"Hori - surely -"
Hori shook his head gravely.
"Renisenb, you are young and trusting. You think that everyone you know and love is just as they appear to you. You do not know the human heart and the bitterness - yes, and evil - it may contain."
"But who - which one -?"
Esa broke in briskly:
"Let us go back to this tale told by the herd boy. He saw a woman dressed in a dyed linen dress wearing Nofret's necklace. Now if it was no spirit, then he saw exactly what he said he did - which means that he saw a woman who was deliberately trying to appear like Nofret. It might have been Kait - it might have been zhaiyuedu.com - it might have been you, Renisenb! From that distance it might have been anyone wearing a woman's dress and a wig. Hush - let me go on. The other possibility is that the boy is lying. He told a tale that he had been taught to tell. He was obeying someone who had the right to command him and he may have been too dull-witted even to realize the point of the story he was bribed or cajoled to tell. We shall never know now because the boy is dead - in itself a suggestive point. It inclines me to the belief that the boy told a story he had been taught. Questioned closely, as he would have been today, that story could have been broken down - it is easy to discover with a little patience whether a child is lying."
"So you think we have a poisoner in our midst!" asked Hori.
"I do," said Esa. "And you?"
"I think so too," said Hori.
Renisenb glanced from one to the other of them in dismay.
Hori went on:
"But the motive seems to me far from clear."
"I agree," said Esa. "That is why I am uneasy. I do not know who is threatened next."
Renisenb broke in: "But - one of us?" Her tone was still incredulous.
Esa said sternly: "Yes, Renisenb - one of us. zhaiyuedu.com or Kait or Ipy, or Kameni, or Imhotep himself - yes, or Esa or Hori or even -" she smiled - "Renisenb."
"You are right, Esa," said Hori. "We must include ourselves."
"But why?" Renisenb's voice held wondering horror. "Why?"
"If we knew that, we'd know very nearly all we wanted to know," said Esa. "We can only go by who was attacked. Sobek, remember, joined Yahmose unexpectedly after Yahmose had commenced to drink. Therefore it is certain that whoever did it wanted to kill Yahmose, less certain that that person wished also to kill Sobek."
"But who could wish to kill Yahmose?" Renisenb spoke with skeptical intonation. "Yahmose, surely, of us all would have no enemies. He is always quiet and kindly."
"Therefore, clearly, the motive was not one of personal hate," said Hori. "As Renisenb says, Yahmose is not the kind of man who makes enemies."
"No," said Esa. "The motive is more obscure than that. We have here either enmity against the family as a whole, or else there lies behind all these things that covetousness against which the Maxims of Ptahotep warn us. It is, he says, a bundle of every kind of evil and a bag of everything that is blameworthy!"
"I see the direction in which your mind is tending, Esa," said Hori. "But to arrive at any conclusion we shall have to make a forecast of the future."
Esa nodded her head vigorously and her large wig slipped over one ear. Grotesque though this made her appearance, no one was inclined to laugh.
"Make such a forecast, Hori," she said.
Hori was silent for a moment or two, his eyes thoughtful. The two women waited. Then, at last, he spoke.
"If Yahmose had died as intended, then the principal beneficiaries would have been Imhotep's remaining sons, Sobek and Ipy - some part of the estate would doubtless have been set aside for Yahmose's children, but the administration of it would have been in their hands - in Sobek's hands in particular. Sobek would undoubtedly have been the greatest gainer. He would presumably have functioned as ka-priest during Imhotep's absences and would succeed to that office after Imhotep's death. But though Sobek benefited, yet Sobek cannot be the guilty person, since he himself drank of the poisoned wine so heartily that he died. Therefore, as far as I can see, the deaths of these two can benefit only one person - at the moment, that is - and that person is Ipy."
"Agreed," said Esa. "But I note, Hori, that you are far-seeing - and I appreciate your qualifying phrase. But let us consider Ipy. He is young and impatient; he has in many ways a bad disposition; he is at the age when the fulfillment of what he desires seems to him the most important thing in life. He felt anger and resentment against his elder brothers and considered that he had been unjustly excluded from participation in the family partnership. It seems, too, that unwise things were said to him by Kameni -"
"Kameni?"
It was Renisenb who interrupted. Immediately she had done so she flushed and bit her lip. Hori turned his head to look at her. The long, gentle, penetrating look he gave her hurt her in some indefinable way. Esa craned her neck forward and peered at the girl.
"Yes," she said. "By Kameni. Whether or not inspired by zhaiyuedu.com is another matter. The fact remains that Ipy is ambitious and arrogant, was resentful of his brothers' superior authority and that he definitely considers himself, as he told me long ago, the superior ruling intelligence of the family."
Esa's tone was dry.
Hori asked: "He said that to you?"
"He was kind enough to associate me with himself in the possession of a certain amount of intelligence."
Renisenb demanded incredulously:
"You think Ipy deliberately poisoned Yahmose and Sobek?"
"I consider it a possibility, no more. This is suspicion that we talk now - we have not yet come to proof. Men have killed their brothers since the beginning of time, knowing that the Gods dislike such killing, yet driven by the evils of covetousness and hatred. And if Ipy did this thing, we shall not find it easy to get proof of what he did, for Ipy, I freely admit, is clever."
Hori nodded.
"But as I say, it is suspicion we talk here under the sycamore. And we will go on now to considering every member of the household in the light of suspicion. As I say, I exclude the servants because I do not believe for one moment that anyone of them would dare do such a thing. But I do not exclude zhaiyuedu.com."
"zhaiyuedu.com?" cried Renisenb. "But zhaiyuedu.com is devoted to us all. She never stops saying so."
"It is as easy to utter lies as truth. I have known zhaiyuedu.com for many years. I knew her when she came here as a young woman with your mother. She was a relative of hers - poor and unfortunate. Her husband had not cared for her - and indeed zhaiyuedu.com was always plain and unattractive - and had divorced her. The one child she bore died in infancy. She came here professing herself devoted to your mother, but I have seen her eyes watching your mother as she moved about the house and courtyard - and I tell you, Renisenb, there was no love in them. No, sour envy was nearer the mark - and as to her professions of love for you all, I distrust them."
"Tell me, Renisenb," said Hori. "Do you yourself feel affection towards zhaiyuedu.com?"
"N-no," said Renisenb unwillingly. "I cannot. I have often reproached myself because I dislike her."
"Don't you think that that is because, instinctively, you know her words are false? Does she ever show her reputed love for you by any real service? Has she not always fomented discord between you all by whispering and repeating things that are likely to wound and cause anger?"
"Yes - yes, that is true enough."
Esa gave a dry chuckle.
"You have both eyes and ears in your head, most excellent Hori."
Renisenb argued:
"But my father believes in her and is fond of her."
"My son is a fool and always has been," said Esa. "All men like flattery - and zhaiyuedu.com applies flattery as lavishly as unguents are applied at a banquet! She may be really devoted to him - sometimes I think she is - but certainly she is devoted to no one else in this house."
"But surely she would not - she would not kill," Renisenb protested. "Why should she want to poison any of us? What good would it do her?"
