He shrugged. “She was good, but she was inclined to be too excitable. History requires patience. There are a lot of false leads. You can’t be rushing off to every site just because something is there. The funds are not there to support it.”
Hauck leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “So what is your theory, Dr. Razi? What do you believe happened to her?”
Razi hesitated. “I don’t know. But I have assumed that Stephanie had gone into some souk or bar or gotten in a car with someone who tried to force themselves on her. And that she fought back and was killed. Sadly, things happen here. Governments come and go, but there is still a lingering resentment against the West.”
“So she was a fighter?” Hauck asked. “In your opinion.”
The Egyptologist almost smiled. “Oh, yes. Stephanie was indeed a fighter for what she believed in. And, my word, that girl could argue the leg off a table.”
They rose to leave, but instead of stepping toward the door, Harper drifted to the glass shelves. Her thin white hand floated toward a partial skull. Before Dr. Razi could protest, one finger touched the rounded dome.
“That is a woman’s skull from Roman times,” Razi said. “I will have to ask you not to touch.”
“Do you want to know what killed her?” Harper asked.
Her voice was eerily matter-of-fact.
“What?” Razi seemed confused, and he wasn’t the only one. Nabila looked taken aback.
The hair was rising on Hauck’s neck.
“She got an infection during childbirth,” Harper said, her eyes still on the brown bit of skull. “She was twenty-one. The baby lived, at least for a while.”
“And now we have to go,” Hauck said briskly. “Harper’s brother is ill, and we have to go check on him.”
THEY WALKED BACK TO THE elevator, Dr. Razi behind them as if he were herding them out of the museum. The three kept silent until they were outside, amid the noise and bustle of Alexandria.
Nabila spoke first. “You frightened him.”
“He shouldn’t keep her head in his office,” Harper said, “if he didn’t want to know the truth behind it. And look.”
Dr. Razi was leaving the building too, in a hurry. He hustled over to a car parked near the entrance, a white VW Passant, flicked the automatic lock, and climbed in. Then he drove away from the museum grounds.
“Not sure how I feel about that guy,” Harper said.
Hauck nodded. “Amen.”
Nabila dropped them off at their hotel, explaining that she had to return to the police station to wrap up a few things before she could leave for the day. Hauck thanked her and told her he’d see her tomorrow. By the time he’d said good-bye, Harper had vanished. Checking on her brother, he assumed. But he was surprised when she stopped him in the lavish lobby, amid the shadow of a pillar.
“Mr. Hauck,” she said. “One of the roommates is waiting in the bar. I think she’s waiting for you. Listen, come talk to me later. I found something.”
And then she was gone.
Hauck moseyed over to the bar to see if it were true.
Tall Tina was trying to look at ease in the upscale lobby bar, but she was not succeeding. The room was designed to look like a posh living room, with plates displayed on shelves, a painting above the fireplace, velvet armchairs, dark wood tables, and the gleam of china and crystal. She looked young and awkward in that setting.
“I didn’t think you were ever going to get back,” she said as Hauck came to her table. “I’ve been here for an hour. Drinks here cost a fortune.”
“It’s a nice place to wait,” he said, not about to apologize for being late to an appointment he hadn’t made.
“Did you go to the museum?”
She pushed her brown hair behind her ears. She was wearing antique, Egyptian earrings, which seemed out of keeping with her outfit. She appeared edgy.
“I just came from there.”
“Talking to Omar?”
“Naturally.”
“Stephanie had a good job,” Tina said.
“You’re using the past tense. You’re the one who believed she’d gotten on a yacht with a rich guy?”
“Even if Steph came back today, she wouldn’t get that job back,” Tina said.
“Did you come here to talk to me?”
He was ready to cut to the chase. It had been a very long day, and he wanted to shower, eat, and go to bed.
And he still had to stop by Harper’s room.
“It’s nice to talk to an American man, for a change.”
“Tina, I’m close to thirty years older than you. What do you really want?”
She bit her lip. “You shouldn’t sell yourself short. You’re an attractive guy. But I do have a boyfriend. I came to talk to you about something else.”
He waited.
“You know Stephanie was Jewish?”
He nodded.
“And you know Jews aren’t exactly popular here.”
She said it like some kind of inside scoop.
“That’s been the case, off and on, for thousands of years,” he noted. “This is the Middle East.”
“Here’s what I wondered. What if Stephanie went to the synagogue that’s supposed to be so beautiful, the one that’s closed? Elia something. What if she tried to get in? What if the guards caught her?”
“Tina, I don’t know what made you imagine that scenario. From what I’ve heard, Stephanie was hardly observant. Her family certainly isn’t. Eliyahu Hanavi would be the last thing on her list of sites to visit in Alexandria.”
From the corner of his eye, he noticed a quick movement. He glanced in that direction and caught a glimpse of Stephanie’s other roommate, Jerri. When she realized Hauck had seen her, Jerri moved more into his line of sight and drew her hand across her throat. He guessed she was telling him to get rid of Tina.
That was curious.
It didn’t take long to accomplish the task. Tina ran out of conversational gambits, then offered to take him to a nightclub.
He declined.
Naomi Blum, who ran the Treasury’s antiterrorist desk in D.C., and with whom he was off and on with, would have a chuckle at the thought Tina could tempt him.
“I really want to get to my room,” he said.
“I’ll say good night, then. Give me a call if you have some free time.”
She handed him a card with her number written on it.
“For sure.”
He watched her leave. A young woman with an agenda. He only wished he knew what it was. Then her roommate, another young woman with her own agenda, threw herself into the same red chair Tina had just vacated. Though Jerri had not been exactly friendly or forthcoming at the apartment, he realized she was smarter and tougher than Tina.
“So here’s what you need to know,” Jerri said, not wasting time. “The truth is, Stephanie was a good person. And she knew all about that mapping thing she was doing. She was all over it. She loved it. She loved her job. She was trying to think of a way to keep doing it after her internship was over. Jobs in the archaeological world are hard to come by, and she understood that Egyptians would rather hire Egyptians. Government policy and all. She got that.”
Jerri paused, and Hauck nodded, just to show he was paying attention. If Tina had been all over the place conversationally, Jerri seemed a laser beam.