“I don’t think he’s involved. I mean, outside of him telling the Bishop about my working on the Journal. He has other duties in the Diocese Office.”
“Did he ask you about the Pape Ranch?”
“Only after I told him I was translating the Journal for you. He just asked where you had found it.”
“I doubt that we’ll be able to sell the property to Bishop McCrory. He’s been outbid and he hasn’t been exactly honest with me.”
I could see I had presented a moral dilemma for her. He face went blank and she looked at the ground.
“You need to contact your brother tonight. I’m meeting with a buyer tomorrow at ten and I want to know why the Catholic Church wants to buy the property. I don’t believe it’s because they want to build a seminary.”
“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?” she said and smiled at Kevin as only a silly girl in love with an irresponsible boy could.
“I want to know the truth or nobody will get the property,” I said and realized I’d just shot myself in the foot. I didn’t want to keep the ranch.
I got up and stretched. I needed to call James Lee, but I wasn’t going to do it around the family. “How soon before we eat?” I asked Sunny.
“Twenty minutes, or so.” She eyed me with that look of hers that said, “You and I need to talk.”
I ignored her mental telepathy with the accompanying visual cues and walked around through the side yard to the front porch. I sat down in one the porch chairs and called James Lee. Reception was better on the front porch.
I could barely hear him over the phone because of the noise. “Where are you?” I said after he had said hello.
“We’re at Threadgill’s. After all these years Sarah still can’t cook.”
“You are such a liar,” I heard Sarah say over the noise. “I invited them, Dad.”
“Have you heard anything?” I asked him.
“Oh, yeah. The owner of the flight service has been calling me on the half hour. The French went off radar about ten minutes after liftoff at the ranch and they disabled the ALT transponder so no one knows where they are.”
“What about the hidden GPS tracker?”
“It’s on the ranch. They probably put it in the SUV. These guys knew what they were doing. I’m glad that rental isn’t on my card.”
“I guess it’s really gone,” I said.
“We’ll get it back. I know now that it wasn’t André de Lionne on the ranch. I’ll see you in the morning.”
“You guys have a good time. Tell Sarah I said hello and to get herself down here to see her old dad.”
Chapter 26
A week had passed since the jade Death Mask had been stolen from the Pape Ranch. I didn’t think it was in James Lee’s nature to let someone take advantage of him like that based on what I’d read about him in Iraq. His friend in arms, Havel, had written a very descriptive narrative about their time together and the lengths that James Lee went to avenge the massacre of his squad. I suspected that my son would deal with André de Lionne in his own way when the time came. He wouldn’t tell me what he planned to do, except that it would take a few more weeks before the real André de Lionne would help us in the recovery of the Mask. I had decided to let James Lee deal with this affront to his sense of honor in his own way and felt somewhat sorry for the real André de Lionne if he had a hand in the theft.
The man from Lisbon backed down from his offer after I spoke to him. He offered to match whatever André de Lionne would pay, but I told him to forget it. I didn’t want to sell my ranch to a mouse, or maybe I said louse, I can’t remember. Anyway, it was obvious he wasn’t a serious buyer from the get-go. While James Lee negotiated for the return of the jade pieces, I decided not to accept the offer from Bishop McCrory for family reasons. Neither the Bishop, nor Ariana’s brother, had seemed to be forthcoming to the questions I asked of them about the Church’s real interest in the property. That left a bad taste in my mouth like a stale communion wafer and I didn’t want my relationship with Ariana tainted by it.
Not long after the theft of the jade pieces, Shane sealed off the cistern with plastic sheeting and took some time off while I decided what I wanted to do. I think he really wanted to just hang out with Hannah and console her. They moved in together in San Antonio and I kept the Pape ranch house closed up. I hadn’t liked the idea of Shane or Hannah being out there alone and James Lee didn’t see the point in hiring a security team to guard the place if no one was living or working out there, so I shut the place down.
Hannah was engrossed in her research on the Jesuit Priest who had written the Journal as well as studying the capstone. She had deciphered the second glyph and together they represented a cohesive two word sentence; she just didn’t know what it meant. She translated it as Lord of Sky.
I brought the horses to the Howard Ranch and they became part of our daily late summer routine as Katie, Sunny, and I took early morning rides before the day heated up. Ariana had enrolled in a class at Texas State University in San Marcos and commuted three times a week. She wanted to see what college was like. She didn’t talk about the loss of her baby or her relationship with Kevin but she was young and strong and I had no doubt she would eventually recover from the tragedy of losing a child at such a young age.
One morning after a ride in the south pasture of the ranch, Sunny and I spotted a grey sedan parked in front of the house as we rode in.
“Are you expecting anyone?” Sunny asked somewhat alarmed.
“I don’t know anyone who drives a Mercedes Benz in Solms County.”
As we got closer a man stepped out of the backseat of the car and waved at us. It looked like our friend Tankut Güler from Istanbul, but he looked way too old. Surely, he couldn’t have aged that much, I thought. “I think that’s Tankut Güler,” I said to Sunny.
“My God, the house! Don’t you dare bring him inside until I can straighten up. Why didn’t he call,” Sunny moaned.
Tankut had been my host in Turkey years ago while I went looking for James Lee in Iraq. He had wanted to meet the rich American soldier who had become a Kurdish hero and he helped me get around a lot of red tape and obstacles to traveling in Iraq. Tankut had offices in Houston with James Lee now and together they did business throughout the Middle East and Africa.
I rode up to the car and dismounted. I grinned at him. I liked the man. We shook hands and then embraced one another.
“It is good to see you, my friend,” he said.
“You are a sight for sore eyes, Tankut. How have you been?”
He looked at me a moment and then pointed at me and laughed. “Another one of your Texas sayings, no?”
“Right you are. You remember my wife Sunny and that’s my daughter Katie?”
They both climbed down off their mounts as Tankut walked over to them. “It is so good to see you again, Mrs. Howard. Your beautiful daughter reminds me of how quickly our lives pass. It is a pleasure to meet you, Katie.”
“Who are you?” Katie asked.
“He is an old friend, Sweetpea. He helped me to bring James Lee home.”
“It is good to see you again, Tankut. It has been a while,” Sunny said graciously with no hint of her uncomfortableness at his sudden appearance.
“How are your two sons and the other boy? Andy was his name?”
“They are all fine, thank you,” Sunny said. “Max, why don’t you show Tankut the ranch and I’ll make us some iced tea,” she said and handed the reins to her horse to me. “Excuse me,” she said and went into the house.
Tankut looked at me. “Did I say something wrong?”
“The house is a mess,” Katie explained.
I shrugged. Tankut wasn’t married that I knew of, so I doubted he would understand. Besides he had servants and something as mundane as straightening a house up before company arrived would never occur to him as a reason not to receive guests. He would just assume his house was always clean and in order and ready to invite guests in, as was the Musl
im custom.
“Let me put the horses up and then we can go for a truck ride. Katie, darl’n, go say hello to the driver and tell him to go up on the porch to get out of the heat.”
“He is fine,” Tankut said.
“I’ll take care of Apple,” she said to me and walked over to the car ignoring Tankut. She rapped on the window and motioned for the driver to follow her. He stepped out of the car and looked at his boss for permission. Tankut nodded that it was okay. When in Rome, I thought to myself and remembered Tankut’s driver. He had sucker-punched me in the gut and told me to mind my manners around his boss and family.
Tankut and I walked around to the small barn and the corral behind the house, where he watched me unsaddle the two horses. Katie came running up after a few minutes anxious to show that she could take care of her own horse.
After I had given the horses some oats and let them drink their fill from the water trough, I opened the corral gate and let them out into the small horse pasture. Tankut had mostly observed and we engaged in idle chit-chat until we started back up to the house.
“I need a moment of your time, Max, so we can talk, man to man.”
“No problem, let’s go for a truck ride.”
“Would you indulge an old man? I flew into Houston last night from Paris. Can we go somewhere where we can talk in private and it is cooler? I am not used to this Texas heat.”
“Sure, come inside and take a load off.” I said.
He smiled at that expression; and I imagine him telling some foreign dignitary to take a load off.
We went into the TV room and of course Katie followed right along and turned on the TV. She felt it was her duty to be there because I had no idea how to work the satellite remote and she had somehow come to believe she was in charge of what I watched.
“Katie, we don’t need the TV on. Go find your mother and see if you can help her. I need to speak to Mr. Güler for a few minutes alone,” I said with emphasis on the word alone. I secretly crossed my fingers that this wouldn’t be a power struggle in front of our guest. She was not one to be dismissed because she was a child. To my surprise she didn’t argue with me.
“Fine,” she said haughtily, turned off the TV, and then left.
Tankut grinned at me like I didn’t know what was in store for me, but I did. I had raised more daughters than sons. Katie, nevertheless, was a little fire-cracker and I knew I would have my hands full until my final days.
“So, what brings you here to the ranch?” I asked. We were both sitting on the couch.
He brushed a crumb off the sofa cushion absentmindedly as he gathered his thoughts.
“I am here because of this conflict between James and André. It has gotten out of hand and it threatens my working relationship with both men. If you and I cannot resolve the problem between them, then I will have to choose sides. You should know that my youngest daughter, Cansu, has married into the de Lionne family. It was a strategic business decision and good for both of our families. I have tried to stay neutral and act as a mediator in this matter, but I do not think I can do that any longer. Let me ask you, Max, why is this ancient Death Mask so important to you?”
We looked at one another for a moment. There was something going on that I wasn’t aware of. James Lee hadn’t said anything about the theft of the jade pieces in a few days. He had. However, mentioned the last time I’d spoken to him that he had to go out of town on business and so we hadn’t talked in about five days. Had he been up to something?
“It’s not, Tankut. It was stolen and I’ve given up any hope of finding it. If I still had it, my plans were to let a young archeologist make her name with the discovery and then eventually donate the Mask to the Mayan people in Guatemala. It never held any monetary value to me.”
“Ah, see, I did not know that. James has been very aggressive in his demands that André de Lionne return the Mask. I figured it must have been worth a lot to you. And André has been just as strident that he was not involved in the theft. It has escalated to the point that my daughter’s life could have been in danger last weekend. She and her husband were staying at the family home in Bordeaux, when there was a robbery. Fortunately for them, they were in the city at the time and when they returned to the house, they discovered someone had broken in and, how do you say, messed up everything.”
“Ransacked,” I offered.
“Yes. Nothing was taken, but the message was clear. I do not want to see this escalate.”
“I didn’t know. Why do you think James Lee was involved?”
“Well, I don’t know it for a fact. I would not ask him. It is how he operated in Iraq and put the fear of Allah in the hearts of his enemies. There was no safe place for them to hide in their homes, compounds or a city. And, he did not leave many survivors. He knew well how to intimidate and manipulate using fear.”
“My son is who he is today because of what he had to do to survive in Iraq. I have no desire to change him or ask him to act differently than who he is. I do not know this André de Lionne, I only know my son. If you consider André as part of your family, my advice to you would be to tell him to find out who stole the jade pieces and help James Lee get them back. That is the only way I can see a good end to this.”
“André has sworn to me that he knows nothing of the Mask or why the thieves would impersonate him. I believe him, Max.”
“Then it’s not me you have to convince, is it? If James Lee is behind this, he has his reasons, and it’s not the jade pieces of the Death Mask. He has taken the theft personally and I don’t think your friend is prepared to get into a pissing contest with James Lee, no matter how rich he is.”
“Will you not talk to James Lee?”
“I trust my son to do what he thinks is right. Listen, Tankut, the theft at the Pape Ranch has nothing to do with any value the jade Death Mask can bring on the pre-Columbian antiquities market. It’s about something else. I don’t know what it is, but all three of the interested buyers for the ranch, not to mention a Mayan Indian, had one thing in common.”
“What?” he said.
“Their religions shared a point in history centuries ago. What that has to do with my ranch, the Mayan Death Mask, or the map, I don’t know, yet. I’ll figure it out, though.”
“A map? A map of what?”
“Ah, well, that’s the million-dollar question.”
Tankut leaned back, stretched, and then smiled. “Do you remember the first time we met?”
“Sure. On the plane to Istanbul from Newark, I think. Maybe it was New York.”
“Yes, yes. I had never done anything like that before. I was nervous about taking responsibility for your welfare, a complete stranger, while in my country. You could have been a mass murderer for all I knew.”
“The feeling was mutual, especially with that driver of yours. I thought you were the Turkish mafia.”
“Yes, poor Nazar. He died in a horrible car accident two years ago. Anyway, I remember thinking I was getting old and too set in my ways. I needed to expand my circle of friends and a chance to meet a rancher from Canada seemed like a good idea. Except he wasn’t from Canada,” he said and gave me the eye.
“Well, I’m glad you did. You helped me to find James Lee in Erbil and I trust that you have done okay in your association with him. There is that matter of my grandson’s broken heart, but we’ll let that go for now.”
“You know, Afet has never married.”
“Let’s keep that to ourselves,” I said.
“As you wish. Though, it has wonderful possibilities. It would bring the Güler, the Howard, and the de Lionne families together, no? Can you imagine how powerful such a union of our families would be?”
“That’s old world thinking, Tankut. Kids don’t think like that today; especially, my grandson. He’s moved on from that experience. Besides, I think you over estimate the Howard contribution to such a union. I’m just an old rancher waiting for his last sunset.”
“Oh, please. I know
better. I knew it when I first met you. You are-how you say-slyer than you pretend to be. You also forget that I know more about your son’s influence in the world than you do. He is a natural born leader and well respected by those who have accumulated wealth. It is no secret that most wealthy people are insecure and that they look for someone more secure than they are to tell them what to do with their money. That is why we are business partners in many ventures around the world that I would not have undertaken if it were not for James. This thing with André can be resolved. I will see to it.”
He took out a picture from inside his coat and unfolded it. He laid it on the coffee table. “Is this the man?”
It looked like an old Hollywood headshot in black and white of a movie star. The man was much younger than the one who showed up on the ranch.
“That’s him. Is that André?”
“No, he is a French actor. He looks nothing like André.”
“I thought James Lee knew him.”
“We do business together, but James Lee has never met the real André in person. The man he met was the imposter.”
“I was wondering when you were going to own up to knowing something? Tell me what’s going on.”
He patted me on the leg. “I needed to know for sure that you had the map. James had not mentioned it.”
“So, André de Lionne was involved?”
“I don’t think so, at least wittingly. However, are we not all responsible in some way for the actions of our children and family? Most of what I do now is for my two daughters. The de Lionne family is very large and very much aware of their place in history. I think André is trying to protect someone in his family, but you are right, he does not know what James is capable of.”
“It’s Cansu’s husband isn’t it?”
Tankut shrugged. I could tell he was embarrassed, even if he didn’t want to admit it.
“My understanding is that it was never about the mask. It was taken as insurance. There is a group within André’s family that wants the map. One of André’s brothers, I believe. Anyway, they foolishly thought they could trade with you for the map if you did not give it to them.”
The Turbulence of Butterflies (Max Howard Series Book 6) Page 35