Clint Faraday Mysteries Collection B :This Job is Murder Collector's Edition

by Moulton, CD

  After the others were gone Clint made plans with Matt. “They’ll definitely have traps to warn them,” Matt said. “I wish we had better knowledge about the area. We might have a way they wouldn’t expect. We could use surprise to a hell of an advantage.”

  “I noticed the area from above when we came across that ledge higher up,” Clint replied. “If I remember, the caves were in the side of a kind of escarpment so we’re damned limited as to access. We’ll have to depend on distraction. It’s better than fifty-fifty they’re in those caves. We have no choice. We plan as we go.”

  Matt looked grim and nodded. They headed along the trail toward the caves, being very careful. Clint insisted they carry the pistols in their hands and that no one hesitated to shoot if things got too dangerous.

  It took almost an hour to reach the cut-off to the caves. Clint suggested they go past a short way to see if there was another approach. He said he didn’t like it so quiet. The usual animal cries and bird calls had ceased a few minutes ago. He would think it was them and would be a good warning that they were on the way, but Matt said the calls were there all along until now. The only ones that stopped were the ones directly on the path and in sight. The parrots were even noisier when they passed. Now they were quiet.

  “It’s the time of day they’re going to roost,” Clint noted. “They were noisiest when they flew over. This is eerie – that the noises have so completely stopped. I can’t figure why. Unless it’s something they’ve done they have to be damned nervous about it.”

  There was a far-off rumbling sound, followed by a very slight tremor. A few seconds later there was a smaller aftershock.

  “Tremor. Animals and birds can sense them or hear them forming or something,” Matt said. “We have an explanation for us. I wonder if our targets know about that.”

  “It can work to our advantage if my luck’s done a one eighty,” Clint agreed. “If things are normal it will make them even more paranoid.”

  They went on for a few hundred meters, then went off the side of the path along a fallen tree to the more easily navigated shade under the thick canopy. The lack of light made it easy to move because not much grew in the dense shade. They were able to move to a point only about two hundred meters from the caves. The big black was sitting in front of one with a rifle standing beside him, leaned against the side of a large boulder. Clint pointed to a spot with dense foliage a bit below when someone inside the cave screamed.

  “Let’s rumble!” Matt said and ran into sight. Clint drew a bead on Antoin, who started to reach for the rifle, but stopped. “I won’t help him when he hurts a woman, Mon.”

  Matt went to the mouth of the cave, there was a shot and he dropped. Clint ran from the side and snapped a shot into the cave mouth where he saw movement. There was a grunt and a scrambling noise.

  “I’m not hit,” Matt said. “I saw him move.”

  Antoin said he was leaving. He didn’t mean to ever get involved in something that meant they would kidnap women. They knew he was like that when they sent him.

  “Claire?” Matt asked. He nodded.

  “You have five minutes before I come after you. If Maria isn’t hurt I’ll take longer,” from Matt.

  “I have nothing to do with hurting no woman, Mon. Nothing.” He grabbed a backpack from just inside the cave mouth and started down the trail toward the river. He left the rifle there.

  “That should be time enough for Denis to get out the back way. We can hope Maria isn’t hurt. Let’s get her.”

  They went inside to find a large boulder blocking the passage into the cave. They started for the front and an even larger one dropped across the opening. It was dark inside and getting dark outside.

  “Shit!” Matt cried.

  “That about covers it,” Clint agreed.

  Nothing Figures

  Clint used the light from his cell phone to search around the cave a bit. They could move the boulder in back enough to get through so concentrated on that. The rocks had apparently been balanced by using poles as levers to roll them up enough that dropping a stay, probably a smaller rock, would drop them to seal the entrances. They should be easy to roll away far enough to let them get through, but the one in the front entrance had a couple of rocks shoved against and partly under after it was in place. That acted as a chock that wouldn’t allow it to move. The rear entrance wasn’t chocked. Denis was probably hurt enough to where he couldn’t manage the smaller chocks. That meant Antoin had suckered them. He had to be the one who chocked the one in front – or there was a third person involved.

  “It’s a good thing we could move that thing,” Matt said. “If they had put something there to stop it we would be in trouble.”

  “Obilio would have come if we weren’t back soon,” Clint replied. “I wasn’t worried about that. I’m just pissed that we let Antoin con us.”

  “I don’t think it was Antoin. The rifle’s still there.”

  Clint picked up the old Enfield and checked it over. It seemed to be in good shape.

  They headed back toward Obilio’s place. He, Luis and Mike were coming to look for them. They were walking back to Obilio’s when Clint stopped to think for a minute, then swore.

  “What?” from Matt.

  “If you were being held and your captors kidnaped two other women, would you ... something isn’t adding up here. Not even close.”

  “I wondered,” Obilio said. “I wondered why Maria was gone, fighting against someone who had killed her husband, had time to scream one time from behind the bodega, but didn’t make any other noise. She didn’t do anything to help us find her. She put little pieces of blue plastic on plants for us to find, but couldn’t make a better trail or make some noise? Judi dropped blood and broke little branches. Why didn’t she break some branches? She was free enough to place the plastic pieces. She had time enough to push the twigs through the plastic, but always just a little to the side of the path, not right on it.

  “I have thought on this. It does not make any sense. It is like the clues in a movie or TV show.

  “There is much to know about that one. If someone killed me in front of Lila they would have to kill her right then and there. The same as if someone hurt her. I would die very loud trying to kill them. I would not be quiet and walk off to the side of a path to hang little pieces of plastic on bushes and I would not be quiet for anyone to take me anywhere.

  “Also, who was in the house where the chicha was fermenting? Who knew Ann would not drink it?

  “Yes, amigo. We need to have some answers to a large number of questions.”

  They all agreed with that statement.

  “I have to talk with the bruja!” Clint suddenly said. Mike looked thoughtful, then nodded. He was very bright and practical for his age.

  They went back to the house. Clint said there would be two watching at all times. They weren’t to eat or drink anything there that could have been tampered with. They also had to find out what the hell was going on!

  In the morning Clint, Matt, and Obilio went to the bruja’s house. She was reluctant to say anything until Clint said he knew very well that Maria was also a bruja. She didn’t have the power to do this. She was working for someone else. Probably Claire Auber.

  When Clint said “Claire Auber,” the bruja flinched noticeably.

  “Okay. All we have to know is what this is about. No other questions will be asked now.”

  “You can’t fight her. She is very strong. She sent ... things to prove her power. I am an old woman who only knows medicine. I have a sense of some things. There is a follow spell on one of you. Not one here now. It does nothing else, but it is very good. It is strong enough that I can’t block it.”

  “Do you know why this is happening?” Obilio asked.

  “One of you has knowledge of something that is very dangerous to a person in Haita. It must be known what will be done with the information if it is not stopped.”

  “Nothing would have been done with it before t
hey started attacking us,” Matt said. “We don’t even know what it’s about.”

  She looked thoughtful. She said she would relay that information. Maybe those evil people would go away.

  “One has died. Just now. This moment.”

  “By natural causes?” Clint asked.

  “No.” She refused to say more. Clint thanked her and they went back to the house where Clint insisted the women go to David and that they don’t go anywhere except as a group. He told Judi what they had learned and believed.

  “Judi, Maria will probably try to contact you. Don’t.”

  Judi knew what he meant. She nodded agreement.

  They went as a group to the carretera. They stayed together until the women were all on the bus. Obilio insisted Lila go with them. Clint called his nutty musician friend, Dave, and asked if he could use his house in Quiteño. Dave was in Panamá City, but said the key was where Clint knew. Make themselves at home.

  When the bus was gone the men went back to Obilio’s house. Mike asked why.

  “So they can contact us,” Mike said.

  “And to sit here until we can figure out what it is that Ann or Cori knows,” Clint added. “I also want to know if it’s Denis or Antoin who’s dead all of a sudden.”

  “I think it will be Antoin. I think he’ll have died much the same way Pablo died.”

  Clint nodded. Antoin had refused to follow orders.

  They tried to think of anything that might have a bearing on this mess. Who did Ann or Cori know something about? What kind of thing was it? Maria was still the point where everything came together. She was on the other side, but was the center point. When did they meet her? Under what circumstances? Who else was she seen with?

  “I doubt we were around when whatever was told to or seen by Ann or Cori,” Mike said. “We’d be in the same kind of mess as they are.

  “Maria. I first met her when we were at that little restaurant where they had the conch we liked, remember? She waited on us. It was the only time I ever saw her around the place. We ate there two or three times a week, sometimes all of us and most times one or two of us. I ate there three times a week. Pablo worked in the kitchen. I had seen him in there most times I went.

  “I think, if we check, they weren’t married, huh?”

  Clint nodded. “That was where you all met her?”

  They agreed, but didn’t know if Ann or Cori had seen her before. Clint called Judi, but they were on the bus and weren’t in range of a relay. It would have to wait.

  “We have to work on the times before that when Ann or Cori were out to meet anyone,” Matt said. “We don’t stay too close after we’re in a place a couple of days to learn how to get around and where to go. We met her after about four days of that so it’s in a pretty restricted time. We didn’t ... I wonder!”

  “Wonder?” Clint asked.

  “I seem to remember Cori saying she thought she had seen Maria once in Jamaica. It was later, after we met at the restaurant. Cori said it was either her or a sister or something. Mike said a lot of those people look alike. They’re pretty much inbred on those islands.”

  “I remember saying that, but don’t remember why I said it,” Mike said. “It might have been ... we weren’t apart so much in Jamaica. We only stayed there three days. It had to be that last night when Cori went to that club with that LeBonne guy. The one I said was a stereotypical French gigolo. You said Cori knew how to handle the type, Mark. Remember?”

  “Emile LeBonne. I remember. I thought it was funny. He’s about thirty and Cori’s sixteen. She can handle that type. I guess that would be the only time it could have been and the only one it could have been. Cori. In Jamaica. We have to concentrate on something that happened in Jamaica, not Haiti.

  “Claire Auber is in Haiti, but those people move around all the time anyhow.”

  “Yeah. She might be working for anyone,” Clint agreed. “I think maybe I’ll go to David. I want to have a long remembrance session with Cori. She knows something that’s deadly to her so it’s as deadly to somebody else.

  “Would the club she went to be a place drug importers would go?”

  They shrugged. Mike said he doubted it had anything to do with drugs. It was something else.

  They decided that Clint could sneak away when it was most unlikely anyone would know. He could go around to the other side of the next mountain and get a ride from the village there into David. Obilio would arrange it. Obilio put the flag up with a single black stripe down the middle. Luis would bring one horse and would ride with Clint to where he could find the path out. He would go most of the way and would bring the horse back.

  Clint packed a few things and headed out as soon as Luis arrived.

  Clint watched the house for awhile from across the campo. Judi came out a few times, but Ann and Cori stayed inside. Lila did what almost any Indigeno woman would do if they were staying in someone’s house. She cleaned the place better than it had ever been cleaned before. She had laundry out and went to the market on the corned of the main road to bring back lots of food. Judi paid for it, but stayed with Ann and Cori.

  Just after dark Clint called and told Judi he was across the campo and would stay there at Gringo Bill’s place where he could see if anybody came around who wasn’t part of the local population.

  Judi said she had three perdidos (phone calls where the caller hung up before you can answer, the object being that you call back and pay for the conversation) since they left Obilio’s. She didn’t answer, but noted they were from a private number so she couldn’t call back if she wanted. She guessed someone was trying to find where they were.

  “They know where you are. The bruja said the follower spell wasn’t one of us there and we were all there except you four. It won’t be Lila or you. It could be Ann or Cori. I’d say Ann.”

  Clint told her to answer if anyone called. He fully expected someone to try to contact them. He said he had to talk with Cori. It was her who they were after. They had figured part of it. Tell her to concentrate on remembering Jamaica and going to a club with Emile. He would call later to arrange for a meeting. Dave had the house as secure as anyplace around. Lock all the deadbolts before they went to bed.

  After the call Clint watched the house. He could stay in the window of Bill’s place and not sleep all night if he felt it was necessary.

  He got a call from Obilio. Antoin’s mutilated body was found near the carretera. He was slashed up worse than Pablo had been. “I think you should be very extra careful if that witch woman is about. Do not let her get close enough to reach you. It is more important for the women.”

  Clint said if she showed up at the house during the night and looked like she was trying to get in she was going to have a heart attack. Her heart was going to be attacked by a few ounces of brass jacketed lead.

  Nothing happened that night. Clint figured they would know he was gone from Obilio’s by now so went to the house for breakfast. After the hojaldras, eggs and bolitas he took Cori across to the bench at the campo and started asking about Jamaica.

  “Well, I went with Emile – he wasn’t as bad as Mike and Dad thought, but that’s still not a prize – to a sort of private club where the rich and infamous go. It was so plush it could make you puke, all artificial wood crud. The bar had all the expensive crap and I had a Tanqueray and tonic that I sipped for an hour or so. Emile introduced me to a lot of people. Juan Peso from Mexico – he owns a bunch of hotels. Carlos Vermont from Nicaragua, owns some kind of resort on the lake. Gino Spellini from Italy who owns a big casino in Panamá City.

  “I don’t remember all of them. Fred Something from the US and Sean Carmichael from Canada – he’s some kind of liaison. Hermanito Ortega from Colombia. He’s government, too. Lou Fontenac from Jamaica ... a lot of politicians from everywhere. A German liason officer named Marks, an Israeli called Solomon. Even some Smythe character from Merry Old. Gino Garibaldi from Italy. Achilles Aphel-something from Greece, even. Mike Partridge from A
ustralia. Some woman from Guatemala and somebody from Venezuela and somebody from Argentina and a really hot woman from Brazil and a really fat man from Ecuador. Enrique Something.

  “Emile was trying to impress me with all the big-shit politicians and rich sons of bitches he knew. Nobody stands especially out except the Smythe asshole. He kept hitting on me. He thought I was eighteen. I told them that, but nobody really cared except the ones from the states and Canada and like that.

  “I mean, all the Latins will hit on you. Sort of what’s expected. They don’t paw you like that pig. I’m blonde, so Latins react like I’m some Playboy bunny or something. I’m not some sexy bombshell, I’m rather ordinary.

  “I notice the fair men from everywhere else will hit on the fiery dark exotic Latina. Some of them are so sexy they turn me on! Those Latino guys ignore them! I guess it’s what you’re used to. I couldn’t point to any one of them and say there might be something there. They were just a bunch of politicians and casino and hotel owners at a party.”

  Clint thought for a minute, then nodded. “I think I see what it is. It’s not that he or she was there, it’s that they were there.”

  “They who?”

  “That’s what I have to find out.”

  “You’re weird. In a kind of neat way, but weird!”

  “Wait ‘til you meet Dave, who owns the house you’re staying in.”

  “Judi told us about him. He’s just a musician and a writer. They’re all weird.”

  They chatted awhile. Cori was as bright and mentally older as her younger brother.

  Clint had a direction of sorts. He knew what he had to learn.

  Which ones at that party were definitely not supposed to be at that party – and why?

  How Droll!

  “Clint, I got a call from someone who claims to only be a neutral party who wants to settle the disagreement between the Campbells and some people on the Caribbean Islands,” Judi said when she called Clint in the morning. Clint had gone into David and was staying at the Pensión Costa Rica. “I told him any deals were with you, not me and not the Campbells.”