appetites, and all of the quesadillas were efficiently demolished, three by Gideon.
When they were back to drinking coffee and picking at the biscuits and jam, Annie suddenly clapped her hands together. “Damn, I almost forgot! Hey, Gideon, are you interested in helping out our police chief and looking at this skeleton they found?”
“A skeleton?” Gideon’s world was suddenly flooded with light.
“I mean, a mummy. I mean, this dead guy they found, a murdered guy, they couldn’t find the bullet-”
It took a minute or two, but eventually she got the story out, and a beaming Gideon said he’d be pleased to help if he could. Or even if he couldn’t.
“Okay, let me give Chief Sandoval a call right now.” She got up to go to the office, which was in a separate building. “The body’s in this little room at the cemetery. When do you think you could look at it?”
“How about now?”
“Now?” Julie exclaimed. “Gideon, you were on a plane all night. When I came out here fifteen minutes ago you were falling asleep.”
“Well, I’m wide awake now.” He beat a tattoo on the table to prove it.
Julie shook her head. “I knew skeletons could do that to him,” she said to Annie. “Now I know mummies can too.”
“Oh, your room’s ready,” said Annie, who had caught a signal from Josefa in the courtyard behind them. “Why don’t you go get yourself unpacked up there while I call?”
The Hacienda Encantada consisted of five nicely restored nineteenth-century buildings around a cool, tree-shaded brick courtyard with hammocks and rocking chairs in various pleasant niches. Sombreros and binoculars hung from the walls for the guests to use.
Other than the Casa Principal with its dining room, kitchen, and terrace, there was the old sisal factory storehouse, the largest structure, with fourteen guest rooms; the old chapel, now cut up into the lodge office and the meeting room; the old factory building itself, the Casa de Maquinas, converted into five upscale guest rooms, one of which was Gideon and Julie’s (the best, according to Julie); and the Casa del Mayordomo, a beautiful old house with a pillared portico, once the estate manager’s home, now divided into five suites for the Gallaghers and their relations: one for Jamie, one for Annie, one for Carl, the smallest one for Josefa, and the largest one kept available for Tony.
“Like it?” Julie asked as Gideon pulled open the heavy, studded oak door of their room. “It’s been fifteen years, and as far as I can tell, the whole place looks better than ever.”
He would have said he loved it in any case because Julie was obviously anxious for him to be pleased, but in fact he liked it a lot. As promised, there was no television set, no telephone, no alarm clock.
It was a single large space with an eighteen-foot beamed ceiling and smoothed, red-painted concrete flooring. Through a door was a tiled bathroom. The furniture-king-sized bed, nightstands, lamps, round table and chairs, wardrobe, bureau-was all hand-carved in a rustic, squarish, pleasingly simple mission style. All very uncrowded and open. Geometric weavings, finely done and probably local, were on the floor on either side of the bed and in front of the wardrobe. A hammock hung in one corner.
“This is great. The whole place is great.”
There was a double tap on the door. “Okay,” Annie said, letting herself in. “Chief Sandoval’s on his way. It’s only a two-minute drive up from the village. He’ll tell you all about it on the way back down. You’ll find his English is pretty good-well, passable.”
“That’s good. I don’t think my spanish is quite up to ‘passable.’ ”
Julie was chuckling. “I told him something like this would turn up,” she said to Annie. “It never fails.”
Gideon hunched his shoulders. “What can I say? Remember what that psychic in Hawaii said? She said it was my aura. skeletons are very attracted to me.”
“And vice versa,” said
When they were back to drinking coffee and picking at the biscuits and jam, Annie suddenly clapped her hands together. “Damn, I almost forgot! Hey, Gideon, are you interested in helping out our police chief and looking at this skeleton they found?”
“A skeleton?” Gideon’s world was suddenly flooded with light.
“I mean, a mummy. I mean, this dead guy they found, a murdered guy, they couldn’t find the bullet-”
It took a minute or two, but eventually she got the story out, and a beaming Gideon said he’d be pleased to help if he could. Or even if he couldn’t.
“Okay, let me give Chief Sandoval a call right now.” She got up to go to the office, which was in a separate building. “The body’s in this little room at the cemetery. When do you think you could look at it?”
“How about now?”
“Now?” Julie exclaimed. “Gideon, you were on a plane all night. When I came out here fifteen minutes ago you were falling asleep.”
“Well, I’m wide awake now.” He beat a tattoo on the table to prove it.
Julie shook her head. “I knew skeletons could do that to him,” she said to Annie. “Now I know mummies can too.”
“Oh, your room’s ready,” said Annie, who had caught a signal from Josefa in the courtyard behind them. “Why don’t you go get yourself unpacked up there while I call?”
The Hacienda Encantada consisted of five nicely restored nineteenth-century buildings around a cool, tree-shaded brick courtyard with hammocks and rocking chairs in various pleasant niches. Sombreros and binoculars hung from the walls for the guests to use.
Other than the Casa Principal with its dining room, kitchen, and terrace, there was the old sisal factory storehouse, the largest structure, with fourteen guest rooms; the old chapel, now cut up into the lodge office and the meeting room; the old factory building itself, the Casa de Maquinas, converted into five upscale guest rooms, one of which was Gideon and Julie’s (the best, according to Julie); and the Casa del Mayordomo, a beautiful old house with a pillared portico, once the estate manager’s home, now divided into five suites for the Gallaghers and their relations: one for Jamie, one for Annie, one for Carl, the smallest one for Josefa, and the largest one kept available for Tony.
“Like it?” Julie asked as Gideon pulled open the heavy, studded oak door of their room. “It’s been fifteen years, and as far as I can tell, the whole place looks better than ever.”
He would have said he loved it in any case because Julie was obviously anxious for him to be pleased, but in fact he liked it a lot. As promised, there was no television set, no telephone, no alarm clock.
It was a single large space with an eighteen-foot beamed ceiling and smoothed, red-painted concrete flooring. Through a door was a tiled bathroom. The furniture-king-sized bed, nightstands, lamps, round table and chairs, wardrobe, bureau-was all hand-carved in a rustic, squarish, pleasingly simple mission style. All very uncrowded and open. Geometric weavings, finely done and probably local, were on the floor on either side of the bed and in front of the wardrobe. A hammock hung in one corner.
“This is great. The whole place is great.”
There was a double tap on the door. “Okay,” Annie said, letting herself in. “Chief Sandoval’s on his way. It’s only a two-minute drive up from the village. He’ll tell you all about it on the way back down. You’ll find his English is pretty good-well, passable.”
“That’s good. I don’t think my spanish is quite up to ‘passable.’ ”
Julie was chuckling. “I told him something like this would turn up,” she said to Annie. “It never fails.”
Gideon hunched his shoulders. “What can I say? Remember what that psychic in Hawaii said? She said it was my aura. skeletons are very attracted to me.”
“And vice versa,” said
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