The Serpent on the Crown - Elizabeth Peters [91]
“Hell and damnation! Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Ramses came close to figuring it out,” I said, with a kindly smile at my son. “He suggested she slipped out of her bedchamber while he and Abdul were in the sitting room, but she then had to make her way down a longish corridor before she was out of their sight. The simplest explanation was that she simply went into the room next door. She had taken it under another name, her appearance altered by the simple addition of a wig and a more conspicuous frock.”
“So she was there the entire time,” Ramses murmured. “That assumption does answer many of the questions we had.”
“It will be easy to prove,” I said. “We must have Mr. Salt’s permission to enter the room. I thought it best to leave that to you, my dear.” I nodded at Emerson.
“Hmph,” said Emerson, his rancor assuaged by this concession. “Very well. I will attend to it. Now as to the Valley of—”
“One more little thing, Emerson. I offered to dispose of Mrs. Petherick’s belongings. One of the hotel servants will bring them here. I didn’t have the chance to examine them closely, you see. It would have looked suspicious.”
“Curse it,” said Emerson. “Well, don’t expect me to help.”
“It is a woman’s job, my dear. Perhaps Katherine will lend me her advice.”
She accepted with expressions of pleasure. There were times when Katherine felt left out of our activities, and this was a way of making her feel useful—which in fact she would be.
We were finishing luncheon when the hotel attendant arrived with Mrs. Petherick’s possessions. Katherine and I left the others discussing arrangements, except for Nefret, who expressed an interest in assisting us. Jumana did not express interest. She loved listening to Emerson expound on Egyptology, and since Emerson loved to expound, they complemented each other nicely.
I had the bundles taken to my study, since I knew Emerson would object to the scent of stale perfume in our bedchamber. Nefret, who is sensitive to odors, wrinkled her nose. “The sooner we get these out of the house the better. I don’t like handling garments whose owner will never wear them again.”
A strange sentiment, some would have said, considering the aplomb with which she had handled the owner herself. However, scents are particularly evocative.
Katherine had begun examining the frocks. The pockets produced a typical motley array: several handkerchiefs, a withered sprig of greenery, two hairpins, and a considerable amount of lint. A good lady’s maid would have emptied them before hanging the garments in the wardrobe. I understood now why Mrs. Petherick had not brought an attendant with her. She had planned her dramatic disappearance before she left England, and privacy was essential for the scheme.
I will spare the Reader the details of our search, in the event that he is of the masculine gender. Suffice it to say that we found no suspicious stains, no objects sewn into hem or seam, and, in short, nothing suspicious whatsoever. Except for the underclothing, the garments were relatively new and relatively cheap. People do not anticipate wearing mourning for long. In fact, few modern ladies wore unrelieved black, unless it happened to become them. It did become the Countess Magda and she had not been unwilling to make a show of her grief.
We left the repackaging of the clothes to Fatima, who had participated in the last stages of the search. She had nothing to add to our conclusions. I could see that she and Katherine were disappointed—they had hoped to discover a vital clue—so I said consolingly, “I didn’t really expect we would find anything of interest, but the task was necessary. Fatima, will you have these sent to Miss Buchanan, at the school? I will write her a little note explaining the situation. I am sure she can find someone who can make use of them.”
Emerson was on the veranda listening (a word which is seldom applicable to Emerson) to the conversation between Ramses and Mr. Katchenovsky. It was heavy with complex verb forms in ancient Egyptian. My husband leaped to his feet when we came in, and offered