Lea handed the plant back. “Luis?”
“Yes?”
“Is that the key right there?’ She pointed to a lone key sitting on top of a little pad of Post-It notes.
“Ah — yes, perhaps. I thought it was unlocked!”
Hawke and Lea exchanged another glance. “All we want is a quick look at the manifest,” Lea said, trying not to laugh behind the young man’s back as Hawke re-enacted her catching the spider plant.
“Of course,” Luis said. “I will get it for you now the cabinet is unlocked. I don’t know what made me think it was already unlocked. Professor Gomez came in here earlier and asked for something and I was sure I had already unlocked it.”
“Have you found it yet?” Hawke asked.
“Yes! Here it is. The manifest from the San José!”
He pulled out a folder from the cabinet and spun around, smashing his elbow on the top of the drawer and cursing loudly as he rubbed it with his hand.
Lea took the manifest and opened it up. She traced her finger down the long list of items on the paper as Hawke peered over her shoulder.
“Look at all this stuff,” she said.
“Don’t pretend you know what any of it is,” Hawke said, nudging her gently in the ribs.
“Get lost, Josiah,” she said with a smile. “Ah ha — I found it!”
Her finger pointed at the Mask of Inti and Hawke nodded as he looked at it. “So it’s real all right. What can you tell us about this mask, Luis?”
“It’s small — like a child’s mask — and made of solid gold of the highest quality. It has some precious stones embedded in it but of more interest are the markings.”
“Markings?”
“I can say no more because I only know what Héctor told me. I never actually saw the mask myself.”
“But why do you think these markings are so important?”
He smiled at them. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking the markings will lead you to the Lost City of the Incas. This is what those murdering thieves must be thinking. I have heard the legend too.”
“You’re sceptical?”
“I am not sceptical at all,” he replied. “I am absolutely certain the markings will not lead to any great lost city for the simple reason I do not believe there is such a place. So no scepticism — just certainty.”
“But Héctor believed in the Lost City,” Lea said.
Luis nodded and frowned sadly. “Héctor lived on a cloud of farts — is that how you say it in English?”
“Not exactly ringing any bells,” Hawke said.
“I mean he is — how do you say — out of touch with reality?”
Hawke smiled. “That’s more like it but I preferred the first way you said it.”
“It’s true though — he had some insane theories about the Incas and the Nazca Lines that very nearly got him fired on more than one occasion. He certainly believed in the Lost City, but that isn’t to say such a place existed. Just because he was an eminent archaeologist does not mean he was always right or all his theories are sure to be true.”
“We need to find out one way or the other,” Lea said.
“So how can I help?”
“First thing we need to find out is who exactly knocked this place off,” Hawke said. “Do you have any idea?”
Luis shook his head. “Not at all — the police are still investigating as you must have seen when you walked to my office. They’ve been here all day. Perhaps we should talk with them?”
Hawke moved toward the door. “I think that sounds like a grand idea.”
CHAPTER FIVE
Luis Montoya walked them along the corridor until they reached the young police officer guarding Barrera’s office. A short conversation later and they were walking down the steps to the museum’s security office where a large, bald man with a thick moustache introduced himself as Lieutenant Rodrigo Santos.
He checked their ID, and not content with that he made some calls. When he padded back into the small office he gave a cursory nod and told them to sit.
“The Major says you check out, so you can stay.”
“That’s very kind of him,” Hawke said.
Santos stared at him with weary eyes and sighed. “You prefer my men to take you to jail for obstructing the investigation?”
Lea scowled at Hawke. “We’re very grateful to be here, Lieutenant, and we’d like to help in any way we can.”
Santos paused a few seconds before responding and then nodded his head, crumpling up his double chin. “Good,” he said, and pointed at Luis. “And he stays outside. He’s a potential suspect.”
Inside the small office, Santos flicked on a monitor and sighed. “We have only this footage from the CCTV.” He spun around and replayed the black and white film on the security monitor. “I’ve watched it fifty times. Perhaps you can be of more help.”
Hawke and Lea stared at the grainy image as it flickered to life. “What do they use for a camera?” Hawke asked, squinting at the screen. “A potato?”
Santos gave him a look. “Not a potato, no. A camera.”
“Right.”
“You can see there were three of them, and they wore these stupid Halloween masks for nearly the entire raid.”
Lea stepped forward, searching the fuzzy image for anything that might help her. “Nearly?”
“Yes… what our murderers didn’t know was there is also a camera just across the street on a restaurant. While the museum’s internal CCTV shows us nothing, when they clambered into the van one of them took his mask off just a second too early.”
“Can we see it?” Lea asked.
Santos sighed and turned his round face to her. “What do you think I’m doing now?”
“Sorry.”
The Lieutenant changed the discs and played the back-up CCTV footage from the restaurant. The image was black and white but of a much higher quality this time and it was easy to make out various details as they watched the footage. A handful of pedestrians were walking along the pavement and then the men burst into shot. They were all holding guns and wearing the masks Santos had described a few moments ago. They ran toward a Hyundai and Hawke noticed someone was slumped in the back seat.
They pushed the passers-by roughly out of the way and opened the doors of their van. They clambered into it and that was when one of the men ripped off his mask.
Hawke was stunned when he looked at the CCTV footage and saw the unmistakable face of Dirk Kruger appear from behind the skull mask. At first he thought he was imagining it but then Lea spoke.
“Holy Buggering Moses — is that Dirk Kruger?”
Hawke clenched his jaw and felt his blood pressure rising. “It damn well is.”
His eyes burned two holes in the screen as he watched Kruger jump into the Hyundai and skid off down the street. “Rewind it.”
Santos complied. “Who is this Kruger?”
“He’s a professional shit,” Lea said.
Hawke was speechless. He thought Kruger had died on the Oracle’s Seastead in the same devastating explosion that had killed Ryan. That day had been chaos — his memory of it just a blur of sea spray, gunfire and the noxious smoke of battle as they fought to stop the Oracle fleeing, but at least he thought he had come to terms with it all. This raised it all in his heart and mind. “Tell me I’m not seeing a ghost,” he mumbled.
Lea gripped his arm. “You’re not seeing a ghost.”
Hawke’s eyes widened. “Don’t you realize what this means? If Kruger is alive then maybe Ryan is too.”
Lea shook her head. “That’s a helluva leap, Joe. It was crazy out there that day and you heard what Reaper said about the explosion. Maybe Kruger just got lucky — besides, if Ryan had survived he would have contacted us by now to stop us worrying.”