Page 23 of The Hero
“Being alone is the worst,” Marlowe agreed softly. “It feels as if you’re the only person in the world. Like everyone has forgotten you. Like you’re less than human.”
Kendric’s arms tightened around her, and she felt him nod before he went on. “Honestly, Chappy, JJ, and I didn’t have it all that bad compared to Cal. Once our captors found out who he was, they concentrated most of their attention on him. That was harder to bear than being tortured ourselves.”
When he paused and didn’t say anything else, Marlowe asked, “Who was he? Why did they focus on him?”
“He’s a member of the royal family of Liechtenstein. Those assholes were so thrilled to have royalty in their clutches, they did their best to break him. They wanted him pleading for his life on film.”
“They filmed it?” Marlowe asked, horrified.
“Yeah. And sent that shit out on the web. There are still videos out there of Cal being sliced to ribbons. It’s sick. And the worst was not being able to do anything to help him. But Cal being Cal, he didn’t say one damn word. Didn’t give our captors the satisfaction of even one grunt of pain. When they rechained him to the wall after a session, he’d bleed so badly, a river of blood would literally snake down to the drain in the middle of the room. And all we could do was beg him to hold on.”
“I can’t imagine,” Marlowe said, feeling as if her words were woefully inadequate.
“Good. I wouldn’t ever want you, or anyone, to experience that hell.”
“When I was put in solitary, I was still in shock from everything that had happened,” Marlowe admitted. “One minute I was on the dig site, minding my own business, and the next I was being handcuffed and thrown into a police car. I had no idea what was going on.”
“What can you tell me about what happened?” Kendric asked.
Marlowe sighed. “Not much. I mean, I have my suspicions, but because I don’t understand Thai, I have no idea what was said during my interrogation.”
“Did they hurt you?” Kendric asked in a tight, very dark tone.
“No. But ... I thought they were going to. They yelled a lot. Hit the desk. Even pressed me up against the wall. That’s why I ultimatelysigned that paper. I figured they would do whatever it took to make me sign it. I’d read a lot of horror stories about foreigners in custody, women especially, and what happened to them.”
Kendric’s arms tightened around her almost to the point of pain. Marlowe rubbed her thumb back and forth on the skin of his neck, trying to calm him. “I’m okay,” she soothed. “They didn’t do anything.”
It took a minute or two, but eventually Kendric asked, “What are your suspicions? How did those yaba pills get in your stuff?”
“You don’t think I was selling them?” she asked, genuinely curious about his answer. She wouldn’t blame him if he did. Everyone else thought the worst of her. Why wouldn’t he?
“No.”
That was it. Just no.
His belief made a previously unnoticed tension ease inside her.
“I worked with a guy, his name is Ian West. He’s younger than me and was new to the dig site. He seemed okay enough. A little overenthusiastic. And he liked to drink on his time off. Which is fine. I mean, each to his own. Anyway, as you know, it’s hot here. I mean,reallyhot. The temperature combined with the humidity makes it unbearable at times. One night, I couldn’t sleep because of the heat. I was walking around the dig site, which wasn’t uncommon for me. It was better than sweating in my bunk. And I saw Ian in one of the trenches we’d been working on earlier that day. Wedodig at night, especially when grant funds are running low or a dig season is ending. But we use lots of floodlights, we stop at a certain time, and no one works by themselves. Ever.
“I watched him digging for a minute, about to approach to find out what the hell was going on, when he held up something to the light. He laughed quietly, stood, and put whatever he’d found in his pocket.
“I was shocked. That’s not something you do on a dig. Take something you found. Anything we discover belongs to the country in which we’re working. We’re just the hands that unearth stuff, none of it is ours.
“He quickly walked away, never even saw me standing nearby. Probably because he was using a single lantern, and he took it withhim. I always keep a small flashlight on me when walking the dig site at night. After he went back to his tent, I walked over to the trench. I don’t know what I expected to find, maybe evidence of pottery shards or something. But I looked in ...
“Coins. He was stealingcoins. There were about two dozen still sitting in the dirt in the trench, waiting to be tagged and collected. There’s no way the team would’ve left them there like that, so I’m guessing Ian must’ve found them earlier in the day and didn’t tell anyone. I have no idea why he didn’t take them all. Since no one knew they existed, no one would miss them. I may never know the answer to that question.”
She sighed heavily. “I didn’t want to believe he was a thief. I tried so hard to justify what I saw, but it was impossible. When we find something, there’s a protocol to follow before an item’s extracted. Pictures taken, data collected, et cetera. And it goes without saying we use gloves to handle artifacts. And he put the coins in hispocket! As if they were just quarters or something.”
Marlowe took a deep breath, trying to get control over her emotions. Every time she thought about what happened next, how stupid she’d been, it enraged and embarrassed her.
“What did you do?” Kendric asked. She felt his hand slip under her shirt, his fingers lightly stroking her lower back, as if he was trying to soothe a wild animal. His touch felt wonderful. And surprisingly, she felt her anger waning.
“I was an idiot,” she said with a sigh. “I went to his tent and confronted him. Told him I saw him take the coins. He sounded genuinely panicked. Said he was sorry, acted so contrite. Told me he just made a rash, stupid mistake. I insisted he go to the site leader and tell him what he’d done, show him the coins so official steps could be taken to record the find. He promised he’d do so in the morning, kept apologizing and begging my forgiveness.
“I was going to go straight to our project leader—and I should have. But it was the middle of the night after a long workday. I didn’twant to disturb him, and like a moron, I trusted Ian when he said he’d make things right.
“I went back to my tent, finally fell asleep ... and in the morning, the police were there. They found the drugs in my tent, and I was hauled away.”
