Corrie winced internally, ready for Ford to blow a gasket. But instead, he sighed.
“I know. I’m sorry. I’ve been having a hard time these last few years. My mom . . . she’s sick,” he said, sinking his shoulders.
“I know,” Ethan said, placing his hand on Ford’s shoulder. “But I’m here for you. Always. We all are,” he said, motioning around the group.
Ford smiled at them, and it warmed Corrie’s heart. “I know.”
“So, what is it? What did you find?” Ethan asked, clearly satisfied with that small acknowledgment.
Ford glanced at Corrie again, as if looking for permission. She nodded.
“We found Chimalli.”
“What! Where?” Ethan said.
“Behind the waterfall.”
“Behind the waterfall?”
“Nature’s curtain,” Sunny said.
Corrie smiled, proud that Mendoza’s recounting of Chimalli’s life was right.
“But that’s not all,” Ford continued. “We didn’t just find Chimalli. There were drawings on the wall. Two other bodies. And it looks like the tecpatl is buried beneath one of the bodies.”
“Three bodies?” Ethan started, but Corrie finally chimed in.
“It’s Chimalli and his family. According to the drawings, Yaretzi and their child became ill, and it appears Chimalli may have taken his own life.”
“But I thought—”
“So did I. Turns out I was wrong.”
“So you’re not a descendant of Chimalli?” Sunny asked.
Corrie shook her head. “Appears not.”
“Well, I know that would have been pretty awesome, but you two still made one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of our time! You’re going to be famous!” Ethan said.
“It was all Corrie,” Ford said.
She shot a look at him. “No, we both found it.”
“We wouldn’t have even been here if it wasn’t for you. And you know I never would have swum under that waterfall without your goading.”
“Oh, please, you just didn’t want anyone to see your naked ass,” she teased, momentarily forgetting they were in the company of others.
Now Ford was the one staring wide-eyed.
“Naked ass? Sounds like your afternoon has been . . . surprising as well,” Ethan said with a smirk.
“We were . . . uh . . . we didn’t have swimsuits and we didn’t want to get our clothes wet,” Ford rambled.
It was actually kind of sweet hearing him try to protect her honor. But, man, he was a terrible liar. She had to put him out of his misery. “Relax, Ford. Ethan already knows.”
“Ethan knows?”
“Oh, Ethan knows,” Ethan said. “And now Sunny does, too.”
All three of them looked at Sunny. “Yeah . . . I figured it out this morning when I came by your tent. You looked freshly fucked, and, jeez, it’s about time.”
Corrie snickered. Sunny wasn’t into that whole teacher-student thing in more ways than one, as evidenced by her complete and utter honesty when talking to him.
“How long has Ethan known?” Ford asked Corrie.
“A couple of days.”
“She told me to clear your name after I accused you of being the thief,” Ethan clarified.
“Well, this is fun and all,” Corrie said, “but back to the big picture. What are we going to do? Until we know who the thief is, we can’t tell anyone else. This discovery is too big.”
“Then we do what you suggested. We send everyone home,” Ethan said.
“We can’t do that. Now that we’ve made the discovery, we need to get it out of here before someone else figures it out, too,” Ford said.
“Then we need to confront everyone. Give the thief a chance to come clean, and if they don’t, we search their things.”
“We can’t search their things.” Ford said, he and Ethan going back and forth.
“We can if they give their permission. And they’ll give their permission unless they’re guilty.”
“So we figure out who it is by process of elimination?”
“Exactly. Anyone with anything to hide will turn themselves in before we figure out the truth on our own,” Ethan said.
“Yeah, because the truth always comes out. Like I said earlier,” Corrie chimed in.
The truth always won in the end.
Chapter
Eighteen
The truth always came out. Apparently, hearing it once wasn’t enough. It was like the universe trying to hammer the point home. Trying to warn him that he was walking a dangerous line, as if he wasn’t already aware of his predicament. Warning him of Corrie’s anticipated reaction.
But what was he supposed to do? He’d tried telling her twice now and both times he’d been interrupted. Was he supposed to blurt it out? Interrupt the biggest archaeological discovery of his career with a Hold that thought, Chimalli, I need to tell Corrie something?
Yet with each passing minute, anxiousness built in the pit of his stomach. A dread of what was to come. Add a thief in the camp on top of that, and Ford was sure he was about to have a heart attack from all the stress.
One by one, Ford and Ethan questioned the team members. Asked them if they had anything they wanted to confess to. Prodded for a voluntary confession. And when a confession didn’t come, Ethan would reveal the situation and ask if they would be willing to submit to a search of their bunk and bags.
“The truth always comes out,” Ethan said each time. Thanks for the reminder.
So far, everyone had agreed, with each protesting that they had nothing to hide. Like Corrie had suspected. And after each questioning and search, they were sent off to a separate area of the camp monitored by Corrie and Sunny so they couldn’t warn those who had yet to be questioned. It was slow, but it was necessary at this point in the dig. They simply couldn’t chance that the thief had learned of their discovery.
Five down and eight more to go.
Agnes plopped into the seat across from Ethan and Ford.
“Is this really necessary?” Ford asked Ethan. Seriously. The last person he suspected was Agnes.
“Better safe than sorry,” he replied.
“What’s this about?” Agnes asked, crossing her arms and leaning back in her seat. “Are you firing me for this alleged food poisoning incident? Because I don’t serve rotten food.”
Hmm. Maybe the thief had done that, too.
“No, Agnes. That’s not what this is about. You’re a fabulous cook, and I’m pretty sure I can’t live without you on another dig.”
Agnes flashed Ford a sultry smile, clearly proud of herself. “All right. Well, I see you going through everyone’s bunks. Coming to check out my knickers?”
Ford couldn’t help but snicker. “Yes, Agnes, that’s it. We’re the knicker police,” Ford said. “But in all seriousness, we’ve got a problem in camp.”
“Well, if you wanted in my knickers, you could have come to my bunk after everyone else was asleep. Though you’ve been . . . preoccupied every night already,” she said, waggling her brow.
Ford straightened in his seat. “How did you . . .” His voice trailed off.
With a devilish quirk of the lips, Agnes cocked her head and said, “It’s easy for people to forget I’m here. Ignore the cook. But I see everything that happens in this camp, even when people think no one is looking.”