Silver Tomb (The Lazarus Longman Chronicles Book 2) by P. J. Thorndyke Read Free Book Online

Egyptologist’s cheeks speaking enough for both of them.
    They headed back to their respective hotels and, once in his room, Lazarus stripped off, shaved and drew himself a hot bath. He retrieved the bottle of gin from his portmanteau and poured himself a generous measure before slipping into the almost painfully hot water with a great sigh. As the heat penetrated his bones, he sipped his drink and enjoyed the stinging taste of London’s streets; a pleasant memory here amidst the dirt, dust and heat of the Egyptian capital.
     
     
     
    That afternoon Lazarus found a message had been left for him at reception.
     
    LONGMAN
    MEET ME AT THE CAFE ON EL MAGHRABI TWO O CLOCK. WE NEED TO DISCUSS THINGS
    KATARINA
     
    Lazarus knew the café. He didn’t go inside, but instead hung around beneath the arches where a water seller was doing good business. After a while he spotted Katarina, her pale face shielded by a black parasol and her skirts hemmed just right so that they wouldn’t trail in the dust. She had seen him, and came over to the shade of the arches.
    “Won’t you come inside for a coffee?” she asked him.
    “Coffee? Yes, well it would be lovely to catch up, but I didn’t suppose that was why you wanted to see me. Besides, it wouldn’t be proper for an unmarried couple to sit in a café together.”
    She stared at him. “Amazing. Two weeks together in a balloon, a shared secret about cities of gold that we can never tell anybody and you still have your damned English attitude towards conventions. Very well, I’ll say what I have to say to you here under these arches. I have just come from the police station. Our friend, Captain Hassanein sent his men round to Bayoumi Shipping this morning after you left and found the place deserted. Bayoumi must have panicked at your arrest and has shut up shop.”
    “Doesn’t surprise me really,” said Lazarus. “Will you go looking for him?”
    She shook her head. “No point. There are a hundred such businessmen who export antiquities out of this country. Squashing one won’t make a jot of difference. We need to go after the men who sell the items to the dealers; the ones who steal them from their original locations.”
    Lazarus sighed. “Isn’t it about time you dropped the act now?”
    She frowned. “How do you mean?”
    “I mean I would have to be a man with a turnip for a brain if I were to believe that you had been sent here from Moscow to chase around black market dealers.”
    “And what do you know of my orders?”
    “I can make a fair stab in the dark. Your orders are to find Dr. Rutherford Lindholm and drag him back to your country so your government can pry open his brain and learn his secrets. You found out, as I did, that the only trail to him was through the black market, only you don’t have any contacts in that world and so the trail for you ran cold. Now you need my help in finding it again.”
    “Well, what of it?” she said coldly. “It wouldn’t be the first time that we have worked together.”
    “No. And it wouldn’t be the first time that we have sought the same man for our respective governments. Why do we always end up on opposite sides of the fence?”
    “That’s the way of the world, Longman. Maybe if your government would give up its support for the blasted C.S.A. we might become friends.”
    “Britain will never support the Union,” said Lazarus. “It’s not financially sound.”
    “As always, the great decisions of the world come down to money. Enough of politics. Will you help me?”
    “If I do then it must be on my terms.”
    “As you say.”
    “I know a man. My loyalty to him has run out as I have a feeling that it was he who led my friend and I into a trap at Bayoumi’s. Nevertheless, I don’t want him in the hands of the police. I can do without the reputation as a snitch for the likes of Captain Hassanein.”
    “How can this man help us if we do not interrogate him?”
    “I can interrogate him myself. Or follow