Murder on the Eightfold Path Read Online Free PDF Page A

the subject, demanding rhetorically, “What the heck am I going to do for a week?”
    “Why, any number of things. Catch up on your reading, watch a little telly, eat. It’ll be like a holiday.”
    “Sure, except for the excruciating pain part.”
    Elysia, bundling the used sheets from A.J.’s bed, frowned. “Are you in excruciating pain?”
    “It hurts a lot,” A.J. admitted although she hated to sound like a wimp.
    She stared at the ceiling as her mother took the laundry out. Monster jumped stiffly off the bed and followed her down the hall.
    When Elysia returned with A.J.’s breakfast, A.J. said, “I guess I could take a look at the book Aunt Di was working on when she—before she—”
    A.J. had discovered the completed manuscript when she had first gone through her aunt’s study. Every so often it occurred to her that she should do something with it, but she had been uncertain how to proceed.
    “What a good idea!” Elysia said. She helped A.J. sit up, settled the tray over A.J.’s knees, and stepped back as though to study her handiwork.
    “What was the book about?” she asked, watching A.J. sample scrambled eggs.
    “It was a memoir. It seemed to be mostly finished. It might just be a matter of finding a publisher.”
    “Perfect. Where is this tome?”
    A.J. told Elysia where to find the manuscript and Elysia brought the box with loose-leaf papers and notes and Aunt Diantha’s rough draft. Studying her daughter’s supine position, she said, “Perhaps I could pick up one of those laptop writing desks . . .”
    “I already have a couple of trays, it’s the having to lie flat part,” A.J. said. She added thoughtfully, “You seem awfully interested in keeping me occupied.”
    “Idle hands are the devil’s playpen, pumpkin.”
    “ My idle hands are not the problem here.”
    Elysia’s expression was wide-eyed and innocent.
    “I know that look,” A.J. said. “I don’t trust it. Or you. Tell me about Dicky. How did you meet him? He was on the cruise that you took last year?”
    “Oh, you don’t want to hear about all that.”
    “You’re right. But I think I’d better.”
    Elysia leaned against the footboard of the bed. “It’s not particularly fascinating, you know. We met on the cruise, yes. He was doing a series of lectures on ancient Egypt. Nothing too heavy, of course. Mostly slide shows and chatting.”
    “He was employed by the cruise line?”
    Elysia looked thoughtful. “I’m not absolutely certain. I believe technically he was employed by the Supreme Council of Antiquities, but had been seconded to the cruise line. They tried to break up the shuffleboard and miniature golf with a few cultural activities.”
    “How did you get involved?”
    Elysia shrugged elaborately.
    A.J. asked curiously, “Did you pursue him?”
    “Not really. I wasn’t looking for anything like that .”
    A.J. decided she’d be happier not knowing what that was. “So what happened? Just your ordinary average shipboard romance ending in blackmail and murder?”
    “I believe so, yes.”
    “You’re not being very helpful, Mother.”
    Elysia looked mildly pained. “It’s not as though I anticipated this, pumpkin. I was on holiday and I was enjoying myself. Dicky was . . . charming. We had great fun together and then . . . we didn’t.”
    Casting her mind back, A.J. recalled that Elysia had ended the cruise early, leaving the ship in Edfu, so perhaps the seeds of the affair’s violent ending had been sown even then? Except that her mother could not possibly have had anything to do with Mr. Massri’s demise, of that A.J. was certain.
    “When did he start blackmailing you?”
    “Weellllll,” Elysia sounded vague. “Perhaps blackmail was putting it rather harshly. He began to hint that he had certain expenses.”
    “What kind of expenses?”
    “The usual sort of thing. His tailor, his mechanic, his bookie. I didn’t think much of it.”
    “His bookie ?”
    “Not back in Egypt, of course. But