Lady of Heaven by Kathryn Le Veque Page B

sighed.  Then she looked at Fox. “I’m so glad you came. I
can’t imagine sharing this with anyone but you. Thank God I went to the Bolton
Museum on that day; I don’t think I would have ever met you otherwise.”
    He took her free
hand and kissed it. “You would have had to meet me, eventually,” he told her.
“With Heaven’s Gate so close to Bolton, we would have eventually met up when
you made the decision to liquidate Louis and Fanny’s collection.”
    “Maybe,” she
shrugged, sitting back with her coffee.  She watched Fox as he finished off his
toast. “So what’s on tap for today?”
    He wiped his
mouth as he chewed. “I have a friend who works at the Cairo Museum of
Antiquities,” he said. “I thought we’d go to the museum today.”
    She nodded. “I
brought the papyrus. It’s in my suitcase, in the lining. I didn’t want to get
busted for transporting artifacts if they searched my luggage, even if it is
mine, so I hid it.”
    He nodded. “I’d
worry more about getting it out of Egypt rather than bringing it in. They are
rather particular about their ancient artifacts.”
    “I know,” she
replied with a shrug. “There’s not much I can do about it. I had to bring it.”
    He swallowed the
bite in his mouth and finished his orange juice. “I’ll call my friend and see
if she has some time to see us this morning.”
    “Okay,” she
sipped her coffee. “Are we bringing the papyrus?”
    He shook his
head. “No,” he said flatly. “If we take it in to the museum, I’m afraid we’d
never get it out. They would want to keep it.  I’ll make copies at the hotel
business center and we can bring those.”
    “What about the
journal?”
    He shrugged.
“Maybe. It’s not as valuable to them as the papyrus.  Plus, it has a lot of
notes in it that might be helpful if we somehow get on the scent of something.”
    She pondered
that as her gaze moved between Fox and the blue Nile beyond. “I’ve been
thinking a lot about how we need to go about this,” she said. “It makes sense
to find the correlation between the sites listed on the papyrus and the reality
that they may have existed.  Like, the Claw of the Apes; Fanny’s diary mentions
that the dealer she purchased the papyrus from might have known what it was but
she never elaborates. Do you know what would that be? Are there even any apes
in Egypt?”
    He sat back in
his chair. “In ancient times, they were considered living gods, but there are
no indigenous monkeys or apes to Egypt.  I’ve done some research into all sites
mentioned on the papyrus and have come up with a few things.”
    “Really?” she
perked up. “Like what?”
    He rose, kissed
her head, and went into the bedroom, emerging a short time later with a small
leather-bound notepad.   He resumed his seat next to her as she pushed dishes
out of the way so he could use the table.
    Fox set the pad
down and put on his reading glasses. “Well,” he said slowly. “I went through
all the material available to see if somewhere, at some time, there was a
temple or city or some other kind of landmark known as the Claw of the Ape. 
However, we do know that back in pre-dynastic times, baboons especially were
considered vessels of transformation; that is, a deceased king could pass into
the body of a baboon and live again.  Baboons were very sacred back in
pre-dynastic times and even through the Old Kingdom.  There are also small,
early dynastic plaques that show the king or priests performing the Opening of the Mouth ceremony and transfiguration before monkeys. 
So, clearly, monkeys were very sacred to the ancient Egyptians.”
    Morgan was
listening intently, trying to read his scribbled notes. “What’s the Opening of
the Mouth Ceremony?”
    He looked at
her. “It’s part of the mummification process,” he told her. “It’s a ritual by
which the deceased symbolically becomes reanimated.  The priests would perform
this ritual and speak the ancient spell, ‘
Awake!