there any service in this place?’
Kane shrugged. ‘There isn’t a great deal of action around here. Most people sleep during the afternoon. They figure it’s too hot to do anything else.’
She smiled. ‘Well, they say travel broadens the mind.’
He went behind the bar. ‘Why don’t you go and sit on the terrace while I get you a drink? There’s a wind coming in from the sea. You might find it a little cooler.’
She nodded, walked out through the French windows and sat down in a large cane chair shaded by a gaudy umbrella. Kane opened the ancient icebox that stood under the bar and took out two large bottles of lager, so cold the moisture had frosted on the outside. He knocked off the caps on the edge of the zinc-topped bar, poured the contents into two tall, thin glasses and went out to the terrace.
She smiled up at him gratefully when he handed her the glass, and quickly swallowed some of the beer. She sighed. ‘I’d forgotten anything could be so cold. This place is like a furnace. Frankly, I can’t imagine anyone living here from choice.’
He offered her a cigarette. ‘Oh, it has its points.’
She smiled slightly. ‘I’m afraid they’ve escaped me so far.’
She leaned back against the faded cushions of her chair. ‘Mr Andrews told me you were from New York. That you were a lecturer in archaeology at Columbia.’
He nodded. ‘That was a long time ago.’
She said casually, ‘Are you married?’
He shrugged. ‘Divorced. My wife and I never hit it off.’
Ruth Cunningham flushed. ‘I’m sorry I brought it up. I hope I haven’t upset you?’
‘On the contrary,’ he said. ‘We all make mistakes. My wife’s was in assuming that university professors are well paid.’
‘And yours?’
‘Mine lay in imagining I could be content with the ordered calm of academic life. I’d only stuck it for Lillian’s sake. She set me free in more ways than one.’
‘And so you came East?’
‘Not at first. The Air Corps was offering a full-time flying course for one year, then four on the reserve. I did that. Trained as a regular pilot. It was after that I came out here. I was in Jordan with an American expedition six years ago, then I did some work for the Egyptian government, but it didn’t last long. I came to Dahrein with a German geologist who needed someone who could speak Arabic. When he left, I stayed.’
‘Don’t you ever feel like going back home?’
‘To what?’ he said. ‘An assistant-professorship trying to teach ancient history to students who don’t want to know?’
‘Has Dahrein anything better to offer?’
He nodded. ‘There’s something about the place that gets into your bones. This was once Arabia Felix – Happy Arabia. It was one of the most prosperous countries in the ancient world because the spice route from India to the Mediterranean passed through here. Now it’s just a barren waste, but up there in the hills, and north into the Yemen, is the last great treasure hoard for the archaeologist. City after city, some standing in ruins – like Marib, where the Queen of Sheba probably lived – others buried beneath the sand of centuries.’
‘So archaeology is still your first love,’ she said.
‘Very much so, but we didn’t come here to talk about me, Mrs Cunningham. Isn’t it time we got on to the subject of your husband?’
She took a slim gold case from her purse, selected a cigarette and tapped it thoughtfully against her thumbnail. ‘It’s difficult to know where to begin.’ She laughed ruefully. ‘I suppose I was always rather spoilt.’
Kane nodded. ‘It sounds possible. What about your husband?’
She frowned. ‘I met John Cunningham back home at some function or other. He was an Englishman from the School of Oriental Studies in London, lecturing at Harvard for a year. We got married.’
Kane raised his eyebrows. ‘Just like that?’
She nodded. ‘He was tall and distinguished and very English. I’d never met anything quite like him before.’
‘And when did the trouble start?’
She smiled slightly. ‘You’re very perceptive, Captain Kane.’ For a few moments she stared down into her glass. ‘To be perfectly honest, almost straightaway. I soon discovered that I’d married a man of strong principles, who believed in standing on his own two feet.’
‘That sounds reasonable enough.’
She shook her head and sighed. ‘Not to my father. He wanted him to join the firm, and John wouldn’t hear of it.’
Kane grinned. ‘Well, bully for John. What happened after that?’
She leaned back in her chair. ‘We lived in London. John had a research job at the University. Of course it didn’t pay very much, but my father had given me a generous allowance.’
‘To enable you to live in the style to which you were accustomed?’ he said, and there was something suspiciously close to amusement in his voice.
She flushed slightly. ‘That was the general idea.’
‘And your husband didn’t like it?’
She got to her feet, walked to the parapet and looked out across the harbour. ‘No, he didn’t like it one little bit.’ Her voice was flat and colourless, and when she turned to face him, he realized she was very near to tears. ‘He accepted the arrangement because he loved me.’
She came back to the table and sank down into her chair. Kane gently placed his hand on hers. ‘Would you care for another drink?’ She shook her head slightly and he shrugged and leaned back in his chair.
She pushed a tendril of hair back into place with one hand in a quick, graceful gesture and continued, ‘You see, my father was a self-made man. He had to fight every inch of the way and he told John pretty plainly that he didn’t think much of him.’
‘And how did that affect your husband?’
She shrugged. ‘I insisted on living in the way I’d been used to, and it took my own money to do it. John began to feel inadequate. Gradually he withdrew into himself. He spent more and more time at the University on his research. I think, in some crazy kind of way, he hoped he might make a name for himself.’
Kane sighed. ‘That makes sense. And then he walked out on you, I suppose?’
She nodded. ‘He didn’t come home from the University one night. He left a letter for me in his office. He told me not to worry. Something very important had come up and he had to go away for a few weeks.’
‘It still doesn’t explain why you’re looking for him here in Dahrein.’
‘I’m
