“Why’s the map so important?”
“My daughter called me and told me this story after the family home was broken into. A branch of the de Lionne family in the eighteen century had migrated to French Louisiana. They were merchants and traders in the French territories of the Mississippi River Valley. One man in New Orleans was helping the Jesuits to smuggle their wealth out of the Spanish territory after the Church demanded that the Jesuits hand over all of their gold and land in the Americas to the Pope.”
I nodded that I understood.
“One of the caravans from Mexico City never arrived. About two years later a man showed up in New Orleans claiming to have been one of the wagon drivers hired by the Jesuits. He was given Arsène de Lionne’s name by the priest in the caravan. According to Arsène de Lionne’s diary, several of the men in the caravan turned on the others, killed them, and returned to Mexico City with the gold. Only the man that showed up in New Orleans survived the attack because he was left for dead. The attack occurred after they crossed a river and stopped at a shrine. The diary did not mention the name of the river or the shrine. One of the things the priest had been carrying with him was a map; the man that survived had heard the Priest argue about it with one of the men that stabbed him. After the massacre, he buried the Priest and the others, and struck out for New Orleans. He was captured along the way and made a slave by an Indian tribe for almost a year before he escaped.”
“I wondered why the priest had never finished the Journal. He was murdered.”
“Maybe there is something more about the incident in Arsène de Lionne’s diary. Cansu has not read the diary. She just related to me what her husband said to her.”
“Did the de Lionne diary say anything about the jade Death Mask?”
“I don’t know that either, Max.”
“I certainly don’t want to jeopardize Cansu’s safety over any of this. Have André’s family return all of the jade pieces they took and we can meet here to discuss what we will do about the map.”
Tankut frowned. “Can we not meet at a more neutral site?”
I shook my head, no. I held all the cards. “Oh, and one other thing. Have them bring that diary. I want someone to take a look at it.”
“I will ask André.”
“I have no idea what the map is for, but if Cansu were my daughter, I’d make sure she was some place safe and out of France until all of this is settled. I don’t imagine James Lee likes a thief any more than I do and he may not be finished with the imposter just yet.”
My friend frowned at that. “I don’t think Gérard would be directly involved with such unsavoriness.”
“I’ll talk to James Lee this afternoon,” I assured him.
“André had nothing to do with what happened, Max. He gave me his word and I believe him. He and I have the same level of trust that you and I have.”
“Well, until I meet this fella, that trust doesn’t extend to me. We still hang rustlers and thieves in Texas,” I said and winked at him.
. . .
Tankut was gracious enough to stay a few minutes after our talk to have a glass of iced tea and some guacamole dip with us. Sunny was not a woman who felt comfortable in the kitchen around anything but a crock pot and that was okay with me. She gave it her all and tried many dishes for me, but her heart wasn’t in the kitchen. She was blessed with so many other talents, that I had no complaints. She could, however, make mean dip with just the right burn to suit my taste buds and my stomach.
After Tankut left to drive back to Houston, I called Hannah with the news that we would get the jade pieces back. I also told her the story of the Priest’s death and the possibility of a diary to confirm the story in the Journal. I was a bit surprised at her lack of enthusiasm at the news.
“I thought you would be excited,” I said.
“I am…it’s just that I wanted to tell you this in person. I spoke to the jeweler that I took the jade pieces from the Death Mask to and he had them analyzed by a certified gemologist. Oh shit, Max, the Mask is a fake!”
“How would he know that with just looking at a couple of pieces?”
“I told him it was from an ancient Mayan death mask from around the middle of the sixth century. The pieces were definitely jade but the jade didn’t come from the Americas. In the nineteen-seventies they identified the source of jade in Mesoamerica as coming from the lowland Motagua River valley in Guatemala. They’ve discovered scores of mining sites there.”
“Well that’s interesting, isn’t it? Considering the map is of the Motagua River.”
“I know, but that’s a whole other issue. The jade I gave him wasn’t from there. It’s not jadeite from the lowland Motagua River valley, he was sure of that. It was too light. It’s nephrite jade from China. His professional opinion was that it was from the Ningshao area in the Yangtze River Delta.”
“Meaning?”
“Someone used the pieces of an old Chinese jade vase or something to construct the fake Death Mask. It doesn’t belong to Lord Wak-Chan-K’awill, the Ruler of Tikal.”
“Well, damnation.” We had been duped again. “So, what do you want to do now?”
“If we get the pieces back, we should reconstruct the Mask, document the find, and give it to the Maya like we planned. They can do what they want with it, then,” Hannah said somewhat sadly.
“And beyond that?” I said.
“I’ll finish my dissertation on the Journal, travel, I don’t know. I’ve got to get out of school. I’ve been at this too long. It doesn’t look good on my CV. The French Diary would be a great help to me. Do you think I can see it?”
“I’ll make sure you do. I’m thinking André de Lionne is going to want to follow-up on the map. Maybe there’s something there for you, too.”
“Let me know, please.”
“I’ll talk to you again soon.”
“Max, thank you.”
“You bet,” I said and closed the call. That was interesting. Why would someone go to the trouble to create a fake Mayan death mask? I couldn’t think of a single reason why, except that the Catholic Church would have had the resource to do something like that. They had access to artisans, jade treasures from around the world, and control of Mayan lands. They were the likely culprit, I figured. I would pose the question to Bishop McCrory the next time we spoke.
I took the family out that night to a catfish dinner at new place that had opened up on the Riverwalk in New Haven. Sunny was exhausted from our visitor earlier that day, or so she said, and didn’t feel like fixing dinner. I told Sunny and Ariana over our salad about the situation with the Death Mask and my planned meeting with the de Lionne family.
“Do you think he’ll still buy the ranch?” Sunny asked. “I sure hate the idea of not being millionaires.”
“Yeah, it’ll be real tough without that windfall, but the good news is you still have me.”
“Hmph,” she said, smiled, and then patted my hand.
Out of the blue, Ariana said, “I’m thinking about moving back home.”
Chapter 27
Three weeks after Tankut Güler had paid a visit at the ranch, FedEx delivered a package addressed to me at the Meeting Center. Emily signed for it and called me. I drove up to get it and visit with her. We had missed each other by minutes the past few mornings.
“I’ve got some great news. I’ve booked the Center for two weeks,” she informed me as I opened the package.
I guess I was more focused on the package’s contents than on what she was saying. “Isn’t that great?” she said.
“Two weeks, huh?”
“Dad, a company has booked the whole Meeting Center for two weeks. That’s a first,” she said proudly and slightly annoyed that she didn’t have my undivided attention.
“That’s great, Sweetheart. Congratulations.” Once I had determined that the contents were indeed the stolen jade pieces, I set the package aside. “What are they going to use the Center for?”
“It’s a movie
production company out of Dallas. They’re scouting locations and will even have a casting call for local extras. I also told them about the Pape Ranch. They’d like to take a look at it. Is that okay?”
“Sure, let Shane know and have him show them around.”
“You know who might be in it?”
“Clint Eastwood?”
“No, Chris Hemsworth. Can you believe it?” Emily said excitedly.
“I’ve never heard of him.”
I called Hannah as I walked out to my truck and told her that I had put the jade pieces in the safe along with the Journal. I thought it best to keep the Mask’s pieces under lock and key.
“Don’t you want to have the jade professionally cleaned?”
“I’m not going to let the jade out of my control until I decided what to do with the Mask,” I said and thought about how flimsy the safe in Emily’s office really was. I’d bought it for the Journal and it was less than five hundred pounds. It could easily be hauled away by an ambitious crew of professional thieves. I’d learned my lesson well from the French heist. “Are you free now?”
“Yes.”
“Meet me at First Texas State Bank in New Haven in an hour. I’m going to get a safe deposit box and I want you to have access to it.”
“Better make it two o’clock,” she said sheepishly and then added, “Traffic.”
“Okay, see you then.”
I went back inside and gathered up the jade pieces, the Journal, and the thumb drive with the translation. While inside, I called Tankut and found him in Paris once again. I told him I had received the package and I wanted to meet him, André, and James Lee in four days at the Meeting Center on the ranch.
I now had a couple of hours before I had to meet Hannah and Bob’s Ribs came to mind. I called Clete to see what he was up to.
. . .
It took a bit longer than four days to get everyone together. However, on the appointed day, Clete catered, Emily hosted, and Shane, Hannah, Andy, and I set up for a presentation of what I wanted to divulge to our French buyer. Until I had some more answers from André de Lionne, I wasn’t going to tell him everything.
It was a typical hot September day, the sky was clear of clouds and haze; the hummingbirds were busy at Emily’s feeders, and one of God’s favorite creatures in Texas, a horned toad, sunned himself on a big chunk of limestone in the rock garden, while James Lee flew in on his helicopter. The real André opted for an Uber driver from the San Antonio airport. That probably cost him and his associate more than the flight from France.
I had asked James Lee to bring George with him. I felt the need to keep George close to the family after what had happened on top of the mesa. James Lee and André were a bit standoffish toward one another at first but after everyone had said hello and shook hands, they were as cordial as two alfa males could be in the same room. It kinda reminded me of two bucks eyeing one another, except that one was forty years older than the other one. The first thing out of André’s mouth was an apology to me for the theft of the jade pieces and so we were good to go from that point on.
While we waited on Tankut to arrive from Houston, Emily told everyone about the movie company that was coming to the Meeting Center and that they might use the Howard or Pape Ranch for shooting the movie. She had their rapt attention after she mentioned the actor Chris Hemsworth. Seemed like everyone, including André, knew who he was, except me.
I leaned over to Hannah and whispered, “Do you know who he is?”
“Thor,” she whispered back.
That made no sense at all to me, so I let it go. I looked out a window and saw a Lexus pull into the parking lot. The driver got out and held the back door open and I said, “Oh, shit!” silently to myself. I knew Emily was going to have indigestion soon. Afet Güler stepped out of the car followed by her father.
I hadn’t told Tankut about Andy’s work on the map or that he would be at the meeting. I could only hope Andy had matured beyond that head-over-heels fall-down-stupid infatuation that he’d had the first moment he met Afet. That first time, he had jumped in her limousine and rode away with her to Houston for her flight back to Turkey. The only reason he didn’t get on the plane with her was because he didn’t have a passport. When he got one he ran off to Istanbul to find her. That’s when I gave into Emily’s threat to do me bodily harm and I involved myself in their relationship.
“They’re here,” I said and went outside to greet them.
Afet had matured some since the last time I’d seen her, but she was just as beautiful as ever. We stopped a moment and smiled at one another as two co-conspirators. She gave me a proper hug.
“Max, it is so good to see you again. How are you?”
“I’m fine Afet, thank you. You’re sure looking well and lovely as ever. How have you been?”
“My father works me too hard, but other than that, I am fine also. How is Sunny?”
“She’ll be glad to see you again. I’ll call her and invite her up for lunch so you can say hello. Tankut, my friend, good to see you again, also,” I said and shook his hand.
“I hope you did not start without us.”
“No, Andy’s mother is regaling everyone with the news about a possible Hollywood movie on the Pape Ranch. We’ve been waiting for you.”
At the mention of Andy’s mother Afet’s expression changed. I noticed it and so did Tankut. At the time, Afet had been a willing participant in the ruse that we had fostered on young Andrew to get him home to continue his studies at UT. After seeing her subtle reaction to his mother’s name, it occurred to me that maybe she had some regrets since then or she hated Emily’s guts.
“Come on inside and I’ll introduce you to everyone,” I said.
Once inside, I was happy to see that Andy was cool to the idea of her presence at the meeting and greeted her like an old friend instead of acting like a puppy when its owner gets home from work. If he had any lingering feelings for Afet, it wasn’t obvious to me, which I knew to be a bad thing for a woman of Afet’s charms and personality. It would only encourage her.
Before I started the presentation, I asked André if he had brought the diary. He had.
“I’ve made copies of the Journal from the Jesuit priest, as well as an English language translation of it for you. Would you mind if my daughter, Emily, makes a copy of the diary you brought with you so we can translate it into English. That way Hannah will have two sources to work from for her research.”
He nodded and took the old diary from his briefcase. Emily put on a pair of white cotton gloves as instructed by Hannah and took the diary into her office to make a copy.
Hannah went through her presentation and she had a lot of questions from André and Tankut. Shane, Hannah, Andy, and I had talked before the meeting and we had all agreed that no one needed to know about the origin of the jade used in the Death Mask or the location of the river on the back of the capstone.
It was obvious to me that André wasn’t really interested in the jade Death Mask because he never asked about it after his initial apology for the theft. He did ask questions about the cistern that none of us could really answer. It was still a mystery to us as to who built it and when.
“That was very informative Mademoiselle McCoy. However, I would like to see the map, please,” André said.
Hannah looked at me with a puzzled look. She had left out those images of the capstone where too much detail could be seen of the Mayan glyphs and the river segment and so there were just a few she used in her presentation. She also had not shown the close-up picture that Andy had used to digitize the image from. I hadn’t been ready to give away everything we had just yet. We had all assumed that André knew the map was on the capstone, but it didn’t sound like he did.
“Do you mean like a parchment map?” she asked him.
“Perhaps vellum. I came to see the map the Jesuit carried with him.”
“Hannah, put up the cistern image with the capstone.”
After she displa
yed it, she frowned, as if she knew she was going to disappoint him. “The map we found was carved into this capstone, Monsieur de Lionne,” Hannah said.
André de Lionne was beside himself when Hannah displayed the images of the destroyed capstone at the bottom of the cistern. “You have no map,” he said accusingly and gave Tankut a nasty look.
Well so much for the idea that he knew about the capstone, I thought. He had to know about the map from somewhere other than the Jesuit Journal.
“At the time, André, I didn’t know that there was a woman on the ranch who was sent to retrieve the jade Death Mask. When she didn’t find the Mask buried at the bottom of the cistern, she destroyed the capstone. Why she did it, I don’t know. It could have been out of anger or maybe she didn’t want us to have what was hidden on the bottom of the capstone.”
“Why did you bring me all the way from France? You led me to believe Monsieur Howard had the map,” André said to Tankut.
“Max?” Tankut said.
I had the feeling André wasn’t as mad as he pretended to be, but then again he was French. Maybe he just had his dander up.
“The loss of the capstone was my fault. I’m too trusting, sometimes. Hell, I was even dumb enough to trust a potential buyer from France and look what it got me-he robbed me behind my back,” I said to needle him back.
“My father shot the Indian,” James Lee said and looked at André with a stare that unsettled even me. I guessed James Lee was telling André in his own way not to mess with the Howard family.
“Is that true?” Tankut said to me.
I wasn’t too happy with James Lee broadcasting that bit of information to the world, especially with Emily standing nearby in the next room. I had not told her about Magali or the black jaguar. I didn’t feel she could handle another episode with a jaguar after Buster.
“Yes, unfortunately, it is, but she’s okay. Let’s move along. Andy, tell them what you’ve done so that André doesn’t feel his trip was a complete waste.”
The Turbulence of Butterflies (Max Howard Series Book 6) Page 36