The Fig Tree Murder. Michael Pearce

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СКАЧАТЬ ‘All the same, the Old Man would like you to take an interest.’

      ‘It’s not political.’

      ‘Listen,’ said Paul, ‘if someone as rich as the Baron asks the Old Man to do him a favour, then it is political.’

      ‘So you didn’t go there?’ said McPhee, disappointed.

      ‘Well, no, I’m afraid not,’ said Owen guiltily.

      ‘A pity. You were so close to it. And it’s a site of considerable religious interest, you know. The Virgin and Child are said to have rested under the tree on their flight into Egypt. In fact, according to some chronicles, Mary hid herself from Herod’s soldiers in its branches. There is a tradition that a spider spun its web over the entrance to her hiding place so as to conceal her.’

      ‘Really?’

      ‘Interesting, isn’t it? Echoes of both Robert Bruce and the spider and of King Charles in the oak! Extraordinary!’

      ‘Fascinating! Well, I must go, I can hear the phone in my office—’

      It was from someone on the staff of the Khedive.

      ‘We understand you’re taking an interest in the progress of the new electric railway?’

      ‘A certain interest, yes.’

      ‘Quite a lot of interest, we hope. His Royal Highness is very concerned that the line is not advancing as rapidly as had been anticipated.’

      ‘I’m sure that the contractors will soon be on top of any problems.’

      ‘Technical ones, yes; but what about the political ones?’

      ‘Political ones?’

      ‘The attempt by certain people to use the Heliopolis project as an occasion to advance their own narrow Nationalist interests.’

      ‘In what way?’

      ‘By seeing that the project is never completed. His Highness has asked me to emphasize that he regards the success of the project as a matter of honour, both his own, and the country’s.’

      ‘I see.’

      ‘Good. His Highness hoped that you would.’

      Owen had hardly put the phone down before it was ringing again. This time it was Muhammed Rabbiki, a veteran member of the National Assembly and an important figure in the Nationalist Party.

      ‘Ah, Captain Owen, a word with you. We understand that you’re taking an interest in this sad affair at Matariya?’

      ‘A limited interest, yes.’

      ‘But why limited? Important issues are at stake.’

      ‘Are there? All I know is that a man’s body has been found on the line, and that, of course, is a matter chiefly for the Parquet.’

      ‘Oh, Captain Owen, I’m sure you know more than that! How did the body come to be on the line? Who put it there? And for what reason?’

      ‘All these are, as I say, questions for the Parquet. My concerns are restricted to the political.’

      ‘But, Captain Owen, what if the answers to these questions are political?’

      ‘How could they be?’

      ‘Suppose the body were a plant? Designed to have a certain effect?’

      ‘What sort of effect?’

      ‘I am sure I have no need to tell you, Captain Owen. But one thing I can say with confidence, that it certainly is not intended to be in the interests of the workers, neither the workers on the Heliopolis project nor workers in general in Egypt.’

      ‘Aren’t you making too much of this, Mr Rabbiki?’

      The politician chuckled hoarsely.

      ‘I’m just making sure that you don’t make too little of it, Captain Owen. And in order to make quite sure, I shall put down a question in the Assembly from time to time. We shall all be following your progress with great interest, Captain Owen.’

      McPhee stuck his head in at the door.

      ‘About the Tree, Owen—’

      ‘Look, thanks, I’ve got something else on my mind just at the moment.’

      ‘But it’s to do with the business at Matariya.’

      McPhee came worriedly into the room.

      ‘Apparently, there’s been a development. There’s a rather difficult religious sheikh in the village, it seems—’

      ‘Yes. I’ve met him.’

      ‘Well, he’s bringing the Tree into it.’

      ‘He’s what?’

      ‘Bringing the Tree into it. It’s a Christian site, you see, of particular interest to Copts, but not just Copts, Catholics too. The balsam—’

      ‘What the hell’s the Tree got to do with it?’

      ‘Well, he says it’s not just an accident that the man was killed at that particular spot. It’s within the zone of influence of the Tree, and—’

      ‘So, it’s become an issue between Muslims and Christians?’ said Paul.

      ‘That’s right. As well.’

      Paul took another drink. Then he put down his glass.

      ‘Political enough for you yet?’ he said maliciously.

      ‘First, I’m going to arrest the bloody Tree,’ said Owen.

      When Owen got out of the train, the ordinary steam-train this time, at Matariya Station, he could see ahead of him the broad white track which led to Heliopolis. Away on the skyline were half-finished houses and men busy on a large construction of some sort: the new hotel, he supposed.

      Nearer at hand, over to his right, a pair of humped oxen, blindfolded, were working a sagiya, or water-wheel. Its groan followed him as he walked.

      Far to his left, above the mud parapet which hemmed in the waters of the Nile, he could see the tall sails of gyassas, like the wings of huge brown birds, gliding along the river. Closer to was the great white gash of the advancing end of the new railway. It was somewhere over there that he must have been two days before.

      The track led through a vast field of young green wheat, away in the middle of which an ancient obelisk thrust upwards at the sky.

      McPhee, he told himself, would have loved it: both the biblical landscape and the reminder of something even older, the original Heliopolis, City of the Sun, where Plato and Pythagoras had walked and talked, buried now, perhaps even beneath this very field of wheat.

      McPhee СКАЧАТЬ