Deity by Theresa Danley

all but collapsed within herself. She was just gearing
herself up for the conversation she desperately needed and now Dr. Peet left
her hanging there with a mix of emotions boiling inside. She ached for the
openness she once had with him. They’d gone through too much to dissolve into
estranged acquaintances and yet Dr. Peet’s behavior was putting his reliability
into question.
    Lori
needed a release. She needed to scream at the man. Just what had she done to
deserve this?
    Dr.
Peet answered the door, promptly allowing Chac and Father Ruiz in with fresh
clothes. That’s when Lori realized the shower had stopped running. A moment
later the bathroom belched a cloud of soapy steam around KC’s refreshed figure.
She was wrapped in a long, white bathrobe, scrubbing her head with a towel. “I
thought I’d never get that smell out of my hair,” she groaned.
    Suddenly,
the room was alive, shattering Lori’s chance to settle with Dr. Peet. Lori’s
mind quickly shifted gears. One troubling fact remained—Dr. Friedman was
missing. Denying Dr. Peet wasn’t going to find their friend.
    * * * *
    “I
don’t think Dr. Webb is conducting a religious exchange,” Lori said, catching
Peet by surprise. Even Chac and Father Ruiz paused to consider her words. Only
KC appeared to not have heard as she finished toweling her wet hair.
    “What
benefit would there be?” Lori continued. “He may introduce traditional Maya to
Catholicism, but why bring the ancient and relatively inactive religion of
Quetzalcoatl to the Catholics?”
    “Not
to mention Matt is Mormon,” Peet agreed.
    Chac
nodded in agreement. “And the fact that Matt was in the middle of interpreting
his fresco, something he claimed was going to give the Mormons more
respectability among the religious communities. I doubt even the coming Christmas
holiday could pull him away from that.”
    “He
probably made some big breakthrough,” KC spouted as she sorted through the
clothes Father Ruiz brought her.
    Peet
glanced at Chac, giving KC’s flippant comment a
moment’s credit.
    Chac
shook his head. “We were working together. The only breakthrough he had was
finding his Jesus fresco. From then on he was consumed with cleaning and
preserving it, not to mention documenting every piece of data he could pull before
he chose to unveil it to the world.”
    “Maybe
he found something he didn’t tell you about, Chac,” Peet suggested, taking his
neatly folded clothes off the man’s hands. He set them aside on the bed. The
shirt was going to need ironed but not before he took his turn in the shower. It
was going to feel good getting out of the stinking, itchy clothes still
clinging uncomfortably to his body. “Do you think he could have returned to
finish his work on the fresco without you?”
    Chac
shrugged. “I suppose he could have, but it’s unlikely. It’s risky going there
alone.”
    “Maybe
he took the risk and found himself on the losing end of his gamble.”
    “If
he did he went without his gear,” Chac said, taking a seat in a hand-carved
mahogany chair. “I found it all in the back of his Ford Explorer which is still
parked at his residence in Piste.”
    Peet
noticed Lori pacing, her mind deep in thought. He knew that distant look, that
studious expression that indicated she’d withdrawn inside herself to work out a
problem. That was something he’d always liked about her. It didn’t matter the
problem, she was always up to the challenge, turning the problem around in her
mind, getting a good look at every possible angle and often finding something
there that hadn’t been considered before.
    In
that moment he had to admire her ability to change gears, or was it her tact
for not lingering on a personal grudge in the company of others? Peet knew
she’d been fishing in their earlier conversation. He should have taken the bait
while he had the chance. After all, it was the first time they’d been alone
together in months.
    Ever
since they recovered the