The Mamur Zapt and the Spoils of Egypt. Michael Pearce

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СКАЧАТЬ Hamidullah,’ he said solemnly, ‘and therefore I have one more thing to ask you. You saw the hand; did you see the man?’

      ‘No, effendi.’

      ‘You saw the hand,’ said Owen. ‘Did you not see to whom it belonged?’

      ‘There were people standing. The lady stepped out to go round them. And then, as I watched, a hand reached out from among the people and gave her a push, a fierce push, as she went past. I saw only the hand.’

      ‘No face, no clothes?’

      Hamidullah shook his head.

      ‘There were people in the way. I saw only the hand.’

      ‘The hand must have been attached to an arm; tell me about the arm.’

      ‘I—I do not remember.’

      ‘How was it clothed? In a sleeve like mine or a sleeve like yours?’

      ‘Like mine, effendi.’

      ‘The colour?’

      ‘I do not remember.’

      ‘Blue? White?’

      Hamidullah hesitated.

      ‘Blue, I think, effendi.’

      ‘A fellah’s?’

      ‘I—I think so, effendi. Effendi, I am sorry. I did not see. It all happened so quickly.’

      Owen could get no more out of him. A hand in the crowd he had seen: but that had been all he had seen.

      ‘And that’s not enough,’ said Garvin, the Commandant of the Cairo Police.

      ‘Enough to constitute an assault, surely,’ objected McPhee, the Deputy Commandant.

      They were sitting in McPhee’s office. Owen had gone on to see him the moment he got back to the Bab-el-Khalk and McPhee, who took seriously any attack on a European, had asked Garvin to come in and join them.

      ‘Technically, perhaps,’ said Garvin. ‘But doesn’t it depend on the severity of the push?’

      ‘It was a violent push,’ said Owen. ‘Both Miss Skinner and Hamidullah said so.’

      ‘A well-to-do lady, genteel, in Cairo for the first time? Not used to Cairo crowds? Any push would probably seem violent to her.’

      ‘Hamidullah thought so too.’

      ‘Well,’ said Garvin, who had been twenty years in Egypt and knew his Cairenes, particularly the poorer ones, ‘isn’t the same likely to be true of him? Any push, given that it was to a Sitt, would seem violent to them.’

      ‘It was violent enough to make her fall over,’ Owen pointed out.

      ‘She was pushed, and she fell over. The two don’t have to be connected. Maybe she was just caught off balance.’

      ‘The tram is what bothers me,’ said McPhee.

      ‘Nothing to do with it. It just happened to be passing at the time. That’s all.’

      McPhee was unconvinced.

      ‘I’m not happy about it,’ he said. ‘Egyptians are not like that. They don’t go round pushing people. They’re like Hamidullah. They’d be shocked at anybody pushing a lady.’

      ‘A crowd,’ said Garvin. ‘Somebody standing in the way?’

      McPhee shook his head.

      ‘They’d go round them.’

      ‘In any case,’ said Owen, ‘it wasn’t like that. Not according to Hamidullah. He says she was the one who was going round. She stepped out to pass and then a hand came out and pushed her.’

      ‘That’s the bit I find—’ said McPhee.

      ‘A hand in the crowd!’ said Garvin. ‘That’s all. That’s not much to go on, is it? Not much to ask the Parquet to build a case on.’

      ‘We’ve got to do something about it,’ said McPhee. ‘We can’t just leave it. If only in the interests of the lady’s future protection.’

      Garvin was silent for a moment, turning things over.

      ‘Is that a factor, though?’

      ‘Of course it is!’ said McPhee. ‘Really—!’

      ‘Yes, but is it?’ Garvin insisted. He turned to Owen. ‘How long did you say she’d been in the country?’

      ‘Ten days.’

      ‘Hardly long enough to earn yourself an enemy, is it? And she’s not likely to have brought one with her!’

      ‘What are you saying?’

      ‘I’m just wondering whether the attack was directed against her personally.’

      ‘She was the one who was attacked, wasn’t she?’ said McPhee belligerently.

      ‘Yes, but not because she was Miss Skinner.’

      ‘Why, then?’

      ‘Because she was something else. A European—or seemed so to them. Or—how about this?—a European woman.’

      ‘Some fanatic?’

      ‘Offended because she was improperly dressed. Wasn’t wearing a veil.’

      ‘This is Cairo,’ Owen objected. ‘Surely they’re used to European women?’

      ‘Perhaps whoever pushed her was not.’

      ‘Or some brand of Nationalist. Offended, anyway.’

      There was a little silence.

      ‘It has to be something like that, doesn’t it?’ asked Garvin. ‘It couldn’t really be because of anything personal to Miss Skinner. She’s not been here long enough for that.’

      Owen thought about it.

      ‘You could be right,’ he said slowly.

      ‘And if I am,’ said Garvin, ‘we don’t have to worry about protecting her. It’s a one-off and won’t be repeated.’

      ‘It had better not be,’ said Owen. ‘Her uncle could be the next President of the United States.’

      McPhee went over to the window and poured himself some water from the earthenware pot standing there to cool.

      ‘It mightn’t be a bad idea if someone spoke to her. Tipped her off about the veil.’

      ‘Owen can do that.’

      ‘No, СКАЧАТЬ