Clint Faraday Collection C: Murder in Motion Collector's Edition (31 page)

“
I
thought I’d probably missed them because it was almost an hour late
when they showed up. Anyhow, it was right there in the car! They
managed to have the payment hidden there where nobody would look
for it so I’d never see them at the terminal or something. They
could figure I’d look through the car to see if there was anything
that would, er, point to me, you see.

“
I got in
when they stopped for the restroom and sodas and hid in the crap in
the back seat. They didn’t even look back there, just got in and
went on. That kid’s a terrible driver!

“
Anyhow,
I waited until past Mali and stuck a pistol in the kid’s ear and
told him to slow down and drive right or I’d blow his fucking head
off. We got up by the construction crap lot and I made him pull in,
then rapped him lightly over the ear and smacked her with her
damned mouth running all the time pretty good!

“
She kept
yelling that I had the wrong people. There was some kind of
mistake, that she didn’t something or other. She was so mad she
didn’t make much sense and my English stinks and she didn’t know
Spanish so I told her to shut the fuck up or I’d blow her head off
before the kid’s. I told her I just wanted a ride up into the
mountains and wouldn’t have let them know I was there, even, if the
kid knew how to drive. That calmed her down and she said some
friends or something had a bad experience when someone tried to
hijack them.

“
Anyhow,
she shut up, more or less, but not for long. She started in again
about something or other that her husband caused to happen. She was
trying to get me to do something, but it wasn’t making any sense
again and she was so pissed at the old man she was ranting. I got
about every third word. All about costing her everything and he
didn’t even care. I tuned her out, but was glad to smack her up
there.

“
I did
the job and went back to Bocas. No sense in going to David when I
already had what I would go for. I guess they figured that, too.
That’s all I know.”

“
Fair
enough. Don’t take any chances anymore. Doing those jobs for anyone
except the mob characters will get your ass in a bind you can’t get
out of. If it was that I wouldn’t bother to even check it out.
Seeing it was what it was I don’t give a damn.

“
I’ll
tell you something else if you’ll agree not to mess with those
kinds of people, even if they
are
worse than the mob types.”

“
I
figured that much when you said your name. I figured my ass was
about to get scorched for twenty years. Deal.”

“
Wear
gloves when you shift the gears. You left the second handprint on
that knob. If they suspect you of anything else they’ll compare and
tag you just like you figured I would. Also, you keep the promise
or they’ll get a hint to check your prints for anything anyone did
that such a print might solve.”

He grinned and said that would make it sure,
for sure!

Clint went back to his car. He started
giggling before he got there and was almost howling when he did.
Sarah had contacted this bird to get her husband knocked off so she
could get the big insurance deal. It wasn’t possible to have him
hit so she decided to get the Auermonds hit instead. It would take
care of the insurance and she could go back to the states and leave
hubby in Panamá.

The Auermonds had left early or something. He
missed them at the bombas – but Sarah had headed to David an hour
later, expecting to learn to her horror that the Auermonds had an
accident and were dead! She had the rest of the hit’s money in a
sack like she promised. She had better sense than to try to stiff a
hit man.

The Auermonds didn’t show, but she did. In a
rented Honda. Two people. Neither the man who sent the notes. The
kids told him it was a man and they delivered his answer to a man.
Anderson was told there would be two people, one male and one
female without telling him their age, in a rented Honda and that
they would be the only ones coming through then.

Anderson pops out from under whatever in the
back seat in the mountains a bit past Mali. There wasn’t anything
else before the dam. Sarah is livid to the point of incoherence,
but thinks she can talk him out of doing anything else. She can say
the proof is the money in the sack – only he only speaks a very
little English and she can’t say ten words in Spanish.

Then he sounds like some joker running from
the law or something who just wants a ride into the mountains. He
only let them know he was back there because William is a bad
driver. He would get out up where he could hide from the police in
the mountains.

He tells them to pull into the access road so
he can get out, then handles the job. He has the payment he was
promised. She’d arranged for it to be right there in the car where
she knew he’d find it!

He went back to Bocas, another job done
well.

Clint wondered if it dawned on her in the
last seconds of her life that she’d paid for her own murder.

Now all he had to know was who the man was
who had the kids deliver the money. It should be Grossman – but he
had disappeared.

Maybe just because he didn’t want to be
around to be identified if anything went wrong?

It could
still be Robert. He could have set it up to go down exactly the way
it
did
go down. It could be Greenwood,
who was there in Bocas town.

That meant finding Grossman. That would
resolve it as much as he felt it needed resolution.

Find
Grossman

“
So
that’s how I figure it happened,” Clint finished telling Sergio,
Dave and Judi. “Now I have to find Grossman to know if I’ve figured
right.”

“
And
the
Greenwoods
and
the
Auermonds,” Sergio pointed out.

“
I don’t
give a shit about them. They’re going anyhow and won’t be back
here. I’ll get word to them through a friend that they’re wanted
for questioning about a murder if they ever step foot in Panamá
again.”

“
Grossman
is going, too,” Judi pointed out.

“
Probably, but he’d be the type to come back. If he gets
away with anything here he won’t worry about being arrested and
questioned next trip. He’s a lot more savvy about how that works.
He knows damned well that there would simply be an order on his
name and passport that he was not to be allowed in the
country.”

“
I can
have that order inserted,” Sergio said. “I can make a report that
they are involved with schemes to defraud, which hurts investment
and tourism and that even other gringos don’t want them
here.”

“
And
Clint wouldn’t ever know for sure who had those obnoxious people
killed,” Judi said. “I think I’d like to know if I figured it
right. The important thing is if Robert Morris was the one. That
would mean he has to go – right, Clint?”

“
That,
and I think Manny would like to put something for the Indios on
Popa. It’s a good location for them to bring bananas, coconuts,
coffee, cacao, chickens – what have you – for shipping on to
Almirante or Bocas Town. It would save them several hours of
carrying the stuff themselves. They would bring enough there from
all those islands and from Tierra Oscura to make it a pretty
profitable deal for everyone. Manny has that materials barge that’s
as much as rusting away where it sits so he can clean it up and use
it in that shallow water.”

“
I think
that might be a good idea,” Sergio said. “I’ll keep the order to
find Grossman out. Maybe he’ll show up now that the insurance part
won’t happen.

“
I have
to get back to the station. I’ll talk with you later.” He waved and
went out.

“
Do you
think Manny would really be interested in that kind of small
business?” Judy asked when Sergio was gone. “I know he might want
to set it up so the Indios can run it, but it seems so tiny
compared with the millions he made in the mob business.”

“
I’ve
talked with him about using the old barge. He loves the idea
because it’ll make most of those mob kingpins know for certain he’s
not Bocinni. They’ll think exactly like you suggested and the
Indios can get a bit of help with it. It’s true they spend six or
eight hours a day, two days a week carrying that stuff all the way
from there to Almirante. The bulk Manny would carry means a small
margin/big volume operation so it should work out pretty
well.

“
Now to
find Grossman. I wish I had a clue!”

“
I might
know someone who knows someone who could find out where he is.
Flora’s meeting with us in about an hour for the street cleanup
committee. I’ll see what I can do.”

Clint didn’t doubt for a second she would
find something. She always did.

“
He’s
driving a rented car. Flora’s husband services them for Budget in
Changuinola. He left Changuinola and turned the car in at the
airport in David. Carlos, the porter for Venture Air, told Edwardo
he took a flight to San Blas.

“
You
would have found all that out, anyhow, but I hope it saves time or
something,” Judi reported.

“
It saves
me three days of going to David and finding which agency he used,
then which flight he took. You did it in an hour and a half. If it
wouldn’t screw up both our lives I’d ask you to marry – well, live
with me.”

She laughed. “We’re living a hundred fifty
meters away from each other, we’re in each other’s house all the
time now. That’s enough.”

“
I guess
I’ll go as directly as I can to San Blas. I’ve never been there. I
hear it’s a great place. Want to come along?”

“
I’m
going next month with a friend so I’ll beg off.”

Clint nodded and went the hundred fifty
meters back to his place, packed a few things and went to the
airport. He had to go to Changuinola for a flight where there was
only one direct on Fridays.

He flew to David, then took the flight that
left there three times per week. It left David an hour after Clint
arrived. He’d used the net to book a seat.

The flight was pleasant except for one
middle-aged woman from France who could find fault with anything
you could mention. She was in the seat behind him and he could hear
her constant complaining all the way. When they got off the plane
he couldn’t resist asking her why she stayed here in this hell when
France was so perfect. No one forced her to come here, did
they?

She called the guard over to complain that he
was being deliberately rude to her. The guard said there was no law
against being rude to people who were rude to you. She didn’t know
how to take that, but she shut up for ten minutes – until the
baggage man was throwing around her expensive suitcases like they
were cheap cardboard boxes like the people here were used to, then
was furious because the Cunas (native Indios) refused to help her
with her luggage. Clint said she was so picky with everything they
felt she would find an excuse to not pay them and would accuse them
of all sorts of things. If she was going to be a pain in the ass to
everyone around her she could expect a lot of that.

She was looking for a guard to complain about
him when he said, “Have a nice day!” and walked away. One of the
Indios who spoke English very well walked out with him. He said
they got that type about once a month. The word was out about her
from the attendant on the flight so she would find all the taxis
were occupied except for Luis, who kept two. One was a rustbucket
that smelled of old garbage and stale beer. “If she enjoys
complaining about every damned thing we will give her a real cause
to complain.”

Clint high-fived him and asked where the best
hotel at reasonable cost was. He was told about a place the natives
stay that was cheap, clean and comfortable. There would only be
room available for her at the Paraiso Verde, the most expensive one
there – unless she had sense enough to get reservations before
anyone there met her.

Clint asked about Grossman, saying he would
be arrogant and treat them like serfs, but wasn’t a tenth as
obnoxious as that woman. He described Grossman.

“
Yes.
Sol. He’s not so bad. He said he got a few lessons about being a
tourist in Bocas. You?”

“
Several
people. He’s involved in a company that just got scammed out of
enough to break all the partners.”

“
No
title?”

“
No. It’s
titled, but is in the wrong place for what they wanted.”

“
Happens
a lot here! I’ll get to the docks for the ferry. I’m
Kelvin.”

“
Clint.
Mucho gusto – oh, yeah! Where is Sol staying?”

“
Mar
Vista.” He waved and went toward the dock where the ferry was just
coming into sight. Fifteen minutes before docking.

Clint considered staying at the native
pension. He liked the people there one hell of a lot more than he
liked the tourists, but he’d be better for what he wanted to stay
at the Mar Vista.

They had a room with a balcony adjoining
Sol’s room. He grinned to himself and went up. The place was better
than he really had expected and the view of the ocean beautiful.
There was a very good beach with a breeze coming in off the
Caribbean and the hotel had a pool.

Clint could never understand why those people
would come to the Caribbean with its clean water and only swim in a
pool full of chlorine. It didn’t make sense to him.