Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition (63 page)

They chatted for awhile, then Clint sacked
out. Juan came to sleep with him. Clint felt very protective of
him.

It was three days in paradise. Clint could
have stayed there the rest of his life and never regretted a
moment. Sam called him (well, text message) and reported she was
there. Getting a boat before noon. Be there about one or two.

A minute later he got another message: rented
a boat. Alone.

That might work!

He warned Julio and family to stay away from
the river when she got there. She was dangerous. They agreed. Julio
said he had a machete, but Clint showed him his pistol and said
arm’s length was too close with her. He would stay out of sight in
the house. Don’t let the children go outside unless he or Estrelita
were with them and never very far.

They waited. She didn’t come and it was
getting dark. Clint called Sam.

“
She
still has the boat out there somewhere. Headed off that way and
never came back. Might have landed somewhere around the bend and
walked in to take a look, you know?”

Clint said she would do that. It was why he
didn’t go anywhere she could see him.

“
She will
when the lights are on.”

“
Only
firelight and candles.”

“
And
shadows.”

“
Yes.
Handled.”

“
She saw
something. She’d be in there already if she hadn’t. Maybe she’ll
stay back in the trees tonight to see who’s around tomorrow,” Sam
warned. “If she’s half as nuts as you said she’ll be paranoid at
the same time.”

Clint thought. There was nothing she would be
overly-suspicious about he could think of. It was going to be one
hell of a tense night. Clint wasn’t about to leave his pistol out
of reach. He again warned Julio to keep his family together. Don’t
let the children go outside. She might grab them.

They doused the lights and waited in the
dark. Clint was very careful of sounds.

The jungles are filled with sound at night.
That was going to be the hard part.

The
Slip One More Time

She didn’t show by morning. Clint waited
until after ten o’clock in the house out of sight.

“
Julio,
where could she be? I can’t figure her at all. I had fooled myself
into thinking I could.”

“
She’s
insane so she doesn’t think like sane people.”

“
I know.
I was counting on that.”

“
She will
know you are thinking in that way. Crazy people are often very
smart.”

Clint nodded agreement. “Is there anywhere
around here she would go? Anyplace she may know about from when she
was here?”

“
It has
been many years – before even I had a wife. I remember that she
liked to go to the island place where the stream comes to the
river. She was always happy there because no one else came to
disturb her.”

“
An
island?”

“
The
stream goes around both sides of a large boulder and there is
perhaps half a hectare of flat land and trees by the river behind
it. It is very thick with a big flat rock in the
middle.”

“
It isn’t
far?”

“
Perhaps
one third of a kilometer. Maybe a little less.”

“
She
isn’t suspicious that I’m here. She’s going to a place where she
once felt safe and happy. She’ll be pretty paranoid and will
definitely check to see that no one’s here who shouldn’t be, but
she’ll also know that she’s paranoid. She IS smart!

“
Can I
get close to where she is without being seen?”

“
From the
path, but it is not clear and will be difficult to
move.”

“
That’s
good! Show me where it is, but keep your family close. She might be
using that path herself.”

He nodded and showed Clint a path along the
river, but back ten or twelve meters. It was too rocky to move
closer to the river.

He went along the path a way and found some
shrubs broken where the path was overgrown. She had used the path.
She could come to the side of the house to about a hundred meters
away. She couldn’t see anything unless someone was outside. No one
who wasn’t supposed to be there had been outside.

Clint went on more slowly and carefully. He
didn’t want to make even the slightest noise and he was sure she
would have some kind of trap set up to warn her if anyone came
along the path.

He was getting close when he saw a thin vine
hanging over the path where it was otherwise fairly clear. He
stopped and checked along the length of it to find that even a
small tug would dislodge a branch propped against the side of a
rock. The branch would fall into some shrubs.

So?

He looked in the shrubs to see a bird’s nest
with a bird sitting on eggs in it. The branch would shake the shrub
and the bird would raise a loud ruckus. She really was as smart as
Julio warned!

A few feet farther along was the real alarm.
She knew anyone familiar with the area would find that one if they
expected anything like it. She might think he would find her ... or
she might simply be taking no chances. This one was a small rotten
branch that you would almost have to step on or move to pass. If
you moved it a large rock that was balanced on the end under some
scrub would roll down the little hill and fall directly onto a
large hollow log that would ring like a bass drum! VERY clever! It
was at a point in the path where there was no way to pass without
moving that branch.

Clint backtracked and went up the side of the
steep mountain for a few meters, then climbed around the spot. It
left him a hard way to go to get back to the path. All it meant was
extra time and effort. It was very slow and difficult, but he made
it to the side of the little stream half an hour later.

Half an hour to go, in effect, two hundred
meters. He rested under some little acacia trees for a few minutes,
then studied the little stream. It was rocky and slippery, but he
wouldn’t want to be that much in the open to approach. She would
definitely be watching that stream.

But
she would not be watching the far side!
It was miles of jungles to nowhere! He
could cross the stream here where he wouldn’t be seen from the
island. It would be slow going on the far side on those rocks, but
might be easier a very short distance from the stream. The solid
canopy of dense foliage would mean not much would grown in the
darkness.

Fifteen minutes later he was moving quickly
toward the island. He went along the bank under the overhang to
study it. Crossing wouldn’t be too difficult. He would be visible
for less than a minute as he crossed and she wouldn’t be watching
it here. He waited a minute more, then started across. He went into
the dense brush along the side of the creek and on through to where
he could stay under cover and watch.

She had a tent on the large flat rock in the
center. There was a little kerosene stove with a coffee pot sitting
on it. She was nowhere to be seen. He waited. There was no movement
anywhere.

He heard the loud drum sound from the path.
She was headed for the house.

He quickly went through everything left
there, taking anything that could be used as a weapon and the more
than fifty thousand dollars in cash and two passports. Then he
headed for the path. It was set up so that the branch had to be
moved from either side. NOT as smart as she usually was!

He crossed the stream and headed along the
path, then stopped to think before he got himself killed. She had
bullets in that camp, but no gun. .357 magnum loads. She would be
waiting for him along this path somewhere.

How did she know?

The animals. There was constant noise, but
they would either get louder or fall silent when he passed. She
used sound to track him.

She didn’t expect him. She might think it was
Julio or someone else. She was just being careful.

That didn’t make her any less dangerous! She
wouldn’t care if it was him or someone else she shot!

Maybe she would want to torture ... no. This
was now a game to her. She didn’t have anything against him. She
would be past the vengeance bit unless someone tried to use her
again, then would get steadily worse. She WOULD kill again if she
wasn’t stopped. That was her answer to anything. Anyone who was
even the least dishonest in their motives toward her was trying to
use her and abuse her like every ... man in her life. She wouldn’t
have a vendetta against women.

Wanda?

Wanda allowed herself to be used by her
father and probably others and wouldn’t do anything to try to
protect her. She didn’t see that she didn’t protect anyone, either.
That was the point about her mother. She didn’t protect them, but
had the excuse that she tried but didn’t know how. Orison used his
psychology to help Lawrence keep her in check. That was the real
reason she killed him. Donald was just another man who was using
her to make money. She snapped when she went into that room where
Donald had just, if accidentally – a thing she couldn’t know –
killed the one she hated more than anyone else in the world. She
killed Donald for THAT, then jabbed the needle into Lawrence in
rage because she had probably spent years planning how she was
going to kill him. She knew about Orison and the cancer. She wanted
her father to stay alive and in pain as long as he could survive,
then she’d make his death really horrible. That’s where the acid
castration idea was born. He had repeatedly sexually abused her and
she was going to get even for that!

She simply transferred the idea to Lindsay,
or maybe had planned it for both of them all along.

Everything was explained from the
psychological angle. It didn’t make her one iota less dangerous or
crazy. She would get away with a lot of it on the “crazy” part, but
the most important thing was to get her off the streets.

He went back to the island. He would sit
there and wait for her. Julio and family were in no danger if he
didn’t face her there. She didn’t kill altogether indiscriminately.
She waited for a reason. She sometimes set it up so a reason would
be there, of course.

So she had planned for Frieda to die all
along. She probably wanted to do that one herself, but Lindsay took
care of it at a time when they must get out immediately.

He started to pour himself a cup of the
coffee, then thought better. That might be another of her traps.
She was the type to pour anything left over out and clean the cup
and stove before she left. It was sort of scary to be able to think
like her. It said some unsettling things about himself!

He went inside the tent to wait. She had a
.357 and he’d be stupid to sit there like a big bulls-eye on a
target!

She didn’t return. He waited until a little
before dark, then went back to the house just at nightfall. There
were some clouds to the east so it didn’t come as quickly as the
nights before. Julio and family were very worried about him. He was
sitting on the verandah explaining what had happened at the island
when they heard an outboard motor approaching on the river. She’d
waited until he left the tent and gotten the boat. She yelled, “Yo,
Clint! Good show! You’re damned GOOD! See ya!” She turned and went
back up the river.

Clint swore and tried to call Sam, but there
was no signal.

There was no signal for more than two hours,
then Sam said she hadn’t come back with the boat. She went
somewhere else.

“
Where
else could she go?” Clint asked.

“
Just up
the river to where the boat can’t pass anymore. Several little
burgs along up there. Ride out on horseback.”

“
She
doesn’t have much – if any – money anymore.”

“
Trade
the boat and motor for a mule, use it to pay an Indian to take her
somewhere. Lots of ways.”

“
Shit!
Come get me in the morning.”

Sam agreed and he went to bed. He had it all
to do over again. This time she didn’t have any money and probably
couldn’t get any.

She was smarter than that. She had some way
to get her hands on enough to do something or go somewhere. He had
to figure where she might go. Where she might have money
stashed.

He smirked. There was only one place!

In the morning he told the family goodbye and
that he would try to come visit them again. They honestly wanted
him to stay. He was like family.

Clint got off the little private plane in
Rio. The biggest, loudest, most unwanted stop yet. He HATED cities.
Rio was huge!

He would have to find Gloria Sorento. That
wouldn’t be easy – or would it?

He went to the north bus station and had
security there contact Gonzalo Gonzalez in Peru. He needed
information on a person who came in a bus six days ago from Peru
and Gonzalo would explain. She wasn’t the one he was looking for,
she just had information he must have. Ten minutes or so later he
was shown the list of all passengers. Gloria Sorento had given an
address of 878-C, 2356 Calle “C” South, Vista Montana. That address
was across town in an upper middle class subdivision. It took
almost an hour to get there by taxi. He paid and found the
place.

He would just watch the building for her. He
didn’t want anyone to know he was there. She would definitely have
a code or something to warn Amanda. Not this time!

Clint figured it would take her a week to
arrive so knew she might already be there.

He spotted Gloria leaving. She went to a
store to get groceries, then returned to the apartment building.
Clint was in a little café by the lobby where he couldn’t be seen
from outside.