The Moses Legacy - Adam Palmer [76]
Sarit didn’t even know how long the real Kelly Harker would be staying in Cairo, suspecting that she was on some package tour and that was their ‘shopping afternoon’ in the bazaar. That meant she had probably by now been given some sort of temporary travel documents by the British Embassy and then whisked away with the rest of the group. Depending on the itinerary of the group she could be on a cruise boat on the Nile, climbing Jebel Musa (the traditional Mount Sinai), or flying down to Sharm for a few days of swimming and sunbathing.
If so, then it would not be easy for the police to contact her quickly. The most the officer in charge could say would be that he hadn’t been updated and the woman had carried on with her tour group. It was extremely unlikely that Sarit would be brought face to face with the woman she was impersonating, but it was touch and go whether she would be allowed through or detained until the matter was fully and finally resolved.
‘I have some good news for you, Miss Harker,’ said the border official. ‘We spoke to the officer in charge, and he said that he was the one who recommended you to look in your hotel room to make sure the passport hadn’t fallen out there. He is pleased that you followed his advice, even if you were too embarrassed to tell him.’
A beaming smile broke out across Sarit’s face. She couldn’t believe her luck. So less than a quarter of an hour later, Sarit was crossing into Israel. On the Israeli side of the border, they started grilling her on the purpose of her visit. She cut it short by telling them in Hebrew that she was not Kelly Harker but Sarit Shalev and asking them to contact Dovi Shamir at a number she gave them.
After a two-minute conversation between officials, she was taken aside to a private room where she was allowed to talk to Dovi herself.
‘I’ve got a lot to tell you,’ she said, demonstrating her penchant for understatement.
‘You had me worried,’ he replied. ‘I’ll send a chopper.’ He hesitated to add that he was still worried.
Chapter 61
‘Are you awake?’ asked Gabrielle.
It was night and the Bedouin were sleeping in what their patriarch had humorously described as a ‘thousand-star hotel’.
‘Yes,’ Daniel replied. ‘You?’
‘No, I’m talking in my sleep!’
Daniel and Gabrielle were supposed to be sleeping. They only had seven hours from their ten p.m stop to their pre-sunrise start. But they both had a lot on their minds, and sleep did not come easily to either of them.
‘Sorry, I’m not at my best at midnight.’
He turned in his sleeping bag to catch Gabrielle’s face. It was illuminated by the merest sliver of the moon crescent, giving her a strangely vulnerable look.
‘I was just wondering what Charlotte would think if she could see you now.’
‘What on earth made you think of that?’
‘It’s just that you… you seem to like roughing it. Those outings with your nephews… and that time we were on a dig together in Scotland.’
‘When you tried to come into my tent… yes, I remember. But what’s that got to do with Charlotte?’
‘Well, she was so spoiled and pampered, with all her creature comforts, and you’re the exact opposite. You like the outdoors, you spent six days on a felucca without complaining. Now we’re camped down here in the desert under the stars. Charlotte wouldn’t have lasted an hour doing anything like this.’
‘She never really wanted to give it a try. It wasn’t her world.’
‘So why did you marry the bitch?’
‘Oo, miao.’
‘No seriously, Daniel. Why would you want to hook up with that scion of Pennsylvania aristocracy with an olive up her ass? Her ancestors would probably have blackballed yours if they’d applied to join the golf club. You’re so down-to-earth and family oriented. If you’d had children, you’d probably have fought over whether to keep them at home or send them to boarding school.’
‘I guess it’s lucky we didn’t.’
He felt a stab of regret as he said these words. Gabrielle’s probing questions brought back a flood of memories and endless speculations