"Do you remember what the poison was?" I said.
"Not really," he said. "But I can find out. What are up to, Lara?"
"I'll explain all later, but I'm not planning to poison a body. Somebody here, three people in fact, have been poisoned. What I don't understand is why the pathologist or the doctors haven't figured this out. Don't they have machines now that tell you in minutes what's in a person's bloodstream?"
"You watch too much television," he said.
"Maybe," I agreed. "But I'm not off my game."
"Of course you aren't," he said in a somewhat mystified, but soothing, tone.
"Forget I said that," I said.
"I knew I should have gone with you on this trip," he said.
"I feel as if you've been with me all along," I said.
"I'm not sure what that means exactly."
"I'll explain later," I said.
"It sounds to me as if you'll have rather a lot of explaining to do later," he sighed. "Be careful."
"It's the tattoo," I said, hanging up and turning to Gordon. "There was some kind of poison in the tattoo. Dave had one, Jasper had one, and Gabriela has the start of one. She didn't die because she didn't get as much poison as the others. She must have managed to get away, or the killer was interrupted. You have to tell Gabriela's doctors right now. There's a pathologist working on what killed Jasper and Dave. Maybe he knows already, or maybe if the doctors tell him about Gabriela, he can piece it all together, figure out what it is."
Gordon was reaching for the telephone when Victoria put her hand on his arm. "Gordon," she said. "Think for a minute. If all three of these people are poisoned with the same thing, then it may well point to you, especially because of Gabriela. You are already a suspect, even if Fuentes had to let you go for now."
Surely Gabriela isn't that close a relative, I was thinking.
"She's my daughter, Victoria," he said. "I'd die for her." "His daughter?" I said, as he dialed. "I'll explain later," Victoria said. "But yes, Gabriela is his daughter."
I guess we all had some explaining to do.
10
"SNAKE VENOM," Fuentes said.
"Snake venom!" I exclaimed. "Are there poisonous snakes on this island?" I thought about the miles of long grass I'd put my sandaled feet through and the tons of rocks I'd climbed over.
"Apparently not," Fuentes said. "No snakes at all, in fact, which explains why snake venom was the last thing they were looking for in the senorita's case."
"Is there an antidote for this snake venom?"
"There is, I am happy to say, and it will be here tonight, or perhaps in the early hours of the morning. The question is whether or not there has already been too much damage to the senorita's internal organs."
"Where is the antidote coming from?" "Australia, where the snake normally resides." "Australia to Rapa Nui would be a long swim for a snake," I said.
"It would," Fuentes agreed. "Which is why I am operating under the assumption that someone had either the snake or the venom in a vial and brought it with them. I am to it is used in minute quantities to treat certain conditions which ones I have no idea, but it means it is possible to obtain it."
"From Australia," I said.
"Yes," Fuentes said. "Which, as I'm sure you know, where Gordon Fairweather lives at least part of the year where he teaches."
"But poison his own daughter? I saw him when I to them last night. He knew it was a risk, and he made the phone call anyway."
"Yes," he said. "But there are, shall we say, issues regaining that daughter, and he would look more guilty if he d not make the phone call. I trust you would have told me I about the tattoo, if he didn't."
"Yes, I would have," I said. "I wouldn't let Gabriela d without doing something I knew might save her."
"I am most happy to hear that," he said. "Are you going to tell me what gave you the idea of poison in the tattoos?
"If I told you, you'd think I was crazy," I said.
"Tell me anyway," he said.
"I dreamt it," I said.
"That's a relief," he said. "I was afraid you were going tell me that your friend the Mountie knew it all along, little professional jealousy, you see, even if I've never m him."
"That's your way of telling me this whole mess is about professional jealousy?" I said. "I have a question for you Does Gordon Fairweather know how to do tattoos?"
"I don't know that," Fuentes said. "These tattoos we not particularly well done, I'm told, so perhaps not by an expert, like the cameraman's wife Eroria, for example. We are having a little chat with her, right now. So far, I'm told she has been helpful about the tattoos."
"Her husband has been at this congress the whole time," I said.
"Yes, but does he know Gabriela, other than as a waitress at the hotel? Does he really know anyone but Jasper?" he said. "We must find someone with ties to all three victims and who has been to Australia recently, although that is not necessary in this day and age. One could purchase snake venom, I'm sure, from anywhere."
"It seems to me that lots of people on this island go to and from Australia," I said.
"It is interesting that you should say that. This observation of yours about the tattoos gives new direction to our investigation. There are several people here who have been to Australia in the last several months. There is only one, however, who knows all three victims."
"Fairweather," I said. Fuentes said nothing. "But Fairweather didn't know Dave Maddox, did he?" Again, Fuentes said nothing.
It was Gabriela who had thrown the spanner in the works, to use Jasper's term. Fairweather taught in Australia and knew Jasper and Gabriela, but there was no indication he knew Dave Maddox. The rest of the Moaimaniacs knew Dave and Jasper, but how on earth would they know Gabriela? There were very few people who knew all three of the victims: Moira and I and Cassandra de Santiago, who was a fake through and through if you asked me. I couldn't speak for Cassandra, but I knew neither Moira nor I had been to Australia. There was only one person I could think of that knew all three and who I knew for certain had been to Australia.
"Rory Carlyle," I said. Fuentes smiled. I took that to be a yes.
"Motive?" I said. "What could possibly be his mod You'll say professional jealousy of Jasper, but that would hardly apply to Dave and most certainly not Gabriela."
"We're working on it," Fuentes said. "And by the way, should you be wondering where your friend Senora Meller is, she is being questioned at the station."
"What?! What possible reason could you have for questioning her?" I said, indignantly.
"I shouldn't tell you, but I will, given you have been helpful to me. You may need to see that she gets some legal assistance of some kind. I did not make the same mistake this time. When we went to talk to Dr. Carlyle, we had someone covering the back door. Your friend was caught going out that way."
"So what?" I said. "Visiting a friend is hardly a crime and leaving the back way because a police car pulls up at front isn't necessarily, either."
"It is, if she takes the San Pedro rongorongo tablet with her when she leaves," he said.
"I don't believe it!" I said.
"Believe it," he said. "And yes, our case against Dr. Carlyle does hinge in some respects on his possession of the rongorongo tablet. I do not think your friend stole it in the first place, nor do I think she murdered anyone, you'll be happy to know. But there is no denying she was aiding and abetting, as it were, and she did have stolen property in her possession. It was you, was it not, who told me about this rongorongo tablet?"
Hadn't that been a brilliant idea? "I want to talk to her I said.
"You will have that opportunity when we have finish questioning her," he said.
"Moira!" I said about three hours later. "How could you?" She looked exhausted and was swallowing some kind of medication when I was allowed to see her.