Sands of Time (Out of Time #6)

by Monique Martin

  “Long story,” Diana said, as she started back for the door. “Let me go see what I can find out and get a doctor.”

  “A doctor?”

  She nodded her head toward Jack.

  “Good Lord!” Whiteside cried.

  “A few more minutes won’t kill me,” Jack said to Diana before turning to Arthur. “When did you see last see Christina?”

  Whiteside lingered in the middle of the room and ran a hand through his hair. “Uhm, last night. She was gone when I got up this morning. I thought she’d gone for a walk.”

  He looked helplessly at the others. “She does that sometimes, t-to draw.”

  Jack pointed to a set of doors. “Is that her room?”

  Whiteside nodded. “Do you think something’s happened to her?”

  Jack’s eyes slid to Simon’s briefly, but his expression remained neutral and he gestured to the door. “May I?”

  Arthur spluttered out his permission and Jack disappeared into Christina’s room.

  Diana went to his side. “Why don’t you sit down, Arthur?”

  He looked at her quizzically and then with growing worry. “What’s happened? What do you know?”

  “Sit down,” she repeated.

  He did and they began to tell him about Katherine Vale and what they knew of her plans.

  “But why? Why would she take her?” Whiteside said.

  Elizabeth looked at Simon. How could they tell him what Vale had said? It would kill him.

  Jack came back in and everyone turned to him, hopeful he’d found something, but he shook his head.

  “Arthur,” Simon said kindly, as he walked over to sit opposite him. Elizabeth could see the effort even such a simple thing took. His clothes were torn and filthy. His hands raw and bloodied, but he pulled a chair close and sat down next to Whiteside. Choosing his words carefully, but not sugar-coating anything, Simon told him what Vale had told them about her plans for Christina.

  Whiteside paled visibly and stammered denials.

  “Sacrifice? That’s madness.”

  “It is,” Simon agreed.

  “But…” Whiteside choked out. He looked to Diana. “You can’t be serious.”

  Diana sat down on the edge of the coffee table and put her hand on Whiteside’s knee. “We’ll find her, Arthur.” She looked over at the rest of them. “We’ll find her.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Elizabeth could hear the changes in the way the water fell as Simon moved inside the shower. The curtain was closed, but she knew dirt and sand and blood mixed at his feet before swirling toward the drain. She’d seen some of it herself when she’d showered and knew it would be far worse for him. His hands and legs had dozens of cuts from the explosion and the jagged edges of the rocks he’d spent hours moving.

  Elizabeth had stayed in the bathroom with him as he showered. He hadn’t asked her to, but she knew he would need her close for a while. She tried not to think about how badly she needed to stay close to him.

  She busied herself by brushing her hair and going through the first aid supplies they’d procured from the hotel doctor. Despite their protests and arguments, Diana had practically forced them to go to their room to clean up and change. Jack’s arm was finally being seen to and Diana promised to stay with Arthur to discuss Christina’s disappearance with the police. For all the good that would do. The police were out of their league when it came to someone like Katherine Vale. That was if they even believed the story.

  She and Simon wanted to talk to the hotel staff, but Diana had rightly pointed out that they would get more questions than answers in their current state. They’d finally relented and gone to their suite, but as soon as they’d entered the relative safety and quiet it provided, Elizabeth felt her control slip.

  She’d held it together so far and she wasn’t going to lose it now. They couldn’t afford for her to.

  She let out a deep breath and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked like hell, but she was alive. They were all alive. That was what mattered. The rest of it could be dealt with later with expensive therapy sessions and a long, ugly cry, but not now. Now, she had to focus on helping Christina.

  The thought of Christina with Vale made Elizabeth’s stomach drop. And it was all their fault. Taking her was just another twisted part of Vale’s revenge on them. And they had no idea where they were or how to find them.

  But they would, she told herself. She had to stay focused on that.

  She pushed out a long breath. Keeping it together was getting harder by the minute. She could see the shower behind her and noticed that the sound of the water wasn’t changing anymore. Simon wasn’t moving.

  “Everything all right in there?” she asked, wondering if he hadn’t fallen asleep on his feet.

  There was no answer.

  “Simon?”

  She could hear him clear his throat and start moving again. “Almost finished.”

  “Okay,” she said, giving him his privacy.

  Despite being the most passionate man she’d ever known, Simon was still a man, and an Englishman to boot. Vulnerability was not something he showed easily and she knew that this experience had left more than the skin of his hands raw and aching.

  After a few more minutes, Simon turned off the taps and stepped out of the shower. The cuts and bruises looked better than they had before. Elizabeth treated them with iodine and bandaged them.

  “Not too bad, all in all,” Elizabeth said as she finished the last of them and helped him on with his robe.

  As he tied the belt, she started into the bedroom. “I think we should—”

  Simon caught her arm and she turned back. She waited for him to say something, but he just stared at her. His eyes, still haunted, fixed on hers. In the silence, they spoke volumes. His hands gently ran up her arms to her shoulders as he reassured himself she was real and alive.

  He let out a short, hitched breath and Elizabeth stepped forward and hugged him. The tenuous grip she had on her emotions was sure to fail if Simon lost it. He pulled her tightly against him, his arms wrapping all the way around her, but she was holding him. For a moment, they both stood on the edge. She could hear his heart racing in his chest, feel the raggedness of his breath as he struggled.

  Eventually, he eased back and looked down at her. He shook his head and let out a sigh.

  Tears burned the back of her throat, but she wouldn’t let them out. She swallowed hard and felt her traitorous chin begin to wobble.

  “We made it,” she reminded him, her voice breaking. “We’re here.”

  Slowly, he nodded and caressed her cheek.

  Elizabeth forced herself not to cry. She was teetering on the edge and managed a tremulous smile before easing out of his arms.

  “Elizabeth—”

  “We should start with the front desk,” she said, moving into the bedroom.

  She walked over to their trunk and started digging for fresh clothes. She felt Simon come up behind her.

  He gently placed his hands on her arms. “Elizabeth.”

  She turned around, smiled through her tears and shook her head. “I’m fine.”

  He crooked his finger and lifted her chin.

  “I will be,” she said. “Right now, though, we’ve got to find Christina.”

  He stared at her for a long moment, and she silently asked him not to push. Not now.

  Finally, he nodded. “We will.”

  Grateful he was willing to let her do this her own way, she turned back to finding fresh underthings.

  Simon took the ones she offered and found a fresh shirt. He walked over to the bed where she’d laid out another suit.

  Elizabeth pushed out a deep, cleansing breath. “Right,” she said and felt herself begin to settle.

  Simon slipped on his boxers and pants and shed his robe. Sitting down in one of the chairs, he started to put on the socks she’d given him when he stopped. “I’m sorry about the watch; I don’t know how I lost it.”

  El
izabeth brought over his shoes. “Maybe it’s a good thing you did.”

  Simon shook his head. “I don’t see how that’s possible.”

  She set the shoes down next to his chair. “If you hadn’t, she’d have it now.”

  Simon grunted, unassuaged and then groaned slightly as he gingerly leaned back in his chair. “Either way, we’re trapped here without it.”

  Elizabeth found her own shoes and sat down on the edge of a trunk at the end of the bed. “I’ve been thinking about that. We can retrace our steps. It’s got to be here somewhere.”

  “And if we don’t find it?”

  “Cable Teddy?”

  Simon sat forward. “Fiske?”

  “Unless you know another watchmaker.” Elizabeth buckled the clasp to her shoes. “He might still be in San Francisco. And if he isn’t, maybe the Eldridges or Max know where we can find him.”

  “Assuming they’re still there and alive,” Simon said as he slipped on his shoes. “It has been fourteen years.”

  Elizabeth nodded. Max was a world traveler; he could be anywhere. And the Eldridges weren’t exactly spring chickens.

  Simon tilted his head to the side. “It’s a good thought,” he said and then tied the laces to his shoes.

  Elizabeth stared down at Simon’s abraded knuckles, signs of his fight. And, she knew they weren’t finished fighting yet. “Where do you think she’s gone?”

  Simon sighed and straightened. He shook his head. “Poor Arthur.”

  Elizabeth stood and walked over to stand in front of him. “We’ll find her. And the watch.”

  He chuckled. “An optimist to the very end.”

  Elizabeth laughed with him, but his words were truer than he knew. She hadn’t given up hope in the tomb and she sure as heck wasn’t going to give up now.

  “One thing I know,” she said. “We won’t find either in here.”

  She held out her hand. Simon took hold of it, kissed it, and then stood.

  “Right.”

  They went back to Whiteside’s suite and she could see the hope and then the disappointment in Arthur’s eyes as they came in but didn’t have Christina with them. As Elizabeth had feared, the police were of little help. They’d gone to the house Vale had rented only to find it empty.

  Jack and Diana made a few inquiries themselves, but no one seemed to have the slightest idea where she’d gone, including Ahmed. They’d found him in the hotel lobby. When Christina hadn’t shown for their arranged breakfast, Ahmed had gone looking for her, and only just returned. After learning Christina was missing, he’d tried to help by speaking with the local authorities. Maybe a native Egyptian, and one from a wealthy family, would hopefully have better luck than Jack and Diana had.

  But, Elizabeth thought, judging from the way Diana chewed on her thumbnail, they didn’t hold out much hope.

  Arthur Whiteside sat in his chair and rubbed his temple absently.

  “Maybe we should take a look at Vale’s house ourselves,” Jack suggested. “Police could have missed something.”

  “That’s not a bad idea,” Diana said as she sat down next to him. “I don’t think they believed a word we said about the cult.”

  “That,” Arthur said. “I…I’ve been thinking about that. The cult.”

  “Arthur, don’t—” Diana said.

  He held up a finger to stop her. “The Cult of Sekhmet. There were several festivals that were important to them. The Purifying Flame, the Time of Offerings and the Feast. This month, Tybi, is the start of Peret, a very important time for the goddess. If this,” his voice broke here and he cleared his throat, “person has my daughter and is planning some sort of sacrifice, it makes sense that it would be on one of those sacred days.”

  He looked up hopefully. “Cults are very particular about those things, you understand.”

  “Yes,” Simon said. “The power of a sacred time. When are, were these festivals?”

  “I’d have to do some calculations to be sure, but late November?”

  “Right about now,” Elizabeth said, hoping now was a few days away.

  Whiteside’s face paled. “Yes.”

  “What about a place? Is there somewhere in particular they might…perform this ritual?”

  Arthur frowned. “Most of the temples of Sekhmet have been destroyed by now. There is a small one in Karnak.”

  “Too public,” Simon said. “The book you gave me said something about Memphis, I think.”

  “Yes, that was a focal point, but not at first,” Arthur said, obviously feeling more steady on academic ground. “The cult was centered in Leontopolis, north of Cairo before it was moved to Itjtawy near Fayoum, but there’s so few buildings of note left there now. Then it was moved to Memphis. It’s all conflated a bit with Ptah, but…” His voice trailed off. “How can we know which Vale might choose or if she’d choose any?”

  Jack sat forward. “The stuff we found in her house. Was there anything there that might help us narrow it down?”

  Whiteside’s brow knit together as he thought.

  “What about the dagger, Arthur?” Diana said. “The design, that’s New Kingdom, isn’t it?”

  He nodded. “It could be. Perhaps something Amenhotep’s priests used.” Arthur hmm’d at something, hope stirring. “Amenhotep’s reign did begin in Memphis.” Then his face fell. “Hardly enough to go on.”

  “It’s something though,” Elizabeth said.

  Simon stood. “Arthur, I need you to pinpoint the dates of those festivals. I suspect the Offerings will be the one we’ll need to target. The rest of us will see what we can find out. Something like that doesn’t go entirely unnoticed. Someone must have seen something.”

  Arthur set to his task, clearly relieved to have something to do other than wait and the rest went down to the lobby to discuss their plans.

  Elizabeth turned to Jack. “Didn’t you say something about delivery trucks when you were staking out Vale’s house?”

  Jack nodded. “Yeah, two of them.”

  She stopped walking and the group followed suit.

  “Maybe they were picking up instead of delivering?”

  Jack raised his dark brow and nodded at the idea. “Right,” he said. “And if we can find out where to…”

  “Good idea,” Diana said.

  “We should talk to Hassan again,” Jack suggested. “See if he remembers anything that might help.”

  “We’ll do that after we trace our steps,” Simon said as his eyes started scanning the lobby. “We’ve got to see if we can find the watch.”

  Diana’s eyebrows arched in a that seems like an odd use of time sort of way.

  “It’s important,” Elizabeth assured her, hoping Diana wouldn’t ask why. Thankfully, she didn’t press the matter.

  “When did you have it last?” Jack asked.

  “Right here,” Simon said, looking at where they stood in the lobby. “I checked the time, then I went to look for you. I didn’t take it out or even realize I’d lost it until her men searched me.”

  Jack frowned. “I guess it could have fallen out of your pocket on the way to the valley.”

  Simon shook his head. “It must have, but…” He turned to look around the lobby, but knew it was pointless.

  “Think of everything you did,” Diana suggested. “You checked the watch and then what?”

  Simon’s brow furrowed as he tried to remember each detail. “I asked Elizabeth to stay here.” He pointed to a spot near the front door. “To wait for me there. And I went up to Jack’s room, but there was no answer. I tried yours,” he added to Diana, “and then came back downstairs.”

  He shook his head. “Elizabeth and I waited a few more minutes and then Jack arrived and we met Hassan and left.”

  Diana chewed her lip in thought. “Nothing else? You didn’t bump into someone? The lobbies of these hotels are infected with pickpockets.”

  Simon was about to answer when Elizabeth remembered something. She raised a finger in the air. “Yes. The
re was a man. You bumped into him, but he was just another guest.”

  “That’s right,” Simon said. “Little man.” He held up his hand to his mid-chest.

  “With a pencil mustache?” Diana asked. “And a weaseley sort of face?”

  “How did you know that?” Elizabeth said.

  Diana’s eyes narrowed and she glared over at Jack who nodded back. “Nico.”

  ~ ~ ~

  The door gave way easily as Simon and Jack kicked it in. It was cheap and flimsy like the rest of the hotel they’d found out Nico was staying in. It had taken a bribe of all of two pounds to find out his room number. They could have picked the lock, Simon supposed, but he wouldn’t have missed the expression on the little man’s face for all the world.

  Sitting in a small metal tub in the middle of the room, his skinny legs dangling over the edges, Nico gave a high-pitched scream as the door flew off its hinges and flattened on the floor in front of him. Jack and Simon stepped inside, followed by Elizabeth and Diana.

  Nico squirmed in the tub, water splashing over the sides as he tried to cover himself with a small washing cloth. His eyes darted nervously from one person to the next.

  “You have something that doesn’t belong to you,” Diana said.

  Nico shook his head rapidly. “No. I-I did as you said. I stayed away from your deal. Ask Alexi. I have nothing.”

  In the hallway, a man walked by the broken door, looked in and hurried past, head down.

  Simon watched as Diana wandered over to the little man’s suitcase.

  “Really?” She flipped open the lid and then dumped out the contents onto the unmade bed. Dozens of wallets and watches and bits of jewelry tumbled out.

  Nico laughed nervously. “Those are…those are gifts.”

  Simon glared down at the little man and then stalked over to the bed. It didn’t take him long to find the watch and when he did he exhaled some of the tension he’d been carrying.

  “Thank God,” he said, as he held it for the others to see before clenching his fingers tightly around it.

  Elizabeth came over to him to see for herself, her relief palpable. They would have managed life in 1920s Egypt, but he was glad they wouldn’t have to try. He slipped it into his pocket, but kept his hand around it. He was not going to lose it again.