Clint Faraday Collection C: Murder in Motion Collector's Edition (39 page)

“
Where
are you?” Williams asked.

“
Divisa.”

“
I’m only
a half hour away. I’ll meet you there in forty five minutes. I have
to finish this, but I’ll come as soon as it’s done. It’s business
and the Robinson property is involved. Meet me at
Yolanda’s?”

“
Which is
where? I don’t know Divisa.”

“
On the
edge of town heading toward Chitre.”

“
I think
I’ve seen it. I’ll be there.”

All he could do was wait. He found Yolanda’s
and used the time to call Judi to give her an update on what was
going on. Williams came in fifty minutes from the call so he wasn’t
on Panamanian time. If he was it would be at least three more hours
before he showed up. Clint was pointed to him as he came in. He
came to the table and Clint said to bring two Balboas to the pretty
waitress and introduced himself. Williams introduced himself as
Larry.

“
So.
What’s it about? I’ve heard the land isn’t worth anything, but that
would depend on what you want to do with it.”

“
What do
you want to do with it?”

“
Let it
sit for five to ten years, then turn it over for a big profit when
the influx gets going good. There are a lot of people who want land
like that. It’s got a view and some coast with beaches so it’s got
enormous potential.

“
If I
don’t invest in something longterm I’ll throw the money away and
end up broke in a year or so. This’ll force me to live within my
means.”

“
There
aren’t any beaches there. The sand’s out of the water at low tide
and there’s nothing there but slick rocks in the water that’s only
a few centimeters deep.”

“
So I’ve
been told. A man was trying to get me to go out there with him
before I signed anything or gave anyone any money. He said he would
take me to where I couldn’t deny he was telling the truth. He said
there was something else about the property he was checking
on.

“
I had an
engineer with credentials with the government out there. He looked
over the charts and so forth the government has and said I can
dredge my own channel up to ten meters wide and can use the sand to
expand the beach there because it’s a lot of rocks that don’t serve
much ecological purpose and that is protected by the shallows
outside from washout.

“
Santamaria. That was the person who was murdered on a bus
or something. I remember seeing something about it on
TV.”

“
He was
murdered by Robinson. So was a man named Sucha, who had the bad
fortune to see Robinson with Santamaria’s fancy cell phone after
Santamaria was dead. Robinson had a gun pointed at my head when he
died. He allowed me one second when he was distracted. Castillo was
driving him and got the hell out of there before I could get a shot
at her.”

Williams was staring at Clint in disbelief.
“But ... but she ... I was with her when you called! She wanted me
to put something down on the land because she said Robinson had
another interested buyer who would pay more and she had a lot of
time and money invested in the sale to me!”

“
She
wants money to be able to run. The police are after her slimy ass
bigtime!” Clint took out his phone and called the police to report
that she was in Divisa an hour ago. Williams told them where his
place was and said she took the Las Tablas cut-off road. They would
have her in fifteen minutes. There wasn’t anywhere for kilometers
where she could get off that road. They would call Clint the minute
they had her and he could come to Divisa station to identify her
and her car. Williams said he’d like to be along to find what was
really going on. He’d given her five hundred dollars to hold the
land. He had first refusal at the price already quoted.

They had another beer and waited until the
call came that she would be at the station in ten minutes. The
officer who called said she was the type that made cops want the
right to smack them in the mouth. He was definitely going to report
her for trying to bribe him with two hundred dollars to give her
one-half hour to get away.

“
Well,
let’s see exactly what the hell this is really about!” Williams
said. “It seems extreme. I knew most of what was wrong with the
land and would’ve bought it anyhow. I would’ve tried to get the
price down more, but it was good enough for me as it
was.”

They finished their beer and headed for the
station.

“
She’s
being entered now. She’s a lawyer so she’s giving us one hell of a
time quoting laws that don’t apply to criminal cases,” Javier, the
police officer who brought her in reported. “I would love the right
to smack that one in the mouth a few times – and I don’t believe in
hitting a woman for any reason! What a
bitch
!”

They chatted and Clint explained more about
the bus and what he figured was happening. Much of it was
confirmed. She was involved in a land scam that resulted in the
murders and the attempt on his own life. Javier got the report on
Santamaria to add what Clint found. “Did you know he had been
checking the registro and catastro?” he asked.

“
Who?
Santamaria?”

“
Yes.
This may have some grave import on the murders and explain why
Robinson always was so adamant about keeping anyone else out of it.
Williams has stated he knew the land was considered worthless, but
he had a plan. The state of the land wasn’t very deeply involved in
his decision – but problems with catastro and the registro could
well mean it was about something more.”

“
Larry,
let’s go to catastro right now! I have the authorization papers
with the police to get me into those files fast!”

“
I will
accompany you,” Javier suggested. “If what I am suspecting
eventuates there is ten times the motive that a court would demand.
It will make this a, as you gringos say about basketball, slam
dunk!”

They headed for the public records department
and checked on the Robinson land. It turned out the land was owned
by Robinson’s uncle and that it had never changed registration,
which meant the land legally belonged to a son of his uncle since
the uncle died in an accident six years ago. A Paulo Santana
Robinson. A sale could be contested – successfully – at any time.
The land wasn’t legally Robinson’s to sell.

“
So. We
know what Santamaria found,” Javier said. “We have far more than
enough motive for all of it. Castillo has to know about this. It is
what a lawyer
does
. She will
be part of the, as you call it, scam. She knew of this one day
after agreeing to sell it.”

“
Yup!”
Clint agreed. Williams nodded.

“
Say!
Does that thing have a way to get in touch with this Santana
character?” Williams asked.

“
Yes. It
has an address, if an old one,” Javier said and gave him the
address. In David

“
Well! It
looks like I’m heading for David! I might still want to buy it if
Santana wants to sell.”

“
He
will,” Clint said. “He doesn’t even know he has it, it
seems.”

“
Do not
be too sure,” Javier warned.

“
Oh?”
Williams replied.

“
I see,”
Clint said. “His name and number are on those papers. It could mean
that he’s in on the scam. Sell it to you for a fairly cheap price,
Robinson and Castillo go somewhere with the money, then Santana
makes a claim. He knows about the land being his from those records
right there.”

“
Phew!”
from Williams.

“
Still
want to go? You may have him in a spot where he has to sell it to
you damned cheap to stay out of some serious charges himself,”
Clint pointed out.

“
I’m not
interested in any forced or crooked ... but they were trying to do
that to me! Let’s get this boat in the water! Your car or
mine?”

“
I’m
going there anyhow. Mine.”

They finished the business with the police,
Larry went home to get some clothes and so forth, Clint had another
beer, then they were on the way to David.

“
Mr.
Santana? I’m Lawrence Williams. I was going to buy your property in
Arenas. Robinson is dead and Castillo is in the pen. It’s your land
and I want it. How much?

“
Figure
your cut of what they were going to scam me out of and I’ll pay
that for it as soon as it’s registered in my name.
Título.”

“
Título?
I think not.”

“
Then you
don’t think at all,” Clint said. “Clint Faraday. Police and private
detective, acting as private detective here, but it could become
police with a word.”

“
Er?”

“
It was a
scam that resulted in three people dying. If you don’t make the
sale it shows your complicity, therefore your guilt, in the scam
and murders. Simple,” Williams said.

“
Six to
ten years,” Clint agreed.

Santana sat down. Hard. He stuttered a bit,
but didn’t quite say anything.

“
Well?!”
Williams demanded. “How much? I’ll see if I want to spend that or
if I’ll wait for your conviction and buy it from the government for
thirty two cents a meter. Titled!”

“
Thirty
cents a meter and you get the title. I’ll sign the papers with a
notary.”

Williams raised an eyebrow at Clint, who
nodded the slightest bit.

“
I’ll
have to think ... but I want to do this today so I can get back to
Divisa. Twenty six cents. That will make it cost about what they
were going to charge.”

“
WHAT!!”
he screamed. “They were going to sell it for sixty cents a meter?!
They told me they were getting forty cents!”

“
They
were crooks. You were one, too. You believed them?” Clint asked.
“You would split thirds, huh?”

He nodded.

“
Give him
twenty cents a meter. He comes out better than he would have and so
do you.” Clint said to Williams. “He was going to scam you out of a
little himself.”

“
I would
have had the land back to sell again!” he protested.

“
There
would never have been a second deal after you tried it once,”
Williams pointed out. “I’ll split the difference. Twenty three
cents.”

Santana nodded and gave him a sickly grin.
They went to the catastro and got in just before it closed for the
day. They would have to finish it tomorrow, but Clint wasn’t needed
anymore. He arranged for a law firm he knew to handle it. He warned
Williams of what lawyers were like – as Castillo should have shown
him. Take care!

“
That
, I can
promise you!” he replied.

Clint soon headed back to Bocas. On the main
road. No more detours. They seemed to have a way of turning sour on
him.

“
So that
was about it. He got the land, titled, cheaper than they were going
to sell it to him for. It’s worthless now, but his plans might make
him come out,” Clint explained to Judi as they drove toward
Chiriqui Grande. “It was one hell of an experience, but I found a
place I’ll have to show you sometime.”

“
I love
everyplace you’ve taken me to meet your Indio friends,” she agreed.
“We’re going to Punta Peña, then to Chiriqui Grande, then to
Cusapín to one of those places right now so I’ll love it. I always
do.”

“
They’re
the real Panamá. I love this place more every day.”

“
I feel
the same. Bocas grows stale if you stay too long, but it’s a great
place for a base. We go all over the country from
there.”

“
Uh-huh.
Anyhow, Castillo got six years. We kept the agreement with Santana
and didn’t press any charges, but he knows we can if he ever gets
out of line again. He came out good.”

“
Oh!
We’re coming to the Valle de Aguas road! We can take a detour there
right to Punta Peña!”

Clint gave her the finger.

C. D. Moulton’s works are available on most
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