The Snake Catcher's Daughter Read Online Free PDF Page B

waiter.
    “Garvin ought to be interested,” he said. “Or so they say.”
    He went off through the tables. Owen sipped his coffee and searched his memory. The name meant nothing to him.
    On the other side of the street he saw someone he knew and waved to him. The man waved back and came across. His name was Georgiades. Another Greek, but this time definitely not an Effendi. No tarboosh, an open-necked shirt, casual, crumpled cotton trousers held up by a belt over which his stomach bulged uncomfortably. He pointed proudly to it.
    “See that?” he said. “Another notch! Rosa’s cutting down on the food. It’s been a struggle for her. All Greek women are taught to fatten their husbands up but she’s decided she’s had enough. It’s fattening the goose for killing, she says. She and her grandmother are at loggerheads again over it.”
    He sat down at Owen’s table and mopped his brow. There were dark patches of sweat beneath his armpits, on his chest, on his back and even on the thighs of his trousers.
    “Does the name Philipides mean anything to you?” said Owen.
    The Greek thought for a bit, then nodded.
    “Why?”
    “I don’t know,” said Owen, “but someone’s just told me the Mamur Zapt, above all, ought to know. Above all. That’s why I’m wondering.”
    “Ah, yes,” said Georgiades, “but which Mamur Zapt?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You or your predecessor?”
    “There was a gap,” said Owen. “McPhee stood in.”
    “No,” said Georgiades. “Before.”
    “There was something about corruption, wasn’t there?”
    “There was.”
    “And Philipides was something to do with it?”
    “That’s right.”
    “Can you give me some details?”
    Georgiades considered.
    “I think perhaps you ought to ask Garvin,” he said.

----
Chapter 3
    « ^ »
    Philipides?” said Garvin, musing. “So he’s out, is he?”
    “Does it interest you?”
    “Not much. They’ve all got to come out sometime.”
    “My informant thought it should interest you.”
    Garvin shrugged.
    “I can’t think why.”
    “Is there a chance he might be looking for revenge?”
    “I put him inside, certainly. But he can hardly complain about that. He was as crooked as they come.”
    “Is there any reason for him to have a particular grudge against you?”
    “Not really. The Parquet handled it all. I was just one of the witnesses. Mind you, I set the traps.”
    “Perhaps that was it.”
    “I wouldn’t have thought so. There was nothing special about it.”
    “It caught him,” Owen pointed out.
    “I’ve caught lots of people,” said Garvin. “That doesn’t mean to say they all want revenge. No, if there was anyone who wanted to get his own back, it wouldn’t be him.”
    “Who would it be, then?”
    “His boss.”
    “Who was?”
    Garvin grinned.
    “Guess,” he suggested.
    “The Mamur Zapt?”
    “You’ve been talking to someone.”
    “Georgiades. He suggested I talk to you!”
    Garvin was amused.
    “Prudent fellow,” he said.
    “What’s it all about?”
    “It’s straightforward, really. It was not long after I moved here from Alexandria. There was a lot to sort out. My God, you’d never believe how much there was, they were back in the last century—”
    “McPhee here then?”
    “No, that was later. He came
because
of this. Anyway, one day I got home and found a small parcel on the hall table. I opened it and found a pair of diamond earrings. I was a bit surprised, thought my wife had been buying things; hell, we hadn’t got much money in those days, so I asked her about it when she got back. She didn’t know anything about the parcel. Anyway, I asked around and found that it had been brought by one of Philipides’s orderlies. So the next morning I had Philipides in and asked him about it. He said, big mistake, it was meant for someone else, the orderly had got confused. Anyway, I let him have the earrings back and thought no more about it.”
    “And what was Philipides at this