Aida looked older than she had two days previously. Gone was the apparent humor. “All right,” she said, “but wait here by the door. You cannot stay.”
While the old woman fetched a drink, Erica looked around the room. The familiar sight was comforting. The long-handled shovel nested in its brackets. The framed photos hung neatly on the wall. Many were of Howard Carter with a turbaned Arab Erica thought had to be Raman. There was a small mirror among the photos, and Erica was shocked by her appearance.
Aida Raman brought some of the juice she’d given Erica on her first visit. Erica drank slowly. Swallowing hurt her throat.
“My family was very angry when I told them you tricked me into revealing the papyrus to you,” said Aida.
“Family?” said Erica, the drink reviving her. “I thought you said you were the last of the Ramans.”
“I am. My two sons died. But I also had two daughters, who have families. It was one of my grandsons I told about your visit. He became very angry and took the papyrus.”
“What did he do with it?” asked Erica, alarmed.
“I don’t know. He said it had to be treated very carefully and that he would put it somewhere safe. He also said that the papyrus was a curse, and that now that you have seen it, you must die.”
“Do you believe that?” Erica knew that Aida Raman was no fool.
“I don’t know. It’s not what my husband said.”
“Mrs. Raman,” Erica said, “I translated the whole papyrus. Your husband was right. There was nothing about a curse. The papyrus was written by an ancient architect for Pharaoh Seti I.”
A dog barked loudly in the village. A human voice shouted in reply.
“You must go,” said Aida Raman. “You must go in case my grandson returns. Please.”
“What is your grandson’s name?” asked Erica.
“Muhammad Abdulal.”
The news hit Erica like a slap in the face.
“You know him?” asked Aida.
“I think I met him tonight. Does he live here in Qurna?”
“No, he lives in Luxor.”
“Have you seen him tonight?” asked Erica nervously.
“Today, but not tonight. Please, you must go.”
Erica hastened to leave. She was more nervous than Aida. But at the doorway she paused. Loose ends were beginning to merge. “What kind of work does Muhammad Abdulal do?” Erica was remembering that Abdul Hamdi had written in the hidden letter in the guidebook that a government official was involved.
“He is the chief of the guard of the necropolis and he helps his father run the concession stand in the Valley of the Kings.”
Erica nodded in understanding. Chief of the guards was the perfect position from which to mastermind a black-market operation. Then Erica thought about the concession stand and Raman. “And that concession stand is the same one that your husband, Sarwat Raman, built?”
“Yes, yes, Miss Baron, please go.”
All at once everything became clear. All at once she believed she could explain everything. And it all depended on the concession stand in the Valley of the Kings.
“Aida,” said Erica with feverish excitement, “listen to me. As your husband said, there is no ‘Curse of the Pharaohs,’ and I can prove it, provided you will help. I just need time. All I ask is that you do not tell anyone, not even your family, that I have returned to see you. They will not ask, I can assure you. So all I’m begging is that you do not bring it up. Please.” Erica grasped Aida’s upper arms to emphasize her earnestness.
“You can prove my husband was right?”
“Absolutely,” said Erica.
Aida nodded her head. “All right.”
“Oh, there is something else,” said Erica. “I need a flashlight.”
“All I have is an oil lamp.”
“That will be fine,” said Erica.
As she left, Erica gave Aida a hug, but the old woman remained passive and withdrawn. Holding the oil lamp and several books of matches, Erica stood in the shadow of the house watching the village. It was deathly still. The moon had passed the zenith and was now in the western sky. The lights of Luxor were still bright with activity.
Taking the same path she had two days previously, Erica hiked up the spur of the mountain. It was a much easier climb in the moonlight than in the hot sun.
Erica knew she was violating her recent resolve to leave the rest of the mystery to Yvon and the police, but the conversation with Aida had rekindled her intoxication with the past. Going from the tomb of Ahmose down into the public catacombs had offered her a single explanation for all the disparate events, including the mystery of the inscription on the statue and the meaning of the papyrus. And with the knowledge that Muhammad Abdulal would never imagine she was free, Erica felt reasonably safe. Even if he wanted to check the Ahmose tomb, it would probably take days to raise the portcullis. Erica believed she had time, and she wanted to visit the Valley of the Kings and the concession stand of Raman. If she was right, she would discover a truth that would make Tutankhamen’s tomb pale to insignificance.
Reaching the summit of the ridge, she paused to catch her breath. The desert wind softly whistled among the naked peaks, adding to the feeling of desolation. From where she was standing she could see into the dark and barren Valley of the Kings with its network of etched paths.
Erica could see her goal. The concession stand and rest house stood out clearly on its small rocky promontory. Seeing it encouraged her, and she pushed on, descending carefully to keep from setting off small avalanches of pebbles. She did not want to disturb anyone who might be in the valley. Once she had joined the route to the ancient necropolis workers’ village, the trail flattened out and she could walk much more easily. Before entering one of the carefully scraped pathways lined with stones that ran between the tombs, Erica waited and listened. All she could hear was the wind and the occasional screech of a bat in flight.
With a light step Erica walked to the center of the valley and mounted the front steps of the concession stand. As she expected, it was tightly shuttered and locked. Walking back out onto the veranda, Erica let her line of vision trace the triangle made by Tutankhamen’s tomb, Seti I’s tomb, and the concession stand. Then she walked around to the rear of the rock building, and steeling herself against the foul odors, pushed her way into the ladies’ room. Putting a match to Aida Raman’s oil lamp, she checked out the room, following the foundation line. There was nothing strange about its construction.
Within the men’s room, the pungent smell of urine was much more intense. It came from a long urinal made from fired brick built along the front wall. Above the urinal was a two-foot-high crawl space that extended forward under the veranda; the men’s room did not abut the front foundation of the building. Erica walked toward the urinal. The lip of the crawl space was at shoulder height. Holding the oil lamp into the opening, she tried to look in, but the light penetrated for only five or six feet. She could see an opened sardine can and a few bottles strewn on the dirt floor.
With the help of the waste barrel Erica climbed up into the crawl space. She left her tote bag on the edge. Avoiding the debris, she crawled forward like a crab until she came to the front masonry wall. The smell of the toilet was worse in the confined space, and Erica’s enthusiasm rapidly waned. But having come this far, she forced herself to check the rough stone wall from one end to the other. Nothing!
Resting her head on her wrists, Erica admitted that she’d been wrong. It had seemed so clever. She sighed deeply, then tried to turn around. It was difficult, so she began to worm her way backward toward the toilet. Holding the oil lamp in one hand, she attempted to push herself backward with the other, but the earth under her was loose and gave way. She tried to gain a better purchase on the ground, and when she pushed, she felt something smooth under the dirt.
Erica twisted herself and looked down. Her right hand was touching a metallic surface. Scraping away some of the dirt, she exposed a piece of sheet metal. She put the lamp down and with both hands began to clear away the loose earth. At the perimeter of the metal she could see that it had been set down into a carved bed in the rock. She had to clear away all the dirt before she could lift the edge of the metal and work it up over the mounds of surrounding earth. Beneath the sheet of metal a yawning shaft had been cut into the bedrock.