The Mummy by Barbara Steiner Page B

today, she was helping Marge lead tours. She struggled to put her mind on what she needed to say.
    â€œYou think it’s all right for me to stay and sketch?” Rod asked her.
    â€œOf course. Why not? Don’t forget you’re going to show me your sketchbook at lunch.” Lana wanted time to ask Rod some questions. She couldn’t say, “Did you put Antef in that coffin?” But maybe she could ask questions about what time he arrived this morning and see if he appeared to be telling the truth.
    The possibility that Rod might be playing tricks on her or anyone at the museum would never have occurred to Lana if Blair hadn’t brought up his name. Now his involvement was uppermost in her mind. While she led the tours automatically, she quickly made a list of possible suspects. But at first, she couldn’t think of anyone. She had been so busy wondering why , she’d forgotten to wonder who .
    After guiding two groups through the exhibit, Lana decided she was close enough to break time to stop for a few minutes. She felt as if she’d never had time to recover from the shock of finding Antef in the coffin before she’d had to go to work.
    Then she saw Antef himself returning to work. He glanced around, not seeing her approaching, patted his pocket again, then took out a wadded piece of paper and smoothed it.
    â€œWhat does your note say?” Lana stood beside him, and what she saw shocked her.
    Antef jumped with surprise. He stuffed the paper back into his vest pocket and tried to pretend it was nothing. “Nothing, it’s nothing. A list of things I meant to do.”
    â€œIn block letters signed by Nefra?” She’d been close enough to see the letters. She guessed the rest.
    Antef’s face paled. His eyes widened. He stepped back again from Lana, as if she frightened him.
    â€œHave a cup of coffee with me, Antef.”
    â€œI — I — ” Antef looked confused and even more frightened. Lana felt she was looking at a small child instead of a grown man.
    She took his arm. “I think you need strong coffee with all that sugar in it that you like.”
    Antef let Lana lead him to the T-Rex cafe. She sat him at the farthest table to the back of the hall and went to get two coffees. When she returned he was slumped in his chair, looking dazed and confused. He hadn’t recovered from the shock of the morning, either, she suspected.
    â€œDid you talk to Dr. Walters?” Lana set Antef’s coffee before him, and tore and emptied two little packets of sugar into it. She stirred it for him. He didn’t seem capable of doing even the simplest act.
    â€œHe is coming in by eleven.” Antef did manage to look at his watch. Then he sipped the coffee little by little until it was gone. Color returned to his cheeks, and his skin, once a yellowish-tan, was coming back to mahogany.
    Lana gave him time, even though she was anxious to see his note and compare the printing to hers. If the same person wrote both, maybe together they could guess who it was.
    â€œAntef, last night someone dumped three scorpions into my bedroom. A note came with them.” Lana reached in her pocket and took out the three-by-five piece of paper, smoothed it, and handed it to Antef.
    He studied it without giving Lana his note. “What does it mean?”
    â€œI have no idea, Antef. But someone has been trying to frighten me. What have you done to make someone knock you out and put you in that coffin? What does your note say?”
    Reluctantly, it would seem, Antef spread out his paper and handed it to Lana.
    R ETURN M Y N ECKLACE .
    I T B ELONGS TO M Y P RINCESS .
    T HIS I S Y OUR O NLY W ARNING .
    N EFRA
    â€œSomeone thinks you took the jeweled collar, Antef,” Lana said, looking at the note. “ Did you? ” She stared at him.
    â€œI — I know nothing of this.” Antef didn’t look at Lana as he spoke. “Why would I steal from my