One Grave Less

nearby, she could probably find the vehicle. It wasn’t easy examining the map with the flashlight, standing in the jungle. She noticed she was shaking slightly. She gripped both the map and the light harder. It made her nervous not being on the move. She stopped her study of the map several times and listened. Nothing but night jungle noises.
    “They will not come after us quickly,” said Rosetta, watching Maria closely, as if detecting her unease.
    “Why?”
    “I drugged them,” said Rosetta.
    “You drugged them?” Maria stared at the shadowy little girl.
    “It won’t hurt them, just make them sleep,” she said.
    There were so many questions Maria wanted to ask the girl, but they would have to wait. Drugged or not, the thugs would wake up sooner or later and find that their valuable captive had escaped. She turned her attention back to the map.
    It was crude—a basic map with roads and villages—places that hadn’t made the original map—drawn in. Most roads in the area were mere dirt paths barely wide enough for a vehicle, and the villages were tiny. She looked at the villages that had been marked on the map. One was circled several times.
    “Lugar del Río.” Maria said it aloud. “Is that where we were?” she asked Rosetta.
    “Yes, that is its name.” She didn’t take her eyes off the jungle.
    Maria was beginning to wonder if Rosetta heard or sensed something.
    “Do you know where he might have been coming from—or going?” she asked.
    “They go to Alta for supplies. They know people there. We must stay away from there. Sao Rosa, that is a place they don’t go,” she said.
    No road to Sao Rosa was drawn, but there were initials SR by one of the creeks marked on the map. It wasn’t far. They could get there. But the thing drawn on the original map that most interested Maria was railroad tracks. If they could catch a train, that would take them a long way. The rail line was to the east of them and they wanted to go north. But the extra trek would be worth it. On the other hand, they could connect up with the railroad farther north. They might make it in a vehicle fairly quickly.
    “Do you think we can find a place to clean up in Sao Rosa?” said Maria.
    “Maybe. I’ve never been there. I just know that Luis and his men never go there,” said Rosetta.
    “That may mean that there’s a rival gang there,” said Maria. “That would not be good. But before we decide where to go, let’s see if there is a vehicle. The road to Alta is here.” She pointed at the map. “I think we are here.”
    They collected the spoils of their victory over the man and Maria glanced at him once more before they set off. Already ants had found him. She felt another pang of guilt.
    Maria concentrated hard on making a minimum of noise as she moved. Rosetta seemed to be a natural. They had walked about five minutes when they saw the vehicle—a beat-up four-wheel-drive pickup. There was a man sleeping in the driver’s seat.

Chapter 6
    “Is it some kind of voodoo paraphernalia?” asked Garnett.
    “Looks more like a Native American medicine bundle,” said Jin.
    “Just looks spooky,” said Izzy.
    Diane, freshly attired in jeans and a T-shirt, having surrendered her clothes to Neva to process for blood and any other evidence, looked at the large high-definition TV screen on the wall near the shiny, round stainless-steel conference table in the crime lab. The screen image showed the contents of the knapsack laid out on white butcher paper in one of the evidence rooms. Diane had installed the cam system so people like Chief Garnett could have a look at the evidence before it was processed without worrying about contaminating it with any of their own trace. She and several members of her crime lab crew stood around the conference table looking at the items on the screen.
    There were several brightly colored feathers of blue, red, green, and yellow; two dried monkey paws; a large orange beak; numerous sharp teeth; several talons; and a long bone. All had been stuffed in a long woven black textile bag embroidered with sunbursts and what appeared to be stylized leaves.
    “What does all this mean?” asked Garnett, looking at Diane as if she should know.
    “I don’t know, but the bone is a humerus from a human,” she said.
    “Who had this? Did your friend hide it?” asked Garnett.
    “I don’t know,” Diane answered.
    “I think the chief’s right,” said Izzy. “Looks like voodoo to me.”
    “I