The Extinct

CHAPTER

3



Though Andhra Pradesh is India’s fifth largest state by population, it has the longest coastline along the Bay of Bengal and dense jungles filled with insect species and plant life that has yet to be catalogued. Farther from the coast, the jungle recedes into the vast open plains of the Deccan Plateau that stretch for hundreds of miles. Rolling green hills and jagged mountains are split open from powerful rivers and the climate, though, bearable, makes many middle class and wealthier Indians likely to find their homes in the densely populated cities rather than the smaller, agrarian villages dotting the countryside.

The café in downtown Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh’s capital city, was crowded with tourists. Many were from Europe and even more from the Middle East who found the proximity and low cost of a trip to Andhra Pradesh appealing.

Dr. Said sat at a table in the corner, sipping Turkish coffee. Some Australian businessmen were sitting at the booth next to him. They were telling jokes about women. Namdi would bet they were cowards at home, bending to the will of wives they despised.

A tall blond walked in to the café and asked a waiter something. The waiter pointed to Namdi and the woman came over. Her eyes were rimmed red, from allergies or recent crying, and she wore no make-up, her hair pulled back and held in place with a rubberband.

“Dr. Said?” she said.



“Yes.”



She held out her hand. It was soft and lotioned. “Nancy Larson.”



“Nice to meet you. Sit down, please.”



She sat down and placed her purse on the table. Namdi noticed there was a box of tissues and, tucked away underneath, a small handgun.

“What can I do for you, Mrs. Larson?”

“Phillip told me you were an expert on the animals in Andhra Pradesh. That you help governments catch animals that start attacking people.”

“I have in the past, yes.”

She pulled out a photo and slid it across the table. It was her and a thin, white male in shorts and a tank-top standing next to a jeep.

“This is my husband, Davis. He went missing thirty-six days ago.”

“Where?”

“We were near the coast. I was driving that jeep in the picture. We had come for a picture safari. Davis used to love hunting but I got him off of that. I told him it was cruel and that taking a good picture was just as hard as taking a good shot. I don’t think he ever believed me, but he did it anyway.” Nancy took out a tissue from her purse and held it in her hands, twirling the thin paper over and over again. “We saw . . . something. It was fur that went along some bushes next to the jeep. Davis wanted a photo so we stopped. He thought it might be a wildebeest or something.

“We were speaking about the World Cup that was coming up soon and he was waiting for his photo. I turned to get some water. I just looked away for a second. When I turned back . . . he was gone. No sounds. He was just gone. I yelled for him and ran around looking for him, even though the hairs on my neck were standing up. I felt like that was an evil place. I still do. But I saw these next to the jeep.”

Nancy pulled out more photos. Namdi took them and held them up. They were prints in the soft dirt. Paws. In one photo, Nancy put her hand next to the paw. Smart girl, he thought. Without perspective, no one would’ve believed it.

“These prints—” Namdi began.



“Are huge. I know. I’ve shown them to other people too. They said they had to be a hoax.”



“Are these the only photos you have?”



“No, I have a few more. But I was only there five or ten minutes before I sped to the police station. We searched for three days. We didn’t even find a shred of clothing. It’s like the earth swallowed him.”

“Mrs. Larson, I’m going to be honest with you because I do not want to give you false hope. There is little chance that he could survive for more than a month on the plains without food or water. Have you considered that maybe he ran away and he planned this?”

“Ran away? He didn’t run away. We had a good marriage. And if he wanted to leave he had better opportunities than that.”

Namdi placed the photographs down. “Mrs. Larson, what is it you’d like me to do?”

“Find out what happened to him. It’s the not knowing that’s killing me. I just need to know what happened. Could a rogue tiger or something have done this?”

“Possibly. When an animal sees how easy prey human beings are, it will only hunt human beings. These are very dangerous animals. The only way to stop them is to kill them. But I’ve never heard of a case like this. It may have been bandits or militia and the prints are distortions due to the weather.”

“Will you help me?”

Namdi saw tears in her eyes and watched as she tore the tissue to shreds in her hands, the pieces flaking down across her lap and onto the floor. He remembered a similar reaction in his mother when the army had informed them that his father would not be coming home.

“All right, Mrs. Larson. I will look into it.”



*****



As the sun set and baked the sky a soft orange and pink, Namdi Said sat at his desk and reviewed all the photos Mrs. Davis Larson had taken the day her husband went missing. The paw prints were the most interesting of course, but there was something else. On the side of the passenger seat, indented into the fabric, were punctures arched in a semi-circle. There was little fabric torn away. Namdi thought that whatever punctured them would have to be as sharp as razors to not tear anything away.

He pressed a button on his phone. “Ms. Thorpe?”

“Yes, doctor?”

“Call the police and the Department of Wildlife please. Get me the files for every missing person and potential animal attack on the plains for the last six months. Start with around Hyderabad and work your way out. Nothing in the cities, just the plains.”

“Yes, sir. It may take me some time, sir.”

“That is fine. Thank you.”

Namdi threw the photos down and leaned back in his seat. He didn’t like this case. If Nancy was telling an accurate account, her husband was taken in total silence in broad daylight with another person nearby. Tigers and panthers had killed and kidnapped before, but never so brazenly. Something was different.

He noticed for the first time that the hair on his neck was standing up.