Egyptian Enigma

by LJM Owen

  Elizabeth’s cheeks were burning. She had failed to heed Oliver’s warning. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said to everyone in the room. ‘I focus so much on the science that sometimes I forget how confronting the information can be for other people.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Alice said.

  ‘He’ll be OK,’ Rhoz said.

  As they packed away the plastic replica skeleton of Ramesses the Fifth, Elizabeth felt disappointed in herself for having created an awkward atmosphere in the group, and for upsetting Nathan. She would have to find him this week and try to smooth things out.

  —

  A week later, from her oversized bed, Elizabeth dialled Henry on Skype.

  ‘Hey there, how’re you doing?’

  Elizabeth tried to smile. ‘Okay, I guess.’

  ‘What’s up?’

  ‘Just a yuk week.’

  ‘C’mon now, share with old Henry.’

  ‘Ha!’ But Henry’s desire to listen to her woes made Elizabeth feel a touch better. ‘I suspect the men in my tutor group, the ones I told you about, have complained about me to my supervisor at uni, Dr Marsh.’

  ‘What did they say?’

  ‘Dr Marsh won’t tell me exactly, but this week she asked me some fairly probing questions about the dynamics of the people in my class.’

  ‘You told her about them already, didn’t you?’

  ‘Yes, and I’m very glad I did.’

  ‘So, not really a problem?’

  ‘I suppose not, but I’d prefer to be able to handle things myself. Then I found out she wants more changes to the papers I’m preparing with Alice. I’m starting to wonder if she thinks I’m even capable of writing.’

  ‘What sort of changes?’

  ‘Nothing to do with the content, more the way we’ve structured the paper – the vocabulary, the way we’re presenting the argument. I mean, I’ve written a PhD thesis so I should be able to write an academic paper without this much editing.’

  ‘Perhaps she just wants it to be as good as it can possibly be?’

  ‘That’s what Taid said.’ Elizabeth felt her mood sink further south. ‘And to top it all off, you know how Nathan left last week…’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I tried taking him out for coffee this week to sort things out but Rhoz came too, and the waiter at the cafe told her to smile again, and mucked up her coffee order again. She was quite annoyed, and somehow the mood deterioriated and I didn’t feel I could say anything to Nathan.’

  ‘It does sound like you’ve had a rough week.’

  ‘Also, I wanted to work out a way forward on identifying the owner and occupier of the Golden Tomb. From the five mummies we’ve looked at already, I can see that they’re similar to the Ramesses three – the Third, Fourth and Fifth. But the Pharaoh’s teeth are in such varying states of decay that I’ll probably have to abandon my original plan to use dental non-metrics to determine whether one of the Tomb mummies is closely related to the royal family.’

  ‘Is there another method you can try?’

  ‘I’m sure there must be. I’m looking into cranial and post-cranial metrics and non-metrics, but none of them is as reliable as dental non-metrics.’ She sighed. ‘But enough about me, how was your week?’

  Henry looked a little sheepish. ‘Fantastic, actually. I’ve had a chance to go through all of the scrolls we’ve recovered from the Golden Tomb so far. I’ll minimise our Skype window and put up my translations.’

  Elizabeth looked carefully over the sentences on the screen. ‘Could you scroll down?’

  ‘Scroll down, ha! Get it?’

  Elizabeth feigned a frown. ‘If you’re going to make light of this most serious of matters, Sir Henry, you’ll have to come up with better jokes than that!’

  ‘Heh-heh.’

  She read all the translations. ‘They seem to be the forty-two negative confessions from the Book of the Dead.’

  ‘That’s what I thought, only…’

  Elizabeth closed her eyes. In her phrenic library the original and translated copies of the forty-two negative confessions that she had read in the past flew into her mind. ‘From somewhere in the teens, but they’re not quite right, are they?’

  ‘No. I checked the hieratic on scrolls from other New Kingdom tombs and these are somehow wordier than the others.’

  ‘Maybe it’s a form of poetry.’

  ‘I noticed something else. All the Golden Tomb scrolls have those little stars on them, as though the scribe who wrote them couldn’t stop doodling.’

  ‘Naughty! Are you still enjoying translating them? If you’re not I can take over.’

  ‘I’m loving it! In my mind I’m still playing Professor Pimms and Sir Henry, Egyptological philologist extraordinaire!’

  Elizabeth laughed and felt considerably better than she had only minutes ago. Time with Henry made everything seem lighter.

  ‘By the way, I have some great news that should help to pull you out of the doldrums.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘I found the last mummies from the Golden Tomb!’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Well, two of them, anyway, in, of all places, Milwaukee. But we won’t be getting the last one.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Cannibals.’

  Chapter Nine

  ‘Nathan is going to lose it when he hears we’re involved with cannibals now. You know that, right?’

  Henry waved a hand at the screen. ‘Don’t worry, he’ll be fine. I’ll talk to him in a few days, see what’s really bugging him.’

  ‘Oh, would you? Thank you. That would be a load off my mind. So…cannibals! I don’t like to admit this, but I haven’t yet come across cannibalism in ancient Egypt. I feel as though you’re out-Egypting me, Sir Henry!’

  ‘Well, I’ve worked hard enough to get here.’ Henry winked. ‘But, no, not Egypt. It’s a wonder I made it out of London alive…’

  ‘British cannibals in ancient Egypt?’

  ‘British cannibalism of ancient Egypt. As far as I can tell, one mummy from the Golden Tomb passed through the antiquities trade…’

  ‘Black market.’

  ‘Yes, black market, to British cannibals. You’ve heard of the centuries-long European craze for drinking fresh human blood?’ Henry asked. The practise of drinking the blood of young, vital criminals who were freshly hanged, in the belief that it held healing properties, had given the executioner a revolting but profitable sideline across much of Europe for centuries. ‘But how does this relate to our mummies?’

  ‘After the blood mania, an urban myth that eating the body part corresponding to your disease would cure you spread like wildfire,’ Henry explained. ‘Then when mummies were discovered in Egypt a few enterprising merchants circulated rumours that they contained ancient Egyptian magic, and gullible European aristocrats began eating them by the score. It reached the point that grave-robbers in Egypt began manufacturing mummies from fresh corpses to keep up with European demand.’

  ‘But surely that was all over by the time the Golden Tomb was excavated?’

  ‘It looks like the last mummy from the Golden Tomb disappeared into the hands of an experimental medical laboratory in London,’ Henry said, his fingers describing scare quotes in the air as he said ‘experimental’.

  ‘I found a newspaper article on a scandal a few years later when they were raided. Significant quantities of opium and human remains were found, both in the process of being broken down for powders and potions. There was a list of what was available and the price. One jar said “Golden Mummy Powder”. The article is dated shortly after the disappearance of one of the mummies in London on their way to the Petrie museum.’

  ‘Imagine having your body preserved – ostensibly for all eternity – only to be burnt, ground into powder and eaten by a drugged-up English twit three
thousand years later.’

  ‘Homo sapiens,’ Elizabeth said, shaking her head.

  ‘Humans,’ Henry agreed, a rare sad note in his voice.

  —

  The following morning, Elizabeth stretched and yawned, reviewing the day’s work ahead. First, she had to ensure her part in preparing for Sam’s birthday party was taken care of, then press on with reviewing Dr Marsh’s latest round of suggested changes to her and Alice’s papers. But before any of that, she decided to join the four cats strewn across her balcony to warm herself in the late-autumn sun.

  From her vantage point, Elizabeth caught glimpses of her tiny grandmother and red-haired sister pottering inside Nainai’s domain, gathering vegetables and herbs in the walled garden. Although she understood Nainai’s deep interest in her newest granddaughter, Mai, Elizabeth was glad to see her doing something with Sam, who had been missing her special relationship with their Chinese grandmother.

  Stretching once more, Elizabeth returned to her room to shower, dress, and head downstairs to help prepare the feast. Freshly made dips, seven-vegetable couscous, a chickpea bake and a Moroccan lentil dish were all on the menu. Dessert would be Ethiopian coffee and popcorn, Turkish delight, and orange and cinnamon salad. Elizabeth’s mouth watered in anticipation.

  Pleased that Matty and Sam seemed to be travelling along nicely, Elizabeth was concerned that Mai was not faring so well. When Mai arrived for Sam’s birthday lunch a little early, she took the opportunity to catch up with her. ‘I wanted to see how you’re feeling now,’ she said, setting two delicate porcelain Chinese teacups in front of them.

  ‘Okay, I guess.’

  Steam rose from the tea as Elizabeth poured. ‘Are you sure?’

  Mai blew on her cup. ‘Kind of.’

  ‘You didn’t end up coming to the session with Dr Strzelecki. Would you like to come to the next one? It’s a good way to figure out how to deal with things that bother you.’

  ‘I’m not sure. Maybe.’

  ‘Can you tell me how you’re feeling?’

  ‘Kind of…disconnected, I guess.’ Mai looked Elizabeth directly in the eyes. ‘How did you do it? I know you’ve had some things to deal with. Before, I mean. Before Dad died. When your mum died, and when Luke left you. How did you cope with it all?’

  In the phrenic library Oliver cautioned that this was an important moment: Mai was vulnerable. Elizabeth needed to choose her words carefully.

  ‘I’d like to give you a straightforward answer, but I’m not sure I can. I’ve dealt with each challenge differently. And, to be honest, sometimes not all that well.’

  ‘Some examples would be helpful.’

  Elizabeth took a deep breath. ‘Well, when I was bullied at school…’

  ‘You were bullied? Me too! The other girls said I was ugly and teased me for not having parents and for speaking only one Chinese language. They could all speak three or even four dialects, but I only learnt one at home. My grandparents never spoke their village dialect around me enough for me to learn it.’ Mai looked down. ‘The girls at school thought I was stupid.’

  Elizabeth realised that was the longest statement she’d heard Mai utter this year. ‘But you did have a mum. She was right there at home with you.’

  Tears welled in Mai’s eyes as she nodded.

  ‘I knew some kids at school were teased for speaking languages other than English, but it never occurred to me you could be teased for not speaking enough other languages. Did you go to a school with lots of Chinese kids?’

  ‘Yes. The Skips called me names because I looked Chinese, which I could sort of ignore. But the other Chinese girls – the ones I wanted to be friends with – wouldn’t accept me either.’ Mai’s shoulders hinted a shrug. ‘I just didn’t fit in anywhere.’

  ‘Kids can find something to tease anyone about,’ Elizabeth said.

  ‘How about you?’

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘What did they tease you for?’

  ‘Getting all the answers right in class and in tests. It seemed to really annoy them.’ She paused. ‘I got into a lot of fights to start with, but then learnt to fake not knowing answers so they’d leave me alone. I really wasn’t popular at school. So we’ve got that in common.’

  Mai smiled wanly. ‘Anyway, you were saying?’

  ‘I didn’t deal with being bullied terribly well. I still don’t. I simply don’t have the knack some people have of defusing it by turning it into a joke or ignoring it. I tense up, get all wound up inside, and usually manage to make it worse. But over the years I’ve at least learnt to walk away rather than start a fight.’ She smiled sheepishly at Mai. ‘Most of the time, anyway.’

  Mai blushed. ‘Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to be another bully in your life.’

  Elizabeth clapped her hands. ‘All in the past. So, I didn’t deal with bullying all that well. As for losing Mum…’ Oliver cleared her throat in the phrenic library, ‘I shut down parts of myself to cope. So I think I under­stand what you mean about feeling disconnected.’

  ‘What parts?’

  ‘Chess. I loved chess. I used to play every weekend. But Mum was on her way to pick me up from a game when…when…and I haven’t played since.’

  ‘Oh.’

  Oliver prompted a deeper response. ‘And I suppose I stopped socialising for the most part too. I became totally focused on school work, then my degrees. I only had one real friend…’

  ‘Tanya?’

  ‘Yes. I buried myself so deeply in my work I skipped experiences everyone around me was having. I think that’s part of why I was so naïve when I went out with Luke. I trusted him automatically, thought he was as loyal as I was.’ Elizabeth experienced a brief pang. ‘I couldn’t have been more wrong. And then, when Dad passed away… I was in such bliss in Egypt. When I had to leave I sank back into that same haze I was in after we lost Mum. I didn’t really come out of it until last year.’ Elizabeth turned to Mai and locked eyes with her. ‘You should not take any of this as an example to follow.’

  Mai gave a half-hearted laugh.

  ‘Returning to Egypt this year helped me to under­stand some of this stuff. I remembered how happy I was there on my first dig. I loved what I was doing, and I had a purpose. I felt completely alive in every moment. I’m trying to rediscover that again now.’

  ‘That’s why you’re running this investigation on the mummies?’

  ‘Uh-huh. I absolutely thrive on uncovering what happened in the past. Figuring out who was buried in the Golden Tomb keeps me going no matter how tired I feel.’

  Mai frowned slightly. ‘Maybe…maybe that’s what I need. Something outside work to give me a purpose.’

  Elizabeth nodded encouragingly. ‘That sounds like a possible solution. And in the meantime, you have all of us here to talk to, you know.’

  ‘I’m not really comfortable with that yet, but I’m trying to be. You’re all used to each other but I’m not sure how to fit in.’

  It struck Elizabeth anew that while she and her family had each other to rely on through life’s shocks and losses, Mai had grown up with no support at all. Despite Mai’s emotional outbursts last year and her current fragility, Elizabeth realised that her older sister must actually have incredible emotional strength to have coped alone for so long. ‘That means you’ve been doing an amazing job all on your own.’

  ‘You think so?’

  Elizabeth’s heart ached to see Mai so unused to someone believing in her. ‘Of course. And now you have all of us we can help relieve some of the burden. I still think you should come to one of our sessions with Dr Strzelecki.’

  Mai twirled her teacup for a few moments. ‘Can I think about it?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘I think I need more time to adjust to things…’

  ‘In the meantime, would you spend more time with us here?�
��

  Mai’s smile crinkled the corners of her eyes. ‘Yes. I’d like that.’

  Elizabeth felt relieved that she’d managed to reach her, help her feel a little better about herself and a little more part of the family. Now for Sam’s birthday lunch. Then it would be time to throw herself back into her Golden Tomb research.

  —

  Bounding down the stairs to answer the front door, Elizabeth hoped Grandmère would not be ‘polite’ about her being a few minutes late to Sunday breakfast. She flung the door open to Alice and Rhoz.

  ‘Hello, hello.’ She ushered them in and closed the door against the cold. ‘Can I take your coats and scarves?’

  ‘Thank you,’ Rhoz said, as Elizabeth brushed a brittle brown leaf from the back of the navy blue jacket. ‘It’s windy out there!’

  ‘Indeed. Let’s go through to the kitchen.’ She led the way.

  ‘Oh, it’s so nice and warm in here. No boys today?’ Alice asked.

  Elizabeth shook her head. ‘Llew and Nathan both said they were busy with their own things. Even Henry said he won’t be at home – some big Bollywood festival in New York, and he’s planning on spending the whole day there.’

  Elizabeth was secretly relieved that neither Nathan nor Llew had chosen to join them. She was already feeling stressed, and it would be a relief not to have to deal with her bothersome attraction to Llew, or protect Nathan from the elements of her investigation that upset him. ‘Come on, the conservatory is probably warm by now.’

  Straight after breakfast – delicious jiǎozi and three large coffees – Elizabeth guided Alice and Rhoz back towards the front door and Taid’s library. ‘I guess we dash to the car, grab the boxes and race back in to defrost. Do you mind guarding the front door for cats again?’ she asked Rhoz. ‘Although I very much doubt any of them will want to go outside at the moment.’

  ‘I will be a most vigilant guardian, thank you.’ Rhoz smiled, acknowledging that she had the most pleasant task by far.

  After the frigid relay of bone boxes, they set out their sixth skeleton from the Golden Tomb as Elizabeth explained the fate of the lost eighth mummy.