The Cult of Osiris (7 page)

But you weren't when I called you, though. Charlie phoned me - he couldn't get hold of you and asked if I knew where you were.'

He hesitated, uneasy. What time was this?

After
I
left the UN. About half past one.

Oh, right. Yeah, I was with Grant Thorn.'

That's funny,' said Nina, amusement far from her face. Charlie told me you weren't working until later.'

The sound of wheels spinning in his head was almost audible. That's 'cause ... I was doing Grant a favour. Off the books.

What
sort
of favour?'

He wanted me to pick him up some orange juice.' Seeing her dubious look, he went on: Seriously! Lazy sod couldn
't
be bothered to walk a block to get it himself

I thought you had a policy about not doing that sort of thing. Y'know, the whole bodyguard not butler principle.'

Well, when he offers to pay me an extra five hundred bucks it's more like a guideline.' He paid you
five hundred dollars
to get orange juice?'

He retrieved yesterday's wad of notes from his jacket and tossed it on to the table. See? Bloke really does have more money than sense.

Nina regarded the money suspiciously. She knew Eddie more than well enough to be aware that maintaining a poker face was not one of his talents, and he seemed to be inwardly congratulating himself on his quick thinking. Maybe Grant Thorn really had been absurdly generous, but there was more to the story. 'So what were you doing for the rest of the day?
It
doesn't take that long to buy orange juice/

You didn
't
see the queue,' he said, with a half-laugh that faded under Nina's gaze. Yeah, I was doing something else too. I . . . met up with a friend/

Her gaze intensified. 'A female friend?

A
cop
friend.'

To his concealed relief, Nina didn
't
point out that it was possible to be both female and a cop. Instead, she said,
I
didn't know you had any cop friends.'

Sorry, J didn't know I was supposed to give you a complete list of all my mates everywhere in the world.
I
've got loads of friends/

She wasn
't
sure if he'd meant to put emphasis on the
I've
part of his reply, but in her current mood she wasn't going to let it pass without comment. Unlike me, you mean?'

Where did that bloody come from? I never said you don't have any friends.'

Well, that's because I
do
have 'em.
I
've got . . .' She considered it, face falling over the seconds it took her to finish the sentence. There's Piper.'

Who moved to San Francisco.'

■Matt! Matt Trulli's a friend.'

Who you haven't spoken to for months.'

He's still a friend! And there's Lola!' Nina added with a triumphant jab of her hand. Lola's a friend. And I'm having dinner with her tomorrow, actually. So, yeah, I've got friends.'

I never said you didn't! Why're you getting all defensive about it?'

Because . . . because that's something else that's been getting me down,' she admitted. Almost all of my friends are archaeologists or historians. And ever since I got screwed over by the media, they've been treating me like
I
'm radioactive.'

Then maybe they weren't really friends to begin with,' Eddie told her. 'So why'd you instantly assume I was seeing a woman friend this morning? What, you - ha! - think
I
'm having an affair?

No, not really, just . . .' She sagged. 'It would have been the perfect capper to a really horrible day. The thought came to me, and it just wouldn't go away. You're out at all hours, and
I
. . . well, I haven
't
exactly been the best company recently. And we haven't, y'know, had sex for a while.

'Five days is "a while"?'

We only just got married - we're supposed to be having sex every five
minutesV
She flopped back on the couch. 'God. After all the horrible crap that happened to us,
I
thought that at least our getting married would be one perfect thing that would see us through it. But. . .'

You're not having second thoughts, are you?' Eddie asked, concerned.

No, God, no. It'sjust... it hasn't been what I thought it would. What I
hoped
it would.

Marriage's like life, I suppose. Things always change, and you've got to adapt with 'em. There's a military saying - dunno who said it, Napoleon or someone - "No plan survives contact with the enemy."

It was Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke,' corrected Nina, earning herself a double-take from her husband. 'But if marriage was the plan, who's the enemy?'

Everyone and everything outside this room.

T hate this room.

'Okay, off this couch.'

Not a big fan of the couch, either.' They both managed half-hearted laughs.

Well, look,' said Eddie,
I
'm not seeing anyone else, okay?
I
know what it's like to be on the other end of that from when
I
was married to Sophia. So don't worry about it. Or anything else, either. Have a nice girlie day out with Lola tomorrow, and take your mind off everything.' He gestured at the wad of money. 'If Grant asks me to pick up any more orange juice for him, maybe we'll even be able to afford a holiday.'

That'd be nice. Somewhere exotic.

Egypt?' The TV was showing another promo for the opening of the Sphinx, the live event now only three days away.

Nina huffed. Yeah, right.
I
think it'd be a tad out of our price range.

He kissed her cheek. Let's see what tomorrow brings, eh?'

3

=6

Despite waking with another hangover, Nina felt better than she had for quite some time. Merely committing herself to doing something outside her depressed rut had acted like a spark; after Eddie left to babysit another client around town, she decided to follow his example and cross the river to spend time in her native Manhattan before meeting Lola.

She found the memo Lola had given her and double-checked the gallery's address. The message from Macy Sharif was written above it, forgotten until now. She didn't remember the name; the intern must have started at the IHA after she left.

Remembering what Lola had said about Macy 's getting into trouble with the Egyptian police, she almost dismissed the note from her mind, but on a whim, prompted by her new-found urge to action, decided to follow up on it instead. It would take her the better part of fifteen minutes to walk to the nearest subway station, so making the call would at least pass the time. She left the apartment, dialling the number as she descended the narrow stairs

'Hello?' A man's voice.

'Hi,' said Nina, thumb already hovering over the button to end the call. 'May I speak to Macy Sharif?"

Hesitation, then wariness: 'Who's calling?'

'My name's Nina Wilde. She left a message asking me to call.'

The ambient noise from the other end of the line became muffled as the man put his hand over the phone. There was a short exchange with someone else, then a cry of excitement. Nina raised her eyebrows. This Macy was very keen to speak to her.

A clunk and rattle as the phone was snatched from its owner. Hello? Hello! Dr Wilde, are you there? Is that you?' The woman's accent was upscale southern with a vaguely Hispanic lilt.

'Yeah, hi,' Nina replied as she reached the sidewalk, rounding a ridiculously large red pickup truck parked outside her building before crossing the street. Is this Macy?'

'Yes, it is, yeah! Dr Wilde, thanks for calling me back, it's such an honour to be talking to you. Really! ['
_ma
big fan of yours/

A
fan?
Nina wasn't quite sure how to take that. This wasn't some practical joke, was it? Uh . . . thanks. You left a message at the IHA that you wanted to talk to me?

Yes. Look, this 11 probably sound weird and maybe a bit stalkerish, but I really need to see you in person. I've got something
I
need to show you. You still live in New York, don't you?'

Nina eyed the streets around her. More or less.'

Tin staying with a friend in the East Village. Is there any chance you could meet me?'

I'm actually heading into Manhattan right now,' Nina volunteered without thinking, before realising that she'd just blown a chance to turn Macy down politely. 'But I don't know if
I
'll have the time today.'

I can meet you whenever, wherever - I just need ten minutes of your time.'

'For what?'

It's about Dr Berkeley's dig in Egypt, at the Sphinx.'

The mention of Berkeley brought back the previous day's humiliating meeting with Rothschild, which didn't do Macy's request any favours. That dig's nothing to do with me,' Nina told her. 'If you want to talk to somebody about it, you'd be better off finding someone at the IHA.'

No, I really need to show this to
you.
In person. You'll understand why once you've seen it. Please, Dr Wilde? Just ten minutes. Five minutes, even. It's really important.

The pleading in her voice seemed completely genuine. Look,' Nina finally said,
I
'm meeting a friend, and we're going to dinner later. But I might be able to see you after that.' The East Village was her old neighbourhood, not too far from where she and Lola would be having dinner. She tried to think of somewhere fairly close to a subway station, so she could return home afterwards with the minimum of fuss. 'There's a coffee shop called 52 Perk-Up

on 7th Street, near Second Avenue. If
I
've got time,
I
'll call you and we can meet there. I can't promise anything, though.

That'd be awesome,' said Macy with evident relief. Thank you, Dr Wilde. Thanks for talking to me.'

No problem. Bye.' Nina disconnected, already wondering if she could come up with an excuse to let Macy down gently. Whatever she had to say about Berkeley's dig, it wasn't her problem.

Still, ten minutes of her time wouldn't kill her.

Eddie spotted the long queue of people outside the nightclub from the far end of the block. Even relatively early in the evening, people were lined up four abreast in the hope of getting into one of the Upper West Side's hottest new venues.

Looks pretty cool, huh?' said Grant as his bright orange Lamborghini Murcielago cruised slowly along the street. For day-to-day travel round New York the actor relied on the ostentatious anonymity of the limo service, but when he wanted to be noticed he employed a vastly more eyecatching vehicle. 'Check out that crowd - hell, check out those legs!' He lowered his window for a better look at the miniskirted women waiting to enter. The car had already attracted attention, and when people realised a Hollywood star was at the wheel the reaction was almost a riot. Grant grinned his expensive grin and waved, blipping the throttle to let a tiny fraction of the supercar's 631 horsepower howl through its exhaust pipes.

A section of sidewalk at the club entrance was cordoned off by velvet ropes: the VIP area. Grant pulled over, a valet swooping in to collect the keys in exchange for a token as he got out and stood before a galaxy of flashing phone cameras. Nobody needed to check that his name was on the VIP list, though Eddie didn't receive the same star treatment. 'Whoa, guys, he's with me,' said Grant as two bouncers closed ranks in front of Eddie like meaty sliding doors. It's cool, he's my bodyguard.

This little guy?' rumbled the larger of the two hulks, smirking. Eddie gave him a scathing look. A brief stand-off, then the bouncers moved apart and he followed Grant inside. Behind, a snarl announced the Lamborghini' s departure for the parking structure down the street.

The club's interior was on three levels, the lowest an almost pit-like dance floor with a higher area containing the long, neon-lit bar surrounding it. Overlooking both was a glass-walled balcony: the VIP lounge. The pounding music was as trendy and contemporary as the overdone hairstyles of the clubbers, and Eddie didn't have the slightest idea of the band's name.

Christ, I feel old,' he muttered as he followed Grant up to the balcony.

Nina almost didn't call Macy after her pleasant afternoon and dinner with Lola; in fact, until she opened her bag to check her phone for messages and saw the note, she had completely forgotten her earlier conversation. She could have simply shrugged and gone home, but the twin proddings of politeness and minor guilt swayed her otherwise.

She had no messages, so entered Macy's number again. The same man answered, with the same suspicious air, before she heard Macy say in the background, Ts that her? Joey, give me the phone!
¹
One brief scuffle for possession later, and she was on the line. 'Hi? Dr Wilde? Is that you?'

It's me,' Nina assured her.

She sounded relieved. 'Thanks for calling back. Can you still meet me?' Do you remember where I said?'

The coffee place? Yeah, Joey knows where it is. Can you meet me right now?'

Yeah, I guess,' said Nina, still not sure if she should go through with it. I can be there in . . . fifteen minutes?

That's great! I
'll
be waiting for you. Dr Wilde, thank you so much for doing this. I
'll
see you soon.' She hung up.

Nina made a faint noise of exasperation, then set off. She might as well get it over with.

The area hadn't altered much in the two and a half years since she'd moved out of the East Village; some stores and restaurants had changed hands and a few buildings had been renovated, but 52 Perk-Up looked much the same as the last time she'd been there. The paintings on the back wall were by different local artists, and new faces were serving, but beyond that it was as self-consciously bohemian as ever.

It was also small; she would have deduced which customer was Macy within moments even if she hadn't sprung up to greet her. 'Dr Wilde! Hi!'

You're Macy, I take it,' said Nina, coming to her table. Macy Sharif was not what she had expected; she had assumed that anyone involved with a dig as major as the Sphinx would be at least a post-grad. But the extremely attractive young girl before her, black hair tied back in a ponytail, was too young even to be a graduate, maybe still in her teens. She was also dressed more for spring break than study - as well as an extremely short denim skirt, she wore a very tight designer top emphasising her breasts. The slightly malicious thought crossed Nina's mind that Berkeley might have chosen her for his team for reasons other than her academic qualifications, before she decided that was unfair. She didn't know anything about the girl; she should at least give her the benefit of the doubt.