Clint Faraday Collection C: Murder in Motion Collector's Edition (22 page)

“
Be most
careful, my friend. Do not underestimate him as he will undoubtably
do about you.”

“
I’ll
certainly remember that!”

They chatted a minute more, then Clint headed
for his house. The car that Itumi was using was sitting at the
gate. That was unexpected. Clint thought they’d wait until he was
alone after dark or something. He strolled unconcernedly to his
gate and looked into the car. They had Judi.

“
So?
What’s the horseshit deal supposed to be, pukeface?” he asked.
“Holding Judi is about as stupid as I thought you were from the
first.”

“
I want
to know a few little things about a woman named Shannon Elizabeth
O’Brien,” Mikim said from the back seat. “Your Miss Lum will not be
harmed in any way, should you wisely choose to
cooperate.”

Judi grinned. “Isn’t it exciting? I get
kidnapped again! I’m going to have to start charging you piecemeal
if this crap doesn’t stop. It could get boring.”

“
Well, I
suppose they have to try
something
,” Clint replied. “If they’d checked around they could see
how far this will get them.

“
Oh! Did
Marko return my call? I’ve been so busy I forgot to turn the phone
on.”

“
Marko?
No.” She looked at him quizzically. “Why would he call?”

“
Oh, he’s
living not too far from Ali Baba, here. I think he’ll be amused by
the abject stupidity of messing with his friends.”

“
Who is
this Marko?” Mikim demanded. “Itumi said you were friends with such
a person and that might cause serious problems for us.”

“
Marko
Bocinni? He’s a friend from the states,” Judi said. “He’s living in
the Mediterranean on an island somewhere ... Oh! You’re from that
part of the world, right?”

The three chattered wildly at each other in
Aramaic or something. Yusef trying to explain something to Mikim,
who was trying to get some answers from Itumi, who was arguing with
Yusef. It was almost – well, it was comical.

“
Oh,
well. Come on inside, Judi. I’ve got some lobster chowder in the
‘fridge and we can throw a salad together. I’d invite the rest of
you, but you aren’t the kind of people who would ever be welcomed
into my home.”

Judi grinned and opened the door. She got out
and said, “Thank you for your hospitality. I hope I can return it
in kind some day – if I ever decide to frequent the gutter.”

Mikim looked like he could bite through a
steel bar. Yusef didn’t know what to do. Itumi threw his arms up
and said something nasty. The driver started the car and it drove
off. Judi and Clint had a giggling fit. They went inside and had
lobster chowder and a lettuce, pineapple and pear salad.

Too
Far!

It was still not quite coming together. Clint
had a large collection of facts that seemed to follow a pattern and
time-line, but something was missing. It didn’t seem logical Nikolo
and company would choose this kind of situation to pull this kind
of deal on. There had to be more. A lot more. There must be
something in the stuff in Gordo’s house that would cause Mikim
problems serious enough that he was here in person. He wasn’t the
type to handle anything himself. He would hire anything he wanted
less seriously. His attitude was, like Sergio suggested, that he
could buy his way into or out of anything. He’d already had a shock
or two about how far that would go with some of the people
here!

Clint looked over to see Dave and Ben on
Judi’s deck with her. He waved and they waved back. Dave held up a
plant with a flower that, as much as Clint could see from the
distance, was a dark violet color, unusual in orchids. Dave pointed
to Clint’s left. He had one blooming right there on his deck. It
had opened this morning, apparently. He waved and got his camera
for a picture. It was different.

He then went into town to talk with Sergio.
King, as Nikolo had labeled him, Ali the Less Than Magnificent and
friends were staying at the Tropical Suites and making pains in the
asses of themselves. True to form. Only Itumi seemed embarrassed by
them. Yusef didn’t seem to be able to understand that he couldn’t
give orders to people here.

Clint went on the half block to the police
station and saw Doc, the ME for the island, was in Sergio’s office.
It was a bit tense. Clint asked why.

“
There
was a knife fight or something out near the bombas at Saigon, past
your place. Two men are dead. No one can tell why they would be
involved in anything like that. They’re all very peaceful people.
Pacho Roberto and Orlando Smith.”

“
They’re
friends!” Clint exclaimed. “They’re not violent in any way. They
get drunk and fight each other, but that’s just for fun. The macho
thing.”

“
Exactly,” Doc replied. “I knew them both well. We had a
beer or two together sometimes. The Indigenos here are
not
violent and would
not
be involved in any knife
fights.”

“
What’s
the ... how do you figure?” Clint asked.

“
That
sheik or king or whatever the hell was out there earlier,” Sergio
answered sourly. “His buddy, the Yusef character, got into a
shoving match with several of the Indios, Pacho and Lando among
them. The witnesses say it was because they wouldn’t get out of the
way where king shithead wanted to go.”

“
Check on
the others involved in the shoving!” Clint cried.

“
They
weren’t from this island. They were from Solarte so they weren’t
around last night or this morning,” Sergio said. “We can’t find any
way to prove anything! I want those people out of here!”

“
I think
you have evidence enough to put the bunch of them in a cell for
awhile – while you can get them deported as undesirables,” Clint
suggested. Doc agreed wholeheartedly.

“
I’d
better take an army with me,” Sergio said. “It could turn into a
little war.”

“
That’s
their own choice!” Doc snarled. “Do they have diplomatic immunity?
He
is
a king.”

Sergio checked the passport records where he
noted the visas. “No immunity. They came on business visas.”

“
Stupid!”
Clint said. Doc high-fived him.

“
Want to
come along?” Sergio asked.

“
Wouldn’t
miss it!” Clint returned.

There were four officers in the station.
Sergio called for six more to come in, armed them all with
automatic weapons, then they walked over to the Tropical Suites.
Mikim and company were not there at the moment. The employees of
the hotel said they would assist the police in any way to get rid
of those slimeball bastard hijos de putas.

They checked around to find the bunch were at
the airport. The police squad got in the truck and headed for
there. They arrived just as the jet was taxiing down the runway for
take-off. Sergio had the flight control officer demand they return
to the terminal. They took off hurriedly – except Itumi and three
others, who were trying to be inconspicuous. Clint pointed them out
and Sergio had them arrested on the spot and taken to the station.
They were thinking of resisting, but that would have been suicide
and they knew it.

They were being taken to cells when Itumi
demanded to know what charges they were being held on.

“
Suspicion,” Sergio said.

“
Of
what?” he demanded.

“
Being
low-life trash. I don’t need anything more than the fact that every
damned one of you were carrying unpermitted weapons. If any of
those knives have blood from Orlando or Pacho you will be charged
with murder as a group and will spend twenty years in carcel. I
hope to have that evidence before King Fuckhead manages to leave.
He and the pleasant and accommodating Yusef can join
you.”

“
He’s a
king! You can’t put him in any jail! We know that much!” one of the
hoods cried.

“
He’s
here on business visa. We can and will put his obnoxious ass in a
cell!” Clint said. “Let’s see him try to order that bunch at the
prison in Panamá City around. That should be a real
hoot.”

“
He’ll
buy his way around them,” Itumi said confidently.

“
The
wardens? Probably. The other inmates? With his stupid attitude?
Gimme a break! He won’t live a day!” Clint replied. “I don’t think
any of you will last very long. Don’t start any long
novels.”

They were led out and to the cells. Doc came
rushing in and Sergio handed him the knives and guns in their
plastic sealed containers.

“
One drop
of blood, O-positive!” Sergio said.

“
One ADN
chain,” Doc replied and rushed out. That he came for the evidence
personally said a lot about how he felt about this
bunch.

Clint talked a bit and went home as soon as
they received word that the jet was in Panamá City and was being
held. Mikim was making all sorts of demands and giving everyone
around him orders. They had to have four large officers carry him
bodily to a cell. He was screaming like a spoiled four-year-old.
Clint shook his head and grinned. Mikim was about to learn exactly
how far his royalty went in Panamá.

Clint thought about this all the way to his
place. Something was a long way out of kilter with this whole
idiotic thing. It was an almost logical progression, but there was
a feeling that something much more sinister was behind it. There
was something in that stuff that would ... what? What was Mikim so
scared of?

Clint didn’t want to have an armed squad go
into Gordo’s house just yet, but he didn’t see any other way to
handle it. He called Manny and asked if there was someone he could
use here to get that safe box.

“
Don’t go
off half-cocked!” Manny said. “What are you looking
for?”

“
I don’t
know. There has to be something there that King Fartface doesn’t
dare let get out!”

“
That you
wouldn’t recognize if it was on the table right in front of you
now?”

“
I don’t
know what to do, Manny!”

“
Maybe
you should study about the history of Mikim and Nikolo? Find out
where their paths crossed? Find the real story behind this crap act
they’re pulling? I’ve had some checks made on Mikim. He’s got a
little sheikdom on a Mediterranean island and has declared himself
king through right of progression. His father and grandfather were
sheiks and owned the island. It’s about six miles by eight. There’s
an oil transfer on one end. It’s deep enough that the big tankers
can go in close. That’s what gave him the idea. His father and
uncles built the transfer and it’s making about two million a day
for him. I can send you the whole thing. It’s a lot of boring
reading.”

They agreed to that. Maybe Clint could find a
reason for what was happening now in the past. He left the computer
on the scrambled receive program with Manny and went calling on the
families of Pacho and Orlando. He promised them he would see the
ones behind the murders caught and prosecuted. He had one idea
about that now. It was based on the fact Mikim thought he could buy
his way out of anything.

He would wait a few days. That would soften
Mikim up about right. Clint didn’t doubt Doc would find some blood
on one of those knives. It was as much as impossible to get all of
it out of an iron-based metal. All they needed was one DNA chain
and it was a solid conviction. Seeing it was done under orders by
paid assassins they were all equally guilty here in one section of
the law.

He got home to find 123MB of information
waiting for him. He groaned and brought up the file. It wasn’t as
bad as he’d thought. There were a lot of pictures, which increased
the MBs tremendously. One high-resolution picture was as much as a
hundred pages of print.

Pictures? Maybe a picture of something in
that safe box? He brought them up. There were pictures of all the
royal jewels with numbers. He decided to read as much as he could
about the history, then would go to the pictures when he knew what
– if anything – they meant.

The only connection he could find was that
the jewels were the basis of the progression of the sheik or king.
The one possessing the jewels passed them on to the next ruler when
he died. It wasn’t necessary that the one getting the rule was the
eldest son, as in most cases of that kind of progression in that
area. Clint had read about the progression, but hadn’t noted much
about it at the time. He went back and checked. Mikim’s father was
the second son of the former sheik, not the first. Mikim’s uncle
had died only weeks after the progression, having been in poor
health at the time of the progression – which was two months after
the old sheik died. The old sheik died of some kind of suspicious
wasting. Many believed he was poisoned. The eldest son died in like
circumstances. Mikim’s father had the jewels because, according to
him, his father knew his brother would be unable to rule and that
the sheikdom was in trouble financially, but Mikim’s father had a
lot of personal money he invested in building the port facility. He
saved the whole mess. Mikim was always pampered and trained for
rule. He was a despot the people despised, but couldn’t do anything
about. All three of his wives had escaped to England and Australia
to get away from him with their children. He had a son and daughter
by one and a daughter by another. The third didn’t have any
surviving children. She had a daughter who died at birth.