The Khamsin Curse (28 page)

“Yes, I believe he will. At
least, he didn’t say he wouldn’t be back. Do you have any idea if
anyone had a reason to murder your father?”

“Murder?” Miss Lee dropped the
fan and fell back on the pillow. “But I thought Daddy and Max died
of natural causes. Are you saying…?”

The Countess kicked herself. It
was too late to backtrack. Miss Lee began to sob.

“It’s just awful,” said Daisy.
“Poor Hypatia. Such a tragedy and on her birthday too. Is there
anything I can do to help?”

The Countess found Daisy
Clooney in her cabin. She was stretched out on her bed, reading the
Book of the Dead
. It seemed morbidly appropriate in some
macabre way, not that she was about to start reading too much into
it. Reading a book about the afterlife did not indicate a murderous
personality. Otherwise everyone who believed in heaven could be
accused of being Jack the Ripper.

“I think she will just have to
cry herself out. I’m afraid it’s my fault. I didn’t realize she
didn’t know her father and Professor Mallisham had been
murdered.”

Daisy bookmarked her page. “How
did they actually die? No one seems to know.”

“Yes, it’s a mystery. There
will most likely be a post mortem.”

“Post mortem – that will be
just like what happened in ancient times in Egypt. Ironic that we
are doing the same sort of thing thousands of years later; removing
all the organs from a dead body and that sort of thing. What did
they call it? Evisceration?”

“Yes, I never thought of it
like that.”

“I suppose the task will fall
to Dr Watson?”

“No, there’s a British surgeon
at the construction site. He will perform the task if the three
engineers agree to it.”

“Is that why Mr Longshanks went
off in the felucca?”

“Yes.”

“Hypatia fancies him. He’s
rather good-looking. But I think he fancies Ursula. What do you
think?”

“I haven’t really noticed,” she
lied shamelessly, although after that last exchange he may very
well turn his fancies to the multi-lingual fraulein. What did he
say? She looked ‘fetching’ in a Morocaine kaftan. “I came to speak
to you about last night.”

“Do you mean about the
crocodiles? They were hideous! I can still see them. I checked
under my bed when I got back to my room last night. It sounds
ridiculous but I couldn’t get them out of my head. Ursula was so
frightened she refused to go into her cabin and was going to sleep
in the saloon. She was worried about her uncle too. Ali Pasha was
in there so I convinced her to sleep in my bed. He’s creepy. Quite
frankly, I was terrified of being left on my own. I pretended to be
braver than I felt.”

The Countess could empathise
with that sentiment. She had taken comfort from Jim, and Lorna
Baxter had expressed a similar sentiment about being left alone.
What did she say? If Moran had gone anywhere, she would have gone
with him. No doubt, everyone was acting braver than they felt, even
the men.

“What about later, after the
crocodiles, when you set off from the Kiosk, can you remember what
happened?”

Daisy considered the question
thoughtfully. “It’s really all a blur. I remember I set off with
Ursula and Herr Graf. Ursula was worried about her uncle. I could
tell just by looking at her that she didn’t think he would get very
far on his own. She took one arm and I took the other to help him
steady. We were buffeted by the wind. It was so strong we could
barely stay on our feet. We couldn’t see anyone else. He started to
vomit again. I thought it was fear that was making him sick but I
think now he’d had too much to eat and drink. Some people just
don’t know when to stop. Anyway, he was sick. It was revolting. I
tried not to dry retch from the smell. He told us to keep walking
and he would catch up. We only went a couple of yards and waited
but he never came.”

“Did you stop at the Temple of
Hathor?”

“I don’t even know if we were
anywhere near it. We just trudged and trudged, clinging to each
other, heads down, trying to protect our faces from the stinging
sand. We might have walked right past it without even noticing. I
think we were going round in circles because the distance wasn’t
far but it seemed to take forever. At one stage we both sank to our
knees, exhausted. There were fallen stones nearby. I don’t know
which ruin it was. It might have been the Temple of Hathor or it
might have been the Temple of Augustus or it might have been
anything. We stayed like that for ages, huddled together, trying to
muster the energy to get up and go on. Finally, we dragged each
other up. When we saw the lights of the ship we both burst into
tears.”

“Do you know if anyone returned
ahead of you?”

“We didn’t see anyone on the
deck. There were some servants on the jetty. They looked like
windblown ghosts. I didn’t pay much attention. Ursula wanted to
check if her uncle was in his cabin but I talked her out of it. I
didn’t want her to get upset. She said she was going sleep in the
saloon because she was too scared to go to her room in case it was
full of death adders or scorpions. She was talking nonsense. I
sensed she was on the verge of hysteria. I talked her into staying
with me. We went straight to my cabin and collapsed on the bed in
our costumes. I think it was not far off first light. I don’t think
I slept much. When I woke up, it was morning and she had returned
to her own cabin.”

“Do you know if anyone had a
reason to murder Mr Lee?”

“Well, I suppose I did. He
inherited everything which should have gone to my father. I nurse a
permanent grudge, but that’s a far cry from murder. There’s Mrs
Baxter too. Uncle Jefferson could be a bit free with his hands. I
saw him touch her once on the breast. They were in his study,
working late, and the door was ajar. There was a summer storm and I
was going to the stable to check on the horses. It gave me a shock.
She looked uncomfortable with it. I don’t think she was encouraging
him.”

“There’s Ali Pasha too.”

They both turned their heads
sharply. Ursula was standing in the doorway of the cabin. She came
in and closed the door then leaned her slender frame against
it.

“I heard you talking about who
had reason to murder Mr Lee. Ali Pasha did. My uncle and I were in
his shop browsing one day. Ali Pasha didn’t know I was in the room
at the back. He thought I’d gone out with my uncle, who went to buy
some tobacco, but I was studying a couple of papyrus scrolls,
comparing the hieroglyphs. One of them rolled on the floor. I was
bending down behind the stone sarcophagus when Ali Pasha’s lover
came in.”

“Lover?” interjected the
Countess.

“The Nubian.”

“Japhet?”

“Yes.”

“How do you know he was Ali
Pasha’s lover?”

“My uncle told me. I thought
Ali Pasha might try to take advantage of me if I stayed in the shop
on my own. But my uncle said not to worry. Ali Pasha was a
man-lover. You used the past tense just now. I notice grammar
because I’m interested in languages. You should have used the
present tense.”

“I’m sorry,” said the Countess.
“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“You said
was
but you
meant
is
.”

“Is what?”

“Japhet
is
his
lover.”

The Countess could hardly admit
that she knew Japhet was dead. “Oh, I see, yes you are quite right.
What about Ali Pasha? Why would he want to murder Mr Lee?”

“Mr Lee owes Ali Pasha quite a
lot of money, not just for the antiquities he has purchased, but an
entire tomb.”

“An entire tomb!” The
Countess’s skepticism sky-rocketed along with her pitch, but
Fraulein Graf remained unaffected.

“Yes, it was discovered by a
goatherd who is a friend of Ali Pasha’s cousin’s wife. Mr Lee
promised to pay the goatherd to keep it quiet so that Hypatia could
‘discover’ it in her own good time. It will make her famous.
Mallisham will be by her side, of course, but the honour will be
hers. Oh, I meant he would have been by her side.

I overheard Ali Pasha talking
to Japhet about whether they could trust Mr Lee to pay up. Ali
Pasha said if Mr Lee didn’t pay up he would tell Professor
Mallisham about it and the honour would go to the professor and the
goatherd and they would split the treasure three ways if there was
anything inside. It’s a risk because the tomb may be empty. That’s
why it’s better to sell the location of a tomb before it is opened.
Many amateur archaeologists may not be aware that most tombs fall
prey to tomb robbers within days of being sealed. And let’s not
forget that huge excavations are hugely expensive. That’s why Ali
Pasha prefers Mr Lee’s money up-front.”

No wonder Ali Pasha insisted on
coming to Philae to get his money. He couldn’t risk Lee cutting a
deal with Mallisham. This was certainly a startling piece of news
and a good motive for murder. Moreover, it was the missing link
between Lee and Mallisham.

“Does your uncle know what you
overheard?”

“Yes, I discussed it with him.
We talk frankly about everything.”

The Countess immediately
suspected Ali Pasha of having a falling out with Lee and Mallisham
and killing them, but as she hurried to find Dr Watson, her mind
went another way.

Her imagination began wondering
if Herr Graf would be interested in making the so-called discovery
for himself. It would be a feather in his archaeological cap and he
could finally outshine his younger brother. He would no longer be
limited to middle-man, sourcing antiquities from arrogant men like
Ali Pasha and Mallisham and selling them to rich men he probably
despised who wanted merely to ‘show-off’ their Egyptian room to
their rich friends.

Fraulein Graf might want to
make an early name for herself as well. It would take some of the
tarnish off her father’s dishonour and perhaps go some way to
restoring the Graf name in the Egyptology firmament.

Uncle and niece might have
decided to negotiate with Ali Pasha in secret, and to make
negotiations go more smoothly, they might have decided to eliminate
Lee and Mallisham.

As the Countess hurried to tell
Dr Watson about her latest theory she wondered how Herr Graf might
have achieved such a feat. He could easily have prepared the two
chambers in advance, and he was out all night somewhere on the
island. No one spotted him until Dr Watson came across him
mid-morning.

As for Fraulein Graf, she owned
a burqa. And the two ladies did not return to the Sekhmet until
almost dawn. But there was always the inevitable stumbling block.
The two ladies had been together all night. Daisy Clooney was
Ursula’s alibi.

Oh, hang on! Could Daisy
Clooney have assisted Ursula? She had admitted to holding a grudge
against her rich uncle and the two demoiselles appeared to have
formed a firm friendship. They had shared the same bed. Was it
possible that the two ladies supplied the helpless voices that
lured Lee and Mallisham out of the Hathor Temple?

Herr Graf could have knocked
the men unconscious and the three of them could have dragged the
victims to the small chambers and tied them up. They had all night
in which to work. They would have had lanterns at the ready so that
they could see where they were going, and lanterns that acted as
beacons so that they could navigate the sandstorm. While everyone
was staggering blindly, they might have gone backwards and forwards
without difficulty.

Countess V stopped dead. It was
as if she had suddenly crashed into a brick wall.

Why would Ursula Graf reveal
information about a secret tomb if she was involved in the murder
of Lee and Mallisham? No killer would willingly turn the spotlight
on themselves.

She decided to think about this
conundrum before sharing the news with her counterpart.

There was one last person she
wanted to speak to and she found him in the saloon replenishing the
drinks trolley.

“Bonjour Azrafel, may I have a
quick word?”

“
Mais oui, la comtesse
.”
A tightness of tone belied the friendly and polite smile.

“When the Khamsin arrived last
night, you posted men on the jetty to assist those who returned to
the ship?”

“That is correct.”

“You did not send out a search
party?”

“No,
la comtesse
, it is
not wise to fight against the Khamsin. I believed Mr Lee and his
guests would all remain inside Trajan’s Kiosk. I was not expecting
anyone to return, it was merely – how do you say? - a
courtesy.”

“You stayed up all night?”

“No,
la comtesse
, I went
to bed just after midnight. I did not sleep much. The Khamsin was
loud and I was concerned for the ship’s engine.”

“You therefore did not see when
various individual’s returned to the Sekhmet?”

“That is correct, but as I
said, I was not expecting anyone. The servants put out tea and
coffee in the saloon but it was merely another courtesy. ”

“What about the men on the
jetty – could they confirm when anyone returned?”

“I have spoken to them already
in anticipation of any questions. The men covered their faces with
their ammamas to keep out the sand. They saw some figures pass by
like ghosts in the night, but they did not know who was who because
of the costumes, except for Miss Lee who was crying. It was
impossible for the men to know the time because the moon and stars
were hidden from view. You may speak to them if you wish.”

“No, it’s all right, Azrafel. I
was just wondering if there was any way to ascertain who returned
at what hour but as you say, it was impossible to tell the time and
visibility was reduced to almost nothing.”

Azrafel gave a gracious bow of
his head and left the saloon. The Countess was about to follow him
out when she realized someone was seated in the wing chair angled
behind the potted palm. It was the man-who-was-all-used-up. Dr
Watson had coined the perfect description for his old
comrade-in-arms. Although the eyes were closed, he could hardly
pretend to be asleep. He was nursing a gin and tonic. It came as no
surprise when he spoke.