I tried to nap that afternoon, but sleep eluded me, mostly because I was furious that Ana had duped us all so badly. But I was also worried about how anyone would find her. “Surely she wouldn’t go back to her house?” I said out of the blue to Beattie, who had agreed to share a room with me so I wouldn’t have to be alone. Aaran was bunking with Boone.
She must have been thinking along the same lines because she said, “She might if she thought we were all dead and that no one would figure out the explosion was rigged.”
I groaned. “Right. But you’d think she’d check to see if it worked, wouldn’t she?”
“Not if she was smart,” Beattie said. “You know all those TV shows say the villain returns to the scene of the crime, and then they’re caught. I bet Ana has seen those shows, too.”
I had a massive pit in the center of my stomach. “So, she’s going to get away with it?”
“I doubt that, Poe. I expect Luz and Antonio will try to persuade her to turn herself in once they hear about the explosion.”
I hadn’t thought of that, and I felt a small sliver of gratitude that at least she had gotten her husband and daughter out before the building blew up. She cared about someone then.
We let the conversation slide away, and I was glad. My mind was spinning in circles, and without more information, I was just going to work myself into a state that would keep me awake all night.
* * *
When we all gathered for dinner, the mood was somber. We all looked comfortable in our new clothes, ranging from yoga pants and a very soft T-shirt for me to a lovely yellow sundress for Link. Boone had obviously ordered replacement equipment for everyone, too, because I saw new laptops and a silver case with what I expected was recording equipment in one corner. Having the means and the network to replace things in this line of work was helpful.
Still, the new clothes and shiny stuff, not even the delicious food Boone had ordered, took away from the shadow that hung over us all. Someone we thought was a friend had tried to kill us and had killed two men. This wasn’t one of those things you bounced back from quickly.
However, Boone was able to lift the mood slightly when he said, “Ana has been apprehended, and Antonio and Luz are safe.”
A small part of me wanted to cheer, but I mostly just felt sad. “How did the police find her?” I asked.
“Find My Friends,” Boone said with a small smile. “Luz had it on her phone in case her parents had car trouble.”
“Technology is good for something sometimes,” Omar said.
“So Luz helped the police?” Hildy asked. “That must have been hard.”
“I expect it was,” Boone replied. “But maybe not as hard as living with your mother when you know she is a murderer.”
He had a point there.
“Do we know why she killed those two men?” Beattie asked.
Boone sat down and took a long sip of something in a high-ball glass, which I suspected was whiskey. “She said she heard Delaney making snide comments about the quipus and the village the first night. She hated their attitude toward their community and was afraid they’d bring more people like them.”
I remembered my own anger when I thought back to that first night in the village and how Delaney had disparaged the villagers. While his behavior had been disgusting and infuriating, I couldn’t even imagine wanting to kill him for it.
“So she did confess?” Link asked.
“She did,” Boone said. “At the request of her husband and daughter.”
Given that there wasn’t much left to say after that, we left that conversation behind and began talking about our next trip. Apparently, we were going to India, Mumbai specifically, and I found a tiny spark of excitement kicking up in my chest.
For the remainder of the night, the rest of the group shared their tips about visiting the Indian city, and Beattie made a list of what we should see, eat, and experience while we were there. It was a welcome distraction from a really terrible day.
* * *
Moira and Vera headed out the next day with promises that they’d keep in touch and also check in on Antonio and Luz. I had already reached out to Antonio, but he hadn’t answered his phone. My message, I hoped, conveyed just how sorry we all were.
Still, we didn’t linger in Cusco. By noon the next day, we were at the airport for our flight back to Lima. From there, we were headed to Amsterdam before our final stop in Mumbai. Boone had gotten us all business class seats, and on the longest flights, we were apparently going to be able to recline and actually sleep. I hoped I’d be able to take advantage of that. I was definitely taking advantage of the in-flight bar and unlimited snacks.
Before boarding the plane, Boone asked us to gather close and said, “Friends, this was a brutal trip, harder than many of our others, but we did our jobs and did them well. The quipus have been returned, and a story that was taken—probably without permission—from the Quechuan people has been returned to its rightful place. Don’t forget the good we did.”
And he was right, of course, completely right, and I did feel good about that. But still, this trip, more than most, reminded me that while we talk about the silver lining in hard things, sometimes, the hard is far deeper than the silver can shine.
I chose to focus on the good, though, and when we boarded the small plane to Lima and took off, I looked down at the city, and there, in perfect relief, was a puma. When we’d been over the city in the helicopter, Boone had said the Inca thought of the puma as a symbol of patience and strength.
The Peruvian people showed that strength. They had survived colonizers, had kept their own culture, and had taken from the new one. They were thriving—ancient temples, guinea pigs, and all.
Order Poe, Beattie, and Butterball’s next adventure, Deckles And Death, here - https://books2read.com/decklesanddeath