“That’s right.”
“We’re surprised you haven’t been along to see us before. Everyone else has.”
“Because everyone else has,” said Owen, “I have not.”
“Are you getting anywhere?” they asked. “You don’t seem to be.”
“I know some things now that I didn’t know before.”
“We do too. And one of them is how much a thing like this mucks up business.”
“You’re not going to run it all through again, are you?” asked one of the drivers. “The way you did it the other day? I can tell you that really did set us back. We were blocked in for hours. Couldn’t go, couldn’t get back. It cost us real money, that did.”
“Sorry!”
“It wasn’t us,” said Georgiades. “It was the Parquet.”
“That young chap in the smart suit? He came along and talked to us. He’s quite sharp.”
“He must make a lot of money,” said another of the men. “Look at that suit.”
“They all do. Mind you, he works hard. No siestas for him!”
“That’s the difference between him and us. I like a siesta.”
“It’s not the only difference,” the other driver insisted stubbornly.
“He’s cleverer than we are.”
“He’s got pull,” the stubborn one said. “They all have. That’s how they get these jobs in the first place.”
“Ah well, the British are different.”
“Not very.”
They all laughed.
“Ah well, it’s the way of the world.”
“That old man, the one that’s disappeared, he must have pull,” said one of the drivers.
“Why?”
“The Parquet’s here, you’re here. The Bimbashi was here the other day.”
“I don’t know how much pull he’s got,” said Owen. “That’s one of the things I’m trying to find out.”
“And so you come to us.”
“So I come to you.”
“Well, we can’t help you much. We’ve hardly had anything to do with him. He’s never used us much. He doesn’t get around.”
“It’s his friends we’re interested in.”
“Yes.” The driver looked at Georgiades. “That’s what your friend said this morning.”
“Tell my friend what you told me.”
“About that young one? The one with the bulging eyes? Very well, if you want. He’s a bit of a sly one, that one. You’d think he never did anything. But he slips out from time to time, at night especially. And comes back late.”
“You’d think he was after the ladies of the night,” said another of the drivers. “But he’s not like that, really.”
“He prefers the houses.”
“We know about Anton’s,” said Georgiades. “Which other houses does he go to?”
The men mentioned several.
“But Anton’s is his favorite. He goes there regularly. Not just when they’re playing, either.”
“Not just when they’re playing? Are you sure?”
“That’s right,” another of the drivers confirmed. “I took him there once myself. That was in the afternoon, about this sort of time, and they certainly weren’t playing then.”
“Did he go to see someone?”
The man shrugged his shoulders. “He just went inside.”
“Did anyone come out with him?”
“I didn’t see. Anton, perhaps.”
“How often does he go? When they’re not playing, I mean?”
The drivers consulted.
“Not often. Two, three times perhaps.”
“What about the woman?” asked Georgiades.
The arabeah-drivers immediately sat up.
“Ah, now you’re talking!”
“She gets around?”
“She certainly does! Andalaft’s, Cohen’s, Haroun’s: she’s got money and knows how to use it!”
“Apart from shopping, though?”
“She’s got friends. The Princess Samira, the Prince Haidar-”
“She’s got bigger friends than that, though.”
“Oh? Who?”
“That would be telling.”
“We don’t really know,” said another of the drivers.
“We don’t know,” said the third, “because when she goes to visit them she doesn’t use us.”
“Then how-”
“They send a carriage. Especially for her.”
“To the hotel?”
“Yes. We don’t like it, of course, but we know when to keep our mouths shut.”
“And did this carriage often pick her up?”
“Two or three times a week.”
“And return her?”
“Yes. A couple of hours later. Long enough.”
“If you hurry,” said another of the drivers.
“Perhaps she’s eager.”
The drivers fell about laughing.
“Anyway, maybe it’s not that,” said the first driver. “What else would it be?”
They burst into laughter.
“I’ll tell you what, though,” one of the drivers said to Owen. “Once or twice he went with her.”
“Who went with her?”
“That young chap. The one you were asking about. The one with the eyes. Though what contribution he was going to make I can’t think.”
“You’d better ask Abbas. Abbas!”
Some way along the row of arabeahs one of the other drivers lifted his head.
“What?”
“Suppose a man is with a woman and then another man comes along. What does the other man do?”
A guffaw ran along the line of recumbent arabeah-drivers. The one who had lifted his head sprang to his feet. “I will kill you, Abdullah!” he said, and reached toward his belt. “Be careful!” one of the other drivers warned him: “The Mamur Zapt is along there!” Abbas stopped in his tracks and stood for a moment undecided. “You wait, Abdullah!” he called eventually. “I will come to you later.” Abdullah seemed unconcerned.
Paul rang from the Consul-General’s office.
“Hello!” he said. “Are you all right?”
“Yes, thanks. Why shouldn’t I be?”
“Everyone’s been saying how peaky you look and how you obviously need a rest.”
“It’s this damned heat,” Owen complained. Then it sank in. “Everyone?”
“Everyone who’s rung me this morning.”
“Samira?”
“Samira, for instance. The other one would surprise you.”
“Go on; surprise me.”
“The Khedive.”
“ The Khedive?”
“I knew it would surprise you. It surprised me. He’s never taken an interest in your health before. Nor in the health of anyone else in the Administration. I congratulate you.”
“What’s going on?”
“Something, obviously. That’s why I rang to let you know.”
“Samira was on to me yesterday. She told me to lay off Moulin.”
“And now His Highness is telling you the same thing. Isn’t that interesting? You must be getting warm.”
“Why should he be bothered about Moulin?”
“Why indeed. Perhaps he’s not.”
“What do you mean?”
“Perhaps he’s bothered about something else.”
Owen thought about it.
“Paul,” he said then, “are you trying to warn me off? Is this something I should clear politically?”
“Who would you clear it with?”
“Garvin, I suppose.”
“What would he know about it?”
“The Consul-General, then?”
“Look,” said Paul, “the Consul-General doesn’t have ideas of his own. He only has the ideas I put in his head.”
“And what ideas are you putting in his head at the moment?”
“I don’t think you look peaky at all,” said Paul. “Quite the reverse, in fact.”
“I need your help,” said Owen.
Zeinab, lying on the bed, at first seemed deaf to this plea. Then she turned her head slightly.
“What is it?”
“I didn’t get anywhere with Samira.”
“You were talking to her for a long time.”
“Yes, but she didn’t tell me anything. Not much anyway. She was more concerned with warning me off Moulin. She suggested I take a holiday. Go away for a few days. Take you.”
“That seems a good idea,” said Zeinab, sitting up.
“No, it’s not. It’s just intended to get me out of the way.”
“Well, why not get out of the way? Let them get on with paying for that poor man. You’re not doing anything to help him. You’re just stopping him from being freed.”
“I’m not stopping them from paying.”
“Yes, but they think you are. They think you’re up there like a hawk, hovering, just picking the moment. They don’t know you,” said Zeinab, “like I know you.”