The Mamur Zapt and the Donkey-Vous — Michael Pearce

"WITH ALL THOSE PEOPLE LOOKING, YOU WOULD HAVE THOUUHT THAT SOMEONE, SOMEWHERE MUST HAVE SEEN SOMETHING..."

It is 1908 in British-ruled Cairo, and a wealthy Frenchman has vanished from the terrace of Shepheard's Hotel. Police Captain Cadwallader Owen, known as the Mamur Zapt, expects the case will be routine; Shepheard's is, after all, the social center of this most bustling city. Yet, oddly enough, witnesses are conspicuously absent. When an inebriated Britisher is spirited off, again in full view of the hotel's teatime throng, Owen begins to suspect a plot. Is it a sinister campaign to assault British prestige? Or to destroy the tourist trade? Again, no one seems to know anything. Not Owen's beautiful Egyptian lady friend. Not the streetside snake charmer. Not even those sharp-eyed donkey rental boys who are forever gabbing at their "donkey-vous" near Shepheard's crowded terrace. And that's peculiar, thinks Owen: they always know everything...