CHAPTER 20

Who Benefits?

Even before I looked up, I knew who it was. So did Khepri, who was already sliding down to my belly fur.

“Where have you been?” I said to Hoop.

“I had things to do,” Hoop said cheerfully. “Feathers to preen, bugs to catch…”

At the mention of bugs, Khepri quivered against my belly.

“Quit scaring the beetle,” I said.

“That’s right.” Miu backed me up. “Leave our friend alone.”

“Did I touch him?” Hoop said indignantly. “Did I even get close?” He winked at us. “Though he’d make quite a meal. You could feed a family and still have leftovers.”

I swiped at him with my paw, but he only hopped back, laughing hard.

“Tell your friend he’s safe with me. Oop-oop! I don’t eat bugs I’ve been introduced to. It wouldn’t be polite.”

Khepri crept a little way out from my belly and whispered, “Ask him about the servants.”

I looked down at him, confused. The servants?

Miu worked it out. “So what I heard in the kitchens is right?” she asked Hoop. “The servants can’t get out at night?”

“Nope. That wing’s locked off every night, tight as an unhatched egg. Lady Satiah doesn’t want anyone stealing from her.”

“So who doesn’t get locked up?” I asked.

Hoop tilted his head so that the light caught his copper head feathers. “Well, Lady Satiah, for one. And the Painter of Her Mouth. She sleeps outside Lady Satiah’s door.”

“So she’d notice if Lady Satiah left her room?” Khepri asked, growing bolder.

“The Painter? Don’t you believe it. Nothing would wake that lady. Snores like a wild boar.”

“Who else is able to move around at night?” Miu asked.

Hoop thought about it some more. “The Steward. And Hormin and Qen. Oh, and Ahmose, of course. And Turo the tutor. And the Keeper of the Zoo. And Yaba. And General Wegaf, while he’s visiting.” He snapped at a gnat in the air. “Hey, why are you asking all these questions, anyway?”

“We’re Great Detectives,” I told him, “and we’re trying to solve a crime. The kidnapping of Pharaoh’s son.”

“And the disappearance of a crocodile prince,” Miu added.

Hoop whistled. “You don’t say? Oop-oop!”

“You didn’t see them, did you?” I asked. “They were together, the boy and the crocodile, just before dawn—”

“Just before dawn?” Hoop laughed. “Are you kidding? I’m busy then.”

“With what?” Miu asked.

“Why, bringing the sun up, what do you think? Night would never end if it weren’t for us hoopoes.” As we stared up at him, he executed a neat bow. “You’re too awed to speak, I see. Never mind. You can thank me later.”

“Actually, we’d rather ask you more questions,” Khepri said.

“It’ll have to wait. Gotta get to my favorite lunch spot before someone else does. Catch you later!” Hoop took off for a high ridge at the far end of the garden, where he shoved his beak into the wall, searching for bugs.

The mention of lunch did not improve my temper.

“Some help he is,” I fumed.

“Actually, he was a help,” Miu said happily. “We have a complete list of suspects now: Lady Satiah. The Painter of Her Mouth. The Steward. Hormin and Qen. The Keeper of the Zoo. The General. Ahmose. The tutor. And Yaba.”

“Any of them could have done it,” Khepri agreed, crawling out into full view.

“But that’s ten people,” I said, aghast. “We can’t follow all ten.” I frowned at the distant hoopoe, who was slurping up his lunch with great enjoyment. “And Hoop knows it, too. I bet he did it himself, and he’s lying to us to cover up his tracks.”

Miu blinked. “Don’t be silly, Ra.”

“Why on earth would a hoopoe kidnap a prince?” Khepri asked me. “Besides, he’s not big enough to do the job. I think we’re after a human here.”

“Ten of them,” I moaned.

“For now,” Khepri said. “But if we think about motives, we can narrow the field down.”

“Motives?” I repeated. “You mean, why someone might have committed the crime?”

“Precisely,” Khepri confirmed. “Let’s take the Keeper, for instance.”

“Well, that’s easy,” I said. “He would do it because he’s a horrible person who chucks brooms at cats.”

Khepri and Miu looked at each other. For some reason, they both sighed.

“That’s not much of a motive, Ra,” Miu said. “Especially since the only reason he went after you with a broom was to protect the animals in his zoo.”

“Well, maybe he saw Dedi stealing the crocodile and he was overcome with rage,” I said.

“I don’t think he would hurt Pharaoh’s son,” Miu said. “And anyway, he would have put the crocodile back in his cage. Which we know he didn’t.”

“But—”

“Ra, listen,” Khepri said. “The question we have to ask is this: Who benefits if Dedi disappears?”

Who benefits? Hmmmm…

“Lady Satiah,” I said. “Because her son is closer to the throne.”

“And Yaba,” Miu said. “If she is working as a spy for her father.”

“Who else?” Khepri said. “Let’s go through the list.”

We couldn’t think of a way that the Painter benefited, or the Steward, or the watchmen.

“Ahmose benefits,” Miu said. “He would become Pharaoh’s oldest son. And if Pharaoh thought Dedi ran away of his own accord, he wouldn’t be angry with Ahmose. He might even decide to make him his heir one day. But Ahmose seems like a nice kid. I can’t believe he would do such a thing.”

“I can’t, either,” Khepri said. “Unless he was upset about Dedi trying to put his crocodile back in the Nile—”

“No,” I said firmly. “It’s like the Keeper of the Zoo. Ahmose would have grabbed the crocodile and put him back in the zoo.”

“And he was surprised to hear the crocodile was missing, remember?” Miu said. “He wanted the Keeper to tell his mother about it.”

Khepri paced around the edge of the garden, thinking hard. “What about Ahmose’s tutor, Turo? If Ahmose became Pharaoh’s heir, Turo would become a much more important person. He’d be the prince’s tutor and his cousin, and he’d have lots of influence.”

“He didn’t encourage the Keeper to report the missing crocodile,” Miu recalled.

“And remember how he kept yawning this morning?” Khepri said. “He was short on sleep. So maybe he was up before dawn, going after Dedi.”

“Khepri, I think you’re onto something,” Miu said, excited. “We should—”

“Shhh!” I flattened myself against the statue of Thoth. “Someone’s coming.”

Two someones, in fact. First the Painter of Her Mouth arrived, her tiny sandals beating pitter-pat on the mud-brick garden path as she dashed behind a bush. Then came the Steward, eyes darting this way and that, until he spied the fluttering edge of the Painter’s tunic and went after her.

“Uh-oh.” Khepri scrambled back up to my head for a better view. “Did she upset Lady Satiah? Is that why he’s after her?”

We waited to find out, but there was no yelling, only whispers.

“They’re up to something,” Miu said.

We crept closer and peered through the bush.

The Steward and the Painter were kissing!

“Ick,” Khepri clicked.

“Eww,” I agreed.

“Shhh!” said Miu.

The Steward didn’t seem to care that his beautiful tunic was getting crumpled. “My darling!” he whispered. “You’ve been so brave, so resourceful. You’ve made everything possible.”

“I did it for you,” the Painter whispered back. “For us. We need a fresh start.”

“I must go,” he said. “But tonight we will make our move.”

“And then we will be together forever,” she breathed.

He kissed her again.

“Ick,” Khepri clicked.

“Eww,” I agreed.

“Shhh!” said Miu. “Did you see what she gave him?”

I hadn’t. Khepri had missed it, too. And now the Steward was walking away.

“A linen bag!” Miu told us. “And it clinked. I’ll bet you anything that Dedi’s jewelry is in it. Look! He’s stuffed it down his tunic.”

We saw the bulge above the Steward’s sash.

“Why, those rotten, no-good thieves!” I bristled as the Painter pattered past us. “How dare they steal Dedi’s things!”

Khepri rucked up the fur between my ears, the way he did when was thinking hard. “They might be more than thieves.”

Miu swished her tail. “What do you mean?”

“Well, it sounds like they’ve been desperate to start a new life together, but they didn’t have the funds for it. Then they saw Dedi’s jewelry. Ordinarily, they wouldn’t dare touch it. The punishment for stealing royal gold is a harsh one. Who wants to lose a hand or a nose? But if they made it look like Dedi ran off with his own jewelry, they could get away with it.”

We all looked down at the ground, where the faint, small marks of the Painter’s sandals could be seen.

Miu gasped. “They’re like the ones on the landing, between the palace and the river. The ones that were supposed to be Dedi’s.”

“Those monsters!” I started after them. “They won’t get away with it!”

Khepri tugged at my fur, trying to hold me in check. “Ra, we don’t know that they’re guilty. It’s one possibility.”

“It’s the right one,” I told him as we reached the cool, polished floors of the palace again. “My instincts are telling me so.”

“The same way they told you Lady Satiah was guilty?” Miu asked.

“Maybe she’s in it, too,” I said. “Maybe they’re all guilty. Maybe it’s a conspiracy!”

“Ra, that doesn’t make any sense,” Khepri said.

“It sure doesn’t,” Miu agreed.

“It does to me. And I’m going to get them.” I sniffed around for the Steward’s footprints. I was going to claw that bag away from him if it was the last thing I did. “Just you wait and—”

I stopped. I’d picked up the scent of someone very familiar. It wasn’t the Steward, or the Painter, or Lady Satiah. It was someone I knew much, much better. Someone who couldn’t possibly be here…

I dashed over to a large trunk painted with vultures and crocodiles.

“Ra, what are you doing?” Khepri asked.

“I don’t believe it,” Miu said behind me.

We peered over the trunk—and found Kiya.