by Jerold Last
Suzanne and I, Manuel and Maria Sanchez, Linda and Michael Smart, Raul Vonhorst, and Letitia de la Guerre sorted our selves into the Spanish speakers, while the Kaufman sisters, Inge and Dieter Schultz, and Cora and Howard whatever their name was, made up the English speakers. Bruce took Robert from Suzanne and took him back to the cabin for his post-prandial nap. The rest of us all trooped into the dining room and sat at separate tables. The three policemen we had watched boarding the Santa Cruz joined us almost immediately. Two of them seemed to be assigned to question our two groups. The remaining cop had apparently been assigned to interview the crewmembers in another corner of the large dining room.
The ranking police officer, Detective Obregon, walked over to our group of Spanish speakers and identified himself to us as a police detective. He was short, maybe 5 foot 6 inches, with a stocky build, dark complexion, wore his hair in a short military cut, and had a small mustache. He was obviously composed of the typical indigenous-Spanish mixture of many Ecuadorians. Obregon had a scar on his left cheek marring what would otherwise have been a handsome face. I’d guess he was in his forties, but it wasn’t easy to tell. He looked like he was in excellent shape. The detective asked us who wanted to go first. I volunteered, and was chosen. Obregon led the way to a small cabin towards the ship’s stern, where he motioned I should sit at a table. We sat only a couple of feet apart in the cramped cabin. Clearly the setting had been selected for privacy and intimidation of the subjects being questioned.
He pulled out a modern digital recorder, turned it on, and placed it on the table. “Please give me your name, residence address, nationality, passport number, and reason for trip.”
I did, citing tourism and a vacation as the reason for the trip.
“You were on the Zodiac when the body was discovered?” he asked.
“Yes, I was.”
“Did you help recover the body?”
“Yes, I did.”
Detective Obregon gave me a long and suspicious look. “The crewmember on the Zodiac commented on how calm and efficient you and your friend seemed to be when the body was recovered. He said it was like both of you had been around a lot more dead bodies than he had ever seen. Was this the first dead body you ever saw or handled?”
“No, I used to be a homicide detective on the police force in Los Angeles. I’ve seen and handled a lot of dead bodies.”
He suddenly looked and acted more alert, never a good sign when you’re in the middle of an interrogation by a cop. “I note you used the past tense. What are you doing now?”
“I work as a private detective. I’m a partner in an agency in Los Angeles.”
Obregon wasn’t ready to let this one go yet. “You seem young to have retired from the police force. Are the circumstances of your retirement relevant in this case? Why did you leave the police force in Los Angeles? Did you “retire” because you were forced to do so?”
“No, the choice was mine. There weren’t any pressures for me to leave. I just didn’t enjoy all the rules and the paperwork so decided to pursue another career. You can check out my story if you wish. Would you like the name of my former Captain and the telephone number at which you can contact him?”
Obregon visibly relaxed. “No, that shouldn’t be necessary at this time. Did any of the passengers in the Zodiac seem to know the murder victim?”
“Cora and Howard something, in the English speaking group inside, said they’d eaten dinner with her the night before. Nobody else said anything about knowing her.”
The detective used a classical maneuver from Chapter 1 of the “Suspect Interrogation for Dummies” Manual, an abrupt change of topic to put me off balance. “Your Spanish is reasonably good. Where did you learn to speak it?”
“I’ve taken classes in school and visited Uruguay, Peru, Argentina, and Chile.”
“You’re well travelled for a gringo tourist. What did you do while you were visiting in the Mercosur Region?”
“I was just a tourist when I visited those countries.”
It was time for him to ask me the zinger now, exactly as instructed in Chapter 3 of “Suspect Interrogation for Dummies”, and he did, once again abruptly changing the topic to catch me off guard. “Did you know the victim or did you ever meet her?”
I smiled at him to acknowledge the ploy and answered as politely as I could. “I didn’t know her and am pretty sure we never met. I didn’t recognize her when we pulled the body out of the ocean.”
“Are you traveling with anyone else?”
“My wife, Suzanne, our son Robert, who is 11 months old, and Robert’s nanny, Bruce.”
Obregon got his predatory look again. “This is a very expensive vacation for anyone. It would be a lot of money for a retired policeman by himself, much less with a family of three and a servant. Where do you get that much money, Señor?”
I smiled again, this time to piss him off and let him know I wasn’t afraid of him. “That’s really none of your business, Señor. But I understand the pressure you must be under as you’ve been assigned to solve a difficult murder case in your country’s most important tourist attraction, so I’ll answer your question. Both my wife and I work full time in well paying jobs. My wife also inherited a great deal of money when her father died a couple of years ago, so we have the resources to travel wherever we choose. We’ve been very lucky.”
Obregon returned my smile. His seemed genuine. “I think I’m getting some insight into why you didn’t get along well in a paramilitary organization like a big city police force. You don’t seem to play well with others. Don’t tell me the answer here, just let me guess. You had the highest clearance rate for criminal cases in your department when you quit, right?”
I returned his smile, this time for real. “Exactly right. Do I detect a kindred spirit here?”
He looked directly at me. “Perhaps. May I ask for your help again if I think of anything else?”
I returned his direct look. “I’d be glad to help any way I can if you ask.”
“In that case, Señor Bowman, you may assume I will be asking you for your help. This murder of a tourist here in the Galapagos is a very sensitive matter for my country, as you already understand. I doubt we’ll ever solve this murder unless we have the answer before the Santa Cruz returns to Baltra and all of the passengers return to their homes. And our usual methods for solving crimes aren’t likely to work with most of the suspects being rich visitors to Ecuador.
“For now, all I’d like to ask you to do is to keep your eyes and ears open, and to let me know if you see or hear anything out of the ordinary or suspicious. I should mention that we have a DEA undercover agent travelling with us on this trip. I’ll remain on the ship, as will my two police colleagues, until we dock back on Baltra. Please feel free to come by my cabin to talk with me any time you think you might have something to share. Do you have any questions?”
Of course I did. I’m always curious, especially when murder is involved. “Who’s the DEA undercover agent on this trip with us? I don’t want to compromise their cover if they’re innocent of the murder. Is he or she part of our group?”
Obregon paused a moment. I could see the wheels going around. Could telling me compromise his investigation in any way? Clearly, he decided it couldn’t. “No, he is in the Spanish speaking group. He is using the name Raul Vonhorst and is traveling with an Ecuadorian passport. I don’t know his current nationality yet. He could be an Ecuadorian national, a gringo, or have dual citizenship.”
Based upon what Eduardo had told us the night before, I had a thought. “If this murder was premeditated, Detective Obregon, it could be important to know which of your suspects was in Ecuador during the time before the tour began. Could you arrange to check the dates of entry into your country for our entire group of English-speaking tourists? This information might prove to be helpful as your investigation proceeds.”
He reached over to shake my hand. “We’re finished, at least for now. Thank you for your assistanc
e and suggestions. Please ask Juana to send your wife in next as you go back to your cabin, but please don’t tell Juana anything about what we discussed. Use your best judgment about how much to tell your wife about what we talked about, but please wait until after I’ve questioned her and share it with her discretely when you do. And I will arrange to check the information you suggested with our passport control division. It should be available on our police computers in Baltra. Adios, Señor Bowman.”
I went up on deck to wait for Suzanne after passing on Obregon’s message to Juana and asking her to tell Suzanne to meet me on deck when she was finished.
While I was standing there I saw the two military officers from Baltra and the medical man, probably the coroner, come out on deck. They were followed closely by several of the ship’s crew carrying a tightly zippered body bag. The guests and the bag went on the Zodiac, which sped out to the waiting seaplane. It revved its engines while they climbed into the fuselage and the body was loaded into the front luggage compartment. The plane took off towards Baltra and things quieted down.
Five minutes later Suzanne joined me on deck. We went down to our cabin to join Robert and Bruce and change for this afternoon’s excursion. I took Bruce out into the corridor and told him everything Obregon had told me. I suggested he be careful to tell Obregon the complete truth about what happened on the Zodiac when we found the body so our stories agreed, and that he should be sure to explain he was with Robert all the rest of the time we’d been on the ship since we boarded at Baltra.
Bruce nodded, heading towards the ship’s dining room to take his place in line for questioning. Suzanne and I took our turn to look after Robert until he returned.
Chapter10.Tuesday Afternoon-James Island
Darwin: “In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”
Like many of the small islands in the Galapagos chain, for historical reasons this island had several names ---Santiago and San Salvador in Spanish, Saint James in English. It was named after one of the officers, Bartholomew James Sulivan, on Darwin’s ship, HMS Beagle. The lieutenant, a good friend of Darwin’s, donated other parts of his name to Bartholomew Island and to Sulivan Bay on James Island. James is one of the larger islands, with steep hills that rise to about 3,000 feet.
Our usual group plus a couple of additions was in the Zodiac as we visited the island with our guide, Juana. Raul and one of the women from his Spanish-speaking group, Kathe, joined us so they could snorkel in the clear waters off this beach. Their morning group had skipped the snorkeling in favor of hiking over to Sulivan Bay to see where a famous lava flow had occurred a century ago. Raul also admitted he was afraid to snorkel in the shallow rocky areas where the interesting fish were, for fear of meeting something with teeth that didn’t like him. Or worse yet, did like him----for lunch. He explained to the group he wanted to try again with people he knew and trusted, like us.
We had a wet landing in shallow water off a black beach. Rather than risk damaging the boat on sharp beach rocks, the Zodiac came to a halt at a depth of a few feet of water to discharge its passengers. Today all of the Frigate Birds would be given another opportunity for snorkeling in a large, well sheltered, cove. This time the better swimmers were expected to help the people who had opted to stay out of the water this morning. Suzanne, the Smarts, and I were grouped with Raul Vonhorst and Letitia de la Guerre, a single woman from Panama, who was also a member of Raul’s Spanish speaking group. I wondered whether Raul was having any better luck pursuing Kathe and/or Letitia than he had with Barbara and/or Gretchen Kaufman.
Juana instructed all of us to just carefully step out of the Zodiac via the diving platform in back, and to wait there for further instructions. Rather than wading ashore we stood knee deep in the water and got organized. She told the snorkelers where to go for the best viewing. Juana cautioned us against putting our hands into the crevices between rocks where eels could be lurking. The weaker swimmers were urged to buddy up with the strong swimmers so as not to miss out on the experience, while the non-swimmers were to stay with Juana.
The non-swimmers would walk to the beach where Juana was going to lead a hike around the area, which was rich in interesting fauna. “We should see flamingos, Darwin finches and Galapagos hawks, as well as fur seals, turtles, and marine iguanas on this island. The folks who are snorkeling will see dozens of species of fish, as well as possibly seals, sea lions, turtles, dolphins, and sharks. Just remember not to bother the animals and they won’t bother you. We’ll all meet back on this beach in two hours. The water is cold. You shouldn’t try to swim for more than an hour, or even less time if you feel yourself getting tired. Take a time-out on the beach to get warm any time you feel cold or have been in the water for an hour, or even less. Just remember---when in doubt, it’s time to get out!”
Half of our group followed Juana to the beach. The experienced swimmers adjusted their facemasks and snorkels, and split up to swim out to the rocks with new buddies. Raul and Kathe waded out to join Suzanne and me. Both acted hesitant, like they were afraid of going in deeper on their own.
All four of us waded together into the comparatively warm, shallow water of the Bay and spread out a bit as we washed out our facemasks to prepare for snorkeling.
This was a perfect opportunity to start doing a little undercover work for Detective Obregon, so I jumped right into it. Very quietly, I spoke directly to Suzanne, “Can you keep Kathe happy and start her swimming and snorkeling, while I go off with Raul Vonhorst and ask him a couple of questions in private?”
As always, Suzanne was a quick study. “Sure. How long do you think you’ll need alone with him?”
“Give me at least five minutes. I don’t think it’ll take that long.”
“Consider it done.”
We stood in waist-deep water for a moment or two before splitting up into pairs. Suzanne took a slightly panicky, but eager to try, Kathe’s hand and gently guided her as we started walking out towards the deeper water covering the rocks where most of the fish would be found. I inherited Raul as a swim buddy, and he wasn’t about to let me get more than a few feet from him.
Raul and I were about 50 meters from the others. We had plenty of privacy. “Raul, take it easy while we have a little chat. We’re on the same side here and there isn’t any time to be subtle about this. A little birdie told me you’re a DEA agent. Is it true?”
“That’s ridiculous,” he replied. “You know I’m a travel agency manager in Quito. But, what’s all this about being on the same side here? What side is that?”
I decided on the honest, direct approach. Well, sort of. “I think we’re in one of those classic situations where you’ve got something I want and I’ve got something you want. It should be good for both of us to trade information. But somebody has to go first, and that’s the hard part. I’ll start. I think Rita, the dead passenger who floated into our Zodiac, was either directly involved in something very illegal here in the Galapagos Islands or saw something she shouldn’t have seen and that’s what got her killed.“
I gave him my most completely sincere expression. “I’m working with Detective Obregon and the Ecuadorian police on this case and want to know if we can rule out drug smuggling as what she might have seen. If you’re a DEA agent, you might be in a position to help me rule out drugs as a motive. Or, better yet, you could point me in that direction if something is going on aboard the Santa Cruz I should know about. Now, what would it take to convince you it’s safe for you to help me out here?”
Raul grinned wolfishly and tried to stare me down. “Do you really want to play ‘you show me yours and I’ll show you mine’? OK. You said you’re willing to go first. There was a rumor making the rounds last year about a gringo, a gringa, their nanny, and a big ape who looked like he was from Bolivia or Peru pretty much single handedly destroying the two organized drug gangs in Montevideo. I gather the hard drug trade down there sti
ll isn’t back to where it used to be. The legalization of pot by the Uruguayan government seems to be slowing down the recovery of the old drug gangs too, especially the cocaine trade. You wouldn’t know anything about all that, would you?”
I tried my best to maintain a poker face and not to blink. “I have a lot of friends in Montevideo and we’ve spent some time down there. I may have heard a little bit about the rumors you’re asking about. In the hypothetical situation that I have any useful information about all that, what would you like to know?”
He stared at me wordlessly for what seemed to be a very long time but was probably only ten or fifteen seconds. “Let’s stop screwing around here. I’ll tell you whatever I know about what’s going on around here if you tell me whatever you know about the drug connections between Uruguay, Chile, and Argentina---names of dealers and who the bosses are. And who told you about my allegedly being a DEA agent? Since my part’s going to be short, sweet, and simple, I’ll even go first. Is it a deal?”