"We call the authorities, and we find Michael!" Rollie told her, still in shock at the situation, "I have to wonder if he did this or if someone else did it to frame him. I don't know what the truth is here and what isn't!" Rollie sat back on his haunches and tried to think.

"If this woman was trying to be Lucinda, then- where is Luce?" Angie asked, her main concern for their friend.

"Can you remember when Luce became different, acting any differently?" Rollie asked her, thinking back to the fall in the tomb.

"She seemed the same Luce until, well- when she was eating dinner last night in the Nicoya Restaurante. She was with Roddy Demhurst and they were laughing and all. Remember, we went to see Michael then. And of course, this morning during her love scene and then, the trailer with Roddy. That certainly wasn't Luce, was it?" Angie asked, rubbing her head, frowning.

"I'm calling now, and then we should start checking some things out, like where the hell Michael is and then, I am very curious about Roddy Demhurst and what the deal was with him and this Lucinda!"

Rollie was on the phone, holding his sleeve over the phone to prevent any fingerprints from being covered, and called the front desk of the lodge to get the authorities to Richard Conte's room. They waited until the policia arrived. Angie did a lot of the talking to the police in Spanish. She told them that their friend and her husband were going to meet them and when they did not show up, they went to the room and found the dead woman lying inside. Rollie showed them the mask, and they were totally confused and ready to haul Rollie and Angie away when Michael Sanchez walked in, speaking with the chief investigator. They released Rollie and Angie who stood there silently, upset but not about to say another word as the police did some very limited crime scene work and hauled the body away. They left the bloodied mask on the floor in a very strange, poorly conducted investigation.

When the last investigator had walked out the door, Michael looked around the room surveying the site. "What a mess!" he said, solemnly

"What the hell is going on?" Angie said, her voice raised, as she looked him square in the eye. Rollie joined her in his frustration and annoyance, picking up the mask of a saggy Lucinda face, still dripping with blood.

"Where is the real Luce, Michael? I am so sick of your lies!" Rollie said, and grabbed Michael by the jacket, pushing him up against the wall.

"I don't know! I am in the dark on that as well. I only know that when the woman that was posing as Lucinda came back from dinner last night, I knew it wasn't Lucinda Scott." Michael pushed Rollie away angrily, opening his jacket to show him his concealed weapon under his left arm, "Don't push me Rollie, just keep back, okay?"

Rollie's anger was at its peak, and now to be threatened by Michael with his gun, acting like the super spy! It only made him act rashly as Angie looked on in fear and surprise.

"You arrogant ass-hole!" Rollie muttered and punched Michael hard with his fist just left of his nose, opening the healing cuts on that side of his face.

Michael reciprocated, and the two began a raging fight in earnest, as Angie moved out of the way, creeping up against the wall near the door. "Stop it!" she was crying out to no avail. Both were beyond the point of civil control.

"Oh- hey!" shouted a familiar voice at the broken door as the fight moved across the room, Rollie going down in the floor, breaking the coffee table and moaning in pain. He swiped Michael's foot, sending the tall, operative to the floor himself and they all turned around, bloodied and stunned to see who had just whistled like a native New Yorker hailing a cab.

Angie hugged the dirty, grimy woman at the door. She smelled perfectly horrible. But the genuine hug and smile on her face was real. The king-size knot on her forehead was also the real McCoy as well. That was what Angie remembered suddenly from the dinner the night before; how the Lucinda with Roddy, eating dinner had yelled across the room and pointed out how her goose egg was almost gone…and did the profile shot at them.

"Oh Luce! What happened? Where have you been?" Angie cried out, still holding her and hugging her.

Michael got up, his expression one of shock, as Rollie rose slowly, smiling, the fight suddenly forgotten.

"Where have I been? Yes, just where have I been? I guess I should start by asking who this man is here? She was looking at Michael intently and continued, "the man I thought was my husband, Ricardo Conte!"

Michael looked at her, wiping the blood from his mouth and exhaled deeply. Lucinda pulled away from Angie then, walking over to him with her mouth set in a determined clench. She looked at him, trembling slightly and then smacked him hard across his already bloodied cheek. He stood there, looking at her without any remorse, silent.

"You have the nerve not to answer me? Well, maybe I should just ask Rollie Tyler then," she said, stepping away from him, and going over to where Rollie stood, looking confused and shaken. Lucinda looked him straight in the eyes, then began to cry, her composure almost gone as she stammered out; "from that man, I can just wonder why? But from you? I can't forgive you! You should have told me!" she cried out, her face crumpling into an expression of bitter shame. She smacked him as well across the face as his eyes watered from his guilt.

Angie lowered her head, "Luce, you might as well know, I knew as well," she said softly, and walked over to her, already crying.

"Oh Angie! You too? After what Victor Loubar did to you! How could you?" Lucinda asked, her humiliation complete.

"Angie wanted to say something as soon as she saw Ricardo, er- Michael," Rollie said, interrupting them, "I'll take another slap for that, okay?"

Lucinda put her hands over her face, the dirt covering them still caked in her nails, "Oh God! Why me? All I ever wanted was a starring part and a husband that loved me like you guys!"

Angie couldn't stand still, she came over to Lucinda and held her, keeping Rollie at bay. His natural instinct was to hug Luce as well but Angie knew that no man could comfort her right now.

She looked at both Michael and Rollie over Lucinda's heaving shoulders with the eyes of a woman who knew what betrayal was and that they would never understand.

Michael was blunt then, standing closer to the two women and directing his comments to Lucinda; "You have to tell me who took you and how you got away?"

"Are you insane?" Angie asked, her face reddening as Lucinda looked up at the deceitful man and swallowed hard. The shock that he did not have an Costa Rican accent and was not really the man she married were minor factors now, she told herself. Somehow, she could get through all of this.

"Angie, it's okay- just tell me, who the hell you are? Really?" she asked him, pulling away from Angie and folding her trembling arms against her chest.

"Does it matter?" he replied as Rollie went and sat on the bed. His face was stinging from Lucinda's blow and his body was aching disparately from his futile fighting with Michael.

Angie went over to him, touching his face softly as they both looked over to the two intimate strangers standing before each other.

"Yes, it matters," she replied, firmly, her tears drying as she waited.

"Michael- Michael Lopez," he told her, sighing.

"Uh Michael, that's Sanchez, Michael Sanchez-" Rollie corrected so that Lucinda would hear the real truth. Michael looked at him, shaking his head.

"Sanchez? Not Michael Sanchez- Mira's husband?" she exclaimed, her eyes widening and mouth agape.

"Ex-husband, and yes- one and the same," he replied.

"You! Now I remember- without the moustache and the glasses, now I remember why you were so familiar to me! You were at the wedding! You were up there dragging those men away that were at Dingo Tyler's wedding! I can't believe how stupid I was!" Lucinda recalled, shaking her head,"why did you do this to me? What did I ever do to you?" she asked, her hands out openly begging him for an answer.

"You didn't do anything to me. I remembered what Rollie had told me about you, saw you at the wedding and knew you could be used to get me here into Costa Rica. I needed a cover- you were it. I could come in as your husband, under the guise of your getting this film."

"Why did you need me for cover, why not just come in and get what you needed?" she asked.

"I am on a political target list in this country as Michael Sanchez. I would not have been allowed into this country, and I needed a cover so that I could freely move around in order to meet my contact."

"Oh, a contact! Spy stuff- whew! Big man!" she said, disdainfully as she rolled her eyes and sat down beside Angie and Rollie on the bed.

"Now I am starting to piece what happened to me together!" she added, closing her eyes for a moment.

"Exactly, tell me what happened to you?" he asked, still probing her, his voice eager.

"That's what all you people want to know, and here I thought that little relic that I held two nights ago was going to bring me something exciting. Well, exciting it was not! Anyone could have gotten it from that tomb- just like I did when I fell. It was sitting there in the skeleton's hands. I just pulled it out and thought, hey, what a nice thing to have. I mean, here I am, off after the shooting yesterday and I go into my trailer and someone chloroforms me. I wake up. I am somewhere in the dark, the smell very familiar…back in that damn tomb! But what's really interesting is, that there is this major tunnel connected to it and they take me to this little room with all kinds of stuff. Relics were piled up to the ceiling in there."

"What did they ask you?" Michael demanded, curtly.

Lucinda was taken back by his tone, her hurt of being deceived by him and sharing such intimate thoughts and acts with him was starting to resound in her mind. The fact that she had narrowly escaped, and climbed her way out was nothing in comparison to this.

"They asked me who sent you," she said, looking at Michael, "I said that no one sent you and that's when they told me, that I had been duped and you were some sort of spy, sent to halt their operation," she replied, just as curt, "then- they were jumping on me as to where the relic from the king's tomb was now" she paused, taking a breath, "naturally, I told them, fearing for my life. I told them I had put it in my makeup case in my room. Then I saw someone I couldn't believe would have even been there!"

Everyone in the room asked "who?" at the same time as Lucinda jumped slightly at their agitated state.

"Roddy Demhurst! I mean, I had not even met him in person yet on the set, and here he was, acting really upset and kept talking about his uncle, some guy named Toya. He was pacing back and forth and just when I thought it was goners for me, a woman comes in and takes my picture from all different angles. She was a very unpleasant person," Lucinda explained, miffed.

Michael looked at her, silent. He did not look shocked or surprised now. He just looked like he had been robbed of the ultimate prize.

"Anyway, I overheard one of them later say that the woman would be ready very shortly and what were they to do with me?…I didn't stay around to find out. I had been wiggling around in the chair that they tied me in and managed to free myself easily enough. You know that trick you taught me Rollie, tense up as much as you can, so you can relax and let the slack work for you…it actually worked! Once the tunnel was clear, I ran down the tunnels! I felt like a rat in a maze!"

Her grimy, dirty face told them she had a significant adventure down in the catacombs of the Tomb City beneath the ruins. Angie got up and poured her a drink from the wet bar in the room as Lucinda smiled then, taking a big gulp and making a face, "my God, Angie- straight gin, awh!"

"Sorry," Angie said, apologizing. She had not looked at the bottle in her haste and had just poured the first bottle she had seen.

"Well, I'm warm anyway now, thanks…" Lucinda replied, a small smile appearing on her cracked lips as she licked them painfully.

"I got out, directly in the same tomb I had fallen into when that Indian guide had pushed me from before. Except this time, I guess the archeologists that had working there that day had left a rope ladder that I was able to reach. I got out of there and found my way back. Now! What the hell is going on, Michael Sanchez, Lopez, dear, wonderful husband, Ricardo!"

She rolled the "R" of Ricardo sarcastically in Latin emphasis as he pulled over a chair, sat down with the back of the chair facing him and leaned over it, looking at her, his face a roadmap of trauma and urgency.

"Toya is the buyer from Miami that we have been looking at for some time, he is the kingpin that has been dealing arms and drugs. We knew that Roddy Demhurst was his nephew and had been watching his sudden rise in the movie industry with some trepidation due to his connections. Apparently, Roddy is still doing some of his Uncle's minor operations besides film work. We imagined that is how Roddy got this part, the starring lead in this film. We had made sure that Lucinda would get the female lead so that I could be in place."

Lucinda's hurt was complete. Even her starring role had been fixed. She had not obtained this role on her own merit. She took another shot of the straight gin, throwing her head back as Rollie watched her silently. He knew her, he knew that she was throwing this back in her subconscious just like she had handled Rick's death. Never let them know how much you hurt, he thought as he looked back at her and then to Angie. Her mostly stoic resolve after Loubar had shocked him, her strength and being able to love him in the aftermath almost a shock to him as well.

"Well, I don't know what you call minor operations, super spy!" Lucinda blurted out, referring to his comment about Roddy and his uncle's operations, "but, I would call thousands and thousands of bags of cocaine, you know- the pure stuff being put in those silly relics a big deal!"

Michael's face hardened. Lucinda's comment had hit the mother lode in his mind as he stood up, rolling his eyes back in his head, "Great! They are running the drugs from there as well. I knew it was more than the relics. They were a great cover, antiquities trading on the black market and drug running as a second operation."

"Yeah, well the so-called relics in that room look like they were made in Japan! They were certainly not ancient. I saw the people stuffing the bags inside of the hollow centers on the big stuff, the jars and pottery pieces. Some were dropped. Some were still drying, " Lucinda remarked.

"Yes, but the real relics are also being mixed into them as well. Smuggling the relics in clay pots too. We had picked that up with the Customs Service already when they tried going from Canada into the U.S. at Niagara Falls. We got over 200 pieces of antiquities stolen from tombs and ruins in Costa Rica alone. Two of Toya's men, Castro Vargas and Alfredo Castillo were apprehended during that operation. So now, he's using sweet, adorable, teen-idol Roddy Demhurst to smuggle the relics out!"

"I don't understand? What was the woman after here, she posed as Lucinda obviously to get what, the relic that Luce found?" Angie asked, as Rollie also piped up:

"And who the bloody hell, killed her? It was quick, right before we came in!" he remarked, looking very suspiciously at Michael.

"It wasn't me…" Michael told him, with resolve. I had the pleasure of entertaining her last night, seeing her search through Lucinda's stuff for the relic. I knew Lucinda had something from the tomb because of the archeological team's alert yesterday morning that the Avatar protecting the demonic King Bolsaque from escaping had been taken. All the Indians, the native Corcovados have been up in arms and making sacrifices to the Gods, because of the release of the demon."

"What?" Lucinda looked at him, lowering her glass after finishing it completely and her voice slightly slurred, "you mean I released a demon?"

"It's a myth, and I have a suspicion you were suppose to take it so there would be a little uprising and all the fuss taken away from the operation going on below the ruins. I knew that the woman who came back from dinner last night wasn't Lucinda when I confronted her about what she was looking for and showed her that I had the Avatar. I showed it to her and she immediately told me that it would make me rich, both of us rich. That was when I knew it wasn't really you," he told her, suddenly smiling which was extremely rare for him.

"Well," Lucinda replied, unabashed, "I didn't know what I had, for sure. I just liked it because it was pretty. I would have never known how much it cost or anything…"

"Exactly," he replied as Angie and Rollie watched the two of them, seeing that there was some chemistry there, some feelings between them.

"So, she was going to smuggle it out using you as her cover," Rollie deduced, looking at Michael.

"I thought so," he replied, "that's what I suspected. But she was definitely after something more. I figured it out this morning after seeing the way she latched on to Roddy. She was muling for them and then, I guess decided to turn sides. Roddy would be a good prize, granted."

"This is way too over me," Lucinda remarked, her eyes fluttering as Angie let her rest her head on her shoulder. She was definitely relaxed now.

"Michael, where's Roddy right now?" Rollie asked, his mind racing.

"I imagine he is packing up and moving out," Michael grinned.

"You think Roddy Demhurst killed that woman?" Angie asked, incredulously, "he doesn't have that many brain cells to think this all up."

"Think about it Ange, he has been working for his uncle Toya, he has been working in 'distribution' sorta speak and ready to frame Michael, his Uncle's enemy who has been stalking the operations for some time. Seems very reasonable to me!" Rollie told her, looking at Michael.

"Okay, one thing," Angie asked them both, as she laid Lucinda's sagging body down on the bed, gently, "where's the Avatar, Michael?"

He looked at them both, raised his eyebrows slightly and went over to the window overlooking the basin below. He leaned out, reaching up over the top of the window, touching something above and pulled it in. It was the Avatar, the winged creature in gold that Lucinda had brought back from the tomb. He had pushed it into a crack between two logs above the window from the outside.

"I'm afraid, after the new Lucinda went off to work this morning and I saw how she was working with Roddy, I came back here and took the relic and hid it, suspecting anyone and everyone."

"But Roddy was down at the trailer, it couldn't have been him, I saw him go into his own trailer afterwards. We came straight here. You were the only person that went back to this room. That woman posing as Lucinda, came after you," Angie suddenly said, frowning.

Michael looked at them both and the passed out real Lucinda on the bed. He held the Avatar in his hands and stared down at it, stroking the image, "You gotta admit, it's a prize to be had. This thing is worth millions of dollars. It could set someone up for life."

Rollie and Angie looked at each other, Angie wishing she had never said anything now as she saw Michael reach for his gun inside his holster under his arm. There was a startled cry and then the spray of automatic gunfire in the room.