The Exodus Quest

IV

'Well?' asked Yasmine, greeting Naguib at the door. 'How was your day?'

Naguib knew what his wife was really asking. She was asking him whether he'd found his killer yet, whether their daughter was safe. He said: 'Not bad.'

Yasmine dropped a kiss on Husniyah's crown. 'Run along, beloved,' she said. 'Your father and I have something to discuss.'

Husniyah took her doll next door, though something in her eye made Naguib suspect she'd have her ear against the wall. 'Well?' asked Yasmine.

'There's no connection between the girl I found and those two in Assiut,' said Naguib. 'I'm sure of it.'

'How can you be?'

'I don't even think this girl was murdered. I think it was an accident. I think she was just a poor girl out hunting for ancient artefacts in a storm. I think perhaps something fell on her and knocked her unconscious and then she drowned. Or maybe she was climbing when she fell.'

'And then she just picked herself up and walked out into the desert and buried herself in a tarpaulin beneath the sand?'

'No,' admitted Naguib.

'Then what?'

He shook his head. 'I don't know yet. Something's clearly up. But that doesn't mean it's linked to Assiut. That doesn't make it murder.'

'But you're going to find out, yes? I have to be sure.'

'Gamal's right, my beloved. We have more pressing cases.'

'She was a young girl,' insisted Yasmine. 'I'm glad there's no murderer. I'm glad Husniyah is safe. Truly I am. But she was just a young girl, and she was from your district, and she was under your care. You owe it to her to find out.'

Naguib sighed. 'I'll speak to the ghaffirs in the morning,' he promised. 'Maybe they'll know something.'

V

'Well?' demanded Knox, when Farooq returned. 'What did your man say? He told you the IV stand fell over, didn't he?'

'Let's say it did fall over,' acknowledged Farooq grudgingly. 'So what? It could have been an accident.'

'Sure!'

'Very well. You pulled it over because of this mysterious intruder, this man no one else saw, this man who wants to kill you, yet who you've never seen before and can't identify.'

Knox hesitated. 'I think it might have been someone called Peterson.'

'The Reverend Ernest Peterson?' frowned Farooq. 'The man who saved your life?'

'I beg your pardon.'

'You heard me. He found you after your crash and risked his own life to pull you from your Jeep before the smoke got to you. Then he drove you to hospital. This is the man who tried to kill you?'

Knox went a little numb. 'I didn't know,' he said. He shook his head in confusion, baffled by this latest turn.

'You took a taxi from the hospital. Where did you go?'

'Around.'

'Around?'

'May I have something to drink, please?' asked Knox. 'A glass of water. Anything.'

'When you tell me where you went.'

'The Latin Cemeteries.'

'You went directly there?'

'You said I could have a glass of water.'

Farooq pushed himself to his feet, opened the door, shouted down the corridor. 'You went directly there from the hospital?' he asked, sitting back down.

'Yes.'

'That's strange. Because my colleagues had a call earlier. From a woman who had an intruder in her apartment.'

'So?'

'This intruder assaulted her, put her in fear for her life. And do you know the funny thing? He answered your exact description. And do you know who lives right above her? Your friend Augustin Pascal. Yes. The very same man you telephoned earlier.'

'Is this really why you brought me in? To talk about Pascal?'

Farooq tapped a cigarette from a soft-pack, clamped the filter between his lips to pull it all the way out. 'Want one?' he offered.

'No thanks.'

Farooq lit his cigarette, smoke drifting from his nostrils. 'You're quite right,' he smiled. 'I didn't bring you in to discuss Mister Pascal. I brought you in to charge you with the murder of Omar Tawfiq.'