by Moulton, CD
“I’ll take that, Mrs. Green. I am Manolo, an agent for Interpol. We’ve been watching you for a time since jewels we traced to here showed up in Australia. We detained your three Colombian friends in the alley in back. I’m afraid it’ll be some years before any of your little group will be allowed to leave Panamá to spend whatever part you’ve been able to hide so far.”
She fainted. Manolo shook his head sadly and shrugged at Clint.
“Oh! I meant to tell you. We took a picture of Perez to Hornitos. He’s been identified as the one who was there before Pablo was murdered. We’re also watching the gringo in Chiriqui Grande and his lovely girlfriend. It seems he came here after midnight last night for some odd reason. I think maybe his prints are going to be all over that box, don’t you?”
“I won’t be surprised,” Clint agreed.
They went to the station where Clint and Emilio made their statements. Judi would give hers in a notarized declaration. Perez and the Vallarte brothers had some hard explaining to do. Perez was going down for the murder of Pablo. Santos would come back from Las Tablas to testify with immunity for stealing the jewels in the first place. All-in-all, not a bad resolution!
Relax
Clint sat back in the seat. They were on their way to Las Tablas. Judi was driving. They had just been passed through a blockade by the Indios at Mali. They got a lot of really hard dirty looks from the people backed up. Clint had gone off the main road just before Mali and through a pasture that belonged to a friend and had come out on the electric station road where he was past the main part of the blockade. The people here knew him and greeted him warmly. He told them to stick to their guns, but to be careful. Things could get very bad. They went on through and didn’t have anymore trouble. The police at the check point at Hornitos couldn’t believe they’d gotten through. He said he had friends.
They went on through Gualaca and to the main carretera, then into David. They didn’t have anymore trouble until they were outside of Tolé. They didn’t know many of the Indigenos here, but they knew who Clint was and showed him a way through the comarca to the highway past. The next stop was Santiago, where they didn’t have any trouble. They ate a good meal at The Pyramid, talked with people they knew, then proceeded to Las Tablas, where you would think it was the main parade in progress – which would be tomorrow noon. They would stay at a gringo friend’s place for the night. It was a non-stop party time. It was very much like Mardi Gras in New Orleans in some ways.
Tomorrow was the really big day. The twenty first.
“I think there’s a fire dead ahead,” Judi said. “Should we stop?”
“No.”
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.