“Lee, it’s just possible you’ve found the largest collection of Toltec artifacts known to man, if they’re real. And the wall paintings! Magnificent! I’ve got at least three people working on the pictures to see what it all means. Who’s the guy with the rifle? I don’t like that. What if he’d wakened while you’re there?”
“But he didn’t,” I said and heard a double beep in my ear. The only other person it could be was Lila.
“Richard, Mom’s calling. Can I answer and still keep you on the line with me?”
“See the green button below the one marked send?”
“Yes.”
“That’s for a conference call. Hit it twice and start talking. You know, I tried to go over this with you before you left.”
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered before tapping the green button twice. I said hello and heard my mother’s voice along with Richard’s.
“Liana, we didn’t hear from you. Virginia and I were becoming concerned.”
“Mom, I’ve got Richard on the line, too. You need to call the police. Something’s come up.”
“Tell me,” she ordered, and I did, with input here and there from Richard.
“Liana,” Mom said, “Virginia is phoning the police on the landline right now, but you know it’s going to take at least an hour and a half for them to get here from San Miguel.”
“I’ll wait.”
“You should ride back right now. It’s not safe for you to be there,” Lila said, sounding just like a mother.
“No, no, I’m fine. No one knows I’m here. I’m hidden behind a tree. Secondly, I’m not leaving my newfound treasure until the police come, and I know exactly what’s going on. Thirdly, I have a rifle, and I’m perfectly safe—”
“You said that, Lee,” Richard interrupted. “My vote is for you to leave, as well. Stop being so stubborn. You never know what could happen. Your locator signal had better be on. Is her signal on, Mom?”
“It was, but isn’t now. That’s why I called.”
“Whoops, I must have accidentally turned it off when I called Richard. Sorry. I’ll put the locator back on and sit tight until everybody comes. This way I can watch the place. This thing has more gizmos on it,” I complained about the phone, as I pressed the button. The soft red light began to pulse again.
“If you are determined to stay there, Liana, at least now we can find you,” Lila said.
“Great! So I’ll talk to you later, Richard, and Mom, I’ll see you in about an hour and a half when the police arrive.”
I hung up and that was the last I knew. I felt a “thwack” at the base of my skull, a sharp pain, and then adios amigos.
Chapter Ten
The Mexican Hat Dance
I woke up to a wet tongue slobbering all over my face and the smell of ingested grass. Thank you, Lupita. Sitting up, I suspected my moaning was what brought her to my side. She’s sweet that way, slobber and all.
Wiping my cheeks and forehead with the sleeve of my blouse, I looked up to the sky. It was almost dark. Faithful Lupita still there, I reached for a stirrup and managed to hoist myself to my feet. I heard hoof beats coming toward me along the main trail. Thinking it was someone coming to finish the job, I grabbed the rifle and cocked it. I’ve never fired at anything other than a target on a practice range, but I was damned if I was going to go down without a fight. Relief flooded through me when I heard my mother shouting my name, as she and Tex galloped by waving flashlights.
Braced against the mare’s side, I staggered out to the path and called to the women. The effort added to the crashing cymbals in the back of my head, and I could hear the hoof beats fading into the distance. Just as I was about to fire the rifle into the air, Lupita gave out with something that sounded more like the trumpet of an elephant than a whinny. She followed it with a loud snort. That got their attention. My God, if I’m ever at the bottom of a well, this horse is better than Lassie.
When Mom and Tex heard us, I could sense their relief, even in my sorry state. They turned the horses around and, flashlights aimed at me, came to my side. It was only a quarter moon, so everything was pale, and it was hard for me to focus. I returned the rifle to the holder, reached inside the saddlebag, and finding the flashlight, flicked it on.
“Anybody got water?” I asked as they dismounted. I was still leaning on Lupita.
“Sure, hon,” said Tex, getting a bottle of water and handing it to me. My mother ran to my side.
“Liana, what happened?” Mom asked. “Why did your signal go off? We couldn’t find you.”
“How long ago was that, Mom?” I asked, taking a long drink. I poured the rest on the nape of my neck. A light, spring rain had begun to fall, and that, too, felt delicious on my head.
“Right after we hung up, about an hour ago. We decided not to wait for the police when your signal stopped,” Mom said, feeling the back of my head. “What is this, Liana? You’re hurt! What happened?”
“You say the signal went off? Oh, jeesh, where’s my sat phone?” I let go of the saddle, searching the ground with my flashlight. I returned to where I’d been hit. “Oh, no,” I said, as I saw it smashed to smithereens, lying by a large rock. “Richard’s going to kill me.”
“Liana, stand still and tell me what happened.”
“Someone conked me on the head right after I hung up from you.” I heard her intake of breath. “I’m fine, but I only came to minutes before you found me. The cave!” I said, wheeling around. I aimed the beam toward the fake shrubbery.
“Mom, Tex, shine your lights over there,” I said gesturing with my light. They obeyed, and we saw that the camouflage had been tossed about, revealing the hidden path running along the mountainside. Dropping the bottle of water, I ran over to the mouth of the cave that was now completely exposed. The ground directly outside had been beaten down by footprints and thick tire tracks.
“Oh, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.” I ducked down and stepped inside the cave. Mom followed, not saying a word about my language. She knew how serious this was.
“They’re gone,” I said. A spent force, I leaned against the side of the cave. My voice echoed in the empty cavern. “It’s all gone.”
The tables were now bare and several were on their sides. As Tex and Mom’s lights shot around the cave, I could see the hasty retreat that had taken place. The card table was upside down and cards were everywhere. The bottle of tequila was smashed against one wall, the still wet contents sparkling off shards of broken glass.
Tex whistled in wonder, focusing her beam on the walls, “Oh, doggy, would you look at this! This has been on our property all this time, and I never knew?”
Mom went back outside and I followed her. Studying the ground, she asked, “How many men do you suppose there were?”
“I can’t really tell, but it looks like quite a few. Maybe Tex…” I began, just as she joined us.
“I’m not staying in there by myself in the dark, ladies. It’s too spooky.”
“Virginia, you’re good at tracking. Can you tell how many men were here?” Lila asked.
“Hmmm,” she said, squatting down and playing the light around her, “At least six different sets, maybe as many as eight. Plus the double wheels of a truck. Tires worn pretty thin. That’s about all I can tell in this dark. We’ll have to wait until morning. Of course, if it rains any harder…” She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t have to.
“Here,” I said, rooting around inside my saddlebag for a wool sweater kept there. I tossed it to Tex. “Lay this on top of a section of the tire tracks. Maybe this will keep the rain from washing it away, enough to get a plaster cast for a match.”
I stumbled a little and Mom reached out a supporting arm. “Liana, you’re hurt more than I thought. We’d better head back, Virginia.”
“Sure thing. It’s starting to really come down now, anyway,” Tex muttered, as she stretched the sweater over the ground and looked up at the sky.
“Is there a doctor—” Mom started
.
“I don’t need a doctor, Mom,” I interrupted. “I’m fine.” I didn’t add I was so mad at myself that I felt I didn’t merit medical help. If I had a headache for the rest of my life, it was only what I deserved.
“The closest doctor is in San Miguel,” Tex said, ignoring me. “And they rarely make house calls. In any event, even if we could get someone to come, it might take a couple of hours for them to get out here.”
The two of them herded me to Lupita’s waiting side. “I don’t need…” I began to say again.
“We’ll have to drive her to town when we get back,” Mom said.
“You’re not going to drive me to town. I won’t go.” My voice was small but mighty.
“I could call my vet, Dr. Gonzales,” Tex said.
“I don’t want—”
“She’s only about five minutes away. She comes over at all hours to take care of my Aztecas.”
“Excellent thinking, Virginia.”
“Hey! Would somebody listen to me? I’m not going to let a vet check me over!” I put my foot in the stirrup in an attempt to haul myself into the saddle.
“Dr. Gonzales has delivered babies from time to time, when the women couldn’t get to the hospital in time. She once set a vaquero’s broken leg when he fell off his horse.” Tex mounted her pinto and looked at me.
“Large animal vets often know a great deal about the human body,” Mom said, as she gave my rump a push into the saddle. She turned her attention back to Tex. “Could you call her now, Virginia?”
“Sure thing. I even have her number on speed dial,” replied Tex.
I gave up. “Well, what the hell. I’ve been pretty much of a horse’s ass, so it’s only fitting. Maybe I could ask her what to do about Tugger’s hairballs while she’s at it.”
“Hush, Liana. This is no time for levity,” Mom said.
Grabbing Lupita’s reins, I leaned over, hugging her warm, damp neck. Mom mounted her horse while Tex made the call for the vet to meet us at the house.
We started off at a slow trot, my head pounding and my spirits so low you’d have to take an elevator down to the basement to find them. I had let everyone down with my stupidity. If I hadn’t been trying to put on a brave front for Lupita, I would have cried all the way home into her soggy mane.
It was a veritable party waiting for us on the lighted porch, a chubby woman about my age who turned out to be Dr. Gonzales, four or five policemen, and Paco, the horse handler. The doctor had a bag with her that looked a lot like a regular doctor’s bag, and she greeted us with a warm smile, blasé about the uniformed and armed company she’d been waiting with.
Paco took the horses from us to unsaddle them and wipe them down. Ordinarily, that’s the rider’s job and always has been, but these were extenuating circumstances. We climbed the steps, and Doctor Gonzales came over to me. Lila and Tex took the police over to a seating area on the porch while the doctor and I went inside. I would have preferred to talk to the police, but I was outvoted.
Ushered to the leather sofa, I was ordered to lie down. After examining me carefully, Dr. Gonzales proclaimed I was going to live. I could have told her that. It was a “glancing” blow and could have been a lot more serious—I could have told her that, too—and some ice and a day’s rest should take care of it. She further suggested that I see a regular doctor the following day for a check-up. Fat chance. Glancing blows go with the territory.
Mom and Tex came inside and informed me that three of the policia had left. They would question me in the morning. Two officers remained, standing guard on the porch until daylight. When the others returned, they would begin their search. I knew by then the truck and its contents would be half way to God knows where and the tracks probably obliterated by the rain.
Dr. Gonzalez said her goodbyes to the three of us, and other than to thank her, I didn’t talk much. Tex got an ice pack and mom fussed with my covers. I lay back on the ice, feeling the headache subside but not my idiocy. I’d been crept up on from behind like a second-grade shamus in a “B” movie. Man, was I depressed.
Exactly who koshed me on the noggin? And where did all those men that made the footprints outside the cave come from? More importantly, where did they go? Whoever they were, they were able to strip the cave of hundreds of pieces of art in under an hour. They even had a large truck at their disposal that once loaded, departed for a safer, designated place. Whatever was going on, it was big, well-organized, and nearby. The nearby part and Tex being here by herself began to bother me. Maybe Carlos was right; maybe she was in danger.
Mom made some soup and green tea for me and brought it out in a tray. Without saying a word, she put the tray down, turned on cable TV, handed me the remote and left the room. She knows better than anybody that sometimes you just want to be miserable by yourself. I had been ordered to stay awake for a couple of hours, so I propped myself up and sipped the tea while catching snatches of her conversation with Richard in the next room on the sat phone. I didn’t have the strength to ask what it was about or to interrupt.
Minutes later, flipping through channels, I found an old Barbara Stanwyck movie, The Lady Eve. Even dubbed in Spanish, it was terrific, and I tried to lose myself in it. Sour thoughts flitted into my mind occasionally, but I tried to keep them at bay.
After the film was over, I decided to call my cell and home phones to check my messages, even though I’d been gone less than twenty-four hours. Not many people have those numbers, so I wasn’t expecting much. I reached for the phone on the end table. The first message was from Tío, who decided to bring Tugger over to the big house. Mira would have some feline companionship and Tugs wouldn’t be lonely in my absence. This sounded good to me on the off chance the apartment was burglarized again. I didn’t want My Son The Cat to be there by himself.
The second was a frantic message from Leonard. He had no idea where Robby Weinblatt was and would I find him? I couldn’t get the tone of his voice, though. It was all over the map, angry, sad, hostile, and wrapped in guilt. Pretty odd, all told, but it didn’t hold a candle to the next message from Douglas. I actually had to listen to that one twice in order to let it sink in.
“Lee, it’s me, Douglas. Listen, I hate to bother you…actually, I hate to ask this of you…I don’t know how to begin…Lee, I’m going to have to ask for that cat charm I gave you back.” Nervous laughter here. “I…it seems that I…shouldn’t have given that away. It’s not really a copy but the prototype…ah, whatever that is… and it seems Estaban says it’s kind of valuable and irreplaceable…well, actually, he says his cousin says it is…and if…” He broke off speaking for a moment. “Lee, I’m so sorry about this, but he really is upset, and he says he will give you another one that looks just like it, okay? I’m so sorry, Lee. I’ll make this up to you. If you could just call me back and let me know when I can have it back, so I can give it to him, I’d appreciate it.” Long pause. “Call me back, Lee, and as soon as you can, darling. Okay?”
I didn’t tell Douglas I’d be out of town. Everything happened so fast, I didn’t get the chance to tell anyone where I was going. After a moment, I decided to leave it that way, now this Estaban was in the mix. It was eleven-thirty p.m. That meant it was nine-thirty in California. It might not be too late to return Douglas’ call, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk to him in person. I didn’t think I was a good enough actor to keep the doubts and worries out of my voice. We knew each other too well.
Tex had gone to bed, but Mom was hovering nearby. She came over when I hung up and sat down on the couch beside me.
“What’s troubling you, Liana?” she asked, stroking my hair.
“Mom, do you still have that friend at the Museo de Antropologia in Mexico City, the one who’s a curator?”
”Manuel Lopez? Dr. Lopez is not exactly my friend. He was more of a friend of your father’s.”
I removed the leather thong from my neck and handed it to her. “Could you go there tomorrow and have him take a look at this?
I don’t think there’s anyone close by who would either know about this or we could trust. Can you do that for me?”
She looked at me, puzzled. “That actually was my plan, to visit him at the Museo, Liana, but for another reason.” Now it was my turn to wear a puzzled look. She turned the charm over in her hand again and again, absentmindedly. “I have an idea about what might be happening around here.”
“Do you? Share with me, Mom. I’m at a loss.” I shifted around on the icepack.
“I think this is much larger than it seems on the surface of it, Liana. The cave was cleaned out very quickly.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“This suggests a finely-tuned organization. I suspect there might be a spread out operation with key people in important and influential places.”
“That makes sense.”
“In which case, Manuel Lopez is the kind of person who is politically and socially involved in many things, even outside his own areas of expertise. Besides…” She smiled down at me. “He’s a man who likes to gossip. That could prove useful.”
I felt a shot to the solar plexus. She was on to something.
“A little while ago, I gave Manuel a quick call at his home. He’s always been a man who stays up late, so I knew he wouldn’t mind. We’re going to have lunch tomorrow in Mexico City to discuss a few things. I’ll ask him about this while I’m at it,” Lila added, as she held up the necklace, studying it. “Liana, where is the mark? I don’t see it.”
I snatched the necklace back, turned on a nearby lamp for more light and scrutinized the small charm in my hand. “I don’t see anything either, Mom. What do these marks look like?”
“I have no idea, having never bought a replica, but I would say they should be in a place fairly obvious to the consumer.”
Mom looked at me and I looked at her. I handed her back the panther charm, saying, “Okay, we’re going on the assumption that whatever was in the cave is valuable, otherwise, why did they strip it?”
“Exactly, Liana. Possibly priceless.”
Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries Boxed Set: Books 1-3 (The Alvarez Family Murder Mysteries) Page 36