She scrolled down the screen.
She froze, her gaze on the entry that had suddenly appeared.
“Holy shit.”
It could be nothing.
Or it could be the answer.
It was a start.
Her hand was shaking as she punched in the access.
God, please, let it be the answer.
*
Two hours later, she hung up the phone from talking to Venable.
She leaned back and drew a deep breath. She could feel the flush burning her cheeks and the pounding of her heart leaping in her chest. Calm down. It was more than a start, but it wasn’t the entire answer.
But she could get that answer if she worked hard enough, then she’d have something with which to confront Montez. Arguments she could use to sway him.
But she had to have Hu Chang.
She got up from the chair, grabbed her clothes, and went to the bathroom. She came out five minutes later, snatched her computer, and left the bedroom. A moment later, she was opening the door of the library. Hu Chang was sitting at the desk, studying Montez’s book. She’d known he wouldn’t be able to leave it until he’d made significant headway.
She slammed the door behind her. “Anything?”
“Delighted to see you, Catherine.” He gestured to the page he’d been reading. “Fascinating stuff. But I’m not ready to discuss it with you yet. I thought you were going to bed.”
“Could you make heads or tails of it?”
“Yes, though Montez is right, it is difficult.” He tilted his head. “May I ask why you’re accosting me in the middle of the night?” His gaze narrowed on her face. “Never mind. You’re practically lighting up this boring study. Excitement, eagerness … what else, Catherine?”
“Frustration. I need to know more.”
“So you came to me.” He smiled slightly. “An excellent choice. Who else can you count on for superior knowledge?” He leaned back in his chair. “On what subject?”
“I think you know. Maggi.”
“I haven’t dealt with the title yet. I was too absorbed in the contents. But you evidently have been doing a little research when you should have been sleeping. So tell me about Maggi.”
“Maria Maggi. It’s the name on a tomb in Milan, Italy.” She dropped down in the visitor’s chair beside the desk. “And the occupant was a very famous Argentinean countrywoman of Eduardo Montez.” She opened her computer and pulled up the document she’d been studying. “A beautiful woman who caused a great deal of trouble in her day.” She turned the screen around to face him. “You’ll recognize her.”
“Yes, indeed,” he murmured, his gaze on the screen. “Eva Peron. Blond, beautiful, and ambitious to be the queen of Argentina. Perhaps the empress of the world. Would you care to tell me how she came to be the occupant of that tomb in Milan?”
“It was only one of her burial sites after her death. On this tomb, they even inscribed a different name. They were trying to hide her identity so that her corpse wouldn’t be stolen or vandalized. It was a constant threat. She wasn’t buried permanently for twenty-four years. She was an icon to the common people of Argentina. Political factions fought over possession of her body because they were afraid that her influence with the masses, even after her death, would sway their political futures. Her remains were transferred from place to place in Argentina, then Europe, so that her effect on the political process would remain negligible. Maria Maggi was the name on her crypt in Milan.”
“And Montez was such a Peron fan that he named his work after her?”
“No, I think that he thought that it was a fitting name for his project.” She met his gaze. “Didn’t he?”
“Perhaps. But I’m interested in why you deduced that.”
“I’m not Luke, Hu Chang. Stop playing with me.”
“I would never play with either you or Luke. I just wish you both to stretch to meet your full potential.”
She shook her head in exasperation. “Those equations logically indicate Montez was doing some sort of medical or chemical experiments, considering his education and training. So I asked myself what kind of experiments would Santos be interested in that would make him kill someone to keep Montez under his thumb?”
“And what did you answer?”
“That it wasn’t Santos, it was Delores who was interested in what Montez was doing. It was Delores who had Santos set up Montez for a special duty. She was so intent on recruiting him that she went with Santos to see Montez when they visited Buenos Aires.”
“Recruit him for what? And why? Montez had no remarkable medical credentials. He was trained as a general practitioner.”
“For a reason. Everything he did was secret and strictly undercover. He was working on a very special project. He worked with his uncle in a lab in the hills and consulted with experts on his results only when he needed help. The Montez family was very careful after what happened to them during the Peron era.”
“Uncle?”
“Kelly was intrigued by the amount of time Eduardo spent with his Uncle Francisco in the hills. It was one of her ‘dots.’ She was having Venable check on him. But after I found out about Maggi-Peron, I called Venable myself. I’d just got off the phone when I came down to talk to you.”
“And the uncle was a doctor, too?”
“A pathologist. Brilliant and well respected in the small town where he served as coroner. But very little social contact, no published papers. He was said to be devoted to his nephew and was teaching him the family business.”