Death on Tour - Janice Hamrick [63]
“What happened to you?” she asked with a sharp glance. “Why are you running? You’re not late. And whoa—you look green.” She eyed me with the beginnings of concern.
“Haggling is much worse than I thought,” I said. I tried to make it sound light, but my voice trembled a little.
“My God, what happened? Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. And I’ll tell you later. Or I’ll try. I’m not really sure what happened.”
Kyla started to grill me, but just then Anni walked by, counting under her breath. Her headscarf today was a deep blue, framing her face and making her large eyes seem darker than ever.
“Where are Fiona and Flora?” she asked me. “You’re the last one back. Did you see them in any of the shops?”
“No, but I didn’t really look.” I decided not to admit they could have been lying on the pavement on fire, and I wouldn’t have seen them on my dash out of that shop.
She sighed. “Well, the rest of you start back to the ship. I will try to find them. Remember what I said about tipping.”
* * *
In our cabin before lunch, I flopped down on the bed and told Kyla how the men had surrounded me and demanded fifty thousand pounds before just handing me a necklace. I still felt a little sick inside when I thought of how frightened I’d been.
She looked at me skeptically. “Those guys are pretty aggressive. It’s too bad there were so many of them, but are you sure they asked for fifty thousand pounds? Are you sure it wasn’t fifty? There’s nothing in any of those shops worth fifty thousand.”
Instead of arguing, I pulled the necklace from my purse and handed it to her. Her eyes widened.
“Dear God, this is gorgeous. No way did they just give it to you.” She carried it to the window spread out over both hands and turned it in the sunlight. It was so beautiful it almost glowed.
“They did, though,” I answered, closing my eyes. “But not before scaring the living daylights out of me.”
“But it looks real, not like most of that cheap crap in those stalls. It has to be worth a fortune.”
“Maybe it’s just a really good fake.”
“Even so, it has to be worth a lot more than nothing. I mean, it’s absolutely fantastic.” She held it up to the light from the window, admiring it.
“I can’t explain it. I don’t even know what happened. Maybe the head guy was sorry his thugs had scared me and just gave it to me by way of apology,” I speculated doubtfully. “You know, so I wouldn’t cause a big fuss with the tour company or the police. I imagine they’d get into a lot of trouble if anyone found out they’d been scaring the tourists.”
“Well, that’s true at least. They’d probably get closed down altogether. Still, you’d think they would have given you some postcards or a plastic pyramid or something and not this pretty little thing. Can I borrow it?”
“No!” I snapped. “I’m going to wear it with my galabia tomorrow night.”
“Ooh, that will look fabulous.”
Chapter 10
LOUNGES AND LIZARDS
Dinner that night was another all-you-can-eat buffet featuring a giant roast, some unidentified fish, and heaping cauldrons of spaghetti. Definitely something for everyone. Even though I was trying to eat moderately, I still ended up with far too much on my plate. Everyone was present except Kathy, who was still playing the invalid card and eating in her room, and Alan. I was more disappointed by his absence than I wanted to admit.
After dinner, Kyla and I decided to join the group for drinks in the ship’s lounge. Anni had promised some form of entertainment, and since the ship was chugging along in the middle of the Nile, we did not have many other options. I wore my black skirt with the white shirt tonight. Kyla, however, chose a hot pink silky top with a low neckline over black and pink flowered capri pants and matching pink flats. She’d pulled her hair up in a French twist, and little strands escaped and curled about her face artistically. At this point in the trip, I’d almost given up being jealous and was now trying to figure out how she had managed to fit so many outfits in her suitcase. I