Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition (61 page)

But where was she? Still here in Caracas or
somewhere else?

Clint went to his hotel and called Manolo. He
asked if there was anyone in Caracas who could maybe help him find
her.

“
I’ll
send a sort of friend over. He’s on the wrong end of things, but
you can say you’re looking for her because she absconded with a
million dollars in antique statues or something and you want to
catch her before she sells them to somebody for a thousand bucks.
He’ll damned well find her for you if just to see if he can work
her out of the crap for a thousand bucks!

“
Name’s
Esteban Castillanos. Likes to be called ‘Steve Castle’ because it
makes him sound like a US crook. He looks like a gringo
thug.”

Clint thanked him and sacked out for two
hours. The desk buzzed him and said there was a man waiting for him
in the lobby. He went down to meet “Steve Castle” – who really did
look like a US thug or pimp or something. Bullish with a crew cut,
dark hair, puffy complexion, six three or four, two forty pounds,
lots of gold chains around his neck and rings on all fingers, two
fancy watches, two cell phones hanging on his belt. They went into
the bar and sat at a table in back. Clint showed him the security
pictures and explained that she had already killed a couple of guys
so don’t think he can work her. She would definitely be able to con
him into thinking she was the sweetest little thing that ever came
down the pike while she worked him over and probably ended up
killing him. She had the stuff hidden somewhere and was getting
desperate for cash. That was bad news. She would throw around a
hundred or so and make it seem she’d dropped a few thousand.

He said he could find her within the hour if
she was in the more central districts. A day if she was out of town
somewhere. It would cost a thou. Clint agreed. After all, it would
be her inheritance that would pay for it. He went back upstairs to
sack out for another hour.

“
She was
in Norte Central district until earlier this morning. She booked a
flight to Rio,” Esteban reported.

“
No, she
didn’t. That was a dodge I told you about.”

“
I didn’t
say she took it. She just booked it. Tonight at seven fifteen. Air
Americas to Bogota, then Copa to Rio. She has to be at the airport
by six ten.”

Clint said that he would get paid if she
showed up for the flight. He said that was fair enough. He made
arrangements with the local police to have a couple of plain
clothes cops at the airport for the flight. They would try to make
it quiet.

He arrived at six and lolled around the
airport near the reservations desk. The passengers were to be there
by six ten for the flight but she wasn’t there and didn’t show. Her
seat was given to a standby by the name of Evans.

Clint waited for fifteen minutes after the
flight left, then went back to the hotel. Esteban wasn’t there.

He swore and went to his room. It had been
searched. What was going on?

He went back downstairs and waited awhile,
but Esteban didn’t show. He called Manolo, who tried to get in
touch with Esteban with no results.

“
Manolo,
I think maybe she conned him into something. He thinks she has
millions of dollars worth of old statuary that she would sell for
next to nothing. I think he’s made a deal with her.”

“
That
would be about as stupid as it gets. Did you tell him about her
habit of killing off the ones she’s used?”

“
Uh-huh.”

“
Then he
deserves whatever he gets. I’ll see if I can find anyone in the
area to find them. I’ll call later.”

Clint sighed and said he’d spend a little
time trying a few other options. He went to a couple of favorite
gringo bars but didn’t learn anything new. She was avoiding those
places for obvious reasons. She wasn’t about to make herself easy
to find. She was posing as French – so where did the French hang
out here?

A local taxi driver said a few of them were
at the Clubo Gigi. Clint told him to take him there and thought
about Gigi in Celinas. He suppressed a giggle.

She had been in the place the night before
about eleven thirty and had left about twelve or twelve thirty. She
seemed to be wasting time and didn’t speak with many other patrons.
She had one glass of white wine. That meant she was staying
somewhere close. She didn’t get a taxi when she left. She walked to
the left. The bartender saw her leave because she seemed the
innocent type who would end up getting mugged.

“
I pity
anyone who would try it,” Clint said with a snort. “She’s already
killed half a dozen people. I’ll be back later in disguise. She
might come back. Do NOT tell her anyone was asking about her here.
She’s as dangerous as anyone you’ll ever meet. The police in Peru
call her ‘El Diablo’ for what she did.”

He left with the bartender staring at his
back.

He walked around the area, but didn’t learn
much more, then went to his hotel and put on his “Hanrady”
disguise. He was back at Gigi’s at ten thirty where the bartender
kept looking at him in a puzzled way. He finally asked Clint if he
had any kinfolks in Caracas.

“
I think
my nephew’s somewhere around here. Name’s Faraday. He’s working
some kind of detective thing. We don’t get along very well. He’s
living in some kind of stupid TV world or something. Never grew up
and ends up getting into all kinds of trouble with drug lords and
thugs. He does catch some of them, but I’m a professor of botany
and prefer a more sedate lifestyle.”

“
He was
in here today. You look like him a lot, but you’re little shorter
and a little heavier. He’s after some woman who killed a lot of
people or something. Some woman the police in Peru call ‘El Diablo’
because they think she’s Satan in disguise.”

“
Par for
the course for him! He’ll chase her to hell and back. It’s not
something that would attract me in any way, thank you!”

“
Me
either! Leave that stuff on TV where it belongs!”

Some people came in and he went back to the
bar. Twenty minutes later she came in and sat at a little table to
the side of the door. Clint studied her a bit and found she wasn’t
unattractive with the weight loss and new look. She was able to
project the idea that she wasn’t interested in company somehow. She
looked over the room, ordered a white wine and lounged back in her
chair. Clint decided to wait until she left to make a move.

Another group of six people came in to sit
between her and him. He waited until they were seated and glanced
at her table.

She was gone!

He went to the door, but she was nowhere in
sight on the street. He went back inside and saw her coming from
the restrooms to sit at the table again. He went back to his own
table and sat while the waiter brought the drinks to the table
between. She spoke to him and he nodded, then went to the bar. He
brought another glass of wine to her when he delivered the drinks
to the table between.

Clint went to the restroom and returned. She
was still at the table. She seemed to be waiting for someone.
Esteban?

Some people came to sit at the bar. Two men
and two women. Nothing changed for the next fifteen minutes. A man
came to look around and she waved and said something to him. He
went to the bar as the table between got up to go. He returned to
her table and looked around. She was gone. She had, apparently,
left with the people at the table. Clint had been concentrating on
the man who went to the bar to bring her another white wine. This
time she was gone. He’d missed it. It was the kind of trick he’d
used a hundred times and he’d fallen for it!

Manolo called and said he had a man named
Gordon Felon who would meet him somewhere. He thought he had
located Amanda.

“
A place
called Gigi’s. Clubo Gigi on Calle Central,” Clint said. Manolo
said hold a sec and came back on to say that was where Gord was. He
said she had given him the slip.

“
Me, too.
She’s about a cool barracuda! I’m looking at Gordon right now I
suppose. He’s on the phone by the door.”

There was a short pause, then Gordon looked
around the room. Clint waved to go outside and thanked Manolo. He
went out to tell him he’d traced her to the place and was watching
her when she used the oldest trick in the book to walk out on
him.

“
She spot
me or you?”

“
You got
me! Maybe both.”

“
I can
try to find out where she’s staying. It’s somewhere around Centro.
Manolo says you’re working with us on a couple of
deals.”

“
We’ll
both work on it. Manolo and I sort of owe each other favors is
all.”

Manolo hadn’t told him this one was an
operative. He was probably trying to find out whether Manolo was
what he appeared.

“
Favors?”

“
Yeah. I
introduce him to people, he introduces me to people.
Business.”

“
Oh? You
are in the art business?”

“
Me? No.
I’m just bumming around and doing some research in botany. I run
across some things. I sometimes find good antique jewelry while I’m
in the mountains.”

“
I see. I
sometimes find jewels and art myself.”

“
I see.
We can all use a little something on the side,” Clint said with a
wink. Gordon nodded and winked back. Clint went back to the
hotel.

DID she spot him – or Gordon?

Or both.

In the morning Clint had a good breakfast and
was reading the newspaper when two police officers came to ask if
he was Clint Faraday. He said he was. They said he should come to
the police station to explain some things.

Clint knew how the police worked in these
places and agreed to come as soon as he finished breakfast. He ate
fast and went with them to meet the head of homicide. Arnaldo
Cerrano.

“
Mr.
Faraday, we noted that you spoke with a man who calls himself Steve
Castle. It is not his name. We are suspicious that he is dealing in
contraband stolen in Europe. We understand from what was overheard
that another man known only as ‘Manolo’ was the person who sent him
to you.

“
I have
checked on you in Florida and in Panamá and find you work with the
police in Panamá and have aided them in some things. You specialize
in my own specialty, homicide.

“
We must
agree to speak in all things here frankly and honestly. I am
assured that you will cooperate.

“
What can
you tell me of these two people?”

“
Manolo
is an acquaintance who has helped me in some serious matters. I
understand he arranges, shall we say, the distribution of some
things that, as we say in the states, fell off a truck somewhere. I
don’t make judgements about that kind of thing. So long as no one
gets hurt, we ... well, I can use help at times. I simply agree not
to see or hear some things in return for him finding people who do
hear and see things where murder is concerned. He is
nonviolent.

“
I will
not say anymore about him. I believe he is not hurting anyone or
arranging for anyone to be hurt.

“
He had
Esteban Castillo looking for a person for me. That person has
committed a number of extremely sadistic and cruel murders. You
might want to check with Gonzalo Gonzalez in Celinas, Peru, about
that. I know nothing about him except that he reminds me of a TV
pimp and hood. This is homicide. You are asking about
him.

“
I told
him not to be conned by the woman I’m after. She would use him and
kill him without thought.

“
She
did?”

“
It would
seem. He was found dead in his home an hour ago. He was stabbed
seventeen times. It was as, as you said, sadistic a murder as I’ve
seen. He was tied to a chair, his mouth taped shut and his arms and
legs to the chair. He was castrated, then slowly cut until he bled
to death. He had cigarette burns all over his body.

“
Who is
this woman? WHAT is this woman?”

“
Gonzalo
calls her ‘El Diablo’ because of what she did to a man in Peru.
He’s still alive, but deeply and sincerely wishes he wasn’t. She
castrated him with acid. Ask Gonzalo about that!”

“
It is
reputed that he kept very large sums of cash in that house. There
is none now. I can assume the lady has need of cash?”

“
Yes, but
she should have more than she needs. I think she’s just a homicidal
maniac. She’s still in Caracas.”

“
That is
a very frightening statement! Can we find her?”

“
I really
don’t know. I found her last night and she gave me the slip. I
really want to find that one!”

“
And
quickly!”

Now what? She most certainly couldn’t stay in
Caracas and she probably couldn’t leave.

Two days later he hadn’t learned anything
new. She had disappeared off the face of the Earth. No one had seen
her.

Then he got a break. Gordon found the house
where she was renting a room. She was gone when they got there, but
they went in.

“
I just
want to see how she got away from us this time,” Clint
said.

They did. She had a lot of men’s clothes.
She’d dressed as a man and gotten out of the area, but did she get
out of Caracas altogether?

She had more than twenty thousand in cash so
could probably move around without a lot of trouble within South
America and into as far as Honduras with a phony ID of some type.
Surely she wouldn’t try to use another phony passport. Manolo had
already put out an alert with her fingerprints that would catch her
within minutes if she tried that dodge again.