Exotic #02 - The Hieroglyphic Staircase (17 page)

Elena waited at the base of the pyramid. The slant of the sun now cast shade across the great plaza. She saw no visible weapon on the person, which was a plus, nor anything shaped like a camera or microphone. Another plus.

The approaching visitor smiled and waved, a big hand-over-head wave, and not wanting to appear unfriendly, Elena gave a finger wave back. Who was this? Curiosity overcame any misgiving she had. She took a few steps forward.

The stranger was a young girl, dressed in simple dark skirt and light colored blouse, open at the throat, flat shoes. Her shiny, black hair was pulled back into a low slung pony tail. She looked like an upscale version of someone’s maid. She stopped about five feet away.

“Hi. You must be
doctora
Palomares. They told me at the guard house that you’d be at the Hieroglyphic Staircase.”

No, not someone’s maid. She spoke English with only a slight hint of Spanish accent.

“I am Consuela Lascano,” she said with a bright smile, showing perfect white teeth. “Everyone calls me Connie.”

She held out her hand, and Elena shook with her. What a smile. Who was this person? She waited for some explanation, baffled why this young girl was looking for her. Maybe something happened in town, and she was sent to summon Elena. Close up Elena could find not a wrinkle on the girl’s face. She wore no eye makeup or lipstick, standard fare for any fashionable Latina. Large, dark, doe shaped eyes with long lashes and full Mayan lips made her a natural beauty.

Who was she and what did she want?

Correctly reading Elena’s thoughts, Connie said, “I am from the Department of Security. I have been assigned to investigate the mysterious deaths here. I understand you are the person who can shed some light on these events. Do you have time to talk?”

Elena nearly fell over backward. “You mean you’re the new inspector?”

“Yes, that’s right.” She laughed. “I know I don’t look the part, do I? No. I look very young. I work in the undercover division, you see. We try to keep a very low profile. It helps in our line of work.”

“Department of Security in the government of Honduras?” asked Elena.

“Yes, we are part of the national government but we also do international work. That’s why I speak English. It was a job requirement.”

“You speak it very well.”

“I spent a few years in the States. As a matter of fact I went to school there. Stanford. California. Criminal justice.”

She must have been about two when she entered college. Her youthful appearance didn’t add up to that many years.

“Here,” Connie said and pulled a thin clip of cards out of her skirt pocket. “Here is my ID. I can see you don’t believe a word I say.” She was still smiling as she handed the badge to Elena, like this wasn’t the first time someone didn’t believe who she was.

It was a photo ID of the young woman, a good likeness, properly laminated and with the seal of Honduras.
Departamento de Seguridad
was lettered across the top, a hologram ran down the side, an ID number was under the photo.

Elena handed the badge back to Connie. “Good photo. Where do we start?”

* * * * *

Dominic couldn’t find Elena when he went by the Archaeological Park after the clinic closed. That sent him into gut twisting panic. Security had become tighter on the road into the Park. A roadblock had been set up after reporters had tried to storm the Park, looking for a story. Dominic had gained entry only because the guard, Edmundo, recognized him. He stood in the parking lot of the closed Museum, wondering where in creation Elena had disappeared to. He had walked to the Hieroglyphic Staircase, expecting to find her working there but she was nowhere to be found.

Edmundo had told him the new inspector had arrived and had interviewed Elena for a long time. The new inspector was a very pretty female according to Edmundo. But she had departed more than an hour ago, and no one seemed to be left on the grounds except half a dozen guards. They hadn’t seen Elena since the new inspector left.

The sun was almost down. His uneasiness grew, thinking how Elena was out there somewhere alone and unprotected. He considered circling the Museum once more to see if maybe she was in the back, or had taken a walk, when he saw her walking toward him from the direction of the wooded area behind the Museum.

He hurried to her. “Thank God, you’re safe.” He checked her over to make sure she didn’t have a scratch. “I had the awful feeling something had happened when I couldn’t find you.”

“I’m sorry, Dominic,” she said. “I spent most of the afternoon with the new inspector. We had to visit the crime sites, and she asked just shy of a million questions. What a steel trap mind that girl has. Every detail I told her she remembered and could recall half an hour later in regards to something else.”

“Is this inspector any friendlier than the previous one?”

“Oh, my yes,” she said. “She has a delightful sense of humor, speaks incredible English, and has traveled all over the world, working as a detective for various international agencies. Isn’t that something? And she looks like she should be in grade school.”

“I’m glad someone assigned a decent investigator this time. Someone who isn’t trying to pin the blame on you. Did she seem suspicious?”

Elena shook her head. “No, she didn’t express an opinion one way or another. She said she’s fact finding. I told her about Miguel. They will form a search party to look for him, if we don’t find him. That’s where I was just now.” She gestured with a wave of the hand, “I was out in the bush looking around, calling for him. But, nothing. The little devil.”

“It’s getting too dark to search any longer,” said Dominic.

“Right. I left my computer inside the Museum. Will you wait here while I get it?”

“No, I’m going with you.”

In the Museum their footsteps rang in the still air.

“I stowed my gear in the director’s office,” she said.

The door to the office stood open, the desk in full view in the center of the doorway. Elena rounded the desk, opened the lower drawer and extracted her computer. She joined Dominic in the courtyard where he stood gazing at the huge, fierce face of a bird god with green feathers and golden talons carved on the side of the temple.

Dominic said, “I’m glad I don’t have to tangle with that guy. He’s looks tough.”

Elena laughed. “You won’t since he’s frozen in stone. Such a beast only existed in the minds of the Mayans.”

They walked to the entrance where the door stood slightly ajar.

Elena stopped and listened. “Do you hear that tapping? I heard it in the office, and I thought it must be a bird. But there it goes again.”

Dominic listened, cocking his head to one side like the right ear might be a little better than the left. Then a noise sounding like
cheet, cheet
came to Dominic’s ears. “I hear something but I can’t identify where it’s coming from with the size of this place. It’s hard to pinpoint a source.”

A stone rolled across their path, and they both jumped.

“Where did that come from,” said Elena.

“Over here,” said a tiny voice.

They looked around.

“I’m by the door. In the shadows. I don’t want anyone to see me.”

“It’s Miguel,” said Dominic.

He pulled Elena to a stela just behind the door. The boy stood in the shadows.

“
Doctora
,” said Miguel, “I heard you calling me but I could not answer. You see, the man is looking for me. He has been hanging around the nature trail. It has been difficult to get something to eat. Do you have anything to eat with you?”

Elena fished in her many-pocketed vest and withdrew an unopened pack of banana chips. “Here,” she said, “this should help. And this.” She fished in another pocket and pulled out a stick of beef jerky, vacuum packed.

“
Gracias
,” said Miguel.

Elena pushed shut the great door of the Museum. “There. Now no one will see you. We can talk.”

The child opened the beef jerky with his teeth and chewed off a chunk, stuffing his thin cheeks with a wad of meat. Elena led him to the stone bench along the wall, placed so that visitors could get a view of the panorama of the great open room. Dominic followed, and the three settled onto the seat.

She produced a small bottle of water and handed it to Miguel, which he opened and drank in gulps. After he had finished the beef jerky and started on the chips, Dominic asked, “How are you getting on, Miguel?”

He shrugged his shoulders.

Dominic said, “Why don’t you stay at my house till this thing blows over. You’ll be safe there. I won’t tell anyone you’re with me.”

“Yes,” said Elena, “And a new inspector arrived. A very nice lady, and she’d like to talk to you. You will be helpful in bringing to justice the people that have done these horrible things.”

Miguel stuffed banana chips into his mouth and looked first to Dominic, then to Elena.

“The big wind is coming,” he said. “The birds are restless.”

Elena and Dominic looked at each other, not sure what that meant and what it had to do with the investigation.

“
Sí
, the birds and the animals get very upset before the big wind comes. The birds have been jumping and screeching, even the macaws. Little animals have been running back and forth in the forest like they don’t know where they are going.”

Dominic thought he knew what Miguel meant. He had noticed the birds in the central plaza today as he drove by. A huge congregation of them in the trees, more than usual, creating an incredible din.

“You mean there’s a storm coming.”

Miguel nodded his head hard, as a child does to exaggerate, big-eyed with fright. “
Sí
, there is a very big storm coming. Not just any storm. The one that brings big winds and buckets of water from the sky. It can blow a house down, the big wind can. Water runs wild in the rivers, and the banks cannot contain so much water.”

“A hurricane?” said Elena.

“
Sí
,” said the boy. “
Un huracán
.”

“Just what we need,” said Elena. She looked at Dominic. “Has there been anything on the news?”

“I haven’t been listening. Maybe hurricane news will take the heat out of the media hype of the murder.”

“Do you remember Hurricane Mitch that came through Honduras?”

“Yes,” said Dominic. “That was awful. We’d better see what news we can get and where the hurricane is. If Miguel is right, this is really bad news.”

“Thanks for warning us, Miguel,” Elena said. “Now how about Dominic’s offer to put you up at his place, so that you’ll be safe?”

Miguel looked from one to the other. “Will you have plenty of food at your house? Sometimes the big wind knocks the power out, and people don’t get food, and the tourists don’t come, and I don’t have food. The tourists have gone away now, and it is hard for me.”

Elena’s eyes glistened. She took Miguel’s hand and squeezed. “C’mon, let’s go back to town. We’ll find you more to eat.”

Miguel got up from the seat. He crushed the empty bag of banana chips in one hand. “Okay, but can you hide me in the car so no one can see me?”

“It’s a deal,” said Dominic.

* * * * *

By the time they got back to town, it was dark and few people walked the streets. The birds were gone from the central plaza, and there were no media trucks in sight. At Dominic’s house, Elena helped serve the food Leyla had fixed, and the three of them sat at the kitchen table to eat. The boy bulldozed his way through beans, rice and fried pork that Elena heaped high on his plate. Dominic made a pot of coffee and poured each a cup.

Elena and Dominic made small talk during the meal. Miguel said little, concentrating on his food. Over coffee, she brought up the nagging question on her mind.

“Miguel,” she said, “what did you see the day that man was murdered?”

His eyes got big as he shoveled sugar into his coffee. “I don’t know. I don’t remember very good anymore.”

Elena placed her hand on his arm, trying to reassure him. “No one’s going to hurt you. You won’t get in trouble. I talked to the lady inspector this afternoon, and she’s very nice. She needs to know what you saw.”

“Did you lock the doors?” Miguel asked. He was pulling at an aberrant lock of hair, twisting it so tight his scalp puckered.

“I didn’t,” Dominic said, “but I will now.”

He went to the metal kitchen door with louvered windows, slid the bolt in place, and then went to the living room, where Elena could hear him bolt the door.

“All done,” said Dominic, coming back into the kitchen. He tossed a glance at Elena that said, this kid is really scared.

“How about the windows, can you lock the windows, too?” Miguel asked.

“If I close them it will get mighty warm in here. But there are bars on the ones that are open, see?” He gestured to the kitchen window that had exterior vertical bars, plainly visible.

“Okay,” said Miguel, looking at the window.

“Miguel,” said Elena, “you told me that there was more than one man that morning, and that a man is looking for you. Could you identify him?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. One was tall and skinny, I think. He was standing over the man on the ground. The other one I couldn’t see so good; he looked more
hondureño
, maybe, shorter.

“The tall one, is he the one who is after you?”

Miguel nodded, short, tiny nods. “
Sí.
”

“And the other?”

“I can’t be sure.”

“Will you talk to the inspector?”

He looked uneasily from one to the other. He said softly, “If I talk to the lady, will you still hide me? Will there be food if I am taken to prison? They say they do bad things to children in prison.”

Dear God help this child. He had so many fears, so little protection in his life. She wanted to adopt him and take him far away from here to keep him safe. It wasn’t right that a child should be so scared.

She looked across the table to Dominic who sat watching Miguel. From the expression on his face, he felt the same way. There had to be some way to find Miguel a home. The kid was too vulnerable, and his wants were so few. He wanted to be able to eat and not end up dead. Just like the rest of us.