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He steps back. "I'll leave you to it. Let me know if I can help."
"You don't need to stand back and wait. We should work on this together."
Errol grabs the laptop and moves to stand alongside me, though he doesn't caress my back this time. Now we need to figure out this mystery. Errol brings up the images of the Ellsworth map and sets the computer on the desktop beside the topographic map.
"Can you show me the legend and the invisible ink drawing side by side?" I ask.
"Of course." Errol does what I asked. "There. Is that good enough? I can get out the projector that's in the file room. It's behind the door in the far corner."
"No, this is great. I can see everything. Besides, you can rotate the invisible map or zoom in for me if necessary."
"I am your servant,gràidh."
While Errol waits patiently beside me, peering down at the map but saying nothing, I search for points on the topographic rendering that match the Ellsworth map and its legend. This is much more complicated than I'd expected. The two drawings have different layouts, and the topographic one doesn't have a legend. We can figure this out, I know we can.
"In thePhoenix Gazettearticle, Kincaid describes his route through the Grand Canyon," I say. "He claims he started at El Tovar Crystal Canyon, but I've never had any luck finding those locations. Not on a traditional map, anyway."
"Maybe they don't exist, not the way Kincaid supposedly described them." Errol gets his phone and flicks his finger multiples times as if he's searching for something. "Ah! Here it is. There is a Crystal Creek in Grand Canyon National Park. And there's an El Tovar Hotel in the Grand Canyon Village, located along the South Rim."
"How far is it from El Tovar to Crystal Creek?"
"About twenty-two miles."
I rest one hand on the table beside the map. "That's about half as long as the journey Kincaid claimed he took. He said the cavern was forty-two miles from El Tovar Crystal Canyon. But those are two different places, separated by twenty-two miles."
"Since Kincaid seems to have conflated El Tovar and Crystal Creek, maybe we need to look twenty miles past Crystal Creek."
"Okay." I lean over the map to find Crystal Creek, then I study the surrounding area. "Kincaid said the cavern was on the east wall. If we follow the creek for another twenty miles…" I let my head drop. "I don't see anything in that area that matches the description."
"Maybe we need to look east of El Tovar. You're assuming the endpoint is Crystal Creek, but it might be the opposite."
"Good idea." I trace Kincaid's path past El Tovar until I estimate I've tracked twenty more miles. "Let's take the cues from the legend and the invisible map and see what we can find in the area past El Tovar."
Errol and I both lean in to study the computer screen, our shoulders nudging each other. I glance at him just as he glances at me, and we both smile. Then we focus on the screen again.
"I don't think we need the legend anymore," I say. "Can you remove that so we can just see the map?"
"Of course." Errol taps a few keys, and now the map fills the screen. "You said you had an idea for the starting point."
"Yes. El Tovar or Crystal Creek. Now I think you're right, and Kincaid's journey probably started twenty miles before El Tovar, then continued past it to Crystal Creek, for a total of about forty-two miles."
Errol uses his finger on the touch screen to rotate the map, glancing at the topographic version now and then as if he's trying to align the Ellsworth map to the Grand Canyon version. Finally, he stops messing with the screen. "This looks like the best alignment. Your starting point, the path that goes through El Tovar, fits with the way I've rotated the map."
"Yeah, it does. That's perfect, Errol." I slant closer to the screen and scrutinize every line, squiggle, L-shape, arching figure, and shaded area. Then I groan and sag my shoulders. "We need to be there, in the Grand Canyon, to see anything useful."
"Aye. That was always the plan, wasn't it?"
"Yes. But I'd hoped we would be able to pinpoint the location before we went there."
Errol lays a hand on my upper back, rubbing in slow circles. "Relax, Ashley. We'll get better clues once we're in the canyon. I've gone on more treasure hunts than you can imagine, and I've never found a hoard strictly with computers. The human eye is still the best tool."
"Yeah, I know you're right. The topographic map did help, though."
"Aye, ye found the starting point." He kisses my cheek. "You are the cleverest lass I've ever met. Cleverest person, full stop."
"I'm not as smart as you."
"Rubbish. We're equally clever." He claps the computer's lid shut. "Now, let's get moving on our expedition to the Grand Canyon. We'll travel in style—on a Gulfstream jet loaned to us by my cousin Evan."
