Nightmare in Morocco (7 page)

Greg laughed
.
Milton smiled impishly
.
No one else seemed much interested
.

"We're from London
.
We live three blocks from the Royal Palace
.
I just love Tangier
.
It's so
outpost
British!
In my young days, I attended parties thrown by Tangier's very famous Barbara Hutton
.
Would it be possible to drive past her home, Noa?"

"Yes
.
It's near the Forbes Museum
.
We'll stop there for a picture if you like."

"I can certainly tell you all about her mansion!"
Belda drew in her breath quickly, then
,
with a flip of jeweled fingers, indicated Milton
.
"Skip him."

"Greg Corbin
.
Late start student
.
Studying engineering
.
I'm from Newark, New Jersey."

"Marie Landos
.
Presently employed by St. Theresa's in Madrid, Spain
.
Louisa, Carmen, Orva, Agnes, Casilda, Anna, Eleanora."

Noa gazed at each girl as Marie spoke her name
.
Every one of them had very dark hair, all cut short
.
Each of them wore dark clothing
.
They looked so very much alike, Noa wondered how long it would take her to separate them.

Noa gave the usual information to the group, gathered tour papers and passports and announced,
"You have about twenty minutes
.
The bus will be waiting directly out front
.
We're ready to begin our fun in Morocco!"

Not waiting for the elevator, Noa hurried up the flight of steps to Cathy's room
.
Cathy sat on the bed retouching her nails
.

"You missed the meeting
.
The get acquainted meeting is the most important one." "I'm sure there's no one there I want to become
acquainted
with."

Noa had a difficult time ignoring the impertinence in Cathy's tone, not to mention the outrageous way she was dressed!
The black mini skirt was bad enough without the tight suggestiveness of the low cut blouse.

"You should change to walking shoes," Noa advised, glancing at the high heeled pumps
.
"The roadways in the medinas are uneven and dusty."

"I'm not going."

"If you stay here, you must stay in the hotel
.
I will not have you running around Morocco alone!"

Noa must have sounded as if she meant it, for Cathy rose at once and started resentfully to the door
.
She reminded Noa of some very spoiled and hateful child as she tossed back her bright, over sprayed
hair and said, "You are going to be so tedious!"

Noa watched Cathy disappear down the steps, then slipped back into her room
.
Feeling a little guilty, she first opened Cathy's shoulder strap bag she had left on the bed
.
She found only thirty odd dollars inside
.
Next she made a thorough search through Cathy's luggage and of the entire room
.
She found no trace of Greg's stolen money.

Maybe Noa had accused her falsely
.
She hoped so
.
Sometimes
the girl did surprise her, like the sudden way she had changed her mind about joining the morning tour
.
Noa had expected more staunch opposition
.
This quick compliance was no doubt a screen, hiding trouble that was to come
.

* * *

Downstairs, Marie Landos stood outside the gift shop in a position which allowed her full surveillance of the seven girls, who wandered around demurely, not grabbing merchandise, shouting, or giggling
.
At least Noa would not have to watch or worry about them
.
Marie Landos assumed absolute control.

She seemed, Noa thought, in control of everything that went on around her
.
Noa stopped beside her.

"Who is that?"

Noa turned to look in the direction Marie gazed
.
A man was facing them, his eyes on Cathy, who was boldl
y flirting
with him
.
To Noa's surprise, Marie's critical observation was directed at the man instead of at Cathy
.
"I wouldn't trust him."

He wouldn't be anyone most people would even notice
extremely ordinary, young, but already balding about the temples, already slightly paunchy
.
His only claim to anything exceptional were his large, though rather empty, dark eyes and his very pale skin
.
Cathy and he both glanced toward them
.
He laughed loudly at something Cathy said.

"It should be a rule that bus drivers don't buddy buddy with the tour
.
It always causes trouble."

"Bus driver?"

"He's ours
.
Haven't you met him yet?
Johnny something or other
.
I've heard he has a wife and kids somewhere in Portugal
.
He looks like the type to have women all over the place."

Noa saw how Cathy gazed at him, admiring his sturdy chest and thick forearms, oblivious to his flaws
.
Despite a certain seediness, Johnny did have about him an aura of physical strength, a power that in Cathy's eyes might pass for sex appeal.

"Another thing," Marie said
.
"You should tell that girl how to dress
.
Morocco is an entirely different culture
.
Girls here just don't look or act like that."

Noa was glad that it was nine o'clock
.
Taber stood by the bus door, helping people up the steps.

"Where's the local guide?"
Noa asked.

"Right here," Taber smiled
.
"Why do you think I'm wearing this?"

He wore a hooded robe, like Moulay's, only his was a rich, woven silver gray
.
It made him look taller, and grandly distinguished
.

"No one knows more about Tangier than I do!
Here, let me help you."

"I can manage."

Regardless, Taber's strong hand remained on her arm as she stepped
onto
the bus.

Greg was seated in the front, across the aisle from Noa
.
She could see clean, very light brown hair as he gazed from the window to the shoreline
.
He turned to smile at her, but avoided looking at Taber, who had begun to adjust the
microphone
.

Taber graciously greeted each person individually, and he kept up a banter with the bus driver, Johnny.

The bus started, moved along a sloping road which caused it to jog
.
Noa was thinking with dread of the medina waiting at the end of today's tour
.
It was so foolish to be this uneasy, to carry childish fears into adult life.

"Morocco is somewhat smaller than California," Taber was saying
.
"Seventy percent of the people live in rural areas
ninety
seven percent of them are Moslem
.
You will find many languages spoken here: French, English, Spanish, Arabian, but
Arabian is the official language."

As Noa watched Taber, she felt a great attraction to him, as if captivated by the intensity of his somber, dark eyes
.
His gaze kept returning to her, until at each lingering glance, she felt a warmth rise to her face
.
She looked away from him, watched the modern shops slowly turn into residential buildings
.

"When the Romans came here they found people they called barbarians
our present day word is Berbers
.
They are the original occupants of Morocco
.
They are blue eyed, fair skinned people, and
spoke no recognizable language
.
No one really knows who they were or how they got here
.
They are still the majority of the population
.
The Arabs, you remember, didn't establish themselves permanently in Morocco until 788 AD."
"Mrs. Ward has asked to stop at the Hutton mansion," Noa told him.

"An excellent place for a picture stop
.
It's just ahead."

The bus pulled to a stop near a huge, white house, enclosed behind a tall wrought iron fence
.
It was built high on the hillside where below distant buildings clustered, smaller, but of the same brilliant white.

"Oh, the fun I've had here!" Belda exclaimed
.
"She was such dear!
See this ring I wear."
Belda held up her hand
.
Every eye in the bus locked on the massive jewel, a glowing greenish blue, surrounded by diamonds
.
"I bought this from Barbara Hutton's personal collection!
It's insured for $86,000
, but it's worth more like $150,000
."

Automatically Noa's gaze settled on Cathy
.
The girl sat forward in her chair as if the announcement had roused her from deep apathy
.
She was not aware of Noa's watching her
.
Her eyes did not leave the enormous emerald.

Marie
little escaped her
frowned sharply at Belda's announcement or at what she judged to be the stupidity of it
.
A shadow appeared across Marie's face
.
Noa couldn't tell whether it was motivated by concern for Belda or by envy.

Greg watched the ring with the same awe as the girls from St.
Theresa’s
.
Moulay, however, reacted in a way that frightened Noa
.
His eyes, ordinarily narrow and evasive, widened at sight of such wealth, causing expanses of white to show around the black pupils, giving him a look of jungle like fierceness
.

"Isn't my ring the most precious thing!"
Belda still held the ring out to Moulay.

"Shh
,
they'll think you're bragging," said Milton.

"Oh, I am proud of this!"
She pointed with the jeweled finger, "And the fact that I stayed overnight in that very bedroom
.
See, the top floor, third window."

"Let me get your picture here," Milton said
.
"It's all right if we get out, isn't it?"

Noa, the last to leave the bus, said to Taber, "After what happened last night, I wish she wouldn't have flashed that big jewel around."

"No one on this bus had anything to do with the stolen money," Taber answered
.
"But, I agree, she shouldn't have brought along such expensive jewelry."

* * *

Noa's heart sank as the battered wall that led to the medina came into view
.
Flashes of childhood terror came back to her
shadowy images of twisting paths, foreign voices, endless openings, growing fearfully blacker with descending darkness.

No vehicles could enter the old city
.
Occasionally a peddler on a donkey would go through the arched gate
.
Failing to catch the high spirits of the Wards, Noa followed the others from the bus.

"This is the most exciting part of Morocco!"
Belda cried.

"It's a long, hot walk from here."
Taber caught up with Noa, strong fingers tightening on her arm
.
"You could let me take the group through and go back to the hotel
.
You look a little tired."

"And miss your lectures!"
Noa, trying to be realistic, used a sort of self derision in dealing with the feeling of sickness that was forming in her stomach.

"Then you bring up the rear and make sure no one gets lost," Taber said
.
He pushed forward
.
Soon he held up his hand to stop the small group and point out an ancient mosque with its towering minaret.