Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition (57 page)

“
Yup!”

“
You want
to pick her up or maybe find the wig and wait for her to go after
someone else? Who would it be?

“
I don’t
believe it will be hard to find the boat that carried
her.”

“
I think
Trudy has put herself into a more safe position with ... but that’s
only if it was about money. I don’t think it was. I really DON’T
think it was!

“
Still, I
don’t think she’s in real danger – but I didn’t think Wanda was,
either. Orison and Rasmussen will have to know it was her after
this. She might go after them somehow.

“
Let’s
wait awhile and go have a talk with her. It’ll be better to give
her some time to think maybe we missed something as obvious as this
one ... or that we’ll think it was Razzy and/or Doc.”

Sergio nodded. He would meet with Clint about
three and they’d let Amanda know they had her figured. Clint
wondered if she would have any reaction to the news.

“
We can
go to the Olas,” Sergio suggested. “I imagine she’ll be there. She
walks around town a lot. She’s popular with the
natives.”

They headed for the Hotel Olas, but she’d
left about ten and hadn’t returned. She was carrying a backpack and
might have gone to Bocas del Drago for the day.

They went to the Swan’s Cay to speak with
Orison and Rasmussen. They hadn’t left their rooms since breakfast.
Sergio looked puzzled. Clint sighed.

“
What?”
Sergio asked.

“
Wouldn’t
they logically have checked out early enough to get the flight to
Panamá? After all, they knew they didn’t have protection here and
might be able to get out through the airport at Tocumen.

“
I think
maybe we should check out their rooms.”

“
I see.
Little lady’s been pretty busy, huh? Well, we said we might wait
until they were murdered to be able to catch the
killer.”

They went to Orison’s room. He wasn’t there.
The hotel clerk opened the door with the passkey.

“
He’s
packed and ready to go,” Clint noted when they went in to find the
packed bags by the door. They went to Rasmussen’s room. Where the
people in the next room asked if they would please tell them to
turn the TV down. It sounded like a war was going on in that
room!

It had to be opened, too. Rasmussen and
Orison were sprawled on the floor, cut to pieces. The TV was on one
of the channels that showed violence flicks all day. Loud.

“
THAT is
a rage killing if I ever read about them in the books!” Sergio
cried. “Dios mio!” He turned the TV down to just
audible.

Sergio called Astrades, who was still at the
Suites. He said he’d be there in ten minutes.

“
Do you
know why she would do that to them?” Sergio asked. “I mean, she
stabbed Rasmussen just twice. He wouldn’t have time to make any
loud noise. Either wound would have been fatal in my estimation.
One in the throat and once in the heart.

“
Orison
... he was cut to pieces! I doubt he was killed quickly. Why didn’t
he cry out or something to find rescue?”

“
He might
have, but she might have had him by the throat. Look at the
bruises. I think I told her something she had suspected already,
but not quite believed.”

“
Oh?”

“
That he
could have stopped Lawrence from raping his kids at anytime, but
chose not to.”

“
He did
that?”

“
It’s
what it amounts to. He was so intent on getting money from Lawrence
he didn’t go very far to try to help those kids and the wife. He
said himself that he should have shot him when the wife died. He
could have, or he could have used his expertise in psychology to
stop him. Instead, he used it to manipulate him into the money
thing.”

“
He died
much too quickly and easily!”

“
Amen!”

Astrades came in, shook his head and asked if
this exposed the killer. Clint said yes, but they already knew who
she was. Donald’s, Wanda’s and these two. Lawrence was killed from
the US. She had to have known about it. She used the timing.

“
Ah! Let
Donald kill off the old man, then eliminate him. She knew the
poison was there and that she could make it appear they both died
by the same device.

“
It
wouldn’t work.”

“
It would
work to the point there would be reasonable doubt, no matter what.
At least, she saw it that way.

“
She
shouldn’t have gone off and killed the others the doubt could be
focused on. She has no way out.”

“
You have
her in custody?” Astrades asked.

“
No. She
went to Drago or somewhere,” Sergio said.

Clint said he never heard of any “Drago” in
California. Astrades grinned and Sergio swore.

“
I guess
she’s going to finish off the Lindsays now?” Sergio
asked.

“
I hope
so. She should have plenty of time before I can get
there.”

“
You hope
so?” Astrades asked.

“
Well,
that will save Panamá the costs of their extradition and trial,
Clint pointed out.

“
There is
that!” Sergio agreed.

Clint called Aeroperlas and booked a flight
to Panamá City, then Modesto, California. Another damned trip
around the world over this mess! It would be nice to be able to
just go fishing or with Dave in the mountains or to simply lay
around doing nothing.

Like that would ever happen!

It was drizzly in Modesto, but clearing. The
trip to the farm was beautiful with a very strong sense of peace
about it. It was almost surreal compared to what he expected to
find.

Frieda opened the door and looked a question
at him. He certainly hadn’t expected THAT!

“
Hi! Has
Amanda gotten here yet?” he greeted.

“
Amanda?
Is coming here? She is being held down in Panamá until the death of
Lawrence is explained, according to my latest information.” She
looked a bit scared.

“
Well,
she was. We know who the killer is and who knew about it. She’s on
a rampage getting revenge on people she blames for all the troubles
in her life. She doesn’t see that it was always only Lawrence and
Orison. She’s after everyone who helped him – or who knew about it
and didn’t do anything. She sees them as being as guilty as they
were, which is kind of the way it is, really.”

“
You know
who the killer is? It was Amanda?”

“
No. You
and your husband. That was easy. No one else could have worked the
curare bit with the phials on Lawrence. I think maybe she overheard
you or something and used the opportunity to kill Donald. If she’d
stopped then we most likely couldn’t have ever proven beyond
reasonable. She killed off all the other suspects for
Donald.”

“
She
killed ... who?”

“
Donald,
Wanda, Dr. Orison and Rasmussen. She sneaked out of Panamá to come
here after you and Frank. I was somewhat surprised you’re still
alive to answer the door.”

“
Supposing we did something that may have resulted in
Lawrence’s death in Panamá?” She smirked. “It was in Panamá and
we’re here.”

“
That’s
precisely what they have extradition for. Where can I find your
husband?”

“
In the
stables,” she replied and closed the door in his face. He walked
back to the immaculate stables, admiring the beautiful horses along
the way. Frank Lindsay wasn’t around. He’d taken his fancy Viper
and driven off about two hours ago. Probably to visit his
girlfriend in the valley. The stable boy made a crude map of how to
find the place. There was obviously no big secret that Frank had a
girlfriend. The marriage was strictly one of business convenience
these people knew nothing about.

Clint called a taxi, went into town to rent a
car, then headed to the address on the map. The Viper was sitting
under a tree in front of the place. No one was around. The house
was locked tight.

He considered, then went back to the rental
to ask if Amanda Lesley had rented a car.

No. If he meant the horse people, they had a
fleet of cars, so why would she rent one? A large man was standing
by his car when he went back out. He said his name was Dan
Fielding, a friend of Marko Boccini. Was he Clint Faraday?

“
Ah! You
were watching the Lindsays?”

“
Uh-huh.
I had a call that you would be here.”

“
Know
where Frank is?”

“
Sorta.
He went to his girlfriend’s place. I saw him go in and got a
message to meet you at the estate. He always stays a couple of
hours when he goes there. I traced you to this place. Took a phone
call and the mention of a name and they told me you had just rented
the car and what it is. I went toward the girlfriend’s and saw you
coming back.”

“
He’s not
at the girlfriend’s. Nobody is.”

He looked thoughtful.

“
The
Viper’s there. The house is locked up.”

“
She
drives a two-oh-six Honda. Black. Is it there?”

“
No.”

He shrugged.

Clint called Manny and requested that he get
someone to the estate as fast as he could. He was with Fielding and
would get there as fast as he could. Dan heard him and headed for
his car. He said to come with him. It was a hell of a lot faster
than the rental.

The estate looked the same. No one answered
the door so they went around to Frieda’s cottage. No one was there,
either. Dan took ten seconds to open the door and they went in to
find she had apparently thrown a few clothes into a suitcase and
fled.

“
She
drives a red ninety four Jeep,” Dan said. “She goes out toward the
east to a little place she probably uses as a hideaway.”

They got in his car and went through the
estate and out the back gate. A mile and a quarter along a
poorly-kept secondary road was a small house set back from the
road. The Jeep was out front. They drove in where Clint called
Frieda and got no answer. Dan moved around to one side and waved
for Clint to move away from where anyone could see him from the
windows. After a couple of minutes Dan stepped out the front door
and motioned for Clint to come in.

Frieda was laying just inside the front door
with a bullet between the eyes. A strange woman was sprawled on the
couch with same.

“
Amanda
didn’t shoot them,” Clint said. “That’s not close to her MO. She
wouldn’t kill anyone like this. She wanted them to suffer and know
fear and pain. If she killed Frieda, the way she hated her, it
would be very slowly and very painfully, not like this. She killed
Rasmussen fast because she had no choice. It was Orison she wanted
to see suffer.

“
I wonder
what she did to Frank Lindsay?”

Dan grunted and picked up the desk phone with
a handkerchief to call 9-1-1 and croak, “Oh, God! He killed her!
I...” He took out a .357, fired a shot out the window and dropped
the phone. He motioned to the door and stepped outside. “Let’s get
out of here! The cops can handle this one!”

They got in his car and headed back to the
girlfriend’s house. The Viper was still there.

“
Know
something?” Clint said. “I think maybe Frank Lindsay killed those
women and has run away with dear Amanda.”

“
That was
his girlfriend back there, so you could be right. They’ve run off
together to live happily ever after?”

“
I sort
of sincerely doubt it. It may be what one or both of them think,
but they’ve damned well got another think coming!”

Dan took Clint back to town and to his hotel.
He would have to figure where they might go, which meant knowing
where they’d been.

He called Manny, who said she had simply gone
to the airport and to San José, Costa Rica on her second passport.
When they put the original hold on her they put it on the one she
used coming in. The other had an entrance visa to Costa Rica that
had never been stamped for exit so she could say she went into
Panamá around the water side because the storm had wiped out the
bridge at Sixola. She just HAD to see that her brother and sister
who lived in Chiriqui Grande were alright! No one would question
that. There was a lot of confusion since the storm and people went
back and forth regularly without getting a passport stamped.

She had been a lot of places. His guess was
that she would try to get to Switzerland. She might have a place in
Canada because Lawrence had little vacation cottages in several
places. Maybe to Belgium, Bavaria, or Southern France. Maybe the
Iberian Peninsula. She was going to have to be traced. She had the
money and connections to get a false passport. She might go
anywhere.

Clint suddenly cried, “HAH!” and picked up
the phone, then put it down. He remembered her saying she had been
happy in one place. Ecuador, in a house on a cliff over the
ocean.

WHERE in Ecuador?

Wherever, he would go to Quito. They should
have some kind of record of the sale of the land. He could trace
it. It might take awhile, but he would like to see Ecuador. He knew
he liked the music.

He called the lawyer, Angel Guerra, to ask,
“Why would someone who committed murders in Panamá and the US go to
Ecuador?” he asked after chatting a few minutes.