The Diamond Dust on Dragonfly Wings: A Jeffry Claxton Mystery Novel

by Michael Yudov

  There was a slight pause before the answer came back.

  “Fine.”

  Her tone was still a bit icy, but I could get around that. First things first. I told Ronnie my suspicions about the Bike Patrol Officer from the small station across from the bank. She called it in, and ended up being patched through to the officer in charge at the scene.

  Unfortunately, my hunch had proved correct. The young officer running the station had been killed this morning when she arrived for a day’s work. The killer had walked into the station while the officer was having a coffee and going over the previous week’s reports for her area. She’d been shot sitting in her chair.

  Twenty-six years old, married, with one child, a four-year-old boy. Her husband was being notified. He worked as a graphic arts designer with a Swiss-German Zurich newspaper. He was one year younger than her. Twenty-five years old.

  We were all quiet for a few minutes after Ronnie let us know.

  That told us all we needed to know about Terry’s condition. I doubted he was still alive. The only way that we could be sure would be to show up at the meeting place we’d picked the night before. That would be pretty silly, though. If he gave them the name of Inwestek, he probably gave them everything. That would mean a trap at the meeting place. Maybe ‘Enrico’ kept him alive to use as bait at the meet. To show that everything was still Okay. Maybe.

  The Audi was following two or three car lengths behind me, doing a good job of looking non-lethal. It was that maybe that kept me on the road to the meet. It was supposed to be just outside of town on the highway to Geneva, at a busy restaurant in one of the rest stops along the highway.

  Ten minutes before we would arrive at the rest stop, I pulled over to the side of the road, and slowed for the turn into a Tourist Information Kiosk building, set just off the highway in a small grove of oak trees. These trees had been around for a long time, they were mature; measuring an average of about six to ten feet around at the base. One more thing the Swiss do very well, and that was to manage their limited forest and natural reserves, even if those reserves were a small clump of empty land on a vacant lot in the middle of the city. That immediately became a small field of corn, for example. When it came to trees, they were passionate about conservation. If they hadn’t been that way, there wouldn’t be a tree left standing in the country. They had also had the foresight to turn these decisions into legislation. With a bite. You could do time in the big house for cutting down a tree on your own property, for example. Not bad. For the trees, I mean. Personally, if it was my land, I would want to have full rights, but my country was a little bit bigger than Switzerland.

  ~

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  B

  oth cars eased into the angled parking spaces provided for the tourists. I pulled in first, and chose a slot at the far end of the lot, underneath one of the big oaks. I couldn’t see the highway from where I was parked, so that meant that the highway couldn’t see me either. The off-ramp curved into the entry-way to the parking lot, and from where I’d parked I was able to keep an eye on the cars entering behind me with a sideways glance. And a two-hundred-yard head-start. Good enough. Ronnie pulled up a few moments later in the Audi, taking the space to my left, with a request from me that she do so. The Corvette was the most recognizable of the two, and this way I was initially screened from any car entering the lot.

  During the trip from the bank to here, Ted hadn’t stopped talking. Fortunately, it was with Therese, because I had other things on my mind while I drove.

  How much Ted knew, and who Ted knew, for example. Who gave him money? Where did it come from? Exactly what in the hell did he do to earn this money in the first place? Was he just a misguided adventurer who got in over his head, or was he on the losing end of an illegal deal gone bad? If so, had he set out to look for illegal opportunities because they pay so much better than legal ones?

  Like how George was doing for another. And Sarah and the muffin-head for one more.

  Like whether or not Sarah and Cynthia had spoken, and whether or not they had been able to reassure themselves that we, meaning George and I, were fine, this was all standard procedure, and we’d all go out for a night of bowling when the boys come back, that sort of thing… but Sarah only knew about those feelings from when it had been me. Now it was me and her husband. The father of her child and her only blood relative besides her own daughter. Two of the three most important people in her life. I wouldn’t blame her if she cracked a bit, but she’d hold together in the long haul… whether or not the same could be said for Cynthia, I could only guess.

  Originally, I’d been concerned that having shot someone in a Police uniform would have gotten an instant All Points Bulletin issued on us within five minutes of our departure.

  Lady luck was on our side, though. It seemed that the first Police Unit on the scene had figured it out immediately. They had been friends of the young officer who was murdered.

  The fake cop had been helped by the people on the street and inside the shops, thinking that he was a real cop, of course. He had lost a lot of blood from the wound in his hand, which was barely attached after the shooting. I’d hit the hand and the clip of the machine pistol. Since the rounds were explosive tipped, the clip shot had ignited a few of the shells, making for a nasty little explosion—that he just happened to have his hand wrapped around at the time it went off.

  I got all of this from Ronnie in the first couple of minutes after we’d parked. Since they knew from the preliminary forensics that the fake cop had killed the real officer, anyone he had been about to shoot at would not be likely to be accomplices. So, no APB. Excellent.

  We had Ted, and maybe we would get Terry back, too. I doubted it, unless we could come up with an alternate source for the information about the meeting at Inwestek getting into ‘Enrico’s’ hands. For that I needed Walter. The one other way that we knew information was being scooped and passed along was by computer link with the bank systems. But would there be any files regarding the planting of Evie in the bank? There would definitely be a computer trail for the locking of Inwestek’s account. Maybe that was it. It was slim, but it was all there was.

  Evie took Ted and Therese over to the Audi while Ronnie and I looked over our options vis-a-vis, Terry. I got out my palmtop and connected to my ‘cell phone, uplinking to the ‘net. I tried contacting Walter in a particularly dull and obscure forum area on CompuServe. He went by the pseudonym of ‘Porky’, which cut down on casual contacts dramatically. I posted a request for ‘Porky’, ASAP. I figured it might take a couple of hours or maybe more. I knew that Walter had become mobile, choosing not to risk a trace on our comms, despite the powerful deceptor routines he wrote to protect himself. He was often inside databases where he shouldn’t be with nary a fear, and this was a reminder of the respect he was showing to the people we were tracking. He believed that they were capable of switching roles from the hunted, to the hunter.

  Amazingly, before I could even sign off, ‘Porky’ was on-line.

  “Hello Wanderer, I was beginning to wonder where you went to.”

  He had the code name right, it was Walter. We both automatically switched to a ‘private’ chat line.

  “Wanderer on-line.”

  “Porky on-line”

  “Understood. Ultra-fast response required. Access to main branch of Inwestek, three days’ worth only, search criteria is a match to any of the known connections. Start now, working backward. Time & Date stamp required. Timing?”

  “Checking now.”

  “I’m taking five.”

  “Later, alligator.”

  The last verification, the sign-off code, was correct. I signed off the ‘net as well, and shut down the cellular phone and the palm top by pressing a small black stud, inserted into the casings of each by myself, which broke the continuity of the ‘Power in’ line. Voila. Instant ‘RF CLEAR’ mode. No ‘Radio Frequency Emissions’ of any kind. Including residual power readings from any
of the ‘electronic circuitry’ on hand. No power to the input leads, and all you had was a pound of plastic and metals and silicon.

  There was only one more Swiss twist, then we were over the border into France. Ronnie fired up her cellular to call Terry. She had one of the greatest phones I’d ever seen. Every three seconds while it was powered, it switched broadcast frequencies, making it a hell of a lot harder to trace than my ordinary one. After she coded it to unlock, she handed it to me, and the expression on her face showed her true feelings. Terry was supposed to have called us about an hour ago. It didn’t look good.

  I punched in Terry’s number. The phone rang four rings, then went to his machine. That was when we got all the answers we would ever need about Terry again in this life. Enrico, or the voice of one his grey men came on the line with a recorded message.

  “Hello Colonel Godsen. I’m afraid that Terry won’t be able to supply you with the answers you wanted. Not today, and not ever, but feel free to visit me any time for a personal talk. I’d like that. You know how to find me.”

  The message ended, but instead of a beep, someone picked up the receiver and started talking in a foreign language, not Spanish, but sounding similar. It had to be Portuguese. There were maybe seven or ten words spoken, softly. Then he put the receiver down, disconnecting us.

  I repeated the words to Ronnie, and asked her if they made any sense to her.

  “Climb high, and look deep.”

  “What?”

  “That’s what you just said to me.”

  That sounded pretty ominous for Terry, but my name wasn’t used, he used the Colonel’s. That meant that Terry had held out long enough to cover the fact that I was with the Colonel, and who I was. Maybe. That would be a large advantage if it was true.

  He could do it too, if they never questioned him directly about me, he wouldn’t have to answer. Lies of omission. Maybe he told all the things that Enrico could back up from other sources, just not the memories of who I was and how I played a mission out. The stuff the files didn’t have, and damn few people either.

  The ones who did know the details of those days were mainly people that even the ‘Amazing Enrico’ couldn’t access. They were few and far between as well.

  Terry would have expected a payment of revenge from me for this, and right now I felt like giving it to him. I knew that if his body didn’t show up publicly in the next twenty-four hours, we’d never find him. We could try for the rest of our lives and still not find him. When someone disappears professionally, it’s just like the Hoffa thing. You never know where, unless they want you to know.

  I’d just turned off the phone and handed it back to Ronnie when Evie came across the main comms link.

  “Alright folks, here’s how we do it. We all need a pit-stop over here, so I’ll go with Therese. Ted says he wants to go as well. That means you go too, Jeffry.”

  I looked at Ronnie with a quizzical expression, allowing her to rule on the suggestion. She nodded her head in the affirmative.

  “Fine. I’ll come over and get him.”

  I was watching Ronnie out of the corner of my eye. She was scanning the dash, checking the back of the car, feeling the seats, eyeing the shifter, just digging the car and thinking about being behind the wheel. I could read it in her eyes. I nipped that one in the bud.

  “Ronnie, the only way you’ll ever get to drive this car is if I die or you marry me.”

  Her whole face went instantly red with a blush so vivid it must have started at her toes. Great. I’d hit a nerve, while meaning to keep it light.

  “Who said I wanted to drive this rolling wreck-about-to-happen?”

  “Ronnie. Come on now.”

  I switched off my comm link, and motioned for her to do the same, which she did.

  “Well?”

  “Ronnie, I have a lot of respect for you, and maybe one day we’ll be good friends, but I still wouldn’t let you drive this machine. This one is mine, and I don’t lend my cars to anyone. It’s a rule, that’s all. If it becomes necessary during the mission, then the mission comes first, and you get to drive it. If it doesn’t become necessary, well, you don’t. That’s all I meant.”

  She came right back at me with some heavy girl stuff.

  “That is not all you meant. You meant to insinuate that I have a ‘thing’ for you. Okay, it’s true, but just as true is the fact that you have a ‘thing’ for me as well. I know we can’t do anything about it while we’re on the case, but I give you fair warning mister, when this case is over, you and I won’t be.”

  She got out of the car and actually slammed the door. I sat there for a minute or so, thinking. Was it true? Did she see something I didn’t? It wouldn’t be the first time a woman was ahead of me in a potential relationship. Relationship? Was she crazy? Was I crazy? I had Cynthia at home, and all I wanted when this was over was to pick up where we’d left off. If she was still willing, and I’d bet dollars to doughnuts that she was. I could still taste her and smell her fragrance in my mind, from that day she had shown me the family conservatory.

  I was still sitting there daydreaming when there was a knock on the window. Evie and Therese. I got out of the car and flicked the lock switch, then took a deep breath and tried to slow her down. Evie was talking so fast I couldn’t understand half of what she was saying, but I got the gist of it. She wanted to know what I’d done to Ronnie to make her so upset. I said a silent prayer for moral strength of character.

  “Evie, hold it right there. I did not do anything to Ronnie. We had a small difference of opinion, that’s all. She’s the boss, so I don’t know why she’s so mad all of a sudden, Okay? She can change any plan she wants to change, she’s in charge. So why the histrionics? I certainly don’t know.”

  “For your information, buddy, she’s nuts about you in case you hadn’t noticed. If it were left up to men to figure out the love angles, there would be no human race. I can’t believe that you don’t see it. Men.”

  Then she walked away with Therese, headed for the tourist kiosk, and the ladies’ room. She had been pissed off with me. Why? Therese turned and looked back at me with a peculiar expression on her face, then they were inside the building. Oh yeah, this was going well.

  I walked over to the Audi, where Ted was sitting in the back and Ronnie was sitting in the passenger seat. With her arms folded in front of her, staring out the window at the entrance to the parking area. Her folded arms were tucked just under her breasts, showing from the side that she had a figure of her own all right. I stood outside her door and waited a few moments, then I knocked on the glass.

  She just sat there with her arms folded. Then I noticed that she was talking. My receiver, I’d left it turned off. Quickly I turned it on, catching the last bit of what she’d been saying.

  “…so if you need to go, do it now. Once ‘He’ gets on the road it’s hard to deter him from his assigned destination.”

  She didn’t move. She didn’t look at me. She just kept staring out the window.

  Ted got out of the car, hesitantly, which is understandable, and shut the door. I had pulled a gun on him not more than an hour or so ago. I have to admit, he was polite. He held out his hand, and gave it his best shot.

  “Hello Mister Claxton. I’ve already heard a lot of good things about you.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure. Look, if you have to go, let’s do it then.”

  I started walking towards the Kiosk, leaving Ted to hurry and catch up. As soon as he did, he started talking again.

  “Therese is crazy for you, Jeffry. Can I call you Jeffry?”

  I turned on him, suddenly stopping in my tracks.

  “No, you may not. ‘Major’ will do fine, and what do you mean by ‘crazy for me’?”

  He looked a bit distraught at the confrontational manner I was displaying, but this wasn’t a person I had to like, just a person I had to bring in. I had him now. All I had to do was keep him until I handed him over. Which was going to be to George, contrary to what
Ronnie or Evie might be thinking.

  “I um…, it’s… well, you know, uh… Oh hell! She wants you bad, that’s what I mean. Is that so hard to understand? Christ, I got to use the can, man.”

  “Okay, walk one step ahead of me.”

  We went into the kiosk, and hit the men’s room. On our way out we ran into Evie and Therese. Therese walked back to the car with Ted, and Evie and I walked behind them, casually.

  “You know this whole thing is ridiculous, don’t you?”

  I thought for a second, then capitulated.

  “Yes, it is. I don’t know how this came about. I really don’t. I’ve worked with women before without any of this crazy stuff going on.”

  “Crazy stuff? It’s no wonder they’re both mad at you after last night.”

  “What do you mean, ‘after last night’, nothing happened last night.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about.”

  “I’m lost here, Evie. I’m sorry, but I just don’t get it.”

  She gave me a sad look, the kind of look you give to someone you know and like, but at the same time you’re acknowledging their inability to see what any normal person would see—for ‘person’ read ‘woman’—and accepting the fact.

  “Jeffry, do you have any idea what kind of effect that you have on women in general?”

  “Well, I guess that I might seem a bit rough around the edges, but I’m always prepared to be polite and I try to act like a gentleman, but that’s in my personal life. It has nothing to do with no or the mission. I mean, what are you trying to say, Evie?”

  “I’m trying to tell you that your personal life and the fact that you’re on a mission seems to be enough of a separation in your mind to ignore any impact you have on people that doesn’t come under the heading of ‘Mission Orders, Jeffry Section’. You don’t see what’s right in front of your eyes.

  Therese has been falling for you since the start of this whole thing in Toronto. Ronnie never lets anything get to her when she’s on the job. I’ve been with her long enough to know that, yet, there’s something there. She has feelings for you. I’m not sure how deep it goes, but sleeping four feet away from where you slept, buck naked, with another woman… whom you spurned for some reason, it doesn’t make for happy campers. Pardon the pun.”