She lingered before the stela and gazed into Smoke Shell’s carved stone eyes, worn by time and weather. She wanted to kiss him for giving up his secret to her.
“Stop stalling,” said Jorge. He came close and pushed the muzzle of the gun into the side of her breast. “This is not time for sightseeing. Where is the hiding place? If you are trying to trick me, you will be very, very sorry.” He placed the gun next to her temple. “Click, click, click. That’s all it takes. But first I will let you experience the very slow death of the kid.” Jorge laughed, not a sane, friendly laugh, but a maniacal cackle.
Elena swallowed hard and willed the picture from her mind. “Take the gun away, or I won’t show you.”
An inch at a time Jorge brought the gun down.
She turned toward the stairs, trying hard not to let him see how much she was shaking. “Up there behind the stairs is the place.”
Jorge followed her gaze. At first, he didn’t seem to understand. “Up where?”
Elena indicated with a nod of her head. “We have to go up the stairs. It’s up there.”
Jorge started laughing again, that maniacal cackle. “You mean, all the time, I’ve been stealing stones from that stupid staircase, and the hiding place has been right here?”
She nodded, hoping and praying she was right. Jorge seemed to believe her.
“Okay, bitch. There’s a lot of steps and a lot of stones, which step is it?”
“I’ll show you. We’ll go up the steps together.”
“No, you tell me which step and which hieroglyphs.”
“Let the boy go.”
“No deal. Get moving. We all go.”
Elena wished she could signal Miguel to run if he got the chance. If she got caught in a struggle with Jorge, she was afraid Miguel would try to defend her. She wanted him to run for help, as fast as his little legs would carry him, like he did on the day of the murder. But Jorge was right on top of her, pushing her with the gun, and Miguel wouldn’t let go of her hand.
A brilliant idea occurred to her.
“Look,” she said, “all three of us can’t go up there side by side. Let me go first and lead the way. Let Miguel stay down here.”
“You think I’m a fool?” said Jorge. “Let the kid down here and then he runs away? No way. He’s my insurance. He goes first, you second, I’m last. And no funny business. Or you are both dead.”
Elena leaned over and said to Miguel. “All right, Miguel, you first. Go the whole way to the top.” And under her breath she quickly said, “Run for help the first chance you get.”
Jorge didn’t appear to hear the last comment because he shoved her to move. Miguel looked at her from the corner of his eye and gave her a little half-smile. He had understood. He started up the steps and stayed one or two steps in front.
Another round of rain pelted them and even Elena had trouble finding safe footing. The steps were slippery from the rain and soft moss that grew on the stones.
She looked back. They had gotten higher up than Jorge in no time. Between trying to see through the rain and get his big, boot laden feet on the steps he had fallen behind.
“Stop.” He waved the gun at them. “Stop or I’ll shoot.”
They stopped.
“Wait up for me.”
Elena calculated the distance Jorge would tumble if she pushed him now, but decided he hadn’t advanced far enough to do permanent damage. Just a little further, Jorge, she said in her mind. Just a little further.
His progress was at a snail’s pace because his booted feet would not fit the steps even when he tried to walk sideways, crab fashion. Elena was glad he was having so much trouble. She sneaked a glance at Miguel when Jorge had his head down. He had a little smile. Elena motioned with her hand for him to go up a few more steps, and he moved two more before Jorge raised his head.
“Don’t try anything.” Jorge screamed the words, his face contorted into a nasty grimace. “I should kill both of you now.”
Elena sat down on a step. “Then you won’t know where the hiding place is. What’s hidden that is so important you’d kill for it?”
Jorge stopped, trying to catch his breath. “Millions of dollars. Millions. I’ll be set for life. I’ll be rolling in money.”
Elena doubted that millions of dollars would be in a hiding place here, but there might be something worth millions of dollars. She wondered what it was and where it had come from. One thing she hadn’t figured out yet was where the exact hiding place was in the row of glyphs on the fifty-second step. Jorge might throw every glyph down the side of the pyramid looking for it.
When Jorge caught up, she turned and started up the steps again. The rain had let up. Soft gusts of wind caught her from time to time. Water made tiny puddles in the uneven surface of the steps. Elena was tired beyond caring, motivated only by the hope that Miguel could get away when she pushed Jorge. He’d have to stay up with her to do that, and they still weren’t high enough.
C’mon, Jorge, move those big clumsy feet up the steps.
“Don’t go so fast,” Jorge called. “Slow down, you stupid bitch.”
If he called her stupid bitch one more time ….
Now Miguel was at least ten steps higher. Jorge didn’t seem to notice. Elena waved Miguel higher. If he could get high enough to get out of range, he could run for it. The back side of the pyramid was rubble, sloping to a grassy area. If Miguel could make it up over the top and be gone, Jorge wouldn’t be able to shoot him.
C’mon Jorge, just a little higher. Elena waited while he took step after laborious step.
“Why don’t you take off those boots?” she called to him.
“Why don’t you shut up, bitch?”
She was going to slam him so hard when he got a little higher, he would regret the day his mother gave him birth.
The sky lightened steadily, as the dark storm clouds tired of their fury and moved off to the northwest. Gray clouds scudded across the sky and gave up more rain, but gentler now. The storm picked up speed, tiring of Copan Ruinas and its inhabitants, eager to terrorize another community.
Elena turned and inched up another few steps. Her muscles ached, especially the leg he had kicked, and she couldn’t see out of the injured eye. But those pains seemed minor to their fate if they could not get away from Jorge.
“Wait,” called Jorge. “How much further?” He sat on the step where he was and twisted around to keep them in sight. “Tell the kid to wait up.”
Elena called to Miguel, and he stopped and sat down.
Jorge’s as tired as I am, thought Elena with warped glee. None of them had had any sleep or anything to drink or eat, except rain as they could catch it. She was beyond pain and exhaustion. She was high on adrenalin.
“I’m going ahead of you,” Jorge said, as he rose to continue on.
Damnation, thought Elena, we aren’t high enough. I’ll have to chance it. It was the perfect opportunity to trip him up as he went by her.
He heard her thoughts.
“Move over.” He barked the command. “Don’t try anything funny when I pass. You know what will happen.”
Elena smiled a sweet, lopsided smile as half her face was puffy. “I promise I won’t try anything but remember you still don’t know which step.”
He stopped before her and pointed the gun at her head. “There aren’t that many left. I could just tear out the whole top of the pyramid.”