Clint Faraday Collection C: Murder in Motion Collector's Edition (23 page)

Where did
Mikim’s father get enough money to bail the country out? It wasn’t
that much by today’s standards, but a couple of million dollars was
a lot of money eighty years ago. What did that have to do with
it?

The history seemed to hint that Mikim’s
father had killed his own father and brother to get the sheikdom.
He already had plans to build that port. The oil companies would
finance the port, no doubt. The family was as much as destitute –
yet Mikim’s father had enough cash to bail out the country? He had
the money when he took over?

This didn’t, as the old TV show kept saying,
compute. Clint felt he knew why those jewels were so important. He
called Manny and said he had enough to go on, now. He wanted that
chest and he would want an expert on identifying old jewelry. They
had the papers, pictures and identification specs on them.

“
Okay. I
read some of that stuff. I know how important that jewelry is. You
think it will get Mikim out of the picture there, don’t
you?”

“
I
sincerely and deeply hope so.”

“
I’ll
arrange something.”

Clint grinned to himself, then called Manny
back to say to wait two days, then go for it.

Very Small Deal

Clint walked into the interrogation cell in
Panamá City to find Mikim sitting there, a bit thinner in just a
few days, and, “You look like hell warmed over. They don’t bow to
you here, huh?”

“
This is
intolerable! I will bring an international incident against you!
I
will
not
live like this
another day! I am royalty and have immunity!”

“
Then you
should make arrangements for you to die today. You aren’t going
anywhere, probably for the next twenty years,” Clint replied. “You
don’t seem to get it through your head that your money and position
don’t mean shit here. Your visa has to be diplomatic for that crap.
Yours isn’t. You can’t get out of it, but you might be able to make
it easier. All you have to do is have the families of the men you
ordered killed not demand full prosecution.”

He got a cunning look on his face. “Yusef
told you I can buy my way out of this!”

“
Not out,
but not in so deep. Stay in the position you’re in now and you go
to the worst facility. Get a little pressure off the court and you
can make it one of the better places, perhaps. It’s the only
concession they’ll even consider with you. If you’d come here with
a little respect for others you wouldn’t be in the position you’re
in now. It’s your own doing so stop whining like a three year old
spoiled brat before it’s too late. Once the court declares
conviction, you’re gone. There won’t be another chance.”

“
So! Why
would you do anything to help me?”

“
I
wouldn’t. I’m trying to help the families of two innocent and very
good people that you had killed because you think you’re more than
the fatuous pig you are. They have a hard enough time just
surviving without your type killing off their means of
support.”

He thought a moment. “I can make them drop
the charges?”

“
No way.
The charges are by the nation. You can maybe lessen the charges a
small bit.”

“
And all
I have to do is pay off the families and admit everything in court?
Fuck off!”

“
You
don’t have to admit anything. They’ve got you cold. When your hired
assassin’s knives had the blood of both victims on them you were as
good as convicted. We don’t care if you admit anything or not. It
wouldn’t make an iota’s difference.”

“
You
can’t intimidate me!” he yelled. “Warden! This man threatened
me!”

“
Oh, drop
it! There’s a recorder sitting right there that says different. I
take it you don’t want to ameliorate your charges. Your choice.
Have a nice day!”

He stood and started toward the door. Mikim
said, “How much? Five million apiece? That should be enough for
these kinds of animals.”

“
One
million for both families – and the only animal here is you. Take
it or leave it.”

“
I forgot
how cheaply they can be bought. It comes from having too much. I
can have my lawyer, such as he is, make a draw on my account for
that small change.”

Clint nodded. Mikim used his celular to call
his lawyer, who would come with a withdrawal slip for Global Bank
if he wanted to use that account. He shrugged. The lawyer would be
there in a few minutes. They waited.

The lawyer came in, presented the slip, had
it witnessed by the two guards and went with Clint to the bank to
have the funds transferred directly to Clint’s account in Banco
Nacional de Panamá. Then Clint went home and called Manny to say he
could grab the safe box anytime. Manny said it would arrive by
special carrier sometime before dawn in the morning. Dave’s
apartment in David.

Clint said that suited him and called Dave,
who was planning on going to David on the seven o’clock bus.

“
We’ll
take my car. I’ll probably need it in David,” Clint suggested. Dave
had no problem with that! They could leave earlier and Dave could
stop in one place in La Fortuna where an orchid he thought might be
a new species would be in bloom.

Clint grinned and said that would be fine.
They’d take his boat to Almirante. Half an hour.

“
The
chest wasn’t there. It had been moved earlier yesterday,” Manny
reported at five ten the following morning “I don’t know how you’ll
find it, but I can see that it doesn’t go far from there. Gordo and
the two Canadians are still there.

Clint thought a minute, then said he’d go on
to Veraguas. He was on the way, anyhow. He told Dave and got in his
car. He would be in Veraguas before noon. He had an idea about that
box.

“
Hi! I’m
back!” Clint greeted Sandros and Fredrico. “Did you see when Gordo
took the box out?”

“
Hi,
Clint! Yes, we helped them put it on the truck. It took all five of
us. What’s in it? Gold?” Sandros asked.

“
Gold and
jewels and silver and that kind of thing,” Clint
answered.

“
For
truth?”

“
Partly.”

“
So you
want to know where they took it?” Fredrico asked, a small grin on
his face.

“
You
didn’t go with them to unload it?!”

“
No, but
I saw a map with a house marked.”

“
Ah! So
they didn’t figure you’d have the intelligence to know what it was.
They make too many wrong assumptions.”

“
It seems
to have become a habit. The house is near Pocri. I don’t know
where, but very close.”

“
I never
heard of Pocri. Where is it?”

“
Inland
from Las Tablas. On the other road.”

“
Going
toward the Pacific,” Clint mused. “They plan to get it out of
Panamá. Thanks, guys. I’ll probably be back before too
long.”

He got his car and took out his laptop to
look up a map. Pocri was on a road to Las Tablas and to the main
CPA (Pan American Highway). He could get there in about three
hours. Nothing else to do!

The drive wasn’t so bad. It was an area Clint
had never seen before so he went slowly enough that he could look
the area over. He figured Dave would want to go there. It was
different enough that there would be a lot of plant life of the
type he was researching.

Pocri is a typical puebla (small town).
People are friendly and helpful. Clint soon found he was going to
have to drive around the surrounding roads to find the house he
wanted. Gordo hadn’t come into town that they knew of.

Clint liked driving in new areas. He went
along all the side roads toward the CPA. He found information in
the small tiendas along the way. Four and a half hours later he
found a woman running a little refrescos stand who said they
stopped for sodas and galetas, then went down the rough rocky road
nearby. He had a Coke and cookies, chatted for a few minutes with
the woman about David, then went carefully along the road, which
was mostly a rocky cowpath. The house was half a kilometer in. No
one was around and it looked abandoned, though it did have some
very secure locks and the windows and doors had steel bar grates
across them. Clint wouldn’t be able to get in easily.

He thought for a minute, then called Manny to
tell how to get to the place. Manny said there would be a man there
within the hour who could get past any lock anywhere.

Clint waited for an hour and a quarter until
a rickety old truck came up. Clint told the man driving he was
waiting for a friend who said he had rented the place, but he
didn’t think he was going to show.

“
Faraday?
Marko B said you had to get inside a place that was pretty securely
locked?

“
I’m
called Picks.”

“
That’s
it,” Clint said, pointing toward the house. “I could use bolt
cutters, but I’d rather get in and get what I want and get out
without again anyone knowing how I got the stuff without doing
anything like that.”

He laughed and took a strange tool from the
glove case and went to the front door grate. The lock was open in
ten seconds, then he opened the lock in the inner steel door. They
went in to find the safe box in the kitchen. The trouble was going
to be moving the thing. It was heavy.

Picks used his celular and said, “Ten
minute,” to Clint.

Ten minutes later a car came in with four big
men. They hoisted the box onto the truck, Clint made sure the locks
were all back in place and that they hadn’t left any signs they
were there and they drove out through a little path/road to one
side. They went through an open field and onto the better road
around a bend where the woman in the tienda wouldn’t know they’d
been there. They stopped at a little restaurant where Clint gave
the four men in the car fifty dollars apiece and said they’d never
been within ten kilometers of that house they didn’t know existed.
They grinned and said they weren’t in the habit of running their
mouths. That was bad for business.

“
I took a
few seconds to look over the area, then got the Mapquest view
enlarged until I could see that road where no one would see us
coming or going. If the woman in the tienda saw you go in she’ll
wonder why you never came back out.”

Clint nodded and told Picks where the box was
to be delivered if he knew a carrier they could trust.

“
I’m to
take it to David myself. Marko arranged everything.”

Clint nodded and said he’d be back to David
before Picks, probably. He was going to go back and out the way he
went in. He’d stop at the tienda and tell the woman he got stuck in
a ditch and just got out. He never found anything before he came
back.

He did
that, then headed to David.

They unloaded the heavy box and put it in the
little Bodega at Dave’s apartment. Picks opened all the locks on
the box and said he wasn’t interested in what was inside. Marko
made that plain. Clint agreed and asked what he owed.

“
You owe
Marko, but he said he owes you more than he has. I wish I had a
friend like that! He’s living in Southern Spain, but let’s it out
that he’s on an island in the Mediterranean. You know about that so
I’m not giving anything away. He said you’re the safest person in
the world to know that. You even know the house he’s in
there.”

“
He’s
there part time and spends part time on the island. He has to make
an appearance on the island every once in awhile so certain people
won’t be looking all over Spain and Portugal for him,” Clint said.
“I don’t mind telling you what’s in the box. It’s money and gold
and jewels.”

“
As heavy
as it is, I guess that’s true. Not my business.”

Clint wished him well and went into the
bodega to see what he could find. He was damned sure there was
something in that chest that was important enough that some little
tin king came in person to get it.

He carefully checked the items. There was, as
Mikim said, almost two million in cash. Dollars. Apparently Gordo,
Besford and Dennis had taken about ten thousand apiece. It was
short of two million by thirty one thousand. The gold was there, as
was the silver and platinum. There was a list that checked exactly
to the items.

Clint studied the emeralds and diamonds. They
seemed alright to him. He held the jewels that were the token of
the ruler’s progression. They looked exactly like the pictures he
had from the net and so forth. They were set in gold. It was
heavy.

Clint didn’t know enough. Manny would send an
expert to check them over. There were marks that an expert could
find that anyone else may miss. Not much else to do so he locked up
the bodega and went to a delicious dinner at Las Brasas. Manny’s
expert would be there at eight in the morning.

So! That’s What It’s
About!

“
Mr.
Clinton Faraday? I’m Michael Foster. Mr. Mathews has hired me
to
very
quietly
investigate some jewelry that is in your possession. I understand
that this is to be kept very quiet as it may have international
repercussions should it be known the merchandise is in the hands of
the government. You may place your trust in me completely, as Mr.
Mathews will attest. You are to call him while I am here to
confirm.”

Clint invited him in, gave him a cup of
coffee and called Manny, who said Foster was as good an expert as
there was and that he knew how delicate negotiations between
governments could be. That was to let Clint know what to tell him
and what not to tell him.