Missing in Egypt (8 page)

I battled with these thoughts for over an hour.
 
In the end I came to the conclusion that the only person I could turn to was John Turner.
 
I thought of his twinkling blue eyes and warm smile and I felt sure he was someone I could safely confide in.

I returned to the house and found Omar and Pili had finished in the shop.
 
They seemed pleased to see me again and asked if I had made any progress.
 
“I’m afraid I haven’t” I told them truthfully.
 
“But I’m not finished yet”.
 
We sat and talked for a while and I asked them about the missing dagger and collar.
 
“Are they very valuable?” I inquired.
 
“Yes, we believe so” said Pili.
 
“They are certainly very old and the jewels are very fine specimens.
 
We could understand if someone had kidnapped Yasmeen to obtain them, but if my father took them with him, why have they not both returned safely to us?”
 
I shook my head – I couldn’t answer.

I caught a taxi to the Marriott Hotel, where John had booked a table for us in the beautiful gardens overlooking the pool.
 
He had chosen a table away from other guests where we could talk without being overheard.
 
It brought back memories of my time there with Kareem and I found myself blinking away the tears.

Over dinner I told John all that I knew. “I sensed there was something she wasn’t telling me” he said.
 
“It is not impossible of course – it is well known that there are many more tombs yet to be discovered and every few years a new one is uncovered.
 
What Mr Ahmose and his father have done in keeping the whereabouts of this one a secret is highly commendable and not many would have done the same thing in their shoes.
 
Whether his father’s friend died without telling another living soul is something we cannot be sure about.”

I toyed with my very rich chocolate and fresh cream dessert.
 
“I just don’t know what to do with this information” I said eventually, licking some of the ice-cream off the spoon.

John was quiet for a while. Then he reached across the table and took my hand in his. “If you want to know what I really think…….” he said.
 
“Go on” I encouraged him. “Well,” he said slowly “I think you should go home to
Australia
.
 
Go back to your job and your friends and if anything comes up here I will let you know straight away.
 
But” he went on carefully “I think you also have to accept that Kareem is probably dead and his brother also”.

I gave an involuntary gasp.
 
John had vocalised what I had been thinking subconsciously for some time.
 
It seemed the logical answer but I wasn’t ready to accept it.
 
Surely Kareem couldn’t be dead, not after we had just found each other.
 
“Many tourists disappear in
Egypt
every year” John continued.
 
“The death rate from murders by cab drivers and locals for money and passports is quite high and many of

them are never solved.
 
The
Australian Embassy
does its best in these cases and has a higher success rate than many countries, but a large number are never resolved.”

I pulled back my hand.
 
I had to admit that John was a very attractive man and it seemed that he was quite interested in me, other than as an Australian citizen or even a friend.
 
But I was not prepared to believe that Kareem was dead and the thought of being involved with anyone else had not crossed my mind.
 

“Thank you for a lovely dinner” I said as I made a move to leave.
 
“It has been great to see you again and I really appreciate your interest in my problems.
 
You are a very good friend.
 
I will go back to Waleed’s now and return to
Luxor
tomorrow and decide what to do next”.

John, as always, was a perfect gentleman and insisted on walking me back to the Ahmose house.
 
I knew as he left me he wanted to kiss me but I pulled back quickly before he could make his move.
 
“Thank you John” I said quickly as I knocked on the door.
 
“Goodbye for now Anna” he replied.
 
“Don’t forget I’m here for you if you need anything”.
 
With that he turned and was gone and Waleed opened the door and I joined her for coffee before going to bed.

It was not the best night’s sleep.
 
I tossed and turned and had brief nightmares that woke me up but which I couldn’t remember and I was relieved when it was finally time to rise.

Waleed pulled me to one side after breakfast and asked me what I was going to do next.
 
I had to tell her that I really didn’t know.
 
I would go back to
Luxor
and think about what she had told me.
 
I said that John Turner had suggested I go back to
Australia
and resume my life but that I was not sure I was ready to do that yet.
 
“You are strong” she told me.
 
“I am sure you will make the right decisions.
 
I just pray that our loved ones will soon be back with us safe and sound.”

Omar, Pili and Waleed gave me a good send-off in the morning.
 
I felt I knew them quite well by now and our shared grief and worry helped to bring us close.

When my taxi pulled up at the hotel Hamidi was there to greet me in the foyer.
 
He was grinning from ear to ear and was bubbling over with his news.
 
“Mr Kareem” he said “Mr Kareem is back.
 
He is waiting for you in your room”.

I took the stairs two at a time, not wanting to wait for the slow lift, and opened the door.
 
Sitting on the bed smiling at me was Kareem.
 
“Oh my goodness” I exclaimed when he released me from a huge bear hug “where on earth have you been? I’ve been so worried about you”.
 
“Its okay now” he answered.
 
“I’m back and everything is going to be alright.”
 
From the way he kissed me I knew that he had really missed me.

“But where on earth have you been?” I asked when he finally let me draw breath.
 
“In a small hospital” Kareem replied.
 
“I had amnesia and couldn’t remember who I was.”
 
“But John checked with the hospitals” I told him “no-one answering your description had been admitted to any of the local hospitals.”

“This was just a very small local hospice – basically run by two nurses and a doctor who came in once every few days.”
 
“Well, how did you get there
?
” I wanted to know.

“When I took the ransom money to the temple I never saw Ramy, nor anyone I thought might be looking out for me.
 
I stood near one of the tall columns at the back of the temple and then, suddenly, I was pushed from behind and the money was gone.
 
I went headfirst into the dirt and it took me a few seconds to get myself together, but I ran after him.
 
I saw my bag disappearing into a car and, as luck would have it, a taxi pulled up to let a man out.
 
I jumped in and said “follow that car” – just as they do in all the American movies.
 
Anyway, we went for quite a way and then the car turned into a small town.
 
Anna, it was quite amazing.
 
There was a small square and a big building with “Camels and horses for hire”.
 
Can you imagine – camels for hire!”
 
Anyway, the man with my money got out here and went inside the building.
 
I paid off the taxi and followed him.
 
It was dark inside the building and it took a while for my eyes to adjust.
 
“This one for you, sir?” said a man who was holding on to a

slightly underfed camel. “He very nice camel”.
 
“No, no,” I cried “where did the man go who came in before me?”
 
“Out the back, sir” came the reply.

I ran through to the back of the shop and out the back door into a dusty alleyway.
 
Next thing I knew I woke up with the camel man staring down at me.
 
“Oh, thank goodness” he said “you have woken up.
 
I thought you were dead – you have been unconscious for more than 5 minutes.”

Well, I may have been awake but I didn’t have a clue where I was or why I was there. When I asked the camel man what I was doing there he said he didn’t know, I had just come running into his shop asking where the other man had gone to.

“I will call you a taxi sir,” he said “to take you home.
 
Where do you live?” “It was at that point that I realised I not only didn’t know where I lived but I didn’t know who I was.
 
The camel man was very kind – he made me a cup of coffee and let me sit there for about an hour, hoping my memory would return.
 
But, try as I may, I couldn’t remember anything.
 
In the end he suggested I see a doctor who lived nearby.
 
The doctor asked me lots of questions, but I couldn’t answer them.
 
In the end, with much shaking of his head and “tut-tutting” he said he would take me to his hospice, where I could rest quietly for a few days.
 
I asked him how long it would be before my memory returned. “I hope it will be soon” he replied “but sometimes….you know, these things…well, we
’ll just have to wait and see”.
 
Every day one of the nurses would come and talk to me and ask me if I remembered anything.
 
“Did you dream about anything?” they would ask me.
 
The answer was always the same – nothing.
 

The days were very long, Anna.
 
My head would ache from trying to remember who I was and where I came from.
 
Did I have a wife? Children?
 
The doctor was fairly sure I wasn’t from
Egypt
– he thought I was American and apparently notified the American Embassy.
 
Then one day a woman came into the hospital to visit one of the patients.
 
She sat on his bed and took his hand and something in her expression turned a light on for me.
 
She reminded me of you.
 
“Anna” I cried out.
 
“I need to find Anna”.
 
The nurse came running to my bed and from then on little fragments kept coming back to me.
 
Within a few hours my memory had completely returned.
 
As soon as they could get in touch with the doctor to sign me out, I caught a taxi straight back to here.
 
Only to find you were in
Cairo
, of course” he added.
 
“Anyway, Hamidi was pleased to see me and so I spent the night here to await your return.
 
And now, my love, what have you been up to?” he inquired, gazing intently into my eyes.

I quickly filled him in on the events of the past few days since he had gone missing, only leaving out Waleed’s disclosure.
 
I felt it better to tell him this later when he had fully recovered.
 
“Enough talk, now you must get some rest”.
 
“Yes, nurse” he responded “I was just thinking the same thing.
 
Come to bed”.

A couple of hours later we were drinking coffee in the café and pondering our next move.
 
“How long do you have to rest for?” I asked him.
 
“I’m fine” Kareem assured me.
 
“Now that my memory has returned I just have to make sure I don’t take
any more blows to the head”.
 
“
Ha, ha, very funny” I replied.

I was ecstatic to have Kareem back.
 
I kept glancing at him, to make sure he was really there!
 
I decided he was rested enough now for me to tell him about the secret tomb.
 
He listened intently.
 
“Wow” was his comment when I had finished.
 
“Now we could really be on to something”.
 
“But what can we do with this information?” I asked him.
 
“We have to treat this carefully.
 
No-one has been able to find out anything about Ramy, Yasmeen or Masud since they disappeared.
 
Our only line of investigation is this tomb, but where do we start?”