by Jerold Last
"In the strictest of confidence, yes, Bernardo is an informant. His allegiance to Nazi doctrine is far from absolute. But I knew less than you might guess before you two became part-time Nazis. Everything was so compartmentalized that none of the Nazis knew who the others actually were. They just knew each other by first names or nicknames. I didn't know who was who in the leadership group or what actually took place at the Punta del Este meeting. Bernardo is very selective in what he chooses to tell me. And yes, I wasn't altogether forthcoming with you when we started working together. But that's often the nature of police work, as you also understand. You know that you have an uncanny ability in deductive logic, don't you, Roger?"
Suzanne answered that one. "Roger surprises me all the time. We can go along seeing and hearing exactly the same things. Eventually he tells me who did it and the why and the how and it's perfectly clear, but I can't put it together until he explains it to me."
After the main course, dessert, and brandy we said good-bye to each other with sincere promises to stay in touch. E-mail and snail mail addresses were exchanged. Eduardo and Martin both told us, and we told them, "Mi casa es su casa." Martin asked me whether there was anything else he could do to thank us.
"Can you pull some strings with our airline and get us on tomorrow evening's flight home?"
"Actually, I can. Consider it done. You should get a call from American Airlines confirming your reservations tomorrow morning."
Suzanne and I walked back to the hotel, finished the scotch, and went to bed. An hour or so later we went to sleep. Just before we fell asleep I chuckled a bit.
"What's so funny?" asked Suzanne.
"I was just thinking of the expression on Carlos' face when his very special Goddess Porá-sy suddenly started kicking him around. And then I remembered that he's a botanist.
"You know what he looked like? He looked like a guy who was about to pee in his plants."
Chapter16.Los Angeles
Martin and American Airlines delivered on their promises to us. We left Montevideo at 5:45 the next afternoon. Martin or the airline arranged for us to have complementary upgrades to first class for the entire 24-hour+ trip from Montevideo to Los Angeles. Better food, a selection of movies, more room to stretch out our legs, comfortable seats that were almost beds, and the flights seemed shorter. Plus the airline gave us complementary access to the comfort of American Airlines First Class Clubs at each airport between connecting flights.
Another small miracle occurred and we arrived at LAX on time. We breezed through customs in Miami with just small carry-on suitcases and nothing to declare. I appreciated all the more Suzanne's concept of mailing dry DNA samples from South America rather than trying to carry live plants with us through the U.S. and California agricultural quarantines as additional baggage.
"I really like South America," observed Suzanne. "I'd love an excuse to get back there as soon as we can. How does Chile sound for next time?"
"I hear the food is better in Peru, even if the Pisco is better in Chile. Maybe we need to visit both."
A few days later, Suzanne received the samples Carlos had mailed to her before their ideal collaboration was abruptly terminated. The DNA samples arrived in perfect shape, well characterized and catalogued as to source, and addressed ironically as it turned out to "My Dear Goddess". A week later she received a similar package from Patricia, but addressed to her by name. All of the samples were sequenced by the end of June. Five of the samples from Buenos Aires and three from Paraguay had unique DNA sequences that looked interesting and worthy of further study. The NIH ultimately got its money's worth, and more, from this trip. Two of the plants turned out to be sources of proteins that eventually went into Phase-II clinical trials against serious diseases, but that's another story.
Suzanne contacted Eduardo by e-mail. He was more than willing to help find a botanist at the university in Asuncion to collaborate with Suzanne. She already had an ongoing relationship with Senor Hernandez, the expert at the Botanical Garden in BA and with Patricia Colletti in Montevideo. Both the Paraguayan and Uruguayan collaborations continued successfully for several years and became a major source of satisfaction for Suzanne. Her laboratory usually had a South American student or two in it during the subsequent years.
The UCLA promotion process rewards faculty at the senior level for international activities so there were direct benefits for Suzanne as her career progressed. We had plenty of good reasons to go back to South America in the near future. Our relationship only got better after returning to California and our wedding took place on the schedule we discussed while riding on the Uruguayan pampas. But once again I'm getting ahead of myself in telling this story.
Both Eduardo and Martin stayed in touch. Colorado got a long term in prison in Uruguay. Carlos de Silva was ordered by a judge to spend the rest of his life in the largest Uruguayan mental institution. His DNA turned out to be a match for the semen sample from Maria Fajao, so Carlos turned out to be part Nazi ideologue and part dirty old man. Which part was responsible for Maria's murder would probably remain a mystery he took to his grave. The Paraguayan Nazi leader, Tomas, also spent some time in jail. The various Nazi couples we entertained as dinner guests during our trip north, Bernardo (who remained one of Martin's informants), and Pancho continued their political activities, but nobody cared very much. The head was removed from the beast, and the beast was no longer to be feared. The irony was delicious: both the Ambivalent Corpse and the Nazi parties in three countries lost their heads in Montevideo at almost the same time.
Back in Montevideo the psychiatrist treating Carlos was puzzled by a recurring dream that his patient described to him during several of his weekly sessions. Since Carlos had never been tried for any crime, the medical dossier on Carlos was skimpy on details about the alleged crimes that had resulted in his institutionalization. The psychiatrist wondered whether the dream was based upon some real event that had been altered in his subconscious mind or was pure fantasy. Clearly his patient, a single middle-aged man, had problems relating to women. Some day they would talk about his mother and what kind of relationship she had with Carlos. Undoubtedly, the roots of his mental disorder stemmed from early childhood experiences with his mother and father.
In Carlos' dream there were eight women, all dressed in pink uniforms, mostly college-aged girls earning a few pesos over the summer cleaning up after rich folks who stayed at the luxury hotel. Each of the eight maids pushed a cleaning cart onto one of the elevators and went to their designated work zones in the high-rise building.
Maria, who looked very hot to Carlos in her maid's uniform, was cleaning rooms on the ground floor, in back of the building looking out over the hotel’s large parking lot. At about 5'2" and 110 pounds she was in excellent shape, with an athletic body and curves where curves belonged. Her complexion was good and long dark hair framed her pretty face. She scrubbed and dusted the room, made the beds, changed the towels, and knelt by the head of the bed to work on the wall. She had just finished unscrewing the plastic plate over the electrical outlet and planting the tiny microphone and electronic transmitter when he opened the door and took two giant strides towards her.
Her last words to Carlos were, "Please don't. I have a daughter."
He punched her very hard in the stomach, which doubled her up in pain. As she struggled to catch her breath he grabbed her around the throat and choked her until she passed out. Loss of consciousness was most welcome to her because it made the pain stop.
Carlos looked down at the unconscious maid and mumbled something that contained the words “sneaky bitch" and "traitor”. The anger was still there in him, like a living thing. He tore her uniform off, pulled down her panties, and raped her. His anger slowly dissolved and his rational mind took over. He considered the situation. After a short time he went out the back door, which he left propped open, went to his car parked conveniently outside his room, and popped the trunk open. There was a big roll of duct tape in the car, whic
h he picked up. After returning to the room, he cut long strips of the duct tape for her arms, legs, and mouth. With the addition of a few more lengths of tape to join her arms and legs behind her back, Maria was completely helpless and unable to move or cry out. Carlos caressed the unconscious naked body, which was his to do with as he pleased.
He dragged her to the bathtub and left her in the large tub by herself until after dark when he once again popped open his car's trunk. He went back to his room and picked Maria up. She was awake, so he choked her for a moment or two until she passed out again. He removed the tape joining her arms and legs behind her.
In case they were seen by anybody he dressed her in a sweater and jeans outfit that he bought that afternoon to replace her ruined uniform. Carlos felt pleased that he had guessed correctly on the sizes and at his careful planning. He also derived a great deal of pleasure from the simple act of dressing the helpless body, like a child might feel after dressing a doll. They went outside through the French doors to his room's small patio. After a quick look around to make sure he was unobserved, Carlos stepped over the railing and put the unconscious Maria into the trunk of the car and drove to the marina. That's when he would always wake up.
THE END
Dear Reader: This novel introduced the reader to several characters who will return in the Roger and Suzanne mystery series. If you enjoyed this book, be sure to tell your friends about it and to buy the rest of the books in this series.
The next Roger Bowman-Suzanne Foster novel, The Surreal Killer, is a gripping story that seamlessly mixes the genre of whodunit thriller with travel to exotic places to introduce the reader to the regional culture and history of the Incas while a mysterious modern-day murderer proves that we reap what we sow. This psychological thriller takes us deep into the mind of a serial killer as the suspense mounts to a shocking conclusion andis available as a $2.99 (FREE from Prime) Kindle E-book from Amazon at
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Travel back to Montevideo, Uruguay and to Chile for The Matador Murders, the most recent novel in my South American Mystery series, available from Amazon for $2.99 and FREE for Prime members. The book features lots of action, many of the characters you met in The Ambivalent Corpse, and a good whodunit storyline.
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The newest entry in my South American mystery series, $1.99 on Amazon, is The Body in the Bed, a suspenseful whodunit novella, which brings Roger and Suzanne back to Montevideo, Uruguay where another bloody murder needs to be solved. http://www.amazon.com/South-American-Mystery-Series-ebook/dp/B00A1PZZ86/ref=sr_1_6?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1352084384&sr=1-6&keywords=the+body+in+the+bed
"The Body in the Parking Structure", a hard-boiled mystery novelette, features characters from the author's popular South American mystery novel series working on a murder case at home in Los Angeles. The clues are all there: Can you figure out whodunit before Roger does? 4+ Stars based upon multiple reviews and a bargain at $1.99.
http://www.amazon.com/Body-Parking-Structure-ebook/dp/B008PDV9WC/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343432381&sr=1-1&keywords=the+body+in+the+parking+structure
UK LINK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Body-Parking-Structure-ebook/dp/B008PDV9WC/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1343488846&sr=1-1
If you want to learn more about the author or the background of this series, check his popular blog at http://rogerandsuzannemysteries.blogspot.com.