“I knew you were here!” shouted the boy. “I knew it!”
“Diego!” Roberto gave the boy a bear hug. “I’ve never been so happy to see someone in my life!”
“Why?”
“What do you mean, ‘why’?” Roberto shook him by the shoulders. “You’ve saved my life, Diego.”
“Really?” The boy’s face lit up. “That’s the second time, then! First on the beach, when you nearly drowned, and now here. I’m a superhero!”
“No doubt about it. But tell me, how did you know where to find me?”
Diego lowered his gaze, a guilty look in his eyes. “You can’t tell Antía. Do you promise?”
“You have my word.”
“Last night she told me that I didn’t kill Pampín.” The boy’s voice was little more than a whisper. “That the bad man who took my toys did it. And that you found out.”
“That’s right, Diego.” He gave the boy another reassuring hug.
“They said nobody was allowed to leave the house, that there were more bad men outside, that they wanted to hurt us.” Roberto was surprised at the determined glint in the boy’s eyes. “But I wanted to thank you. You saved me too. So I escaped when nobody was looking.”
“Oh, Diego.” Roberto ruffled the boy’s hair. “They must be worried sick about you.”
“I went to the cottage, but you weren’t there,” the boy said in a rush. “But the lighthouse keepers were. They’d broken down the door and were going through your things!”
Of course. When they’d found out that the money wasn’t in the church, the next logical option was the cottage, and they’d gone there without realizing that the cash was safe and sound in Erundina’s tomb.
“They seemed really angry, and they said they were going to do something nasty to you when they got back,” Diego added. “So I guessed you’d be here, and I came running.”
“Don’t listen to what people say, Diego.” Roberto gave him a kindly look. “You’re a very clever lad. But right now, we have to get out of here, before they come back.”
“That could be a problem.” The boy furrowed his brow, as if trying to solve a complicated algebra problem. “You don’t fit but I do.”
Roberto was baffled by this, but his mind was already on other things. The cottage was about half an hour’s walk away. The lighthouse keepers could appear at any moment, and he wanted to be long gone when they did, but first he had a radio call to make.
With Diego following close behind, he ran down the hallway toward the library. But there, another surprise awaited him.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” he said. “Is nothing going to go right?”
The transmitter was sitting there, its insides on display. Somebody had removed the cover, and all the electronic parts were arranged neatly around it. He picked up a circuit board and stared at it despondently.
He didn’t have a clue how to put the device back together, and as if that weren’t enough, they were running out of time.
“We have to get out of here, Diego.”
They made their way to the front door, but it was locked tight.
“Diego,” he said, turning to the boy, “how did you get in?”
The boy looked up and smiled at him. “Through one of the windows above.”
“What do you mean, ‘above’? This place only has one floor!”
“No.” The boy shook his head. “Above. On the lighthouse.”
Roberto stared at him in disbelief. He remembered the tiny windows that lit the spiral staircase leading up to the lamp. They must be at least fifty feet off the ground.
“Show me,” he said.
