Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition (51 page)

They went to Manolo’s place where Clint was
able to contact Manny. Dave was there. He said the island was going
to be completely cut off for a few days. There was no way out, the
ATM’s weren’t working because the phone tower was out, thus the
internet wasn’t working. Manny had a direct satellite connection.
There were dozens of people who had to have the ATM access. They
couldn’t leave the island and didn’t have cash to pay hotels of for
food. The churches were letting them sleep there.

They discussed the bad weather situation for
awhile, then Clint and Manolo talked about the people Manolo would
introduce the next day. These were the contacts through which
Lawrence and his friends had gotten the offshore accounts set up.
It wasn’t very likely Clint could get any information from them,
but it was worth a shot.

Clint sighed and went to his room an hour
later.

The weather was a bit worse. The seas were
high and rough. It was depressing.

Clint met Manolo for breakfast, then they
went to a lawyer’s office. Clint had discussed how he would handle
things so Manolo introduced him to Enrico Paolo and left.

Paolo was another slick type with too much
gaudy jewelry and too expensive clothes for the area. He had a
Mercedes parked outside the door. His Rolex was a rip-off Clint saw
around Panamá at times. It cost $38.00 instead of the several
thousand the original cost.

“
Mr.
Manolo said you are interested in opening a bank account on the
islands?” he said when Manolo had left.

“
No. I
only told him that. I’m investigating some things for people who
will remain anonymous. I have some people who know some people who
have accounts now. One of them was recently murdered in Bocas.
These people want to be sure there is security if that kind of
thing happens to any of them.”

“
Oh? Mr.
Donald Lesley. I heard about that,” he said, leaning back in his
chair and folding his hands across his rather ample middle. “I
can’t give you any information about the account at all – and
wouldn’t if I could. You rather obviously know about the account or
you wouldn’t be here. If you have the proper authority I can place
you into contact with Mr. Knowles at the bank. Other than that I
know nothing about it.”

Clint managed to hide his surprise about
Donald and to improvise.

“
I will
say only that his wife may or may not be one of the people who want
to be sure of the security. I’m certain she can give me the proper
authorization, but she’s in Bocas and can’t be reached for a day or
more. The telephones are down, as is the internet.”

“
Yes.
Terrible for the people there. Bocas is a rather poor province,” he
said sadly (phony!). “I imagine the bank will have a designation of
funds. It is likely to be in her name. If it is not I may be able
to offer help in resolving the laws in Panamá about inheritance
rights of the spouse?”

“
Perhaps,
though this is offshore so the laws won’t necessarily apply. Thank
you for your help. I may be in touch later as her
representative.”

He left wondering about that surprise. Maybe
Donald was the one who was supposed to be murdered and Lawrence was
in the wrong place at the wrong time!

He went to Manolo’s place where he was told
Manolo was at the docks securing his boats. The weather might get
rougher and he wanted to be prepared. Clint went down to the docks
where he found Manolo directing several locals in tying the boats
where they had some room to rise and fall but where they wouldn’t
be against anything that could damage them. Manolo asked about the
meeting.

“
I may
have been looking at the wrong murder all along. It seems Lawrence
wasn’t the one with an account.”

Manolo raised an eyebrow. “Which bank?”

“
I was
careful not to ask, but Knowles is the contact.”

“
Security
Peace Bank and Trust. Misty Island. He’s from Toronto, Canada, and
directs a lot of things there,” Manolo said, thinking. “I’ve been
suspicious of some things about that one. He has some very
expensive art in his place, but I am not invited to attend parties
there. Maybe you will be?”

“
I hope
so. I’ll get pictures of the art for you.”

He raised the eyebrow again so Clint showed
him the tiny spy camera he was using. Manolo hadn’t spotted it. He
said he would appreciate any cooperation he could get and would
make damned sure Clint’s name would never come up about it.

They went back to Manolo’s place where they
contacted Manny. Clint explained that they might have found a large
account in Donald’s name. Could he get some kind of POA from Trudy
to investigate it?

He said he’d try. He could fax it to him over
the satellite link.

Clint went back to the hotel to set some
things up in his own papers. He was there for more than two hours
when the desk sent up that there was a fax for him. He went down
where he was told there was a five dollar charge for personal
faxes. He paid and got three sheets. One a POA for any and all
banking concerns of Trudy Lesley, wife of Donald Lesley,
deceased.

One was a report from Sergio about the
movements of Orison and Rasmussen, who had gone to Panamá City, but
were expected to return to San Blas in a day or two. There was no
reason he could find for them to go there.

One was a note from Manny and Dave that said
Trudy was shocked that there was an account in Donald’s name. She
knew nothing about it.

“
That
wasn’t faked!” Dave had written.

So. Donald was dealing with those two and
wife Trudy didn’t know about it. Donald was dead. The offshore
account was probably set up to where they couldn’t hope to touch it
as simple and obvious insurance that they wouldn’t knock him off
for it.

Well, that cleared them for the murders or
for paying for a hit!

Then they suddenly went to Panamá City. They
would return to the bank with a POA for Trudy that she wouldn’t
know a thing about. If Clint hadn’t stepped in when he did they
would have the account in a couple of days. There was going to be
one hell of a surprise waiting for them when they returned.

Clint went to the Policia National where he
met with the chief, Carlos Navida, who said Sergio had contacted
them when Clint came to San Blas the first time and had requested
that they offer their full cooperation as he was investigating as
an aide in a dual murder and money laundering scheme. That he was
under cover and his working for the Policia National was and must
remain confidential. He had worked with Sergio in Santiago and
Panamá City and knew he was a good man in whom he could place his
full confidence, blah, blah, blah.

“
I don’t
know how big this damned mess might become,” Clint warned. “It
could involve people from Europe and from the USA – or more. Be
ready for anything, though I will try to make it very quiet until
it’s resolved. I will certainly make it widely known you and Sergio
were behind the success of the operation. If it isn’t successful I
won’t want anything known about it by anyone, of course. Blah,
blah, blah.”

They laughed about that.

Clint had copies of the faxed POA made and
gave Carlos one, “Just so they can’t say I was trying to put
anything over on anyone.”

“
And also
so they can’t say you didn’t present a proper information form. I
will give you an approved identification card saying we have
checked you out about this matter and find you are legitimate. That
will also serve to make them more cooperative. They will wish to
avoid police intervention into their banks. It would be very bad
for business.”

Clint took him to a little restaurant where
they had coffee and hojaldras. Then he headed for the contact
office for the offshore banks where Knowles would meet with him.
Manolo had a friend set that up for him.

Knowles was a reddish-haired affable sort,
but with a strong air of suspicion about him. He looked at the POA
and shrugged. “What can I do for you? I know nothing or less about
accounts in that name.”

“
Misty
Island. You set up the account. It’s in a corporate name with
corporate control. The wife, Trudy Lesley, inherited the
corporation when her husband died. He was recently murdered. She
has been cleared of any responsibility, thus she
inherits.

“
All she
wants is a current accounting. Nothing else will change here unless
there’s something uncovered that makes it necessary.”

“
I see.
Such as money laundering?” He was giving Clint a very concentrated
hard look. Clint knew those accounts were often set up for exactly
that purpose.

“
Which
would be by the deceased husband and/or his partners. She could not
be held responsible if she had no clue as to the account until
after his death. Any partners who could use the fact that she
wasn’t supposed to know about it to gain control could. It would be
much to the best interest of the bank and of any others concerned
should they not be given such control, if I make myself
clear?”

He slowly nodded. “I will need the corporate
papers – which are in the files, of course. A moment.” He pinched a
number on the interphone and told Miss Andrews to bring him OS file
number DL-8100AB-MI complete.

So. He knew the file number off the top of
his head?

Knowles saw his look and said, “I heard of
his death and researched it to be sure the bank could not be held
responsible for ... anything.” Clint nodded. This was a great
break! He hadn’t gotten the corporate licensing records for any of
it. He was sidetracked by the approaching storm and.... Admit it!
He’d let it slip his mind. That was happening too often anymore.
Maybe he’d better take Dave’s advice and increase his potassium
level. A large banana a day. Simple and obvious. Dave’s research
told him a lot about that kind of thing. Clint liked bananas. He’d
have one for breakfast every day from now on.

Why in HELL was he sitting there thinking
about that kind of thing at a time like this?

Because you need a higher potassium level,
stupid!

An attractive woman brought in a file and
gave Clint a dazzling smile and a speculative look. He smiled
back.

Clint had taught himself to read upside-down.
The file had a typed sticker with the number and “Lobopad, S.A.” on
the front. Knowles quickly covered the sticker. Clint acted like he
was looking only at Miss Andrews and hadn’t noticed anything
else.

“
Let’s
see, now. That would be the LesleyDon account?” Knowles asked
innocently.

“
I
believe she said it was Lobopad, S.A. He has more than one account?
She’ll be glad to hear that!”

“
Just to
be damned sure you know enough to be privy to this,” Knowles
explained, then to Miss Andrews, “Bring up the bank information to
date, please?”

She went to the computer and accessed the
MistyIslesBank.pa.com account and punched in her user name,
“Knowitall100" and the secret password, “1msandws2”. Clint appeared
to be looking at a picture of a horse just to the side of the
computer and to not have noticed. Knowles was watching him and
about to say something to Miss Andrews so Clint said, “That’s a
picture of the California estate of the Lesleys’ with that horse
that won an upset a few years ago, ‘Bright Winner’, I think,
right?”

Knowles relaxed and said, “Yes. Donald gave
it to me. It was the first deposit. He said he’d bet a lot on a
hunch, it came in, the bets were with a bookie who paid him in
cash, he wanted to put it somewhere the US government couldn’t tax
the hell out of him.”

“
I
certainly can’t argue with that! They’ve run the economy into the
Dumpster with that stupid Iraq war!” Clint agreed. Miss Andrews
smiled and said that was the main reason she’d left the states.
That kind of blatant stupidity she couldn’t countenance. Maybe
Barak Obama could get the economy going again. They could use
another Bill Clinton. He at least had a surplus it took Bush two
weeks to turn into the biggest deficit ever – and I was always a
Republican!

“
There’s
no difference in parties anymore. Same shit from them all. Ron Paul
could have made a lasting change, I suppose,” Knowles said.
“There’s the daily account info. Twenty three million, seven
hundred forty five thousand, two hundred seven dollars. Only four
percent, but there’s no way anyone can tax it thirty percent so it
grows fast.”

Clint almost whistled, then said that was
about a third more than she’d figured.

“
Oh, she
knew about the account?” Knowles asked suspiciously.

“
No. She
knew about the win, but didn’t know what happened to the money.
Donald wouldn’t discuss such things with her. He just told her that
if anything happened she was going to be wealthy enough to where
she could tell her slimy asshole bastard obnoxious father-in-law
exactly where he could stick his threats of cutting her
off.

“
She
sometimes did that, anyhow. She knew about the other wins, but
never knew how much was involved.”

Knowles nodded. “Donald told me he was proud
of how she stood up to his father. He hated him, but had to keep
the idea he was cowed alive to get more. He once told me his father
had raped him repeatedly since he was nine years old until he was
almost fifteen and that he suspected he was doing the same to his
sisters.”

“
I got
that idea from talking with them. Donald didn’t come here
often?”

“
Never. I
was in California at the request of a close friend. He was
introduced and we made the arrangements. I have since received
funds only directly in California. There are several ways to move
cash here.”