Free Frederick Ramsay_Botswana Mystery 02 by Reapers Page A

unless you worked with them every day, you would not know where and how often the predators might appear in any particular place. And if they caught your scent…
    “So, what shall we do?”
    “Show me these cameras you have discovered in your storage room.”
    Sanderson called Charles Tlalelo into the office and the two dragged the equipment they’d found earlier into the room.
    “Inspector Modise, this is Charles Tlalelo. Charles, this is Inspector Kgabo Modise. He is from Gabz and is a very important policeman.”
    Charles extended his right hand, his left touching its elbow. “ Dumela, Rra . ”
    “Dumela, Charles, how are you keeping?”
    “ Ke teng .”
    “Tell me about this apparatus.”
    “Well,” Charles began, looking very serious. Sanderson smiled as he spoke and Modise caught the smile, nodded in her direction, but kept his expression serious. The young man was nervous and trying not to seem so. “There was a crew of filmmakers here some months ago. They were in the park filming the animals. At least that is what they said they were doing. Making a documentary for the cinema, but…”
    “But?”
    “I am not so sure that is what they were about. The crew, they were you could say, unlikely.”
    “Unlikely? How do you mean that?”
    “They were several young women, very pretty young women to be exact, and they did not look to me like naturalists.”
    “I see. So they were filming something in the park. Why are the cameras here?”
    “They left them and never returned when Mr. Pako…he was—”
    “Sanderson’s predecessor. I know who he was.”
    “Yes, well, he discovered they did not have the proper permits to be in the park disturbing the animals. He sent them packing. They never came back.”
    “Yes. Okay. That is a mystery in itself. This is very fine equipment. Have you looked at any of it, tried it out?”
    “No. We did charge up the batteries. They were flat.”
    “I think I will have a look. The cassettes are still in the cameras?”
    “Yes. Video tapes, expensive ones I think.”
    Modise snapped a battery in one of the cameras and rewound the tape. Then he flipped open the screen and played the film. Images of lions and hyenas, of several kinds of gazelles appeared. There was a blank and then there were people. Two people to be precise. Modise watched, mouth agape, as the man and the woman embraced, disrobed and…”
    “Sanderson, I must confiscate these tapes. All of them. There is a reason these filmmakers did not return. I will find you new blank tapes, but these will be evidence if we ever find these men again.”
    Sanderson looked puzzled. Modise said he did not wish to share the contents of the tapes with her. He was sorry. It was police business. He proceeded to collect all of the cassettes and place them in a plastic bag which he sealed and initialed.
    “We will speak of this another time. I will return in an hour. It is enough to say that you were correct and you were incorrect, Charles. The women are very definitely ‘naturalists’ but not in the sense you meant it,” he said, and left with a wave of his hand.
    Sanderson and Charles Tlalelo exchanged puzzled looks. Sanderson had not told him of her encounter with the threatening man. It would have to wait it seemed.

Chapter Thirteen
    Superintendent Mwambe watched Kgabo Modise as he walked up the path to the station. He did not like Modise. He represented everything that had changed from the old days. He was young. He was smart. He was successful. Mwambe had tracked this young man since the previous winter when he had insinuated himself into the business that properly belonged to Mwambe, to the Kasane Station. And now, here he is back again. What did he want this time? He picked up the Orgone Zapper from his desk and shoved it into a desk drawer. Modise did not need to know about that.
    “Inspector Modise, you have honored my station with your presence, yet again. May I ask the occasion? Surely there is nothing so