Curse of the Ruins (4 page)

They watched him disappear into the crowd.

“Where do we go from here?” Katie asked.

“Back to the hotel. Pepe told us to go pack and wait,” Sam reminded her.

Katie shrugged. “Pepe is a cute kid and everything, but I don’t remember anyone putting him in charge. It’s our father who’s missing. Don’t tell me you want to waste the rest of the day lying around the hotel when we could be out looking for him?”

“I want to find Dad just as much as you do. I just think it would be smarter to play it safe. If we start acting suspicious now, we’ll blow everything. And since I’m the oldest—”

“Excuse me. Ten minutes does not make you wise and all-knowing. I think the smartest thing to do is—”

“Time out.” Shala stepped between them. “We’ll compromise. The odds are whoever is behind all this has their people watching us right now. Since we are tourists, we’ll act like it—and while we’re at it we’ll keep our eyes open for clues. Who knows, maybe something
will turn up. If it doesn’t, we go back to the hotel and pack. Agreed?”

Katie nodded grudgingly. Sam turned to study the people coming and going in the market. “I guess since we’re already here, the market is as good a place as any to start.”

“So you’re Pepe’s uncle Carlos?” Katie pretended to be interested in one of the leather shoulder bags on display in his booth. “He seems like such a nice boy.”

“Pepe? Oh, he’s nice, all right. A little too big for his britches sometimes, but … would you like to buy that purse, miss? I can give you a good price. Those happen to be on sale just for today.”

“I’m not sure.” Katie glanced up and noticed Sam and Shala trying on sombreros at another booth across from her. She stifled a
laugh and turned back to the counter. “A purse might be too bulky to carry around.” She put it back on the hook and picked up one of the money pouches. “These are pretty. My father bought me one a couple of months ago. He didn’t happen to get it here, did he? He’s a tall man with brown eyes and a black-and-gray beard? You would have recognized him by his hat. It’s one of those 1940s kind, like Indiana Jones wore in the movies.”

Carlos thought for a moment and then shook his head. “No. I do not remember anyone like that.”

“Well, thanks anyway. Your leather work is beautiful. Maybe I’ll come back and buy something before we leave town.”

She sighed and turned to walk to the next booth. The last time she had spoken to her father had been a little over three weeks earlier. He had laughed and joked with her. He’d said that this part of New Mexico was almost like a foreign country, instead of part of the United States. He had made no mention of anything being wrong, though. He’d asked if
they’d received the presents he had sent them and told her to make sure and keep her ID and traveler’s checks in her new money pouch.

She replayed the telephone conversation over and over in her mind, but nothing stood out as a clue.

A booth in the next aisle that sold jewelry caught her attention. She had started for it when someone grabbed her arm. Before she could turn around, a black, smelly sack dropped over her head and was pulled snug around her neck. Two pairs of hands picked her up and carried her off at a run.

Katie tried to fight but couldn’t move. She couldn’t get any air, and she felt herself starting to lose consciousness.

A door slammed shut and she was dropped on the floor facefirst. Her arms were yanked tightly behind her wrists and secured with a coarse rope.

Somone knelt beside her and spoke in a gruff voice. “I will loosen the cloth from your head. But do not call out or you will regret it.”

Katie could feel the heavy material grow slack. She took several deep breaths and
choked out, “Who are you? Why are you doing this?”

“Quiet. We will ask the questions. You will answer. Where is the map of El Debajo?”

“What map? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Let me go.” Katie kicked out with her feet.

Someone else in the room laughed. “She has courage, this one. Too bad we may have to get rid of her.”

Katie froze. She had heard the slow, even voice before. It was the man from the airport.

“So, you recognize me. Good. Then you know that I mean business. Give us the map and we will let you live.”

Katie swallowed. “Where’s my father?”

The man kneeling beside her grabbed the back of her hair. “I told you we would ask the questions.”

The thief from the airport laughed again. “She doesn’t seem to be afraid of us,
amigo
. Why don’t you go ahead and tell her what happened to her father? Then perhaps she will change her mind.”

The hand on her hair tightened. “Your father
made the mistake of double-crossing us. He stole the map and sent it to you. Then he refused to reproduce it for us. Naturally we had no choice but to execute him. If you do not tell us where the map is hidden, you will suffer the same fate.”

Katie gasped. She bit her lip and tried to think. She didn’t believe these men; they would say anything to scare her. “Do you promise to let me go if I tell you where it is?”

The thief rubbed his hands together. “We are not animals,
señorita
. And of course we have no desire to harm a defenseless girl. But we will have the map—one way or another.”

“Then take it. I hid it in my hotel room.”

“Do not play games with us. We searched your rooms this morning. There was no map.”

“A lot you know. I … taped it to the back of the toilet.”

The thief snapped his fingers. The grip on her hair loosened, and Katie could hear heavy footsteps leaving the room. “We will check,
señorita
. I hope for your sake you are telling the truth. Just in case, I think it best that you remain here until we return.”

The door closed. Katie listened carefully to make sure she was alone. There was no sound other than her own harsh breathing. She rolled over and sat up. The ropes on her wrists cut into her skin.

She tried to shake the black sack off her head, but it refused to budge. Blindly she struggled to her knees and then to her feet.

The hinges on the door squeaked.

“Katie! Are you all right?” Sam rushed to her and pulled the bag off.

She gulped the fresh air. “Fine … I’m fine. How did you find me so fast?”

Shala moved to untie her hands. “Sam put the locator in your money pouch while you were in the shower last night. He said you have a tendency to wander off.”

The ropes loosened. Katie pulled free and rubbed her wrists. “I guess I should be mad. But for once, I’m glad he acted like a
big
brother. Where are we?”

“In a little house near the market. Who were those thugs?” Sam asked. “We almost ran into them outside. They seemed to be in an awful hurry.”

“I’ll tell you about it later.” Katie went to the door and peeked outside. “Right now we’d better get out of here. Because when they come back, I guarantee—they won’t be happy.”

“It isn’t that I do not believe you, Miss Crockett.” The police sergeant walked around his desk. “It is only that you do not have any proof to back up your claims.”

“Proof?” Katie’s voice rose slightly. “A man threatened to kill me. I have rope burns on both my wrists, not to mention the fact that these people say they’ve already murdered my father—and you want proof?”

“Please calm yourself.” The sergeant reached for a file on his desk. “Look, according to your report, you did not actually see the
faces of the men you say kidnapped you at the market. Yet you ask me to send my men out to arrest them. Even if we find someone who fits the description you give of the so-called thief at the airport, we would not be able to hold him on such flimsy evidence.”

“What about our rooms?” Sam asked. “You saw them. Those guys trashed our stuff.”

The sergeant scratched his head. “It is a sad fact that this kind of thing is a common occurrence in San Marcos. If we only had more officers …”

Shala stood. “I think we’ve taken up enough of the sergeant’s time. He obviously has bigger things to worry about. In the morning we’ll do like we planned and go see the sights at El Banco. And if we don’t hear from Uncle William by the time we get back to San Marcos, we will have no choice but to fly home and wait until he contacts us. Let’s go.”

“But …,” Katie protested.

“Shala’s right, Katie.” Sam took her elbow and said in a low voice, “Remember what La Bruja said about your friends being your enemies?”

Katie turned to the officer. “It’s been a long day. We’re going to our hotel now. If anything turns up, you know where to find us.”

The sergeant walked them to the door. “Enjoy your trip to El Banco. It is a colorful village, and I’m sure it will make you forget your troubles. Hopefully when you return I will have some news for you about your father.”

Outside the police station Katie shuffled despondently to the curb to look for a taxi.

Shala stopped her. “Don’t look so down. Those crooks were lying about Uncle William. They’d say anything to get you to talk. We have to use the information they gave you to try and find him, that’s all. If we put our heads together I bet we can figure out where this mysterious map is hiding.”

“I told you,” Katie sighed. “Dad didn’t send me a map. He sent Sam a poncho, which is now hanging from the ceiling fan in his bedroom, and he sent me a leather money pouch to keep my papers in.”

“Did you check the pouch? Maybe he hid the map in the lining or one of the pockets.”

Katie nodded. “I looked. There’s no lining
and only one pocket. The map couldn’t be hidden in it. There’s no place to conceal it.”

Shala rubbed his forehead. After a few moments his eyes narrowed. “Can I see the pouch?”

“Sure. I have it right here.” She slid the chain over her head and handed it to him. “But I’m telling you, there’s no map in it.”

Shala unzipped the pouch and looked inside. Then he ran his fingers over the strange design on the cover.

“Uncle William did send you a map, Katie. You’ve had it with you all the time.”

Katie looked at Shala. Suddenly she saw what he meant.

“Of course,” she whispered. “I should have known it wouldn’t be inside the pouch.” She stood next to him and studied the detailed configuration on the front. “The map is on the outside. Dad had it carved into the leather.”

“They call this a road? It feels more like a cattle trail.” Sam bounced in his seat and came down hard.

“We’re taking a shortcut.” Katie held on to the back of the seat in front of her. “You heard Pepe’s brother-in-law. He said this way was better for tourists because it’s more scenic.”

“Scenic?” Sam glanced out the window. “The only things out there for the last twenty miles have been cactus, sand, and flies.”

“Not exactly.” Shala made a quick scan of the other passengers on the bus. No one was
paying any attention, and they all appeared to be local people. He motioned to the window. “Take another look.”

Sam squinted. Ahead and to the right of the bus were some chalk-colored hills that seemed out of place in the flat desert landscape.