Free The Egyptian Curse by Dan Andriacco, Kieran McMullen

people.”
    â€œDid Alfie know how you felt?”
    â€œHe never said so, and I tried hard to be a good wife. But a woman can’t hide her feelings. I think that’s why he spent so much time away from home. Charles was the only one who knew how unhappy I had been. I had to confide in someone. He, at least, understood both wanting to please Daddy and fearing the loss of his love and help at the same time. After all,” she smiled sideways at Enoch, “he had been through much the same thing.”
    â€œAnd what happened the night of the argument? What was it about?” That’s what he had been building up to.
    â€œAlfie was jealous of a photograph that he found in my bag. I don’t know how he came to be looking in there. Maybe he guessed that there was such a photograph. At any rate, that’s what he found - a picture of the man I realize now is the only man I have ever loved.”
    She reached into the silk-lined depths of her black dress bag and pulled out the photo. With a shy look on her pretty face, she handed it to Hale.
    Hale recognized it right away. The picture was in a cellulite envelope, like those used by stamp collectors. It showed no wear and had been carefully taken care of, probably only recently added back to her purse. The image showed Sarah at Murray’s Night Club. The man next to her, with his hand on hers, was a slightly younger Enoch Hale.

Finding the Alibi
    â€œIf this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.”
    â€“ William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night , 1601
    Hale remembered when the photo had been taken, one night when they were out with Tom Eliot shortly after the Hangman Murders were solved.
    He could feel his neck turning red.
    â€œYou sure had a unique way of showing your love,”
    he said. “You married another guy.”
    Sarah winced. “I was worse than a fool, Enoch; I was a romantic fool. We were in Egypt. Alfie seemed every bit the intrepid amateur archeologist. The excavation season hadn’t even begun yet and Alfie had never picked up a trowel in his life, but somehow that didn’t matter. When he proposed under the stars in the Valley of the Kings, it seemed so romantic that I just didn’t know how to say no.”
    â€œIf you’d sent me a wire, I could have told you how.”
    As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Hale wished that he could take them back. Sarah flinched as though he’d slapped her, and he hadn’t intended that. He shook his head, shrugged his shoulders, and moved on.
    â€œRollins said you told him the maid must have heard wrong. Why did you lie?”
    â€œDon’t you see, Enoch?” Her voice was pleading. “I didn’t want you brought into this. I didn’t realize that you would be anyway, just because of what we once were to each other.”
    And could be again? Was that what she was trying to imply?
    Hale stood and walked around the conference table trying to gather his thoughts. He needed to concentrate on the issue at hand. On balance, he didn’t like it that she lied to Rollins. Her reason sounded good, but if she lied to Scotland Yard she could lie to a Yankee reporter who had been head over heels in love with her. And still was? Hale wasn’t sure, and this was no time to try to work it out. However he felt about Sarah, she could be lying about the argument with Alfie. Maybe it was about another man and she didn’t want Hale to know about him anymore than she wanted Rollins to.
    â€œI’m so thankful you have an alibi,” Sarah added.
    â€œYes, I was at a performance of Aida at Covent Garden. The woman I was with can attest to that.” Sarah looked hurt, as though he had betrayed her - which was ridiculous. She was the one who had married before he’d had a chance to propose. What did she care how he spent his Sunday evening? But then, she had once been an actress of a sort. If she wanted to