Finding Nouf Read Online Free Page A

her. But that's strange about the camel."
    Maamoon shrugged. "Maybe they got separated, say, before she entered the wadi?"
    "No one loses a camel in the desert. That's suicide."
    "I did not suggest suicide!" the old man yelped.
    "Neither did I," Nayir said.
    The examiner narrowed his eyes. "Don't even say it. It's ridiculous! You think she was murdered?" Nayir raised his eyebrows.
    "How? I mean ...
how?
" Maamoon choked on his spit and coughed. "Someone would have to wait for the particular condition of this woman being in a wadi, alone, in the middle of the desert, without any camel, and it would have to rain and there would also have to be a flash flood at the very same time. And then this killer, who is by Allah a very patient man, would have to find a way to drown her in the flood without actually drowning himself. Who would do that? Why not just stab her and be done with it?"
    No one replied. Nayir stole a glance at Miss Hijazi's eyes and
found them inscrutable. The examiner was right—murder by drowning seemed far-fetched. Had Nouf found a water source and died in her desperation to take a drink? Perhaps she'd entered a flooded wadi. The rain had been strong, and he remembered being grateful for it, thinking it might just give her a chance to survive.
    "Is there anything else?" the old man snapped, glaring at Nayir.
    "I just wondered if everything else was okay," he said. "With the body, I mean ... was she
okay?
"
    Maamoon grimaced. Nayir realized that the examiner felt deeply pressured by his question. It gave him an odd feeling of power, even if it was only the result of the authority conferred upon him by the family.
    "I know what you're asking," the examiner said, "and we haven't gotten that far. Although she is not actually a medical examiner, Miss Hijazi"—he said the name pejoratively—"is here to do an ultrasound." Abruptly he whipped back the sheet to reveal Nouf's whole body. Nayir blanched and lowered his eyes, but it didn't prevent him from catching sight of everything—the hips, the legs, the pubis. Searching desperately for somewhere to rest his gaze, he caught sight of a tube of jelly, a syringe, and a metal instrument that looked dangerously like a phallus.
    "Thank you," he said abruptly. "I think I'll wait outside." As he turned to the door, he stopped. The room was spinning. He sucked in a chestful of air and bent over, hands gripping his knees, forehead pounding. His heart felt like a stone in a can. He imagined that single chasm between the girl's legs, but that moment bled strangely into the next, in which he found himself lying on the floor, head thumping.
    "Mr. Sharqi!" Maamoon was kneeling beside him, holding a bottle of camphor to his nose. "Mr. Sharqi, Allah protect you, you're an honest man."
    "Water," Nayir croaked.
    "I'll get you some!" Shaking his head, Maamoon stood up and left the room.
    Nayir struggled to his feet, pausing as he stood to make sure he wouldn't faint again.
    Miss Hijazi seemed upset. "I'm sorry, Mr. Sharqi."
    He was too embarrassed to reply, but at least she had the decency to go about her business. She took a fingerprint kit from the cabinet, and pulling a chair up to the table, she sat down and began taking Nouf's prints.
    A long silence went by and he looked down at Nouf, or what used to be Nouf. The body was now safely beneath the sheet, but he still felt nauseous and had to look away.
    "Why do you need to do an ultrasound?" he asked, keeping his eyes away from Miss Hijazi's face.
    "Maybe you'd better sit down," she suggested.
    He was too startled by her forwardness to reply.
    "You're here to pick up the body," she said, "so pick up the body and forget about the rest. The case is closed—they've decided it was an accidental death. As Maamoon said, I am not really an examiner. The real examiner is on maternity leave. I'm here only because they couldn't find a replacement and they need a woman to supervise the job. But because this is an important case, they brought