Follow Your Star, Jennifer Bohnet [best fiction novels to read txt] 📗

French Grand Prix I have a feeling he intends to invite me to become more involved in his money-laundering sideline.’ Mathieu bit his lip. ‘The police have suspected a link between him and Takyanov for a long time but now we have the proof he’s involved in the diamond smuggling. Surrendering my friend to the police is going to be one of the hardest things I have ever done.’

‘Incidentally, what happened to the shampoo last night?’ Jean-Claude asked, looking around as if he expected to see it still on the table. ‘I meant to take it and keep it hidden until we decided what to do, but unfortunately your appearance drove it completely out of my mind.’

‘I packed it up again,’ Nanette answered quietly. ‘It’s in my room.’

‘I think it’s too dangerous for you to keep it here,’ Jean-Claude said. ‘The implications of you being found with it in your possession don’t bear thinking about. Perhaps the time has come to hand it over to the authorities?’ he continued.

Mathieu shook his head. ‘I’d rather not just yet. With Zac out of the country it would only serve to complicate things. Best to keep it hidden until Zac returns and we can confront him with it. If you want me to look after it I will,’ he offered.

There was a short silence as Nanette looked from Jean-Claude to Mathieu.

‘Personally I think the best place for it is on board Pole Position. I really don’t know what made me remove it,’ she said quietly, shaking her head. ‘At least if it’s in the safe when Zac gets back, he doesn’t need to know that I didn’t do as he asked.’

She took a deep breath and cut short both Jean-Claude and Mathieu’s protestations.

‘As I’m the one who took it and the only one who knows where the safe is, as well as the combination to open it, the responsibility to return it is mine.’

Vanessa wiped her sleeve across her face in the forlorn hope of mopping up some of the perspiration that was making her face itch. Her hair under her hat was wet and sweat was beginning to drip down her neck.

It was three hours now since they’d said goodbye to the villagers and Luigi their guide had led them into the jungle to begin their long trek back to civilization.

The last thirty-six hours had been hard. Not only was their stay in the village coming to an end with Ralph unable to complete his film the way he wanted, it now seemed the friendships they’d forged with the villagers were about to be torn apart by some superstition.

Summoned to the village council, they’d apprehensively followed Angela to the main hut on the evening of what should have been their last night in the village.

As far as Vanessa could see every villager from the smallest newborn baby to the oldest native, were waiting for them, grim-faced. The hunters had returned early from a food foraging expedition and were now grouped around the head shaman, still clutching their spears, staring intently at Vanessa and Ralph.

Vanessa shivered. Did they really believe she and Ralph had put the ‘evil eye’ on their gold? Memories of a terrifying visit as a young girl to a museum exhibition of cannibalism and shrunken heads suddenly sprang unbidden into her mind. Those practices might have been outlawed but what if other macabre rituals had taken their place?

Swallowing hard to stop the bile in her throat rising, Vanessa looked fearfully at the natives she’d treated as friends for several weeks.

There was a stranger, his skin glistening with sweat, his spears and machete strapped in place on his back, talking and gesturing with the head shaman. Vanessa glanced at him curiously.

‘He’s one of the native runners who keep all the villages in touch. Apparently he’s brought some urgent news,’ Ralph told her, after a quick consultation with Angela.

Luigi, who with Nick the cameraman, was acting as interpreter, moved forward and listened intently to what the man was saying. Vanessa clutched at Ralph’s hand nervously as silence descended in the hut and the head shaman turned and beckoned them forward.

‘We have news that Maksim, the outsider, has been detained. His word has been broken. It is not you who have cast the evil eye.’ He paused. ‘We are free to trade with you.’

Vanessa felt her whole body shudder in relief. But then she looked at Nick and Luigi aghast. The villagers had clearly misunderstood what she was offering to do.

‘Nick, Luigi, before this goes any further, you must make them understand the Fruits of the Forest co-operative would be their responsibility. I’m not buying their produce, only helping them to get organized to sell it.’

Once she was convinced that the villagers, and the head shaman in particular, understood exactly what she was proposing, Vanessa felt the tension leave her body and she quickly began to outline again all the things the villagers would need to do to get the co-operative up and running.

‘I just wish we weren’t leaving tomorrow,’ she said. ‘There’s so much to explain and put into action.’

‘We can stay one more day if you like,’ Ralph offered. ‘No longer though, Nick and Harry have work commitments to get back for.’

Vanessa and Ralph worked into the small hours trying to sort out a basic businesslike plan of campaign to get the cooperative off the ground. In the morning they held their own village council meeting to tell the head shaman and the villagers the things they needed to do.

The extra day had been a busy one with so many things to organize, not least packing up some samples of the native medicines, including several pots of the Sangre de Grado ointment that had helped Ralph’s injuries to heal so well.

‘If only we’d thought of this when we first arrived,’ Vanessa said. ‘I could have done so much more before having to leave them to get on with it.’ She sighed and looked at Ralph. ‘There is one thing that still