by Moulton, CD
“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.
“Ecuador? Probably because they could easily disappear there and because extradition from there would be too much of a nightmare to bother with.”
They chatted a bit more. So.
He called the airlines and booked back to Panamá with a flight two days later to Quito.
Ecuador et al
“I can’t find much in Ecuador outside of a couple of larger cities, such as they have,” Manny protested. “She might get away with it in a way. You’d have to get her out of the country to even think of extradition to the US.”
“Maybe. I have an idea about that. All you have to do is tie it to the drug trade and you get a lot of cooperation you would never have, otherwise,” Clint argued. “We can prove money laundering and murders. We claim we have to investigate if they were getting the money for drug deals with someone in Ecuador.”
“Why would they be any easier for that?” Judi asked.
“Because I can go on the web with a message to the congress in the US that Ecuador is protecting drug dealers who kill people in the US and other countries,” Dave replied.
“And they will ... wonder if maybe there will be a new commission to investigate where US aid is going?” Judi said. “I see. It doesn’t have to be anything you can prove, it just has to be something that could affect the aid.”
“I think I can get them to leave Ecuador,” Clint replied. “If not, I’ll be asking a favor, Dave.”
Dave gave him a thumbs-up. Manny said it wouldn’t work, but was worth a try. It might be the one thing that would make them decide to leave Ecuador. They then discussed what had happened so far. Clint said he personally thought most of it in Panamá was due to Amanda’s hatred of her father. He didn’t really know what was the motivation for Frieda and the other woman, who it turned out was Lindsay’s girlfriend.
“He was using the girlfriend to take attention away from Frieda. He married Frieda to get control of the money-laundering part. It was him and Amanda all along,” Dave suggested. “He was through using them and didn’t wa
nt anyone left around to tell tales.”
“What if he decides he’s through using Amanda now?” Judi asked.
“It’s much more likely to be the other way around,” Clint answered. “You just have to pay attention to the past and to what happened and with whom. Lindsay had to know about the child molestation. I think he used it to get to Amanda. I think she damned well knows it. Look what’s happened to everyone who knew and didn’t do anything to stop it!”
“Christ! If he was using her that way all along she’ll be after him more than even her father!” Judi cried. “She’ll save the best, the slowest and the most painful death of all for him!”
Manny grinned. “Clint, maybe you should consider the options for a few days before you go off half-cocked again. It could be a thing that mostly resolves itself. This isn’t the states and this isn’t the culture and the rules are different here. They’re pragmatic enough to say it was God’s vengeance for a bunch who were damned from the start by what they were. The best thing you can do now is to watch the money. They’re damned well not getting anything you know about unless they can work something through someone else. Trudy’s the only one that could be.”
“Trudy is NOT involved with them!” Dave said in a very positive way. “They’ll try to get her involved or they’ll try something dangerous to her and to anyone who tries to help her.
“Amanda’s nuts, in case that slipped by you! she’s a homicidal maniac and she’s teamed up with the one who probably pushed her over the edge. If I thought he was worth half a second’s consideration I’d probably feel a little sorry for him.
“Clint, I think Trudy should disappear for awhile.”
“Your place in Quiteno?” Judi suggested.
“Maybe my place here,” Manny suggested.
“No way!” Dave exclaimed. “For the sake of sanity! You have a wife and kid who would be put right in the line of fire! I’d suggest we have her go to David on a flight and not show up at the pre-booked hotel.”
“And go where?” Clint asked.
“Cusapin,” he replied. “I have quite a few friends there, it’s on the comarca where no one will know anything about anything. They know every gringo or other foreigner who comes to the place and there won’t be any gringa there who fits her description.”
“You might want to consider another little facet of that,” Manny suggested. “The Comarca’s have their own law to a VERY large extent here!”
“Yup! And the law is what the jefe says it is,” Dave added.
“I wonder if she can get this afternoon’s flight?” Clint asked.
Manny took his cell phone to call Aeroperlas, who had no seats. He called Air Panamá and they had the same answer – but she could appear at the top of the standbys. Roger owed Manny favors.
Manny asked for the names of the passengers. He said to give it a minute and put her in the O’Neil spot. He was delayed.
“She’s got about an hour to get packed and convinced,” he told Clint. Clint called her and said he had to talk with her. Urgent. He’d be in town in fifteen minutes. Get packed and to the airport as soon as she can. He’d meet her there to explain what was going on. She was in a lot of danger so stay with as many people as she could.
“What was that about O’Neil?” Judi asked.
“He’s talking with some people for some land that’s a total scam on his part. I’ll suddenly have them call him and say they have to see him this afternoon because funds should be released today and they can put down a hundred grand. They’ll have to go to San José first thing in the morning so it’s now or never.
“He’ll meet them. They’ll wave a bunch of legal papers around and call their lawyer to have a check made out to him.”
“And?”
“The lawyer will say the funds have been held for ten more days for collection because the idiots in the states sent a counter certified check, not a cash transfer like they were instructed!”
They all grinned. They loved it when a scam artist was scammed.
Clint and Judi went outside to flag a cab while Manny made a reservation for her with the Hotel Alcalá in David.
Ten minutes before Trudy was to board Dave came in to tell her that she would be met by a taxi with a driver named José Ovaldia to take her to the Alcalá. He would take her around a couple of blocks to be sure she wasn’t followed, then would go to the secure private section of the airport where Lorenzo Machazini would fly her directly to Cusapin. She would be called Daniella Justice there. Dave handed her an ID card with her picture and that name. “It’s a phony. I used the picture from your passport and made out the card with that lamination machine Manny has,” he explained. “Lorenzo will introduce you to Nica, an Indio friend. You’ll stay with them. I think you’ll like the place and the lifestyle. It’s a long way from what you’re used to.”
She smiled and agreed it would be an adventure. Ever since they arrived in Bocas it had been an adventure. They watched until the plane was in the air, then went back to Clint’s house. Bobby Longstreet, a gay neighbor, waved and called that some very handsome man had come to see him and would return in about half an hour.
“Did he give you a name?” Clint asked.
“I think he said Manuel. He’s a knockout doll! Beautiful, but sort of dangerous-looking. I was a little scared to ask him for a roll.”
Clint thought, then said, “Rolex watch, gold chains, built like a bodybuilder, maybe six or six one, nut-brown hair and brown eyes?”
“Yes.”
“Manolo. A friend from San Blas.”
“Will he roll?”
“I don’t know. Ask him. He’s a decent guy and won’t do more than say yes or no.”
Judi giggled. Dave said most people here would like a roll if it’s raining and there’s nothing else to do. Bobby said he would pray for a real storm! – just not like the last one. One that made people want to go to bed and didn’t screw up the whole country.
“This is someone I have GOT to meet!” Judi said. “I admit that I admire your taste in men.”
They chatted a minute, then all of them went into Clint’s house. Clint looked around and shook his head. “Did Manolo come inside?”
“No. He just came to the front door. Why?”
“Because someone’s searched the place. I leave traps that the most professional person won’t notice. Let’s see who.” He went to the computer and typed in instructions. The screen lit up with a scene of the room, flickered, the time notation in the lower right corner changed, nothing, flickered and 9:13:22 came on the time slot. After a half minute or so a woman came into the room, stood listening and looking around for a full minute, then began going through the computer records, looked in all the drawers, stood thinking for a minute, then went into the bedroom where the scene shifted. She went through the same process there, then the bath, then the kitchen, then she exited at 9:37:11.
“Know her?” Clint asked everyone. Nobody did, but Bobby said she was in the Barracuda last night with some big black man.
Manolo came to the door and Clint called to come on in. He showed him the woman. He said he thought he’d seen her somewhere, not in Bocas. Bobby said she was with a black man last night. He described the man and Manolo said his name was Johnny Bigham, born in Colombia of gringo parents. He was an enforcer for a drug cartel. The woman would be Linda Bills. She was with Bigham a lot and was thought to be working for the cartel as a sort of PI. She was good.
“Not good enough!” Dave remarked. “She stood there and almost posed for that camera!”
“She didn’t know there was any camera,” Judi pointed out.
“Which proves my point,” Dave returned. “That supposedly good a detective would find a camera first thing.”
“You find it,” Clint suggested.
“I’m not a detective, but it’s behind – or in – that vase on the bookshelf. I could see that from the angle. The one in the bedroom was probably in the smoke detector over the door to the bathroom.”
“She never saw anything that would tell her anything about angles,” Judi said.
“Knock it off!” Clint said. “Manolo, Bobby ‘s gay and wants a roll with you. I told him I didn’t know if you liked that kind of thing or not.”
Judi laughed. Dave said Bobby was praying for rain. Manolo said, “Praying for rain?” and Dave said he’d made a remark that people liked that when it was raining and there was nothing else to do. Manolo put an arm over Bobby’s shoulder and said he might be interested if it was raining, but there wasn’t a cloud in the sky at the moment.
“Don’t DO that!” Judi cried.
“Why not? What?” Manolo said.
“Now we still don’t know whether you would or wouldn’t.”
“Well, when it’s raining you can find out. With women, it doesn’t have to be raining.”
“Whuh dunt ya come up ‘n sue me sometime?” Judi aped.
“Why don’t we all take off our clothes and crawl into a pile and see what develops there?” Dave suggested. Clint gave him the bird, Bobby said he LOVED the idea, Judi giggled, Manolo raised an eyebrow and grinned.
“Back to the real world,” Manolo said. “They were probably here because you were with me in San Blas. They want to know if you’re a narc or whatever. It will damned well make them more curious that I’m here now!
“I came to see if you’ve made further progress with the case you were working on. I had to go to Costa Rica to check out a connection and stopped by on the way back.”
“Well, now everyone here’s dead and the killers are, we think, in Ecuador,” Clint answered.
“Yeah. Let them kill each other off and the state doesn’t have the expenses of trials and housing for life, huh?”
“Poetic justice – but there ain’t nothing poetic about murder in general and certainly not with that bunch. She’s a homicidal maniac,” Dave said. “You know, I can see what Bobby sees in you.”
“She? Homicidal maniac?” Manolo asked, ignoring Dave’s added remark that was just baiting Bobby.
“Amanda Lesley was behind it with a man named Frank Lindsay from California,” Clint said. “Lindsay was married to Frieda Helmut for a business/convenience deal. Frank had a girlfriend to keep suspicion away from him and Frieda. When they weren’t of anymore use to him he shot them and ran to Ecuador – or somewhere – with the lovely Amanda, who had knocked off Wanda Lesley, Orison and Rasmussen as a little vacation diversion.”