Maasai Mara Hotel

Wailing of
police and ambulance sirens disturbed the air. Two police officers were
transporting a body into a police van. This was the fourth murder case in a
span of two months.

“Have you
got any single shred of evidence?” Inspector Muchai asked one of the police
officers following up the murder cases.

“No sir…”

Inspector
Muchai and his investigation team had tried their best to gather any clues to
the murders that took place in Maasai Mara Hotel, only for a dead end to laugh
back at them.

There were neither
finger prints on the victims’ bodies,’ nor foot prints near the crime scene. The
first victim was killed by strangulation, the second stabbing in the chest, the
third a hit on the head, and the fourth a fall from the third floor, through
the balcony. The fourth victim had previously cried for help through the office
phone, claiming that a statue wanted to kill him!

According to
the local Maasai legend, the hotel was cursed by a village elder a hundred
years ago. At the exact location where the hotel lay, a sacred tree once
existed. The elder was ready to defend the tree with his life, even against
British investors and contractors, who neither carried a sword nor a spear.

Proving to
be as stubborn as summer flies, one of the investors shot the elder right on
the chest. As he lay on his grass bed, he whispered some words in Maasai
language, before meeting his ancestors. One of the local porters interpreted
the words the British investor. “Cursed is every human who will inhabit this
land the tree stands….” the porter said.

Chopping
down the tree was the investors’ reaction to the elder’s last words. It did not
take long for the investors to start clearing the land where the tree lay, in
order to build a one of a kind of a hotel. Their dream was to invite the Queen
of England to the hotel one day.

Deep in his
thoughts, Inspector Muchai had a different plot altogether, as to how the
victims died. “I have a great sense of suspicion that the murderer or murderers
first spray some kind of odorless hallucinogenic sprays in the room of the
victims. It is after the victims inhale the substance that the murderer or
murderers is able to kill them without being recognized facially or audibly.
The problem is that the murderer or murderers don’t leave a single shred of
evidence to track them down….” he wrote in his investigation reports.

Police dogs
had been dispersed around the hotel for days, without any success in capturing
the killer or killers. It seemed the dogs were looking for people without any
body scent. “How could this be!” one of the police officers wondered aloud.

The only
option that Inspector Muchai had in succeeding to capture and arrest the
offender or offenders was by recruiting a spy in the police force, who would
pretend to be a local tourist, with fake IDs and passports.

 A week before, he had proposed for the
installation of cameras in the hotel rooms and corridors, only for the hotel
guests to oppose it in unison. They perceived the cameras as a limitation to
their privacy rights.

One Friday
summer afternoon, a tall, dark, beautiful lady checked at the reception in
Maasai Mara Hotel. She looked sophisticated in her sunglasses, tiger-patterned
high heels, and a sundress.

“Good
afternoon madam?” the receptionist greeted her.

“Good
afternoon to you too,” the guest replied.

“Please give
me your ID or passport.”

“Alright.
They are all here!”

It is after
filling in the booking forms that she was given her room keys. They were for
Room 12, which was next to Room 13, where the last victim was killed! The day
that the victim fell from the third floor, was the same day that the previous
occupant of Room 12 checked out. It wasn’t a coincidence, though. The room’s
previous occupant, by the name Tom Wilbert, couldn’t hold his fears any longer.
As a Vietnam War veteran, the things that gave him the creeps must have been
really creepy to almost any bravest of men.

The hotel
looked deserted, as the new guest walked along a lonely corridor, as she pulled
the luggage behind her. She was certain that she was the only person outside a
three-star hotel, yet she felt as though someone was watching her every move.

As she
reached for the lift’s button closest her, it suddenly opened! An eerie sensation
flowed through her spine at that moment. She was so quiet that she could hear
water flowing through the pipes in the walls. “At least the lift has lights”,
she comforted herself.

No sooner
had she raised her right leg to get into the lift, than amplifying footsteps
from behind shattered her confidence completely! The fright was so much for her
to bear, that she fell on the floor.

“Can I give
you a hand?” a manly voice asked.

“Sorry if I
startled you……”

Her fright
turned to a gradual sigh, when she realized that it was only one of the hotel
assistants.

“Which floor
are you heading?”

“Third
floor”.

Lilian
Wanjiku, as her name read in her ID and passport, was really glad to have got
some company in the lift. Within seconds, they had reached the third floor. The
scent of flowers, and aroma of Asian cuisines filled the corridor. It was as
though the scent and aroma were compensating for the disturbing screams that
had haunted the floor a fortnight back.

The corridor
was quite long. The porter was very quite. This made the trek to the 12^th
room boring for Lilian. She was a loud and talkative person, who spent most of
her times chatting with her friends and partying. The only thing she could do
is to make her own fantasies.

“Welcome,”
she heard. As the door slowly opened, her eyes grew wide, and her mouth opened
wide with amazement. A sparkling, tiled floor, Turkish carpets, a Jacuzzi, and
custom-made furniture made her feel as though she had reached heaven.

She was so moved
with the furnishing of her room, that she jumped onto her bed. She only did
that right after the porter left, and closed the door.

Hours turned
to days, and days turned to a week, without any report of murder. Lilian had
started to get impatient. Throughout her stay in the hotel, she hadn’t gathered
any single plausible report to send to Inspector Muchai.

No one in
the hotel or police force knew what shock was in store for them. At three o’
clock in the night, on a Wednesday of her last week in the hotel, Lilian heard
squeaky noises along the corridors. Silently and swiftly she wore her
nightdress, and picked a candle stick for a weapon.

As she went
closer to the door, the noises turned to hard footsteps, akin to those of a
Norman knight. There was no time to call the police. In addition, their sirens
would only disrupt her from the discovery of which one of the killers was.

Moving with
the swiftness of lightning, she got out of the room, and torched the murderer’s
face. The sight she saw made her drop the torch and race for the stairs. It was
a two- meter, marble statue of a Maasai Moran, wielding a spear! To make
matters worse, the statue was moving!

Lady luck
seemed to be on her side, when she reached the ground floor, teaming up with
the porter. “Look! Do you see……that! The place where the Moran statue ought to
be is empty!” the porter whispered. His lips and hands were trembling, as his
fingers pointed to a fountain without a statue.

Lilian
wasn’t ready to risk her life taking a statue wielding a spear a photo, and
sending it to Inspector Muchai via her phone. “My life is more precious than
this case,” she thought.

“I also know
that the inspector will think I’m mad if give him my written accounts of my
observations……” she whispered. Insanity was slowly getting into her head.

Her career
as a security officer had been put to the test. “I’m not a police officer any
more. I leave this to God….” she whispered.

Screams from
the third and fourth floors could be audible. A stream of blood flowing on the
stairs from the first floor could be seen. The phrase “We are sitting ducks!”
could be read on their faces.

Lilian and
the porter raced as fast as the legs could carry them, towards the exit door.  They could hear mammoth thumps right behind
them, with a gap of almost five meters. In the midst of shivers, Lilian looked
behind, only to see eight more statues racing for their blood!