Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition (49 page)

“
Clint,
it can’t all be because of the money.”

“
What do
you mean?”

“
I’m
seeing a scenario where the money was used by someone to get
revenge on that family in some way.

“
Clint,
I’m reading the records of the family so far as health goes. It
appears ... Lawrence was abusing the girls, or someone was. That’s
what brought on the wife’s nervous collapse. It’s not at all clear.
It reads that way if you leave out a bit and suppose a
bit.”

“
Then, if
that part’s true, this is revenge by those girls against Lawrence.
It takes it back to him being the totally nasty bastard. I can see
how that would drive them to want to see him destroyed,” Clint
mused. “How did the lovely doctor become involved? There’s no
excusing him if he ... the lawyer seems very chummy with the
doctor.

“
I’m
beginning to think those two are really behind the whole thing.
They’re beyond slime. I want to see that doctor, at least, writhe
and scream for days.”

Judi was listening to Clint’s end. She said,
“Clint, don’t concentrate on him! You could lose the real one if
he’s not it! Get your perspective back! Please!”

Clint paused, then told Sergio he would be in
touch later.

“
Thanks,
Judi. I always say to keep your head and be objective, but I don’t
know if I can with this one.”

“
When you
know you’re right, beyond doubt, talk like that. Not when it’s only
what you think,” Judi warned. “I feel the same way, but you know
how many times things seem to be something it turns out they’re
not. You could be manipulated by one of them if you go off on a ...
that kind of thing.”

Clint nodded. He would wait to see what the
passport records told him. If someone was manipulating him he
couldn’t see how or who.

Sergio called back before they finished
dinner. “Clint, all of that family had two passports except Donald.
The girls were born in California of Swiss parents. Donald was born
in Switzerland. I’ll check them out, too.”

“
Shit!”
Clint replied to no one.

“
Well,
how long are we going to have to stay here?” Amanda asked. “I’m not
in a hurry to leave. I’d be happy to spend a couple of months going
around the country. I even think I’d like to live here. Even with
all that’s happened it’s different enough that I could be totally
content. The men here aren’t so hung up. They don’t think much
about age or that I’m forty pounds overweight. In fact, they like
bigger women! It’s nice to be hit on. I don’t much like men, but it
is a good feeling when they think of you as more than a piece of
ass.

“
Well,
that’s what they’re after, but they do seem to think there’s more
to it than that, that I’m also a person.

“
Sorry. I
feel so FREE now! I didn’t realize how much of my life was
controlled by my controlling SOB father. I always thought I was the
most independent one, but why would I even come on these trips with
him if I was?

“
The
whole family’s a basket case, I suppose. Maybe now we can get on
with our lives.”

Clint remembered the hints that Lawrence was
abusing the girls. That would definitely fit here!

“
It
shouldn’t be long,” Clint answered. “Mind if I ask some personal
questions?”

“
Depends
on what personal questions. Fire away. If I don’t think it’s any of
your business I’ll say so. I AM independent that way!”

“
Well,
one is about your mother. What did you feel about her?”

“
I was
always confused. I loved her like nobody else in the world, but I
also resented that she wouldn’t stand up to my father. She was
trying to protect us kids in a way, I know, but she went about it
all wrong. The way we were treated was what killed her, I firmly
believe.

“
She once
had a nervous breakdown because of it. She should have just taken
us and left the bastard, but she kept trying to get us to.... I
don’t know. Things are different in Europe. That’s why I like
California, but he got as bad there after awhile. We were getting
older. He was losing control and was getting worse and worse. Mom
had a bad heart and was terrified that we would be left with just
him. That’s what killed her.”

Clint nodded. That more or less confirmed
it.

“
When did
you first meet Dr. Orison?”

“
When Mom
had a nervous breakdown. About twenty years ago. I was twelve.
Pop’s lawyer recommended him. He counseled with us kids a lot and
explained that Pops was a bit crazy and dangerous and we should
just stay out of his way as much as we could. He helped all of us
for a long time. He counseled Pops a lot, too. He tried to keep him
on an even keel, but nothing would work with Pops. He was always
worse after Doc talked with him.

“
You
asked about Mom. I was more than confused by Pops. Up until I was
about eight years old I remember him being kind of fun and
affectionate. It changed pretty radically and was really bad until
I was about fifteen. He turned his attention to Wanda then. She was
always a lot more meek than I was and wouldn’t stand up to him at
all. Dr. Orison helped her a lot more than me. He convinced her she
had to try to forgive Pops because he was crazy and not responsible
and that he was sick. We didn’t know about the cancer until you
found that was what it was. We thought he was taking vitamins and
tranquilizers because he was nuts and it would help. We thought he
shaved his head to try to look like those people in the
movies.

“
Donald
stood up to him more than us girls. He would still beat him and be
mean.”

Clint nodded. He said she had covered most of
what he wanted to ask. He couldn’t see how any woman would marry a
man as tyrannical as Lawrence seemed here. He wanted to know when
it started.

“
He was
fun and Okay for a long time. He treated Mom pretty good until, as
I said, he started going nuts when I was eight. She found out how
he was treating us kids and tried to stand up to him, but he was
... I don’t know. He could control her with threats that he would
take us and see she never saw us again. He had the money and land
and everything. He could use his powerful lawyers to see everything
done his way and she couldn’t do squat about it!

“
You
can’t possibly know how truly disgusting an excuse for a human
being he became. I’m glad and relieved he’s dead. I think if I ever
had the guts I’d have killed him years ago. I should have. Mom
would still be alive.

“
You want
the truth? I consider him the most vile thing that ever lived! He
ruined the lives of everyone in this spineless family and he ruined
the lives of everybody around him and I’m GLAD he’s
dead!

“
Sorry.
It’s the truth.”

“
I think
after everything I’ve learned about him that I’m fairly damned glad
he’s dead, too. To tell the truth, I’m a little sorry it didn’t
happen twenty years ago.”

“
Thank
you, Mr. Faraday. I think you saw right through him at the
restaurant the first time you saw him.”

“
Not to
nearly the extent it turns out.

“
How
close were Orison and Rasmussen to him and to the
family?”

“
Well,
Doc tried to help us a lot, but you could see he was sort of scared
of Pops or something. He was careful to not go too far with what he
did with us. He helped Mom, but she wasn’t around for too long
after he met her. Razzy was before him. He was about twenty five
and just licensed in Norway. We took vacations in Norway
then.

“
Anyhow,
Pops hired him because he said he was as careful and sharp as any
lawyer he’d ever met. He was in the same university as Doc and Pops
hired Doc, too. He paid for them to come to Switzerland.

“
That was
Razzy’s idea. He said the laws there were much better than in
Norway and there was no comparison as to the banks. We sort of were
a family, but Razzy and Doc had their own places. Razzy really put
the farm business together and Pops financed the psycho institution
for Doc. We were between comfortable and well-off then. It only
took Razzy six or seven years to make us wealthy, then a few more
to make us VERY wealthy. He sort of forced Pops to stop raising
horses because he liked horses into raising horses as a business.
He could have both worlds, that of horse fancier and that of horse
breeder for profit.

“
We
inherited a lot of land in California that got Pops started in
Switzerland. His brother died in an earthquake in the northern part
of the state. He was doing research on finding minerals in extinct
volcanoes and there was a quake, not very strong, but he was in a
blow-hole cave that collapsed. He wasn’t married so Pops got
everything. He moved half of the business there and started getting
into the racing end. That was always up and down. Pops said it was
a losing proposition for five years and a profit-making endeavor
for one in a sort of cycle. It did pay for everything in the long
run, but the breeding is what makes the money now.

“
Pops
started taking us on these tour vacations four years ago. He said
he wanted to see the world while he still could. Actually, it was
something to make us stay together and to use for control. ‘See
what I’m doing for you! You could never go anywhere if you had to
make it on your own!’ kind of thing.

“
It’s
true that he was planning to commit suicide here and leave us all
with nothing?”

“
That’s
what it looks like. It’s the thing that turned me from mere disgust
to thinking he was, as you said, the vilest person in the world.
I’m not sure we can blame all of that on him. It’s his nature, but
something or somebody had reinforced it. It wasn’t only the
cancer.”

“
Frieda,”
she stated clearly.

“
What?”

“
Frieda.
The woman who manages the US business. She can be the sweetest
person you ever met to your face, but I saw things for years. She
is, actually, about the most scheming bitch who ever lived. She and
Pops have been sleeping together since even before Mom
died.

“
Sorry.
I’m talking out of turn. It’s nothing you can put your finger on,
just dozens of things I saw and heard over the past twenty years.
I’ve seen her turn from Favorite Aunt Lucy to Matilda the Hun in
five seconds.”

“
I got
that impression.”

“
You know
her? ... Oh, yes. You went to the ranch. She called Wanda and said
you were there. Wanda can’t see through her. Don did to an extent.
Trudy definitely did.”

“
Well, I
think that answers most of what I wanted to know. I needed some
background about your family to be able to see where everyone’s
coming from. Maybe you can have a decent future now that Lawrence
is out of it.

“
I’d make
a small suggestion if I might? Just a feeling?”

“
Shoot!”

“
Get
Razzy and Doc out of the equation.”

She looked thoughtful, then slowly nodded.
“I’ve been suspicious of Razzy for a long time. Why Doc?”

“
Because
they’re much too close. There’s no way one could be embezzling or
worse that the other doesn’t know all about it – and probably is
part of it.”

She nodded again. “Thanks.”

Clint stood and said his goodbye.

“
Amanda
thinks Frieda is behind it,” Clint informed the little group. “She
says Lawrence and Frieda have been lovers for years, even before
the wife died. She’s also damned suspicious of Rasmussen. She was a
bit surprised that I seem suspicious of Orison.”

“
How
could anyone not be?” Judi asked. “My God, I never saw them and I’m
suspicious of both of them.”

“
They
were inside the picture, not looking at it from a distance,” Sergio
pointed out. “It’s a matter of perspective.”

“
Relativity,” Marko agreed. “What you perceive is a matter
of your position. Your perspective.”

“
Whatever,” Dave said. “Reality is situational. Enough of
the trite philosophy already.”

“
I want
to see who contacts whom and what their reactions are,” Clint said.
“Manny, I have to know if Frieda gets in touch with Lindsay and
how. That could shift the whole mess. I have to know who gets in
touch with Rasmussen and Orison. I’ll be watching Wanda much more.
And Trudy.”

“
Wanda!”
Judi exclaimed. “Why Wanda?”

“
Because
there’s no way anyone couldn’t see through some of these situations
and she could be acting like a retarded idiot on purpose. Trudy
because she very plainly did see through them.”

“
Watch
Amanda, too,” Judi warned. “Just a woman’s intuition. She’s too
assertive too fast.”

“
Oh, yes.
I am,” Clint answered. “I would watch her because I tend to like
her. The whole family’s in the range of constitutional
psychopathic. Those people can make you like and trust them because
that’s a survival trait of the type.”

They discussed the family a little more, then
fishing, then anything that came up. Manny went back to Isla San
Cristóbal. Dave went to practice some new songs he and Paul wrote.
Judi went to a meeting of the garden club and Clint went to Bongos
to listen to the local gossip.