Day 16 - Teresa's side of the story

I lay on my back in the dimly lit hut, my mind racing.

Although I wasn’t sure who exactly wanted me dead, I knew it had to be either of two people. I still couldn’t believe that either of them would go this far. But then a million dollars was a million dollars, I bitterly reminded myself.

My hands were firmly tied behind my back, although my legs were free. What could I do? I would have to do something.

The man who wanted me dead had made his plans rather carefully. David would not be looking for me. He would simply wait for the 60 days to expire and then collect his cash. For all I knew he could be somewhere making love to some woman at this very moment.

‘Take control of yourself Teresa,’ I told myself. I had no right to such thoughts. After all the lies I had told David, what was he expected to do? As far as he was concerned, I was supposed to be dead.

I felt the tears quickly gathering to my eyes as I realized that there was no way that David would be looking for me. There was also no way that anybody even in LA, would be looking for me.

My mind went back to the events shortly after I had slipped out of the game drive mini bus. The plan had been that another tourist van, this one without tourists, which had been trailing us, was to pick me up. Within the next four hours I was supposed to be at the airport picking the first flight out and on my way back to LA.

The mini bus had turned up okay, only that I didn’t recognize anybody that was on it. They were all Africans. I immediately sensed that something was very wrong. Kevin was supposed to be in this vehicle. Where was he?

The three men and the driver put my mind to ease immediately.

“Kevin says we meet him later. We’ll take you to him,” the driver who appeared to me to be too young to be a tour driver, said. I quickly entered the van, grateful to be safe and away from the wild, where we had just seen a lion kill a gazelle with such brutality. I felt that a woman would have no chance at all against those beautiful beasts.

That was when I saw the gun pointed straight at me.

“We will kill you and feed you to the lions, if you don’t do exactly what we tell you.”

I froze in fear. Nobody had ever pointed a gun at me in my life. I had always thought that it was something that happened in the movies and the wrong neighborhoods in LA.

“Get down under the seats. Quick.” I obeyed and squeezed myself in the small space under the seats.

The van was now driving back in the direction that we had come on the game drive.

“You raise your head and I shoot you.”

The van was driving at a high speed. I felt a sharp pain in my arm and realized that one of the men had injected something into me. I didn’t have time to be too horrified because I passed out in minutes.