Buried Secrets (8 page)

When Maggie positioned herself next to Zach, her arm brushed against his. Before them stretched a vast area of land, and yet they stood side by side, touching, no space between them. The immense expanse shrank to the small porch, her awareness centered on the man next to her. Her life might depend on Zach Collier. Four days ago she would have been horrified by that prospect. Today she was comforted.

She peered at the mesa, too. The sunlight set the rocks flaming in a myriad of colors. So beautiful. She sighed, knowing they needed to go inside and dig into the journal again for any clues to end this nightmare. But she didn’t want to. She wanted to forget for a few more moments that she was running for her life.

She started to turn toward the door when something caught her attention. She squinted, trying to see better in the brightness that bathed the landscape.

“Do you see it?” She pointed toward the top of the nearest mesa.

“What?” He straightened, alert, his gaze sharpening on the area where she indicated.

“It looks like the sun is reflecting off some kind of metal. Do you think someone is spying on the ranch?” She drew herself up tall, struggling to keep her panic at bay. “Could they have found us so soon?”

“I pray not.” Zach dug into his front jeans pocket, withdrew his cell and tried to make a call. “We’ll have to use the phone inside to call Hawke. No reception out here. I keep forgetting that.”

Quickly he crossed the porch to the screen door and stepped to the side to allow Maggie to go into the house first. He snatched up the phone on a table in the living room and punched in some numbers.

“Hawke, there’s someone up on the mesa near the house,” Zach said after he’d been patched through to his cousin. “I saw something glitter in the sun. I’d check it out, but I don’t want to leave the diary and map unprotected.”

Maggie peered at the book open on the coffee table. The copy of the map lay next to it, a bunch of lines that meant nothing to her. It didn’t even look like a regular map.

“Okay, thanks. Let me know what you find.” Zach hung up and faced her. “Hawke’s going to check the area out. He isn’t too far from the turnoff that leads to the mesa. He’ll have to hike to the top.”

“Maybe we should leave.”

“Let’s see what Hawke finds out first.”

Maggie gestured toward the journal. “We need to find a way to protect this in case they do find us.”

“I agree.” Zach began to pace from one end of the small living room to the other, staring at the floor as he walked. Suddenly he halted and whirled around. “I’ve got it. I should have thought about this earlier. We’ll photograph the book with a digital camera. We can put the pictures on a flash drive, then store the diary in its special case in a safety-deposit box.”

“I like that, especially since the diary is so fragile. We won’t be handling it as much either if we do it that way. But do you think we can read the pages as easily?”

“There’s only one way to find out. When Hawke calls back, I’ll see if he has a digital camera at the station we can use.” Zach made his way toward the kitchen. “In the meantime I’ll fix us some sandwiches, and then we need to get back to work. The quicker we discover where the codices are hidden, the quicker this will all be over with.”

Her gaze fastened on to the strange map. “I’m having my doubts about whether we can crack this. I’ve never seen a map like that.”

At the door into the kitchen Zach glanced back at the coffee table where the map lay. “I agree. Not even old ones were done like that.”

“There’s no compass on it, either. Don’t most have a reference point?”

“Yeah, that’s why I’m not sure this is a map in the traditional sense.” Zach turned into the kitchen. “I need some brain food.”

Maggie followed him into the room. “Can I help with anything?”

“No, there’s not much to fixing a sandwich.” He opened the refrigerator and studied its contents. “Turkey okay?”

“Fine.” Maggie sank onto the chair at the table. Although it was near noon, weariness weighed down her limbs. “How long do you think it will take Hawke to check the mesa out?”

Zach removed two plates from the cabinet and set them next to the ingredients for the sandwiches. “Since he was near the turnoff, half an hour, probably.”

“Unless he runs into trouble.” She glanced at her watch and noted the time. Fifteen minutes had already passed.

“Hawke can take care of himself. When I used to visit Granddad in the summers, I spent time out here with Evelyn and Hawke. He taught me to track, to live off the land. It would be hard to get a drop on him, especially because he is going up there prepared for trouble.”

Trouble. That was all her life had been the past few days. She would never take dull and normal for granted again. “How do you do it?”

He turned toward her with the two plates in hand. “Do what?”

“Act so nonchalant about all this. People are after us. Someone wants us dead, and you’re fixing sandwiches to eat.”

He placed the lunch on the table. “Because I’ve learned you have to keep your strength up if you’re going to come out of a difficult situation alive. If I don’t eat and rest, I can’t think, and thinking is what we have to do if we’re going to solve the mystery.” He pushed her plate toward her. “So eat. I worked hard to make that sandwich.” Although his expression was solemn, the gleam in his eyes teased her.

Maggie stared at the food, her stomach in a knot. She didn’t think she could eat, but his words made sense. He should know, since he’d had adventures like this before. While he went back to the refrigerator and extracted a pitcher of tea, she picked up the sandwich and took a small bite. Although it tasted good, she had to force the food down. The second he put the glass of iced tea in front of her, she took a large swallow.

He sat across from her and dug into his lunch. Several minutes later, he fixed her with a stern look. “I don’t normally tell people what to do—”

“You don’t?”

“Okay, maybe I do. Eat, Maggie. We have a long day ahead of us and you didn’t have any breakfast.”

Other than Gramps, no one had kept tabs on her in a long time. Part of her resented that Zach was, and part of her appreciated it.

“Here’s to another bite.” He lifted his sandwich and took one.

Acknowledging the wisdom in his advice, Maggie did likewise, then washed it down with a drink of tea. “Satisfied?”

“Not until you finish the whole thing.”

“You are a hard taskmaster.”

“I’ve been accused of that on a number of occasions.”

“Somehow that doesn’t surprise me.”

He lounged back in his chair. “So, since we’re going to be spending some quality time together, tell me about yourself.”

She shook her head. “Can’t. I’ve been ordered to eat.”

“And you always follow orders?”

“In this case, yes.”

“I see. In the future if I want you to do something all I have to do is ask about you.”

There was a lot she wanted to know about him, and yet sharing personal information made their partnership more than business. Then she remembered crying on his shoulder, and decided they were definitely past that. “Okay, what would you like to know?”

He leaned forward, his gaze homing in on hers. “What made you become a doctor?”

“I’ll answer if you’ll answer one of my questions.”

“Tit for tat?”

“Exactly.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal.”

Maggie took another bite of her turkey sandwich, catching a glimpse of her watch. Twenty-five minutes since Zach had called his cousin. What was taking him so long?

“He’ll be okay.”

“Who?”

“Hawke.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “Is this a delaying tactic?”

She sipped her tea. “No, your question is an easy one. I became a doctor because I wanted to help others.” She stopped short of telling him the complete answer. Her desire to become a doctor had been formulated the day she had been trapped with her father in a cave and hadn’t been able to help him, to do anything to ease his pain as he slowly died. A lump lodged in her throat, and she had to swallow several times before she could ask, “What made you become a biochemist?”

“To help others,” he said instantly.

“And an anthropologist?”

“No fair. That’s another question. It’s my turn.” Dimples appeared in his cheeks, and merriment danced in his eyes. “What’s driving you?”

“To succeed?”

“Not exactly. Someone who works all the time and never takes a vacation usually is driven by some motive beyond just the need to be successful.”

She lowered her gaze and stared at her half-eaten sandwich. “My grandfather sacrificed a lot for me to go to medical school. It takes a lot of hard work to establish a successful practice.”

She wasn’t giving him the whole answer. He knew that because she wouldn’t look at him. “And?”

Finally she reestablished eye contact, a hint of vulnerability in her gaze. “I think it’s time we got back to work.” She started to rise.

Her defenses wiped all expression from her face. He reached across the table and grasped her hand. “You haven’t finished your lunch. We can afford to take a few more minutes. It’s your turn to ask me a question.”

“Why do you like to live on the edge?”

“You don’t want to know why I wanted to be an anthropologist, too?”

“No.”

Releasing her hand, he lounged back. “To tell you the truth, I’ve never thought of myself as living on the edge.”

“From what I gather you’ve had more than your share of near-death experiences. Just last year in the Amazon you were left for dead, and yet you are ready to go back to the jungle this summer. Why?”

“That’s where my work takes me. I have things I want to do, and I’m not going to let fear keep me from doing them.”

“Are you a thrill junkie?”

He wagged his finger. “It’s my turn. What do you do for fun?”

“Read romances.”

He chuckled. “Not have them?”

“It’s my turn. Answer my previous question.”

“I became an anthropologist because I think the study of humans, especially their cultures, is fascinating.”

“I didn’t mean that question. Are you a thrill junkie?”

Am I?
“You know, I never thought about it. Thrills aren’t the reason I do what I do. When my time is up, I will go home to the Lord. Until then I have a job to do, things I want to accomplish.” The second he mentioned the Lord’s name, a shutter fell over Maggie’s features. “Without my faith, there were times I would have given up. My prayers are what sustain me when I’m faced with danger,” he said.

“What if God doesn’t answer your prayers? Would your faith be so strong?”

“Yes, because there have been times I didn’t get what I wanted. Things happen in God’s time, not ours. We don’t always see the bigger picture. I have to put my trust in the Lord that He knows what is ultimately best for me. What happened to make you doubt Him?”

“I’m all alone in this world. First my father, then my mother and now Gramps are gone. I…” Maggie averted her eyes and stared into the living room.

“I lost my sister, mother and father to a fire when I was in high school. Granted I still have my twin sister, Kate, but their deaths were very hard on me.”

“You didn’t get angry at God?”

“I’m not going to tell you I didn’t question Him. I did. But it was my faith in Him that helped me through the pain of their loss. Without the Lord, I don’t know how I would have made it.”

Maggie pushed the plate with the partially eaten sandwich toward him. “I can’t eat anymore.” She shoved her chair back and rose. “I think we should get to work.”

The quaver in her voice touched Zach. He wanted to take her into his arms and comfort her, but an unapproachable look entered her eyes.

She headed for the living room. “Better yet, we should go after Hawke. He may be in trouble.” She glanced at her watch. “It’s been forty minutes since you called him.”

“The reason I didn’t go check in the first place is that we can’t leave the diary unprotected, and we certainly can’t take it with us, even in its protective case, as we hike to the top of the mesa.”

She whirled around, her arms stiff at her sides. “We have to do something. I won’t have someone else in danger because of me.”

Her vulnerability shimmered in her eyes. Somehow he knew she wasn’t really referring to this situation. “You didn’t put anyone in danger. You aren’t responsible for this.”

She opened her mouth to say something, but snapped it closed when the phone rang.

He hurried to answer it. Although his cousin could take care of himself, he too hoped it was Hawke. “Hello.”

“Zach, I’m sorry it took so long, but there’s been a bit of trouble up here.”

“W
hat kind of trouble, Hawke?” Zach gripped the phone, hearing a breathless quality in his cousin’s voice.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to alarm you. It was just teenagers camping out where they weren’t supposed to.”

“There wasn’t anyone else?”

“No, it was perfectly harmless, really. They came down with me. There shouldn’t be any more problems.”

Zach relaxed the tensed set of his muscles and loosened his grasp on the receiver. “I have another favor to ask. Do you have a digital camera, a laptop and a flash drive I can use? I think it’s best we photograph each page of the journal, then put it into a safety-deposit box for safekeeping. All this handling outside its case isn’t good for the book.”

“Not to mention the risk that it could be stolen.”

“Yeah, that, too.” Zach caught Maggie’s look and smiled.

“I have a camera at the station and can get you a laptop and flash drive to use. Give me an hour,” Hawke said.

“Thanks, Hawke. I owe you.”

“I’ll have Mom bring the camera to you. I’ll catch her in town.”

Zach hung up the phone, his gaze linked to Maggie’s. “Evelyn will bring us what we need in the next hour, then we’ll have our work cut out for us.”

Ensnared in his visual tethers, Maggie wanted to deny a connection to Zach. She couldn’t. He had lost his grandfather as she had. The fact his last name was Collier meant nothing to her in that moment. She took a step toward him. They had gone through so much in a short period of time, and she suspected there was a lot more to come.

He moved toward her, his hand reaching for hers. His fingers laced through hers, and he pulled her close. “It was just some teenagers up on the mesa. We’re safe for the time being.”

His whispered words flowed over her in mesmerizing waves. For the first time in the past few days, she believed she was safe—in Zach’s presence.

He lifted his hand slowly and cradled her face. His gaze never left hers. The force behind his look stole her breath and threatened to steal her heart. His fingers plunged into her tresses until he cupped the back of her neck and drew her toward his mouth. When his lips settled over hers, all energy was siphoned from her, and if he hadn’t held her up, she would have sank to the floor.

The blare of the phone jarred the air. Maggie gasped and flew back a few paces. Her hand came up to cover her mouth where his had been only seconds before.

Glaring at the phone, Zach hastened toward it and answered it on the fourth ring. “Yes?”

Maggie turned away, her fingers trembling as they ran over her lips. She hadn’t dated much because of school and work, but never in her life had she been so thoroughly kissed. It was one thing to team up with Zach, but totally different to become romantically involved. The guilt she had kept locked away bubbled to the surface and nibbled away at her composure.

“I don’t know, Ray, if I can make it.”

Maggie glanced over her shoulder at the frown on Zach’s face. How had Ray gotten this number?

“Yes. Yes, I’ll try. I know the expedition could be in jeopardy if I don’t.”

When Zach replaced the receiver in its cradle, he stared at it for a moment before releasing a long sigh. “That was Ray calling to remind me about the reception tomorrow night at the college, and to tell me Señor Martinez had to back out of funding our expedition.”

“Why?”

“One of his plants in Mexico blew up. There was some kind of explosion, and he’ll need all his resources to take care of it.”

“What are you going to do?”

Zach combed his hands through his hair. “Ray said that Dr. Lanier and John are looking for someone else to fill in for Señor Martinez. They’re inviting a couple of them tomorrow night and especially need me there to sell the expedition to any potential investors.”

“Are you going?” She heard the panic in her voice and bit down on her lower lip.

“I need to. Ray not-too-gently reminded me I’m the one the people will want to talk to since I’m heading the expedition.”

“Oh.”

A wry grin appeared on his face. “Yeah, oh. If I go, you could stay here with Evelyn and Hawke. You should be all right.”

“How important is this expedition to you?”

“Very. I’ve been working on it for the whole school year. Last year, in the Amazon, I started my research into certain plants whose chemical properties are amazing. I want to continue it now. The potential is great.”

“So if you don’t show up, the expedition is in trouble?”

Zach shrugged. “Possibly. I had three sources of funding and Señor Martinez was one of them. Now he’s pulled out. That leaves a large hole to fill.”

“It might not be safe.”

“That’s an understatement. I know it won’t be safe.”

She tilted her head to the side. “How?”

“Always prepare for the worst and be thankful if it doesn’t occur. That’s my motto.”

“So if we go, we will be in danger?”

“There’s no
we
to it. You don’t have to put yourself at risk.”

She walked the few feet to him. “We are a team. I would go crazy sitting back here waiting for you to return and wondering if you’re all right.”

“I’m flattered you care.” The corners of his mouth hitched up in a teasing grin.

She huffed. “Don’t be. I’m a doctor and trained to care about anyone.”

“I deserved that.” His smile broadened. “Let me sleep on it. I need to come up with a way to get us there safely, then back here without anyone finding us. I think the reception itself will be fine.”

“What would I wear to something like that?”

He chuckled. “You don’t think jeans are appropriate?”

“
Reception
sounds pretty fancy to me.”

“As you know from John, it’s at the museum. The dean of the science department, Dr. Lanier, is hosting it. I’ll be expected to give a speech.” He leaned toward her ear and whispered, “Which is the real reason I don’t want to go. I don’t like giving speeches.”

The brush of his breath along her nape heightened her awareness of him. “I don’t, either.”

“Aah, we have something in common besides our grandfathers.”

A few days ago she would have denied any commonality between them. Now, though, she saw even more than the distaste in giving a speech. He was passionate about his work, much as she was. And he cared about others. While she treated people who were ill, he was devoting his life to finding cures for those illnesses.

“Evelyn can probably help you with something appropriate to wear if we decide to go.”

“Just in case you haven’t observed us together, she is several sizes larger than I am.”

“I have a lot of female cousins. She’s very resourceful.”

Maggie needed to put some space between them. With him so near it was becoming difficult to keep her mind focused on what they had to do. “Speaking of resourceful. How did Ray know where to call you? I didn’t think you gave this number out.”

“Call forwarding. I figured my cell wouldn’t work at the ranch so I had my calls forwarded from my home and cell. There are always last-minute details to see to when putting an expedition together, and I’m hoping Cassie calls about the names of the people who visited the center.”

“Then it’s a good thing you have Ray to help you. Have you been working with him long?”

“Only this year. I didn’t know him before I came to the college, but he’s been there several years.” Zach folded his long body onto the couch in front of the diary, opened to the pages where they had stopped before taking a break. “We’d better get back to work.”

“I’ve been wondering what the significance is of the Bible verses every few pages. Everything is written in Spanish except them. They’re in Latin.”

“He was a monk. Let’s finish translating the Spanish part, then come back to the Latin verses.”

“Why did Father Santiago switch to Latin when the rest is in Spanish? Gramps was fluent in Spanish and had no trouble with those passages, but the Latin Bible verses he had to have translated.”

Zach sat up straight. “By whom and when?”

“Years ago, and he had several different people do it for him. They never knew why.”

“Maybe we should do the verses now, then. We can take them and list them and see if there’s any connection or significance, especially to a cave.”

“Gramps tried that and couldn’t figure anything out. Puzzles weren’t his thing.”

“My granddad loved them. I got in the habit of doing crossword puzzles every morning while drinking my coffee because of him. Gets my brain going.”

“Maybe our grandfathers had the wrong parts of the mystery. Gramps was always great at reading a map.”

The sound of a car approaching drew Zach to his feet. He hurried to the window. The strain that gripped him dissolved when he parted the curtains and saw who was coming. “It’s Evelyn. Hopefully she has what we need.”

While he went through the kitchen and out the back door, Maggie studied the map. A vague familiarity niggled at her mind. Surely she hadn’t ever seen this map before, and yet she felt as though she had. Why?

Staring at the black squiggly lines did nothing to spark her memory. Like a mirage, the memory was illusive, just out of her reach. Frustration churned her stomach. Again the question, why was the map familiar? tantalized her. And again she had no answer.

In Evelyn’s living room Maggie closed the protective case that held the diary. “Done. I feel so much better with the pages on this flash drive.” She held up the device that fit in her palm.

Zach stood and stretched. “And they are clear enough that we can work from the computer instead of handling the book. Ain’t modern technology grand?”

“Yep. That’s why Gramps didn’t work with the diary much, especially in the past fifteen years or so.”

“Tomorrow, after we secure the journal in a safety-deposit box, we can get to work cracking the code. The more I think about it, the more I think it has to do with the Bible verses.”

Maggie rose and rolled her head to ease the stiffness. “We’ve been at it for hours and hours, and my body feels every second.”

Zach laughed. “Yeah, Evelyn gave up on us.” He glanced toward the darkness beyond the window. “I thought Hawke would be home by now. Something must have kept him at the station for the third night in a row.”

“He sure is dedicated to his work.”

“I think it runs in my family.”

“Mine, too.”

“Another thing we have in common?”

“I’m afraid so. Scary, isn’t it?”

“Our grandfathers wouldn’t be too happy.”

“I quake thinking what Gramps would do if he were here,” she said.

Zach crossed the room and checked to make sure the front door was locked. “We should talk about what happened sixty years ago. We’ve been tiptoeing around the feud.”

“Since we have to work together, I’m not sure it’s wise to bring it up.”

He approached her. Her body was held in a rigid line. He knew the subject probably wasn’t a wise one, but they needed to trust each other completely. The very idea of putting his trust in another scared him after what had happened the year before with his business partner. But the more involved with Maggie he became, the more he felt God’s hand in this, not just in helping solve the mystery but because Maggie was hurting. Maybe he would be able to help her find her way back to the Lord. “Ignoring it won’t make it go away,” he said.

Maggie released a breath through pursed lips and looked to the side. “I know, but you need to understand that my grandfather was the most important person in my life, and just being here makes me feel very guilty, as though I’ve betrayed him.”

He cupped her face. “Don’t you see, we haven’t betrayed them? We still love them. In fact, what we’re doing is a testament to our love. We want to find whoever is responsible for their murders.”

She cocked a shaky grin. “I don’t think we had a choice.”

The warmth beneath his palms seared into him. “We always have a choice. You could have turned over the diary to that man in your house.”

“No! Never!” A fierce expression accompanied her fierce-sounding answer.

“You see? You’ve chosen to fight rather than hide.” He brushed his fingers through her curls, and her eyes slid closed for a few seconds.

“I’m still debating the wisdom of that decision. I’m a healer, not a fighter,” she finally said.

“Believe it or not, that is how I see myself, but circumstances have forced me to be the latter.”

“Like when you were in the Amazon?”

He pulled her toward him, cradling her against him. “Yes.”

For a few seconds she held herself up stiffly. Then all of a sudden as if she had made a decision, she sank against his chest and wound her arms around him. “I’m glad, because I certainly will need a crash course in defending myself.”

“You did a pretty good job at your house.”

She shuddered. “I’d rather not think about that.” Another tremor passed down her length.