Death on Tour (26 page)
His hair was damp, as though he’d just stepped out of the shower, and he had on a t-shirt and a pair of shorts, probably thrown on to answer the door. His feet were bare and his eyes looked particularly green.
I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but no sound came out.
He rose to the occasion. “Come in. I’m really glad to see you.”
He took armfuls of clothes off the chairs by the big picture window and dumped them in a crumpled heap on the unused second bed. We stood and looked at each other.
“I wanted to apologize…”
“I’m really sorry…”
We both spoke at the same time and then he laughed. “I know it should be ladies first, but if you’ll let me, I’d like to explain.”
I nodded.
“I own WorldPal Tours,” he said.
“What?” I stared at him, my mouth hanging open a little in surprise. Not what I expected, but suddenly his questions, his involvement with the police, his odd comings and goings clicked into place.
He nodded. “I started it ten years ago. I had a lot of experience traveling, and when I got out of school, my partner and I got the idea that we could arrange tours better than most travel agents and that we could provide local knowledge and service by hiring local guides. It worked out surprisingly well. We found a niche, a step above budget tours but still reasonably priced, and we’ve done pretty well.
“Three or four times a year, I go on one of the tours myself as a guest, just to see how things are going. Usually I don’t find anything out of the ordinary at all. Oh, I might notice that too much time is spent on the bus one day, so I’ll tweak the schedule for the group. Or one of the hotels has gone downhill, so I’ll scout out a suitable replacement. I rely heavily on the local guides that I hire and things are usually pretty smooth. Until recently.”
“Millie’s death,” I said at once.
“Well, yes, but even before that. A few weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Anni, saying that she didn’t know how or what exactly but she thought the tour was being used as a cover for illegal activities.”
“Smuggling!” I said. “I think it’s smuggling.”
He smiled at me, his eyes warm. “Exactly. But smuggling what? The most obvious thing here in Egypt is ancient artifacts. In the past, tomb robbing was practically a national sport. But these days, that’s not so easy. The government guards the archaeological sites and really monitors imports and exports. However, the only thing more valuable in Egypt than antiquities are tourists. They smooth the way for tourists in every way possible. So, if you were able to use a tour group as a cover, the smuggling part of it just got a lot easier. I decided I needed to come see for myself.”
“But if Anni was suspicious, that means this has been going on for a while.”
“Yes. Which points to one of my employees.”
“Mohammad.”
“The obvious candidate, but not the only one. He hires people too, to check out hotels, to make arrangements. To be honest, it could have been anyone with access to the trip itinerary and connections to someone who could appear as an ordinary tourist. An American, for instance.”
“Or an Australian,” I said slowly.
“True,” he agreed. “I did some background checks on everyone on this tour. No phony names or addresses, no criminal records. As far as I could tell, we are all who we say we are. Except me, of course,” he added with a grin.
“So you signed up for the tour as a regular tourist.”
“Yes, I figured if I just stayed in the background, kept my eyes open, I’d be able to spot something,” he said. “And then the second morning, one of the guests,
my
guests, is murdered. And I didn’t see a thing. To be honest, I feel responsible. I knew something was going on.” He looked down at his hands. “I should have been able to prevent it.”
I wanted to throw my arms around him, but I settled for patting his shoulder awkwardly.
“That’s ridiculous,” I said. “There’s no way you could have known that would happen. There was never any reason to think it would turn to violence, right?”
“No, I suppose not. But then there was a second murder. Even though the victim wasn’t part of our tour, we were there. And it was the same method used on Millie. Too much of a coincidence. And now you’ve been attacked.” He put his hand over mine. “Twice. I just don’t understand it all. And to be honest, I haven’t really learned anything more than I knew before all this started. Except that I’m sure now that Mohammad is involved in some way. His coming along is definitely not part of his job.”
He didn’t seem to notice he was holding my hand. It was now harder to concentrate on what I was saying.
“I’ve learned some things,” I managed. “I don’t know what they mean, but not everyone on this trip is who they seem.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, the Carpenters.”
He looked surprised. “What about them? They’re great.”
“I know. They are. They’re just about my favorite people on this trip. The thing is, they arrived at the airport just a little after Kyla and I did. We were just heading for the car when they came into the baggage claim area, and I know this is going to sound crazy, but the girl who is with them, their niece? She is not the same girl who arrived in Cairo with them.”
His eyebrows shot up. “What? That doesn’t make any sense at all. Who else could she possibly be?”
“I have no idea. I can’t even begin to imagine what is going on.”
“She’s been ill. Are you sure she doesn’t just look different because she’s been losing weight?”
“No. I’m completely sure. If you look carefully, you’ll see it too. The clothes she’s wearing are too big for her. Not loose, like she’s lost weight, but really too big as though they belong to someone else. Probably the girl I saw in the airport. And this girl isn’t sick—she’s terrified. I mean, she might be sick too, it’s hard to tell, but that’s not the reason she’s spent most of the trip hiding in her hotel room. And Ben and Lydia are afraid too. You should have seen them at Abu Simbel when we found the body.”
“I think everyone was pretty scared then,” he pointed out.
“Yes, but not of the police. Most of us were just afraid of being detained again. Jane actually crouched down on the seat of the bus, hiding.” I gave a little shrug. “I know it’s crazy. You don’t have to believe me.”
He smiled then, a nice smile, full of warmth and genuine friendliness. “I didn’t mean it that way. I believe you. I guess I just don’t want to believe anything bad about Ben and Lydia. I was trying to think of other explanations.”
“I know. I feel the same way.”
“So what else have you noticed? I think you make a much better detective than I do.”
“Wait here, I’ll be right back.” I dashed out of the cabin and down the passage to my room. I yanked my suitcase from the closet and found the little blue WorldPal bag, Millie’s bag, stuffed in the bottom.
When I got back to Alan’s cabin, a bellhop with a linen-covered tray was just leaving. He greeted me and held the door, then departed. Alan beckoned me back to the little table by the window. Outside, the sun sparkled on the Nile, and a felucca glided gracefully over the surface a few hundred feet away. On the table sat two icy beers and a bowl of mixed nuts. My face must have lit up, because he laughed.
“I figured we needed to keep our strength up,” he said.
“Well, as long as it’s for medicinal purposes,” I agreed.
I sat down beside him. He twisted the top off a beer and handed it to me, then opened his own. He clinked his bottle lightly against mine.
“Here’s to figuring this thing out,” he said.
“Here’s to you not being a creepy murdering smuggler.”
He laughed, but looked at me searchingly. “Did you really suspect me?” I could tell it stung a little.
I grinned. “Just as much as you suspected me.”
He looked sheepish. “At least I had a reason. Anni had told me she’d heard something about sisters being involved. You and Kyla seemed to fit the description.”
“We’re not sisters,” I said automatically. Still, something niggled at the back of my mind, something I thought I should know, but couldn’t quite grasp. “Anyway, I had reasons, too. You’re a terrible liar, so it was obvious your whole cover story was fake from the start. Then you’re running around, speaking to the locals, vanishing at times. What was I supposed to think?”
“And now I’m off the list?” He said it casually, but I could tell it mattered.
“It finally dawned on me that if you suspected me, then you didn’t know what was going on either. Besides, I didn’t want it to be you.”
He smiled suddenly, a blindingly attractive smile that made my heart turn over.
“So what have you got there?” he asked with a nod to the bag.
“Okay, you’re not allowed to judge me. Well, you can, but you have to keep it to yourself. Plus, you can help me figure out what to do with this.”
“What is it? And what are you talking about?”
I was embarrassed. “It’s Millie’s bag.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“See? You’re judging me. I found it, and then I didn’t know what to do with it.”
“Okay, fine. I’m not judging you. Why didn’t you just turn it in to Anni?”
“I didn’t want her to think I’d been snooping. I was going to leave it on the bus, but then there just wasn’t a good time.”
“Okay, well, what’s in it?”
“A bunch of stolen stuff and her travel diary. And probably the reason she was killed, if I could just figure it out.”
I dumped the bag onto the table, then held up the items one by one. “Fiona’s or Dawn’s hairbrush. Lydia’s cigarette lighter. Jerry’s or Keith’s pen. Yvonne’s coin purse.” I put each item back in the bag as I named it.
He whistled. “What a horrible little thief.”
“She had my lip balm, too, but I took that back,” I said, glancing at him a little defiantly. “On the first evening in the hotel, I saw her rooting through a bag that I’m pretty sure didn’t belong to her. And the next day on the bus, I caught her going through mine. I think she probably went through everyone’s things. And I think she saw something that she shouldn’t have seen.”
We sat in silence for a moment.
“I guess we’ll never know what that was,” he said, looking grim.
“Maybe not. But look at this.” I picked up the red notebook and opened it to the entry about the smuggling.
He read it and sat up straight. He began flipping through the pages. I remembered the entry about the sisters and felt myself blush. It was too much to hope he didn’t notice it.
“She was pretty spiteful,” I said. “That bit about Kyla and me. Not true.”
He had the look of someone who has solved a puzzle, that aha! look you get when you finally get the math problem. Then his expression changed and a little crease appeared between his eyebrows.
“What is it?”
“Nothing. But now I’ve got an idea at least. We might have another case of mistaken identity.” He drained his beer and rose to his feet. “I need to check up on a couple of things, but this is exactly what I needed. You’re wonderful!”
I stood too, more out of bewilderment than anything. “What idea? What did you see?”
He didn’t answer, and before I knew it, he was escorting me to the door. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll give this stuff to Anni, and she’ll be able to get everything back to the rightful owners.”
“Wait, what are you going to do?” I asked.
“Check on just a couple of things. I need to make some calls.”
“But—” I started.
He interrupted. “I’ll see you later this evening, okay? I’ll tell you everything, if I get it figured out. And you and I still have a lot to talk about.”
We were in the hallway now, and he was closing his door behind us. He started for the staircase, leaving me standing stunned by the door, still holding my half-finished beer. I wasn’t done talking. I hadn’t even gotten to my suspicions about DJ or the odd behavior of Jerry. He was almost to the stairs when he pivoted back around, grabbed me by the shoulders, and kissed me. A hard, quick, wonderful kiss. Then he was gone before I could move, taking the steps two at a time.
I stood there a moment, still feeling the pressure from his warm lips against mine. What the hell was that? A thank-you kiss, a good-bye kiss, or something else? And how absolutely aggravating. The fact that it was the best kiss I’d had in years, possibly forever, just made it all the more annoying. What the hell had just happened, where was he going, and why the hell did he think he could just scamper off without letting me know what he had discovered? In fact, who the hell did he think he was? I ground my teeth together, then started up the stairs to the sundeck. It was time to wake up Kyla and get ready to go to Karnak.
Besides, I needed to vent.
The late afternoon sun cast a burnished ruddy glow over our little group as we gathered at the bus to drive to the ancient temple of Karnak. This was to be the grand finale of our trip, the most massive ancient religious site in the world. Unlike most Egyptian monuments, which were the work of a single ruler, Karnak was the awe-inspiring achievement of over thirty pharaohs, ruling over a period of thirteen hundred years. Much of the history of Egypt was represented in the vast halls of ruined Karnak, and I wanted to see it more than anything else we had seen so far.
My headache, mostly forgotten while I talked with Alan, was back and throbbing dully just behind my eyes. I had gulped a couple of aspirin before coming downstairs, but they hadn’t kicked in yet. Nevertheless, I was determined not to let it slow me down or make me less alert. For a reason I couldn’t define, I felt I couldn’t afford to miss anything tonight. On the other hand, I had no idea what I should be looking for, so I attempted to covertly scan everyone and everything. I bumped into Kyla a couple of times before she pinched my arm.
“What is wrong with you? Watch where you’re going.”
Mohammad stood beside the bus steps next to Anni, who was counting us off as we climbed aboard. I shivered a little as I went past him. A sheen of sweat on his brow caught the light and his shoulders were stiff with guilty tension. Or, to be fair, he was hot in his heavy houndstooth jacket, and he was just praying to get this out-of-control tour finished before anything else happened.