Lord of the Silent - Elizabeth Peters [140]
“I was waiting for you, my dear. Not for all the world would I deprive you of the pleasure of examining a dismembered corpse. Come along, Amherst, you won’t want to miss this.”
I honestly do not believe Emerson was motivated by malice. He is of the school that believes the best way to conquer a weakness is to face it head-on.
An examination of the spot where Sennia had been seized gave us no new information. Returning to the hotel, we collected our horses and hired one for William, overruling his feeble excuses.
However, only a person of excessively delicate sensibilities would have been overcome by what we found. Predators had been at the body of the dog. The remains were somewhat scattered about, but enough remained to identify it. Of the body of its owner there was no trace, except for a copious quantity of dried blood, already blurred by blowing sand.
“Someone must have collected whatever the jackals left, and buried it,” said Emerson. “Touching consideration. I suppose even a swine like Saleh might have a friend. Let us see if we can locate him.”
With William trailing reluctantly after us, we made our way down the ridge into the village. Since we had to assume we had been seen, Emerson announced our approach in the loudest possible voice and in terms designed to reassure the hearers. “We mean no harm to the innocent. You know us, you know that when our word is given it is not broken. We will pay well for information. Baksheesh!”
The seemingly empty houses disgorged a trickle of people, fewer than twenty in all, ranging in age from naked toddlers to a toothless, bent old man, who proclaimed himself the sheikh of this wretched place.
“We have your word, O Father of Curses?” he mumbled. “We are innocent. We have done no wrong.”
Emerson reached into his pocket. Coins jingled. The audience edged closer.
We got very little in the way of useful information, though Emerson dispensed baksheesh with a lavish hand. All in the village knew that Saleh was a bad man, but always before he had done his evil deeds elsewhere. They had known nothing of his latest venture into crime until he came to the village carrying a child whose struggles and complaints made it clear that she had not come willingly. They had been too afraid of him to interfere. He had not been seen with a stranger, in the village or elsewhere. In short, they were ignorant and innocent, and they were relieved he was dead. But they had buried his remains because that was their religious duty.
“And because they didn’t want his ghost coming back to haunt them,” said Emerson to me in English. “Do you want to dig him up, Peabody? Most probably he’s buried deep.”
“I see no point in doing that, Emerson. I wonder what he did with the first payment he had been given.”
“It wasn’t on his body.” Emerson fingered the cleft in his chin. “Hmph. Let’s have a look.”
Emerson and Amherst—who had regained his nerve now that there were no dismembered corpses to be inspected—found the little bundle tucked into a crevice in the crumbling wall of the hut. While they searched I did what I could for the old woman. She was in pitiable condition. Opium destroys the appetite of the user, and it was evident that she had not even had the will or the energy to drink water. She sucked greedily at the canteen I held to her lips and then sank back with a sigh.
“My son is dead, Sitt Hakim. Soon I will die too. I have no wish to live.”
“There are others who will care for you,” Emerson said. “We will make sure they do.”
“Ah?” She raised her head. “Then I will live. The Father of Curses has said it!”
“How does it feel to be a demigod, with the power of life and death?” I inquired, as we left the nasty place.
“Splendid,” said Emerson with a grin. He had removed the rag that had been wrapped round the money, and I recognized the notes issued by the National Bank of Egypt. “Fifty Egyptian pounds,” said Emerson, counting. “He paid well, the swine. This should keep the old lady in lentils and opium for a while.”
He gave the money to the mayor, whose rheumy eyes popped when he saw the amount,