by Elise Noble
“There’s a rumour you used to argue with her.”
“Everyone in town argued with her! She kept poking her nose into business that didn’t concern her.”
“Can you give me an example?”
Youssef stayed quiet, but his friends spoke up. “She lay down in the entrance of the gas station to protest about pollution.”
“She let a herd of camels loose one night.”
“She handcuffed herself to the mayor’s gate after he complained about stray dogs.”
Boy, she really knew how to make friends with the locals.
“Did Carmela know her?” Black asked.
“Why does that matter?”
“Because Carmela’s dead too.”
Youssef put his drink down, his mouth drooping at the corners as he deflated. “You think they are connected?”
Black shrugged. “One small town, two girls dying within three months? We have to consider the possibility, don’t you think?”
“I suppose. But I don’t think they were friends. They might have spoken sometimes, but that was all.”
“Gosia went missing, didn’t she?” one of the friends said. In my head, I christened him Alvin because his front teeth stuck out like a chipmunk’s. “There were posters.”
“The posters disappeared,” Youssef said. “I thought she must’ve come back.”
“Well, she didn’t,” I told him. “And a witness said she talked to Carmela on the day she vanished.”
“What witness?”
“Carmela’s boss.”
“Gunther? Yes, he knows a lot of people.”
“How well do you know him?”
“He buys chickens. I see him every week, two or three times.”
“Does he pick them up? Or do you deliver?”
“I take the chickens to the chef at the restaurant. Gunther calls the day before to say how many.”
“Did Gunther and Carmela get on well?”
“Most days. Sometimes, she complained he made her do too much work. When his sister came to stay, he started taking days off to visit places. Carmela was happy to have the job, though.”
“I understand Gunther took her to the hospital just before she died?”
“Hal hu?” Did he? So Carmela hadn’t discussed her accident with Youssef. “Why?”
“She hit her face on a door.”
“But that was just a bruise.”
What a dick.
“Are you aware of her visiting the hospital in Dahab at any other time?”
Youssef shook his head. “Hospitals are too expensive. My uncle has herbs to fix illness.”
If my experience with Bedouin herbs was anything to go by, then no wonder she’d kept quiet and gone to the medical centre. I’d felt a tiny bit squiffy one day and declined lunch, whereupon a helpful dude had mixed me up a glass of green stuff that smelled repulsive and tasted worse. A minor stomachache turned into a night on the loo, and even now, I still got the phantom bitterness of that goop on my tongue whenever I thought about it. I grabbed a carton of pineapple juice and sucked half of it down.
Black glanced at me with the faintest of smirks, and I knew he was remembering that night too. Nothing said “I love you” like running to the supermarket at eleven p.m. for more bog roll.
“Why do you have all these questions?” the skinniest guy asked. “I heard the police already arrested somebody.”
“Because it’s possible they’ve arrested the wrong person. Didn’t you hear what happened in Fidda Hilal a while back?”
“Yes, but—”
Black’s phone rang. Saved by the bell. He glanced at the screen and answered.
“Sir?”
There were few people to whom Black would grant that courtesy. He even called the president by his first name. My money was on the caller being Captain Bob.
“How long ago? … Have you tried calling her? … Did anyone see her leave? … Okay, we’re on our way.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Zena’s disappeared. Apparently, there was some sort of argument with Lynn and Chris, and now she’s turned her phone off and nobody can find her.” He turned to Youssef and co., holding out a business card. “We need to go. If you happen to see a teenage girl, white with dark blonde hair, around Emmy’s height, do me a favour and call.”
CHAPTER 28 - EMMY
“NO WAY WERE we bringing the mutt back with us. It was probably rabid.”
Chris had one of those voices that earplugs were made for. Shrill, whiny, and it got louder whenever he wanted to get his point across. Bob was right—he and Lynn really were a great match in some respects.
“Actually, rabies is—” Sondra started.
“And fleas! All of those creatures have fleas too. Mangy things, filthy and—”
“Can we get back to the topic at hand?” Bob asked. “Your daughter?”
“Technically, she’s not my daughter.”
Lynn looked as if she was about to cry. “Be quiet, Chris. We need to find her.”
“When did anybody last see her?” Black asked.
“About—”
Chris took over again, cutting Lynn off.
“We went into the village to get pastries because the waiters here at the hotel don’t understand a word I say.” Really? Faced with Chris, I’d be tempted to pretend I didn’t speak English either. “Crazy that there’s no McDonald’s here! What kind of third-rate town doesn’t have a McDonald’s?”
“Zena?” Black prompted.
“Oh. Yeah. Zena wandered off and came back with some scruffy dog. Wanted to keep him. Can you believe that?”
Yes, I totally could. And while the logistics of keeping a stray dog at the hotel would be tricky, a part of me wanted to round up half a dozen hounds and bring them back just to piss off Chris.
I smiled sweetly. “Aw, what a lovely idea.”
“Don’t even think about it,” Bob growled.
Spoilsport.
“And then?” Black asked.
“We told her no, of course, and then we came back here.”
“She was a bit upset,” Lynn put in. “She said the dog was too skinny. After we got back, she ran off to her room, and when I went to check on her a half hour later, she was gone.”
“Presumably to look for the dog. Whereabouts was it?”
“We don’t know where it came from, and it ran off when Chris yelled at it.”
What an absolute treasure that man was. Beyond the Rolex and the fact that he admittedly wasn’t pig ugly, I couldn’t understand what Lynn saw in him.
“Can you describe it?”
Bob was already one step ahead. “Brown and white, medium sized, gangly. I got one of our drivers to take Lynn and Chris around the streets by the bakery, but there was no sign of Zena or the dog. I’ve got a dozen men in town still searching, but there are so many places she could hide. And I’m also wary of the situation at the moment.”
“What situation?” Chris asked.
Bob ignored him. “We need to find Zena and bring her back here.”
“What area do you want us to take?”
“Can you start at the lighthouse and work your way towards Assalah?”
“We’re on our way.”
As Black drove back into town, I called anyone I thought might be able to help. On the plus side, I’d gained quite a few contacts over the last day or two, and soon we had everyone on the lookout, from my new freediving buddies to Aurelie to the guy who ran the Mexican restaurant, who promised to send a spare waiter out to assist with the search. Khaled and his team had been dispatched up into the mountains to hunt for more bones. He sounded about as happy with the situation as I felt.
“Isn’t this fun?” I muttered as Black boosted me over the fence around an abandoned house. “Just think, we could have been planning Anton Ludovich’s trip to the afterlife right now.”
“And instead, we’re chasing stray dogs in the sunshine. Don’t say I never take you anywhere exciting.”
“If I was L
ynn, I’d have kept the dog and ditched Chris. I know people have different tastes, but the man’s about as yummy as Ebola virus.”
A flash of a brown tail disappeared around the corner of the building, and I jogged after it, pausing to peer through cracked windows as I went. Although this search was horribly inconvenient, it struck me that it gave us a great excuse for snooping around. Carmela and Gosia had been killed somewhere, and we hadn’t yet found their murderer’s hidey-hole.
But it didn’t appear to be this place. There was nothing inside but an old chair and a pile of dusty plastic bottles, and when I finally caught up with the dog, it was definitely more black than brown.
By the time the sun dipped behind the mountains, we must’ve searched fifty buildings. No Zena, and no killing room. My hands were scratched, I needed to pee, and I was in desperate need of something cold and wet that wasn’t a dog’s nose. If nothing else, I’d gotten to practise my parkour skills, which had grown somewhat rusty over a couple of months filled with more meetings than gym time.
Then my phone rang. Aurelie calling.
“Are you still looking for Zena?”
“Unfortunately.”
“I think she might be behind my building. I only caught a quick glimpse, but there was a dog with her too.”
“We’ll come over right now.”
“Should I go and check it’s her? It’s just that it’s getting dark…”
“No, you stay put. We’re only five minutes away.”
We found Zena behind a dumpster, feeding bread rolls to a fluffy brown-and-white dog that was sitting in her lap.
“What the hell are you playing at? Your grandfather’s sent out search parties all over Dahab.”
“I know. When I went to the bakery, the guy at the counter asked me if I was Zena Tovey because everyone was out looking for me, and I said I wasn’t.”
Good grief. Don’t murder the teenager, Emmy.
“You’ve wasted hours of people’s time. We’ve all been worried about you.”
“I bet Chris hasn’t. He’s probably driven to Sharm el-Sheikh to find a McDonald’s.”
Okay, I had to give her that one.
“Well, everyone else has been worried about you. Why’d you run away?”
“Because Chris is an asshole. He wouldn’t let me feed her.” She motioned towards the dog. “And she’s so hungry. Look—you can see her ribs.”
“Is everything okay?” Aurelie asked from behind me. I’d seen her approaching out of the corner of my eye, and she was hesitant, nervous, her arms wrapped around her waist. “I saw you from the window.”
“Zena here decided to cause an international incident because a dog was hungry.”
“No, because my mom’s boyfriend is a heartless dick,” she corrected.
“Now isn’t the time to be having this argument. You lost the opportunity to take the moral high ground when you scared the shit out of your family. It’s time to go home and apologise.”
“Not without Patch.” A tear rolled down her cheek and plopped onto the dog’s fur.
Privately, I was on her side. The dog was kinda cute, just skin and bone, but if we walked in with her tonight, Chris would have a fit and everyone would take his side. Including Bob.
“This isn’t how you negotiate, Zena. You can’t do something shitty, then start making demands. There has to be give and take.”
“You took Crash home and put her in the bedroom.”
“That was different.”
“How?”
Black came to my rescue. “Emmy’s earned the right to make her own decisions, and she’s got a lifetime of favours banked to fall back on. You haven’t built up that cushion yet.”
“But—”
“You’ve pissed everyone off today,” I told her bluntly. “Your mom was supposed to be doing a seating chart for the wedding, your grandfather and his staff should’ve been cleaning up storm damage, and Black and I were meant to be investigating two girls’ deaths. Instead, we’ve been hunting for you. And, just in case you’ve forgotten, there’s a murderer running around. Your family’s been frightened out of their minds.”
Her face fell, and she sniffed a bit. I felt like a bitch for making her cry, but that needed to be said.
“I’m sorry I worried people. But Patch’ll starve.”
“I could feed her,” Aurelie offered. “If she stays nearby, I can put out food in the mornings.”
“Do you have any kibble? She needs a proper diet.”
“How about a compromise?” I suggested. “We’ll go and buy a bag of dog food and give it to Aurelie. And if you manage to follow your mom down the aisle with a smile on your face, we’ll put in a good word for you with Bob.”
“Two bags of kibble.”
Now she was starting to get it. “Two bags of kibble, and you have to help your mom with her table decorations.”
She folded her arms. “Fine.”
I turned to Aurelie. “Thanks for doing this. Do you want anything else from the supermarket while we’re there?”
“Some chocolate? I could really use some chocolate.”
“We’ll be right back.”
As we walked along the promenade, twenty people must’ve stopped us to ask if that was Zena with us. Bob really had got the whole town out hunting for her. This time, she couldn’t lie, and people seemed genuinely happy to see her safe. Black called Khaled with an update too.
“Good news, buddy. We’ve found the missing girl. You can get some sleep now.”
I didn’t hear Khaled’s answer, but Black barked out a laugh. “Well, good luck with that.”
“What happened?” I asked.
“A herd of horses got free from a trekking stable on the edge of town. The captain heard a rumour it’s some sort of ‘free the oppressed’ tribute from Gosia’s supporters, and so he’s taken Khaled’s team off crime scene duty to help round them up.”
“Free the oppressed? Are they crazy?” Zena asked. “Horses are flight animals. They’ll get scared and run into traffic or something.”
“There are times when people have the best intentions, but they don’t quite think things through, do they?”
“Was that a dig at me?”
“Yes.”
Black snorted.
“I said I was sorry, okay? Sometimes, I don’t like you very much.”
CHAPTER 29 - EMMY
THE NEXT MORNING, Black’s phone rang right after sunrise. Khaled was calling. What was this hell we’d fallen into? Never again was I going to mention the word “vacation.”
“What does he want?” I groaned. “Tell me it’s not more bloody bones.”
Black put the phone to his ear and listened a moment, then a smile spread over his face.
“Good news, Diamond.”
“Really?”
“It’s not more bones. It’s another body. Well, part of one. Get dressed.”
“Part of one? Where?”
“By the water treatment plant.”
Black already had a pair of cargo pants on, and I looked longingly at the coffee machine as I struggled into a pair of running tights.
“No time,” he said, reading my mind. “I told Khaled to secure the scene, but he didn’t even have any tape.”
“Nobody’s got a birthday today?”
“Don’t. Just don’t. The last thing we need is another montage on Twitter.”
“True, but I feel like a zombie.”
“You can eat me later. Where’s the good camera? Next time we go on vacation, remind me to bring my field kit.” He held up a bag. “I’ve put together what I can find here, but it’s woefully inadequate.”
“I can’t believe you just said that.”
“What, that it’s woefully inadequate?”
“No, before that.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve sucked my cock, Diamond.”
“I meant the part where you used the words ‘vacation’ and ‘field kit’ in the same sentence.”
“When did you last sleep?” I asked him.
“Uh, yesterday? The day before? I spent the whole night catching animals. After the horses, they let out some camels and a group of donkeys. What day is it?”
“Saturday.”
“Where’s the body?” Black asked. “Who found it?”
“Over by the oxidation ponds. I found it with Gamal.”
Black started walking in the direction Khaled pointed. A hundred or so yards away, I saw a gaggle of men standing near a police car, surrounded by a ring of what looked like tied-together plastic bags flapping in the morning breeze.
“Tell us what happened.”
“Captain al-Busari ordered us to chase down all the escaped animals before they caused an accident, and he also wanted the people who let them out arrested.”
“Did you catch them?”
“Only two people we found by the Canyon dive site. There were probably more because the horses by Three Pools and the camels by the Blue Hole got loose at the same time, but they said they were alone.”
“And you found the body while you were looking for the animals?”
“We were chasing a donkey. It ran over here, and when we got close, a vehicle drove off ahead of us at high speed. Then Gamal fell over the bag with the body in it.”
As Black had said, it wasn’t a whole body, just a torso, and even parts of that were missing. What was left was in a black plastic bag, and somebody had slit it open to reveal the grisly contents. A pool of vomit seeped into the sand next to where the remains lay, and I honestly couldn’t blame whoever had horked it up.
“Ick.”
On first impressions, there were two things that interested me apart from the obvious gore. The first was the shark tattoo that covered the left shoulder, its tail disappearing into a tattered fringe of flesh and skin where the arm had been hacked off. The second was the pecs. Yes, this body was male.
“Not what I expected,” Black murmured.
“It doesn’t fit.”
“No, it doesn’t. Both of the other victims were female, and serial killers rarely deviate from their chosen type.”
“What’s the chances that there are two homicidal maniacs in Dahab?”