The men complied. Blood trickled down the side of Wan’s face from the hole where his ear had been uprooted. “What do you want?” he asked Audrey. “Money?”

Though Audrey had never seen the burly South African before, he seemed to recognize her. “Her son was poisoned,” he informed Wan.

Audrey twitched the gun onto Cobus. “Who did it?”

Wan nodded toward Cobus. “It was him.”

Audrey studied Cobus, who said nothing. “Is that true?”

As Audrey’s gun quivered unsteadily in her hands, he looked in her eyes, and for a brief moment she saw what looked like a hint of remorse.

“Yes,” he said.

Audrey’s finger tensed on the trigger.

Exploiting Audrey’s focus on Cobus, Wan dived for his handgun in the dirt. Cobus went for it too.

Audrey hesitated, unable to pull the trigger on either man. Wan snatched his gun off the ground, but his adversary was on him before he could fire off a shot. As the two men wrestled for control, Cobus managed to turn the gun on Wan.

Audrey startled as the gun discharged point-blank into Wan’s heart. His body toppled backward and lay motionless on the track.

Cobus turned toward Audrey with Wan’s pistol in his hand. Though he didn’t put her in his sights, the gun swept toward the detective as he turned.

Audrey saw the muzzle heading in her direction and instinctively squeezed the trigger.

The bullet from her SIG P250 struck Cobus in the chest, dropping him to the earth like a newborn rhino.

Cobus struggled to sit up, the loaded pistol still dangling in his hand. He looked up at Audrey, his shocked eyes meeting the muzzle of her pistol, which was aimed at his face. Rather than engage the mother, he tossed Wan’s Glock in the dirt, then collapsed on the track.

Audrey rushed to the man she had shot, pleading. “Why?” she cried. “Why did you poison them?”

As his face began to lose color, Cobus reached in his shirt pocket and withdrew two crumpled, bloodstained photos—one of a male African ranger and one of a smiling young African woman who wore a matching green uniform.

“They died for your horn,” the man wheezed. “I just wanted it to stop.” The photos slipped from his fingers and fell in the dirt.

Cobus stared silently at the sky. Audrey could see the blood hemorrhaging from the bullet hole in his chest. She stripped off her jacket and began applying pressure, desperate to keep him alive, as if her soul hung in the balance. He gagged and coughed, blood erupting up from his lungs and out his mouth and nose, staining the earth.

As Cobus began to drift off, Audrey heard sirens in the distance. She looked into his wide, empty eyes.

“Stay with me.”

CHAPTER 45 THE DOSSIER

CHAPTER 45
THE DOSSIER