The Avenue of the Dead (22 page)

When she heard about the hotel proprietress, her blue eyes twinkled mischieviously. ‘A splendid gossip – but she keeps a good hotel. She was very fond of our dear Elizabeth; she made her very comfortable. Did she tell you my husband Hans was a war criminal? Oh, please –' She laughed aloud at her guests' discomforture. ‘Don't be embarrassed. We know all about it. My husband, will be back at any moment. I think you'll see why we think it's amusing. The war has been over for forty years. My husband was eleven when it finished. Both our families lost estates to the Russians. We didn't want to stay in West Germany, so we decided to make a new life here. And here he is – Hans, these are friends of Elizabeth's. They are trying to find her.'

He was a short, stocky man, dark-haired and very tanned. He shook hands with Colin and bowed to Davina. In the middle of Mexico, he still retained the manners of his Junker background. ‘You have lost Elizabeth? She would be difficult to lose – even the dogs followed her, apart from all the Mexicans! Where is her husband?'

‘He's in Washington,' Davina explained. ‘But when we arrived there he was away on some fact-finding tour in Central America. His office couldn't contact him, and all anybody knew was that Elizabeth had gone down to Mexico for a short holiday. We're not staying long in the States and we did want to see her. Someone thought she might be here, so we flew down.' She smiled at him; the story sounded most unlikely, but he seemed to accept it. She was grateful when Colin added, ‘I wanted an excuse to come to Mexico. It coincided very well. Your wife says you last heard of her a year ago, so it seems we've drawn a blank.'

‘I'm afraid so,' Hans Herrendos said. ‘It's a pity. We spent a lot of time together, didn't we, Ilse?'

His wife gave her warm smile. ‘Yes – she was not just beautiful, but so sweet – you felt you had to run and take care of her. Even women felt like that. As you know, of course.'

‘Of course,' Davina murmured.

‘We were very sad when she left,' Herrendos said. ‘And very surprised when we read about the marriage.'

Davina saw Lomax look up, and the narrowed eyes flashed a warning at her. ‘Surprised? We thought it sounded like a real love match,' he said. ‘Didn't we, darling?'

‘Yes,' Davina was emphatic. ‘But of course you had seen them together.'

‘We knew the Flemings slightly,' Use Herrendos said. ‘Senora Fleming was a very difficult woman; he didn't come here very often. But when he met Elizabeth it was obvious that he had fallen madly in love, wasn't it, Hans? Of course she must have been used to it. She was a little lonely too. I think she encouraged him because of that. Then his wife was burned in a terrible fire at their house, and Elizabeth was very upset. She talked to both of us about it. She said that Senor Fleming was pressing her to come to America. She wasn't sure at all. He was the one who was crazy in love, you see. She was glad when he left after the fire – that's what she told us. We were so surprised to see the report of the marriage in the American papers afterwards.' The fine grey eyes shaded for a second.

‘And we were hurt, too. We had been her best friends here. She never wrote or contacted us after she left. Hans wrote congratulating her on the marriage and she didn't answer. It seemed very rude, to drop us without a word.'

‘My wife was upset,' Herrendos explained. He looked at her with affection. ‘She hasn't learned that people mean different things by friendship. Elizabeth was a lovely person, but she was not what I would call – deep. Ilse gets too involved with people. Then they hurt you. I am more philosophical; I learned very early not to expect too much.'

There was a pause, and Davina got up. ‘You've been very kind.' And because she liked them both, she said, ‘And don't let it worry you about Elizabeth, Senora Herrendos. I knew her from childhood. Your husband is quite right. There wasn't much depth of character there, I'm afraid. We mustn't keep you any longer. I think we'll drive back to Mexico City and enjoy ourselves.' Herrendos had slipped an arm round his wife's shoulders.

‘You could telephone the hotels in Acapulco,' he suggested. ‘When Americans say Mexico, they usually mean Acapulco. Perhaps she has gone there.'

‘That's an idea,' Colin agreed. ‘Maybe she went back to that beauty clinic she told you about,' he said to Davina. ‘The one at Tula, wasn't it?'

‘Yes, that's right. Especially if she liked it there the first time. Have you heard of it, Senora Herrendos?'

‘Oh yes; it's become a very fashionable place. Clinica Quetzalcoale.' She shook her head at them.

‘But Elizabeth never went there. When she left Cuernevaca she went straight to the airport. We drove her there; she was flying to New York and then back to England.'

‘More lies,' John Kidson said when Davina telephoned that night. ‘No doubt she was tucked away in New York till he could marry her after a decent interval. Never mind, it gives me something fresh to hit him with. It's typical of the way he tries to put the whole sordid thing in a good light. The love of his life etc. Yes, he's putting up a strong resistance, but he'll give way in the end. He certainly doesn't want us to let the Americans know about the diary. He knows they won't sit him down for a friendly chat with cups of coffee. You take a couple of days' break if you like. By the way, Charlie's arriving on Thursday. Yes, isn't it – baby's fine, everything's grand. So keep an evening free for dinner.' He paused and listened while Davina spoke.

‘Lomax too? Yes, of course.'

When he put the phone down he tilted his head a little and said to himself, ‘Good Lord, don't tell me those two are getting on!'

6

‘We are going,' Lomax told her, ‘to the city of the gods this morning.' They were breakfasting together in their room. Their mood was happy as they planned their two days of holiday. Lomax had been very firm with her after they spoke to Kidson. ‘Not a word about the Flemings,' he said. ‘I can see your mind starting to whirl round like a bloody windmill again, and I'm not going to have it. We've got two whole days to spend London's money and enjoy ourselves, and that's what we're going to do. Starting this minute!' He had taken her into his arms and kissed her till she was breathless. And he did it again until she stopped trying to push him off and argue.

They spent the evening wandering round Mexico City. It was an enchanted place by night, dominated by the magnificent soaring cathedral in the Zocalo, the splendid square, its towers and facades floodlit against the darkness. They idled down the Paseo de la Reforma, lined with smart shops and restaurants. They drank fruity red wine at a little cafe under a canopy of vines, and watched the crowds pass by. He reached out and held her hand and she twisted her fingers through his. They avoided the elegant restaurants and found a little place two blocks down from the Alameda Gardens, where they burnt their mouths with chili and ate tortillas. Lomax tried tequila again and decided he quite liked it. When they came back to their hotel on the Avenida Juares, they were exhausted and slept immediately in each other's arms.

Davina laughed at him with her mouth full of grapefruit at their breakfast the next morning. He looked very boyish, with a pleasant tan and a casual open-necked shirt in bright denim. Not strictly handsome, she thought, savouring the luscious fruit, but carefree and attractive. Very attractive indeed, when he really smiled, with white teeth and a small cleft that appeared at one side of his mouth. A dimple – she giggled. She would tease him to frenzy about that dimple … ‘What city of what gods? The altitude in this place is making you light-headed!'

‘Teotihuacan.' He pronounced it very slowly and carefully. ‘And if that doesn't sound like a Welsh railway station, I don't know what does. It's about thirty miles away. The greatest pre-Columbian excavated city in the Americas. It has everything, according to the booklet I was given. A pyramid to the sun, and a pyramid to the moon, a royal palace, frescoes, carvings, and a temple dedicated to something that I'm not even going to try and spell! There you are – the Plumed Serpent.' He passed her the booklet. ‘You said you wanted to go sightseeing and you're going to get your wish. There's also a place not too far away where they make and sell native silver. We might drop by and see what we can find. What are you laughing at?'

‘Nothing,' she said. ‘I'll tell you later.' She hummed as she put on a little lipstick and brushed her hair in front of the bathroom mirror. He didn't hustle or fuss; he had a Celtic disregard for time when there was nothing urgent to be done. He made jokes which were silly and funny and sometimes even annoying, but she spent a lot of time laughing when they were together. A superficial affair – two professionals who were lovers in their free time – she shook her head slightly at her reflection as the thought came and was dismissed. No. Not the aching love of her first experience, for he was not a complex, sombre man like Ivan Sasanov. But not simple either; a personality which was full of contradictions of a different kind. The ruthlessness of the Celtic race, the pride and the flashpoint temper if provoked – these were combined in the romantic who bought her roses after they had made love. And who was trying very hard to make her fall in love with him.

He came to the door and said, ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the sexiest spy of all?' She threw the hairbrush at him, he caught it, and they went out into the corridor arm in arm and laughing.

Teotihuacan was a breathtaking panorama of ruins, dominated by the two vast pyramids built in honour of the sun and the moon. As Davina and Colin walked along the pavements, the symmetry and splendour of the vanished city unfolded before them. The power and wealth of the Toltecs had created a complex of temples and palaces, bisected by great avenues. The Aztecs who followed them adopted the city and its gods. There were complex carvings everywhere, angular and fierce in concept and design; an eyeless Death's Head grinned at them from the ruins, and savage animal heads snarled with bared stone teeth from the roofless walls. The air was pure and very thin on the high plateau, and the sky was like a bowl of pure blue inverted over their heads. There was a silence that discouraged talking. They wandered down the Avenue of the Dead, hand in hand, not saying anything. On all sides the symbol of the Aztec religion grinned at them, carved into the massive walls, enshrined in the houses of the vanished Indian race – the skull, reminder of mortality and the tribute exacted by their god the sun, and by his companion the moon goddess and the hierarchy of gods, which was presided over by the pitiless Quetzalcoatl, the Plumed Serpent, whose temple pyramid brooded at the end of the Avenue of the Dead. There the stone jaguars crouched on guard, jaws gaping in menace, and the image of the serpent god, plumed with feathers, was worshipped and offered human blood in homage.

They paused there, while other tourists drifted past them, even the children's voices muted in the stillness. Davina slipped her arm through Colin's; he felt a tiny tremor pass through her, as if she were in a cold draught of air.

‘Death,' she said in a low voice. ‘This place is dedicated to death. It's all so cruel, so merciless. What sort of people were they, to live like this? All this splendour and so much terror – everywhere you look there's a reminder of their horrible gods and that grinning skull.'

‘Man is born but to die,' Lomax quoted. ‘We see death as an enemy – maybe they saw it as a friend.'

‘I'll never see it as a friend. It took everything away from me. Let's look at the pyramids.'

Lomax walked beside her, her arm linked with his. She glanced at him and saw the expression on his face.

‘I'm sorry I said that. It just slipped out. Forgive me, Colin?'

‘Only if you climb to the top of the Temple of the Moon with me,' he said, and she was not deceived by his smile.

‘I'll try,' she promised. ‘But it looks like a difficult climb.'

They rested several times on their way to the summit. The steps were massive, broad and high, and they grew dizzy looking upward as they climbed. Once Davina paused and glanced down to the ground. The ruins below looked like a jigsaw puzzle waiting to be finished. And still the peak towered overhead. She leaned more and more on Lomax; the altitude of seven thousand feet was starving them of oyxgen. Lomax pulled her to the final step and she sank down gasping for breath. For some moments she couldn't speak, and even Colin was obliged to find his breath. He put his arm round her. ‘Look at that,' he said. ‘It was worth it, just to see this!' The view was fantastic; from the top of the incredible human tribute to the goddess of the moon, they saw the Mexican landscape stretching endlessly to the horizon. The arid plateau, the dense green forests, the grey-blue snake of man-made highways, the distant blur of Mexico City. And then there was the towering Temple of the Sun, an errant cloud pinned momentarily at its peak.

Below them, a middle-aged couple, overburdened with bags and cameras, were debating whether to struggle up any further, but otherwise they were alone.

Lomax kissed her, and dizzily she felt her body respond.

‘Davina …' He looked deep into her eyes.

‘Don't spoil things, Colin. Please.'

He forced a smile. ‘Let's get back to earth then, shall we?'

In silence they began the long, slow descent.

Twenty kilometres south of Teotihuacan they stopped at a town which had a picture-postcard square of adobe-walled buildings, a little church, and a restaurant with a couple of tables outside.

They sat down in the sun, and Davina closed her eyes. The intense heat of the day had been replaced by a soothing warmth.

‘How about ham and eggs?' said Colin, surveying the menu. ‘Apparently it's their speciality. It'd make a change from refried beans.'