Nightmare in Morocco (14 page)

Moulay's dark face flushed in embarrassment
.
"Last time," he confessed, "my first wife thought I brought home a finer gift to my second wife
.
It caused much disharmony in our family
.
I do not wish to make the same mistake again."

Moulay, studying the display of women's gifts with such intense bewilderment, seemed for the first time to Noa to become human
.
Beneath the cool exterior, the sharp beard and hooded
djellaba
, Noa saw a worried husband, not so much different from the American men who lingered about the perfume counters around Christmas time
.
Except Moulay had not one, but two wives to please
.
And jealous wives, from the sound of it
.
Noa smiled to herself
.
Double jeopardy!

"I like this necklace," she volunteered
.

"That's a good choice," Belda affirmed
.
"What woman doesn't like pearls?"
Aside to Noa, she commented, "Having more than one wife could get expensive!"

"I'll buy two of these," Moulay started to tell the clerk.

Belda placed a restraining hand on his arm
.
"No!
No!
Never give two women the same gift!"

"I do not understand
.
If the gifts are the same, there will be no question that they are of equal value." Belda laughed and selected another necklace in lieu of the second strand of pearl
.
"For a man with two wives, you have a lot to learn about women!"

"I like him," Belda said, allowing Noa to guide her out to the hotel's garden area
.
"He is so very intelligent!
And religious, too!
Why, he told me when he gets wealthy enough he is going to work full time to better conditions for Moroccans!"

They found a stone bench and sat down beneath heavy leafed plants
.
"What did you do with my ring?" Belda whispered.

Noa brought a hand to her throat
.
"I've still got it on."

Belda looked surprised and amused.

"I'm going to make sure it doesn't leave my sight
.
Tomorrow, when we arrive in Fez, I'll turn the jewel over to Wendell Carlson
.
He'll see that it is transported to a reputable bank in Tangier."

"You're a jewel yourself, to go to all this trouble
.
It has to be someone in our tour group, doesn't it?"

"I'm afraid so."
Noa chose her next words carefully
.
"Belda, you mentioned that you had a large insurance policy on the ring."

"You surely don't think I...or Milton?"

Of course Belda had nothing to do with insurance fraud, not when she had been just an inch or two from death!

Belda patted her hand
.
"Don't worry about Milton
.
Miltie wouldn't squash a bug!"

Milton, lugging newspapers, entered the garden, calling out to them
.
"Beld
.
Let's go on up
.
I want to read." Noa, feeling lonely and isolated, watched them leave, and soon decided to go to her own room
.
Before the elevator doors closed, Moulay Aziz hurried forward
.
She remembered how he had been waiting outside in the hallway when she and Taber had come down earlier this evening, as if it had been his intent to follow them
.
Was he following her now?
The thought of being alone with him in the elevator frightened her.

Noa glanced at him, and Moulay nodded in a silent, polite way
.
For the first time, she noticed how one of his eyes was slightly out of focus
.
He seemed to be looking at her and also at some point beside her
.
His eyes, with their
bluish
, Berber cast, contrasted unnaturally with his very dark skin, and made him appear
sinister
.

The elevator reached her floor
.
Moulay got out, too, but disappeared quickly around the right hand corridor
.
Noa stood uneasily in front of her door before inserting her key.

Noa felt her own sharp intake of breath
.
Someone had been in her room
.
Nothing had been left untouched, unsearched
.
A drawer opened ever so slightly, pictures hung in not quite the same position
.
She drew further into the room
.
Her suitcase, closed and latched, was no longer in the exact place she had left it
.
She opened it, knowing that each garment had been rearranged, each bottle opened
.
The sneaky pilfering struck her as more formidable than if the entire room had been vandalized.

"Is there something wrong?"

Noa turned to where Taber stood at the open doorway. "Someone has been in my room."

Taber crossed to the phone
.
"I'm going to call the main desk and get security up here right away."

"No, Taber
.
Nothing seems to be missing."

"Why would anyone search your room?"

She turned away, stuffing clothes back in her case and reclosing it
.

"It looks to me as if they were after something in particular
.
Something small
.
Jewelry."

Noa heard her own nervous laugh
.
"I don't have
valuable jewelry
."

"It's beginning to look as if someone on this tour is a professional thief."

"He would probably think I carry lot of currency for exchange purposes."

"I don't believe in this case he was looking for money. Taber's dark eyes locked on hers in challenge
.
"I think you know exactly what he was trying to find."

"What makes you think so?"

"Belda wasn't wearing her ring at dinner." Noa turned away from the intensity of his gaze.

"Did Belda give you the jewel for safekeeping?"

Noa forced herself to face him
.
Surely she could trust the concern she read into his taunt features
.
She longed to rush into his arms and be protected by him.

"Noa, you do have the ring, don't you?"

Only Wendell Carlson's firm warning kept Noa from telling him the truth
.

* * *

Noa, much too afraid to remain in the room throughout the long night, called the desk downstairs about the chances of getting another room, but everything was booked full
.
Deciding to take more of Wendell Carlson's advice, Noa collected her luggage and headed down the hallway to Cathy's room.

"Who's there?"
Cathy opened the door a crack
.
She still had on the faded jacket and jeans she had worn to dinner
.
But upon her ears a new pair of dangly, golden earrings flashed
.

"Something's wrong with my air conditioner," Noa said
.
"I'm going to stay with you tonight."

"Oh, great!"
Cathy exclaimed loudly, but stepped back, allowing her to enter
.
She stood with pouty look and crossed arms as Noa arranged her tote bag and suitcase.

"I know what you're really up to," she said finally, golden earrings jangling
.
"You're afraid I'll sneak out again
.
You're spying on me!"

"Where did you get those?" Noa demanded.

"The gift shop."

"They look expensive."

Cathy shrugged
.
"They weren't
.
Not really."
Cathy went into the bathroom and closed the door.

Noa frowned, wondering who Cathy had talked into paying for the new earrings. Johnny Ramos?
Or had she stolen them?
In the darkness Noa slipped into the twin bed by the window, her fingers closing over Belda's ring
.
She thought of the irony involved in her seeking comfort in Cathy's room
the one most likely to be behind these robberies
.
But surely Cathy wasn't involved in this near murder!
Such a young girl couldn't be capable of that
or could she?
Whatever the case, Noa would be safer in Cathy's room than anywhere else
.
The last thing Cathy would want now is open confrontation.

Cathy came out of the bathroom
.
"Noa?
Are you still awake?"

"Yes
.
What is it?"

"I don't want Johnny to get into any trouble, she said."

Did the girl really care about Johnny?
The thought revolted Noa, but she had to acknowledge the fact that it might be possible.

"So Johnny lied to me
.
Johnny did take you out in the bus."

"None of this is Johnny's fault."

If only she could believe what Cathy told her!
But Noa had an uneasy feeling that Cathy might be purposefully trying to
blame Johnny in order to protect that night's real driver of
the bus
.
Noa thought of Taber, who had his own keys and from the shadows had watched her read the odometer.

An image of Cathy and Taber sitting together at dinner settled suspiciously into Noa's mind
.
Surely, it was of no
significance that he seemed to have paid her special attention.

Taber laughed and joked with everyone, from gray haired Belda to the brittle Marie Landos
.
He only liked Cathy, was trying to help her fit in, that was all.

Noa recalled Greg's missing wallet, and tonight, how Taber had so suddenly appeared at the doorway of her ransacked room, almost as if he knew what she would find
.
Wendell Carlson's warning flashed to mind
.
Was Taber not only an unscrupulous womanizer, but also a professional thief?
Noa tossed and turned on her pillow, her hand remaining locked tightly around Belda's ring.

Hour after sleepless hour dragged by, with Noa longing for tomorrow, and the time when she could relinquish to Wendell Carlson the dreadful responsibility of the emerald.

* * *

As soon as the tour bus arrived in Fez, Noa asked the clerk at the main desk to page her the minute Wendell Carlson arrived, but it was almost two o'clock before she got the call.

She found Marie Landos and Wendell Carlson in the lounge
.
Taber, beside their table, stood very straight, as if he were angry.

As Noa approached, Wendell Carlson, with his gallant, old world manners, rose, extended his hand to her, and said warmly, "Noa!
How good it is to see you!
Sorry I was detained."

His large eyes, often widening with a sarcasm he seldom voiced, shifted to Taber
.
"Rand has been trying to explain to me why he didn't fire Johnny Ramos."

 
"He's been employed by us for a long time," Taber answered, assuming all
responsibility
.
"It seemed the best thing to do."

"The best thing to do?
Break Carlson Rand policy?"
Wendell's eyes grew larger
.
They made his question sound mocking and humorous, yet Noa detected a glint in them she had never before noticed
.
Marie Landos evidently had lost no time in telling Wendell everything she knew about the Johnny Ramos incident
.
She met Noa's gaze, unabashed, and finished her drink.

"It was my decision," Noa said quickly.

Wendell Carlson looked from one to the other again, a smile touching thin lips
.
"Are we playing, `Who Takes the Blame?

Who has to face the ruthless Wendell Carlson with the facts?'"

"The decision was right," Taber said
.
He checked his watch, addressing Noa before he walked away. "Our tour starts in ten minutes."

"We'll see you later, Marie,"
Wendell said
.
The thin,
immaculate
owner of the tour company guided Noa through the lobby and they stopped just outside the doorway where they could talk in private
.
The streets were crammed with traffic whose noise made Wendell's voice barely audible. "Besides information about Taber Rand, I've found out some interesting things about our Mr. Aziz
.
We don't have time to talk now, but what do you say we meet right after your tour, about four thirty?"