Death on Tour - Janice Hamrick [89]
“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