She was sure she heard voices. She listened. Maybe it was only her imagination.
From her high perch she gazed over the valley beyond the ruins. An angry brown slash scoured its way through the greenness of the jungle. The river had spread far out of its banks and was more like a huge lake than a river. Elena cursed her luck. It flowed under the road back to town. She might not be able to get across. She might not be able to find help, if she went this way.
She leaned her head against the hard stone of the wall. Exhaustion dogged her every thought. Every cell in her body ached. Even thinking was painful.
A sound like a gunshot cracked through the stillness. Then a scream.
She had to get out of there.
Keeping an eye on Paco, José forced Dominic and Miguel to walk within the shelter of the trees bordering the clearing. Jorge was either dead or beyond repair because Paco got up and walked toward the jungle path where he expected to find Dominic and Miguel waiting. José motioned them up the path to the top of the Temple of Inscriptions, up the path where the murder had taken place. Tall, skinny trees and brush provided cover. They made it to the top where they could look out over the great plaza, the very spot Elena was headed the day she discovered the body.
Jorge’s body lay at the bottom of the Hieroglyphic Staircase. No one else was in sight. Dominic searched every available space for some sign of Elena. She might blend in easily with the waterlogged landscape. José stood slightly behind him. Miguel clutched Dominic’s hand.
José said, “Do you see her? I don’t. We’ll go to the back of the Staircase pyramid and search there.”
He motioned with the gun for Miguel to lead the way. Miguel stepped up three stairs that lead to the walkway between the two pyramids. The corridor stretched between the Temple of Inscriptions and the Staircase pyramid. To the left of the path vertical walls joined the two structures. Along the top where they walked was a stone path that served as a connecting link along the top of the walls.
Dominic followed Miguel, heavy footed and discouraged. He didn’t want to find Elena only to have her used by this crooked policeman. He hoped she had run far away. His bargain with God was not working out. There were too many obstacles. He was afraid he’d never see Elena alive again. There were too many guns involved, too many irrational people in possession of guns.
He looked up to see where they were heading and saw movement ahead on the path where a low wall jutted out. Just a flash of something. He wiped his forearm across his eyes to clear his vision. Things were blurred by rain and the unhappy wind that chased around the pyramids. He continued to watch the place where he thought he had seen something, trying to be discreet so José wouldn’t notice. If they found Elena and the hiding place, what would happen then?
He considered their alternatives. He had a gun in the backpack slung over his shoulder, but the gun was useless since he couldn’t access it. On the other hand, he was physically bigger than José. The smaller man stood between them and freedom. The image of Jorge’s body at the base of the Staircase flashed across his mind. Jorge had fallen. The same ugly fate might await José. If he could push José over the side, it was a long way down that stone wall. He’d have to overpower him and soon. Dominic stopped.
“What now? Do you see her?” asked José.
“I thought I saw something move over there,” said Dominic. He pointed in the direction of the movement he had seen. “Let’s walk over and see. Maybe it’s Elena. Maybe she’s hurt.”
José stretched his neck, stepping closer to Dominic, squinting into the distance. Where Dominic stopped, the path ran perilously close to the edge of the wall. José was on his left closest to the edge.
“Where? I don’t see anything,” said José. He glanced around maybe thinking Paco might be close by.
“There. I saw something behind that stone wall.”
Dominic raised his left arm to point, and in the same motion he shoved his elbow into the side of José’s head with all the force he could garner. Bone connected with bone. José tilted to the left, his right arm with the gun going up. A loud retort carried over the Park as the gun went off into the air. Dominic swiveled and, as the policeman fell backward toward the edge, brought his leg up into José’s chest.
José tried to catch Dominic’s foot but missed as his arms flailed wildly into nothing but air. The gun dropped in his struggle to gain his balance. He lost the struggle and pitched sideways down the steep wall, his scream piercing the air.
Dominic had fallen on his side at the edge of the wall, narrowly missing going over the edge himself. He pulled back from the precipice, crawling on hands and knees until he was back on the path. Miguel helped Dominic stand, brushing twigs and dirt from his clothes.
“Fantastico.” said Miguel. A huge grin spread across his face, and he gave two thumbs up.
Dominic hooked his fingers on his hips, trying to catch his breath, staring at the ground, oblivious to Miguel and his surroundings. He had never tried to harm someone before, and his capacity for violence shocked him. He had pushed a man to his death. Kill or be killed, the law of the jungle. He held onto Miguel’s shoulder and shook his head in an attempt to clear his thoughts. They had to find Elena. Cupping his hands to his mouth, he shouted, “Elena, where are you? It’s Dominic. Where are you?”
He listened and Miguel did, too, both looking around the Park from their vantage point high above it. The sound of footsteps running caught Dominic’s ear, and he turned to see Paco come up the path from below.
“What happened?” Paco asked.
Dominic pointed to the body of José sprawled below. “He had a gun on us. I pushed him.”
Paco nodded. “I’ve had my doubts about him but couldn’t find any concrete evidence. He’ll wait. Let’s look for Elena.”
“She may have gone up over the pyramid like I did,” said Miguel.
Dominic said, “I saw movement over there. Let’s look.”
All three shouted Elena’s name, over and over. The stones of the pyramids echoed with the sound. Dominic led the way to the wall where he saw the flash of movement. Maybe he had dreamed it. Maybe she had already left the Park.
Then he saw motion in the great plaza far below.
A slim figure moved from the shadow of a stone structure to the open space of the plaza, limping around fallen tree limbs and toppled stones.
Elena waved and shouted his name.
His prayers had been answered. His request granted.
“Dominic,” she said. “Here I am.”
His hand high over his head, he waved back.
And then she collapsed onto the ground.
Nineteen
Dominic sat at the kitchen table with a beer and a bag of potato chips, trying to fill the giant cavern in his stomach. His bare feet rested in a puddle of water, one of many on the floor in his house on Loma Verde Street.
The house had survived. But water had seeped through every aperture in the place. The journey back from the Hieroglyphic Staircase had taken the better part of the day. He couldn’t remember how he had gotten from the top of the pyramid to where Elena had collapsed. As he’d knelt by her side, feeling for pulse, checking her injuries, Elena had opened her eyes.
“Dominic,” she said.
He kissed her forehead. “You’re safe, dear Elena.”
One corner of her mouth turned up. “I know. You’re here.”
Paco reported that Jorge and José were both dead. The realization that he had caused someone’s demise sobered Dominic. But seeing how badly Elena was hurt took away any sympathy he might have felt for the dead men. He made Elena as comfortable as possible with what little he had in his backpack — acetaminophen tablets, three bars of chocolate split between the four of them, and one bottle of water. Miguel was physically unharmed, but he stayed pressed to Dominic, needing a reassuring touch. They rested, Elena at first too weak to walk the jungle trail, the only alternative open to town. Her second wind came after it finally sank in that the ordeal was over.