Read The Forty Column Castle for Free Online Page B

neighbor. Lonnie’s right, Claudie. Appearances can be
     deceiving.”
    I stopped stirring my drink. “My aunt is innocent.” I enunciated each word carefully.
     I did not want to hear about people with double identities. This conversation was
     going in a direction I did not want it to go.
    “Look,” I said, taking a deep breath to calm the quaver I heard in my voice. I didn’t
     want to sound like I was falling apart. “I lived in the same house with my aunt in
     Boston until I went out on my own after college. I knew her daily routine. Up at six
     A.M., bath, have a cup of coffee, listen to the Today Show while she dressed, off
     to her job at the library where she had worked for thirty years. She never married,
     never had a serious beau. I knew her friends, some of them men. I wasn’t with her
     every waking moment, but she always liked to chat about her day and, if she went out,
     about the people she was with, what she had done. We shared secrets. This is not the
     kind of person with a double identity.”
    The three of them kept their eyes on me while I talked, like they wanted to believe
     me. But I knew in the back of their minds lingered that niggling doubt, the idea that
     double identities led very ordinary lives on the surface. Did my aunt have another
     life under her very ordinary surface? The doubt was in my mind. I had to get to the
     bottom of this.
    “If I have to get her out of this all by myself, I will.” I spoke it like a dare,
     and my bravado created a huge, uncomfortable silence. I didn’t care. I didn’t need
     their doubts. I needed their help.
    Finally, Yannis, the diplomat, spoke up to smooth the waters. “Of course, your aunt
     is innocent, Claudie. We are just asking the tough questions that need to be asked.”
    “Let me throw another stick on the fire,” said Zach. “Lonnie, do you know anyone who
     drives a beat up blue Maruti? It looks like an American Jeep. This one had no top,
     medium blue color, bad paint job. Today at the beach up on the cliff a guy was standing
     by a Maruti with binoculars trained on us.”
    Zach and Yannis had seen the Maruti, too, and we had talked about it on the way to
     the California Bar. None of us had recognized the vehicle, and by the time we had
     finished our swim the Maruti was gone. It seemed odd to all three of us and maybe
     more than a coincidence that we were at that beach and the Maruti was, too.
    “A beat up Maruti? asked Lonnie. “The American couple from the archeological project
     drives a blue Maruti this trip. They said they rented it.”
    Zach sat up straighter. “Did they say where they rented it?”
    “Probably the place out along Tomb of Kings road. That’s closest to where they stay.”
    “Thanks,” said Zach, and he looked at me. “We’ll pay that place a visit.”
    “It would be worth a try,” I said. “I want to talk to the widows, and I’d like to
     talk to their landlord to see what he knows about them. Can we do this tonight because
     tomorrow morning at nine I have to get my aunt out of jail?”
    “I’ll go by to see the landlord,” Yannis said. “He doesn’t speak English well, so
     it’s best if I go.”
    “Since the car rental place is probably closed for the evening, I’ll visit the widows
     again,” I said.
    Zach held up his hand. “I think going alone might be dangerous, if these ladies are
     mixed up in something.”
    “Wait,” Lonnie said, “I could pay the widows a visit since I know them the best, and
     I wouldn’t be like a total stranger calling. I’ll try to find out who they were socializing
     with when they weren’t on tour. I’ll pretend like I’m checking to see if they want
     to go on a special tour this week. Mrs. Crawford’s been flirting with me, so I’m sure
     she’d invite me in for a drink.”
    “Going for older women these days?” I asked.
    He laughed. “Hey, she’s not bad looking for an old lady and flirting with the ladies
     is good for business. But,