantly.”

“And is your intervention this morning motivated by revenge?” Jellinek was as dogged as Russell had been earlier.

Russell passed a large hand over his chin. “My intervention was motivated by the gaps in the story you were told. A man was murdered during this season’s digging and, had it been left to Dr. Deacon, none of you journalists would have been any the wiser. You should ask Dr. Deacon if she is for or against Ndekei’s prosecution.”

“Well, Dr. Deacon? What’s the answer?”

“What I say doesn’t matter. The law will take its course. What Professors Sutton and North did was in my view, stupid, crass, wrong, and—yes—criminal. I am white, a graduate of a British university, but I have lived and worked all my life in Kenya. I am familiar with and sometimes—sometimes, not always—sympathic to tribal ways. Anglo-Saxon law is not the only way of organizing human affairs.”

“Does that mean you are for or against the prosecution of this cook?” Jellinek was still on his feet.

“I have said all that I want to say. But I point out that Dr. Nelson is on this platform with me today.”

There were no more questions.

Natalie’s heart was racing. She noticed that Russell was sweating copiously.

“I think we have gone as far as we can for now,” said Eleanor, getting to her feet. “Remember to pick up your photographs as you leave.”

Russell got up from his seat at the hotel bar and came towards Natalie. “You look angry but you still look wonderful. You are more tanned than I remember you.” He leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek but she held back. “Hmm,” he grunted.

“I came because I promised but after your performance this morning, I can’t say I’m here with any enthusiasm. Why did you say all those things?”

He showed her to a seat. “They needed saying, the whole picture is important, relevant. If the press conference had been reported without mention of Richard, it would have been incomplete, wrong. Scotch?”

“Not yet, thank you. Is that why you did it? I think that reporter was right—what you did struck me as an act of spite, an attempt to sabotage what’s been achieved this season.”

“Too right. That too, yes. Fights always exist on several levels, and this one is no different. I told you, the evening before I was made to leave the gorge, that I wasn’t rolling over. Now you know I keep to my word.”

“How long are you going to be wounded, Russell? Will you ever get over this?”

“I’ll get over it a damned sight quicker if you’ll come over to my side, if you’ll—”

“Russell, stop! Because I agreed to have dinner with you, doesn’t mean we can just pick up where—”

“Doesn’t it mean anything that I still feel about you the way that I do?”

She shook her head. She was more certain than ever now that Russell and she could never have … the way his skin flushed, those blue eyes that seemed to have a life of their own, independent of the rest of his face …“You’re acting … you’re behaving like … like a fossil, Russell, a fossil who has occupied the same position for years and years and has turned to stone.”

He stared at her.

“You could, if you wished, agree to be part of a team—for publication purposes anyway—a team that’s made the most momentous discoveries this season, you being involved in the very first, which not only discovered the knee joint but pointed us to the area where the other discoveries would be made. That would bring us closer together, you and me. Yet you remain stuck in your anger, your vindictiveness—”

He went to interrupt but she waved him down.

“You haven’t been paying attention, all those miles away in Hollywood. The Maasai are threatening to occupy the gorge and destroy it. You know that but you overlook the fact that that means they are still on the warpath, so to speak. I have thought about it a lot and Eleanor was right to insist you leave—”

Again he went to interrupt, again she talked over him.

“Your career is the most important thing to you but she was thinking of your life— ”

“Huh! And the gorge—”

“No! Sending you away always risked a scene like today’s—she knew that. It was more important to save your life—”

“You mean the dig couldn’t afford two deaths.”

She let a short pause elapse. “As it happens, there have been two deaths.” She explained about Kees.

Russell shook his head and gave a low whistle. “Poor man. Suicide. What a way to do it.” He looked up. “But it confirms that Eleanor Deacon is losing it.”

“Russell! Kees told me … that he thought Richard was homosexual. Was he? You knew him over several years, several digs. Did you know anything about that?”

Russell hesitated. “I registered that he never had girlfriends. But no, I can’t say I thought about it more than that. Very few women come on digs in Africa, then he would go back to New York, and me to Berkeley.”

“I once caught Richard and Mutevu standing very close together. Do you think … could there have been anything between them?”

He stared at her. “No! I mean, I don’t know. Are you saying …?”

“I don’t know what I’m saying. But you never saw anything that made you think …?”

He shook his head, firmly. “Nothing like that ever crossed my mind. And I’m not sure I like the suggestion …”