The Grotto's Secret: A Historical Conspiracy Mystery Thriller (20 page)

80

With map in hand, Kelby and Roy headed out of Malaga airport. He had managed to wangle changing Marina’s ticket to accommodate Kelby. They only had time to rush home for her to collect her passport.

It had taken a lot of persuading to get Hawk to accept her plan. Roy by her side, and her being anonymous in Spain helped, but Hawk argued the stalker would know her movements no matter where she was. Eventually, Roy had convinced him, for the time being, she was safe with him. Now, with the sun slanting in at her, she peeled off her tracksuit top and flapped her t-shirt. ‘I love this weather. The worst thing about back home is never seeing blue skies.’

She cracked open the can of Fanta Limón and passed it to Roy. For herself, she twisted open a bottle of cappuccino and took a long swig.

Heading up the Cordoba motorway, Roy pointed out landmarks along the way. ‘I must take you to Antequera sometime.’

Surrounded by mountains on both sides of the road, Kelby slouched in the hired car, listening to his soothing voice.

‘It’s known as the heart of Andalusia, because it’s so central to Málaga, Granada, Córdoba, and Seville.’

Kelby couldn’t stop caressing the calf skin map. It made the trouble worthwhile.

‘The town’s partly Roman and partly Moorish.’ He glanced at her and back to the road. ‘If you love this medieval stuff, you’ll love Antequera’s two Bronze Age burial mounds.’

She opened the map and studied it. ‘Do you know where we’re going?’

‘No, but we have clues.’ He indicated to turn off the motorway at Casabermeja and drove under it, heading into the countryside. Roy pointed at the unusual graveyard. ‘They’re famous for burying their dead standing up.’

White headstones stood upright, facing in one direction, as if the occupants were gazing down the valley towards Colmenar, keeping their eyes off the northern mountain peaks. Behind the cemetery, a large sixteenth century church tower dominated the town. The mountains that had cocooned her only minutes ago suddenly disappeared, and Kelby studied the contrast where hills, trees and fields merged. ‘It’s so green here. I imagined it to be dusty and dry.’

‘This part of Andalucia is exceptionally beautiful. Look.’ He pointed at the huge rocky outcrop in the distance. ‘There’s Sierra del Torcal.’

‘No wonder Ana-María drew it like that on the map. It looks like a solid chunk of rock.’ The mountain made Kelby think of a long table and she muttered, ‘It’s like a king’s banquet table.’

Roy chuckled. ‘More like a rock climber’s dream. Marina’s uncle runs a fancy spa retreat up there. I’ll get you the most fantastic hot stones treatment you’ve ever had!’

They wound between meandering hills. Farmhouses, sprinkled here and there, had white plastered walls with red tiled roofs. Many surrounded a central courtyard and shaded patios. Several grander rustic homes featured turrets and towers with romantic balconies and wrought iron detailing.

A bronzed man in overalls chaperoned a herd of goats. Roy slowed to let them pass. As Kelby leaned out, an earthy stink hit the back of her throat, rendering a sensation of eating goat’s cheese.

A few kids bucked and horned each other. Some of the milking females struggled by with swollen teats dangling between their legs. Before she could stop herself, Kelby muttered, ‘God, I thought mine were bad!’

Roy flushed a deep tomato shade. Letting him blush in peace, Kelby sipped on the dregs of her coffee and placed the empty container in her bag. She loved Roy’s sweet nature and old-fashioned manners. The thought of going back home and not being with him all the time saddened her. More than that, the gravity of finding the truth about Gary’s death weighed heavily on Kelby. She tried not to think about the rizado murders Roy and Marina had shown her. She couldn’t let them get in the way of their mission.

After finding the grotto, she had to go back, with or without Roy. She had to find out who’d killed Gary.

And why.

81

After fifteen minutes, Roy and Kelby passed a couple of white-washed Spanish villages and were right in the heart of the valley. Another turn into the country took them along a bumpy track for half an hour. The wild countryside and undeveloped views down the meandering valleys to the sea beyond the mountains gave Kelby a strange sensation of knowing this place.

Apart from a steep hillside village in the far distance, the valley was lush with green wheat fields and rolling hills, shadowed by layer after layer of rocky mountains to the west. Kelby had never been here before, but she felt an incredible peace descend on her.

Only the occasional farmhouse dotted the landscape. Aside from that, everything was field after field of green wheat.

When Roy headed over a hill and snaked through an olive plantation, Kelby pulled a sceptical face. ‘With the tourist industry as it is today, how come no-one has found the grotto?’

Roy pointed at what seemed to be a never ending boundary. ‘It must be on Marina’s family land. See that fence? They have hundreds of acres.’

Her gaze followed his finger.

‘They’ve farmed this land for centuries. It’s enclosed with large gates at the farm exits. That’s to keep out travellers who camp wherever they like. Did you see the house back there?’

She twisted her neck to look back. ‘Yes.’

A long tree-lined drive led to a sprawling homestead with umpteen outbuildings, barns, and a stable block. The outbuildings and stables had red tiled roofs showing an affluent land owner.

‘Marina’s father and my mother live there. His brother lives over the ridge. He runs the hot stones retreat. The whole area is mostly their family, with a few holiday homes in between.’

‘Wow, lots of land.’

‘Yes, it dates back a few centuries. There’s a ton of money left in a trust to ensure the land stays in the family. It’s been handed down from generation to generation to keep it as private land.’

‘Will we see your mum?’

A smile crept across his face. ‘Of course,
luego,
later.’

Roy steered the car up a dirt track and stopped in front of high gates. ‘Open Sesame!’ he bellowed out of the window. As if by magic, they started opening. She looked at him, frowning, only to see him waving a remote control. ‘Modern technology can be so handy.’ After driving through the gates, he pointed the remote backwards. In the side mirror Kelby watched the gates close behind them.

‘Have you seen a skeleton before?’ Roy asked.

82

Kelby gaped at Roy as he drove along the rutted track. ‘Do you mean the one Marina found?’

He nodded and pulled up on a verge. Leaning over Kelby, he pointed out of her open window. ‘See down there, that’s Marina’s ruins.’

A few cars were parked to one side with a handful of people on their knees. A man in a straw hat scurried between them.

‘That guy’s the archaeologist. He has volunteers and other specialists on the dig. They want to find the foundations of the original houses and outbuildings. I’ll show you later. I’m sure you want to see the cellar where the skeleton was found.’

Kelby grimaced. ‘I hope it’s been removed.’

‘Oh yeah, it’s gone for bone analysis so they can determine exactly how old it was.’

‘You mean how old the person was. Remember Marina told you if it’s Ana-Mariá, she has to be honoured.’

‘I know, but we also can’t draw much attention to this place in case it brings anyone else trying to find rizado. There’s so much undercurrent noise about it on the web, I wouldn’t be surprised if a weirdo came asking. Quite frankly, after the body count Marina uncovered, I’d prefer to keep my family out of it.’

‘Yes, of course!’

‘But when Marina gets a bee in her bonnet, there’s no stopping her. When we see the folks, don’t mention any of the rizado stuff. Marina is keeping that part between us because her dad hasn’t been well.’

Roy started the car and they rumbled onto the track for another five minutes. ‘Ana-Mariá doesn’t show a homestead on here so we have to follow the map’s symbols. Remember, she would have walked to
the grotto.’

‘She may have had a horse.’

‘Possibly, but let’s assume not.’ He drove around a hill and pulled the car under a shaded copse of trees. ‘If she needed to walk to get the rizado, it could have taken her a few hours.’

He tapped the map in her lap. ‘I think we’re somewhere here. Come on.’ He jumped out of the car.

Kelby followed him and placed the map on the bonnet. Together they leaned over it.

‘That’s Torcal behind us.’ He turned the map so Ana-Mariá’s mountain range was behind them. He suddenly leapt onto the bonnet and climbed onto the roof. ‘As a kid, I wanted to be the king of the castle’ He grinned at Kelby.

‘You’re
still
a kid. Get down.’

‘No, I have a bird’s-eye view from here.’ He bent over and grabbed the map from her hand. ‘Right, I think we’re looking for this forest.’

‘You know,’ Kelby stopped to think, ‘I don’t recall seeing any woodland along the way.’

‘Yeah, Spain has deforestation issues.’

Beside her head, Roy’s feet shuffled as he turned his body direction. ‘Nothing that way.’ His feet inched around again. ‘Nothing over there. Wait …’

Kelby’s head shot up. ‘What?’

‘Hmm, not sure. There’s a small rocky outcrop over there, but I don’t see a huge forest as the map indicates, only a bunch of trees.’

‘Maybe Marina’s ancestors chopped it down for firewood.’

‘Yeah, possibly. As most were.’ He leapt off the roof and landed on both feet like a gymnast.

Kelby stared at him, waiting for his verdict. ‘So?’

Roy flicked his thumb. ‘We’re hiking that way. It’s the only bit that looks like on the map.’ He tapped the grotto in the middle of the map. ‘More importantly, I see something that looks like a heart-shaped hill.’

Kelby glanced at the map, her eyes widening. ‘Of course. I hadn’t noticed it before.’

‘Nor me. But it’s clearly visible on the ridge. Come on, let’s go find the grotto.’

83

After striking west and climbing a hillock, Kelby followed Roy along a rugged trail, enjoying time outdoors and being away from work. Even more important was being in the sun with this adorable man. Despite being in a place she’d never been before, in a country she didn’t know, she felt much safer than at home.

They strode through a thick copse. The green canopy reached high, hiding the blue sky and sunny day. Suddenly, the wood broke and they stepped up to a shallow pond. Kelby looked at the map and back to the pond. ‘This must be it. The map shows a pool surrounded by bushes.’

Trees grew around the pond, some even spreading their roots into the clear shallow pool. They stepped across a path of rocks to the other side of the pond. From here, the entrance within the trees, was concealed.

A calming peace settled over Kelby. Soft background sounds soothed her. Water gurgled around the rocks. A sudden breeze rushed through the branches. Now and then, the occasional tweet of birds in the woods stabbed at the silence. A pair of pigeons cooed in the towering treetops.

‘Is that it?’

Kelby noted the disappointment in Roy’s voice. She watched him shade his eyes and glance around in each direction.

Staring at the rocky wall above the pool, Kelby said, ‘There’s got to be more to it than this.’ She loved the sun warming her back. Tempted to lie back on the small stretch of grass beside the pond, she yawned. ‘Annie said the waterfall was inside the cave, but I can’t hear anything.’

‘It has to be here somewhere.’ Roy took a few steps back and held out his hand to guide her. Kelby clung to his fingers as she balanced her way across the water. On the other edge of the pond, he stopped. ‘Listen. What’s that sound?’

‘Can’t hear anything.’ Kelby slumped on the prickly grass with an overwhelming feeling of wanting to dip her toes in the water. ‘Hang on, there
is
a distant sound. Like rushing water. It’s a bit hollow.’

‘Maybe it’s behind this rock wall.’ Roy shoved his sunglasses to the top of his head and used his hand to shade his face while he examined the area.

A lazy glance took Kelby’s attention to the rock face behind the pond. On the far edge, she spotted something and pointed. ‘That looks like a little waterfall, but not the one I imagined from Annie’s friend.’

Long grass grew along the edge of the rock face. About two metres above the ground, sheets of water cascaded into the pool, looking as though they came out of a mirror.

Roy ambled towards it, muttering, ‘Maybe the vegetation is hiding something.’

The solid chunk of rock behind the pool loomed over them with a menacing glare. Half way up the rock wall, a cavity appeared. To Kelby it looked like an eyelid. As she stepped closer, the hole gaped, as though the craggy rock monster had flicked one eye open to peer at its intruders. ‘Roy! There’s a cave in the rock.’

His head swung back and nodded. ‘Yeah, you’re right. Maybe it’s our grotto. Let’s take a look.’

They headed around the pond towards the rock wall. Looking up, Kelby had no idea how they were going to scale the rock face.

As they neared the slab of limestone, a shadow beckoned. María’s grotto had woven its spell on her just like the girdle book had

Kelby’s pulse quickened. If only Gary had left notes. If they found rizado she wanted to prove someone had killed her brother.

Roy suddenly darted forward, yelling, ‘Look!’

For a moment Kelby watched him scrambling over boulders surrounding the mirror waterfall. Then, she darted to him, breathless with excitement.

Roy bent down and fondled a mossy creeper. It was spread over the rocks around where the water cascaded into the pool. ‘See this?’

Kelby bent down alongside him, trying to balance on the slippery rock. Beside her, Roy ran his fingers along the frizzy leaves and down the stem. Kneeling on the bank, he fiddled around the base of the stone. For a moment, he tugged at something, and started chuckling.

Kelby watched in fascination. ‘What
are
you doing?’

With a triumphant yell, Roy yanked the plant out of the ground. He leapt up and threw his free arm around Kelby, hollering at the sky, ‘I think we’ve found the rizado!’