The Khamsin Curse (24 page)

Moriarty gave a dismissive
snort. “They’re not going to kill two men on that basis.”

The Countess disagreed. “Think
how the people of England would feel if the Pasha of Tripoli
decided to hold a fancy-dress party for his cousin inside
Westminster Abbey - I bet a lot of British subjects would call for
his head to be stuck on a pike on London Bridge. Which brings me to
the next point: Should we untie the bodies and remove the sticks
from their throats before the stretcher bearers arrive?”

The three men quickly got to
work. They agreed it would not do for anyone to see a British
subject and a prominent American citizen murdered in the Pashtun
tradition.

Dr Watson arrived shortly after
they had finished tidying up the murder scene. He had brought two
deck chairs and a dozen stretcher bearers. He was momentarily
confused when he saw the bodies neatly laid out in the courtyard,
ready for transporting, and clearly delighted to see his female
counterpart in the flesh, albeit looking desirably
deshabillee
.

He recounted the story of
finding Herr Graf by the girdle wall. The German was currently
sleeping soundly.

Moran swore a few oaths then
decided to return to his campsite.

Moriarty was about to return to
his boat, hopefully still hidden in the reeds, when Gideon
forestalled him.

“I have a favour to ask?” he
said.

Moriarty had been expecting
some sort of rebuke for sneaking off with the Countess, possibly an
order to stay away from the island. “Favour?”

“Someone needs to remove the
dead crocodiles from the Kiosk. If the crew members of the Sekhmet
do it, or even the workers at the dam, word will spread about what
happened. I think it might be best if we restrict knowledge of what
happened to those who were present. Rumours will spread of course.
We can’t trust Ali Pasha to stay quiet. But it will be his word
against…”

“I see,” said Moriarty, cutting
him off, “you want my men to clear the pit of reptiles?”

“Yes.”

“Consider it done.”

Smiling, Gideon led the
stretcher bearers back to the Sekhmet.

15

The one thing they had not
discussed in front of Colonel Sebastian Moran was how the two
murders could be related to the business that had brought them to
Egypt in the first place.

Was it possible that Mallisham
and Lee were involved in passing secret information to the enemy?
But then who had killed them if not a British agent? The Germans
would not have killed off their own secret agent. Nor would they
have killed off an American cattle baron unless they had good
reason. And why would a wealthy cattle king want to involve himself
in a war in South Africa? It made no sense.

Painfully aware that time was
of the essence and that she had been holed up with Jim while the
murders were taking place, the Countess quizzed Dr Watson about his
recollection of the events of the night before.

She was also painfully aware
that once they reached the Sekhmet with the two dead bodies, the
investigation would fall to the Acting High Commissioner, a man
either woefully incompetent or pitifully corrupt. If he was open to
bribery then he would be unlikely to hold an honest investigation;
if he was incompetent and on the verge of nervous breakdown, then
he would be unlikely to be vigorous and thorough.

The Countess caught Dr Watson’s
sleeve.

“I want to talk to you in
private before we return to the Sekhmet. Give me a drink from your
canteen and we can pretend to fall behind.”

He passed her his water
bottle.

“According to Gideon,” she said
between mouthfuls of water, “you walked back to the Sekhmet last
night with Hayter and Ali Pasha. I want to establish who was where
during the murder and if anyone could have slipped away unnoticed.
I want to reconstruct the crime in the short time we have before
Hayter takes over and makes a botch of it.”

So much for the praise he had
heaped on Hayter the evening they first arrived in Cairo. He winced
at the memory. The change in the man he once respected had been a
greater shock than the two dead bodies he had seen this morning.
“Yes, the three of us set off straight after Mallisham and Lee.
They were escorting Miss Lee. Within minutes of leaving the Kiosk I
lost sight of everyone.”

“Ali Pasha too?”

“I couldn’t see him but I
sensed him trailing after me for a short time. It wasn’t until I
reached the Temple of Hathor that I realized he was no longer
following. I stepped into the temple to get out of the wind. Miss
Lee was in there on her own. She was distressed, sobbing violently,
something about hearing cries for help, and her father and the
professor going off and leaving her. I tried vainly to comfort her,
to reassure her they would return any moment, though I didn’t
really believe it. I waited for an unknown length of time. She was
getting more and more agitated. I convinced her to come with
me.”

“You stayed with her all the
way to the ship?”

“Yes. I clung to her fairly
tightly. She was stumbling about and falling over. In the end, I
practically carried her.”

“You didn’t bump into any of
the others?”

“No, it was impossible to see
more than a few feet. I knew the wind was coming from the east. I
thought if I kept the pellets of sand and grit to the right-hand
side of my body I would eventually get to the Arc of Diocletian. At
least, that’s what I hoped. When I saw the lights of the ship, I
can tell you, I was relieved.”

“You didn’t see Hayter at all
after you left the Kiosk?”

He shook his head grimly. “I
spotted him trailing blindly after Mallisham and Lee. I figured
he’d get lost fairly quickly. I immediately went after him and
intended to stick to him like glue, but short of holding his hand
it was impossible to keep track of him. We parted ways almost at
once and I didn’t see him again after that.”

“What about Ali Pasha? Did you
glimpse him at all along the way?”

“No, not at all.”

“When you got back to the ship
did you check to see if Hayter or Ali Pasha had returned ahead of
you?”

Guiltily, he bit his lip. In
hindsight it was always clear what should have been done. “I should
have,” he admitted ruefully, “but I was busy trying to calm Miss
Lee until her lady's maid could be summoned. Azrafel had crew
members standing by waiting to help people up the gangway and into
the saloon where he had tea and coffee laid out on the sideboard. I
grabbed a whiskey from the drinks trolley and went to my cabin. I
was in a bit of a daze. If anyone was in the saloon I cannot say I
even noticed. The room is fairly large and there were shadows
everywhere. My head was spinning. Fedir and Xenia were frantic with
worry about you and badgering me but I assured them you were with a
British soldier and Mr Longshanks - because that’s what I presumed
- and that you would be perfectly safe. This morning when I woke up
and had a quick sponge bath, and discovered you had still not
returned to the ship, I experienced mild panic, but oddly or not,
when I discovered that three men hadn’t made it back, meaning
Mallisham, Lee and Graf, I actually felt reassured. I told myself
you had probably taken shelter in the Temple of Hathor with them
and would return as soon as the wind died down. When Gideon
returned without you, I started to panic again. He told me you were
with Moriarty. I thought I recognized him last night in that
uniform, but the unreality of the night played havoc with my
senses. I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it was him or not. I
didn’t recognize the uniform and I pride myself on knowing every
regiment at a glance. I was probably worried more about Hayter than
anyone else when I left the Kiosk. I was sure he’d get lost and do
himself a serious injury. I know it is foolish to worry about a
chap who is unworthy but there it is. I once had a lot of respect
for the man.”

“He was on the ship this
morning when you went into the saloon?”

“Yes, he was wearing his
dressing gown. His feet were slipperless and he didn’t appear to
have any pyjamas on underneath. He looked a mess. I presumed he’d
collapsed into bed naked as had I. It wasn’t the sort of night
where you care about things like pyjamas and slippers or anything
else. He was helping himself to a gin and tonic. I can tell you I
was ropeable. I wanted to give him a good shake and a punch on the
nose. Hypatia was being hysterical. Three men were missing. You
hadn’t yet returned. Things were going to pieces. And the Acting
High Commissioner was having gin for breakfast!”

She moved right along; she had
no sympathy for the doctor’s ex-army chum. “How was Ali Pasha when
you saw him this morning?”

“He was already in the saloon.
He was smoking a cigar and drinking coffee. He looked the worst for
wear, meaning he looked as if he’d slept in the chair all night,
which apparently he had. He didn’t have much to say. I got the
impression he was regretting gate-crashing the party. I mean, what
man wouldn’t? He’d almost gotten himself killed fending off
crocodiles! He didn’t look too concerned about all the morning’s
brouhaha. He looked tired and bored and probably couldn’t wait to
return to wherever he was staying.”

“Yet he stayed to help with the
search for the missing men?”

“Moran made it clear that
skipping off wasn’t an option. He roped him in along with Azrafel,
who sort of volunteered when he realized they needed an extra man
to make pairs.”

“Did Moran draw up the
maps?”

“Yes, he drew them up on
napkins during breakfast and marked the areas he wanted us to
search. He paired himself with Hayter, which I thought was mighty
decent of him since Hayter was more of a liability than a help. I
was relieved to find myself paired with Gideon. And just as well.
If Hayter had come across those dead bodies I cannot imagine what
he would have made of them. Not that there were any clues – no
cigarette stubs or scraps of torn fabric or footsteps in the dust –
but he would probably have interfered with the bodies. What did you
make of them?”

He stopped in his tracks and
squinted into the sun which was sitting high in the northern sky.
They were south of the equator and it was the opposite of what he
was used to in England. She would have been used to it in Australia
of course. He offered her another drink then squeezed out the last
for drop himself.

“Well?” he prompted, slinging
the strap of the empty canteen back around his neck. “I can
honestly say I have not seen anything like it. It shook me badly
and when Gideon suggested I go back to the ship to summon help I
was glad to get away. The physical exercise did my head a
favour.”

She was gazing, not after the
party of stretcher bearers, but further west where the girdle wall
petered out. “Let’s go this way,” she suggested, “and I’ll tell you
as we go.”

He protested; the last thing
they needed was a detour in the opposite direction. “Don’t you want
to get back to the ship? It’s midday. Lunch will be served shortly.
I hardly ate breakfast and I’m guessing you haven’t had anything
since last night.”

“Yes,” she conceded, “I’m
starting to feel hungry. I can feel my appetite returning. But
Moran claimed he and Lorna Baxter took shelter in the Temple of
Harendotes all night. I want to see if they left any clues behind.
Now is the best time to check. He’s gone back to his campsite and
she is still on the ship. No one will disturb us. It won’t take
long.”

“Very well,” he agreed,
swallowing his pride and trying to hide bitter rancour. What the
attractive American widow saw in the bony, old, murderous colonel
mystified him. Come to think of it, what the Countess saw in the
other Irish colonel mystified him too. He didn’t want to think
about how Moriarty might have taken advantage of her during the
night. Gideon Longshanks was handsome, courageous, decent and a
baronet. There was no contest as far as he was concerned.

They veered toward the small
ruin that sat overlooking the western shore, just to the right of
Hadrian’s Gate. Gideon and the stretcher bearers receded into the
heat haze, getting further and further away from them, like a
mirage melting into the landscape.

“You asked me what I thought
about the bodies?” she said. “I was shocked too. The interesting
thing was that Moran knew exactly what had happened. He had come
across it in Afghanistan. He called it Golden Rain. It is
apparently a custom common to Pashtun women.”

The doctor slapped the side of
his head. “Of course! Golden Rain! I’ve heard the phrase! I’ve
never seen it but I was told it was an ancient form of punishment
meted out to captured enemy soldiers. Yes, it is done specifically
by women. A very humiliating and painful death. Do you think we are
dealing with women here?”

“Anything is possible. It could
be that a woman did the deed. But she would have needed help
securing the two victims. A man who is unconscious or
semi-conscious is not easy to move into place. Those blocks of
stone were heavy too. Someone must have moved them into place prior
to the victims being tied down. It must have been done either
before we arrived on Philae or that afternoon when we went for a
walk with Mallisham, after which everyone parted ways to go back to
the ship at their leisure.”

“Hmm, yes, everyone went off in
different directions. I went to check the nilometer with Jefferson
Lee.”

“And I walked the length of the
colonnade to the end of the island with Gideon then came back via
the nilometer and bumped into you and Lee at Hadrian’s Gate and we
all waked back together. So where did the others go?”

“Hayter fell behind fairly
quickly. I don’t think he even followed us into the Inner
Courtyard.”

“I saw him sitting on a stone
block by the guardian lions at the first pylon. He was with Herr
Graf. But that was later when I had walked to the end of the
colonnade with Gideon and turned back to take in the
perspective.”