Clint Faraday Mysteries Collection B :This Job is Murder Collector's Edition (12 page)

“
Antoin didn’t let Denis do anything to
us. He said he wouldn’t be part of hurting women,” Judi said. “I
think Maria will be alright if we can find her. I also think I
could have gotten to Antoin with the voodoo bit if I had some time.
Do the incantation thing and use some of that sleight of hand stuff
I teach the kids at the school.”

“
Antoin didn’t want to be any part of
this,” Ann agreed. “On the other hand, he talked about killing two
men before he came to Panamá so they wouldn’t tell
something.”

“
What did they want from Ann?” Clint
asked.

They shrugged. All they were asked was if
they knew some people and what Ann and Cori had said to Claire.
“They seemed to think we told her something about somebody because
of Maria, but they didn’t say so directly. Ann sort of pieced that
out from remarks on the way here and what they asked.”

“
Claire seems to be behind whatever it
is,” Matt said.

“
One thing is still scary,” Judi
warned. “I did hear them say that if Ann didn’t know anything it
had to be Cori.”

That was something to think about, certainly.
Clint wondered if they would go after Cori now. They had to find
Maria. She would be the key. Obilio had been right that the three
bedrolls would mean she was still somewhere close. Clint remembered
the caves not too far back along the second trail off of a
sidepath. That could have been where they were headed when they had
their little encounter. It was worth a try.

Judi fixed his arm with a clean bandage she
found in a small first aid kit. She and Ann would go with Obilio
back to the house, then down to the farm where Luis had taken Cori
and Mike. Matt and Clint would go to the caves.

After the others were gone Clint made plans
with Matt. “They’ll definitely have traps to warn them,” Matt said.
“I wish we had better knowledge about the area. We might have a way
they wouldn’t expect. We could use surprise to a hell of an
advantage.”

“
I noticed the area from above when we
came across that ledge higher up,” Clint replied. “If I remember,
the caves were in the side of a kind of escarpment so we’re damned
limited as to access. We’ll have to depend on distraction. It’s
better than fifty-fifty they’re in those caves. We have no choice.
We plan as we go.”

Matt looked grim and nodded. They headed
along the trail toward the caves, being very careful. Clint
insisted they carry the pistols in their hands and that no one
hesitated to shoot if things got too dangerous.

It took almost an hour to reach the cut-off
to the caves. Clint suggested they go past a short way to see if
there was another approach. He said he didn’t like it so quiet. The
usual animal cries and bird calls had ceased a few minutes ago. He
would think it was them and would be a good warning that they were
on the way, but Matt said the calls were there all along until now.
The only ones that stopped were the ones directly on the path and
in sight. The parrots were even noisier when they passed. Now they
were quiet.

“
It’s the time of day they’re going to
roost,” Clint noted. “They were noisiest when they flew over. This
is eerie – that the noises have so completely stopped. I can’t
figure why. Unless it’s something they’ve done they have to be
damned nervous about it.”

There was a far-off rumbling sound, followed
by a very slight tremor. A few seconds later there was a smaller
aftershock.

“
Tremor. Animals and birds can sense
them or hear them forming or something,” Matt said. “We have an
explanation for us. I wonder if our targets know about
that.”

“
It can work to our advantage if my
luck’s done a one eighty,” Clint agreed. “If things are normal it
will make them even more paranoid.”

They went on for a few hundred meters, then
went off the side of the path along a fallen tree to the more
easily navigated shade under the thick canopy. The lack of light
made it easy to move because not much grew in the dense shade. They
were able to move to a point only about two hundred meters from the
caves. The big black was sitting in front of one with a rifle
standing beside him, leaned against the side of a large boulder.
Clint pointed to a spot with dense foliage a bit below when someone
inside the cave screamed.

“
Let’s rumble!” Matt said and ran into
sight. Clint drew a bead on Antoin, who started to reach for the
rifle, but stopped. “I won’t help him when he hurts a woman,
Mon.”

Matt went to the mouth of the cave, there was
a shot and he dropped. Clint ran from the side and snapped a shot
into the cave mouth where he saw movement. There was a grunt and a
scrambling noise.

“
I’m not hit,” Matt said. “I saw him
move.”

Antoin said he was leaving. He didn’t mean to
ever get involved in something that meant they would kidnap women.
They knew he was like that when they sent him.

“
Claire?” Matt asked. He
nodded.

“
You have five minutes before I come
after you. If Maria isn’t hurt I’ll take longer,” from
Matt.

“
I have nothing to do with hurting no
woman, Mon. Nothing.” He grabbed a backpack from just inside the
cave mouth and started down the trail toward the river. He left the
rifle there.

“
That should be time enough for Denis
to get out the back way. We can hope Maria isn’t hurt. Let’s get
her.”

They went inside to find a large boulder
blocking the passage into the cave. They started for the front and
an even larger one dropped across the opening. It was dark inside
and getting dark outside.

“
Shit!” Matt cried.

“
That about covers it,” Clint
agreed.

Nothing Figures

Clint used the light from his cell phone to
search around the cave a bit. They could move the boulder in back
enough to get through so concentrated on that. The rocks had
apparently been balanced by using poles as levers to roll them up
enough that dropping a stay, probably a smaller rock, would drop
them to seal the entrances. They should be easy to roll away far
enough to let them get through, but the one in the front entrance
had a couple of rocks shoved against and partly under after it was
in place. That acted as a chock that wouldn’t allow it to move. The
rear entrance wasn’t chocked. Denis was probably hurt enough to
where he couldn’t manage the smaller chocks. That meant Antoin had
suckered them. He had to be the one who chocked the one in front –
or there was a third person involved.

“
It’s a good thing we could move that
thing,” Matt said. “If they had put something there to stop it we
would be in trouble.”

“
Obilio would have come if we weren’t
back soon,” Clint replied. “I wasn’t worried about that. I’m just
pissed that we let Antoin con us.”

“
I don’t think it was Antoin. The
rifle’s still there.”

Clint picked up the old Enfield and checked
it over. It seemed to be in good shape.

They headed back toward Obilio’s place. He,
Luis and Mike were coming to look for them. They were walking back
to Obilio’s when Clint stopped to think for a minute, then
swore.

“
What?” from Matt.

“
If you were being held and your
captors kidnaped two other women, would you ... something isn’t
adding up here. Not even close.”

“
I wondered,” Obilio said. “I wondered
why Maria was gone, fighting against someone who had killed her
husband, had time to scream one time from behind the bodega, but
didn’t make any other noise. She didn’t do anything to help us find
her. She put little pieces of blue plastic on plants for us to
find, but couldn’t make a better trail or make some noise? Judi
dropped blood and broke little branches. Why didn’t she break some
branches? She was free enough to place the plastic pieces. She had
time enough to push the twigs through the plastic, but always just
a little to the side of the path, not right on it.

“
I have thought on this. It does not
make any sense. It is like the clues in a movie or TV
show.

“
There is much to know about that one.
If someone killed me in front of Lila they would have to kill her
right then and there. The same as if someone hurt her. I would die
very loud trying to kill them. I would not be quiet and walk off to
the side of a path to hang little pieces of plastic on bushes and I
would not be quiet for anyone to take me anywhere.

“
Also, who was in the house where the
chicha was fermenting? Who knew Ann would not drink it?

“
Yes, amigo. We need to have some
answers to a large number of questions.”

They all agreed with that statement.

“
I have to talk with the bruja!” Clint
suddenly said. Mike looked thoughtful, then nodded. He was very
bright and practical for his age.

They went back to the house. Clint said there
would be two watching at all times. They weren’t to eat or drink
anything there that could have been tampered with. They also had to
find out what the hell was going on!

In the morning Clint, Matt, and Obilio went
to the bruja’s house. She was reluctant to say anything until Clint
said he knew very well that Maria was also a bruja. She didn’t have
the power to do this. She was working for someone else. Probably
Claire Auber.

When Clint said “Claire Auber,” the bruja
flinched noticeably.

“
Okay. All we have to know is what this
is about. No other questions will be asked now.”

“
You can’t fight her. She is very
strong. She sent ... things to prove her power. I am an old woman
who only knows medicine. I have a sense of some things. There is a
follow spell on one of you. Not one here now. It does nothing else,
but it is very good. It is strong enough that I can’t block
it.”

“
Do you know why this is happening?”
Obilio asked.

“
One of you has knowledge of something
that is very dangerous to a person in Haita. It must be known what
will be done with the information if it is not stopped.”

“
Nothing would have been done with it
before they started attacking us,” Matt said. “We don’t even know
what it’s about.”

She looked thoughtful. She said she would
relay that information. Maybe those evil people would go away.

“
One has died. Just now. This
moment.”

“
By natural causes?” Clint
asked.

“
No.” She refused to say more. Clint
thanked her and they went back to the house where Clint insisted
the women go to David and that they don’t go anywhere except as a
group. He told Judi what they had learned and believed.

“
Judi, Maria will probably try to
contact you. Don’t.”

Judi knew what he meant. She nodded
agreement.

They went as a group to the carretera. They
stayed together until the women were all on the bus. Obilio
insisted Lila go with them. Clint called his nutty musician friend,
Dave, and asked if he could use his house in Quiteño. Dave was in
Panamá City, but said the key was where Clint knew. Make themselves
at home.

When the bus was gone the men went back to
Obilio’s house. Mike asked why.

“
So they can contact us,” Mike
said.

“
And to sit here until we can figure
out what it is that Ann or Cori knows,” Clint added. “I also want
to know if it’s Denis or Antoin who’s dead all of a
sudden.”

“
I think it will be Antoin. I think
he’ll have died much the same way Pablo died.”

Clint nodded. Antoin had refused to follow
orders.

They tried to think of anything that might
have a bearing on this mess. Who did Ann or Cori know something
about? What kind of thing was it? Maria was still the point where
everything came together. She was on the other side, but was the
center point. When did they meet her? Under what circumstances? Who
else was she seen with?

“
I doubt we were around when whatever
was told to or seen by Ann or Cori,” Mike said. “We’d be in the
same kind of mess as they are.

“
Maria. I first met her when we were at
that little restaurant where they had the conch we liked, remember?
She waited on us. It was the only time I ever saw her around the
place. We ate there two or three times a week, sometimes all of us
and most times one or two of us. I ate there three times a week.
Pablo worked in the kitchen. I had seen him in there most times I
went.

“
I think, if we check, they weren’t
married, huh?”

Clint nodded. “That was where you all met
her?”

They agreed, but didn’t know if Ann or Cori
had seen her before. Clint called Judi, but they were on the bus
and weren’t in range of a relay. It would have to wait.

“
We have to work on the times before
that when Ann or Cori were out to meet anyone,” Matt said. “We
don’t stay too close after we’re in a place a couple of days to
learn how to get around and where to go. We met her after about
four days of that so it’s in a pretty restricted time. We didn’t
... I wonder!”

“
Wonder?” Clint asked.

“
I seem to remember Cori saying she
thought she had seen Maria once in Jamaica. It was later, after we
met at the restaurant. Cori said it was either her or a sister or
something. Mike said a lot of those people look alike. They’re
pretty much inbred on those islands.”