by Moulton, CD
“I heard they don’t have to have a charge to hold you here. Guilty until proven innocent.”
“Not that. That works very well. The victim has rights here. They can hold you for investigation because of the connections with other murders in other places. Stedmann wasn’t there for the Mexico thing so it’s, as you already suggested, conspiracy. They couldn’t care less about most conspiracies. When murder’s involved they do.”
She nodded and said, “It’s been a pleasure, believe it or not. I could go for you in another time and another place.”
Clint gave her a short salute and they went back to their tables.
It was Fieldman. He was sitting in Los Angeles manipulating even here. Stedmann probably had a suggestion that he could get away with it. He knows he was set up, but that’s part of the game. Fieldman was untouchable. It was his invention. He was running the whole strange show through personality manipulation. It was something like a few of the horror shows on late night TV. Some nutcase causing all kinds of bloody mayhem while staying aloof from it. All of them were caught in a trap – but didn’t care. Faith was ready enough to talk about it.
Why? Clint grinned to himself. He finished his breakfast and waved to the two tables, then went to the lobby to call Pancho. Pancho said he would get the information together for him as quickly as possible.
He waited, then got a call. It was what he thought was happening. “Faith Richards makes a call to Los Angeles, California, every morning at exactly two o’clock. She makes the call from the lobby telephone.”
He thanked Pancho and said they could maybe take Faith Richards in for questioning. He called Sergio and asked what they could do. It wouldn’t be possible to successfully prosecute any of them from here. Their part was almost all in other countries. The best they could do now was deport them back to the states.
Clint’s thoughtful look was better and more sincere than that bunch. He said to let them know they were going to be deported to the states as soon as arrangements could be made through the American Embassy in Albrook. They would get the message in an hour or less when they would be picked up by the police.
“Clint? Might it not be a good idea to include Stedmann in that? We don’t need the expense and aggravation of incarcerating such as him for the next twenty years.”
“Might be interesting. Why not? They didn’t do anything to anyone but themselves here.
“Sergio, arrange for me to meet with them before they’re taken out. Today or tomorrow. I want to get the hell out of Panamá City.”
“Done.”
Manipulating the Manipulators
“I just wanted to say a few things before you’re packed back to the states,” Clint said. The whole group, those still alive and in Panamá, were there in the interrogation room. They just stared at him and Faith pointed to the recorder.
Clint had it taken out of the room. He said they wouldn’t need anything more to guarantee that the group never came near Panamá again. No one here needs the aggravation of dealing with a bunch of lunatics.
“Your word is totally inviolable. I’ve learned that,” Stedmann said. “Your word. You’re not trying to get us to say something to pile on us.”
“I’m going to explain what’s been happening to you before you get back to the states. I guarantee you on my oath that we’re not trying to get more from you. We have a hell of a lot more than we need. That’s all. I don’t think any of you know what’s been happening to turn you into a pack of emotionless killers.”
“Fire away!” Faith said. “I think I’ve finally figured out a lot of it. I’ve had too much time to think here. That opportunity didn’t happen so long as he could keep us in motion and in new places and situations. I’m not quite as stupid as I act. It’s just easier if people think I’m a cheap bimbo with a lot of money and no sense.”
“Uh-huh. You didn’t use that act with me yesterday in the restaurant.
“Do you know what’s happened? How you’re all nothing but pawns for him to move or discard anyway he likes?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Donald spat. “I’m no pawn for anybody!”
“Shit! We all are!” Faith replied. “Let’s hear what Faraday has to say. I know most of it, I think.”
“Pawns? What ... Fieldman?” Stedmann asked.
“Exactly!” Anne cried. “I thought so! He’s the only one we can’t reach so he’s safe!”
“He may believe that,” Stedmann said calmly. “Maybe he misses a little detail or two himself.
“Go on, Clint. I think maybe you aren’t above a little manipulating of someone else’s pawns, yourself.”
“True,” Clint agreed. “You can handle the situation the same way you were manipulated yourselves.
“Stedmann, you were with Faith before she married Harry here. Harry introduced you to Fieldman, right?”
“No. I had a couple of sessions with him in a psychological group. Some other people were there. I had as much as forgotten that when Faith introduced me to him. I remembered the sessions and some other things that came up.”
“Oh. He suggested you introduce them, Faith?”
She nodded. “Several of them. He would give me their names and how to sort of accidentally meet them in some place they went regularly.”
“So it was a little earlier than I thought, but that doesn’t really change anything. The point is that the meetings of everyone in the group was a manipulation by him for exactly what happened. He’s been in control from the first. The real reason Carlysle is dead is not because of what was in the package, it was because something in that package connected him to you in a very dangerous, to him, way. He’s running a sick game where he can cause you to kill off each other while he stays safe and sound in a house in LA. If they catch and prosecute all of you who are left he’s still home free.”
“Bastard son of a bitch!” Donald cried. “The slimy cocksucker stayed safe and put us all at each other!”
“He’s not safe,” Stedmann said. “He just thinks he is. He meant for me to be caught here, didn’t he, Clint?”
“I think so. It’s as effective a way as any other of taking you out of the game. He might have been a little scared of you himself. You must have done or said something that would make him afraid he was going to lose control of you.”
“I did. I asked him what the hell he thought he was doing in Costa Rica. Wanda wasn’t any part of the agreement. He sounded upset that I would question him at all.”
“He knew you’d understand enough about the methods to stay alive and a danger to him so he managed to get you out of the game another way.
“Faith, have you told him about being sent back to the states?”
“No. After breakfast yesterday I wondered if that would be smart. I’m tired of actually being an idiot bimbo instead of just acting like one.”
“Don’t tell the stinking lousy bastard shit!” Donald ordered.
“Don’t worry about THAT!?” she shot back.
“He made us into some kind of zombies, didn’t he Mr. Faraday?” Gloria asked.
“That’s a good description,” Clint answered. “I think you should all find a way to protect yourselves when you get back. He’s going to be desperate and he’ll know something’s wrong because Faith didn’t make her regular call.”
“I can call him now and explain that the police detained us again. I’ll say I’ll call again when I know what’s up. I don’t want him to know when I’m going to be back! He might have the plane shot down or something!”
Clint agreed and had a phone sent in. She said for no one to make a sound. She would act like she had sneaked away to call him from a public phone.
She called. The first thing she said when he answered was, “This has to be fast. The cops are holding us all for questioning and they don’t know I came out here. I think they’re going to try to make us stay here until Mark’s been convicted! It could be as much as ten days and I might not be able to get to a ... Uh-oh! He
saw me! I’ve got to...” she hung up.
“Good show!” Stedmann exclaimed. “I think I’ve finally felt a little excitement!
“What now, Clint?”
“You go home. I’m out of it.”
“You’re a decent man,” Gloria said. “If he knew ... we wouldn’t stand a chance of being alive next week. I just KNOW it!”
“So be very careful.” Anne said. “I can get away. You can go with me. I’ve got some secrets he doesn’t suspect.
“Faith, you and the guys are on your own now. We couldn’t work it with more than two and we were never in deep. That’s what makes us dangerous. He’ll think none of you can dare to talk. It’ll mean you’re hung by your own words. There’s nothing to hang us with except that we knew about it and were too scared to say anything.”
“You were never scared of anything in your life!” Donald cried.
“You know that and I know that. They don’t,” she said easily. “Thank you, Faraday. Maybe I have a trick or two up my sleeve that can shake the bastard.”
An officer came to say that the man from the consulate was there to take them to the plane.
Clint got up and went home. Time would tell if he was as good at manipulating deficient psyches as Fieldman. He went back to David to spend a couple of days with friends. He would then go to Bocas Town and forget the detective business for as long as he could manage.
That was a sick bunch. He hoped he’d never have another case vaguely like it. Plain old everyday murders weren’t a problem. This mess was. He still couldn’t understand how anyone could be so empty as those people. It simply didn’t, as said in the old TV show, calculate. Even when they were trying to find a way to keep from being killed by this maniac who manipulated them into becoming murderers themselves they showed zilch as to emotions. It was all matter-of-fact and simply something they were discussing. It could have been about how pretty the sunset was last night and would show the same emptiness in them.
Not for Clint Faraday! Two of his Indio friends walked past Peter’s Place in the Hotel Iris and waved. He felt a warm affection for them. If anything about an excess or lack of emotions applied to him it was on the excess end.
A pretty girl came to sit across the little table from him and start a conversation. So she was a prostitute. That was looked at in a different way here. He told her he had a girlfriend and wasn’t interested. She nodded and said she wished she could trust her own boyfriends, but being in the business taught her that was true of one man out of maybe a thousand.
“The thing is, it’s a macho thing here. It’s funny, but I think I find that the man who turns me down because he has honor is a lot more macho than the ones who just want to fuck and don’t care who it’s with. I’d offer a freebie, but you’d say `no,’ right?”
Clint nodded. She laughed and insisted on buying him a drink. They talked a bit and she saw another gringo come in. A man in his sixties who looked around, then came to sit on the balcony four stools away.
“Back to business!” she said, gave him a peck on the cheek and went to talk to the gringo, who immediately waved for Yessie to bring her a drink. She winked at Clint and sat to lean close to talk to her new mark. Clint grinned. He went to his room and to bed. He would go to Bocas in the morning. Chiriqui Grande and then home.
News Flash
Clint laid back in the hammock on his deck to watch the CBS news from Denver. He’d been back for two days, the group of mixed nuts was back in the states and the case was marked as resolved by Sergio. That was the same as saying solved but not prosecuted here. It would serve very well.
Judi waved to him and went to water the orchids all over her deck and around her house. Dave had planted hundreds of varieties there (as well as at Clint’s)(and at Ben’s)(etc.) for study. The places were turning into small botanical gardens. Clint, despite himself, was getting interested in the amazing variety of forms, colors, and sizes. One was hanging on a limb about a meter from his head. It was a flower about 7cm across that was blooming on a plant that was no more than 2cm high!
Homalopetalum pumilo. He had even learned the scientific names of a few of them.
Suddenly the girl telling a story about some homeless Colorado people having set fire to an old abandoned house and four of them had burned to death was handed a piece of paper.
“News Flash!” she said. “Just in from Los Angeles, California.
“Business magnate Donald Fieldman, owner of a national chain of hardware stores and eccentric recluse has jumped from his twenty fourth floor balcony. Business partner Markus Stedmann, visiting at the time, says Fieldman was depressed about something and had excused himself to go to the sanitary. He had been gone for more than ten minutes when Stedmann went to look for him.
“Here is Vernon Vernon, on the scene.”
The scene was in a dirty alley with an ambulance and several police vehicles, including the CSI van.
“Thank you, Connie.
“It is too soon to make any positive statements, but it appears that Mr. Fieldman was depressed about some business failures that were having a domino effect on his holdings. The failures were in Central America, but were by the suppliers of much of the imported things sold in the Fieldman Enterprises stores. Mr. Stedmann, who admits that he was in some kind of legal trouble in one of those countries, said Mr. Fieldman was a bit intoxicated and deeply depressed. He suddenly said he must use the facilities and went from the room. About eight or ten minutes later, when he hadn’t returned, Mr. Stedmann went to look for him, but could not find him in the apartment.
“Mr. Stedmann, in his statement to the police that I was privy to, said that he noticed the balcony door was open. It wasn’t when he went in because the air conditioner was on. He went out and found a scribbled message. It said, and I quote, `To the group: I have had enough of this. I want it to end. Now!’ and was signed by Mr. Fieldman.
“That is about what we have to this point. Back to you, Connie.”
“We will give more details as they come in. Now back to the report on the homeless ...”
Clint turned it off.
I figured he would find a way. I wonder, did he feel any excitement when he dumped Fieldman off that balcony?
He went back to the hammock with a Balboa to lay back and forget that bunch.
Another wonder: what happened to the rest of them? Would they continue the game on their own now that they had no manipulator? Faith and Stedmann could get away with it. The others probably couldn’t.
What a way to live!
Judi called across that she was going to the Nine Degrees for dinner. Did he want to go?
He thought about it.
Enough of restaurants for a while. He’d cook something himself.
“Thanks, but no thanks!” he called back.
Judi went inside and Clint laid back. The sunset across Saigon Bay was magnificent. The world has a lot to offer if you’ll just see it – and no person or government is blinding you to it.
The computer dinged that it had e-mail.
“Screw it! Not tonight!” Clint decided.
C. D. Moulton’s works are available on most major outlets as printed or e-books. CD writes the CD Grimes, PI mysteries, the Det. Lt. Nick Storie mysteries, the Clint Faraday mysteries, the Flight of the Maita science fiction series, books on orchid culture and many others of many types. Mystery, adventure, intrigue, science fiction, fantasy, paranormal, mild erotica, and factual.
The Clint Faraday Mysteries
#10
... Or So the Gods Said
(c)2011 & 2013 by C. D. Moulton
Collector’s edition © 2014
Smashwords edition © 2014
all rights reserved: no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any other information retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright holder/ publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in c
ritical articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblances to persons, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental unless otherwise stated.
Clint is having a discussion on the bus with a priest from The Church of Absolute Truth in Life .. or something such. The conversation gets weird. There are always a few nutcases here, so he doesn’t think much of it – until the murders.
Contents
On the Bus
Chiriqui Grande
Rio Uyama
Las Tablas
Darien
Bocas Town
Panamá City
Mali
David
Home
About the author
CD Moulton has traveled extensively over much of the world both in the music business, where he was a rock guitarist, songwriter and arranger and in an import/export business. He has been everything from a bar owner to auto salvage (junkyard) manager, longshoreman to high steel worker, orchid grower to landscaper, tropical fish farmer to commercial fisherman. He started writing books in 1983 and has published more than 200 books as of January 1, 2014. His most popular books to date are about research with orchids, though much of his science fiction and fantasy work has proven popular. He wrote the CD Grimes, PI series and the Det. Nick Storie series, Clint Faraday series and many other works.
He now resides in Puerto Armuelles, Panamá, where he writes books, plays music with friends, does research with orchids and medicinal plants – and pursues his favorite ways to spend his time: beach bum and roaming the mountain jungles doing his botanical research. He has lately become involved in fighting for the rights of the indigenous people, who are among his closest friends, and in fighting the extreme corruption in the courts and police in Panamá.
He offers the free e-book, Fading Paradise, that explains what he has been through because of the corruption.