The Murder of King Tut: The Plot to Kill the Child King Read online

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2009 by James Patterson

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Little, Brown and Company

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue,

  New York, NY 10017

  Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com

  www.twitter.com/littlebrown

  First eBook Edition: September 2009

  Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Little, Brown name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  ISBN: 978-0-446-55120-5

  Contents

  Copyright

  Author’s Note

  Prologue

  Valley of the Kings

  Palm Beach, Florida

  Part One

  Chapter 1: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 2: Thebes

  Chapter 3: Thebes

  Chapter 4: Didlington Hall Near Swaffham, England

  Chapter 5: Didlington Hall

  Chapter 6: Didlington Hall

  Chapter 7: Alexandria

  Chapter 8: Beni Hasan

  Chapter 9: Thebes

  Chapter 10: Thebes

  Chapter 11: Thebes

  Chapter 12: Thebes

  Chapter 13: Amarna

  Chapter 14: Amarna

  Chapter 15: Amarna

  Chapter 16: Amarna

  Chapter 17: Deir el-Bahri

  Chapter 18: Deir el-Bahri

  Chapter 19: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 20: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 21: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 22: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 23: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 24: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 25: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 26: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 27: Amarna

  Chapter 28: Amarna

  Part Two

  Chapter 29: Palm Beach, Florida

  Chapter 30: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 31: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 32: Amarna

  Chapter 33: Amarna

  Chapter 34: Amarna

  Chapter 35: Amarna

  Chapter 36: Amarna

  Chapter 37: Thebes

  Chapter 38: Thebes

  Chapter 39: Amarna

  Chapter 40: Luxor

  Chapter 41: Amarna

  Chapter 42: Thebes

  Chapter 43: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 44: Egyptian Desert

  Chapter 45: Egyptian Desert

  Chapter 46: Egyptian Desert

  Chapter 47: Egyptian Desert

  Chapter 48: Thebes

  Chapter 49: Thebes

  Chapter 50: Luxor

  Chapter 51: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 52: Egyptian Desert

  Chapter 53: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 54: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 55: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 56: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 57: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 58: Egyptian Desert

  Chapter 59: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 60: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 61: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 62: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 63: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 64: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 65: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 66: Highclere Castle

  Part Three

  Chapter 67: Palm Beach, Florida

  Chapter 68: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 69: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 70: Egyptian Desert

  Chapter 71: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 72: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 73: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 74: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 75: Luxor

  Chapter 76: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 77: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 78: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 79: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 80: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 81: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 82: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 83: Egyptian Border

  Chapter 84: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 85: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 86: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 87: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 88: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 89: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 90: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 91: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 92: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 93: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 94: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 95: Cairo

  Chapter 96: Valley of the Kings

  Chapter 97: Palm Beach, Florida

  Chapter 98: Tut’s Palace

  Chapter 99: Palm Beach, Florida

  Chapter 100: London

  Epilogue: Valley of the Kings

  Books by James Patterson

  About the Authors

  For Frank Nicolo

  —JP

  For Callie

  —MD

  Author’s Note

  JUST LIKE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, I have my own style manual. “JP Writing Style and Book Elements” is a list of nineteen bulleted points that I keep within arm’s reach whenever I’m working. Point number eighteen is written in capital letters, because no matter how often I read it, I need to be reminded that it is of the utmost importance: RESEARCH HELPS. DON’T FAKE ANYTHING—NOT BRAIN TUMORS, NOT DROWNINGS, NOT EVEN A BEE STING.

  I don’t think I’ve ever done more research for a book. From the instant the idea hit me and I teamed up with Marty Dugard to write this story, it’s been total immersion in ancient Egypt. The book is a murder mystery, but the plunge back in time added a whole other layer of detective work. We didn’t just need to know the players in our drama; we also needed to know what foods they ate, the clothes they wore, how they loved, and, ultimately, the ways they might have killed each other.

  Like number eighteen says: DON’T FAKE ANYTHING.

  So we didn’t. Marty’s historical legwork involved trips to London and to Tut’s tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. I lost myself in books and online research. We then combined our notes and began writing. One astounding fact about Egyptian history is that so much of it is still unknown. So when we came to a gap, we went back to the research for answers. Then we put forth our theory as to what happened. We constructed conversations and motives and rich scenes of palace life—all grounded in long hours of research.

  It’s nothing new for histories to be speculative, but there’s a difference between guessing and basing a theory on cold hard facts. We chose the facts.

  As for Howard Carter, he is almost a contemporary, so his life was much easier to document. I resisted the temptation to speculate about his relationship with Lady Evelyn Herbert, though I thoroughly hoped to find a steamy journal entry that would allow me to muse at will. You can draw your own conclusions.

  I hope you enjoy The Murder of King Tut. It’s been a lot of fun to write. I became quite fond of the ill-fated Boy King and his equally ill-fated queen. They lived thousands of years ago, but their love for each other was so powerful and real that I believe they had one of history’s great romances. It’s a shame it all had to end so soon—and so mysteriously.

  Prologue

>   Valley of the Kings

  1900

  IT WAS NEW YEAR’S EVE as a somber, good-looking explorer named Howard Carter, speaking fluent Arabic, gave the order to begin digging.

  Carter stood in a claustrophobic chamber more than three hundred feet underground. The air was dank, but he craved a cigarette. He was addicted to the damn things. Sweat rings stained the armpits of his white button-down, and dust coated his work boots. The sandal-clad Egyptian workers at his side began to shovel for all they were worth.

  It had been almost two years since Carter had been thrown from his horse far out in the desert. That lucky fall had changed his life.

  He had landed hard on the stony soil but was amazed to find himself peering at a deep cleft in the ground. It appeared to be the hidden entrance to an ancient burial chamber.

  Working quickly and in secret, the twenty-six-year-old Egyptologist obtained the proper government permissions, then hired a crew to begin digging.

  Now he expected to become famous at a very young age—and filthy rich.

  Early Egyptian rulers had been buried inside elaborate stone pyramids, but centuries of ransacking by tomb robbers inspired later pharaohs to conceal their burial sites by carving them into the ground.

  Once a pharaoh died, was mummified, and then sealed inside such a tomb with all his worldly possessions, great pains were taken to hide its location.

  But that didn’t help. Tomb robbers seemed to find every one.

  Carter, a square-shouldered man who favored bow ties, linen trousers, and homburg hats, thought this tomb might be the exception. The limestone chips that had been dumped into the tunnels and shaft by some long-ago builder—a simple yet ingenious method to keep out bandits—appeared untouched.

  Carter and his workers had already spent months removing the shards. With each load that was hauled away, he became more and more certain that there was a great undisturbed burial chamber hidden deep within the ground. If he was right, the tomb would be filled with priceless treasures: gold and gems, as well as a pharaoh’s mummy.

  Howard Carter would be rich beyond his wildest dreams, and his dreams were indeed spectacular.

  “The men have now gone down ninety-seven meters vertical drop,” Carter had written to Lady Amherst, his longtime patron, “and still no end.” Indeed, when widened the narrow opening that he had stumbled upon revealed a network of tunnels leading farther underground.

  At one point, a tunnel branched off into a chamber that contained a larger-than-life statue of an Egyptian pharaoh.

  But that tunnel had dead-ended into a vertical shaft filled with rock and debris.

  As the months passed, the workers forged on, digging ever deeper, so deep in fact that the men had to be lowered down by rope each day. Carter’s hopes soared. He even took the unusual step of contacting Britain’s consul general in Cairo to prepare him for the glorious moment when a “virgin” tomb would be opened.

  Now he stood at the bottom of the shaft. Before him was a doorway sealed with plaster and stamped with the mark of a pharaoh—the entrance to a burial chamber.

  Carter ordered his workers to knock it down.

  The shaft was suddenly choked with noise and a storm of dust as the men used picks and crowbars to demolish the ancient door. Carter hacked into his handkerchief as he struggled to see through the haze.

  His heart raced as he finally held his lantern into the burial chamber. The workers standing behind him peered excitedly over his shoulder.

  There was nothing there.

  The treasure, and the pharaoh’s mummy, had already been stolen.

  By somebody else.

  Palm Beach, Florida

  Present Day

  “THIS IS JAMES PATTERSON CALLING. Is Michael around? I have a mystery story to tell him.”

  As most people would expect, I love a good mystery, and I thought I might have unearthed a real doozy to write about, which was why I had put in a call to my editor at Little, Brown, Michael Pietsch, who is also the publisher.

  As I waited for Michael to come on the line—he usually takes my calls, night or day—I looked around my second-floor office. Am I completely mad? I wondered.

  The last thing I needed right now was another writing project. I already had a new Alex Cross novel on the fires, and a Women’s Murder Club brewing, and a Maximum Ride to finish. In fact, there were twenty-four manuscripts—none of them yet completed—laid out on the expansive desk surface that occupies most of my office. I could read some of the titles: Swimsuit, Witch & Wizard, Daniel X, Women’s Murder Club 9, Worst Case…

  “I am completely crazy, aren’t I?” I said as Pietsch came on the line. Michael is a calm and calming presence, very smart, and a wonderful father who knows how to handle children—like me—most of the time. Over the years we have become a good fit and have turned out more than a dozen number one bestsellers together.

  “Of course you’re crazy, but why the phone call?” he asked. “Why aren’t you writing?”

  “I have an idea.”

  “Only one?”

  “I really like this one, Michael. Let me talk at you for a minute. OK? Since you seem to know everything about everything, you are probably aware that a collection of King Tut memorabilia is touring the world. People are lining up everywhere; the exhibit is usually sold out weeks in advance. I actually visited a Tut exhibit years ago at the Met in New York, and then recently in Fort Lauderdale. I’ve seen firsthand how Tut’s story blows people’s minds—men, women, and children, rich and poor.

  “There’s something about Tut that brings ancient Egypt to life for most of us. It’s not just the incredible treasures he was buried with, or the art, or the near-miraculous discovery of the burial chamber by Howard Carter. It’s all of that, of course, but there’s something magical here, something iconic. Tut’s name was scrubbed from Egyptian history books for thousands of years, and now Tut is probably the most famous pharaoh of them all. And yet nobody knows that much about him.

  “Michael, I want to do a book about Tut. Three parts: present day, as I learn—hopefully—more and more about the Boy King; then the amazing discovery of the tomb and treasures by Carter, who is probably worth a book on his own; and a third part about Tut himself.

  “Did you know that Tut married his sister—and that theirs was an incredible love story? So what do you think? Are you going to try to stop me? Just this once, will you save me from myself?”

  Michael’s infectious laughter traveled across the phone lines. “How’s the new Alex Cross coming?” he asked.

  “Almost done—ahead of schedule. You’re going to like it.”

  “Well, Jim, like just about everyone else, I’m fascinated by ancient Egypt, the pyramids, the Valley of the Kings, Tut, Nefertiti, the Rameses boys. So I have to tell you, I like the idea very much.”

  Now it was my turn to smile and to laugh in relief.

  “I’m really glad. So let me tell you what I thought would close the deal—though, obviously, I don’t need it. Michael, I have a hunch that Tut was murdered. And I hope, at least on paper, to prove it.”

  Michael laughed again. “You had me at ‘King Tut,’” he quipped.

  Part One

  Chapter 1

  Valley of the Kings

  1492 BC

  “THIS IS FAR ENOUGH! Stop right here.”

  More than five hundred prisoners halted their march toward Thebes in a great field situated two miles from the city. A contingent of the palace guard watched over them in the sweltering midday sun. Not that it was necessary. The emaciated prisoners’ feet were bound with leather cord that was just long enough for them to frog walk; they could not run.

  And even if they had tried to escape, their arms were tied behind their backs at the wrist and elbow.

  They wouldn’t get far, and the punishment would be swift and brutal.

  Ineni, the well-regarded royal architect, watched over the sad scene. He knew these men well. They had just spent five years in a remote va
lley, excavating a new burial place for Tuthmosis I.

  By day they had endured withering summer heat and surprisingly frigid blasts of desert cold that sometimes strafed the valley.

  At night they had slept under a sky shot through with stars.

  It had been more than a thousand years since Cheops had built his great pyramid up the Nile in Giza. As grand and awe-inspiring as they were, pyramids turned out to be beacons of temptation for every local thief and blasphemous tomb robber. There wasn’t a single one that hadn’t been looted. Not one.

  But the ingenious Ineni believed he had the solution to the pyramid problem. Using the slave labor provided by these prisoners, he had carved a secret burial chamber for Tuthmosis I. The aging pharaoh was sick and near death, so the timing of the tomb’s completion was perfect. Not merely a makeshift cave, the tomb contained several tunnels, hallways, and a half dozen rooms. The pharaoh’s stone sarcophagus would reside precisely in the center, in the largest, most luxurious room.

  True, Ineni thought, brushing a bead of sweat from his eyebrow, such an underground tomb was hardly as grand as a soaring pyramid. But in many ways it was better. The walls were smooth to the touch and painted with vivid scenes from the pharaoh’s life—both the one he had just lived and the glorious one yet to come.

  Most important, the pharaoh would be undisturbed. Hopefully, for all eternity. At least that was what most Egyptians believed happened when a pharaoh was put to rest.

  Ineni liked the design so much that he was already working on a similar tomb for himself. “I superintended the excavations of the cliff tomb of His Majesty,” Ineni had written on the walls of his own burial chamber—it was the architect’s way of bragging to those in the afterworld—“Alone, no one seeing, no one hearing.”

  Of course, he hadn’t been totally alone. The prisoners had done their part. He had gotten to know the Nubians. He’d heard about their wives and children and knew that the men cherished their families with the same passion that he loved his. Some of the prisoners had become his friends.

  After the tomb for Tuthmosis I was sealed and the entry concealed with stone, he had marched the men away from the area—a place that one day would simply be known as the Valley of the Kings, because so many other pharaohs would choose Ineni’s architectural contrivance as a means of hiding their final resting places.