Tossed in the Thames Read online

  Tossed in the Thames

  Samantha Silver

  Blueberry Books Press

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Also by Samantha Silver

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  A bullet pinged off the rock next to me. I let out a yelp and ran directly up the ramp into the temple of Abu Simbel, passing between the four enormous statues of Ramses II guarding the door.

  Two guards sat in the doorway, allowing the breeze to pass through, giving them the smallest bit of relief from the hot Egyptian sun, which beat down so hard that the sky was white rather than blue. I was fairly certain they didn’t hear the gunshot, because they hadn’t moved an inch. He had used a silencer, so it wasn’t much of a surprise. One held an ankh in his hand, which he offered to tourists to take photos with in exchange for a little baksheesh.

  The inside of the temple offered a distinct advantage when someone was trying to kill you: it was dark. A couple of lamps in the floor lit the hieroglyphic reliefs on the walls of the temple, and on the smooth pillars in the center of the room, but overall it was a significant improvement on being outside in the open.

  I darted behind one of the huge pillars and dared a glance toward the entrance. Lewis Stephenson, jewel thief and hopefully not soon-to-be murderer crossed through the threshold. His face was a deep crimson, but it had nothing to do with the anger of being caught; he had obviously forgotten to wear sunscreen and a hat at some point in the recent past and was paying for it now. A thin sheen of sweat covered his furrowed brow as he looked around, trying to spot me.

  “Cassie,” he boomed, his voice reverberating off the walls that had been here for thousands of years. “I know you’re in here. Come out now. It’ll be easier for everyone.” He inched forward, holding the gun close to his body to hide it from the guards.

  I had a sneaking suspicion that even if they saw the weapon they weren’t going to do anything. These guards weren’t armed. They were just here to make sure people followed the rules, and they barely bothered doing that.

  Of course, the guards who monitored the grounds with their automatic rifles might be a little bit more enthusiastic to get involved, and I had a feeling that Lewis knew that. He’d shot at me out of desperation.

  It was just after nine in the morning here in Abu Simbel. We, along with the hordes of other tourists, had lined up in our cars at four in the morning, passed through a military checkpoint, and driven four hours one way along flat desert roads to get here. Of course, that now meant that hundreds of people filed in and out of the temple, around the grounds, and into the other temple dedicated to Nefertari, Ramses II’s wife, next door.

  Luckily, it meant that with the tourists passing through the site, Lewis had trouble spotting me. I could see him squinting, scouring each face, trying to find mine. Well, I wasn’t going to give him that chance.

  Where on earth was Violet, anyway? The two of us had split up when we arrived, knowing Lewis was here. She had the hearing of a hawk, so if anyone on these grounds would have heard the silenced shot but also recognized it for what it was, it was her.

  Hopefully she’d be here soon.

  As Lewis moved farther into the room, trying simultaneously to find me without looking suspicious, I slipped back against the wall closest to the entrance and considered my options. I could either go back outside, where I would be quickly recognized and therefore become an easier target, or I could stay in the temple and attempt to surprise him.

  The problem was, I had nothing that could be used to defend myself. Even if I did manage to get a jump on him, I didn’t exactly trust myself to come out on top in a fight where the other guy had a gun and I had a small cross-body purse that held my passport, wallet, and a travel-sized bottle of Purell. I wasn’t exactly running around with a James Bond–style armory.

  In the end, I decided the safest course of action was to head back out into the sun. I pulled the scarf I always kept on me from my purse and wrapped it around my head in an attempt to mask my appearance somewhat, and as soon as I was back out in the light of the day, I looked around for Violet.

  My phone binged just then, indicating a text.

  Draw him out from the temple. Make sure he comes through the main entrance.

  I looked around, trying to spot Violet, but I had no idea where she was. My phone binged again.

  Stop looking for me.

  I rolled my eyes and put the phone away. Violet wanted me to draw him out. Great.

  Taking a deep breath, I went back into the temple, my eyes scanning the area, searching for Lewis. When I felt metal pressing against my hip, I closed my eyes. He had found me first.

  “Now, now. You should have stayed in England, Doctor Coburn.”

  “You shouldn’t have stolen the Swedish Royal Jewels,” I replied.

  Lewis barked out a laugh. “I thought I’d gotten away with it, too, when they arrested and convicted that other man. Then you and your French friend come along and ruin everything. Well, no bother. I hope you got a good look at Lake Nasser, because that’s going to be where they’ll find your body. Come along now, let me find a more private spot to kill you.”

  We passed back out through the temple entrance, where I looked out over the lake in question. The still blue water of Egypt’s largest lake—man-made after the construction of the Aswan High Dam, which controlled the Nile’s famous floods—reached far over toward the horizon. I could just make out the northern border of Sudan on the other side. I tried not to panic. After all, this was exactly what Violet had told me to do.

  Suddenly, there was a thud next to me, and the next thing I knew, Lewis was on the ground, a large rock lying next to him.

  “Gun!” someone shouted, noticing the silenced revolver that now lay on the ground, and panic ensued.

  I was shoved to the side by the crowd as the people inside the temple tried to get out, a stampede forming at the bottleneck entrance. I was shoved hard against the stone on the edge and had the wind knocked out of me as I struggled to stay upright. Being carried along by the crowd, I eventually found myself pulled to the side once more, and I saw Violet’s face, full of concern.

  “Are you all right?” she asked, and I held up a finger as I gasped for breath. After about twenty seconds, the feeling passed, and I began breathing normally once more. I nodded. “Yes, thanks to you. Where were you?”

  “On top of Ramses,” Violet replied casually.

  I looked up, shielding my eyes from the sun, to the top of the statues, sixty five feet high, and my head spun at the thought. How on earth had she gotten up there, especially without being seen? Who knew? That was Violet’s magic.

  “Now, the crowd must have passed, let us get to our prisoner.”

  Sure enough, at this point, most of the people at the site were making a beeline for the exit, having decided that this was enough excitement for one day in Egypt.

  “You threw the rock from up there and managed to hit him?” I asked, impressed.

  “It is simple physics, nothing more,” Violet replied with a shrug, and I shook my head.

  “I know a lot of people who are very good at physics who couldn’t have m
anaged that. It’s very Death on the Nile, isn’t it? Throwing a rock off a ledge and hitting someone.”

  “Ah, but I have not read that murder mystery of yours,” Violet replied as we turned the corner. To my surprise, Lewis was gone, and so was the gun.

  “Merde,” Violet swore. “Where did he go?”

  “There,” I said, pointing toward the lake. Was he honestly going to try and swim away? I was fairly certain there were crocodiles in the lake.

  “Lewis, stop,” Violet ordered, and he did as she asked. Obviously someone else had gotten to the gun before he’d woken up because he didn’t have it on him anymore.

  “Are you happy?” he asked. “You’re not going to get the jewels back. I’m going to jump in the lake, and I’m going to be eaten. Now no one will ever get the jewels.”

  “Please,” Violet said, rolling her eyes. “You have left the jewels in the farm of your family’s summer home in Norway.”

  Lewis’ face fell, and I knew instantly that Violet was right.

  “How in God’s name would you know that?” he asked, but Violet just gave him an enigmatic smile in return.

  “Come on. It is too hot for games. Come back with me, and you will be arrested and extradited when we arrive once more in Aswan.”

  Lewis stared at the waters of Lake Nasser, looked at Violet once more, and then sighed and allowed himself to be taken away.

  Chapter 2

  “You know, you should read this book,” I said, pointing to my paperback of Death on the Nile as Violet and I sat in a couple of chairs at the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan. The sun teetered close to the horizon as we sat in our chairs overlooking Elephantine Island and the Nile River. The fans on the ceiling of the covered balcony offered a welcome reprieve from the hot sun of the day, and the hibiscus iced tea I drank was divine. We had driven back to Aswan with Lewis in the back of the car as our prisoner, where he admitted to everything. He had been the mastermind behind the jewel theft in 2018. Violet had been convinced to take on this case after hearing the case of the man currently behind bars for the crime, and decided that he was innocent.

  Frankly, she had done most of it without me. I was busy at work, but when I got a text asking me if I wanted to come to Egypt for a long weekend, I immediately accepted.

  I hadn’t expected to be shot at, but I supposed at this point I should have been used to it. It was an occupational hazard when one was friends with Violet Despuis.

  She shrugged. “It does not interest me.”

  “Well, it should. After all, it features a famous French detective, and the first part of the book takes place in this very hotel. In fact, in one part, Poirot is sitting in this very same restaurant as we are.”

  “He is Belgian, not French,” Violet retorted, and I grinned.

  “I knew it. I knew you’d read Agatha Christie.”

  “Just because I know basic facts of English literature does not mean I have read the books. Why would I read such made-up cases when I solve real ones on my own?”

  “Fine,” I said with a shrug. “But I think it’s cool.”

  In fact, we were staying in the very hotel where Agatha Christie had written Death on the Nile, and earlier that day, I had taken a tour with one of the concierges at the hotel who had shown me the room where she stayed for a few months. On display in one corner were the desk and chair she wrote at.

  “You are surrounded by thousands of years of history,” Violet replied. “And yet the most impressive thing to you is that book.”

  “That’s not true at all,” I protested. “I found the hieroglyphs inside the temple to be really interesting. What little I saw of them, anyway.”

  “Good. We are in Egypt, one of the most beautiful and oldest civilizations on the planet. There is so much to see here.”

  “And yet we fly back to England in just a couple of days. You were just here to catch Lewis, weren’t you?”

  “That was the main goal of this trip, I admit.”

  “Well, he’s going to spend a good long time in jail now.”

  “Yes, that he will,” Violet replied. We had dropped him off at the main police station in Aswan, where a couple of Swedish detectives who had flown out on Violet’s say-so were ready and waiting to extradite him back to their home country. He was out of our hands now.

  “So what’s the plan for tomorrow?”

  “Have you ever seen the pyramids?”

  Landing at Heathrow after a few days in Egypt could only be described as depressing. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my adopted city. But after a winter of gloomy, overcast weather and an early spring of gloomy, rainy weather, the few days of glorious sunshine—to the point of feeling like my skin was baking most of the time—were incredibly welcome, and landing to yet more gloomy and rainy weather wasn’t particularly pleasant.

  “I can’t wait until June,” I muttered as we walked through the airport. “I miss the sun already.”

  “You can take the girl out of San Francisco…” Violet started, trailing off.

  “Oh, please. You can’t tell me you’d take this terrible weather over the nice, warm sun beating down on the Sahara Desert any day of the week.”

  Violet grinned at me. “You are correct. It was quite pleasant, really, to get to escape the gloom for a few days. But we are returned, and there is nothing to do but wait for summer and hope that it does not rain through that season as well.”

  “Now there’s a depressing thought,” I said as we climbed onto the train that would take us speeding back toward downtown.

  “I’m home,” I called out to Jake, who was pet-and-apartment sitting while I’d been gone. I was immediately greeted not by my boyfriend but by Sequoia, the gorgeous mutt who we’d adopted together and lived at my place, thanks to Jake’s landlord refusing to allow pets. As a result, not only had I adopted Sequoia, but it seemed I’d also adopted Jake, who was now spending more and more time at my place as the two of us worked together to take good care of her.

  Her tail wagged so hard, I was worried she’d strain it as she whined, running around my legs in circles.

  “I missed you, too, girl,” I said, reaching down to rub her behind the ears. Biscuit, on the other hand, was sitting on the window ledge, in a ray of sunshine, looking at the whole scene disapprovingly as though he was better than Sequoia by refusing to give me any attention.

  “I missed you, too, buddy,” I said to him as I walked past, giving him a quick rub on his head. He let out a nonchalant meow.

  “Hey, how was Egypt?” Jake asked, yawning as he came out from the bedroom.

  “Great! I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

  Jake shook his head, stifling another yawn as he did so. I couldn’t help but appreciate how good his hair looked when it was tousled in that just-got-out-of-bed look. “No, don’t worry. I got a text about three minutes ago. I’ve got to go in to work. Apparently a body just got dragged out of the Thames.”

  “Aren’t there other pathologists who can deal with it?”

  “We’re short-staffed, and I’m the only one who can handle a suspected murder.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Murder, you say?”

  “Yeah. Don’t get too excited. It was probably just someone stabbing someone else after a bar fight, and there’ll be video footage of it. Open-and-shut case and an easy ‘W’ for the good guys.”

  I laughed. “Don’t worry, after the chase that took down our jewel thief, I don’t have any intention of looking for more cases to solve.”

  “I can’t wait to hear all about it, but unfortunately, it’s going to have to wait until I get back,” he said, planting a quick kiss on my lips before heading out the door.

  I yawned, realized I was exhausted, and went into the bedroom myself, flopping down onto the bed, the body in the Thames already forgotten.

  Chapter 3

  When I woke up, I found I had three text messages from Violet.

  I have a new case, and it requires your expertise.

  Wake up.
br />   It is the middle of the afternoon. Why are you asleep?

  The third text was sent two minutes ago. I groaned and rolled over, grabbing my pillow and pressing it hard against my face as if willing myself to go back to sleep. But I knew that was it. I was intrigued, and I wasn’t going to be able to sleep again.

  Getting shot at is tiring, I sent back as I forced myself out of bed.

  That was three days ago, Violet replied, and I laughed as I headed out the door.

  Knocking on Violet’s door a minute later—it was easy when she lived just down the street—she immediately answered, ready to go.

  “Good,” she said. “I want your expertise with this. I have it on good authority that there is a body that was pulled from the river this morning that we want to see.”

  I let out a groan. “Okay, not only do I not want to see a body that’s been in the water for any amount of time right now, but Jake can tell you everything you need to know.”

  Violet shook her head. “No. Jake is a good doctor and a good pathologist, but he thinks too simply. He does not have the mind of a detective, whereas you do. You are more creative than him, scientifically. However, you do complain a lot more.”

  “That’s all part of my charm,” I replied. “Besides, you woke me up from my nap.”

  “I prevented you from having your sleep schedule be knocked out of whack from the flight,” Violet corrected.

  “Whatever.”

  Half an hour later, the two of us were staring at the body of an older woman, probably in her sixties, if I had to guess.

  “She can’t have been in the water long,” I said. Frankly, if it weren’t for the fact that I’d known ahead of time that she had been dragged from the river and for the still-damp clothes and hair on her body, I’m not sure I would have picked it at first glance. There was none of the bloating or discoloration one normally saw with drowning victims, and for that, I was grateful.