Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition (19 page)

Well, that’s part of being a hotshot
detective from the states. Grin and bear it.

“
Grudinev
was a very dangerous person,” Sarnoff said, fixing Clint with a
hard icy st

are. “I am aware of the reputation of many
Russians here – and some part is true. You should learn all of the
facts before you make accusations, though you may have ample reason
for your assumptions in this case.

“
I assure
you, Mr. Faraday, that what happened was for the better of all. I,
despite what you may think, love this country. People like Grudinev
would make it the hell of the far east here. My intention was to
eliminate him – I did that and will freely boast of it – and return
his stolen weapons to the facility in Minsk to have it properly
disposed of.

“
Mr.
Faraday, I have any number of what you call ‘scams’ in operation
here. I make a very lot of money from them and apologize to no one
for it. It is what I know. I try honestly to not see harm to those
not involved with open eyes. My scams work because people are
greedy and dishonest. It is like the things on the internet where
they are told they can get a lot of money by cooperating with a
dishonest scheme. I think you will check and find I also do many
good things with this ill-earned gains. I have many students in the
universities who could never hope to be able to have an education
without help. I have imported much modern medical equipment. It is
not for or from the drug cartels for use of their families who
cannot go to hospitals in Colombia for fear of the ... many things.
It is for the people here. They are mostly-in-all very good people
of excellent character here.

“
Yes,
Panamá City is corrupt and ridden with too much crime. That is true
of big cities anywhere in the world today, much to my
sadness.

“
We are
all not bad Russians. It is from a different standard and there are
too many who are bad. The old KGB people know nothing but fear and
intimidation to the point they seem crazy to others. Some to even
me, who knows why they are as they are.

“
I
promise you, I was only to send the product back to Minsk and to
eliminate the dangerous person.”

Clint nodded. “A friend said he was somewhat
puzzled by you. You seemed a good person in a bad guise. You had to
use the reputation of your countrymen here to hope to accomplish
anything with real meaning. He looked at his past life and decided
it was wasted and for nothing. Greed is never satisfied.

“
Panamá
seems to have that effect on quite a few of us.”

“
Ah!
‘Us!’ You are one who asked what it is for to get things and money
and power to hoard and found there is no satisfying answer in
that,” he said, smiling broadly. “And yes, this country will do
that to some.

“
When you
are back in Bocas you may tell Marko that perhaps I am not all bad,
yes?”

“
Marko?
In Bocas? It’s probably a good thing some people believe he’s
there. It makes him and his family safer.”

“
So I
tried!” he replied, laughing. “It is true. The family thing also
makes one think. I have a family I want to be proud to say what
their old dad did. What I ... was, they must never be. They must be
able to hold high their heads in pride for what the old dad was
able to do.

“
Clint,
if I may, I like you. You are a what you call hardass private dick
who is actually a good person inside. You cannot hide that from
me!”

“
Of
course. Try as I might, I can’t help but like you, too,
Miklo.”

“
Ah! So
call me Mick, like all my American friends do. Would you like some
vodka and orange juice? Or whatever. It is real vodka, made from
potatoes, not this grain garbage everyone calls vodka
today.”

“
That
sounds great! Do you get in any fishing?”

“
Would
that I could! I can’t go anywhere without so many trying to be
there so ... well. I just wish!”

“
You have
to come to Bocas. Sneak away and bring the family. I have a friend
you would like to meet who has a nice boat. We can go after lobster
and fish or just lay around doing nothing.”

“
I just
might do that!” he replied. “It would be what you call a real
hoot!”

“
A ‘real
hoot?’ Nobody’s said that for decades!”

Mike gave him the finger and another broad
smile – And the most delicious vodka and orange juice he’d ever
tasted.

Paradise Is That Way

“
Hi,
Judi-kins! Want to go down to the Zapatillas this morning?” Clint
Faraday, retired PI, called from his deck over the water on Saigon
Bay.

“
Hah! Not
if you’re going like that!” she called back and wagged a finger at
him. He hadn’t put anything on yet. He laughed and said he was
running down for the day to get in some lazing around. He’d
probably run over to Dolfin Point to see Gaita, the local “Mad
Madrilleno” and maybe his writer friend, Dave, who had a lot there
or something, would be around. He wasn’t in Bocas last
night.

“
Sounds
good! I’ll throw something in a bag for snacks. If Gaita’s
entertaining we can con him into fixing something. He’s got to make
the best paiella I’ve ever tasted – and I’ve tasted it in a lot of
places. I’ll bring my snorkle and some tackle.”

Ben, the close gay friend of them both, was
just coming to Judi’s front door, so Clint called to him to ask if
he wanted to go. He did, and called back, “If you’re going like
that I don’t think I can stand it. We can leave the bitch
here!”

Judi came through to open the door and made a
remark Clint didn’t hear. They both laughed.

Clint went inside to put on a bathing suit
and tank top. He loaded some stuff into his boat and went to Judi’s
dock to pick her up. Ben would be back with his stuff and maybe a
friend in a few minutes. Judi was in a bathing suit that showed off
her excellent slim figure. Clint leered and they both laughed.
There would never be anything more than this. They both knew it
would eventually ruin a close and real friendship if sex got
involved.

Clint had a cup of coffee while they waited
and they chatted about their friends. Ben came with a rather
handsome surfer he called Jon and made a joke about maybe leaving
him there because Clint would get horny with Judi looking like that
and they had already agreed no sex to ruin things – and he hadn’t
made any such rash promises!

They set out south, then east toward the end
of Isla Bastimentos. As they passed the island Clint called to the
girls who worked at the restaurante there. They waved. Jon asked if
the islands were directly ahead or more toward the mainland and
where was this Gaita place?

“
Paradise
is that way,” Judi answered, pointing westward toward Dolfin Point.
“The Zap’s are directly ahead and a bit toward the Caribbean, that
way.” She pointed southwest.

Clint said they’d go to the islands and work
in toward Gaita’s around noon. Maybe they could con him into a bit
of gourmet food!

A big cigarette boat came by at tremendous
speed. There were several very dark people in it. It maneuvered
around a couple of the small reef-lined islands and went out into
the open Caribbean. A helicopter came by. A police helicopter with
machine guns. They heard the gunfire a minute later from out in the
Caribbean.

“
Paradise
is definitely not THAT way!” Ben declared.

Clint noticed that Jon looked like he would
faint. He filed that look and the questions it brought to mind.

“
There
was a girl tied up in the boat. I’m afraid she was dead along with
the drug-runners,” Cpt. Ramirez stated. “We are presently trying to
identify her and to determine why she was there. It is possible she
was the person who reported the drugs on the boat. There was half a
ton of processed cocaine aboard that boat. It is very sad. Further
information will be made public immediately when we have
it.”

This was in Spanish, of course, and was on
the radio. It was just past noon and they had arrived at Gaita’s
just moments before. Gaita wasn’t there, but Dave was. He said he
noticed the boat and helicopter going by about 8:30 and heard the
shots. Ben shook his head and said they never learned. Judi
wondered about the dead girl. Jon looked sick. Clint merely
observed everything. He used his radio on the boat to contact the
police in Bocas. He worked with them at times, so they would tell
him what they knew.

“
The girl
was shot with a very small caliber bullet,” Ernesto replied. “It
wasn’t from the fifty caliber police guns – which is a great relief
to us. Her name was Sherri Bills, a surfer girl from Alabama in the
states. I believe she was the one who reported the drugs and they
found out about it. When the police came after them out there they
shot her to be sure she couldn’t testify to anything if they
survived.”

“
Where
was she in the boat?” Clint asked. There was a pause while Ernesto
looked over the reports, then, “On the deck by the engine
compartment.”

“
She was
killed to prevent her telling something else she knew,” Clint said.
“They knew they were all dead. You can’t survive in a boat that’s
in the sights of a fifty caliber machine gun.

“
Thanks.
I’ll probably ask about it when we get back this
afternoon.”

“
What do
you think she knew?”

“
Who they
were there to meet, probably.”

Dave fixed them some of his curried pork.
They talked awhile, then went back though the islands to Bocas at
four o’clock.

“
What
will you do tonight?” Judi asked as they got off the boat at her
dock. “I’m meeting Kent, the knockout guy from Canada, for dinner
at Refugios.”

“
I’ll
probably just hang,” Ben said. “Not too much to do this time of the
year.”

“
I’ll
check on some things here,” Clint answered. “Probably go to the
Plank or Bongos later. Maybe Bohmfalk’s. El Parche is playing there
tonight. They’re good.”

They looked at Jon, who said he’d done too
much or had too much sun or something so would sack out awhile at
the hostel. Maybe he’d go to the Mondo Taitu later.

Clint unloaded the boat, went over to his
dock to tie the boat down and unload his stuff, then went in to
contact his friend, Manny (actually Marko, a friend who was a big
jefe in the mafia. He had moved there to get away from that and was
popular here. He wanted to raise his family without the stigma of
what pops used to be into). Manny would find out about a few things
for him in minutes when it would take the police information system
a week to find the same thing.

An hour later Manny called back. “This Jon
Derek is actually Morrie Amsberg from South Philly. He’s a sort of
wannabe dealer with some connections that could maybe make it
happen. His girlfriend didn’t – note that – have a clue. Maybe she
found a clue or two?”

“
I’d say
... she was in the wrong place at the wrong time and got half the
story – then got dead. If it weren’t for that I’d let the locals
handle it. You know how I get when the innocent bystanders get
drawn into these things. This time the bystander got dead. That
can’t pass. Thanks, Manny.”

“
I can
solve this in a minute. I know you don’t want that, but I promise
you that crud isn’t getting away with it. If you can’t tag his ass
solid I’ll handle it and you won’t even know about it. Time limit
for you?”

“
Two
days.”

“
Done!”

Clint went into the shower, shaved, dressed
and walked into town to chat with people. Fernando, local
translator for the English speaking tourists, was at Don Chicho’s
and had heard about the drug bust. They talked awhile.

Clint went down to the Big Bamboo for a beer.
Judi came in after half an hour to say she’d been stood up. It
seemed Kent had an emergency call and had taken off for Panamá City
on the last plane. He’d paid Lorris, the older guy from France who
lived out on Avenida G, fifty bucks extra to get his seat and to
tell Judi he was sorry to miss her.

Clint and Judi went to a couple of places,
then headed for home. Clint asked Judi for Kent’s last name.

“
It was
Downton. He’s from English stock.”

After seeing her home Clint called Manny and
asked that he find out what he could about a Kent Downton from
Canada.

“
Nothing
about this Kent character. He’s just some schnook with a little
cash and a big debt to several banks. Mortgage, car payments and
such crap. Supposed to be here to make some kind of deal for land
where he’d be able to pay everything off in a month or
so.

“
So he’s
the link? Morrie – by the way, he got his name changed legally, so
I should call him Jon – gets the stuff and he carries it somehow.
Pays by taking a loan on his house and car for about four hunnert
grand – hundred thousand dollars. I keep slipping.

“
How to
deliver to Canada? Find that part and you’ve got it
tied.”

“
Thanks,
Manny,” Clint said, thinking. “There’s a piece missing
here.”

“
There
is?”

“
Why were
the drugs on that boat?”

“
Delivery
here?”

“
Hmm. If
the girl had time to learn about it and report it, probably not.
You know what?