The following morning
"That darn Zorro managed to escape with the chest. He's got the gold now!" said Don Alfonso, fretting about the situation, wiping his sweaty forehead with his handkerchief. It was only early morning, but it was already quite hot in Los Angeles. "Where were you yesterday?"
Oliver looked at him with his unemotional face, inexpressive. "Away" he said, as if that was enough information.
"What are we going to do about it? He is already defending the Indians, like that blooming De la Vega. And he may even have seen the new deed from the alcalde, I don't know. Sure he must suspect something. I don't want to face him. Do something."
"Like what?"
"I don't know. You are usually quite good to use your imagination. My father trusted you so much."
"Yes, he did. That's why I told him the gossip about the Indian gold. Shame he passed away before he could see it." "If he had not opened his mouth just before he died, I would never have told you. Not in a million years", he thought.
"Kill him, if you can, before he finds out what we are up to."
"How? The alcalde has been trying for so long to get him. He has failed every time, including yesterday."
"I don't know how! As I said, use your imagination, for Christ sake! You always come up with something" shouted Don Alfonso, leaving the room slamming the door.
Right then, the only idea that came to Oliver's mind was to kill the annoying, demanding, overweight and sweaty don, and disappear with the rest of the gold.
ZZZ
The day before, Diego rested in the cool cave until the evening. Then, he came upstairs and went to bed complaining to his father about his dreadful headache. For the first time in his life, he didn't have to pretend he felt as if his forehead was constantly being hit by a mallet, because that was precisely the feeling he had. Felipe provided a generous amount of bark infusion, and in the end, Diego had managed to fall into a deep sleep, exhausted.
"You all right?"
Diego opened his eyes in the morning, blinking with the glare of light coming through the window, to find the worried face of Grasshopper looking down at him.
"Ah… Yes, I think so. I guess I needed to sleep," he said, sitting up. "A lot, by the looks of it. What time is it?" The little boy shrugged his shoulders.
"Morning. Sun is up."
Felipe entered Diego's room apologizing for the boy's intrusion. According to his signs, he had told the little boy to leave Diego alone. When he had finished his explanations, he also asked: "Are you all right?"
"Yes, Felipe, I am all right, don't worry" said Diego, getting out of bed slowly, like an old arthritic man would do. His whole body ached, specially the injured shoulder. "Kind of all right, at least. I am so stiff this morning."
"I know good herbs for pain. For muscles. Want me get some for you?" asked the little boy, eager to help.
"That's very kind of you, Grasshopper. Thank you very much" said Diego, stretching his back and shoulders carefully. "But don't wander out too far away from the hacienda. Your father should be back today." The boy smiled, nodding, and left the room nearly running.
"How's Toronado?" asked Diego. Felipe signed: "All right, but moody."
"Is he?" laughed Diego, standing up. "Let's have a look at him."
ZZZ
Oliver walked slowly across the plaza, looking at the trodden ground intently. It was difficult to read anything after so many people and horses had walked over it that morning, but he thought he could still identify the hoof prints of a horse running irregularly in circles. These prints, according to the description of the events the day before, should be Toronado's. He walked carefully in circles himself outside of the pueblo following all the paths until he found a similar set of prints, which belonged to a powerful horse with a long stride, which could be the black stallion. Those prints showed a certain asymmetry, suggesting the horse was lame, so he followed that trail out into the country side. Eventually, he found himself in the De la Vega's land, close to their hacienda, where the trail disappeared on a dead end.
Oliver dismounted and inspected the ground. The hoof prints walked to an earth wall, into the vegetation. There were lots of prints going in and out from there.
"Hello. What are you doing? Looking for herbs, like me?" said a child's sweet voice behind him. Oliver turned around to face a little Indian boy, who looked at him with a friendly frank smile.
"Yes. Yes, herbs. Some nice ones over there," he said in a friendly nice way, pointing to the concealed cave entrance. "And what are you doing here on your own?"
"Looking for herbs for Diego. He needs them today" said the little boy, approaching Oliver to look at the bushes close to the earth wall.
"Diego de la Vega? I know him. He is my friend. What's wrong with him?" Other than I shot him with an arrow last week, of course.
"He not well last night. Headache. Sleep all morning." He looked at the bushes quickly. He was disappointed, as nothing interesting grew in there. "You said good herbs here," he complained.
"I lied" said Oliver, showing a vicious smile and menacing tone. Panicking with fear, Grasshopper tried to run away from him, but Oliver tackled him down to the ground. On his belly, the Indian boy wriggled and struggled to escape from under his attacker, but Oliver mercilessly slammed the child's forehead to the ground, rendering him unconscious. He effortlessly lifted the little limp body onto his horse, and galloped away with him.
ZZZ
Toronado puffed and snorted bobbing his head, happy to see his master, who patted his muscular neck loudly a few times. Diego talked to the horse lovingly and reassuringly.
"Hello, boy. How are you? Giving Felipe some trouble? Let me have a look at your wounds." He checked the injured area in his chest, satisfied to see Felipe had done a superb job to clean the wounds, as usual. "You'll be back to normal in no time at all. Then you can kick the alcalde's arse. Would you like to do that, my friend?" The horse nodded vigorously, neighing. "Of course you would. I knew that. Next time, then" said Diego, laughing. He moved away from the horse and walked to his desk. "Where is the chest? Did you open it?" Felipe pointed at it, shaking his head.
"I didn't have enough time to find the key; the alcalde came back to his office so fast he surprised me. I hope it contains something to help me find out what's going on" said Diego, tampering with the chest's lock. "The document I got its really juicy: a deed for the Indian land of San Bernardino with the alcalde's name and signature on it. Obviously forged." He used a stiff thick wire, wriggling it inside the key hole until he managed to get it open. Diego smiled. "I never would have thought… gold! And what do we have here?" he said, grabbing a piece of paper from the bottom, under the gold pieces. It is some kind of an invoice: "In payment for your services," signed by Don Alfonso Lozano.
"What services?" signed Felipe.
"I don't know. But if that chubby Don is involved, that means that creepy companion of his, the one who seem to be best friends with the alcalde lately, is involved as well."
At that moment, the little bells that were part of a rudimentary alarm system started shaking, tinkling merrily above their heads. They were connected through thin threads to the entrance of the cave. When they rang like that, it meant someone was shaking the bushes covering the entrance, and there was a risk for it being discovered.
Diego and Felipe rushed to the entrance, but when they got there, they couldn't see anybody through the spy hole on the concealed door.
"It's all right. Maybe it was a wild animal rummaging on the bushes" said Diego. They came back to the main room in the cave. "So, Don Alfonso Lozano. What do we make of that?" wondered Diego.
ZZZ
"Look what I got" said Oliver on arrival at the Lozano Hacienda.
"An Indian boy! What are you going to do with him?" asked Don Alfonso.
"I don't know yet, but sure I can think of something" said Oliver, unceremoniously dropping the still unconscious boy on the floor.
"Where did you find him? I thought all the Indians were back at the San Gabriel Mission."
"Yes, they are. This stray one was looking for herbs near the Hacienda de la Vega, for Diego, who apparently suffered a bad headache last night and is not feeling well this morning."
"So?"
"Wait for it. I came to the plaza to search for Zorro's black stallion's hoof prints. I found some, and followed a trail that took me close to the hacienda de la Vega, where they disappeared."
"And?" asked Don Alfonso, not connecting the dots. Oliver puffed in frustration. "Do I have to think for you, as well?"
"And… I think Diego de la Vega may be Zorro."
"What? That pompous nerd? Don't be ridiculous. If you'd said his father is Zorro, even at his age, I still could have believed it, but… Diego? No way. He is such a wimp," dismissed Don Alfonso, shaking his head.
"Precisely. He may be faking it. For a wimp, he moved pretty fast when I shot his father, to push him out of the way. I wasn't there yesterday, but please, think about it. Did Zorro show any signs of being in pain? Like in his shoulder, maybe?" The portly don stopped to think for a moment, biting his fingernail.
"Now that you say so, he didn't look his usual agile self. He was quite slow, and… Oh, yes. He was holding the chest in an awkward way, as if it was too heavy."
"What else? Think!" demanded Oliver.
"When he was on the ground, after the horse was shot down, he didn't stand up from a sitting position using his arms… Yes, I thought that was odd. He got on his knees first, like an old man would do."
"See? I told you. He must be Zorro. He can't use his left arm so well now," said Oliver, with a sinister delighted smile.
"What do we do now? Go to the pueblo, and tell the alcalde?" asked Don Alfonso, excited.
"Yes."
"What about the boy?"
"We'll take him with us. Diego will try to find him; we can use him as bait."
ZZZZZ