‘Maybe she didn’t want anyone finding him and giving him a proper funeral.’
If what Nimble had suggested about her motives for killing the merchant was true, then this made sense, I realized. I could imagine the girl happily contemplating her tormentor’s soul wandering for ever in the Land of the Dead.
It occurred to me that there might be another reason why she had done it, as I thought about why she had been in the hole in the first place. Perhaps Hare had kept her confined there, when he had no immediate use for her. The chest that had covered the hole was so large that if it were filled with anything other than feathers it would be as hard to shift as the heavy stone that had weighed down the top of my cage. If she had been made to stay in that dark, stuffy pit for any length of time, I thought, it would be small wonder if she thought it an appropriate place to dump the merchant in.
I suggested this to my companions.
‘What were left with is this,’ I concluded. ‘The girl and Hare killed an intruder. For that to have happened, the box on top of her must have been emptied first, otherwise she couldn’t have lifted it to surprise the Texcalan. If the Texcalan was ransacking the place, maybe he took everything out of the box. I think Hare must have been away somewhere while that was being done. How about this, then? The Texcalan and his one-armed friend, and maybe someone else, burgle the house. The others leave him behind while they make off with the booty. Then Hare comes back and surprises him, there’s this three-cornered fight, and after that the girl kills Hare, hides the body and runs away.’
‘Why do the other man’s accomplices have to have taken everything before he died?’ Nimble asked. ‘They may have come back later.’
‘No,’ I said, ‘because there was only one set of bloodstained footprints — the girl’s — and, anyway, I don’t think they’d have left his body behind. What they may have done when they discovered he was missing, though, is another matter.’ It might, I realized uncomfortably, have something to do with the things °f Hare’s I had found on sale in the market. The Texcalan’s companions would not know exactly what had happened to him: there was no way they could, because if they had been there he would surely not have died. Were they now out to trap his killer? I began to wonder whether my idea of trying to meet whoever was selling Hare’s property had been such a good one.
‘All of this,’ Kindly reminded us, ‘begs one rather vital question, doesn’t it?’
‘We have to find the girl,’ I confirmed.
‘We do. It’s always possible that she has this message, or knows something about it. In any event she’s just about the only chance you’ve got of finding it.’
‘True.’ We were plainly not going to get it from Hare if he was dead. On the other hand, I thought, Lily’s missing ring was less important now, since we no longer had to worry about paying the merchant with it. It still troubled me, however: Lily clearly did not want it falling into the wrong hands, but somebody must have removed it from its hiding place.
‘I expect I can find her,’ Nimble said.
‘You?’ Kindly and I stared at him. I added: ‘How? How are you going to find one child in a city of thirty thousand people?’
‘By knowing where to look. She’d stand out a mile in most places. She’s Mayan, remember, and Kindly thinks she may have had her teeth filed. So she’ll go where she thinks she can blend in. That’s the middle of town, the marketplace. Lots of people, including lots of foreigners. Once there…’ He sighed. ‘Well, it depends how quickly she gets picked up by someone on the lookout for a pretty young thing, something a bit exotic…’
‘All right,’ I said gruffly.
‘It’s just that I know what she’ll have been through.’
‘You need us along?’ Kindly asked cautiously. ‘You don’t speak Mayan.’
‘I don’t think that matters. Besides, I’d find it easier to look for her on my own. You’d most likely scare her off.’
‘Thanks,’ grumbled the old man, although his relief was audible.
I protested. ‘I don’t like this idea at all. It isn’t safe…’
‘Safe enough for me!’
‘Son, I know you think you’re up to anything, but you don’t know Tetzcoco.’
‘I probably know it better than you!’ he said defiantly. ‘And who’s going to be in more danger, me or Lily? Have you forgotten about her?’
‘Now, just a moment…’
‘Calm down, the two of you,’ Kindly growled. ‘They can probably hear you shouting on the other side of the valley!’
I took a deep, deliberate breath. ‘Sorry,’ I mumbled. ‘I can’t help worrying.’
Nimble looked away for a moment before responding quietly: ‘It’s all right. Father. I can do this. And I can look after myself. I’ve been doing it all my life.’
After parting from Nimble, Kindly and I made our way back to our lodgings, taking a short detour to buy a tortilla each and allow the old man to replenish his gourd.
'I’m getting a bit too old for living rough,’ he said between mouthfuls. ‘I need my own sleeping mat again! And I suppose I’d better find out what that lawyer’s up to. What are you going to do?’
‘Try to see Lily again. Tell her what we’ve been up to and find out what she makes of it all.’ I paused. My tortilla had been stuffed with dried chillies, and I had just cracked a seed between my teeth. I walked
