Buried Secrets

by Margaret Daley

  Please, Lord, don’t let anyone be hurt. The brief prayer that came to mind felt right to Maggie, as though the Lord was reaching out to her to comfort and soothe her fear.

  She rushed into the hallway of her office complex and saw her nurse going into the first examination room at the end of the corridor. “Carol, what happened?”

  The middle-aged woman halted and spun around, anger lining her usually pleasant features. She hurried to Maggie. “I tried calling you at home and left several messages with your service. Someone broke in last night and ransacked the place. The police think the person was looking for drugs. You should see your office. It got hit the worst.” Her friend paused in her explanation and studied Maggie. “What’s going on? Why is Dr. Masterson covering for you for the next few days? Are you all right?”

  “Was anyone hurt?” Maggie didn’t want to have to explain to her nurse why she had called her partner to cover for her. The less people knew, the better for them.

  “No. As I said, it was sometime during the night, so no one was here. But we had to call all the patients and make other arrangements. It’ll take a few days to get the place back in order.”

  Zach’s hand at the small of her back reminded Maggie of his presence behind her. “Carol, this is Dr. Zach Collier. I wish I could tell you what’s going on, but I can’t. And I can’t stay. I only came by to get something from the office.”

  “You’re in trouble.”

  Carol’s words, not in the form of a question, caused Maggie to glance at Zach. She’d had no experience in secrets or sabotage.

  Zach stepped forward. “With her grandfather’s death, there are some things that Maggie needs to see to concerning his estate that may take a few days.”

  “Good. I was worried about you when you told me you weren’t going to take any time off to deal with your loss.” Carol looked from Zach to Maggie. “We can take care of this.” She waved her arm about to indicate the place.

  Through the open door into one of the examination rooms, Maggie saw the chaos that had become so much a part of her life of late. “I didn’t realize how much Gramps’s death would affect me. I thought working through my loss was the best way to go.” She took her friend’s hand. “I know I’m asking a lot of you and the others. I appreciate you handling this for me. Where’s Dr. Masterson?” She peered at Zach. “He’s my partner.”

  “He had an emergency at the hospital.”

  Maggie hugged Carol. “I wouldn’t ask this of you if it wasn’t important. Please don’t say anything about me being here. I’m going to my office to get something, then I have to leave.” Before anyone gets hurt, she silently added, hoping her friend didn’t pursue the subject of what was going on.

  Her nurse smiled. “You can count on me. I’ll keep everyone in the front while you get what you need.” She enveloped Maggie in another hug. “Please take care of yourself. Call and tell me you’re okay, if you can.”

  Tears smarted Maggie’s eyes as she pulled away. “I will. And thanks for handling this. Are the police still here?”

  “No, they just left.”

  As Carol went toward the front, Maggie headed for her office, down another short hall. She kept her gaze trained forward, intent on getting the key, if it was still there, and escaping before anyone got hurt because she was here. At her door, her hand trembled as she reached to turn the knob.

  She and Zach paused just inside. After what had happened in the past few days, she should be used to the destruction she saw before her; she wasn’t. Whoever had trashed the office left no hiding place unturned, determined to retrieve the journal at all costs. She would be a fool not to be scared, not to worry if she and Zach would even be able to make it back to Zach’s cousin’s house alive.

  She picked her way across the room to her desk and stared down at the disarray. “Will my life ever be normal again? They’ve ransacked everything I own. There’s nothing left for them to destroy.”

  Zach came to her and turned her toward him. “Yes, there is. You.”

  A tear slipped from her eye and rolled down her cheek. He drew her against him. “Please let it out. You can’t keep everything bottled up inside you. Something will give, and I don’t want it to be you.”

  Everything came crashing down on her. Before she had met Zach Collier, her life had been normal, on track with her plans for the future. Now she wasn’t even sure she had a future. She strained away from him, but his arms were still around her loosely. “Why should you care? Ah, yes, it wouldn’t do for your partner to break down in the middle of all this mess.”

  He seized her face between his hands, his slate-gray eyes intense, penetrating. “I care, Maggie. We are in this together.”

  Tears clogged her throat, making it difficult to respond. She just wasn’t sure she could totally let go of the past and trust Zach completely.

  “Too much has happened for you to put your feelings on hold. Let go. Let me help,” Zach said.

  She wanted to fight the sorrow that pooled in her eyes, to stop the fissure forming in the wall about her emotions. She couldn’t—not anymore. Tears cascaded down her cheeks. There was no way she could silence the feelings snarling her insides like twisted vines. The pain of her losses, tangled with the fear for her survival, overpowered her. She allowed Zach’s arms to encircle her against him.

  She cried for Gramps.

  She cried for herself.

  She cried for Zach.

  When there were no more tears to shed, she silently relished the feel of his arms about her, his outdoorsy scent, which was growing so familiar to her. A serenity born from a deep emotional release slowly began to unfurl and spread throughout her. She hadn’t cried this much in years—not since her mother’s death.

  When she stepped back, using both hands to wipe her face dry, Maggie offered Zach a tentative, shaky smile. “Thanks, I needed that.”

  One corner of his mouth cocked up in a grin. “You’re welcome.”

  The warmth in his expression caused her to momentarily forget her destroyed office. Under normal circumstances they would never have met, and if they had, she would have stayed away from him because of who he was. And when this was over, they would go their separate ways, his life a series of adventures, hers here in Santa Fe with her practice. There was no common ground, no room for mixing. But for the time being she was thankful he cared. It made Gramps’s death a little less painful.

  Finally she surveyed her office. “I guess I don’t have time to straighten up.”

  “Nope, not if you value your skin.”

  She grinned. “I didn’t think so. Let’s hope they didn’t find the key, or if they did, they didn’t know its importance.” She picked her way to the bookcase, with her medical journals strewn about the floor near it. “You and I think alike.” She threw him a glance over her shoulder. “Scary, isn’t it?”

  He chuckled.

  She searched the pile of books until she found a large volume on respiratory illnesses, and she hefted it. Back at her desk, she scanned the mess until she found her letter opener. She inserted it between the binding that held the pages together. She prodded until a key slipped out the other end and dropped onto some papers.

  “Clever,” Zach said.

  “I do have my moments.” Maggie pocketed the key and started for the door.

  As she neared the intersection of the two hallways, she heard Carol’s raised voice in the doorway to the reception area, and came to a stop.

  “Dr. Somers isn’t here.”

  “But I had an appointment with her this morning.”

  “As you can see, we had a bit of a problem here last night. We tried to reach all her patients to reschedule their appointments. I thought we had. Who are you?”

  The man’s voice sounded familiar. Maggie peeked around the corner toward the entrance, where Carol stood with a man. Maggie’s gaze riveted to the “patient’s” blue eyes.

  It was him.

  SEVEN

  “Where is she? When wil
l she be back?” The familiar voice of her assailant rose.

  “Sir, I’m sorry, she can’t see you today. If you just tell me your name, I can refer you to another doctor.”

  Maggie heard Carol’s strained patience. She sensed the tension emanating off Zach right behind her. His hands settled on her shoulders as though to convey his support.

  “I want to see Dr. Somers. My friend said she was the one I should see.”

  “Sir, I’ll write another doctor’s name down. She won’t be available for a while.”

  The volume of her nurse’s voice lowered as Carol moved away from the entrance into the hallway. Maggie took a chance and peered around the corner again.

  “Who’s that?” Zach whispered in her ear.

  “The man who attacked me last night.”

  Zach stiffened. He wanted to do something foolish, like charge into the reception area and strangle the man. But he couldn’t. No one else needed to get hurt because of the codices, and there was an office full of workers here. “We’d better get out of here. Now.”

  He moved in front of Maggie and checked out the corridor that led to the back entrance. Grasping Maggie’s elbow, he set a quick pace toward the exit, glancing over his shoulder every few seconds. He cracked the door open and peered out into the alley, stress accentuating his movements.

  “It looks okay,” he said, but he knew how deceptive that could be. A tight ache formed in his gut as he jogged down the alley toward their vehicle. Any second, he half expected a bullet in his back. The skin along his spine crawled. The hairs at his nape stood up.

  Once in the green Jeep with Maggie, Zach quickly started the engine and pulled out into traffic while continuously scanning the cars around him. “You know, this could become a regular habit for us.”

  “What?”

  “Leaving without saying goodbye. I guess we need to work on our manners,” Zach said, trying to inject some humor into their dire situation.

  “Yeah, if we make it out of this in one piece.”

  Zach darted a look toward Maggie. “We will. That’s a promise, and I’m a man who keeps his promises.”

  He maneuvered the car around the block, checking out the area—especially in front of her office—before he pulled into a parking space at the side of the bank. They would prevail; they had to.

  “I’m calling Carol to see if the man is still there.” Maggie retrieved her cell from her purse and punched in some numbers. When her nurse came on the phone, Maggie asked, “Is he still there? That man who demanded to see me?”

  A frown marred Maggie’s beautiful features as she listened to Carol. Zach still had the strong urge to go back to the doctor’s office and confront Maggie’s attacker. He pried his hands from the steering wheel and flexed them.

  “Can you get away and bring it to us? We’re at the bank on the corner.” She paused. “Good. Come only if you think it’s okay.”

  When Maggie flipped the cell closed, Zach twisted around and faced her. “She’s coming to the bank? Why?”

  “We have a security system that tapes different views of the offices. She said he was on the one for the reception area.”

  “What happened to the system last night? Was the break-in recorded?”

  “The police took the tape, which had two men in black ski masks. Not much to go on, I’m afraid. But if I can show them this tape and file a charge against him for breaking and entering my house last night, maybe they can find out who he is.”

  “Maybe.” He pushed his door open. “Let’s get the diary and get out of here.”

  Ten minutes later, with the diary secured in its case, Zach and Maggie left the safety-deposit-box vault. Carol saw them and hurried across the lobby toward them.

  The next day Maggie stepped out of Evelyn’s house, the screen door banging closed behind her. She welcomed the heat after the strain of the past few hours, working side by side with Zach, trying to decipher a diary written hundreds of years ago by Father Santiago in both Spanish and Latin. Thankfully Zach had a gift for languages.

  Before, when her grandfather had read her some of the passages, she had loved the flowery, poetic verses. Now she wished the monk had just come right out and said, “Hey, everyone, this is where the codices are hidden.” And for that matter, why wasn’t there a big, fat X on the map to indicate exactly where the treasure was concealed? Weren’t all treasure maps supposed to be like that?

  A tribal-police car came down the dirt road toward her and went around to the back of the house. She would finally get to meet Hawke Lonechief, Zach’s cousin, Evelyn’s son. His presence reassured her.

  Tension throbbed in her temples, striking against them as though an Indian’s drum were beating in her head. She placed her coffee mug on the railing and massaged her forehead, but nothing relieved the dull ache. Her eyes slid closed, and she tried to blank her mind of all thoughts, especially ones connected with the codices. She couldn’t. Her life—Zach’s—depended on them finding the Aztec books before anyone else found them, if they still existed.

  At the bank the day before she’d half expected the man after her to be waiting in the safety-deposit-box vault. Only half expected? Who was she kidding? The way things had been going she had fully expected the man to be there.

  Despite the heat, Maggie trembled. Cradling her drink in her palms, she took several sips and studied the landscape before her. A large mesa toward the horizon dominated the vista. Its rocks glittered reddish gold in the late morning sun reflecting off their surface. The lush greenery, which indicated a stream, snaked across the flat land that jutted up against the mesa.

  The sound of the screen door creaking open drew her attention. With a glance over her shoulder, she noted Zach’s frustrated appearance. She gave him a smile that vanished almost instantly because it required an effort to maintain, and all energy had dissipated two hours into studying the map and journal.

  He came up behind her. “Under normal circumstances, I would find trying to solve the mystery of the codices interesting, even exciting.”

  “But not when a death warrant hangs over our heads?”

  “Right. That kinda kills the mood.” Automatically, his hands, as if accustomed to massaging her all the time, rested on her shoulders and kneaded the tightness beneath them.

  She wanted to melt back against him and surrender to the wonderful feelings flowing through her. But the screech of a bird pulled her away from the soothing sensations that for a moment eased her stress. She stepped to the side and turned toward him.

  “I’m glad I called Carol this morning to check and see if that man came back again. If anything…” She couldn’t finish her sentence. The idea of another person she cared about getting hurt stole her voice.

  Zach took her hands and commanded her attention with his unrelenting expression. “I’m glad he didn’t. Is everything okay with your patients? No problems?”

  “None. Dr. Masterson owes me. I’ve covered for him when he has gone on vacation these past few years.”

  “That sounds like you haven’t gone on one.”

  “Not since I opened my practice. I took a long weekend with Gramps right after I finished my residency.” Now she wished it had been a real vacation. She hadn’t spent nearly enough time with Gramps since medical school. Regret mingled with her weariness.

  “How long ago was that?”

  “Three years.”

  “You’re kidding. With the high-pressured job you have, I’m surprised something didn’t give.”

  “My sanity? No, I think this adventure will take care of that.”

  Zach leaned against the porch railing. “I agree with you and with what your grandfather thought about the references to the earth’s secret, its treasure. The place has to be a cave of some sort—but then that was the most likely possibility anyway since the codices have remained hidden for all these years.”

  “And the Southwest is riddled with a lot of cave systems.” Memories she wanted to forget inundated her—gasping for
air, fear that immobilized her, dust choking her, helplessness. She squeezed her eyes closed and tried to rid her mind of the images parading across it. But she couldn’t. A vision of holding her father as he inhaled his last breath, his legs pinned beneath tons of rock, swamped her with sadness.

  “Are you all right?”

  When she looked into Zach’s concerned expression, she almost told him about her father dying in a cave-in that had left them trapped for twenty-four hours. But that had been such a painful time that she hadn’t even talked with Gramps about it. “I’m okay. Sorry, I was just thinking about all those caves.” The dark. The silence. The trapped feeling.

  “It will be like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

  She needed to concentrate on the here and now. “First we must locate the right haystack.”

  “Father Santiago had hoped to convert the Indians to Christianity with kindness and tolerance. According to the records our grandfathers unearthed, he must have traveled all over what is now New Mexico, Arizona and parts of Texas, spreading the word of Christ. So we know two things. The area we have to look in and what to look for. We have made progress.”

  “But not quickly enough.” Pain continued to pulsate against her temples. She pressed her fingers into the flesh above her eyes. Her mind felt like mush. Not enough sleep. Too much thinking. Too much running for their lives.

  “Here, let me see what I can do.”

  His fingertips replaced hers, the contact electric. Suddenly she was no longer thinking about her headache. Her senses homed in on the feel of his hands on her face, rubbing soothing circles into her temples. She peered up and knew instantly that doing so was a mistake. The smoky glitter in his eyes held her captive. The rest of the world fell away, and all that mattered was Zach and her. The warm spring day wrapped them in a protective cocoon, as though nothing could touch them.

  A discreet cough behind Zach parted them.

  He spun around to face his cousin. “Hawke. I didn’t hear you approach.”

  Dressed in tan pants and a matching shirt with the tribal-police patch on his sleeve, Hawke grinned, two dimples appearing in his cheeks. “And I made it a point to make some noise.”