"Eh, Samir! So good to see you always, cousin. Come have a coffee with me, cousin."
"Not now, Zaki, I need your assistance."
"Of course, you would not be here if you did not."
Samir accepted the rebuke with a humble little smile.
"Zaki, I need a safe place, a little house with a heavy door and a back entrance. Secret. For a few days, maybe longer. I don't know."
Zaki laughed good-naturedly, but a little smugly.
"Ah, so, the educated one, the one whom all respect, and he comes to me for a hiding place?"
"Don't question me, Zaki." Samir produced a roll of bills from under his robe. He held this out to his cousin. "A safe house. I can pay."
"All right, I know just the thing," said Zaki. "Come into the house and take coffee with me. One whiff, and you get used to the smell."
For decades Zaki had been saying that. Samir never got used to the smell. But he felt compelled now to do what his cousin wanted, and he followed him into the "embalming room," a miserable place where a vat of bitumen and other chemicals was always simmering, waiting for a new body to be thrown in.
As he passed, Samir saw that the pot had a new victim. It sickened him. He looked away, but not before he had glimpsed the poor devil's black hair billowing free on the surface as his face floated just beneath it.
"How about a nice fresh mummy?" Zaki teased him. "Straight from the Valley of the Kings. Name a dynasty, I give it to you! Male, female, whatever you wish!"
"The hiding place, cousin."
"Yes, yes. I have several such houses vacant. Coffee first and I send you off with a key. Tell me what you know of this robbery in the museum! The mummy which was stolen! Was it genuine, do you think?"
In a daze, Elliott walked into the lobby of Shepheard's. He knew that he was dishevelled, that dirt and sand clung to his trousers and even his coat. His left leg ached, but he no longer truly felt it. He did not care that beneath his rumpled shirt and suit coat he was drenched in sweat. He knew that he should be relieved to be here--safe and away from all the horrors he'd witnessed, the horrors in which he had shared. But it seemed unreal to him; he had not escaped the atmosphere of the little house.
All the way back from old Cairo, as the cab jolted him through the insufferable traffic, he had thought, Malenka is dead because I brought the woman there. Henry he could not grieve for. But Malenka would be forever on his soul. And the murderer, his monstrous resurrected Queen. What would he do with her if he could not find Ramsey? When would she turn on him?
The thing to do now was to find Samir, for he would know where Ramsey was.
He was quite unprepared for Alex rushing to him, and embracing him and trying to stop his progress to the desk.
"Father, thank God you're here."
"Where's Ramsey? I have to talk to him at once."
"Father, don't you know what's happened? They're searching for him all over Cairo. He's wanted for murder, Father, both here and in London. Julie's beside herself. We've been going out of our minds. And Henry, we cannot find Henry! Father, where have you been!"
"You stay with Julie, you take care of her," he said. "Let your American Miss Barrington wait." He tried to move on to the desk.
"Miss Barrington's gone," Alex said with a dismissive gesture. "Whole family changed their plans this morning, after the police came to question them about Ramsey and about us."
"I'm sorry, son," he murmured. "But you must leave me now, I have to find Samir."
"Then you're in luck. He's just come in."
Alex gestured to the cashier. Samir had apparently just written a bank draft for some money. He was counting it and putting it away. He had a bundle under his arm. He seemed to be in a hurry.
"Let me alone now, my boy," Elliott said as he hurried towards him. Samir looked up just as Elliott reached the marble desk. He drew Samir aside.
"I have to see him," Elliott whispered. "If you know where he is, I must see him."
"My Lord, please." Samir glanced around, slowly and casually taking in the entire lobby. "The authorities are searching for him. People are watching us now."
"But you know where he is. Or how to get a message to him. You know all about him, you have from the beginning."