Lost in Translation

...and we're back to old-school again. Thanks for humouring me.


Mattie's face was as white as a sheet as she accepted the steaming cup of tea from the police officer with shaking hands.

"Thanks," she murmured, before taking a sip. It was too hot and scorched her tongue, but helped her back to the present.

"How are you feeling?" the police officer asked, kindly.

Mattie took another sip before answering. "A bit better, thank you," she replied. "It was just a bit of a shock."

River sat down next to her. "Of course it was," she said soothingly. "I know it's difficult for you, but we're going to have to ask you some questions about what happened."

Mattie had been expecting this. "I never even knew the man," she replied hastily. "I'd never seen him before! I didn't hurt him!"

"We know you didn't." River patted her arm. "We just need to know as much as possible so we can find the people who did."

"Well..." Mattie drank some more tea. "I don't know much. I was just passing when I heard a scream and a thud. I pushed the door - it was open - and saw him lying there on the floor, his head... all bloody."

She hurriedly drained her mug. "He was still alive, so I quickly called for an ambulance, but it was too late. He just turned over and said something, and then stretched out his hand to me and tapped the floor, and then collapsed. He didn't move after that."

"What did he say?"

"I don't know... I couldn't hear. I think I heard something about a key, but I'm not sure."

"Would you excuse me for a moment?" River asked, taking Mattie's tea from her. Behind her, an argument had broken out between the pathologist and her partner, Carlton.

"You mean, I came down here for nothing?" he was saying furiously.

"Not nothing," Sarah was pleading, but he was having none of it.

"The hell," he cursed, and turned away.

River's curious tilt of her head was more than a question, to which Sarah replied. "I can't find any reason to suspect foul play. The mat at the top of the stairs was loose, he appears to have tripped over it."

"Not pushed?"

"Not if your little witness over there is telling the truth. There would have been no time for any murderer to get away."

"Then what am I even doing here?" asked Carlton tersely.

"Because of who he was, not what happened to him," replied Sarah. She dug into the man's pockets and pulled out a driving license and handed it to him.

"Jose Huertas," he read, in a bad Spanish accent. "Never heard of him."

"AKA Jon Lopez."

"Lopez?" he shot back. "The Jon Lopez? As in, the jewel thief? Never caught?"

"Uh-huh," smiled Sarah. "I've just been speaking to his brother, Diego, over there. He claims that his brother had had a change of heart after his mother recovered from a bad illness last year, and wanted to make amends. He was about to turn himself in when -"

But she was talking to thin air. Carlton himself had vanished, and was talking to Diego.

Attempting to, would have perhaps been a better term, for Diego's English was limited and Carlton's Spanish was worse.

"Your brother - hermano - he was going to go to the police?" he was asking.

"I think - I not quite understand - yes, he find police?" Carlton sighed in exasperation, wondering how he could ever get this line of questioning finished.

Suddenly, his second attempt was interrupted by a flow of fluent Spanish over his right shoulder. He turned to see River, rapidly translating his question for him. Diego's eyes lit up, and he responded in the same tongue. River asked another question - shorter, this time - and was responded with a single, despondent word.

"Translation?" asked Carlton, with a scowl. He hated feeling inferior.

"Diego says his brother was planning to go to the police with everything he stole when he tripped down the stairs, but he doesn't know where his treasure was hidden."

"And how -"

"Four months in Seville on my gap year," replied River, with a smile.

"And how does this help us in any way, shape or form?"

"It means," replied River, "That this time I can tell you where the treasure was hidden."

Answer (highlight to read): The clue is in Lopez's dying words. He did not say "a key", he said "aqui", the Spanish for "here". He tapped the floor, buried under which was his stack of treasure.