"You were right to suggest we go up and talk to Brian at the break," I said. "Everyone crowded around Jasper and just left the kid standing there."
"He was so pathetically grateful to us, wasn't he?" Moira said. "He must have known we were the last people on the planet to judge his work, but he sure was glad to talk to us. You know who Edwina reminds me of? Rosa Klebb, the villain with the killer shoes in the James Bond movie, From Russia with Love."
"Ouch," I said. "You're right, though."
"And Brenda Butters hates Rory because… ?"
"Because he doesn't support Jasper's theories and has no trouble saying so, loudly and often."
"I thought Jasper Robinson was particularly disagreeable," she said. "All those lengthy speeches when it came time for questions, intended to display his erudition and provide good footage for the camera, rather than actually asking a real question. If I had been moderating those sessions, I'd have cut Jasper off in about ten seconds. He is a very attractive man, though. Insecure, I'll bet you—one of those men who are always trying to prove themselves. Guess how many wives he's had."
"I have no idea. Three?"
"Four," she said. "Susie Scace told me. He appears to be after number five in Yvonne, who is absolutely starstruck. She hangs on his every utterance. He, of course, is just lapping up all that adoration. It's enough to make me gag. What did you think of the presentation on Lemuria, the lost continent, by that peculiar woman Cassandra de Santiago? Did she invent Lemuria all by herself?"
"Apparently not," I said. "I asked Susie Scace. There are people who think there was a very ancient civilization in the Pacific, one that disappeared just like Atlantis."
"I still think it's odd to have that kind of paper at an academic congress."
"It is that," I agreed. "Dave said the congress was by invitation. I wonder why these strange people got invited?"
"Beats me," Moira said.
"The schedule is a little odd, too," I said. "Most of the conferences I attend have the keynote speaker at the start, not the end."
"Big leadup to the big man," Moira said. "It has the advantage for Jasper of not giving anyone time to argue with him afterward, unless that fellow Fairweather shows up and starts yelling again."
"I think they filmed that disagreement at the quarry this morning," I said. "I can't be sure, but I think so."
"That's not very nice. I vote we go to Orongo with the group tomorrow then just skip the afternoon sessions. We can either rent a car, or book another tour, or something. We don't have to go to everything."
"We have to go to Dave's," I said, and we both laughed.
"That's not until the next day," she said. "I'm going to settle up the bill here, and we should return to the hotel. We haven't had a vicious gossip session like this in years. I'm so glad you came with me."
"You haven't finished your dinner, Moira," I said.
"I've had enough," she said. "I think I have to have another of those pisco sour things. If Rory's there, we'll ask him why the moai all have their backs to the sea."
We walked back to the main street in search of a cab. Now that we knew about the Tapati Rapa Nui, it was clear the whole town was involved. Many stores had posted photos of the two young women competing to be queen: Gabriela, the one we'd been told about, and another named Lidia. They were both very pretty, and one of them looked familiar. The street was fairly deserted now, except for teenagers on motorbikes and a few patrons on the patios of restaurants. Mike and the cameraman, Danny Boy, they'd called him, waved from one of them. I guess we'd been forgiven for talking during filming at the quarry.
By now it was getting a bit dark, so we hailed a cab and went back. Rory came over the minute he saw us, saying "Pisco sours all 'round?"
The young woman who came to take our orders was wearing a name badge that proclaimed her to be Gabriela. We told her we'd heard about her and about her nomination. She was a very sweet young woman and even prettier in person than in her photographs, with a gorgeous smile. We couldn't talk long, of course, given she was at work, but it was fun to meet her, and we wished her luck.
Moira asked Rory right away about the moai, and he told us they were images of clan ancestors and that they were placed to look over the village, as a guardian of sorts, rather than out to sea.
"What toppled all the moai?" I asked. "We saw so many along the shore that are face down, and there are only a few ahu that were destroyed. Was it an earthquake or something?"
"And why did they stop carving them?" Moira asked.
"Clan wars," Rory said. "We think that during a time when society here was under a great deal of stress, wars broke out between the clans. There are stories about wars between the Hanau eepe and the Hanau momoko. Heyerdahl translated this as a battle between the long ears and the short ears, but that's not accurate. It is more like fat and thin, or upper class and lower class. The clans toppled each other's moai."
"Sort of like Jasper Robinson and Gordon Fairweather," Lewis Hood said, pulling up a chair. "Or the people who argue over sweet potatoes."
"Sweet potatoes?" Yvonne said, also joining in. "I missed that session."
"Don't ask," Seth Connelly said, also joining us. "The explanation will take hours."
At this point, several of the other people who had been with us at the quarry came over to chat, and so we left it at that. Dave, of course, reminded us of his presentation, the one at the perfect time. Yvonne made a joke about the pile of dirt: She said they'd named it Tepano's Tomb. Brian came over to chat up Rory in the hopes of getting a summer job.
The show stopper, however, was the arrival of Enrique with a glass of red wine, a can of cola, and a glass. As we watched, he poured the wine into the glass and then topped it off with cola.
"Did you see that?" Albert said. "What are you doing to that perfectly decent wine, young man?"
"This is how we drink wine in Chile," Enrique said, adding a bit more cola. "It's good. Very refreshing. You should try it."
"I may have to take something to calm my nerves," Albert said.
"I have diazepam if you want it," Moira said.
"Last call," the bartender said.
"I should think so, after that," Albert said.
"One more round of pisco sours?" Rory said. He and Moira were getting on like a house on fire, and I was beginning to feel as interesting as wallpaper, so I decided to leave them to it and go back to the room by myself.
There were two possible ways to get there, one of which involved going outside onto the terrace and thence across the grass to the annex where our room was located. The second was to cut through the lounge. Given all the talk about fate, Lemurians, aku-aku, and so on that day, I've often since thought about my choice.
I chose the outside route. If I had taken the other route or had left five minutes earlier or later, I would not have seen what I did. As it was, two perplexing and disturbing events occurred.
It was a pleasant evening. I walked along the terrace, and as I was about to turn the corner I heard a sound, a jangling, that I rather believed I'd recognize if I thought about it. The source of the noise became evident the minute I poked my head around the corner: Cassandra de Santiago's bracelets. She had a tight grip on Gabriela, the waitress, and was actually shaking her. I was about to protest, when Cassandra raised one arm and hit the young woman right across the face. I was thunderstruck, but before I could find my voice, Gabriela slipped out of the older woman's grasp and ran away.
I knew the woman had been too busy intimidating Gabriela, and the younger woman too terrified, to notice me, and so rather than confront Cassandra, I turned on my heel and went back along the terrace and thence into the lounge very upset by what I'd seen and not entirely sure what I should do about it. This time, it was the sound of loud snoring that signaled that I was not alone. I tiptoed carefully past a large armchair on which Dave Maddox dozed. I was almost safely past when the book he had been reading slid off his lap to the floor right at my feet. Maddox started slightly, but did not wake up.