Read Online Maria Hudgins - Lacy Glass 01 - Scorpion House by Maria Hudgins - Free Book Online Page B

than that Joel had been pinned face down, wrapped in his own sheet. The evidence? She had nothing but two smudges of greenish goo and if she told anyone else, they’d laugh. But the more she thought about it the more certain she became. Joel was murdered.

CHAPTER NINE
    I n the late afternoon, Roxanne suggested a trip to the tomb. “We’ll go daft sitting around here,” she told them.
    Lacy, from her seat on the built-in bench in the antika room, said, “I don’t want to leave the phone.” She had commandeered a spot near the dining room door because the house phone was just around the corner.
    “Horace will be here and Bay’s in the kitchen. One of them will come and get you if there’s a call.”
    Shelley stood up, unfolding her knobby limbs, as if she was anxious to get out of the house. She turned to Horace, who had been pacing the tile floor for the past hour. “Aren’t you coming?”
    “I’ve been inside that tomb twice in the past six months and that’s twice too many. I’ve seen it.” Lacy figured her mouth must have been hanging open because Lanier looked at her and added, “I’m a bit claustrophobic.”
    “We have an hour until dinner. Shall we go?” Roxanne led the foursome out the front door and across a hill toward the west. “We’re really quite lucky. Kheti’s tomb was rediscovered only about five years ago. I say ‘rediscovered’ because it had obviously been entered and plundered in ancient times. Almost all tombs were. Many of them served as shelter for early Coptic Christians and Muslims throughout the years. Their cooking fires ruined the ceilings in some cases.”
    Shelley and Graham followed Lacy and Roxanne up the path, close enough that they could hear what Roxanne was saying. Lacy turned, shielding her eyes from the sun, and spotted Susan, tramping along a good twenty yards behind. With her short, spiky hair and skinny frame, the biggest part of Susan was her desert boots. Out of all proportion to her size, the boots made her look as though she would automatically spring back up if knocked down. Like a well-rooted sapling. She struggled along behind them, weighted down with equipment she insisted on carrying herself.
    Roxanne continued. “What we believe happened is, the entrance to Kheti’s tomb got hidden behind a wall built in the Nineteenth Dynasty at the entrance to a newer tomb. Also, there are some cliffside houses, still lived in, that sort of wall it off from the other direction. At any rate, when it was rediscovered a few years ago, it wasn’t thought to contain anything particularly exciting, so we were awarded the right to excavate and document. We had enough grant money behind us to convince the Council we could do a good job.
    “At first, we only knew about the transverse room, but we soon found stairs that led down to a long hall and from there, to a burial chamber. Absolutely magnificent! We found dyed linen, undyed linen, a coffin, funeral cones, dried funeral bouquets, and dozens of storage jars. We were ecstatic!”
    “A coffin?” Lacy asked. “Was anyone in it?”
    “Unfortunately not.” Roxanne stopped. They had reached the entrance to the tomb.
    A large, turbaned man descended the hill on their left, the leather strap of a semi-automatic rifle slung over his shoulder.
    A panicked little squeak escaped Shelley’s throat.
    “Akhmed,” Roxanne called out to the armed man, “these are the American scientists I told you about.” She introduced each of them to Akhmed Hosni, the tomb’s night watchman. Akhmed was a brown man with a thick black mustache and a couple of days’ growth of beard. The untucked edges of his turban were frayed. He stepped forward and acknowledged each visitor with a dip of his head.
    “Akhmed comes along at six every evening and stays here all night. During the day, we’re in and out so often we don’t need security.”
    “Akhmed!” Susan had finally caught up. She stepped forward, smiling, and Akhmed bowed to her.