Effigy (30 page)

He turned to the door and offered a welcoming grin. “Eva,” he said, “won’t you join us?”

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything.”

“Not at all. Please come in.”

John turned back to the brochure he’d completely unfolded across the table. “Anthony and I were just about to plan tomorrow’s agenda in
Teotihuacan
.”

He turned back to Peet who was staring back, looking somewhat bewildered as though amazed by his sudden shift in temper. John glared back.

This wasn’t over yet. Not by a long shot.

Conjunctions

Peet couldn’t have been more thankful for Eva’s interruption. Upon her appearance, John dropped their argument like a lead weight, but Peet knew him well enough to understand that the diversion hadn’t eliminated the subject. It just managed to delay the fireworks to come.

If Eva had overheard their discussion, she didn’t let on. Not that it mattered much to Peet. He’d long given up the illusion that he could alter a person’s impression of him. Depending on the other person’s viewpoint, what they saw was what they got and there was no use trying to change that. Whatever Eva thought of him, she at least kept it to herself.

She glanced down at the map spread across the table. “Is this
Teotihuacan
?”

“What’s left of it,” John said. “In its day, the city was one of the largest in the world, covering approximately eight square miles and—”

“This is what’s been excavated,” Peet summarized, indicating the ruins plotted along
Teotihuacan
’s central avenue.

“Indeed,” John said sourly, as though spoiled of an opportunity to expound. He pointed to a square at the top of the map. “At the northernmost end of the site we have the Pyramid of the Moon. As you can see, the larger Pyramid of the Sun, lies along the Avenue of the Dead.”

Eva stiffened. “Avenue of the Dead?”

“It’s what the Aztecs called it, believing the temples along this avenue were the tombs of dead priests.”

Peet surveyed the long avenue himself. He, too noticed the large square just a short distance from the Pyramid of the Moon, followed by a series of tiny squares and rectangles resembling a variety of temples and ruins trailing down both sides of the two-mile avenue. He also noticed several parking lots, a visitor’s center, even a small restaurant.

Eva’s finger landed on a third pyramid near the visitor’s center at the southern end of the site. “The
Temple
of
Quetzalcoatl
,” she read aloud. “My father could have hidden the effigy there. The police said they found his body nearby.”

“That seems to make sense,” John agreed. “But didn’t you say the police found his pickup parked in this lot near the Pyramid of the Moon?”

Eva nodded.

“Then Mr. Gaspar never made it to the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl,” Peet said. “But if that was his destination, why didn’t he just park at the visitor’s center? Looks like he would have saved himself a lot of walking.”

“I think we’d best stick to the smoke in the serpent’s mouth,” John said. “If we don’t find the effigy in the cave beneath the Pyramid of the Sun, then we can search other possibilities, including the
Temple
of
Quetzalcoatl
.”

“How do we get to the cave?”

John rubbed his chin as he scanned the map. “That’s the problem. There’s no access readily available to the public.”

“Much less an eighty-four year old man,” Eva added.

At that point, Lori barged into the room with an urgent expression, like she was in the middle of finding something important. Derek, on the other hand, followed her in like a bewildered sidekick.

“The New Agers are congregating on May 20th,” Lori blurted, stopping only when she reached the table. “That’s tomorrow. That’s when they expect the Age of Quetzalcoatl to begin!”

“That would explain the Ten Coatl date symbols on Mr. Gaspar’s newsletter,” John said, sitting back in his chair.

“Why May 20th?” Peet asked.

“Derek thinks it may have something to do with the stars.”

“Shaman Gaspar was always watching the night sky,” Derek added. “He was a nut when it came to astronomy. Last November he flew all the way down to
Chichen Itza
just to look at the stars.”

“He wasn’t just looking at random stars,” Eva interrupted. “He was watching the stars directly over
Chichen Itza
.”

* * * *

They all turned to Eva like she’d just sprouted claws or something. Even Derek looked surprised by her input.

Eva sighed. “Believe it or not, I remember some of what my father told me.”

John raised a finger in the air as if to punctuate an important point. “Your father was watching the
zenith
above
Chichen Itza
,” he said thoughtfully.

Eva shrugged, taking a seat next to Derek on the nearest bed. “Sure, if you want to get scientific on me.”

“Of course he’d be interested in the zenith,” John continued. “The zenith was the throne in the sky and the Mesoamericans were deeply concerned with heavenly bodies intersecting that space, particularly if they conjoined the sun there.”

“So what do you think he expected to see in the zenith above
Teotihuacan
?” Derek asked.

“The Pleiades.”

Derek didn’t look so convinced when he turned back to Eva. “Do the Pleiades mean anything to you?” he asked.

Eva nodded reluctantly. Of course she knew about the Pleiades. Hell, she grew up with them the same way other children grew up with Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. If there was anything that came second to her father’s observations of the zenith, it was the movements of the Pleiades.

“It only makes sense that Mr. Gaspar was interested in the Pleiades,” John thought aloud. “Their importance was rooted in Mesoamerican minds even before the time of
Teotihuacan
, perhaps evolving from the Olmecs near the
Gulf of Mexico
. And, as we’ve already pointed out with the Aztec sunstone,
Teotihuacan
was built in alignment with the Pleiades somewhere around AD 150.”

He rose to his feet as though he were about to address a lecture hall—as though his thoughts were better prompted by the motion of his pacing.

“Now due to the earth’s rotation, the Pleiades are hidden behind the sun’s glare for a period of six weeks this time of the year. Their reappearance on the eastern horizon just before the sunrise was a notable event for the Mesoamericans. However, during the era of
Teotihuacan
’s construction, the Pleiades appeared on the horizon the same morning the sun was due to rise to its fullest height over the zenith, which was an important event in itself.”

Lori glanced at the torn scrap of newsletter that had been folded in her hand. “That still doesn’t explain why Shaman Gaspar believed the Age of Quetzalcoatl begins on May 20th.”

John’s head was bowed, heavy in thought. When he looked up again, he turned directly to Derek. “Do you have internet access on your cell phone?” he asked.

Derek snorted and pulled a BlackBerry from his pocket. “What kind of journalist would I be if I didn’t?”

“Look up the National Society of Astronomers,” John instructed. “Their website contains a brilliant star mapping program. Perhaps if we look at the sky directly above
Teotihuacan
, we might find the Pleiades there.”

Eva watched as Derek’s thumbs worked over his phone. Within seconds a strange diagram flashed across the screen but Eva couldn’t make sense of its random lines and dots.

Derek hesitated, his stare intent upon the display. There was a puzzled look on his face. “According to this, the Pleiades cross the zenith on May 23rd. That’s three days
after
the New Agers meet.”

John reached for the phone. “Let me see that.” He studied the screen. “You’re right. So why was Mr. Gaspar so concerned with May 20th?

Peet crossed his arms across his chest, his shirt stretching across the span of his broad shoulders. “Where exactly were the New Agers meeting?” he asked.

“At the Pyramid of Kukulkan,” Derek said. “In—”

John snapped his fingers. “In
Chichen Itza
!”

“You mean they’re meeting at the same pyramid that’s in the picture in your house?” Lori asked. “The one with the snake shadow?”

“That’s the one,” John said, his thumbs excitedly punching the key pad on Derek’s phone. “And that just might explain tomorrow’s importance.”

Eva wasn’t following their enthusiasm. “How does that explain anything?” she asked.

“
Chichen Itza
’s latitude is north of that of
Teotihuacan
’s,” John explained, his fingers still working over the phone. “Now, since the zenith is dependent upon your location on earth, stellar events within the zenith change with your latitudinal position. In other words, if I adjust the zenith position to
Chichen Itza
…
Aha!
There it is! The Pleiades will be directly over
Chichen Itza
at exactly noon tomorrow, May 20th!”

Derek sprang to his feet and glanced over John’s shoulder. His eyes brightened. “Check that out!”

“What?” Lori asked. She, too was crowding in for a peek.

Derek pointed to the screen in John’s hands. “The Pleiades aren’t the only stars that will be directly above
Chichen Itza
tomorrow. The sun will be there too!”

* * * *

“That’s it!” Lori squealed, nearly perforating John’s eardrums. “The Age of Quetzalcoatl begins when the sun and Pleiades finally meet!”

John’s initial excitement suddenly waned. Lori must have noticed for she turned to him, her eyes dancing, and said, “C’mon, Dr. Friedman. It all makes sense. You said yourself that
Teotihuacan
was built according to the Pleiades rising before the zenith sun. Maybe the relationship between the two determined the birth of Quetzalcoatl! Now the Pleiades and the zenith sun are coming together, which means Quetzalcoatl has finally ascended to his throne!”

John shook his head. He understood Lori’s excitement, but there was a hitch to the idea.

“The conjunction of the sun and the Pleiades has been occurring over
Chichen Itza
since the dawn of the new millennium,” he said in a tone completely abstract to Lori’s exhilaration. “And they’ll continue to do so for approximately two hundred years.”

“So what are you saying?”

“This year’s conjunction is not the beginning of anything.”

“There’s another problem,” Peet interrupted. “
Chichen Itza
was a Mayan city. Why would Eva’s father care about what’s going on there?”

John turned to him to stem a misconception. “Well now, that I can explain,” he said. “The ruins of
Chichen Itza
reveal a strong Toltec influence in its art and architecture.”