Clint Faraday Collection C: Murder in Motion Collector's Edition (24 page)

“
If this
is all authentic we can trust them. If not, we know what’s behind
it and can put a stop to a dangerous situation, Mr. Mathews. All
Panamá appreciates and respects your aid in this
matter.”

That done, Clint took Foster to the bodega
and handed him the emeralds. Foster got a glance into the box and
looked like his eyes would pop out of his head. He took the
emeralds and frowned. “I can see why the suspicion! This is
paste!”

That was a shock! Clint expected some kind of
skulduggery, but not anything like this!

“
You’re
positive?” he asked. “We couldn’t tell, but you knew without making
any tests?”

“
I made a
test when I picked them up. See?” He showed Clint a very small
scratch on a facet of the largest emerald. “I do this to impress
the impressible. This ring has a very sharp piece of corundum on
the point here (a tiny needle-like projection) that will not affect
true emeralds or diamonds, but will scratch glass and less hard
things. It saves making delicate tests that are mostly for show.
This is as good a copy as I’ve seen so I can probably guess these
were made between seventy and eighty eight years ago. In Egypt. One
man was this good. This is the third piece of his work I’ve seen.
The other two were items of importance to royalty in Europe. They
had the copies made to be placed on public display while the
genuine articles were placed in safer surroundings. They were
legitimate. I can guess these are items some government wants to
dispose of to raise money. They put them among these authentic
items, such as the gold and platinum, to make it seem all was
genuine.

“
I like
to imagine scenarios for these things. I won’t tell anyone else
anything at all, even that I was here in Panamá.

“
Look at
them through these.” He handed Clint his glasses. Clint put them on
and looked at the emeralds through them. There was almost no
fire.

“
Polarized. Paste doesn’t reflect in the even forms that
true jewels do. The absorption lines in these glasses are at
different angles than regular polarized lenses so catch the
imperfections in jewelry as well as detecting artificial
ones.”

Clint thanked him and said he was to be
careful to not let anyone know about this. It could cause such
serious consequences to certain people that it could hardly be
estimated.

He called Manny as soon as Foster was gone to
tell him.

“
So. His
father sold the real jewels to get money to build that port, among
other things. I still can’t see what makes Mikim so
afraid.”

“
I can,”
Clint replied. “It’s in that history you sent me. It’s the wording
of the passing of power.”

“
Gonna
make me try to figure it for myself?”

“
Oh, look
at where the original progression was set. That constitution kind
of thing that was guaranteed to hold forever. The part that says,
‘So long as...’

“
I’ll
have to put this stuff somewhere. I’ll be back home as soon as I
can.”

“
I’ve put
a search for that phrase. Here it ... ‘So long as the original and
authentic articles ...’ Great exploding galaxies! He isn’t the king
if the original and authentic royal articles aren’t in his
possession! His father unintentionally sold the title with the
emeralds!”

“
Uh-huh.
Now we have to see who does own all that stuff.”

“
I
sincerely hope it’ll revert to the people. There are about six
thousand citizens, five thousand nine hundred living in poverty.
Two million a day divided among them equally makes them all
millionaires in a few months.”

“
Sounds
good to me! Now I have to get this off of Panamá‘s
back.”

“
Well,
Judi, it looks like our recent guests will end up in the pen here
for the next twenty. I’d like to get them out of this country, but
it ain’t a-gonner happen, I’m afraid. I want to try to get King
Fartblossom home, if no one else. I think probably the stink we’ll
raise’ll make them want to prosecute him according to their
cultural rules. Manny’s having the laws there checked to see if we
can manage to have the native people own the country on a
collective basis. Of course, it’ll take about ten minutes for some
slimy crooked corrupt politicians to take it all back, I
suppose.

“
I want
to know what to do with all that stuff in the chest.”

“
Ask
Nikolo that. Maybe you can find what’s behind his end of
it.”

“
I want
to go see him. I think he wanted to get his hands on those
emeralds. I want to see his face when I tell him they’re paste
copies.”

“
That
should be a classic!”

“
I’m
going over to his place this afternoon. Maybe I can catch his
expression on my camera phone.”

They chatted a bit more, then Clint hung up
and threw a few things in a bag for in case he had to stay away for
more than the day. He locked the bodega after putting all the
padlocks back on – except they were his padlocks, not the ones they
took off.

He got in his car to head for the airport. He
would be in Costa Rica until tomorrow, at least. His car could stay
on the lot there.

The flight was a little rough, but not too
bad. Clint checked into a hotel and took a taxi to Nikolo’s house
to announce himself at the gate. Viktor came to let him in. He’d
called when he reached the airport. He wanted to speak with Nikolo
before he had the chance to learn much about what had happened so
far. He hoped to be able to arrange the handling of Gordo and the
two Canadians without involving the Panamanian police. He wouldn’t
go so far as to allow them to be hit. He didn’t think Nikolo would
be that interested in them.

He was greeted warmly. Nikolo was out by his
pool enjoying a tall strong vodka collins, which he offered to
Clint. Clint took one. It was real vodka, made from potatoes, not
grain.

“
So? What
have we found so far?” Nikolo asked.

“
Other
than that the emeralds are paste copies and Mikim and his goons are
going to spend a few years in the lock-up, not much. The fact the
jewels are fake means that Mikim and his father weren’t kings or
whatever.”

Nikolo turned over his drink, then grinned
and said, “You enjoyed that, didn’t you?”

“
To be
honest ... yes! I wish I had a picture of your
expression!”

He got the finger. “That was much more than I
had hoped. I wanted to be able to be rid of him, but I was planning
to sell off most of the stuff to finance a little private
revolution when we had the organization set up properly.

“
I can
tell you about some of my partners if what you say is true – and I
would not doubt your word for one pico-second!

“
You see,
this was to be an overthrow of that one we call the Monster of the
Med. It was arranged by two families who were once owners of much
land in the place there is now a port. A port that makes two
million dollars on an average day. It is not so much that they want
the land back. They want that family brought down from rule and
dragged through the streets in disgrace. They would not object too
greatly if the land were returned, but that is truly
secondary.”

“
I want
to arrange for the people to collectively own the whole island,”
Clint replied. “They’d be included in that if they’re citizens. It
would make a few thousand people living in abject poverty into
millionaires in a few days if the treasury is as bloated as I’ve
heard. Billions in what amounts to stolen funds. I’d really like to
see some way those people can select their own government, but also
realize things aren’t done that way in that area.”

“
Because
a thing hasn’t been done does not mean it can’t be done. The ideas
of democracies is gaining popularity. What we have to do is offer
education to the people. It has been denied for some decades. They
need a medical facility.

“
We
aren’t so terribly bad as our reputation in many things. We are
worse in others. That I do not doubt. Perhaps we can arrange for
our ex-king to be returned for the entertainment and pleasure of
some few thousand people he has held in thrall and in poverty for
his entire life?”

“
That
would be something I’d like to see, but no. They have to wait
twenty years. He won’t survive twenty weeks in jail in Panamá. His
attitude and tendency to give orders won’t bode well for his health
and physical welfare.

“
What do
we do with all that crap in the chest?”

“
I’d say
to keep it as your fee, but also feel that’s not in my province to
say.”

“
How
about sending it to the social reform party, which some of your
better-minded partners just formed? It will first be guaranteed
that the proceeds are used to build schools and a medical
center?”

He laughed. “I generally hate reformers. I
don’t think I hate you. I rather like you. I do greatly respect
you.”

“
Can you
set that up?”

“
I will
make honest effort. I will contact you when I have something to
offer, that or a counter-offer. I think, when I explain that it’s
that or you keep the total contents and use the funds in that
manner here there will be a concerted ‘Bravo!’ tendered to
you.”

“
If
they’re sincere about that they won’t need that suggestion. It’ll
tell you a lot about them and their motives as
individuals.”

“
I cannot
and would not argue that.”

“
What can
we do about the three thugs who got me into this by killing
O’Brien?”

“
It was
her. They were being used and turned on her the same way she turned
on others. I couldn’t care less about them. You may be able to
arrange something. She received exactly what she’d earned and
exactly what she deserved.”

Clint thought about it. He nodded, grinned
and changed the subject to the way Panamá was handling their soccer
program. It seemed to be very effective!

Clint soon went back to the airport to learn
he couldn’t get a flight until tomorrow at eleven. He checked into
a hotel and had a very good night in the restaurant/bar there.

“
Sergio,
remember how we handled that bunch with the land-theft
scheme?”

“
Which
one? You had several of those.”

“
They
started killing each other off. They were deported so Panamá
wouldn’t be saddled with keeping them locked up for twenty years.
We can do that with Besford and Dennis, can’t we?”

He looked thoughtful. He, like Clint, didn’t
want Panamá to have to house and feed the type. He said he’d try to
work it out. That would leave Gordo. He’d be convicted of
complicity and would serve a couple of years.

Nikolo called to say Clint’s suggestions
about the reform were acceptable to all but one of them. That one
would be removed from the group as he had shown he was more
interested in money and power, not in helping his own people. The
people would learn through a careless loss of a document that he
was exactly what he was. When they held elections, if that could
actually be arranged, he need not apply for nomination as a
candidate for anything.

“
We do
sound obsequious, don’t we?” Nikolo finished.

“
It’s a
good kind of obsequiosity. I can live with that.”

“
We have
the problem of delivery of the stuff without government knowledge
nor intervention. There are many who are corrupt here,
too.”

“
Easier
to move it ... I’ll make a few calls and call you back.”

“
That
will be well, my friend. I will await your word.”

Clint hung up and grinned at Sergio. Sergio
returned the grin.

Clint went home and called Manny. Judi made a
delicious lobster chowder. It was good to be home among
friends.

Not Our
Problem

“
Well, it
looks like Marko was able to get the jewel chest back to the people
on that island,” Clint told Nikolo, who had come to Bocas Town to
visit and see the area. He said he rather liked it.

“
Yes.
Things are going along well. Better than ever before in anyone’s
remembrance. The people got their first payment. It was a little
more than four hundred thousand apiece, the medical facility is
contracted and teachers are coming to staff the schools. We have
another problem I should have foreseen, but it will work out, I
imagine.”

“
What’s
that?”

“
Nobody
will show up for work. A millionaire does not find himself in the
position where he must carry large and dirty items across wet and
stinking docks, nor must they work in stores or banks or
whatever.”

Clint laughed. “We really should have seen
that one coming!”

“
Well,
they can give honest employment to many others in the near area. It
will greatly help the economies of several of the islands there. It
will take a short while to get things operating correctly again.
The United States has sent the personnel to man the facilities to
keep the port in operation with only small delay. Vendors from the
small islands nearby will bring in food and supplies to sell. It
will work out well. People will become bored with nothing to do and
will find work suitable to their psychologies.”