One Grave Less

did not want to show them her map. She was not sure what all it had written on it. It certainly had notations that would raise questions about her story.
    Cordeiro opened a drawer and pulled out a map of Brazil and handed her a ruler.
    Maria looked around the room for a flat surface. She settled on a table by a wall. Catia helped clear it of books and papers. Maria spread out the map and took her notes and looked at her figures. She was about to ask for a pen when Catia handed her one. Maria worked backward in her mind from Tabatinga to where they had been on their trek. She took the scale of the large map of Brazil and calculated some approximate distances. She quickly did some calculations and made several measurements on the map, drawing lines, and finally making a circle around an area on the map.
    “I had no tools with me except a compass, but my estimate is that the site is here,” she said.
    Catia looked at the map and drew her finger down a river past the site and nodded. She smiled at Maria and took the map and folded it up. “This is very exciting,” she said.
    “Now can we get down to the business at hand?” said Michaels.
    “Very well, Mr. Michaels,” said Cordeiro. “We will get down to your business.”
    As he spoke Maria saw a plane land and begin taxiing to a gate. It had a painting of Betty Boop on its nose. She was never so glad to see a cartoon character in her life.
    “Yes, thank you,” said Maria. “Could I have some water for me and my daughter? Perhaps a bottle of orange juice?” She dug in her purse for some change.
    “I’ll get you some from the machine,” said Catia. “Please, put your change back.”
    When Catia was out the door, Michaels turned on Maria. He closed in on her until his face was inches away from hers. He smelled like garlic.
    “I’ve had about enough of your delaying tactics,” he said.
    Rosetta buried her face behind Maria and started crying. Maria picked her up and held her close.
    “Mr. Michaels. Sit down,” said Rodrigo Cordeiro. “You are forgetting whose office you are in. You come here with a third-rate flyer that a child could have produced and tell me you are from Interpol. Is this the kind of work they do? Sit down, I say. You will not harass people in my office or anywhere in my jurisdiction, do you understand? Until proven otherwise, this woman is a guest. And I’m still not entirely clear what your interest in this child is.
    “Now, Mrs. West, do you have anything to say to his accusations?” asked Senhor Cordeiro.
    “I don’t know where his accusations come from. He’s made this whole thing up for his own purposes. His real interest is in my daughter. After we were attacked he showed up in Benjamin Constant and stalked us, speaking to my daughter in Portuguese, which neither of us understands. He told me he was telling her how beautiful she is, and now he has followed us here. He has become obsessed with my daughter and is trying to get me out of the way. That is the only answer I have to his accusations,” she said.
    “Mr. Michaels?” said the airport manager.
    “She is twisting my concern for the little girl into something sinister,” he said.
    “I believe that is a mother’s job, to be vigilant to those kinds of things,” said Cordeiro.
    So far, Cordeiro appeared to be on her side. But soon they would come to the problematic fact that neither she nor Rosetta had passports or papers of any kind.
    Catia came back with a bottle of orange juice for the two of them. She opened Rosetta’s and put it in her small hands. Rosetta took a sip and wrinkled her nose.
    “It’s a little tart, isn’t it, Rosetta?’ said Catia. “It’s good for you, though.”
    Maria opened hers and took a long swallow. It was a little tart.
    “Are we finished with the delays?” said Michaels. “I’m here to warn you of a dangerous woman, and you don’t seem to be taking it seriously.”
    Before Cordeiro could respond, there was a knock on the door.
    “ Entrar ,” said Cordeiro.
    Cameron Michaels threw up his hands.
    Good, keep getting more and more frustrated , thought Maria.

Chapter 61
    John West walked into the office. He was wearing a dark pinstriped business suit and black cowboy boots. His white shirt had a string tie knotted with a turquoise stone. On his wrist he wore a beaded strip of leather made for him by his sister. His shiny black hair was straight and parted in the middle and hung just past his shoulders. He had a small hawk