Over dinner, elk steaks in the gun club dining room, they talked movies and music: his favorites were Jurassic Park and Led Zeppelin.
Karen's picks were The Godfather and Van Morrison.
They started going out after that and became an item. Karen had pretty much decided she didn't want to jump back into another relationship and before she knew it, she was involved in his life. Lou had a house on Walnut Lake filled with trophy heads, large and small, he had shot on his many hunting trips and safaris. The heads hung from the walls in the living room like some bizarre hunting museum, and it creeped her out.
When Lou asked her to move in she said, "I'd like to but I can't live here with all these animals staring at me." It seemed like something out of a Stephen King novel.
Lou said, "If they bother you, I'll get rid of them. You're more important."
Karen liked that, a man with his priorities in the right order.
They had fun together. He took her to the Santa Fe Wine and Chili Festival, to Mardi Gras in New Orleans and pheasant hunting in North Carolina. But the trip that really brought them close together was the safari in Kenya.
Lou said, "Want to go to Africa, hunt the big five?"
Karen said, "What're the big five?"
"Lions, leopards, buffaloes, elephants and rhinos," Lou said.
Karen said, "I don't want to shoot animals for sport, I just want to see them."
He surprised her a few days later with plane tickets to Nairobi. He said, "Ever see the great migration of the wildebeest?"
"It's been a while," Karen said. She had no idea what he was talking about.
"Want to?" Lou said. "It's a wildlife safari, no hunting."
That appealed to her. "Can you tell me a little bit more about it?"
"Every year a million and a half wildebeest and zebras come up from the Serengeti into the Mara looking for food. And right behind them are the predators: lions, leopards, cheetahs, jackals and hyenas. It's the cycle of life."
Karen said, "I know you're talking about Africa, but where?"
"The Masai Mara in southern Kenya-largest game reserve in the world, hundreds of square miles of grasslands and savannahs. You can't imagine how incredible it is. Wildebeest, a massive herd, from horizon to horizon."
Karen said, "I don't even know what a wildebeest is."
"It's a kind of antelope that looks like an ox and has horns like a cape buffalo, with a horse's tail."
"Are you making this up?" Karen said.
"No," Lou said. "That's what it looks like."
"The migration of the wildebeest, huh? I have to tell you it doesn't sound all that great."
But it was.
From Nairobi they flew in an Air Kenya prop plane forty-five minutes and landed at the Musiara Airstrip, with its collection of Quonset huts made out of corrugated steel, in the middle of nowhere. A tall thin dark-skinned guide named Jomo, who had the whitest teeth she'd ever seen, was waiting in a Land Rover and took them to the camp. On the way Lou spoke to him in a language she'd never heard. Karen said, "What is that?"
"Swahili," Lou said. "And Sheng, a mix of Swahili, English, and Maa. I'm telling him where we live."
"Where'd you learn Swahili?" Karen was impressed.
"I picked it up over the years. I've been here a few times."
The camp was like something out of a Hemingway novel-a small village of white tents. Theirs had twin beds and a toilet and shower but no electricity. At night they lit kerosene lamps and it was romantic. Lou showed her where they were on the map, a dot in the Mara Triangle in southern Kenya. He showed her the Serengeti Plains in northern Tanzania where the great migration started and ended. They took a hot air balloon ride, looking down at the giant herd of wildebeest. They took a boat ride down the Mara River, watching crocs and rhinos sunbathing on the banks. They had breakfast and lunch outside, watching the action. There was always something interesting-lions or elephants or wildebeest or zebras or Masai tribesmen herding cattle. It was like a nonstop wildlife film. Lou would point out the different animals, many Karen had never heard of.
"There's a topi," he would say. Or, "I don't believe it. Ever seen an orbi? There's one right there."
Karen said, "What's that," pointing at a big tan-colored animal with long horns that angled back.
"An eland," Lou said. "What you're eating."
"I thought it was beef," Karen said.
Lou said, "No, it's antelope."
"It's good," Karen said.
Lou told her lions were colorblind and when they saw a herd of zebra it looked like one big mass of stripes. The lion had trouble picking out an individual zebra to attack. He told her about the Masai, the tall good-looking tribesmen she would see in the distance, carrying spears and wearing red shoulder cloaks called shukas.
"They believe the rain god Enkai gave them all of the cows to tend," Lou said.
He told her the Masai lived in huts made out of cow dung and grass that baked and hardened in the sun. He told her the women shaved their heads.
Karen said, "Maybe they've got the right idea. It would save a lot of time. They don't have to worry about the current style or washing and blow-drying their hair every day."
Lou said, "Why don't you try it. I think you'd look cute."
After dinner they'd take their port or cognac and sit outside, staring out at the plains, and the distinctive plumes of acacia trees in the distance, the sun going down-red sky fading. Lou was next to her, the rakish big game hunter who spoke Sawhili and wore tailored safari outfits.
In retrospect, Karen thought the tranquil bliss of the safari had clouded her judgment, thinking this was what life was going to be like with Lou. He proposed in Mombasa a few days later. They were at a resort on the Indian Ocean, drinking champagne when he popped the question and Karen said yes.
A few weeks later Lou said he wanted to elope. Let's just do it, let's get married. I can't wait any longer. Karen put him off then and kept putting him off and finally realized she'd never be able to go through with it.
Living with Lou for eight months had been a distraction, but as things began to fall apart she thought more about the $300,000 she'd given Samir to invest and had never seen again. She wanted it back and decided she was going to get it. How exactly she wasn't sure until Bobby and Lloyd broke in that night and got her thinking, gave her an idea.
Karen went looking for Wade Robey Tuesday afternoon, three days after Bobby and Lloyd broke in. She heard he hung out at a biker bar in Royal Oak, and there he was, sitting at the bar, drinking beer with an occasional shot of peach schnapps, smoking Marlboros like he was on death row. Karen watched him for a while, sitting at a table, drinking vodka tonics. She knew he'd be there. He'd been out of Jackson prison for three months after doing five years for armed robbery. He was looking for a gig too. Karen had found all that out from Fantasy, the sister of a friend she'd modeled with. Fantasy was a skinny blond stripper whose real name was Bobbi Jo Shipp. Fan had gone out with Wade before he went up. Fan said he was kind of dumb and he'd do anything. That fit the job description of the person Karen was looking for.
Wade Robey wore black boots and jeans and a black Guns N' Roses T-shirt. She moved to the bar and sat down next to him when a seat was available and introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Karen, how you doing?" She offered her hand. "I understand you're looking for work."
Wade stared at her not sure what was going on. "Who the fuck're you?"
"I'm a friend of Fantasy's," Karen said.
Now he offered his hand-a big limp fish. Wade said he was pissed at Fan 'cause she'd taken up with a black dude while he was away and had his kid. Karen studied the tattoos that covered his arms. He had a skull and crossbones and a swastika and Heil Hitler on one arm, and an eagle holding a snake in its talons on the other. She saw the blue-green snake wrapped around his forearm first and didn't know what it was until she saw the eagle on his biceps, putting the illustration in perspective. Karen told him she had a tattoo.