Death on Tour - Janice Hamrick [81]
I finished my drink and looked about for a place to set my glass. Alan took it from me and set it on a table. He held out a hand.
“Will you dance with me?” he asked.
I took his hand and followed him to the dance floor. As I walked past, Kyla gave me a grin and a thumbs up. I hoped Alan hadn’t noticed, but that seemed unlikely unless he had been suddenly stricken blind. Fortunately it was too dark for him to be able to see how red my face was.
He took me in his arms, and we began swaying back and forth to the music. He smelled nice, like soap and new clothes and man. I relaxed against him and breathed him in. He moved his hand gently over my back and looked down into my face.
“Tell me about your necklace,” he said.
Not the most romantic conversation starter, but it would have to do. I went over the story of my necklace for a third time.
“That is very strange.” He leaned away from me so he could get a better look, although how much he could see in the moonlight was anyone’s guess. “It’s obviously valuable.”
“I know. I mean, even if the stones and gold aren’t real, it’s still worth something. And they just handed it to me.”
“Do you think that those men mistook you for someone else?”
I considered, then shrugged. “That seems the most likely thing, but who in the world did they mistake me for? If they had made a deal with someone, wouldn’t they know what that person looked like?”
“You look a lot like your sister.”
“Cousin,” I said automatically. “But it’s not like Kyla was supposed to be picking up a necklace.”
“Are you sure?”
I looked up at him, puzzled. “What do you mean?”
“Maybe she was the one who was supposed to go into that stall. It’s not the first time on this trip something strange has happened to you. Think about the guy on Kitchener’s Island who wanted to show you something. Or the guy in the carpet shop. And now this. Is it possible that she was supposed to pick something up from those people? But you being around messed up the exchange?”
“That’s completely ridiculous.” I stopped dancing. “You can’t seriously think that Kyla has some sort of clandestine deal going on with illegal contacts in Egypt. She’s a programmer, for God’s sakes. She’s never even been to Egypt.”
“Are you sure about that? And these days, deals don’t have to be arranged in person. Does her company have international offices?”
“No!” I snapped. “Well, yes, probably. But so what? What company doesn’t? That doesn’t mean anything.”
“You don’t find it odd that everywhere we’ve gone on this trip something strange has happened to you? Someone has asked you to go somewhere with him or given you a necklace or attacked you in a tomb?”
“Of course I find it odd. Almost as odd as I find you and all your questions.” A cold and unexpected anger was rising inside of me. “Who are you? You’re no financial analyst from Dallas. Asking questions, speaking Arabic. Are you FBI? Or CIA? Or just a cute policeman with nothing better to do than flirt when you don’t mean it so you can ask your stupid questions?”
I pushed away from him and actually stamped my foot. “You just stay away from me. And from Kyla,” I added. “We don’t have anything to do with any of this. You’re the one mistaking us for someone else.”
I stormed off before he could see that my eyes were filling with very inconvenient tears.
I thought briefly about returning to my seat by Kyla, but I was so angry that I was shaking. I decided to return to my cabin. The night was over for me. I could have wept with frustration and disappointment. I stumbled down the half flight of steps that led to the gift shop, and paused briefly to wipe my eyes. As I lifted my head, I saw the flash of an unexpected movement in the shadows and then something hit me very hard.
I must have dropped