City of Dreams by Anton Gill Read Free Book Online

background. It’s unlikely that asking my help will be approved by your masters.’
    Merymose returned his look. ‘For the moment I am in sole charge of this death. In any case, I am not making an official request.’ 
    Huy hesitated. ‘It is difficult for me. You cannot forget who I am and what I was. With a political prisoner escaped, all of us who were at the City of the Horizon must come under increased scrutiny.’
    ‘Your house will certainly be watched.’
    ‘And I will be followed. I might lead your men to the fugitive.’
    ‘That is true. But, if you were prepared to be of service to us…’
    ‘What makes you think I can be of help?’
    ‘Everything Taheb has told me about you. Don’t blame her. She wants to help you; and of course people will employ you to help them solve their problems; but that will not make you popular with the Medjays or with Horemheb.’
    ‘Thank you for the advice. I will be careful.’
    Merymose relaxed slightly. ‘It is a pity that you are not a Medjay yourself. Our organisation is only efficient at keeping the streets quiet, and then not always. As for what you do — investigation — that is something new. It interests me, but I am one of very few, and I need instruction.’
    ‘It would be a case of one blind man leading another.’
    ‘At least they would be moving along the road. And they might learn to find their way together.’
    ‘They might fall over a cliff together, too.’ Huy was put at his most suspicious by the policeman’s flattery.
    ‘Are you not curious about this girl? At least look at her. I cannot keep the body later than this evening. It must be handed over to the embalmers then, or it will be too late.’ Huy paused before asking, ‘Who was she?’
    ‘Her name was Iritnefert. Her father is Ipuky.’
    Huy looked sharply at the Medjay. ‘Ipuky — you mean the Controller of the Silver Mines?’
    Merymose nodded.
    ‘What happened?’ Huy was alarmed. Ipuky was one of the most important men in Tutankhamun’s court.
    ‘We don’t know. A group of workmen crossing over to the Valley just before dawn found her by the shore.’
    ‘Where were they crossing? Not from the harbour?’ 
    ‘No, further downriver.’
    ‘Nearer the palace?’
    ‘Yes.’
    Huy thought for a moment. Ipuky had a house in the palace compound.
    ‘As soon as they reported it, Ipuky was informed and I was sent for.’
    ‘The horses?’
    ‘Yes.’
    Huy looked at the girl again. She had a delicate, innocent face; the cheeks still round with the plumpness of childhood. Someone had closed her eyes, placing white stones on the lids to keep them down. There was nothing in the cast of her features to suggest that she had been alarmed or frightened at the moment of her death.
    ‘Did anybody take note of how she looked when she was found? Of how she was lying on the ground, for example?’
    ‘The first people to arrive were servants from Ipuky’s household, and they took the body there. If I hadn’t requested a delay the embalmers would have already covered her in natron.’ Merymose looked grim.
    ‘You were brave to make that request. What did they think of it?’
    ‘They were astonished; but Ipuky is an intelligent man, and he wants whoever did this caught. I am sure his wife thought I was in league with Set.’ Merymose’s face betrayed a flicker of amusement. ‘But the murderer must be brought in, or I will have to pay the price.’
    ‘It is a pity you didn’t see the girl at the place she died. That might have told us much.’
    ‘I know. I talked to the workmen. The foreman said that the girl was lying on her back, her hands folded, as she is now.’
    ‘Was she dressed?’
    ‘She was naked.’
    Huy stepped closer to the body. He had no medical knowledge, and no idea of what to do, what to look for; but the calmness of the body intrigued him. It raised many questions. 
    He touched it softly. The sun had warmed the skin, giving it the illusion of life.
    ‘Are there