“It’s just a park,” Hauck said, looking at a fenced-in area behind a short wall against a hillside with a small stone building in the center.
“No, it’s not a park,” replied Nabila. “It’s Kom el Shoqafa. It means Mound of Shards. The catacombs.”
“Catacombs?”
“From the first century AD. It was a burial place for ancient Romans.” They all stared at her. “There were once hundreds of bodies discovered there. But they’re all a hundred feet underground.”
Harper still looked ashen and weak. She turned to Tolliver. “I’ve never felt anything that powerful in my life.”
“Is Stephanie there?” Tolliver asked.
Hauck could see that the man was a true believer. No doubt his sister was for real.
“Nothing modern. Can you help me? I want to get a little closer.”
With Hauck on one arm and Tolliver on the other, they helped Harper walk to the grounds’ entrance. A tour bus was parked nearby.
“This is the strongest feeling I’ve ever felt. There must have been hundreds buried here? Thousands.”
“That’s right.” Nabila regarded her with astonishment. “But you have to know, the bodies are all gone. They excavated this site in levels. There are three levels underground. In each, they found more bodies. But they’re all empty now. The bone remains were all moved, years ago, to the museum of archaeology.”
Harper gingerly walked over to the site. Struggling against the weakness that seemed to overwhelm her, she slowly seemed to gather herself. Then she just stared at the tomb for a long time.
“You say they dug this out in levels?”
Nabila nodded. “The last one was years ago. A hundred feet deep.”
“There are more,” Harper said.
“That’s impossible. This catacomb is one of our most studied sites. Dozens of archaeologists have been through it.”
“They should keep digging.”
And Hauck, much to his surprise, found himself agreeing.
HARPER SEEMED TO HAVE FULLY recovered by the time they reached Stephanie’s apartment. She’d lived in a Western-style building, seven stories high, that stood in contrast to the other structures on the street because it was so new. The honey-colored stone was clean, and there was even a lobby attendant in the modern entrance area. Hauck noticed that the people walking through were all European. This was expat lodging.
And maybe government as well.
“I assume this is pretty expensive housing,” he said to Nabila.
She nodded. “There is parking behind and underneath the building with an armed guard at all times. We do our best to make foreigners feel safe here, whether native Egyptians or whomever.” She was quite expressionless as she said this, and Hauck could only guess at her feelings. But he found himself thinking that, considering the income disparity between the average Egyptian and the students who could afford to study abroad, having an armed guard watch over the vehicles was simply a wise precaution.
Nabila talked to the doorman in rapid Egyptian. The man then made a phone call and nodded.
“The roommates are home and say we can come up,” Nabila said.
“I’m not sure what good my going up there will do.” Harper huddled, thin and tense, against her brother. “They’re all alive.”
Hauck stifled a laugh. “Maybe you should come up because you’re Stephanie’s age. You might be more tuned into her roommates than I’ll be.”
Harper’s eyes narrowed. She seemed to suspect she was being cozened into the expedition.
“All right,” she said grudgingly, and they entered an elevator.
At the third floor they exited into a hall that was clean and wide, but not elaborately decorated. Stephanie’s door was to the right at the end of the corridor. In answer to Nabila’s knock a short girl with permed red hair swung open the door and stepped back to admit them. Hauck figured she was in her upper twenties, and she was wearing clothes that looked expensive. Could be knockoffs, though, like Nabila’s sunglasses. Hauck was no style expert.
“This is Jerri Sanderson,” Nabila said, then she pointed to each of her companions and introduced them.
“Come sit down,” Jerri said. “Can I get you something to drink?”
They all declined, then took seats in the small common living area.
“Have you found out anything new?” Jerri asked.
“Nothing,” Nabila said. “Where is your other roommate?”
“Tina’s on her way. She got held up at the university.”
“Do you attend there as well?” Hauck asked.
Based on nothing all that tangible, he was not an immediate fan of Jerri Sanderson.
“No. I’m a working girl,” Jerri said. An edge of anger had entered her voice. “I’m here as a gofer for an interior designer. He does places for Westerners. So they’ll feel . . . comfortable.”
The door opened and a tall girl, no more than twenty, hurried inside, dropping a load of books on the dining table.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said. “I’m Tina Peek.”
She threw herself in a basket chair and looked at them expectantly. After introductions were done—again—Tina said, “I’m sure Stephanie is on a yacht somewhere with one of the millionaires.”
Hauck was taken aback. “One of the millionaires?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Harper sit straight.
Then she rose from her chair and began wandering around the room.
“You know all kinds of rich Egyptians come here to go to the beach,” Tina said. “Are you at the Four Seasons? That’s prime stomping grounds. But Stephanie was a magnet for that kind of guy.” She spread her hands, as if to say, Go figure.
Jerri looked away scowling.
“Can you give us a name?” Nabila asked. “And why do you think Stephanie in particular was a magnet? You didn’t mention that theory when we were here last time.”
“I can’t give you a specific name. But there are sheiks and princes and whatnot vacationing here all the time. Stephanie was blond and cute. Just their type.”
Hauck noted that Tina was neither of those things.
“She had guys after her all the time. But who did she actually take up with? That loser at the bar.”
“Ivo? He says he only hooked up with Stephanie one night,” Hauck said.
Tina gave a snort of laughter. “Really?”
Jerri tossed Tina a surprised look. “It may be true. I don’t know that Stephanie was meeting up with Ivo every night she went out. I think she was doing something else.”
“Why do you think that?” he asked.
In the kitchen area, Harper bent over and picked something up from a tiny space between the stove and the counter.
Jerri and Tina had their backs to her.
“She didn’t dress up,” Jerri said.
Harper wandered back into the conversation. “What did she wear? If she wasn’t dressing up for a date?”
“Washed-out jeans and T-shirts that had gotten stained from the cleaning solvents at the museum,” Jerri said.
Tina laughed again. “You’re imagining that, Jerri,” she said. “Just because she didn’t wear a lot of perfume and a skimpy skirt.”
This was clearly a dart that hit its target.
Jerri flushed and pressed her lips together.
“Can we look at her room?” Harper said.
“You can, but it’s empty. Her family cleared out most of her stuff. Her rental car is still in the parking garage, but they looked through that too. We’ll be glad when we can get a new roommate, but no one is exactly panting to live here now,” Jerri said.