Death on Tour - Janice Hamrick [90]
He read it and sat up straight. He began flipping through the pages. I remembered the entry about the sisters and felt myself blush. It was too much to hope he didn’t notice it.
“She was pretty spiteful,” I said. “That bit about Kyla and me. Not true.”
He had the look of someone who has solved a puzzle, that aha! look you get when you finally get the math problem. Then his expression changed and a little crease appeared between his eyebrows.
“What is it?”
“Nothing. But now I’ve got an idea at least. We might have another case of mistaken identity.” He drained his beer and rose to his feet. “I need to check up on a couple of things, but this is exactly what I needed. You’re wonderful!”
I stood too, more out of bewilderment than anything. “What idea? What did you see?”
He didn’t answer, and before I knew it, he was escorting me to the door. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll give this stuff to Anni, and she’ll be able to get everything back to the rightful owners.”
“Wait, what are you going to do?” I asked.
“Check on just a couple of things. I need to make some calls.”
“But—” I started.
He interrupted. “I’ll see you later this evening, okay? I’ll tell you everything, if I get it figured out. And you and I still have a lot to talk about.”
We were in the hallway now, and he was closing his door behind us. He started for the staircase, leaving me standing stunned by the door, still holding my half-finished beer. I wasn’t done talking. I hadn’t even gotten to my suspicions about DJ or the odd behavior of Jerry. He was almost to the stairs when he pivoted back around, grabbed me by the shoulders, and kissed me. A hard, quick, wonderful kiss. Then he was gone before I could move, taking the steps two at a time.
I stood there a moment, still feeling the pressure from his warm lips against mine. What the hell was that? A thank-you kiss, a good-bye kiss, or something else? And how absolutely aggravating. The fact that it was the best kiss I’d had in years, possibly forever, just made it all the more annoying. What the hell had just happened, where was he going, and why the hell did he think he could just scamper off without letting me know what he had discovered? In fact, who the hell did he think he was? I ground my teeth together, then started up the stairs to the sundeck. It was time to wake up Kyla and get ready to go to Karnak.
Besides, I needed to vent.
Chapter 14
KARNAK AND CHAOS
The late afternoon sun cast a burnished ruddy glow over our little group as we gathered at the bus to drive to the ancient temple of Karnak. This was to be the grand finale of our trip, the most massive ancient religious site in the world. Unlike most Egyptian monuments, which were the work of a single ruler, Karnak was the awe-inspiring achievement of over thirty pharaohs, ruling over a period of thirteen hundred years. Much of the history of Egypt was represented in the vast halls of ruined Karnak, and I wanted to see it more than anything else we had seen so far.
My headache, mostly forgotten while I talked with Alan, was back and throbbing dully just behind my eyes. I had gulped a couple of aspirin before coming downstairs, but they hadn’t kicked in yet. Nevertheless, I was determined not to let it slow me down or make me less alert. For a reason I couldn’t define, I felt I couldn’t afford to miss anything tonight. On the other hand, I had no idea what I should be looking for, so I attempted to covertly scan everyone and everything. I bumped into Kyla a couple of times before she pinched my arm.
“What is wrong with you? Watch where you’re going.”
Mohammad stood beside the bus steps next to Anni, who was counting us off as we climbed aboard. I shivered a little as I went past him. A sheen of sweat on his brow caught the light and his shoulders were stiff with guilty tension. Or, to be fair, he was hot in his heavy houndstooth jacket, and he was just praying to get this out-of-control tour finished before anything else happened.
I tried to reel in my imagination. Although I was