“Honestly, I think it’s going to be kind of arbitrary. I thought we’d scout it out, then get the metal detectors and see if we can come up with anything that way. I still can’t believe Saul took off with the ground penetrating radar.”
“It was almost worth it to see the look on your face when you found it missing,” Dane said. He had not believed so lovely a face to be capable of such contortions. “You looked like something between Plastic Man and the Hulk.”
“Do you always say the wrong thing, or is it only with me?” Jade lowered her sunglasses to peer at him like a schoolmarm. “No wonder you’re not married.” She must have noticed something in his face because she immediately forsook the mock-disapproval and laid a gentle hand on his arm. “I just stepped in it really deep, didn’t I?”
“My wife died a few years ago,” he said “Look, it’s okay,” he continued as Jade smacked herself on the forehead so hard he feared it would leave a mark. “You didn’t have any way of knowing. I don’t really talk about her.”
“Oh my…” she blushed furiously. “Dane I am so sorry. Here I was accusing you of saying the wrong thing and I make the blunder to end all blunders.”
“Like I said, you couldn’t have known. I really don’t talk about it much.”
“Tell me you accept my apology and I’ll feel a little bit better. Not much, but a little.”
“Apology accepted. Now how about we get to work?”
They spent the next thirty minutes clambering over and around the heaps of rock that had once been a thriving Anasazi settlement of some size. Try as he might, though, Dane could not see how to even begin their search. It looked like an old quarry.
The midday sun was sweltering. They sought refuge in the thin shade of some scrub growing atop the remnants of what had been the largest structure in the settlement. They shared the tepid water from Dane’s canteen and stared out at the distant hills, hazy in the hot air.
“Do you miss her?” Jade asked, staring out at the ruined site.
It took Dane a moment to realize of whom she was speaking. “Every day,” he said.
“Does the hurt ever go away?” Something in her eyes told him she had a very personal reason for asking.
“Not exactly.” He let the word hang between them, thoughts of Melissa seeming to choke off further words. Finally the tightness in his throat subsided, and he was surprised at how normal he sounded. “But it dulls with time. At first you can’t stand to think about it, but you can’t think of anything else. Little by little, you distance yourself from it. After a while it’s only the little things that get to you; a certain song, a favorite place, a little gift you gave her that you thought she’d thrown away. Then it all comes back, if only for a little while.”
“I know what you mean,” Jade said. She exhaled loudly and sprang to her feet. “Well then,” she said, a forced cheerfulness in her voice. “I think the most likely place to start is down by Lower House. I saw an overhang that looks promising.” She picked her way through the rubble toward high house without waiting for him.
When Dane caught up with her, Jade was on her hands and knees crawling into a shady opening at the base of the rock pile that, according to the brochure, had once been an L-shaped Puebloan dwelling with a large central kiva, the round, sunken building that was the center of Anasazi worship. He dropped down alongside her, peering into the darkness. The air was cooler, though not by much, but still it was a stark contrast to the sun blistering his back.
“It looks to me,” Jade said, “like this part of the structure has actually held together. If we can scoop out some dirt, we might be able to get inside. I think I see an open space back there.” She flicked on a tiny flashlight and directed the beam to the back of the overhang where the blackness was complete. She lay down on her stomach and scooted forward.
A flicker of movement caught Dane’s eye. Lightning fast, his hand shot out just as an angry buzz filled the small space. He grabbed hold of the rattlesnake’s tail and with a flick of the wrist, slung it out into the sun. The fat, gray-brown viper beat a hasty retreat into the rocks and scrub, rattling furiously all the while.
“Oh my…” Jade backed out of the overhang and rolled over onto her back, where she lay spread-eagle, her eyes closed and her breath coming in gasps.
“Are you all right?” Dane asked. “He didn’t get you, did he?”
“I’m fine,” she said, still breathing rapidly. “Not my first rattler, but my closest call.” She took a few deep breaths, gaining control of her breathing, before sitting up. “Western Diamondback?” she asked.
“I think so,” Dane said. “We don’t get too many of those in the Caribbean, but I watched Wild Kingdom when I was a kid.”
“How did you manage to grab that thing?”
“Fast hands and poor impulse control,” he joked. “I caught sight of him when you turned on your flashlight. He was coiled to strike, but he was turned so that I had a clear shot at his tail. Probably wasn’t the safest way of handling a snake, but at least I went for the less-dangerous end.”
“I can’t believe I was so careless,” she said. “I’m just so mad that we wasted our time coming out here. It seemed so promising.” She pulled the folded printout of Holmes’ map out of her front pocket. She opened it and scrutinized it for a moment before balling it up and throwing it on the ground. “I give up,” she said. “Let’s get back to semi-civilization. Maybe Saul is back, and I’ll have someone to take out my frustrations on.”
“Wait a minute,” Dane said, picking up the crumpled map. Something had taken shape in his mind when she had opened it up moments before. He smoothed it out and laid it on his lap. “Got a pen?” Wordlessly she handed him a cheap ballpoint with a chewed cap, and sat back with her arms folded across her chest and a look of skepticism painting her face.
“Look at how the site was originally laid out.” He drew a faint outline around the layout as he spoke. “Notice how the general layout makes a three-lobed shape. And if you tie in this square ruin at the bottom…”
“A clover,” Jade said, her eyes wide in amazement. “But wait a minute. This place would have been here before Fray Marcos’s time. It would have to be a coincidence.”
“Yes,” Dane said. “But imagine you’re Fray Marcos or Estevanico, looking for places to hide pieces of this… puzzle or whatever it is. You don’t want it to be too easy, but you also want to make sure someone will eventually find the clues. What better place to hide one of the pieces than in a village that is shaped like Marcos’ personal symbol?”
“Which would explain why such a small place as this would be a likely spot,” Jade said. “I like it. But where do we look?”
“If I draw a line right down the center,” Dane said as he drew, “see what it looks like when I cut a horizontal line right across this well in the middle?”
“It’s a perfect cross!” Jade said. “But couldn’t it be another coincidence?”
“It could,” he agreed. “But there’s only one way to find out for sure.”
They made their way to a low spot that was, to the best of their estimation, the site of the small kiva. With great care they began moving aside the jumbled rocks. After twenty minutes of tiring work, he was surprised to feel a cool draft on his face. He dropped to his belly and scooted down into the hole they had made.
“There’s a tangle of interlocking roots holding up all of this rock,” he said, dragging a heavy stone away to reveal open space underneath. “I think the kiva is intact down below us!”
“No way,” Jade said, sliding up alongside him. “Just like the well where we found the breastplate.” She took out her flashlight and shone it into the hole. Its slender beam sliced through the darkness, illuminating stones that had not seen sunlight in centuries. “Hard to believe it wasn’t filled up with debris. I just assumed it wouldn’t be worth inspecting when I saw the pile of rubble.”