Clint Faraday Mysteries Collection B :This Job is Murder Collector's Edition (38 page)

“
The rest are the original
planners?”

“
Yes. For the most part. I know who
they are. Emanuel’s job is almost done.”

“
Many of them?”

“
Right now, four in this area. They
think they’re totally safe.”

“
Nobody is.”

“
True. Watch your back, Clint. If they
tumble that you know anything you have to remember you’re no more
safe than they are.”

“
I won’t go after you, you won’t go
after me. We understand what the hell is going on in the world.
Just be absolutely sure no innocent friend of mine gets drawn into
it.”

“
I like the Indios, too. They treat me
like I’m just another person who may be interesting and maybe even
could be a friend. That wouldn’t change if they knew what I’m
doing, would it?”

“
They might not approve, but they
wouldn’t make judgements so long as you don’t involve them or their
people.”

“
Just like you. And me.”

Clint nodded.

“
Who? Here?”

Clint considered. “I think I know! I wonder
... can Emanuel find this one?”

“
You can, it would seem.”

“
If I know what I’m looking for. I
could ask the Indios in this kind of place about certain things and
know in minutes.

“
No. I won’t .”

He laughed. “I didn’t think you would. It’s
my gig, not yours.”

“
But I won’t protect them,
either.”

He grinned. They came on a group of Indios
waiting for a bus. The small children ran out to hug Clint. He
embraced a couple of the adults and chatted a minute. He introduced
Raul and said, very frankly, that it wasn’t his real name. They
accepted that and included him in the conversation.

They walked on and into the small collection
of homes near the little store. Emanuel was there and said that
Ernesto Lopez was out riding somewhere and wouldn’t be back until
late. He left a note that he had called and would possibly come
back next week if he was in the area.

“
You aren’t going to wait for him
here?” Clint asked.

“
No. His girlfriend says he sometimes
stays for three or four days when he rides out with those two snobs
from Panamá City, so I’ll go on. From what she said and what others
said I doubt I could reach the poor soul. They say he is entirely
obsessed with money and thinks he’s the king of the world. They say
he is a very sad and unhappy man and that makes him a mean and evil
man. He blasphemes constantly and says – this is what they say he
says, not my words – `God can kiss my ass.’ That is so sad. I
believe him to be damned beyond redemption, though I feel God will
forgive anything if there is true remorse.

“
I am torn. I may be able to help the
man, but it may not be possible. I am not the best at reaching such
people.”

“
Well, I always felt you took such
things too personally. You can only try. It’s not your fault if
they’re so set in their ways they won’t listen to anyone
else.

“
There! I’ve come around a bit toward
your philosophy! You’re getting to me!”

Emanuel laughed. “You’re not a very good
liar, Clint. I think there’s hope.”

“
Where will we go next?” Clint asked.
“Raul” said he had to move on. He had an important meeting. He
shook hands with Emanuel and Clint and strolled on toward the south
along the road.

“
I will contact Veronica when we are
back in David. I would like to take the bus to the dam and get off
there. I want to look around the area where you gave me such
insight into my own mind and brought my hidden fears into the
light.

“
Clint. I want to walk out on that dam
and look at the beautiful scene on both sides. I want to look down
to that river hundreds of meters below and feel the thrill I felt
at the washout. I will then flag the next bus into
David.

“
Clint, I am most serious. You have
freed me.

“
I will, of course, continue on my
quest for Veronica and the group. I gave my word. I never do that
lightly. I will also inform her that I feel it is fast coming the
time I will seek other ways to help my fellow man. I feel the path
chosen is not effective enough.

“
I will find a place. Perhaps here in
Panamá. I think Darien was beautiful and natural.

“
Clint, I am not going to try to
impress anyone with my beliefs anymore. That was a terrible mistake
and had the result of turning people away from me and from God. I
did not see it.

“
I will be like Alan, the man who took
me in and saved me from the horrors my parents’ sad lifestyle can
engender. I will let there be no mistakes in thinking I am not a
very religious person, but I will offer advice only when asked. I
will not volunteer that advice unless it is a case such as these
for Veronica and I will not try to force anyone to accept my word.
I have learned that lesson. I am as capable of being wrong as
anyone else.”

Clint nodded. They waited a few minutes and
boarded the next bus. They got off at the dam. Emanuel walked
shakily out a short distance on the reservoir side and stood to
scan the area. He took out a digital camera and took some photos,
then walked across to the drop and river side. Clint, waiting for
him at the end of the dam, could see he was shaking and almost
terrified, but he went and looked out, then down. He stood for a
moment, then took some pictures, then went out farther and repeated
the ritual.

He came back walking steadily. His eyes were
almost in a fanatic gleam. “It’s truly magnificent! What hath God
wrought!

“
Clint! I am FREE!”

He hugged Clint tightly. Clint was surprised
and didn’t quite know how to react.

“
Shall we continue to David?” Emanuel
asked happily.

They waited at the line of small stores by
the road. Emanuel went out to the little rise at the reception
center and took some more pictures. The next bus was full, so they
took the following one. They got into David at dusk.

David

Clint took Emanuel to the Pension Costa Rica
and got them both rooms. He went to Peter’s for a while, then to
Bohmfalk’s, then returned for the night. Emanuel had gone to the
internet and contacted Veronica. She said she had only one other
for him to contact now. A woman in San Blas. She, like so many lost
souls, was using an alias there, but would know the name Daniela
Winston. She liked horses and was known to be somewhere in that
area. Emanuel said he told her that would work out very well as he
was planning on staying in Panamá. He felt he could do some real
good here, but working with medical and educational projects that
didn’t include religion directly.

“
I told her I am through being some
kind of evangelical closed-minded preacher out to save the world
from itself. She said she wished me well and that she would send
ten thousand dollars to help me get started in good
works.

“
I replied that the fund surely wasn’t
enough for such a hit, but she said there was a special fund to
help those who found where their real calling was. She, quite
frankly, was never convinced that the methods we were using were
effective. Help in areas that met a true and deep need of the local
people are effective. She said she is always uneasy about methods
that are like hitting people in the head with a board to make them
see the light. It, too often, results in their losing sight of the
light altogether.

“
I never knew her to be so practical,
but I suppose she is in a position where she must follow rules of
others to be able to accomplish any good at all. I believe her to
be a very good person.”

Clint didn’t say what he felt about the
lovely Veronica. He managed a nod. Tomorrow, Emanuel would go to
San Blas.

In the morning Clint went with Emanuel to the
bus station where he sent him off. He would e-mail Clint about his
projects from time-to-time. Clint went to La Tipica for breakfast.
He talked with a lot of friends from the area and caught up on the
latest gossip. About ten o’clock he was back at the Costa Rica to
collect his things . He would take a later bus to Bocas del Toro
and home.

He saw a sort of dumpy character sitting on a
rocking chair in the front of the pension simply because he always
automatically noted everyone in such places. He got his bags and
was heading out. He glanced at the old fellow and noted the
startling blue eyes.

He grinned and waved. “Raul” laughed and came
to walk with him.

“
I’m called Chico now,” he said,
putting on his sunglasses. “I think there’s little for me to do
anymore. The Panamá part is as much as done.

“
One left. You gonna tell me where or
do I have to spend twenty minutes finding out my own
way?”

“
San Blas. What about the fine
upstanding Mr. Lopez?”

“
I’m afraid Mr. Lopez, Miss Garcia and
Mr. Williams rode out from a little burg called Mali to a place in
some area called Bajo El Valle and got caught in a little
rockslide. Three hundred meters into the rocks by the river.
Sad.

“
I said four. One more in Panamá, then
back to the states. My job’ll be done in about a month, then I
retire. I wish there was a way I could come here and not be found.
I don’t know what it is about this country, but you start to think
in an entirely different way here. I would like to spend the next
fifty years in Panamá, I think.”

“
There’s a way.”

“
Marko? I knew about that before they
moved here. When he was starting to build that place on Isla San
Cristobal.”

“
Marko had to be taught how to
disappear. You don’t.”

“
Clint, no matter how good you are at
what you do, there’s always someone better.”

“
But does it matter if anyone at that
level in your profession knows?”

He thought a moment. “It could be worth a
shot! I love this place and these people.”

Clint wished him luck. “Take care.”

“
I always do. I wouldn’t survive a day
if I didn’t.”

Clint caught the bus to Bocas del Toro. He
was in Chiriqui Grande four hours later so stayed the night there.
He decided to go to Cusapin for a couple of days, called Judi – who
said Dave was out there again – and got caught up on local affairs,
then met Andres at the dock to head for the closest place to
paradise he’d ever found.

He got a phone call the third day. The police
department in David would appreciate it if he would come to make a
declaration about several of the things that had happened. They had
discovered through a secret operative for a worldwide policing
detail that several accidental deaths, including the woman in
Chiriqui Grande, were non-accidents done by some agent for the very
people accused of various conspiracies. The police weren’t equipped
to handle international intrigue and wanted it stopped. Clint was
their best hope, as the US Embassy claimed no knowledge of any such
thing. “A man called Chico Raul is their agent, but we can contact
him only in difficult ways. We can’t find who he actually is, but
he has given much information that fits with incidents he could
only know if he was there.

“
He says there was growing suspicion
about a man, a missionary, being involved because more than one
accident was at a place and time when he was in the near area, the
latest being a woman in San Blas. The agent said it was
coincidence, that he was the one who arranged the accidents, that
the preacher-man was a good man with a good heart and even the one
who did the acts found it wrong to allow the innocent man to be
suspected. None of the victims could be called `innocent’ in the
broadest definition of the word.

“
He claimed that the accidents were
among a group involved in drug smuggling and art theft and that he
held no sympathy for them.

“
We find that the deaths he admitted to
did, indeed, involve stolen art. It strengthens his claims. He said
you had investigated one or two of the cases – and we have records
that you did, indeed, request information about them – and would be
able to explain about it.”

“
I’ll come to David and make a
declaration, but it’s true. It’s a war between two opposing groups
that could possibly involve the police here and in Colombia and
Costa Rica in a very expensive investigation that would, as is
usual where those people are involved, result in a bunch of deaths
and huge expense that leads to nothing.

“
Raul explained it to me. He thinks
it’s best that they handle it themselves. Dead thugs and drug
smugglers don’t cost millions to incarcerate and feed for years.
This way, even their own group has to pay for the
funerals.”

“
You’re a very practical man, Clint
Faraday. You could have stopped it, but found this is a better way
for all concerned.”

“
I don’t think I could have stopped it.
I could have caused publicity that would lead to the huge expenses
and hopeless prosecution of that bunch of hoods.”

“
Thank you. I will have this written
and you may read it over and use it for your declaration. I will, I
assure you, not include certain parts. It will appear you knew
nothing, only had suspicions until it was done. Raul has assured us
that the project is completed in Panamá. He is now in Colombia and
will thence return to Germany where the, as he named it, clean-up
started.”