Read Online A Dead Man in Athens by Michael Pearce - Free Book Online Page A

room off one of the inner corridors, dark – lit by only a single, beautiful, old oil lamp – and with rich carpets on the walls and soft cushions on the floor. On one of these the Lady Samira was sitting impatiently.
    ‘At last we are alone!’ she said. ‘Apart from Talal, Ali and Hassan.’
    ‘That was the condition,’ murmured Talal imperturbably.
    ‘And we are to remain at arm’s length.’
    ‘ Two arms’ length!’
    ‘Well, of course, I may define that in a way very different from yours.’
    ‘We are going by my definition,’ said Talal.
    ‘Perhaps we can relax the conditions at future meetings,’ said Samira. ‘Because there will have to be a lot of meetings if I am going to tell Mr Seymour all the things that I find out. Because I shall be working hard on this, as I really want to find out who killed that rotten cat, especially if it was Irina.’
    ‘You have ten minutes, My Lady Samira.’
    ‘Thank you, Talal. I know I can count on you to remind me of anything that is unpleasant. But you are right, Talal: time is pressing, and Mr Seymour waits.’
    ‘I am, naturally, very interested to hear what you have to tell me, Lady Samira.’
    ‘I am sure you are. But let us, for the moment, get back to the cat. The key thing, it seems to me, is who was free and unobserved between the moment when Miriam left the bowl and the moment some time later when she went back to find the cat already stricken. We can narrow it down a little. The poison would have taken some time to work so it was probably put in the milk very soon after Miriam left. Furthermore, the cat was not waiting greedily in the room when Miriam put down the bowl, as it normally is, but slumped on a cushion in the neighbouring room, where Irina was stuffing it with chocolates.’
    ‘My Lady Samira, are you sure about this? Because it does not quite correspond to what the Lady Irina told me.
    ’ ‘Look, if you are expecting any correspondence between what the Lady Irina tells you and the truth, then you are totally misguided.’
    ‘But are you certain that she was in the adjoining room, and with the cat?’
    ‘Certainly, Zenobia saw her.’
    ‘And she was feeding the cat sweets?’
    ‘Stuffing the brute.’
    ‘With chocolates, did you say?’
    ‘She had gone through boxes of them.’
    ‘And . . . did any of the chocolates contain marzipan?
    ’ ‘Marzipan?’
    ‘Could you check that for me?’
    ‘I certainly could.’
    ‘Lady Samira,’ interposed Talal, ‘would you kindly observe the “arm’s length” condition.’
    ‘I am.’
    ‘You’re not. You’ve moved closer.’
    ‘That is so that Mr Seymour can hear .’
    ‘He can hear perfectly well.’
    ‘He can’t. Can you, Mr Seymour?’
    ‘What? Excuse me –’
    ‘You see? He can’t hear.’
    ‘That is because you’ve dropped your voice.’
    ‘I have a sore throat. It may be that my voice fades occasionally. So, out of courtesy to Mr Seymour, I lean close –’
    ‘Your ten minutes is up.’
    ‘Look, you can see how important Mr Seymour thinks what I have to tell him is.’
    ‘You can tell him next time.’
    ‘Talal, I am doing this for the Sultan. He is very anxious to find out who killed the cat. And Mr Seymour is helping him. And I am helping Mr Seymour. And you, Talal, are not helping at all.’
    ‘Ten minutes! Up!’
    Samira got to her feet unwillingly. Then, before Talal could stop her, she walked over to Seymour and put out her hand.
    ‘Until we meet again,’ she breathed.
    ‘Lady Samira, this is indecent!’
    As Seymour was walking along Stadion Street he heard himself hailed from a passing carriage. It was Aphrodite Metaxas. The carriage pulled into the side of the road beside him. It was one of the little, open, four-seater ones, with, for some reason which he was never able to establish, the British coat of arms painted on the doors.
    ‘Are you going our way?’
    ‘I’m going to Constitution Square.’
    ‘Get in.’
    He climbed up and sat down