Free Buried Secrets by Margaret Daley Page B

lips, his gaze snagging Maggie’s over the rim.
    Maggie gave him an exaggerated look. “I believe someone is after us. It’s kinda hard not to acknowledge it when I was attacked in my own home.”
    Evelyn sat forward. “You were attacked? Why?”
    “The man wanted the diary.” Her attacker’s gravelly voice, and his demands, resounded in Maggie’s mind. If Zach hadn’t come in, she could have been killed.
    “So, Zach, your hunch is right. This is about the legend of the Aztec codices, after all these years. Red and Aunt Willow gave up on the search. They decided the codices were either destroyed or the legend was just that, a legend.”
    “Well, someone doesn’t think so.” Zach placed his mug on the table.
    “Either way, Zach and I are in danger because of the diary and the map. If the codices are out there, we need to find them.”
    Zach surged to his feet. “They belong in a museum where they can be studied, not in some private collector’s possession. The prospects of a band of Aztecs preserving their history from destruction for future generations…” His voice faded, but the passion in his expression didn’t.
    “You sound just like your grandfather. Why didn’t you become an archaeologist like him?” Evelyn finished her coffee.
    “It’s hard to live up to a legend. I wanted to make my own mark in the scientific community.”
    Maggie watched Zach pace the kitchen, waves of energy flowing from him. Red Collier had had the life—and woman—Gramps had wanted. Although she felt her grandfather had loved her grandmother in his own way, Maggie had always known something had been missing in their relationship. Red and Jake’s discovery almost sixty years ago had started an avalanche of events. Would it end in Maggie’s death?
    “Did they get the diary, too?” Evelyn walked to the coffeepot and poured some more coffee into her mug.
    Zach stopped in the middle of the room. “No. So we have a chance.”
    Evelyn lounged back against the counter with her drink nestled in her palms. “Which means they will be searching for you and Maggie. If they have already killed twice for the diary and map, then they won’t stop until they get both of them.”
    They? Who are they? Maggie wanted to scream in frustration. She’d had a good life, and now she was on the run, forced to work with her family’s enemy in order to stay alive.

SIX
    “A re you sure about this?” Maggie scanned the parking lot at the Albuquerque City College, looking for a black SUV with gun-toting thugs in it.
    “We’ll get the copy of the map, interview the people at the rehabilitation center, go by the bank in Santa Fe and be back at Evelyn’s before anyone knows we are here.” Zach patted the hood of the green Jeep. “Whoever is after us won’t be looking for this rental car. Besides, we’re probably going to need a four-wheel drive. I doubt very seriously the codices are hidden in the middle of civilization.”
    “And there are definitely some remote places in the Southwest where they could be stashed. There are a lot in New Mexico alone.”
    “But first we need to break the code, figure out where to start looking.”
    Maggie fell into step next to Zach as he crossed the parking lot toward the science building. Her skin crawled with visions of people watching them. She perused the area, but saw nothing out of the ordinary, no gun-toting thugs waving their arms to get her attention.
    Inside, Zach greeted the receptionist with a nod and a smile but kept walking toward his office. The star-struck expression on the young woman’s face amused Maggie, while Zach seemed oblivious to his effect on the receptionist. Maggie hurried after him. His long strides chewed up the distance rapidly, as if he was a man on a mission.
    “Slow down.”
    He glanced back at her. “I don’t want to stay here any longer than is necessary.”
    At his office door, she spied the taut line of his mouth. “You felt it, too?”
    He nodded, unlocked the