Steve Martini - The Arraignment

“That’s a little dicey, isn’t it? When they find my body, either with a bullet in it or at the bottom, and you up at the top, the Mexican authorities may be asking you some pointed questions.”

“Of course they will. And I’ll have all the answers. How the Ibarra brothers held me hostage, without food and water. You like my costume? How they beat me, trying to find out about this Rosen thing. The fact that I knew nothing about it. After they shot you, or you went off the edge depending on how you want to do it, seeing as I’m flexible, the brothers, or more likely their hired guns, panicked and left me up there. It’s a harrowing story,” he says. “Of course, blindfolded I wasn’t able to see a thing. I’ve taken the liberty. The blindfold’s in my pocket, along with a little duct tape for my hands and feet. I don’t even have to tie any knots, just rub a little dirt into the tape and twist my wrists a bit like I’ve been struggling to get free. I think that should satisfy them.”

Adam’s got it all figured.

“Did you know it’s the highest Mayan pyramid on the Yucatan Peninsula?”

“I’m honored.”

“Actually if you look over there.” He gestures with the pistol. “Just off the stairs to your right, it’s more of a cliff.”

“I can see that.”

“I thought that would be a good place for us. They call this the Nohoch Mul. The big mound. According to the book, it’s a hundred and thirty-six feet high. Twelve stories. One hundred and twenty steps.”

“Maybe we could start over and I could count them.”

“I don’t think so. Just keep going.”

Tolt constantly maintains his distance, always two or three large stone steps below me, just out of kicking distance.

“I assume you brought help? Let me guess, Herman?”

I nod.

He laughs. “That man is an absolute pain in the ass. Always smiling through that damn chipped tooth. Though I have to admit he did give me the idea for disarming Julio.”

“Herman’s pretty upset about that.”

“Yeah I suppose they were pretty close.”

“Why did you have to kill him?”

“I had to have something to demonstrate the violence of these people, their desperation in dealing with you.”

“Shooting up the hotel pool wasn’t enough?”

“Well, they weren’t just going to snatch me and leave my bodyguards, were they?”

“What did you do with the rest of Julio’s people?”

“I made an executive decision. I called Julio that morning, before you and Harry got up, and told him that I wanted him to go up to the condo and to stay there until I came up. When I left the pool later in the morning to make my urgent phone call, I grabbed his man in the lobby and we both took a cab up to the condo. I’d already trashed my room before I came down. At the condo, I told Julio to send the rest of his men back to Mexico City, that we wouldn’t be needing them. Of course, he was happy to comply. He figured the job was over.”

He stops for a second, wipes his brow with the bottom of his shirt. “It’s getting warm. Anyway they packed their bags and ten minutes later Julio’s people were gone. I told Julio to take me back to the hotel. He got in the front seat. I got in the back, and I asked him for his gun.”

“Just like that?”

“No. I told him I didn’t want any more gunplay of the kind that Herman had engaged in the day before when he damn near got us shot. Pulling his pistol out like that was stupid. Julio agreed. The fact was, he was still stinging from the ass-chewing I’d given him in the car the day before. He just handed it over. It’s the thing about authority. Most people never question it.”

“Except people like Nick, is that it?”

“Well, I didn’t spend thirty years building the firm to have Nick Rush come along and tear the whole thing apart. He was out talking to my partners, making them offers, telling them he was going to come up with cash to capitalize a new firm with offices in every city. What would you do?”

“I wouldn’t have killed him.”

“Well, you’re younger than I am. You have some years ahead of you yet. I wasn’t looking forward to a solo practice or sitting on a porch somewhere in a rocking chair. I had a name, a reputation. I’d built something. People in politics, entertainment, business, the people who count, they know the name of Adam Tolt.”

“Is that it? Your identity was caught up in it?”

“Damn right. After all is said and done, what else have we got?”

Adam’s life was the firm. He knew that without it people wouldn’t return his phone calls, blue ribbon committees wouldn’t ask him to serve, politicians wouldn’t go out of their way to cross a crowded room to shake his hand. And to Adam those were the things that made life worth living, that and the private jet and high-rise corner office overlooking the bay. People have killed for a lot less.

“Who else came along besides Herman? Don’t tell me it’s just the two of you?”

“A few others.”

“I knew you would bring backup.” We’re getting near the top. He stops to take a breather, so I stop too. “No, no, you just keep moving. I’ll be right behind you.”

He takes off his hat and wipes his brow with the brim. “Of course, they would all be slinking around in the bushes about a half mile from here. Over there, I think.” He glances off to his left, keeping the gun pointed at me.

“Yeah, if you look you can see it. Get up there a little ways ahead, I’ll let you take a look. That’s it.” He shuffles to his right, so that I remain in his line of sight as he looks over his left shoulder.

“See that little building poking up through the jungle? What was the name again, something about a door?”

“The Doorway to the Temple of Inscriptions.”

“That’s it. I think that’s it. Coming by the trails on foot, it would take them at least ten, fifteen minutes to get here. By then, I’m gonna be long gone. I’ll bet they briefed you on that area until you knew every pebble on the ground.”

I don’t answer him.

“It took me a while, digging around in a bookstore after I shot Julio, to find a map of this place with names of the ruins so I’d know where to send them while I dealt with you.”

“That was a nice touch, Adam.”

“I thought so.” We continue climbing. “One thing I do need to know,” he says. “Where exactly is Nick’s little handheld?”

“You don’t really expect me to tell you?”

“I suppose I could look for it myself. You said it was in your office last time we talked. Which reminds me, how much does Harry know about all this?”

“Nothing. Harry doesn’t know a thing.”

“Now, you know that’s not true. He knew about the handheld. I wish I could believe you, but you’re just a constant disappointment. This is getting entirely too violent. Still I suppose people do die of infections and accidents in hospitals.”

I reach the top of the pyramid.

Adam stops on the steps below me.

My body is covered in sweat. Breathing through my mouth, my throat is parched. The sun is now hitting us on an angle out of the eastern sky, beginning to heat the stones, reflecting off the rock around us. Through the canopy from the jungle floor, steam clouds drift up like inverted cones of smoke.

In front of me centered on the top platform is a rectangular stone structure with a single door. The interior is lost in shadows. Carved into the exterior near the top of the corner stones at the level of the roof are two human figures suspended upside down.

“Step over there.”

I look at Adam. He gestures with the gun, toward my left as I face him. He is breathing heavily, sweat dripping from his chin, his shirt soaked through.