Free Hunt at the Well of Eternity by Gabriel Hunt, James Reasoner

go.” If this turned out to be an attempt to doublecross him, he would deal with that problem then.
    Dr. Almanzar knew all the roads through the park and sent the jeep twisting and turning along them, emerging a few minutes later at Paseo de la Reforma, the wide, busy boulevard that cut through the northern section of the park. As the doctor turned west on the boulevard, Gabriel heard whooping sirens and looked back to see flashing red and blue lights through the trees.
    The police had arrived at the museum. They would find the shattered door, Carlos’s body, and the damage in the Special Collections room.
    What they wouldn’t find was the man Gabriel had shot. Once again, the killers had taken their fallen comrade with them. That might almost have been an honorable gesture—if Gabriel hadn’t suspected that it was motivated purely by self-interest. The bastards were savvy enough to know better than to leave any evidence behind that might lead the authorities to them.
    Dr. Almanzar navigated through the heavy traffic on the boulevard like someone who was accustomed to it. As she drove, she said in a brisk voice, “Considering that you almost got me killed tonight, Señor Hunt, don’t you think you should tell me what this is all about?”
    Gabriel hesitated. He didn’t want to draw her any deeper into this affair than she already was.
    “You have an event to attend,” he said. “If you’ll drop me back at my hotel, you can go on to that and forget about everything that’s happened tonight.”
    “Until the police arrive to question me, you mean.”
    “Well, there’s that to consider,” Gabriel admitted. “You can always claim that you met with me, saw me out, and then left yourself, and that everything was fine when you did. The break-in and Carlos’s murder could have happened after you were gone.”
    “I suppose, but I won’t have an alibi. And neither will you. Did you rent a car?”
    “I did,” Gabriel said. “But I paid cash for it and used a phony driver’s license. The police won’t be able to trace it back to me.”
    She glanced over at him. “Do you always cover your trail like a criminal, Señor Hunt?”
    “Often. A lot of times in my work it’s better if I don’t get any meddling from the local authorities.”
    “So you believe it’s all right to flout the laws of another country, eh?”
    “Oh, I flout the laws of the United States, too,” Gabriel said. “When I have to.”
    She glanced at him again and then, after a moment, laughed. “You’re un hombre loco , aren’t you, Señor Hunt?”
    Gabriel sensed the tension between them easing. “Why don’t you call me Gabriel?”
    She said, “All right, Gabriel. Then I’m Cierra. I guess once you’ve been shot at together, there’s no more point in formality.”
    “My thinking exactly,” Gabriel said.
    “I still want to know what this is about. Why don’t you tell me on the way to the event?”
    “You’re still going? And you’re taking me?”
    “I’m sure the host would like to meet you,” she said.
    “As long as he’s not the chief of police,” Gabriel said.
    Gabriel wasn’t sure this was the best idea, but he supposed a magnificent villa in the exclusive Lomas de Chapultepec residential district west of the city was as good a place as any to wait and see if the police were going to connect him with what had happened at the museum.
    “The estate belongs to Vladimir Antonio de la Esparza,” Cierra Almanzar explained. “He’s one of the museum’s largest benefactors. He’s thinking about making another very generous donation. That is why I couldn’t say no when he asked me to come to this party tonight. I hope he’s not offended that I’ll be showing up an hour late.”
    “You could always tell him you were delayed by three assassins,” Gabriel suggested.
    She shot him an angry look. “I cannot take this as lightly as you, Señor Hunt. Carlos was my friend, and he leaves a wife and four