Treasure of the Mayan King (2012) (25 page)

“It’s me, Miranda. I have information on Mrs. Sova.”

“Talk about perfect timing. What have you got?”

“I found her. But it won’t do you any good.”

“Why not?”

“She’s in a cemetery. She died in a car accident as soon as she arrived in France. I have a copy of the newspaper obituary online.”

Gustavo let out a long sigh of frustration.

After a moment Miranda spoke again. “Gustavo, are you there? Did you hear me?”

“Yes, yes I did. I’m finished here. I’ll just come home.”

Crestfallen, Gustavo closed his cell phone and turned to address the men. “Gentlemen, thank you for your cooperation. Adios.”

He got into his truck, put the key in the ignition, and sat back, without starting it. He had been so sure about Mrs. Sova. Now what? he asked himself. What am I going to do? I’ve exhausted all my leads. All my suspects are dead. I’m back where I started. What a complete failure! He rubbed his face with both hands. What am I going to tell Octavio?

He started up his truck and drove slowly down the jungle road. His cell phone rang again. In a foul mood, he didn’t wish to speak to anyone unless it was an important person.

He checked his phone and it was someone important. “Hello, Dr. Hernandez?”

“Hello Gustavo. I have some bad news.”

“So what else is new?” Gustavo smirked.

“Those two men: Mr. Martinez and Mr. Barrios? We have confirmed that they didn’t die of natural causes. They were both murdered.”

“Murdered? How?”

“I can’t say over the phone. Come to the morgue, I have something to show you.”

Gustavo’s thoughts were spinning. “Uh, yeah, I’m in Yucatan, I have to fly back to Mexico City.”

Chapter Ten

The airliner Chauncy was flying in descended into the smoggy blanket that covered Mexico City. As usual, Chauncy gripped the armrest with apprehension. It was the same old feeling again: an unknown, inexplicable fear of descending in an airplane. This time though, Chauncy had to chuckle to himself. He realized how unfounded the whole phobia really was. After all the life-and-death situations he had been through, this was the least of his worries.

His mind came back to the reason he was again visiting Mexico.

He pulled out an envelope from his pocket and twirled it in his hands. It’s time. He thought. It’s time for the truth to be told.

It was dark when De Leon arrived at the morgue. He passed through security and walked down the corridor to Hernandez’s office.

“Come in, come in,” Hernandez said, glancing up.

“This better be good,” De Leon said.

“Oh, I think you’ll find this very interesting” Dr. Hernandez answered, as he handed Gustavo a pair of thick gloves. “Put these on, and be very careful how you handle this!” He opened a drawer and slowly pulled out a small plastic bag. “Exhibit A,” Hernandez said as he passed the bag over to De Leon.

De Leon held the bag up to the light. “It looks like a small thorn - from a cactus, maybe.”

“Correct, it’s a cactus thorn. But most cactus thorns haven’t been dipped in poison! We found this thorn in Barrios” neck and another just like it in Martinez”s. Same poison, same type of thorn, same method.”

“A blow pipe, the bearded man on the bicycle wasn’t smoking a cigarette. It was a blow pipe!” Gustavo blurted out.

Dr. Hernandez nodded in agreement. “They really had been shot. The poison acted so quickly they just didn’t have time to explain how.”

“What kind of poison?”

The doctor shrugged his shoulders. “We don’t know. It’s some manufactured concoction. But whoever created it knew more about pharmaceuticals than the guys in our lab, and that’s saying something.”

“So we’re looking for an expert pharmacist?” Gustavo asked. Suddenly a thundering revelation came to him.

“Apparently so.” Dr. Hernandez added.

De Leon looked stunned. Octavio had mentioned that he had been a pharmacist.

“What’s the matter, Gustavo?”

“May I borrow your phone? The battery on my cell phone is low.”

“Certainly.”

Gustavo grabbed the phone on Hernandez’s desk. After dialing a number, a female voice came over the speaker. “Hello and thank you for calling the Hotel Feliz. How may I help you?”

“Yes, I’m looking for a friend of mine named Mr. Octavio Mendoza. Is he there?”

“I’m sorry sir, he checked out a few hours ago.”

“He did? Did he mention where he was going?”

“No, but from the stuff I helped load in his van it looked like he was going to do some serious digging.”

De Leon slammed the phone down; he was breathing hard.

Dr. Hernandez had a perplexed expression. “Care to tell me what is going on?”

De Leon stood up and clenched his teeth. “It will have to wait for another time,” he hissed and without any further explanation he ran from the office before Hernandez could say a word.

Gustavo sat at the table with his face in his hands. He didn’t even smell the coffee Miranda set in front of him. “I’m a fool and a failure.”

“Explain it to me again. Now you said the map was never stolen?”

Gustavo leaned back in his chair and ran his hands through his hair in a familiar gesture of frustration. Dropping his arms to his side with a sigh, he repeated the painful and embarrassing explanation. “When Mendoza realized that Martinez and Barrios had nearly completed the translation, he decided not to share the treasure with those two crooks. So Friday evening when he left the hacienda he simply took the map with him. Of course he wasn’t safe as long as the other two knew about the map and the treasure. Therefore phase two of his plan was simple. All he had to do was hire an amateur private investigator who is smart enough to find them and dumb enough to believe the story.

“Since Octavio is a pharmacist, he knew how quickly and effectively the wrong mixture of drugs could simulate a heart attack. Once I’d led him to his victims, he raced past on a bicycle with his blowpipe and cactus needle. It was just plain chance that we discovered the deaths weren’t heart attacks. Octavio Mendoza is gone. I don’t know what I’m going to do next.”

Miranda looked up at the clock. “What you’re going to do next is get to the airport in Mexico City. If you leave right now, you’ll be just in time to meet Chauncy Rollock’s plane.”

Chapter Eleven

It seemed to take an eternity to find a parking space at the airport. Gustavo sprinted through the crowded airport mall. He arrived at the gate just in time to see Chauncy stroll into the lobby with a small carry-on bag in his hand.

Gustavo waved to get Chauncy’s attention.

Chauncy approached and reached out to shake De Leon”s hand and was surprised when the investigator instead greeted him with a big hug. ‘Well, amigo, we finally meet! Welcome to Mexico, again.’

“It’s good to see you in the flesh! Last time I saw you, you were a big movie star on television.”

Gustavo laughed out loud. “The last time I saw you, you were swinging like a monkey from a helicopter!”

As they drove, De Leon brought Chauncy up to date. From there the conversation drifted into Chauncy’s wistful comments about Dr. Sova and Gustavo’s frustrations over the case.

Once they reached Cuernavaca, Gustavo turned into his driveway. The both exited and Chauncy greeted Miranda. After they sat in the living room they chatted for a while.

“Gustavo, I can never thank you enough for saving my life. I came here to fulfill your wish for two reasons. The first is my professional obligation to keep archaeological artifacts from being plundered and second for saving my life.”

Gustavo waved his hand. “Think nothing of it. To be perfectly honest, it was you who orchestrated the entire event.”

“What have you got for us?” Miranda asked Chauncy.

Chauncy took the envelope from his pocket and slid a DVD out. “After my rescue I found this waiting for me when I got home from Mexico. Dr. Sova mailed it before he was murdered and it must have taken weeks to arrive. This disc was his private message to me. This is the answer to the riddle of the treasure of the Mayan king!”

“Let’s play it!” an anxious Gustavo blurted out as he sprang from his chair. He motioned for the others to enter his office.

Chauncy inserted the DVD in Gustavo’s computer. He navigated his way through the barrage of built-in disc security, and abruptly the image of Dr. Sova appeared on the screen.

Chauncy turned the volume up slightly so they could hear clearly:

Greetings, Chauncy! This DVD was necessary because the answer to our riddle is better told with pictures than with words. I am confident that I have finally discovered the answer to the mysterious riddle that leads to the treasure of King Chac! During one of my visits to Palenque I saw the phenomenon that opened my eyes to the answer of the riddle. I finally understood. This phenomenon was previously known only in Chichen Itza. Twice a year at the equinoxes, when the sun shines on the Pyramid of the Sun, the shadows on the steps resemble a serpent.

The textbooks say “this phenomenon has not been seen in Palenque, only in Chichen Itza.” The idiots! Just because it has not been seen does not mean that it could not be seen in Palenque. Please follow my reasoning: K” inich Aha, Quetzalcoatl, K” inich Aha, Xibalba. The “sun god,” or literal sun, points the way to the “serpent god” on the steps of Temple #22!

As they watched, the image of Dr. Sova was replaced by computer animation.

Here is Temple #22.

The rotating temple came to a stop and the animation zoomed in on the steps of the pyramid.

The Mayans worshiped many gods. One of the most prominent was the sun god, K” inich Aha. During the spring and fall equinoxes the sun casts an eerie shadow on the steps of the temple.

The animation changed perspective and displayed an undulating shadow on the steps of the pyramid.

As you can see, the shadow on the pyramid looks like a snake slithering on the steps of the temple. The riddle said: The sun god will show you where the winged serpent crawls. The shadow looks like the plumed serpent god, Quetzalcoatl; if you follow the shadow it points to another pyramid.

The animation panned across a courtyard of temples. Following a straight line from the shadow serpent, it stopped at another pyramid and zoomed in.

This is the pyramid of the sun, so we have the next portion of the riddle: The winged serpent will show you the way of the sun god. The next clue can be seen from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun.

The camera moved up the steps, stopping at the top of the pyramid.

And now, follow the sun to where it sets.

The camera followed an animated sun as it set behind a mountain range, with the focus on a peculiarly shaped peak.

The sun sets behind those mountains during the equinox, where there are hidden caves. Caves were also worshiped by the Mayans. They believed that the gods of the underworld were swallowing the sun at each sunset! So the riddle says: But the sun god will be swallowed up by the god of the underground. There you will find it. The treasure is hidden in a cave in that specific mountain! The Mayans were superstitious: they believed that evil spirits dwelt in caves so they were not likely to disturb the treasure.

The animation ended, and Dr. Sova appeared again on the screen.

Chauncy, we will have to contact the Mexican authorities and the director of the Museum of Anthropology of Mexico City. Please call me immediately. I want you to be with me when I announce my find to the world.

As the video ended, Gustavo was already stuffing clothing into a duffel bag. He slipped on his shoulder holster and looked at Chauncy. “Get ready, we’re going!”

“What are you talking about?” Chauncy asked, shock evident on his face. He was still assimilating the information from the DVD and now this. “Going where?”

Gustavo leaned forward and hissed through clenched teeth, “You can find that mountain faster than I can. And if I don’t find it fast, Mendoza will beat me to the treasure. Let’s go!”

Chauncy shuddered when he recalled he had promised Anita he would not be traipsing through the jungle. “Six months ago I saw more guns than I care to remember. You’ll forgive me if I don’t join you.”

Gustavo zipped up his travel bag and looked intensely at Chauncy. “You don’t get it, do you? Octavio is on his way to the treasure. You worked in Palenque - you know where the mountain is. I need your help to intercept him or else all is lost and the trip you made here would have been a waste of time. Let’s go!”

Chauncy stared at the floor wishing it would open up and swallow him as he was envisioning his wife’s scowl. “I suppose you’re right. I guess I knew this when I agreed to come. Do me a favor will you? Don’t tell my wife about this.”

Gustavo smiled. “You got a deal. Don’t worry,” he patted his holster. “I have a gun.”

Five minutes later, Miranda watched from the front door as her husband and Chauncy raced off toward the airport.

Chapter Twelve

Ranchero music blared from Octavio Mendoza’s white van as he drove down the dusty jungle road toward Palenque.

It was a sad song, but Octavio was smiling as he sang along. Soon he would be the richest man in Mexico; soon he would find the treasure; soon he would be living on Easy Street.

He was amazed at how well things had turned out; how he had made De Leon believe that one or both of the men must have stolen the map. Poor Gustavo had labored so hard on his behalf to find the two scoundrels. He had paid the investigator handsomely, but the investment had produced fantastic returns.

He came to a fork in the road and pulled over. Turning the music down, he consulted his map, then veered to the right. Now he could make out the tops of the pyramids of Palenque. His heart quickened at the sight.

Parking in a small grassy area set aside for tourists, he walked to the base of Temple #22 with the scroll in his hand. He had been planning this for a long time. It was the perfect day: the spring equinox.

Let’s see if I can pick up where Raul left off. No point wasting time climbing the pyramid. I’ll see the shadow of the feathered serpent right here.

The temple had four corners. On one corner the sun cast an eerie silhouette that seemed undulate the entire length of the temple steps. Octavio looked around. Not too many tourists yet; good. He had to work quickly. The sun shows me where the winged serpent crawls, but now the winged serpent will have to show me the way of the sun.