Pastor Ian weighed him for a long moment. “If that is your goal, why not give the lead back to our Sheriff? Let him do the leg work and ask the questions. You’ll still get the answers, but the people won’t have their backs up.”
Reis gave a reluctant nod. “I suppose that might help a little.”
Ian shook his head. “I am sure it will. Just as I am sure you had already thought of that.”
Reis grinned. “Very well. Complete honesty. I think the key to this case is wrapped up in the Kay family. Anything you can offer on that point would be appreciated.”
Boone shot him a startled glance but otherwise didn’t react to his sudden capitulation to the verbal battle.
The pastor gave a short laugh. “I am not going to be telling tales on my parishioners, Agent, no matter who asks or why. What I will offer is that none of the Kay sisters will give you anything at all if you try to bully them with your badge. Nor will they respond to other methods of persuasion. Rosa Kay is exceptionally brilliant. She’ll see a trick coming a mile away, and if she catches you trying to dupe her once, she will never give you anything ever again. Camelia will, for the most part, follow her lead.”
“So you’re saying that no matter how I go about asking them for help, I won’t get any?”
Ian shook his head. “No, Agent Reis. I am saying that the Kay family has suffered a lot and trust very few as a result. In fact, I do not think they truly trust anyone at all, not to the fullest extent. Those they do trust, like me, have earned our place.”
Agent Boone cast Reis an amused glance, and he had to school his expression again. He doubted the young pastor heard the innuendo in his own words and was doubly sure that Ian hadn’t meant to imply anything romantic between him and Camelia.
“Thank you. I would also like a record, of all who have come by your mission in the last two months.” Agent Reis said, getting back to business. He could figure out the mystery of how to get the Kays to cooperate later.
5
Rosa stared at the phone Lucia had left her. It had vibrated with a message half-way through supper, and now, two hours later, she was finally alone and able to read it.
Yep, the son of Pedro is still looking for a good campsite. Come set up base tomorrow at nine, don’t worry about the book. Remember to keep those CO2 emissions down!
Rosa groaned and rolled so that she was lying on her back across the duvet cover. Lucia had said that this would be the real ‘scroll’ or final clue, so she hadn’t really expected it to be in straightforward language, but the time, at least, was clear. Tomorrow at nine. Which meant she had less than twelve hours to figure out what the rest of the clue could possibly mean.
“The son of Pedro,” she muttered to her ceiling, an image of her cousin coming immediately to mind. But that made no sense. Pedro was fifteen and definitely not a father. His father was not named Pedro, neither was her mother’s father. “So it’s got to mean something else. Son of Pedro. Why Pedro…Why not Peter, if the rest of the message was in English?”
An obscure piece of knowledge came back to her about the origins of surnames, and she sat up straight, feeling sure she had it.
She shifted her weight to access her pocket and pulled out her own cellphone, far more advance than the little flip phone Lucia left. Quickly she typed in the phrase ‘son of Pedro’ and then had to hold back a triumphant laugh. The Spanish surname, Perez, literally meant son of Peter.
She chuckled and looked at the rest of the message, her mind making quick work of the rest of the clue, making her certain she got the first bit correct. The clue was actually simplistic. Something she felt sure almost anyone would have been able to work out if they knew it was not meant to be taken literally.
A man called Perez ran a little store, totting trinkets to the few tourists that bothered to come to their town. It was intimately linked with the second clue about setting up a base. There was only one reason why a tourist came here at all, and that was to visit Camp Naco, an abandoned army fort. So she was meant to meet whoever this was at Camp Naco, tomorrow morning at nine. The ‘Perez’ part of the clue was to let her know she was expected on the northern side, farthest from the main gates but closest to the little store.
She shook her head at the last line. Remember to keep those CO2 emissions down! If she wasn’t supposed to take the car, then she was probably meant to take a long route around, avoiding people. Rosa sighed, pressing a hand to the hot, sunburnt skin on the back of her neck. Another trip in the blazing summer heat was not exactly desirable. Still, she was positive she would not get the chance for answers again. If she missed the meeting, whatever it was that Lucia had asked this person to pass on would be out of her reach forever.
****
“You found a what?” Agent Reis asked, looking at Dr. Fell in disbelief. Fell had called them just as they were leaving the mission center, saying the bloodwork was in as well as another find.
Agent Reis hadn’t
