Side Trip to Kathmandu (A Sidney Marsh Murder Mystery Book 3)

by Marie Moore

  “And I can’t go? Just you?”

  “Yep. Just me.”

  He gave me a long, searching look. Sometimes Jay thinks he has a big say in my life.

  “Well, okay, babe. I’ll go on my own or with someone else, maybe Lucy and Justin. They just showed up. Guess they changed their minds about staying after the rest of us left.”

  We walked into the dining room and waited to be seated. I looked around for the others but didn’t see anyone I knew.

  “What about Brooke?” I asked as I took my seat and unfolded my napkin, “Have you seen her yet? I tried to call her room but there was no answer.”

  “No, but I spoke with Rahim. Brooke is feeling better and has gone to dinner with Jasmine and some of her movie friends. Then they are going on to the festival.”

  “Without Rahim? I thought he went everywhere with her.”

  “Remember, Jasmine has her own security, so Brooke gave Rahim the night off. He didn’t seem pleased with that arrangement. He doesn’t trust anyone else to look after her. I don’t know where Mohit is. I haven’t seen him and I forgot to ask Rahim. But I’ve got big news about Sharma. After we’ve ordered, I’ll give you the scoop.”

  A waiter handed us a menu.

  “Awwww,” Jay said, “no rice and beans. What a disappointment! I was beginning to like having them for every meal.”

  “Just be glad you’re here and not there, Jay. I am. I loved the elephant safari part but last night was too much. I barely slept at all. I thought something was crawling in my bed.”

  “Was it?”

  “I’m not sure. I examined the cot with my flashlight but couldn’t spot anything. It likely was just my imagination but even the thought made me itchy all over. The first thing I did when we got back here was to take an endless hot shower.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  He closed his menu, and we told the waiter our selections.

  “Well,” Jay said, sipping from a glass of golden Chablis, “don’t you want to hear the news?”

  “Of course I do, especially as I can see you are dying to tell it.”

  “I am. I can hardly wait to email the office and let the boss know how well his pal Sharma turned out. Did I tell you he’s long gone?”

  I felt my jaw drop. “Who? Sharma? He’s left us?”

  “Yes. Jasmine told me all about it. He was gone when she got back to the hotel ahead of us. Sharma walked without paying the entire bill for this hotel, and no one knows for sure where he is now.”

  I stared at him, wide-eyed. “No kidding? Really?”

  “Yes. Jasmine thinks he skipped across the border and is somewhere back in India. He booked us into that pitiful little dump in the jungle and pocketed the cash. I guess the dummy thought we wouldn’t know the difference. The minute we left for the Terai, he blew. Brooke had to cover the tab for the hotel after she had already paid Sharma in advance for it. So she actually paid for the hotel accommodations twice, once to Sharma, then again to the hotel. He had not given the hotel a penny. He told them he would pay upon checkout, but then he disappeared. We were never booked into the real Tiger Tops either. Sharma just took the money for it and blew town, leaving Brooke holding the bag for everything. Brooke had paid him upfront for the whole tour.”

  “What a rat. I can’t believe it!”

  “Believe it. It’s true. If it weren’t for Brooke’s cash, we’d be kicked out of this hotel and stranded. Luckily, Rahim has everyone’s air tickets. Sharma disappeared without paying Rahim or Mohit for their services either, so Brooke covered that as well. Rahim said that she is furious but there’s not a lot she can do about it just now.”

  “Where does that leave us?”

  “Not sure. I’m emailing Silverstein that we need to talk as soon as possible. I thought we could speak with Brooke first to see what she’s thinking.”

  “What a mess! But I’m not entirely surprised. There’s little about Sharma that can be trusted. His price was apparently pretty low. I didn’t trust that guy from the get-go.”

  “Me either. And if I could get my hands on him, I’d squash him like a bug.”

  Jay’s eyes were glittering, and he looked as if he really meant what he said.

  “Let me know if Sharma resurfaces, Jay. I need to talk to him.”

  “Really? Why on earth would you want to talk to him?”

  “Because he sold me the real proof of Felix’s murder, that’s why, and I want to ask him a few more questions about it, like how he acquired it. I didn’t tell you about it earlier because we were leaving for the jungle and there was no time to act on it, but now there is. I want to show it to you and Brooke in the morning and talk about how we can get it in the hands of the proper authorities. Even though Sharma’s turned out to be a crook, I believe the document he sold me is genuine.”

  Then I told him all about it. He looked concerned and serious, not at all his usual jolly self.

  “Have you told anyone else about this, Sidney?”

  “No. Only you.”

  “Good. Please don’t. We’ll figure it out with Brooke, and only Brooke, tomorrow. I’m actually glad to find real proof of her suspicions, and I know Brooke will be too. I think she was worried that she might be losing her mind. This proves that her fears about her safety were real. But it also leaves us with a murderer, Sidney. Someone in our group gave Felix that poison. And thus someone must have poisoned the candy at the party too. We’ll have to figure out who. Keep your mouth shut and be very careful. Don’t you dare confide in anyone. No one can know you have that paper, not even Bonnie Prince Charlie. Understand?”

  I nodded. We were so intent in our conversation that we were startled when a voice interrupted us.

  “Well hello there, dears, may we join you? Am I interrupting something?”

  I looked up to see Lucy standing beside Jay’s chair, with Justin fast approaching behind her. They both looked fresh, and I guessed that the showers had been their first stop too. Lucy’s makeup was perfect and every blonde hair was in place. Justin, as usual, wore clearly expensive slacks, an open-collared shirt, and a whiff of cologne. The scent of that cologne took me back to my unpleasant encounter with him at Khajuraho. I decided I really did not like Justin at all.

  “Of course you may join us,” I said. “We’ve just ordered.” Jay and I moved our chairs to make room for them at the table. “Here, have a seat.”

  “Merci,” Justin said, pulling out a chair for Lucy and signaling the waiter.

  “Have you heard the news about Sharma?” Jay asked.

  When they said no, Jay told them what he had just told me, adding that he hated for Brooke to be out all that money, especially as a lot of it was spent for our benefit.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t worry a bit about that, Jay,” Lucy said, sipping a ruby Cabernet. “Brooke has packs of money and if she’s running a bit short she can borrow some from Jasmine.”

  “Is Jasmine rich, too?” I asked. “I know she’s famous locally, if not internationally. I didn’t know she is also wealthy.” From Brooke, I knew that Jasmine had inherited a fortune from her Indian film director lover, but I wanted to see if Lucy had something else to share.

  “Oh, my, yes, dear,” Lucy said, nodding toward me. “She already was, you know, and now she’ll be getting all of Felix’s money.”

  “She will?” Jay asked. “Why is that?”

  “Because she slept with him so he left it to her, that’s why. I was in business with him, so I know,” Justin answered in his unpleasant way, “That’s what she does with men. That’s where she gets all her fortune. She likes sleeping with different men. I think she even slept with Monsieur Sharma. C’est une araignée, a spider, that one. Luring victims into her web.”

  Ah, but you escaped her web, didn’t you? I thought, laughing inwardly at the memory of him running down the hallway wearing only his underwear, dodging her shoes.

  “Is she a good actress?” Jay asked.

  “Non! She’s not a good actress. She�
�s a buffoon! Lucy can tell you about Felix and Jasmine. Lucy knew Felix better than anyone before Jasmine snared him. Lucy introduced him to Brooke and convinced her to hire him to manage her business. But Lucy didn’t know all Jasmine’s tricks in the bedroom, did you, chérie?”

  There was an uncomfortable silence, the sort that happens whenever someone says something terribly awkward and rude. Lucy did not say a word, only fixed Justin with an icy glare.

  “Moving right along,” Jay said, “we were just discussing our plans for tonight. Sidney has a hot date, so if you two are going to the festival I might want to go with you if you’ll have me.”

  “Why yes, of course you may,” Lucy said, apparently recovering and once again her charming self. Her pleasant mask was back in place, her fury evident only in the measured politeness she used in speaking to Justin.

  Glancing in his direction, she said, “We’d love to have Jay go with us, wouldn’t we, Justin?” He gave a curt nod but did not second her words of welcome. He really was a most unpleasant man. If I were Jay, and especially Lucy, I thought, I wouldn’t want to go anywhere with him. Lucy’s relationship with the nasty little Frenchman was puzzling to me. I certainly wouldn’t choose to be friends with him, neighbor or not.

  “Who are you going with, dear?” Lucy asked, turning to me with her customary kind smile.

  “Adam invited me,” I said.

  Lucy and Justin exchanged glances.

  “Has he spoken to you of his wife, chérie?” Justin asked. “You are like her. She looked a lot like you.”

  “No, actually,” I said, annoyed by his question. “He hasn’t really discussed her much with me. Why should he?”

  Justin gave one of his insolent shrugs, and threw Lucy another pointed glance.

  “It was tragic,” Lucy said. “Her name was Meghan and she was a lovely girl, full of life. Her death was so sudden, such a shame. It shocked us all. Justin is right, you know. You remind me of her too. She did look like you. She was tall, with long dark hair and lashes like yours.”

  Great, I thought. The man has asked me out because he thinks I’m a ghost. Just my luck.

  Jay was tickled to hear what they had to say about Adam’s dead wife, I could tell.

  I knew I would hear a lot more from him later on the subject. Even as we were served an excellent meal, and the dinner conversation turned to other things, his eyes danced as he mouthed to me whenever the others weren’t looking, “Marsh Curse, Marsh Curse, Marsh Curse.”

  Chapter 21

  At the hotel entrance, Adam helped me into a motorized rickshaw and we were off, whizzing through the ancient streets toward an ancient festival in an ancient city. Everything about the core city of Kathmandu feels unbelievably old. I felt as if I were in a time machine, and only the warm grip of his strong arm around my waist as he helped me out of the rickshaw and guided me through the crowd reminded me that I was very much in the living present.

  The festival was an explosion of light, color, smells and sound, bombarding the senses. The air was scented with the orange marigolds strung as necklaces for the statues of the gods, sandalwood incense, and the sizzling oil used to fry dumplings at street-side burners. We wandered, laughing, down the streets and alleys that meandered amid the many buildings, some made of wood and some of stone—two tall Westerners towering over the tiny beautiful people like Gulliver among the Lilliputians.

  “Lady, look, lady, look!” and “my friend, my friend,” peddlers shouted, trying to sell me bracelets, necklaces, scarves, and even, to my horror, bones set in silver.

  Adam bought himself one of the sharp curved knives of the famed Gurkha regiment of the British Army, the fierce Nepali soldiers who were said to have so terrified the Argentine soldiers in the Falklands War. He bought me necklace after necklace, laughing his deep laugh and draping them over my head until I felt I must resemble one of the hundreds of statues of gods being worshipped with candles, flowers, and sticks of burning incense.

  Young men ran in the streets, pulling the huge empty wooden carts used by the Living Goddess. The wheels of the enormous carts were also of wood, taller and thicker than a man, and it took teams of a dozen men or more to pull them. Once underway, the carts careened under their own weight through the crowded streets, and only the deep rumbling sound warned people to spring out of the way just in time to avoid being crushed to death under the giant wheels.

  After a narrow escape of our own, Adam pulled me with him behind the safe shelter of a stone wall, and leaning down, kissed me, gently at first and then fiercely, pulling me close until I was breathless.

  I closed my eyes and leaned into his strong, hard body, returning his embrace. His hands twisted in my long, wild hair as he pulled me tight against him.

  “Oh, my dearest, my darling,” he murmured, kissing my neck and pulling me even closer. His face was buried in my hair, and he hugged me so tightly I could hardly breathe. “My precious Meg ….”

  Meg?

  I pulled free and stared at him for a moment in shock, searching his face. Then I whirled and took off, away from him, through the crowd.

  “Sidney, wait!” he shouted. “I’m sorry, so sorry. I didn’t mean …. It was a mistake. Come back! Forgive me ….”

  But the rest of his words were lost to me, swallowed up in the noises of the night, in the explosions of fireworks as I wove through the crowd.

  I was shocked and embarrassed, and all I wanted to do at that moment was get away from him. I wanted to forget that the strong attraction I had felt between us and welcomed so freely was apparently intended for another woman, and a dead woman at that. How humiliating! I, Sidney Marsh, clearly meant nothing to this man except as a surrogate for his lost wife. I had been an idiot to imagine anything else. I wove swiftly through the crowd, ignoring his distant shouts as he attempted to follow me, tears streaming down my face, until I finally stopped to catch my breath and realized that he was no longer following. I had lost him, in more ways than one. As laughingly predicted by Jay, The Marsh Curse had struck me again, in full vengeance, and when I least expected it.

  I marched on through the frenzied crowd, barely noticing the revelry swirling around me, trying to think and soothe my wounded pride. Finally calming down, I stopped acting like a jilted teenager and came to my senses, realizing that my own emotions and the shock of reality had caused me to totally overreact.

  Now I had an even bigger problem. I had absolutely no idea where I was in the complicated network of medieval streets. I stopped and stepped out of the crowd into the shelter of an overhanging building to try to get my bearings. I did not speak the language, and the peddlers who might have understood me—the ones used to dealing with tourists—had packed up and gone. I was alone, lost and alone in the exuberant crowd.

  I recalled earlier passing the plaza in front of the house of the Living Goddess, so I tried to retrace my steps. But I apparently took a wrong turn and now was really lost, even more so than I had been moments before.

  The festival crowd thinned and then disappeared as I walked away from the center of the festival revelry, looking for a taxi. It wasn’t long before I knew I was in real trouble. In my silly, heedless flight from Adam I had put myself in a grave situation. I had absolutely no idea where I was, or how to find my way back to the hotel. Think, Sidney, think! I told myself as I crept along the dark, now deserted streets, trying to discover the right direction. Where is the way out? Where are the cabs? Was it this corner or that one? Did we turn here? Does that building look familiar?

  Finally, something did, and I turned into a street by a building that I seemed to remember passing earlier in the evening as we entered the old city. I stopped, finally catching my breath. After a moment I walked on, and it was then that I noticed a man walking behind me in the dark street with purpose, then another, on the opposite side. They were both grinning and watching me intently as they slipped from shadow to shadow.

  Icy fingers of fear clutched my heart, and I walked faster, trying n
ot to look back, but in a moment they were joined by two others. As their pace increased, narrowing the gap between them and me, stalking me like pack of wolves, so did mine. Soon I began to run, tears streaming down my face, and they followed, barely half a block behind me.

  Just when I thought I would be caught, I dodged around a corner and an expensive car slid to a stop beside me. The window rolled down, and a silken arm beckoned, bracelets glinting in the car light. Only then did I realize that it was Jasmine.

  I’ve never been so glad to see anyone before in my entire life. I looked back, and the men who had been stalking me were slinking back into the shadows, no longer in pursuit. All the negative thoughts I’d ever had about Jasmine evaporated in a wash of gratitude.

  “Sidney,” she shrieked, “what do you mean, walking these lonely streets by yourself in the night? Everyone is looking for you. When Brooke and I got to the hotel after dinner she wanted to speak with you but they said you had not returned. They are all back at the hotel. Brooke was very worried and I had this car so she sent me to look for you. Get in, get in quickly.”

  Her security guard held the door for me, and I climbed in, sinking into the deep leather seats in profound relief. What a close call I’d had! And what a fool I’d been, unfortunately not for the first time.

  There was simply no rational explanation I could give Jasmine for my chaotic evening, and she didn’t want to hear it anyway after I was stupid enough to tell her that I’d gone to the festival with Adam. At the mention of his name, anger flared in her eyes. Too late I remembered that he had rejected her advances and that she had been not at all pleased about it.

  The car rolled smoothly away. The security man was in the front seat with the driver, and her assistant sat in the back with me and Jasmine.

  “So you are with this dog, Adam, and now you come to me for help, is that it, Sidney?” she hissed, eyes flashing.

  Terrified that the temperamental actress would stop the car and put me out again to brave the night alone, I attempted to mollify her anger. I told her that Adam and I were only friends, that I had been separated from him in the crowd, then got lost and couldn’t find my way back from the festival. No way was I mentioning what had happened between us when the mere fact of my presence with him that evening caused her jealousy to flare.