Read Online The Murder of King Tut by James Patterson, Martin Dugard - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: James Patterson, Martin Dugard
Tags: HIS002030
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least they would leave his heart intact. Like her people, she believed the heart was the source of all knowledge
and wisdom. Akhenaten would need its greatness to cast the spells that would reanimate his corpse.
Seventy days,
she thought. That was how long it took to finalize the mummification process.
Seventy days
until her husband’s body would reach the afterworld.
Seventy days
until they placed her husband in his tomb six and a half miles from where she now sat.
Let the other pharaohs entomb themselves in the Valley of the Kings—Akhenaten had chosen a spot just outside his beloved Amarna,
a glorious valley all his own, bathed in sunlight so that he might delight in the wondrous majesty of Aten forevermore.
“I will join you there someday,” said Nefertiti, leaning down and kissing the lips that had traveled up and down every inch
of her body.
She gazed down at him one last time and then left the room. Her husband was dead. Their oldest son had predeceased him, and
of his remaining children, just one was a boy.
It was now her duty to rule alongside the child until he became a man. She beckoned for her lady-in-waiting, a tall girl whose
beauty compared favorably with her own.
“Yes, Queen?”
“Bring me Tutankhamen.”
Chapter 29
Palm Beach, Florida
Present Day
ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING PIECES discovered in the tomb of King Tut was an armless mannequin. Presumably, it was used for
draping his clothes. Tut’s face was painted on the mannequin, and it sported a crown. The face is a boy’s, and it seems gentle
and kind and knowing.
As I do on many mornings, I was walking Donald Trump’s golf paradise in West Palm, my favorite course anywhere. But my mind
was on Tut. What an incredible mystery this was turning out to be. I was becoming nearly as obsessed as Howard Carter must
have been.
With all due respect, Dr. Cross and Lindsay Boxer, I’ll return to your crime scenes after I’ve finished with Tut. I’m still
gathering evidence.
This was a completely different writing process for me, primarily because of all the research involved. I had been fortunate
to hook up with Marty Dugard, a talented and generous writer and researcher who had already traveled to London, then to the
Valley of the Kings to help me make the story as authentic as possible and, more important, to gather details that might solve
the murder mystery.
The story had so much potential—much more than most detective novels. After all it was about kings and queens, buried treasure,
an explorer who reminded me of a pissed-off Indiana Jones, and the murder of a
teenage
boy and probably his sweetheart.
As soon as I got back to the office, I found a thick folder assembled by my indefatigable assistant, Mary Jordan. The evidence
that this
was
a murder story was starting to mount.
A March 8, 2005, press release had announced the results of a full-body CT scan of Tut’s mummy by Egyptian authorities. This
was the study that prompted Zahi Hawass—secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities—to announce that Tut had died
from an infection resulting from a broken leg. The particular infection, in his opinion, was probably caused by gangrene.
It seemed like a slam dunk for the secretary-general, until I read a little further: “The broken left femur shows no signs
of calcification or hematoma,” both of which would have begun developing immediately after the accident.
In fact, part of the expert team reviewing the results of the CT scan refused to agree that the broken leg was the cause of
death. They believed the leg was accidentally broken
after
the tomb was discovered, when someone had tried to move the body. But in a 2007 interview, Hawass again stated that Tut had
died from a broken leg.
The next bit of evidence I discovered was even more curious: X-rays had previously shown a thickening of the skull consistent
with a calcified membrane, which can occur when a blood clot forms
and wisdom. Akhenaten would need its greatness to cast the spells that would reanimate his corpse.
Seventy days,
she thought. That was how long it took to finalize the mummification process.
Seventy days
until her husband’s body would reach the afterworld.
Seventy days
until they placed her husband in his tomb six and a half miles from where she now sat.
Let the other pharaohs entomb themselves in the Valley of the Kings—Akhenaten had chosen a spot just outside his beloved Amarna,
a glorious valley all his own, bathed in sunlight so that he might delight in the wondrous majesty of Aten forevermore.
“I will join you there someday,” said Nefertiti, leaning down and kissing the lips that had traveled up and down every inch
of her body.
She gazed down at him one last time and then left the room. Her husband was dead. Their oldest son had predeceased him, and
of his remaining children, just one was a boy.
It was now her duty to rule alongside the child until he became a man. She beckoned for her lady-in-waiting, a tall girl whose
beauty compared favorably with her own.
“Yes, Queen?”
“Bring me Tutankhamen.”
Chapter 29
Palm Beach, Florida
Present Day
ONE OF THE MOST FASCINATING PIECES discovered in the tomb of King Tut was an armless mannequin. Presumably, it was used for
draping his clothes. Tut’s face was painted on the mannequin, and it sported a crown. The face is a boy’s, and it seems gentle
and kind and knowing.
As I do on many mornings, I was walking Donald Trump’s golf paradise in West Palm, my favorite course anywhere. But my mind
was on Tut. What an incredible mystery this was turning out to be. I was becoming nearly as obsessed as Howard Carter must
have been.
With all due respect, Dr. Cross and Lindsay Boxer, I’ll return to your crime scenes after I’ve finished with Tut. I’m still
gathering evidence.
This was a completely different writing process for me, primarily because of all the research involved. I had been fortunate
to hook up with Marty Dugard, a talented and generous writer and researcher who had already traveled to London, then to the
Valley of the Kings to help me make the story as authentic as possible and, more important, to gather details that might solve
the murder mystery.
The story had so much potential—much more than most detective novels. After all it was about kings and queens, buried treasure,
an explorer who reminded me of a pissed-off Indiana Jones, and the murder of a
teenage
boy and probably his sweetheart.
As soon as I got back to the office, I found a thick folder assembled by my indefatigable assistant, Mary Jordan. The evidence
that this
was
a murder story was starting to mount.
A March 8, 2005, press release had announced the results of a full-body CT scan of Tut’s mummy by Egyptian authorities. This
was the study that prompted Zahi Hawass—secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities—to announce that Tut had died
from an infection resulting from a broken leg. The particular infection, in his opinion, was probably caused by gangrene.
It seemed like a slam dunk for the secretary-general, until I read a little further: “The broken left femur shows no signs
of calcification or hematoma,” both of which would have begun developing immediately after the accident.
In fact, part of the expert team reviewing the results of the CT scan refused to agree that the broken leg was the cause of
death. They believed the leg was accidentally broken
after
the tomb was discovered, when someone had tried to move the body. But in a 2007 interview, Hawass again stated that Tut had
died from a broken leg.
The next bit of evidence I discovered was even more curious: X-rays had previously shown a thickening of the skull consistent
with a calcified membrane, which can occur when a blood clot forms
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