"So Anakena is here," I said.
"I guess so," she said. "All the rooms were taken that were supposed to be and all the badges picked up."
"Do you have any idea who Anakena is?"
"No idea at all," she said.
So there I was back in line for the Internet. Question to Rob: Is it possible to find out who people are and where they live when they use an alias on the Internet?
Answer: Possible, but often very difficult, especially if that person lives outside the U.S. and Canada and a few countries in Europe. Think of those hackers from Russia, for example. Internet is very hard to police. When are you coming home?
Answer: Soon I hope.
So far this was going nowhere. The Moaimaniacs said Avareipu invited them. Avareipu said Kent Clarke asked her to help out, but she didn't know where the idea for the congress originated. I supposed that meant I would now have to talk to Kent Clarke.
But I didn't get to that, at least not right away. I was just about to leave Brenda to her labors when Pablo Fuentes showed up. "Just the people I am looking for," he said. "Sefiora, your services as translator again, please. Senora Butters, would you please arrange for your group to be in the meeting room in ten minutes."
"Ten minutes!" Brenda exclaimed. I thought for a minute she was going to pass out at this addition to her responsibilities, but she rallied.
"Are you going to give me a preview of what I'm to translate?" I asked, as we walked over to the meeting room.
"I will be announcing that Gordon Fairweather has been apprehended and that I expect he will be charged shortly in the murder of Jasper Robinson," he said. My heart sank.
"The good news for your group is that once he has been charged, the rest of you will be asked to sign formal statements, and then you will be allowed to leave. The group will like you better this time, Senora. I think they blamed the translator last time, did they not?"
"A bit," I said.
"I trust they realized later that was unfair," he said.
"They certainly realized later that I knew nothing," I said. "I did get quite a few questions I was unable to answer."
He laughed. "This is a rather strange group of people," he said.
"Like Cassandra, for instance?"
"You know?" he said.
"Know what?" I said. "That Cassandra de Santiago isn't her real name? Anybody could guess that."
"That, too," he said, rather mysteriously, but he offered nothing more. "Do you still believe that Dave Maddox was murdered?"
"I don't know," I said. I did, of course, but I also really wanted to go home. "Where did you apprehend Fairweather?" I asked.
"In a cave," Fuentes said. "We had a devil of a time getting him out of there."
"A cave?" I said, in my most innocent voice. "How did you find him?"
"We didn't exactly," Fuentes said. "He has got himself a high-priced lawyer from Santiago. The man took us to Fairweather and said that the reason he had not come in sooner was that he was injured conducting archaeological studies in a cave and had no idea we were looking for him!"
I liked the sound of this lawyer. It was all I could do not to smile. "Was Fairweather injured in this cave?"
"It is possible," Fuentes allowed. "He certainly had a very bad shoulder. We had to send someone down from the top of a cliff over the sea and then get him out that way because he couldn't make it the inland route. I am wondering, of course, how he survived. He said he had a little food with him and some water. We only found a couple of bottles of water, empty. He must have gotten rather hungry and thirsty if he was there the whole time. Personally, I think this is a complete fabrication, but we will have to deal with it."
"You know an academic argument, no matter how heated, does not seem to me to be a motive for murder," I said.
"Professional jealousy," Fuentes said. "I'm sure Dr. Fairweather does a fine job, but it is Jasper who was the great success. And Robinson humiliated Fairweather didn't he, that night when he made his presentation?"
"I'm told Gordon took it very well, that he was a gentleman," I said. "He didn't yell or anything."
"Perhaps because he had other plans for revenge," Fuentes said. "I saw the tape of the presentation, how Jasper first quoted Fairweather and then flung his new discovery in Fairweather's face. And showing a photograph of a potato! I do not pretend to understand the arguments, but I have some sense of how galling that must have been. It may seem, to people like you and me, to be a tempest in an academic teapot, but I believe it was a lifetime of work and a sterling academic career down the drain. Perhaps Fairweather lost all sense of perspective and in a fit of rage killed the man. Perhaps he will get off with manslaughter. I do not presume to speculate."
"Robinson also quoted Dr. Carlyle," I said. "You aren't charging him, too, are you?"
"No, not yet, although he may be charged for helping Fairweather escape if I can prove it," Fuentes said. "I do understand what you are saying though, and I agree with you that academic disagreements in and of themselves do not constitute motive. But my sense of it is that the disagreement between Fairweather and Robinson was very, very personal."
The trouble was, he was right. Fairweather might say it wasn't, but it seemed to me it was. The animosity between the two men was palpable. Robinson had really rubbed Fairweather's nose in it. Academic careers could be fickle things. If you were hot, then grant money came your way. If you weren't, if you were considered a has-been, or just plain wrong about something, then you could languish for years in some remote corner of academia. Even the cave might seem preferable. Fairweather liked to be on Rapa Nui. He liked living here and working here. But his income came from a university in Australia, and it was that university and the grants he got from various sources that enabled him to be here.
"I still think an argument at the quarry is not enough evidence to convict Fairweather," I said.
"Why would you think that is the only evidence I have?" Fuentes said. "And don't bother asking me what the other evidence is."
It wasn't ten, but it was only about twenty minutes later that the group was once again assembled, and indeed, as Fuentes had predicted, I was much more popular with the audience this time around. People even offered to treat me to pisco sours. I could have had as many as I wanted, all for free, and indeed I went and had a couple, just to get a sense; of how the wind was blowing, as it were.
I was actually a bit surprised. I expected that the talk would be all about Fairweather and the fact he'd bee charged, and there was some of that. Primarily, however everyone was talking about how to get home. LanChile lines were inundated by calls from all of us, and Albert did: appeared immediately. He apparently grabbed a cab an went to the airport, but could find no one to talk to because; the day's flight had already left. When the subject came u| the group was inclined to think Gordon was guilty, but thought that was because they had never really met him or talked to him at any length.
What I did learn was that while I'd been languishing with a migraine, Robinson and Gordon had had anotherheated discussion, witnessed by Brian and Yvonne, that had ended with an actual scuffle: some pushing and shoving by the way Yvonne characterized it. I wondered if that was the additional evidence to which Fuentes had referred.
After two pisco sours, I realized I wasn't really in the mood for a celebration, and so I thought I'd just go to m room. Moira had taken it upon herself to deal with LanChil on our reservation. It would be a few days, actually, before everyone got out of there, given the limited availability of seats on the planes that time of year.
It occurred to me that from my vantage point on the stage as Fuentes' translator, I had not seen Seth at the meeting. If anyone would be thrilled at the prospect of getting out of here, that person would be Seth. He'd have his bags packed in nanoseconds, I was sure. Given he intended to go on to Tahiti, he might be more successful getting a seat on the next flight, although when that was, exactly, I didn't know. Remembering my promise to bring him something to eat, I asked the dining room to package up some dinner for Seth, then took it over to his room. The door was closed, and the guard, presumably no longer required, was gone. I knocked, then knocked again. I tried the door and found it locked.