“Did you bring anyone down with you to do the survey?”

“My production assistant and a lidar technician.”

“Your production assistant is Libby?”

“Yeah.”

“So she knew the coordinates at this point?”

“She did.”

“And this lidar technician, who was he?”

“We hired him from the same firm that we rented the lidar machine from.”

“Did he seem trustworthy?”

“Totally. Super-dorky tech guy.”

“What was his name?”

“Dave something-or-other.”

“And when did this all take place?”

He glanced up at the roof of the tent, then back down. “Second week of May.”

“Mid-May. So it’s you, Vern, Dave, and Libby—and you fly the lidar survey?”

“Libby wasn’t on the plane. There wasn’t enough room. She stayed in the hotel. But yeah—me, Dave, and Vern.”

I didn’t want to ask the next question, but I had to. “Did Vern know the coordinates of the jaguar?”

“Doubtful. He just knew the general area.”

“Okay, then the only people who knew the exact coordinates of the jaguar were you and Libby?”

“Yes.”

“Then you get back the lidar scans and see these different formations and realize there is a lost city down there?”

“Right.”

“How many people did you show the lidar scans to?”

He puffed out his cheeks. “A bunch of people. But I removed the coordinates. They were just the formations.”

“You’re positive no one could have figured out the coordinates from these pictures?”

“Yes, I’m positive.”

“What about the lidar machine? I assume this goes back to the company you rented it from. Were all your scans and coordinates saved on it, or did they get deleted?”

“The lidar device is wiped clean. No memory. The company signed a form to this effect. Dave too.”

“When did the other members of the expedition team get clued in? The TAFLS guys, Holland and Rix—when did you hire them?”

“I spoke to Holland the week after I returned from the lidar survey.”

“And you told him what?”

“I told him I was trying to put together an expedition to look for Paititi and asked if he could help. We had to do it before the rainy season—which is bullshit because it’s been raining like crazy this whole week—and he had a two-week opening in August.”

“Did you tell him the coordinates?”

“Not then. Only that it was northeastern Bolivia.”

“Okay, then you start recruiting your team?”

“Right. Over the course of June, I recruited Egyptian archaeologist Dr. Farah Karim; the head of Bolivian archaeology, Alejándro Cala; Bolivian anthropologist Bernita Capobianco; and Adrian Heliant, the professor I mentioned earlier, from the University of Chicago. In late July, Heliant came down with shingles. He recommended Andy Depree.”

“And the cameramen, when do they come aboard?”

“Sean and Darnell worked with me on my last two films. They signed on in early June. There’s a possibility they could have accessed the coordinates, but I doubt it.”