Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition

by Moulton, CD

  “I wouldn’t be at all surprised,” Clint replied. “Nobody will note that the union boss has a private jet. That won’t be enough to show what that bunch is. The only ones who get anything out of this kind of crap are the union bosses. No sense in worrying about it.”

  They talked a bit about Wild Bill and the treasure and such. Clint went to take Gina to the airport, then decided to go fishing the rest of the afternoon. Ben had a friend at his place who would like to go out for the afternoon, so he invited them along. They had a good time diving around the reef just inside of Solarte, then Clint let Ben and Earl out at The Reef Restaurant dock and went home. He went inside to find a large man about fifty five years of age and a younger one who looked like him sitting in his sala. He didn’t show any surprise. He just told them that they should have called and he would have been back sooner.

  “Mr. Faraday, I have heard much about you the past few days. I am in need of your services. I apologize for this intrusion, but didn’t wish to wait in the town. My enemies will know I am here and that I am speaking with you, so you will be in some small danger from that, but I assure you, they dare not act against you in a violent way. It would introduce far more excessive violence that would be directed at them.

  “I’m sorry! It is a breach of good manners I am seldom prone to commit. I am Jaime Serrano. I hope I have avoided being particularly noted by you, as of yet. This is my son, Renaldo.

  “I will shut up and allow you to speak, another breach on my part.”

  Clint shrugged and said he didn’t have a clue as to what he wanted to talk about.

  “That is, I find, good. I will approach this by telling you some history – and what finding that treasure means. It is not what you think and I am not speaking of the money chest. I am speaking of the other two. The money was expected to be found, eventually. It was a most inconvenient find at this time, but that is relegated to history.”

  “I was wondering what I missed. Would you like a beer?”

  “That would be most kind of you.”

  Family Day

  “I will tell you of my family for the past five generations, then you will see how much of this came about.

  “My grandfather four times removed was called El Tiburón. He was a slightly successful pirate in the Caribbean. He is important in that he fathered my grandfather four times removed, who was known as Fire Eyes, who you may have heard of. He was a more successful pirate. He is the one who actually enriched the family greatly with his ill-earned wealth.

  “Fire Eyes was known locally – by which I mean in every port from southern Mexico to Brazil – as a man who garnered his fortune by the worst kind of means, but who spread his wealth to the people in the ports. His worst feature was that he was an extreme racist. He despised the Negroes and Indios a little more than he despised anyone not Spanish.

  “My great great grandfather was a politician who tried to make up for his father’s policies by favoring the Negroes and Indios, though his methods resulted in even more resentment. He was killed when the results of one of his policies, actually introduced to help the Indios, resulted in thousands of them being slaughtered for their land. He went to try to find a way to change what happened to what he had planned would happen. The Indios were, quite understandably, not too willing to listen to anything more from him. I know that his motives were good and that what happened horrified him. I have his writings of the time.

  “My great grandfather inherited some maps and details of where booty was hidden along the coast. In seven locations, one of which was here on what is now Isla Carenero. The chest found on Isla Colón was not his. It was left by a pirate named Cutter. Cutter founded a branch of the family now known as Cano in Colombia.

  “Our family has never been involved WITH the Canos. We have always been involved in halting the activities of that family. Many Canos are very good people. Most of them are not of the branch of the family that now disgraces the name.

  “My grandfather and father merely used some of the treasure, converted into cash or melted down for the precious metals, to continue the family and to found and invest in businesses. I, as a result, own a number of companies in a variety of fields. I am what is called vastly wealthy because of the garnerings of my antecedents. I know where all the treasures are hidden. I have mostly left them there because I had hope the Indios would find them. Their cultural imperative of sharing would, until quite recently, have made them spread the wealth. Now government gets the whole thing and gives the finders a pittance, thus I decided to leave the loot where it is. I know of no government deserving of it.

  “There are two left to find. I cannot say I have any wish that they ever are.

  “I will now request that Renaldo leave us to speak of matters that it is far the better he knows nothing about.”

  Renaldo nodded, said he was glad to have met Clint and said he would go somewhere to meet the people. He found he liked Bocas and no one would know who he was. Clint suggested The Toro Loco to meet gringos or The Reef or The Pirate to meet a mixed crowd or La Iguana to meet the surfers. He said he preferred to meet the real people, so would go to a few local places.

  He left, hailing a taxi in front of the entrance to Clint’s property. Clint got himself and Jaime another Balboa, then sat to hear the rest of it.

  “As you can see by the least observance, I have no need of money. I will go so far as to say that I have something better because it will not lose value and is easily converted into money of whatever description. It is gold. Literally metric tons of it, along with like amounts of silver and even a good bit of platinum. I also have jewels of inestimable value.

  “Be that as it may, the facts are that I am against the branch of the Cano family concerned here and have great wealth that is quite literally beyond estimation at this juncture. I am desirous on no publicity. I live very quietly. I wish for it to remain so.

  “The Canos are in a position, because of the accidental discovery of that cache of money at the time my own chest was discovered following the discovery of the Cano hoard with money added to it fifty years ago, to cause me publicity. I know you are not oriented toward money. You have earned much in the little time you are here and have given almost all of it to causes I agree with fully – but my experience with the situation and politics here urge me to warn you that you must never relax vigilance in protecting what you have accomplished so that it falls not into the hands of others. That WILL happen at your demise. I have great experience in that fact and tell you there is no way I’ve been able to find that will guarantee any of your good works will remain, except in name, what you have established.

  “Perhaps you will find a way. You are quite inventive.

  “I also know that Marko Boccini is Manny Mathews, but assure you that fact will not, because of me, go beyond those who now are aware of it. I think I would like to meet him. We think much alike. He wants to be away from his past. I wish to be away from my family’s past. We both also wish to keep the material things we have. C’est la vie.

  “Mr. Faraday, I wish to employ you to lessen the impact of those disgusting bits of refuse on my life. I am aware you do not care for money. I will fund whatever project you wish to fund in hopes it will survive both of us.” He stopped and looked expectant.

  “I’ll do what I can,” Clint promised. “Call me Clint. I think I can respect you and even call you a friend.”

  “And I am Jaime. My friends, among whom I hope you are included, call me Jim.”

  They talked awhile. Clint got a lot of information he would pass on to Manolo. He made no bones about that. He said it would help to keep his name out of anything to cooperate with a certain few people.

  “I will not ask if the man called Manolo is your contact. He is very clever and, with resources that told me who Mathews is, I have been unable to definitively show one way or another.”

  “He has a sense of right and wrong. To try to appeal to him for personal reasons is a waste of time. He’ll work on t
he side of the law when scum like the Canos are involved, but has his own thing about many other ... undertakings. I can say, definitely, that he will bust his ass to see innocent people don’t get hurt by this crap or by the crap anyone else causes. He is, like you and me, protective of the Indigenos. I like their culture and I like most of them I know.”

  “The irony of that is that they are the people least in need of protection a good percent of the time. They are quite able and practical, even if others don’t understand, as you say, where they’re coming from.”

  “It’s simple,” Clint answered. “It’s also basic and beyond most other philosophies today. They have no ownership in the sense we do, so money and possessions are really a foreign concept to them. The result is the greed for accumulation isn’t there. That alone puts them beyond the understanding of most.

  “I have seen instances where one man, who was treated very badly by most others on Isla San Cristóbal, was the first to come to the aid of all of them during the innundation. They fixed up a big solid unused building on his finca there and slaughtered a cow and a pig to feed them.

  “He didn’t owe them the time of day, yet he feels it’s his duty as an Indigeno to help at any time it’s needed. After the crisis was over he was still treated much the same by them. It’s their way of life. They are a totally open society and don’t condemn anyone for being different. They may gossip a bit and giggle about it, but it isn’t any of their business what anyone else does, particularly in sexual matters. The one rule is that you do NOT, under ANY circumstances, dare to involve children.

  “They don’t consider you children after twelve or thirteen years old. That’s the part a lot of people don’t understand – but most people don’t do heavy work to help their own family starting at seven or eight years of age.

  “Okay. We understand a few of each other’s ideas. I’m going into Bocas to meet Manny. Want to come along?”

  “Decidedly!”

  They went out front, met Ben and Judi coming back from Bocas. Clint introduced Jaime simply as Jim. Judi said she was going to some friends’ place for dinner and left. Ben would tag along with Clint and Jim. They went to Gary’s Mexican restaurante and had some excellent food, then headed into town to meet Manny at The Pirate. Renaldo was there and Clint introduced Ben, who said he was gorgeous. Jim had found that Ben was gay almost immediately and was a little curious and amused. He looked expectantly at Renaldo, who seemed a bit embarrassed, then asked Ben where he should go to meet people more their own age. Ben said there were a couple of places and they left. Jim shook his head and giggled.

  “I thought I knew my son, but there are areas we have seldom discussed. This is obviously one of them. I knew not how he might react to someone like Ben.

  “He’s rather a good person, isn’t he?”

  “Ben? The best. He makes no secret of his lifestyle, but no one cares here.”

  He grinned again. “Do you think he will seduce Renaldo?”

  Clint shrugged. “Why would I care? They’re both adults.”

  “Strange as it is to me, I have to agree. Who cares? It’s their lives.”

  Clint waved to Manny, who came to the rear deck in his boat. He had his wife with him. Clint introduced everyone. Manny got along very well with Jim. Clint excused himself and went outside to call Manolo. He told him about the deal and gave him a lot of information. Manolo said he had met Jaime once. He seemed to be Okay. There wasn’t a tiny hint of anything that would concern the agencies Manolo worked with about him. He had buildings full of art and jewels, but it was, every piece, so far as they could tell, perfectly above-board. He inherited so much and was into so many companies that it wasn’t even possible to know what he was worth.

  “He’s worth a fortune as a person – and I’m not impressed by the money and all that kind of crap,” Clint replied. “What do you want from me? This isn’t gratis.”

  “I wanted you to know who we’re dealing with. The chest Sergio found, the real pirate’s treasure, was Jaime’s. He doesn’t care about the loot, but he doesn’t want any mention of him connected to it or to anything else here. He’s not involved, Manolo.”

  “Why does he think he will be?”

  “Because the chest with the money was put there by a pirate called Cutter. Cutter was the original Cano. The original Serrano was called Fire Eyes – actually, the second. El Tiburón was the first, but he wasn’t as successful as a pirate. The two families do not like one another. They are very different kinds of people.”

  “From the same life, one is a pillar of society and one is the same kind of scum. One ascended, the other merely descended. A good argument for the genetic imperative producing the potential, but not the direction.”

  “Sheesh! You’ve been talking to Dave!”

  They chatted a moment, then Clint went back inside. An attractive girl from Denmark was very interested in Clint. Manny said, “Gina?”

  “Ah! Miss Halverson will be back from time to time as a friend, but she will not long remain interested in the exotic detective,” Jim warned. “I knew her father well. I have met Gina on several occasions. She is a very independent person. It is good that she will have the wealth that will come, but she will spend much of it very quickly. She wants to know the world, not just Panamá and Colombia and Texas. She will expect Clint to understand that there are no chains. On either.”

  They soon decided to call it a night. Jim was invited to stay on Isla Colón with Manny’s family. He said a couple of days for a vacation would be most welcome, at this juncture. He called Renaldo to say he had to fend for himself for a day or two. He could stay on the avion or at a hotel. Clint said he had a spare room. He said maybe he’d stay at Clint’s. There was a pause and he said he would stay at Ben’s. Jim giggled.

  When he hung up, Manny asked what the giggle was about. “Oh, I was wondering if Ben would seduce my son. I would suggest the question is answered!” They had a laugh about it, then went their separate ways. Clint went to a couple of places with Inga, then she stayed at his place for the night.

  It was a beautiful day when he awoke in the morning. He slipped out of bed and fixed coffee and an omelette. He went out to his deck for the breakfast and waved to Judi, watering her orchids on her own deck. It was just 6:30, a bit late for Clint. He then went inside to work with his computer. Inga got up a little after nine.

  Clint made an omelette for her, she went swimming off his deck, then came in to dress and they went into town. She soon met her friends, who had been worried about her. She didn’t tell them she had other arrangements for the night. She introduced Clint to them and said he was showing her around Bocas Town. They couldn’t go to the mainland like they planned because of the water taxi situation. Clint spent until noon showing them all around, then they decided they would take the bus to Boca del Drago for the afternoon. Clint said he had to get to work and said goodbyes. Manolo called to say Jaime could relax. It seemed the Cano family had the word that Serrano would very discreetly have every single one of them fingered if they so much as mentioned they’d ever heard his name.

  Well, that seemed to settle things.

  Clint had another good night, this time without stay-over company. He saw Ben and Renaldo twice the following day from a distance to just wave to. Gina called and said she wouldn’t be back to Bocas for awhile because she had a trip to Paris and London and a few other places planned. Clint talked to Jim and Manny on the phone. Clint told him his problem was solved and done. He could relax and enjoy. They had been out fishing for most of the day. Jim hadn’t been able to relax so much in years. He had forgotten too much of what made life worthwhile. He would visit often.

  Clint and Judi took Clint’s boat to Almirante for some shopping. Stuff was getting in short supply on Bocas.

  Clint had a good meal at home. He was a good cook and liked things different from restaurant fare a lot of the time. He made a good old-fashioned Yankee pot roast with the vegetables he brought back from Almirante. He
worked a bit on the computer and got to bed early. In the morning Jim came in to say he was heading back to Colombia. Renaldo was going to stay for a week or so with Ben. Jim seemed worried, so Clint shrugged and called Ben.

  “Ben, Jim is getting worried about Renaldo. Not against or anything, but he has to know.”

  Ben laughed. “Tell him Renaldo is definitely not gay. It’s just new and different. I’m going to take advantage of that. He’s a dream of a man.”

  It was on speaker. Jim heard and sighed, then giggled. “That’s something I never experienced. It would seem I have led a very sheltered life. The youth are so much freer now. It would be my instinct to stop it even before now.”

  “Then he would wonder about it even more and would eventually get involved with a much different type than Ben.”

  “Ah! The – what do you call it – forbidden fruit.”

  Ben said he might be a fruit, but definitely not forbidden. He hung up.

  “I greatly envy the wealth of friends you have, Clint. I have noted that these people really LIKE and respect you. I can only hope their respect for me is genuine.

  “I will return to my duties and leave my son and heir in the capable hands of Ben and my privacy in your own capable hands. I am proud to call you friend!”

  Dangerous Curves

  What to Do

  What to do today?

  Clint Faraday, retired detective from Florida now residing in Bocas del Toro, Panamá, sighed, stretched, took a sip of the special coffee and leaned on the wood rail of his deck. The bay was peaceful and pleasant today. He looked over to see Judi Lum, his only neighbor with a view of his deck, watering her orchids. She wagged a finger at him and waved. He didn’t bother to put on anything until he decided what he was going to do. He went fishing and diving yesterday. He had his computer work done. He didn’t feel like doing anything but laze around. He’d do that.

  He put his coffee on the rail and dove into the cool water for a quick swim to loosen up, climbed on deck again, finished the coffee and went in to rinse and put on shorts. He’d go into town and sit around gossiping a bit. The talk was mostly about the stupid strike against the water taxis and such. The negativity against the union was growing by leaps and bounds. This would, if the people had any sense at all, damage the union for years to come. These tactics had always led to grief in the states so long ago that people had forgotten most of it. Now it was here.