Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition (43 page)
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Authors: CD Moulton
Tags: #adventure, #murder, #mystery, #detective, #clint faraday
Clint turned the phone off.
Clint Faraday Mysteries #3
Nightfall
© 2008, by C. D. Moulton
all rights reserved: no part of this
publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or
any other information retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the copyright holder/ publisher, except in the case of
brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblances
to persons, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental unless
otherwise stated.
A beautiful night – but most are here.
Clint is having a meal just at nightfall in a
restaurant on the water. It’s going to be a truly great evening and
things will be perfect.
Of course, that was before he found there was
murder on the menu.
Contents
Nightfall
Romantic Dinner
Clint leaned over to tell Janice Watts, a
pretty girl from Ohio in the states, that this was a typical
restaurant for the area. The food was better than average and not
ridiculously priced like some in Bocas.
Cap’n Ron went by and he introduced them. Ron
was on his way to meet a friend on the other end of the deck.
A party of six people went to sit at the long
reserved table close to the water. It would stay dry for another
hour or more. Rains came through most evenings about an hour and a
half after nightfall this time of year. The day had been
gorgeous.
Clint knew just about everyone in Bocas. The
regulars and natives. Reynaldo, a local Indio who was friendly with
everyone was on his way to work at La Iguana, the popular nearby
surfer bar. He came in to say hello and to tell Clint that there
were a lot of people from Germany in town.
Clint heard the party at the long table
talking in what he thought would be German, but they also spoke in
Spanish and English and what sounded like French. Tyra, their
waitress, said it was Suiza. Her boss’s brother was married to a
Suiza and was talking with them earlier when they came to make
reservations. They were arguing then the same way they were now.
She said they didn’t seem to much like each other. They argued
about everything and kept saying that it was a pity they had such a
big family fight anytime anyone wanted to do anything.
“
The
viejo, Lawrence, tells everyone else what they can and can’t do and
where they can and can’t go down here. It’s like my husband’s
abuelo is. He has the money so he can tell everybody else how to
live.
“
I told
him to fuck off and he said Juan could depend on working the rest
of his life for a few centavos because he wasn’t inheriting a
single one from him if he didn’t dump me. Juan told him that he had
to agree with me in that case. Fuck off! It was the best thing he
ever did. That old bastard can’t tell him anything anymore. The
rest of the family spend their time kissing his feet, but we don’t
even go to anyone’s house if he’s going to be there. It’s not worth
it. Juan wouldn’t even have a life of his own if he
stayed.
“
Disculpame. It’s not your problem. The nasty old bastard
reminds me of Juan’s abuelo. Everyone hates him and are nice at the
same time. It makes me sick!”
Clint said he knew the type. Janice said most
families had someone like that. It was a sourfaced spinster aunt in
her family. She had the original nickel she ever got and wouldn’t
talk about anything but “security” that all her money bought. Her
family were independent enough that they didn’t let her go too far
like those ass-kissers were doing.
Clint noticed the people at the long table in
a cursory way. One very bald older man and five assorted younger
people. None of them seemed to be having anything vaguely like a
good time.
They had a good meal and were enjoying some
flan when the old bald man at the table suddenly stood and tried to
breathe, but was obviously choking. Clint sighed and got up to use
the Heimlich Maneuver on him, but one of the men sitting at the
table got there first. He did the maneuver and the old man hacked
and dropped onto the table, then started remonstrating about the
bunch letting him almost die by just standing around until he
choked to death. They were a bunch of ingrates and he was sorry he
had sprung for this vacation for them. The one who had used the
maneuver on him said all he did was buy a discount tour ticket for
them and that the vacation would have been cheaper and one hell of
a lot more fun if he hadn’t bothered – and by the way, “You’re
welcome.”
Clint noticed the old man hadn’t coughed up
anything from the maneuver, but that he had put something in a
glass when he dropped across the table. It seemed a bit
contrived.
Clint was standing just beside the table and
managed to ask if the old man was alright now. He swept his hand
around and knocked over the glass he’d seen something dumped into.
He grabbed a napkin and mopped it off the table, apologizing for
his clumsiness. The old man said it looked like another night in
hell for all of them. Even the locals couldn’t be kept from
interfering in their family’s attempt to have a little
vacation.
“
Oh,
sorry!” Clint replied happily. “If I see you pulling the ‘I’m
choking to death’ act again I’ll stand by and let you croak. I’m
sure no one else in your family will come to your rescue again. Do
have a nice stay and come back when you can’t stay so long in
Bocas.”
“
If it
weren’t for people like me who come to spend our hard-earned money
in this hole there wouldn’t BE any Bocas! I’ll warn you to stay the
hell out of my family’s affairs or you will deeply regret
it!”
“
Now,
Pops!” a woman chided. “He was only trying to help. You shouldn’t
get so upset. It’s bad for your heart!”
“
Hell! He
doesn’t have a heart,” another woman replied. “There’s just a piece
of ice where anyone else has a heart.
“
Don, can
we go back to our room? I’m very embarrassed by even being seen in
public with your lovely father.”
“
You
watch your mouth, woman!” Lawrence snarled. “I’ll cut you off right
here and you can find your own way home!”
“
Oh,
please!” she replied. “Maybe I know a thing or two about you that
these people would find – interesting?
“
Don?”
“
Yeah,
this party’s over!” a heavyset woman declared. “Pops has managed to
screw up another night. Par for the course.
“
Sir, I’m
Amanda Lesley, daughter of that old rather vulgar and obnoxious
tyrant who has so much money to hold over our heads.
“
This is
Don and Trudy Lesley, my brother and his spouse. Wanda over here is
my little sis. Her husband’s George Martime. We’re a truly
worthless bunch of ass-kissers, I’m afraid.”
“
Clint
Farraday, beach bum. You put up with him because of the
money?”
“
Yeah.
And the fact none of us was born with a spine. He has a lots of
valuable property in several places like California and
Switzerland. Farms.”
Clint grinned at her and got a big one back
in return. He nodded at the others and went back to Janice. He had
shoved the napkin into his pocket. This was a lot more than
strange.
He and Janice went to Bohmfalk’s, then to
Bongos, then home. Just as they were getting out of the taxi his
cell phone buzzed. It was Tyra.
“
Clint?
Remember that bunch of Suizas?” she asked without
preamble.
“
What did
they do now?”
“
They’re
staying at the hotel next door. Two of them are dead.
Murdered.”
“
How?”
“
Poison.
Sergio says it’s some kind of really fast stuff. I told him I’d
call you.”
“
Crap!
That old bastard and his sick family have managed to fuck up my
night, too!” Clint complained, then said he’d be right over. He
reached into his pocket and felt the napkin. He smirked. Whatever
that old bastard was trying to do, he’d screwed up big
time!
Oddball Family
“
What do
we have here?” Clint asked Sergio, the cop he knew who worked on
this kind of thing.
“
Apparently, a nasty old bastard of a father swallowed some
kind of very fast poison. The only thing anyone regrets is that one
of the others got croaked at the same time.”
“
He was
Lawrence. The other?”
“
A
Lesley. Donald.”
That sort of surprised Clint. He expected it
would have been Amanda or George. He wasn’t in the least surprised
that the old bastard had bought it.
“
Think
you can find the poison?” Clint asked, looking around the room at
the glasses on the end table and the look of general messiness.
Amanda saw the look and explained, “He deliberately made a mess in
a room so he could yell at the girls who cleaned. He could hide
something and ‘find’ it later.” She grinned. Clint liked her. She
wasn’t about to pretend she gave a damn if he was dead. He
nodded.
“
We can
trace most things. I’d say curare from the way they seem so relaxed
– but that isn’t taken orally,” Clint said to Sergio.
“
So maybe
it wasn’t taken orally?” Amanda said.
“
We think
much alike,” Sergio agreed. “Who else drank from that
pitcher?”
“
All of
us except Trudy. She was downstairs with her computer with that
Doug fellow in two sixteen since we got home,” Wanda answered.
“This is terrible!”
“
Oh,
nobody gives a happy shit about him,” George said. “Don was a
decent enough type. Sort of a neutral person, really, but decent
enough in most ways.”
Trudy was sitting in a corner looking dull
and lifeless. She wasn’t reacting in any way other than apparent
shock. She didn’t say anything or even acknowledge anyone else.
Clint waited until the medical examiner, such
as they had on Bocas, came. He checked over the bodies with him.
They both found the two small puncture wounds, Lawrence on the neck
and George on the arm.
“
This
seems so, so ... artificial,” Dr. Astrades said. “Someone wanted us
to think it was something in the food or drink. Surely no one
believed we wouldn’t find those injection spots!
“
He takes
some regular injections, but on the gluteus, not up higher.
Certainly not on the neck!
“
The one
on the next looks post-mortem to me.”
“
They
tend to think we’re at least a century behind,” Serg replied. “I
think they would have found that a century ago.”
“
They
want it to look contrived for some reason,” Clint said. “There’s
something very odd ... the napkin! Last night he, Lawrence, pulled
a silly choking act and dropped something in his water glass. I
managed to sop some up. We can analyze it. He seemed to be more
upset because I spilled the water than by anything
else.”
“
When
last night?” Serg asked.
“
Early
during dinnertime. Just at nightfall,” Amanda answered. “We were
having our regular family feud and he was choking. Mr. Faraday came
to assist and got an ear full of what the old tyrant was like for
his trouble.
“
Nobody
gives a damn about him. We’ll miss Don.”
“
You’ll
all inherit a bunch of stuff from the way he was spouting last
night,” Clint pointed out.
“
Knowing
that old bastard he’s probably left everything to the kite flying
society or something,” George said. “It wouldn’t cause me a flicker
of surprise. He never tired of telling us he was cutting every
ingrate among us – and that was all of us – out!”
“
Or
anyone else, for that matter,” Amanda agreed. “Maybe we’ll all get
a little freedom for what’s left of our lives. That’s something.”
The rest nodded.
There was a bit of a commotion in the hall. A
local lawyer, Raul Rallardes, came barging in to demand what had
happened to his client. Clint told him if Donald or Lawrence was
the client, case closed. If it was one of the others, nothing.
“
It was
Mr. Lawrence Lesley. I was drawing up some papers for him. I tried
to call him several times earlier and got no answer. He never had
the two things I TOLD him to get stamped notarized! My god! This is
terrible! I TOLD him he had to go to the notary and get ... he had
time this afternoon. WHY didn’t he just do that ONE little thing?
He kept saying he paid ME to do things. I TOLD him he had to take
it to the notary himself, that I can’t ... I TOLD him!”
“
Well,
something seems ... it was a will?”
“
An
assignment. I can’t discuss it.”
“
If it
has to do with his death you’ll discuss it at length with a court
judge and then be charged with withholding information in a
criminal case,” Serg snarled. “Don’t pull a lawyer act with me!
What kind of assignment?”