Free Nefertiti by Nick Drake Page B

He did not seem interested in a discussion of the virtues of natron.
    'What a mess. Do you really think it's not her?' 'That remains to be seen. Indeed it seems to be, but there are many possibilities.'
    'But how will you know?' 'By looking at what is there.'
    We began at her feet. Her sandals were leather and gold. The soles of her feet were not cracked, and the skin was soft and clean. A woman of leisure. The bones of the ankles were neatly turned. Her toenails were painted red, but scuffed and scratched. There were dry smears of something on the sides of her feet. 'Look.'
    Tjenry moved his face closer to the foot.
    'What do you see?'
    'The nails are carefully manicured.'
    'But?'
    'But they are scuffed. The varnish here is marked. And I see here, on the outside of the little toes, scratches, and traces of blood and dust.' 'Better. And from this we deduce what?' 'A struggle.'
    'Yes, a struggle. This woman was dragged along against her will. But this we could anticipate. See among the toes? What do we find?'
    I scraped between the big toe and its neighbour, and into my hand fell not only traces of sand but also a tiny deposit of darker dust: dried river mud. I moved to her hands. They too bore the marks of conflict: bruises to the knuckles, damaged nails and grazed skin. I examined under the nails. More mud. Perhaps the killers had ferried her across or along the river, in which case the river mud might be accounted for as they forced her, still alive, from the boat. But there was something else. With tweezers I drew from between the fingers clenched in death a long auburn hair. Strange. This woman's hair was black. Whose hair was this? Was it a woman's or a man's? The length told me nothing. I held it up to the lamplight. It appeared to be undyed and from a living head, not a wig. I sniffed it, and believed I caught the faintest trace of a subtle perfume, rather than any beeswax setting lotion.
    I moved up to the torso and was about to begin to examine the clothing when the door slammed open and to my alarm Akhenaten himself entered. Khety, Tjenry and I dropped to the floor, faces down, by the table. I heard him move across the room and approach the body. This was a disaster. I still had none of the clues, those tiny shards of hope I needed in order to prove my instinct true. I desperately needed to examine the body and confirm my findings before informing Akhenaten. Now it must look as if I was working behind his back, to cover up the murder and the body of the Queen, and my own incompetence and failure. I swore at myself, wishing I had never come, never left Thebes. But here I was, trapped by my own ambition and curiosity.
    I quickly glanced up. He was standing beside the body, his hands slowly moving across it, his eyes wide in rapt concentration, breathing with deep, uneven gasps as if in pain, as if trying to sense the spirit still hovering, as if he would try to raise her from the dead. He seemed mesmerized by the catastrophe of her face, as if he had never thought beauty were skin deep, as if he could not believe his Queen was mortal. It seemed to me in that moment that he loved her.
    I thought: how ironic we should meet our fates in an embalmers' workshop. All we needed to do was step quietly into a coffin, close the lid, and wait for death.
    Finally he seemed able to speak. 'Who did this?'
    I had to say it. 'Lord, I do not know.'
    He nodded sympathetically, as if I were a child in school who had failed to answer a simple question. He continued with a quietness that was more menacing than any shout. 'Did you hope to keep this secret from me until you had worked out a story to defend your failure to answer this simple question?'
    'No, Lord.'
    'Do not disagree with me.'
    'It is the question I am trying to answer, Lord. It is not a simple question. And forgive me for saying so at this time, but there is another question.'
    His glare was intense with contempt. 'What other question could there be now? She is dead!'
    'The