Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition (31 page)

Lopez nodded and grinned at her. “Then we
have her and her husband dead. She did it, he was accomplice.
Officer Holas, you may bring them in for questioning. They will
demand a lawyer and that you contact their embassy. You may delay
that for forty eight hours.”

“
They’ll
know I have it figured and will probably be gone by now,” Clint
warned.

“
More
proof!” Rico replied. “I’m having everyone not known to me watched.
All of the ones Rita said were here today.”

It was Clint’s turn to nod respect for the
officer.

“
This is
totally bloody damned intolerable! These ... storm troopers
actually stopped a public BUS and ... and FORCED us at gunpoint to
get into that disgusting bloody damned GARBAGE truck and DRUG us to
this ... this dirty JAIL because we were in the hospital from
eating some kind of filthy ... whatever in hell they call
vegetables in this godforsaken HOLE! I demand to speak with the
American Embassy RIGHT NOW! I demand a LAWYER! I’m going to sue
this HOLE off the map! I have NEVER!” Gerald ranted while Sylvia
looked totally mortified.

“
Your
inflection is wrong in all the wrong places,” Clint replied
conversationally. “I’ve said repeatedly that you have no acting
ability whatever.” He was there at the invitation of Enrico and
Lopez. They had chatted while the police truck went to intercept
the bus the Cartworthys had suddenly decided to take to David. They
laid it out to where Clint could bait them into saying something
more – though they had them in a vice already for the murder. He
wanted to know what it was about.

Gerald sputtered a bit more while Lopez, Rico
and Clint sipped coffee. When he ran down Clint asked him and
Sylvia if they wanted coffee. They did, so Rico brought the little
electric urn in.

“
Okay.
I’m more calm now. I want to speak with a lawyer and to call the
American embassy,” Gerald said after about five minutes of
silence.

“
No. You
are a citizen of the UK carrying a UK passaporte,” Lopez replied.
“Your wife can call the American embassy tomorrow if you’re still
being held – and you will be. You can call the UK embassy then if
you think it will help you.

“
This is
a questioning. Until we arrest you you can’t call a lawyer. It will
be most interesting to find you, a supposed tourist, have a
criminal lawyer to call here.”

“
CRIMINAL..!? What the bloody hell is this?!” He started to
redden and Clint said to drop the act. Murder one was definitely a
criminal act, as was accessory to murder one.

“
MURDER
ONE!?” Sylvia squealed. “Gerald did NOT murder anyone! The very
idea...!”

“
No, he
didn’t,” Rico said. “You did. He was merely acting as accessory by
distracting everyone while you did it. We have the proof, so don’t
waste a lot of time with the indignant act. Clint has already
clearly stated on several occasions that you are terrible
actors.

“
We would
like to know what’s behind it, but don’t need that. That part’s for
Clint’s private investigation.”

“
Don’t
need motive? How droll!” Sylvia sneered.

“
No. You
are guilty until proven innocent here. We have more than enough
proof to see that you both get eleven years detention in Panamá
City,” Lopez explained.

“
What
proof might that be – unless you don’t mention such little details
to the accused here?” Gerald asked sourly. “I don’t believe this is
actually happening! You have nothing!”

“
I’m CSI
here. I assure you, we have you very solidly. You will be sentenced
within ten days,” Lopez replied. “What we have is some of that
make-up your wife has all over her. The sunscreen based mascara, I
think you call it. We have the glass she took into that
room.”

“
You
can’t show I took a glass into any room! This is preposterous!”
Sylvia cried. She really was scared now.

“
Of
course we can prove you took the glass into the room,” Rico
insisted. “That is easily done with modern techniques or even with
the older methods.”

“
There
are no fingerprints of mine in any room in that hospital! This is
insane!”

“
Who said
anything about fingerprints?” Lopez asked. “Is it because you
thought those gloves would prevent your leaving any?”

“
Er,
well, they would.”

“
But you
left fibers from the gloves on the glass,” Clint pointed
out.

“
This is
totally ridiculous! Fibers could be from any gloves!” Gerald
snarled.

“
No.
They’re from the gloves taken from you when you came in. Those
gloves will also have the identical make-up as found on the body,”
Lopez replied. “That will be the only sixty five percent white
polyester pair of lady’s gloves in this town. You can’t get them
anywhere here except Panamá City. Your husband was busily making a
disruption out in the reception room about pretended diarrhea or
something such. He’s accessory prima.”

“
What do
you mean, ‘pretended diarrhea?’ We had what you call Montezuma’s
Revenge! It was terrible!” Sylvia said. “This is
insane!”

“
You had
extreme diarrhea, in fact?” Lopez asked.

“
Well, of
course we did! We had the stupidity to eat what passes for bloody
food here! I have never ...!” Gerald ranted.

“
Knock it
off with the act!” Clint demanded. “You had extreme diarrhea and
never went to the bathroom in the forty five minutes you were here?
Neither of you? Give it a rest! There’s no way out for
you.”

“
I see
I’ll have to try to explain what we’re doing here,” Gerald said.
“It’s all very true. We did fake that. We’re investigating a scheme
to try to get control of the canal by getting control of the
refinery by Syria. The Wallace woman was giving us some vital
information. She was a paid undercover operative of the British
government. When Sylvia went in to get the information she found
her dead.”

“
That’s
exactly what happened!” Sylvia said, a slightly too-cagey look on
her face. “She was dead when I got to the room!”

“
Oh? And
you trained operatives don’t know how to enter a room and leave
without leaving proof that you were there?” Lopez asked. “A
multi-millionairess was a paid operative of the Brtish
government?

“
As you
said, how droll!”

“
I was
rattled,” she whined. “It meant someone was onto us! We could be
next! That’s why we tried to go to David!”

“
Oh, then
your embassy will confirm your reason for being here,” Clint
suggested. “I can get any of the information I need for my own
investigation directly from them. All I want to know now is who to
investigate.”

“
Er,”
Gerald replied, brightly. “That godfather type mafia hood, Larince
or something.”

“
Lariez?
Into something like that? Ridiculous!” Rico spat.

“
You, a
trained experienced intelligence agent, were investigating someone
and don’t even know his name?” Clint asked. “As the broad keeps
saying, preposterous! I don’t think they’re going to say anything I
want to hear, Rico. You might as well bring in the judge and arrest
them. It will take ten minutes in the Panamá Pen to loosen them
up.

“
Well,
I’m going to talk to Paulo. I’ll inform him we’re onto his scheme
to take over the canal by taking over a refinery a few hundred
miles away for Syria. He’ll get a good laugh at that one, no doubt.
I suppose you can let them call a lawyer early. They won’t find one
who would want his reputation ruined for trying to aid in a
hopeless case.

“
Gerald
and Sylvia, do enjoy your stay here in Panamá as long as you can.
Caio!” He waved and walked out. Lopez followed him. “Learn
anything?” he asked.

“
A lot
more than they think. Mentioning Syria was a very serious mistake.
I think he knows it.

“
Lopez,
make a careful note of anyone who calls them or comes to see them.
It will lead to something they can’t hope to explain.”

“
Explain?
Them or the visitors?”

“
Yes.”

Lopez looked puzzled, but didn’t say anything
else about it. Clint went back to his hotel to find Vern Wallace
and Sam Downy waiting for him. They said some others were going to
be there soon and they wanted to talk to him. Vern said he wanted
to know what was behind his wife’s murder and these people kept
popping up in some strange places at strange times. Clint said he
would meet them at El Critico at seven. Downy started to say
something and Vern grinned.

Clint went to the Grande to suggest to Paulo
that he happen to be in El Critico about seven. He could scare the
piss out of the people who were trying to make him the goat.

“
I know
the expression from you politics,” Paulo replied. “The goat for
what?”

“
I wish
to hell I knew!” Paulo laughed and said it might be fun – in its
own way.

What’s
Going On?

“
Clint? I
can’t find what the hell is going on there,” Marko reported. “I’ve
heard a few hints about a big find of something. Gold or something.
Maybe emeralds, but it’s very quiet. A university assay on some
kind of ore sent in has something to do with it.

“
I was
talking with Dave. He says the Indios around Boqueron said there
were a bunch of professors toward the west of the area looking all
over the mountains. One of them found something in a stream. They
took a lot of equipment in, then someone came and made them leave.
That’s not far. Chiriqui, but why are those people collecting at
Puerto Armuelles?

“
Here.
Dave wants you to check something out.”

Clint waited for a few seconds until his
weird author friend came on to greet him and chat about the area,
then he said he was talking with “Wanda” and had him very
discreetly trying to find why a certain engineer from Texas had
gone to the area and made a few suggestions about the refinery.

“
Texas?
What part?”

“
Houston.”

“
What’s
his name and anything else you can give me?”

“
Arnold.
William Arnold. Manny’s checking on him now. I just got the info
this morning. You know the Juan Jimenez family in San Andres –
between San Andres and Arriba Blanca? Juan might know ...
something. Orisa started getting gifts from someone for no reason.
Juan questioned her and she said she had a secret and couldn’t tell
him. You know how that is with the Indios. They’re very strong on
certain types of promises.”

Clint chatted a bit more, then decided to go
to San Andres. He knew about the Indio code and knew how to get
around it if the promise was made is certain ways. Orisa was about
ten or eleven years old so wouldn’t have a clue as to what the
“secret” meant. He would wait until the next morning for that. He
was starting to see a thing or two.

Monica Standing was walking past Rita’s
place. He stopped her and said he had seen her a few times around,
but hadn’t met her. He was Clint Faraday.

“
Oh, yes.
The detective. Batty said something about you, I believe. Yvon told
me you insisted he leave Panam
á
or
he’d end up as dead as Sally. It was those horrible Cartson people
who killed Sally, not that Paulo person, so you might have been
wrong about who, but you were on the money about the
danger.

“
Do you
think any of the rest of our little clique should leave or is that
pretty well settled now?”

“
I don’t
think any of you are in danger from that source. You’re playing a
very dangerous game, though. There’s entirely too much money
involved and the personalities brought together leaves all of you
in danger to one extent or another.” He hoped he’d left the
impression he knew what was going on. She looked a bit wary and
said he was probably right. Land speculation at this stage of a
developing industry could bring in some very shady and even
dangerous types. It always did. They talked a bit more about the
horrible economic situation in the states. She about how impossible
it was for Bush, he about it was Bush’s doing in the first
place.

He soon went back to Hotel Central and
cleaned up. Six ten. He’d be at El Critico at seven sharp.

How many would show up?

“
Clint? A
little very interesting note. It might come in handy there,” Marko
said when Clint answered his cell phone on the way to El Critico.
“Bill Arnold is a petroleum specialist. He finds deposits of crude.
Worked in the states – Alaska and Louisiana – Venezuela, Mexico and
Sudan.”

THAT was unexpected. He said it was
information he could very certainly put to use.

He went in to have Paulo wave to him. He
talked for a minute, then went to the long table where the gringos
were sitting. Yvon introduced him to the ones he hadn’t met and he
sat. They talked about what that type talked about – money and
investments – for awhile, ordered a good meal, then Sam Downy asked
him, now that the obligatory small talk was done, why they were
there.

“
Basically only because the silly game you’re playing is
about to start involving my friends here. As you can see, Sally
Wallace had a tendency to talk too much when she’d had a couple
snorts. The Cartworthys were probably brought in to keep an eye on
such as her. Their act was very entertaining and comical at times,
but sort of got thin before too long.