Page 4 of Wicked Suspicion

“There might be,” Nyx said slowly, “but I don’t think this is the solution.”

Ellis’s smile crashed, but Frankie merely appeared curious. “Why do you think that?”

“Because archaeologists worked those ruins for years,” Nyx said, sliding the paper back to Frankie. “If the treasure was hidden there, they would have discovered something.”

“The ruins were overgrown,” Frankie said. “The archaeological team could only explore a small portion of them before they were forced to quit.”

“The ruins were overgrown when the captain who stole the Treasure of Trujillo was looking for a place to hide it. Simply reaching the area in the 1820s would have been difficult for him and do you believe he’d want to risk getting bit or stung by something living in the vegetation? I wouldn’t. Not when there were easier places to hide it.”

“Would those places have been as effective?” Ellis asked.

“Probably,” Nyx said quietly. “And easier for the thieves to access when they wanted to recover it. Think about it. If they had to make a quick escape, how would they travel to the ruins, recover the treasure, and still get out of the country? It’s a ninety-minute-plus drive today with modern roads and cars. Back then?” She shrugged and took another sip of her soda.

“Why don’t we call Archer?” Frankie suggested.

Sure, bring their boss into it. Nyx was a contractor, and she couldn’t rock the boat too hard. “Okay,” she agreed.

Frankie took out her new cell phone, tapped the screen, and placed it on the table. Nyx half-expected that one day Archer would answer the phone with hello, angels, but their boss wasn’t that much fun. “What can I do for you, Francesca?” he asked when he came on the line.

“Nyx and Ellis are here, too,” Frankie said.

“What’s necessitated a conference call?”

Frankie explained why she believed it was worth checking out the ruins and summarized Nyx’s position on why it wasn’t a worthwhile use of time. “Did I miss anything?” Frankie asked, looking across the table to meet her gaze.

“No,” Nyx said, “I think you fairly represented my reservations.”

“What do you think, Archer?” Frankie asked.

There was a long moment of silence as Archer considered the question. “I believe,” he said slowly, “that Nyx is correct and there won’t be anything to find there.”

“Would it hurt for us to look? Maybe we’ll get lucky,” Ellis said.

“Yes,” Frankie said with a nod. “One of us might spot something for Nyx to examine more closely.”

Nyx stiffened. Ellis would be a liability at the ruins, and even Frankie would likely be a hindrance. She liked Frankie and respected her abilities, but her idea of roughing it was drinking warm bottled water. Babysitting her two teammates while looking for a needle in a haystack was too much.

“If you think I should go,” Nyx said, “it would be better if I went alone. The terrain is too rough for Ellis or Frankie.”

Both women immediately disagreed.

“Frankie, Ellis, there’s too much to be done in Trujillo for you to leave.” Archer’s voice brought silence. “However, it wouldn’t hurt for Nyx to take a reconnaissance trip. If she sees something worth investigating further, we’ll regroup then.”

Archer was going to send her out on the off chance there was something there and that she could identify it without a lidar scan. She liked ruins. She’d taken a side trip out to visit some near Rosario as a tourist activity, but the authorities maintained those as a heritage site. She hadn’t needed to slog through the rainforest to look at them. It would be a different story at the Huarona ruins.

She was tough. Her dad and brother had made sure she could take care of herself in circumstances far beyond what most families considered normal. It didn’t matter. Nyx still didn’t want to deal with the critters that inhabited the rainforest.

“Maybe my time would be better spent helping Frankie and Ellis research,” Nyx said.

Archer immediately nipped that attempt in the bud. “Drive out tomorrow, spend the night at the inn in San Isidro, and then examine the ruins on Saturday. If you find something?—”

“I won’t.”

Archer continued without pause, “—call me and we’ll discuss.”

“And when I find nothing?”

There was amusement in Archer’s voice as he said, “Then spend another night at the inn and return early the following day. I don’t want you driving at night through the rainforest, am I clear?”

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