Death on Tour
Page 25
“Another beer?” I asked him. “Or some tea?”
“Maybe tea this time. If it’s made.”
“The pitcher’s on the counter. Do you need sugar?”
“Nope. Straight up for me.”
I smiled and went for the glasses. When I returned, he was leaning forward, scratching Belle’s curly little head. He took the glass with a word of thanks, his fingers brushing mine and giving me a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I sat, searching for something to say. “You know, the one thing I never figured out. What was up with the Carpenters and Jane? I’ve never seen anyone so frightened in my whole life. I’m just positive that she was a different girl. Kyla still thinks I’m nuts.”
He smiled. “Well, not about that at least. They left before I was out of the hospital, but Anni knew all the details. She was helping them the whole time.”
“Anni?”
“She’s a very bright person. She’s now in charge of all WorldPal tours in Egypt, by the way. I gave her Mohammad’s old job and a big raise. Amazing woman.”
“That’s perfect. She was wonderful. I’m really glad for her,” I said with satisfaction. “So tell about Jane.”
“Well, the Jane we saw on the trip is actually the daughter of close friends of the Carpenters. Her real name is Barbara, and she and the real Jane Carpenter practically grew up together. About a year ago, this Barbara met and married an Egyptian man from a wealthy and very connected family.”
Alan took a sip of tea and went on. “I guess he seemed nice enough as a student in Australia, but after she went to live with him in Cairo, he changed. He became physically abusive, and when she tried to leave him, he took her passport. She tried to get to the Australian embassy, but he had his men follow her wherever she went. This went on for months, but at last, and I’m not sure how, she managed to get word to her parents. They wanted to come and get her immediately, but Egyptian laws regarding women are tricky, and they were afraid that if they tried to go through the regular channels it would alert the husband and he might take it out on their daughter. He might even have killed her—apparently he threatened to do so often enough.”
“That’s terrible. They must have been so desperate.” I couldn’t even imagine how helpless and terrified they must have felt.
“They were. But their friends, Ben and Lydia, thought up a great plan. Practically foolproof. Can you guess?”
My jaw dropped a little. “They swapped girls?”
“Exactly. They thought that since their daughters were close in age and close enough in appearance, they might be able to get Barbara out using their own daughter’s passport. A really careful customs screener would notice, but they thought that if ‘Jane’ was ill, they might get away with it.”
“According to Anni, it worked perfectly. The hardest part was getting word to Barbara, but they managed, and the Carpenters signed on with WorldPal. You can’t beat a tour if you want to be inconspicuous. The real Jane met up with Barbara in the Khan market, and swapped clothes with her in a dressing room. She gave her the passport and money, and told her how to meet up with her parents. The asshole husband was already insisting that Barbara wear the full head covering, what’s it called? A burka? Anyway, that certainly worked to her advantage this time. The real Jane, fully covered in Barbara’s burka, wandered through the market for several hours, followed by the goons. When enough time had gone by for Barbara to be safely at the Mena House with the Carpenters, Jane ditched the burka and headed for a cab. The husband’s men tried to stop her, but she apparently started screaming and caused a huge scene.” He grinned at the thought. “She wasn’t a cowed little victim, and obviously she wasn’t the woman they were supposed to be guarding. Thank goodness, they weren’t quick enough or maybe smart enough to realize that she had actually been involved. Anyway, a crowd gathered and it was enough for her to get in a cab and vanish into Cairo before they could stop her.”
“Amazing. How clever of them. But how risky!” I breathed.
“It was absolutely brilliant. Barbara joined the tour as Jane. I think the one thing the Carpenters didn’t count on, apart from your having seen the real Jane, was how beaten down and terrified Barbara had become. Ben told Anni he hardly recognized her, she’d changed so much. It was a constant effort to keep her playing her part.”
“But wait, what happened to the real Jane? She didn’t have her passport.”
“They had it all planned out. As soon as the tour ended, and Ben and Lydia were safely on their way home with Barbara, Jane reported that her purse had been snatched and her passport was gone. There was a day or two of hassle, but in the end, the Australian embassy came through with a new one and she flew home.”
We sat together in companionable silence while I mulled it all over. “Well, I guess that’s it then. Everything is all wrapped up.”
“Hmmm. Well, not quite.” He gave me a crooked smile, his eyes uncertain.
I raised my eyebrows.
“We still don’t know whether you’ve forgiven me for suspecting you were involved.”
I laughed. “That sort of goes both ways. Do you forgive me for the same thing?”
“Absolutely. I even forgive you for chucking that rock at my head.”
I gasped, feeling my face go bright red. “You knew that was me?”
“Mohammad ratted you out. Not that it mattered. I told you, the police had so much else to work with, they didn’t really care about what had been done to me. But Mohammad was desperately trying to tell everyone who would listen that he had never hurt anyone.”
“I’m really sorry about that. I was trying to hit Mohammad, but I missed.” I looked down at my hands. “I’ve always been a terrible throw. I don’t know why I thought I could hit him.”
Alan laughed, a real, happy laugh that made me start giggling a little. “It all worked out. You saved me from them, and you didn’t kill me in the process. So what about it? Are we square?”
“Yes,” I agreed.
He rose. “So how about dinner then?”
I stood too and reached for my purse. Looking up at him, seeing him again after all this time, he seemed even more attractive than I’d remembered. Part of me had actually hoped that the vacation magic would have worn off. It had not. My mind was shrieking warnings. So I’d go to dinner with him, but then what? He probably was just being nice, just here out of obligation, to say thank you. Even if he wasn’t, long-distance relationships never worked. I’d get my heart stomped all over again. I realized I didn’t care, as long as I could be with him even for a little. I told my mind to shut the hell up.
“Dinner sounds great. By the way, how long are you going to be in town?” I asked, trying to sound casual.
He hesitated, then reached for my hand and drew me close. Gently, as if afraid I would run, he slipped an arm around my waist and brushed his lips against mine. Then I was in his arms, and he was kissing me as though he would never let me go.
I’m not sure how many minutes passed before he finally answered.
“I can run WorldPal from anywhere I want. So I guess it depends on you. How long do you want me to stay?”
I started laughing out loud. “A very, very long time.”
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
DEATH ON TOUR. Copyright © 2011 by Janice Hamrick. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hamrick, Janice.
Death on tour / Janice Hamrick. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-312-67946-0 (hardback)
1. Women teachers—Fiction. 2. Tourists—Crimes against—Fiction. 3. Americans—Egypt—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3608.A69655D33 2011
813'.6—dc22
First Edition: May 2011
eISBN 978-1-4299-7951-1
First Minotaur Books eBook Edition: April 2011