Free McGrave's Hotel by Steve Bryant Page B

bring her to the Egyptian suite, but Fawn had argued that it was on the way back to her own. “You are staying in the penthouse ,” he had countered to no avail. “ Everything is on the way back to your suite.”
    Mohammed Bey considered the girl. “I suppose it matters little anyway,” he said. “Soon our loss will be known to all the world. Until then, I trust you and your companion to be discreet.”
    In a voice racked with shame, Mohammed Bey revealed his secret. “We are mystified,” he told James. “Against all logic, against all our efforts, the mummy of Queen Siti has vanished. We are certain she has been stolen by the most evil of villains.”
    Abasi and the other guards stood with their heads hanging. They had been responsible for protecting her.
    “I don’t understand,” James said. “Was she left alone?”
    “Never, according to Abasi,” Mohammed Bey said. “All four guards were in this salon the entire time. No one entered the bedchamber, and no one exited the bedchamber. They heard nothing. My colleagues and I were dining at the time in your restaurant with the distinguished visitors from the Brooklyn Museum. What they must think of us!”
    “May we see?” said James.
    Fawn lingered in the salon as James and Mohammed Bey entered the bedchamber, where the golden coffin stood open. The jewelry and other artifacts appeared untouched.
    “They didn’t steal the golden coffin?” James said. “Or the jewelry? So this was not a theft motivated by money. Strange!”
    “It is most puzzling,” said Mohammed Bey. “The golden casket is worth millions of dollars. Some consider the jewels to be priceless.”
    James removed his magnifying glass from his pocket and passed it over the coffin, but he saw no fingerprints to turn over to the authorities, no scratch marks to indicate tampering. The beautiful face of Queen Siti, shaped in gold by craftsmen three thousand years ago, told him nothing.
    “This golden container was locked?” he said. “She was removed from here?”
    “Ah, on that point that I must make a confession,” said Mohammed Bey. “From nation to nation, religion to religion, modern times to ancient times, there are different customs regarding the handling of the dead. For those of us who serve our most revered ancestors, the custom is to make the dead comfortable. In this situation, our queen was removed from the case in which she travels through the underworld and placed directly upon this fine bed, closely surrounded by her favorite possessions. In the morning, after an easy night’s repose, she would have been placed back into her protective shell.”
    This practice surprised James. An uncovered mummy lying in the open on a hotel bed struck him as a little ghoulish, but it was still a rather mild “infraction” compared to most things that went on behind closed doors at McGrave’s. A hotel that catered to the likes of vampires and werewolves had its secrets.
    James noted that the sheet on the bed seemed pristine and undisturbed and that all the artifacts—the sword, the perfume bottles, the jewelry—were lined up perfectly. How could she have been spirited away? The windows looking out onto the Milky Way spray of city lights were sealed tight, as were all windows at McGrave’s. The management wouldn’t want anyone to jump, despite the many excellent reasons that tended to crop up. The guards had not left their posts and were only a room away. No one could have gotten past them. Was some strange magic at work?
    “Do you have any guesses who might have done this? Or why?” James asked.
    “Who can say? Perhaps some blackguard wishes to hold Queen Siti for ransom, for even more money than a golden coffin or exquisite jewelry might earn. Or some political enemy of our country wishes to embarrass our government. Or some crazed collector wishes to acquire her for his private museum. Who knows how many forms of villainy walk the land?”
    James could not imagine how the theft