Black Mischief by Carl Hancock Read Free Book Online

their supper an hour ago. Not very hungry. You missed out on the chocolate cake.’
    â€˜Remember those times in Wiaki Way? No kids. Not much money.’
    â€˜When we always shared our secrets.’
    â€˜Always told each other the truth. I’m glad you made me go up to the McCall place.’
    â€˜Made you? Nobody makes Abel Rubai do anything.’
    â€˜I learned more than I expected, ‘specially about this forgiveness stuff and about myself.’
    â€˜At last, Abel. I knew it could happen. Those people in the meeting are so right. President Abel Rubai! Hey, that means we will get to meet the queen! All this and a new baby. If only our Julius could see this. Oh, forgive me, Abel. But I am so excited to have you back.’
    â€˜Julius. See, I can say his name without it bringing on the dark thoughts, the bad temper. The pain is there, but the wound is healing. Anyway, what was that you said about …
    passing on? Our boy is not far away, just in the next room. I think I’m ready to buy that now.’
    To Abel, Sally was the dearest thing in the world. From the very first he had been protective of her. They had met when they were children. They began their working careers together with Neisland, Kapper and Reed, the most successful accountancy firm in the country. When the new president himself invited Abel to join his staff, they shared their new prosperity. At just about the same time Julius was born and things changed. Sally willingly became a full-time mother and wife. Abel was drawn along a new and private path. As financial adviser to the main man, Abel became a power in the land and soon the power. Always he kept his family and public lives separate. In Sally’s eyes, Abel continued to be the upright, enthusiastic idealist of their shared youth. But the dreamer had become the realist. It was safer for both of them that she was not invited into his new world. He had been more than ready to embrace the truth that to play a winning game often meant playing a dirty game. She would never have understood that.
    The death of Julius knocked him sideways for a time, but he recovered his poise. He came back to the fray more ruthless, more shameless. Get in his way at your peril. Yes, he had spoken the truth about his visit to Londiani. He had learned a lot. Sally believed him and for Abel her innocence, her trust were important. What need was there for her to be bothered about the cauldron of hot anger that burned deep in the hidden places of his being? When the time came, the McCalls would learn the truth the hardest possible way. They would never see it coming.
    â€˜Sally, how would you like it if you had a son for an MP? Nakuru South is open this time.’
    â€˜You mean Reuben?’
    â€˜Yeah, we had a talk on the way home. You know, I don’t believe we ever got that close before.’
    â€˜Can he win?’
    Abel was highly amused. ‘I think I can say that the people of the district will be falling over themselves to vote for the son of their president.’
    â€˜But isn’t the McCall boy …’
    â€˜Woman, he would be lucky to get a hundred votes, all from his white farmer friends, Europeans who stole good African soil to make their fortune.’

Chapter Eight
    homas, I am afraid.’
    A day had passed since the visit to Londiani of the whole Rubai family. Tom McCall had returned to Big House after a morning in the fields. He had been grateful that it had been a busy time for him. Workers came to the young bwana with problems from the moment he had set foot in the farm office. The hours had passed quickly. One of the refrigerated trucks that transported the farm produce down to Jomo Kenyatta Airport needed a service and the foreman mechanic was off sick. In one of the flower tents a fight broke out. Two of his best young apprentices were rolling around on a patch of rich brown earth that was ready for replanting. There was some serious hitting