“Oh, yeah,” said Ted. “Double.”

“Oh, nuts,” said Bill.

“See what I mean?” demanded Richard with a self-satisfied smirk.

After they demolished the mountain of shellfish, which was merely a first course, they proceeded to their second courses of various savory fish dishes, followed by green salads, desserts, and, finally, cheese. It wasn’t until they were sipping their coffee that Richard asked if there was any progress toward regaining their passports.

“Now that Chef Larry’s dead, the investigation is heating up,” said Ted. “I’m hoping they will wrap it up soon and let us go.”

“The oddest thing happened,” said Lucy. “Ted told you how the apartment was searched, absolutely destroyed, and we thought it was the police. Well, it wasn’t the police at all. The police finally came today. The concierge apologized and showed us video. They have a security camera, and it turns out the searchers look an awful lot like two guys who work with my daughter at the Cavendish Hotel.”

“We can’t be sure,” said Bill. “The images are fuzzy, but we thought we recognized them from a party at Elizabeth’s place. Adil and Malik, that’s their names.” He took a sip of coffee. “If it really is them.”

“There’s a lot of unrest in the Arab community right now, overflow from the Arab Spring,” said Richard. “Are they Syrian?”

“Egyptian,” said Lucy. “But they’re not first generation. Their parents emigrated when King Farouk was thrown out.”

“Everybody seems to be getting a turn in Egypt,” said Richard, leaning back in his chair. “First it was the army, then Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood, but the mob got rid of them. Believe it or not, there’s even a royalist group that wants to put Farouk’s son—his name’s Fouad—back on the throne. They hate Morsi, they hate the Muslim Brotherhood, and they want to bring back the monarchy. I wrote a story about it.”

“We read your story,” said Lucy. “And these boys are in that group. They told me all about it. But in your story you said that Fouad himself isn’t too interested in claiming the throne.”

Richard chuckled. “That’s right, and who can blame him? Right now the Egyptians are more interested in demonstrating and overthrowing governments than in keeping them. Fouad leads a quiet life in Switzerland. And he’s getting on in years. He’s not a young man.”

“And I imagine he must have bad memories of his family’s expulsion and exile,” said Pam.

“I don’t know about that. He was just a baby at the time. The prime mover behind the group is Khalid Sadek. His father was Farouk’s closest advisor. He’s trying to pressure Fouad emotionally . . . you know, ‘Restore your family’s honor,’ that sort of thing. But he’s also raising money, hoping to tempt Fouad with a big pile of cash,” said Richard.