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Isabella’s heart pounded in her chest and her ears. He’d hired her, why was he pulling a gun?
As quickly as her frightened mind asked the question, the barrel dipped toward the floor.
“Dr. Mumphrey, I thought you were...” Delgado placed the weapon on the counter beside him. “I’m sorry. I was just reviewing the tape of you disappearing. I didn’t know who was sneaking up on me. For all I knew it could have been someone to get this tape.”
Shaking her mind out of its frozen state, she took a seat beside the curator. “Why haven’t you given the tapes you gave me to the police?”
“I do not know who is stealing. It could be someone who pays the police to look the other way. That is why I contacted WIA. I knew I could not depend on the local authorities.” He pulled the tape of her disappearance out of the machine. “How did you disappear?” He nodded to the tape in his hand.
“There is a tunnel from the archive room that connects with the sewer tunnels.” It still bugged her she’d lost Alphonso. She could still turn him in but...She wasn’t ready to tip her hand just yet.
He shook his head. “Is that how they take out the artifacts?”
“No. They label crates. I witnessed one of the members of the Bohu gang put labels on two crates.”
The man’s attention heightened. “Did you see what the labels said?”
“Yes. They were addressed to the British Museum.”
“Attention who?”
“No one. That’s the odd part.” Isabella felt as puzzled as Delgado looked. “I’m sure the Bohu gang was only being paid to put the labels on. Someone else, who would have access to what was in the storage room and the precise box, would have to give them the information.” She pushed out of the chair. “I’m going to get the books I set out in the archive room and then talk with the person who labeled the boxes. I may be able to get information out of him.”
Delgado shook his head. “You should not go to the Bohu gang alone.”
“I know where to find him that won’t be near the Bohu gang.” Isabella left the surveillance room and stepped into the archive room. Her senses pricked.
The books weren’t stacked as she’d left them. Someone had been in here inspecting the books. Who? When? Why? The more she learned, the more questions she had.
She pulled a folded tote bag out of a pocket in her vest and shoved the books in the bag. As much as the tunnel called to her, she wanted to talk with Alphonso before the car came to escort her to Garza’s. She’d check out the tunnel tonight when there was less chance of running into anyone.
Leaving the museum, she made note of the guard on duty. Did he ever go home? Between this guard and Felix at the counter in the hostel she was beginning to think people around here didn’t have lives outside of their work.
Stepping inside the hostel, she was surprised to see another clerk behind the counter. The name printed on his badge was Marco. Since her arrival it had always been Felix.
“Is Felix here?” she asked when the man looked up from a check list.
“No, señorita, he has two days off.” He smiled. “May I help you?”
Figures, just when she wanted to ask him to contact his cousin, he has his weekend. “No.” She tapped a finger on the counter. “Unless...do you happen to know Felix’s cousin Alphonso?”
“Sí, he hangs out here and helps.” Marco put a hand on the phone. “Would you like me to call him?”
“Yes, but just say you have a customer who would like him to do some shopping.” She slid a five-dollar bill across the counter and listened as Marco informed Alphonso he had a customer needing assistance.
He replaced the phone. “He can be here in fifteen minutes.”
“Gracias. I’ll wait for him in the restaurant. Send him in there without giving away who I am, por favor.”
Marco nodded and went back to his check-list.
Hauling the tote bag of books, she took a booth where her back would be to Alphonso when he entered the restaurant. She wanted to be between him and the door when he realized who waited for him.
~*~
Tino and Garza were in the surveillance room with Julio studying the camera angles in the offices when señora Garza returned home. Garza didn’t seem to notice his wife, but Tino watched her. She was mad. Her nostrils flared and her steps were determined. Something upset her while she was out. Where had she gone?
“These are good angles. We should see who enters and what they do.” Garza straightened. That’s when he noticed his wife’s return as she climbed the staircase. “Remember only you two and I know about these cameras.”
Tino and Julio nodded. Garza left them. Tino watched as he ascended the stairs. What he wouldn’t give to stay in here and see what the two discussed. But as the two met in the upstairs hallway, the camera on them went blank. He glanced at Julio. The man didn’t seem to find this odd.
“Why did that camera go blank?” Tino asked.
Julio shrugged. “I made a device Jefe can push and it blanks out whatever camera he is closest to.”
That was how the man had privacy in a house full of cameras. And how he kept conversations unrecorded.
Tino left the room. He had to warn Hadda about the cameras. He was sure she didn’t give information to the Alvarez gang, but he didn’t want her gathering intel for the Bohus and get caught by Garza. If she did, it would be one more innocent’s death on his conscience.
He found her in the pantry off the kitchen. Her mother had her back to the room as she stirred something spicy on the stove. Tino slipped into the pantry, placing a hand over the girl’s mouth and one around her arms to keep her from giving away he was with her.
“Shhh...” he whispered as she started to struggle. “I’m here to warn you. Do not sneak in the office and gather information for Luis. Garza had security install hidden cameras today. He is looking for a traitor.”
Tino released Hadda. She spun in his arms. Her wide frightened eyes reminded him of a cornered kitten.
“I have to get information for Luis,” she whispered.
“No. Not anymore unless you want to die.” Tino heard footsteps coming to the pantry. “Forgive me,” he said, pulling her into his arms and kissing her.
Anarosa pushed into the small pantry and whacked him upside the head with a wooden spoon. “Leave my girl alone! You are too old!” The woman smacked him again before he could squeeze by her and out of the kitchen.
He headed straight for his room to wash out whatever had been on the spoon, it was stinging his scalp. He’d warned Hadda, now they just had to wait for the other informant to make a move. The downside was waiting would give him too much time to wonder what trouble Isabella was conjuring. Did she send off the report and head back to Arizona or was the stubborn woman going to stick her nose somewhere that would get her deeper into his mission?
~*~
A minute after Isabella saw Alphonso pass by the restaurant window she heard footsteps approaching. The moment he turned and saw her, his face lost all color and he started to retreat. She sprang to her feet, blocking his way.
“Have a seat Alphonso. We need to talk.” She waited, wondering if he would bolt or sit.
He let out a huge sigh and deflated onto the bench seat.
“I have a lot of questions for you. If you answer them, I won’t turn you in for labeling the crates.”
His eyes flashed with surprise before his eyelids fell to half-mast. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Play dumb all you want. I can have you arrested and hauled a long way from here if that’s what you want.” She took a sip of her juice and waited. He seemed to be mulling over her words.
“Why haven’t you turned me in already?” His suspicious tone made her chuckle.
“Because I don’t believe you’re as bad as the group you hang around with. Give me some answers, and I’ll not press charges.”
He slumped back against the booth and played with a spoon. “What do you want to know?”
“Who told you about the tunnel to the storage room?”
An air of superiority changed his features and straightened his spine. “I found it when I was down in the tunnels taking lunch to my father one day. I told Luis about it and then six months ago Luis gave me instructions to put labels on certain crates in the storage room.” He glanced around the room and leaned closer. “I don’t know who he told, but they pay American dollars for me to put the labels on the boxes. Until you showed up last night it was easy.” Alphonso scowled at her.
Isabella returned the scowl with a smile. “Sorry, I have a knack for piecing together puzzles. Any idea who is paying you in American dollars or slipping the information about the crates to Luis?”
He shrugged.
“How do you know which crate to put the label on?” If he wouldn’t talk about the people involved maybe she could figure it out by learning all about the process.
“They give a general area and markings I look for.”
Excitement tingled the hair on Isabella’s arms. “What did the last markings look like? Did you cover them up?”
“I’m not supposed to cover them up.”
“No, that’s how the person on the other end knows which crates to pull from the regular shipment.” Isabella made a mental note to call her father and have him see who at the British museum had been at archeological digs with Bastante and Karyme Martinez.
“What markings did you look for this time?”
“You’re going to ruin this for me, aren’t you?” The young man came as near to a pout as she’d ever seen on a man.
“Do you want to end up in jail? If you are smart enough to find the tunnel, time and again, and find the boxes, you are smart enough to find a good paying job that will keep you out of jail.” She leaned closer. “From what I hear jail in Mexico isn’t very fun.”
Alphonso paled and shook his head.
“What did the markings look like?”
“Do you have a pen?” He scanned the nearly empty restaurant.
Isabella pulled her journal and pencil out of her inside vest pocket. She opened the book to an empty page and slid it across the table.
As he carefully made the lines on the page, Isabella watched a rendering of the Aztec sun unfold. When the sun was finished, Alphonso drew lines to split it in thirds.
The meaning was clear to her. The boxes contained artifacts from the Triple Alliance. The same time period of the artifacts the Garza’s wanted authenticated. This couldn’t be a coincidence. Someone on the dig was telling them what was found and then marking crates with the items the Garza’s wanted. She doubted the labeled crates ever made it out of Mexico City. Someone was pulling them from the trucks and relocating them.
“You know what this means?” Alphonso asked in an awed whisper.
“Yes. But you mustn’t tell anyone what I asked or what you told me.” She pulled her journal back across the table and tucked it into her vest pocket.
His eyes narrowed. “Are you really an archeologist?”
“No, I’m an anthropologist. I study Native Americans. Their cultures and languages.” She glanced at her watch. The car would be arriving soon to take her to the Garza’s.
Isabella stood. “We didn’t have this conversation, and if you want to get on the respectable side of the law—” she handed him her university business card—“give me a call in a couple months. We’re always looking for young people to help with our studies.”
She strode out of the restaurant and sat where she could watch the traffic and people outside the hostel. Her stomach bubbled with excitement and dread. If the Garza’s had any inkling she was here to discover the missing artifacts, she could quite possibly not walk out of their house tonight.