Murdered in Argentina: A Jack Trout Cozy Mystery (6 page)

Pilar began to speak quickly, and Carola translated what she was saying. “It is with great pleasure that I cook for you. When you like it, it gives me even more pleasure. Thank you.”

CHAPTER 10

Following dinner, all of the guests, knowing they had a long day of fly fishing coming up in the morning, retired to their respective rooms. Jack and Carola’s room was across the hall from Ray and Lisa’s. When they were almost at their rooms, Jack said to Ray, “See you in the morning.”

Carola turned to Lisa and said, “Why don’t we go to San Martin about ten in the morning? I know some wonderful restaurants there, and we can come back here about two or three. That will allow you to have some time to yourself.”

“How will I get my coffee?” Lisa asked. “I didn’t see a coffee maker in the room. I always have my coffee after I do my morning workout.”

“Lisa, I’ll tell the staff to bring some up to you,” Jack said. “What time would you like it?”

“Promptly at eight-thirty. I get up every morning at seven-thirty and do an hour of exercises and yoga. I don’t let anything interfere with that,” she said.

“I’ll vouch for that,” Ray said, rolling his eyes. “Nothing is allowed to interfere with the prima donna’s exercise routine and yoga.”

Wow, I wonder how much Malbec wine he had tonight. Rather think that statement won’t make her very happy
, Carola thought. As she turned to go into her room she noticed that Lisa’s eyes were blazing with anger.

Jack closed the door behind him and picked up Cayo who had run over to him and started weaving in and out of Jack’s legs. He stroked the cat’s back and received a long purr in response. “What do you think of everyone?” he asked Carola.

“You already know what I think about Lisa. I really haven’t talked much to Brad and Dean. I liked Kevin, and I thought that was a class act on his part to propose a toast to Pilar. You could tell she was really appreciative. I don’t think anyone has ever done that on any of our previous trips down here.”

“What did you think of Janelle?” he asked, putting Cayo down on the carpeting and slipping his Jack Trout Fly Fishing T-shirt over his head. Cayo leaped up on the bed and promptly fell asleep on a pillow.

“Think that’s the side of the bed you usually sleep on, Jack,” Carola said laughing. “Good luck on getting him to lie at the foot of the bed. As for Janelle, I liked her, but I did overhear something that sounded strange, and almost alarming.” She told him about the conversation she’d overheard at dinner between Janelle and Ray. “What do you make of it?” she asked.

“I have no idea. Never having worked in a big corporation my initial thought is that there’s probably a good reason for numbers not matching up. Who knows? Maybe he was looking at some figures before they got a big payment in, and she was looking at them after it was received. I really have no idea, but she seems very nice. I’m sure there’s a logical explanation. Carola, to change the subject. I really need to get some sleep if I’m going to be at the top of my game tomorrow. When you finish in the bathroom, would you turn out the light?”

“Of course, sweetheart. See you in the morning.” She stood for a moment with her head cocked towards the door. “Jack, wait a minute. Do you hear something? It sounds like raised voices.”

“Since this is my gig, I better see if some of my guests have a problem.” He got out of bed, walked over to the door, put his ear next to it, and listened while Carola stood next to him. They heard raised voices that seemed to be coming from Lisa and Ray’s room across the hall. Both the woman’s voice and the man’s voice sounded very angry. A few moments later they heard a door slam, and then it was quiet. They stepped away from the door and looked at each other.

“Well,” Jack said, “most married couples have arguments from time to time and from what we’ve seen of those two, I’m not particularly surprised. Sounds like one of them decided to leave for a while and cool off. I’m sure everything will be fine in the morning. Now, I really do need to get some sleep. Loves.”

CHAPTER 11

Jack and Carola were abruptly awakened shortly after midnight by loud pounding on their door. It was followed by a woman’s voice crying and screaming at the same time, “Jack, Carola, open up. It’s me, Lisa.”

“Coming,” Jack yelled as he put on a pair of jeans, while Carola hurriedly pulled her robe around her and scooped up Cayo who was hissing, his back arched, and his body puffed up. He looked like a caricature of a Halloween cat, and it was obvious he didn’t like what was happening. Carola put him in his carrier.

Jack opened the door a moment later and Lisa immediately ran into the room, shaking and sobbing. “He’s dddeead,” she stuttered over and over. She had a hysterical look in her eyes, and her face was streaked with eye shadow and mascara from tears that were running freely down her face.

“Lisa, I don’t understand,” Jack said, putting his hands on her heaving shoulders. “Who’s dead? What’s happened?”

“It’s Rrray,” she said gulping for breath. “He’s dead. He’s been strangled. It’s all my fault. I never should have left him alone tonight.” Jack could barely understand what she was saying because she was crying so hard. “What will happen to me? I don’t have anyone else,” she wailed.

“Carola, Lisa, stay here. I’m going across the hall.”

Jack walked into Lisa and Ray’s room and stopped. Ray was lying on his side in the large king size bed with his body turned away from the door. Wound tightly around his neck was a whip, and Jack’s first thought was that it looked exactly like the gaucho’s whip that had hung on the wall in the hallway. It was such a bizarre sight Jack had trouble accepting what his eyes were seeing. He took a deep breath and walked over to the bed. He stood next to Ray’s body and listened. There was no sound of breathing coming from Ray, and his face had turned blue. Jack lifted his wrist and felt for a pulse, but there was none. Ray was clearly dead. Jack stood in shock for several moments and then pulled the sheet up to cover Ray’s face. He walked back across the hall to his room and said, “Carola, stay here with Lisa. I need to get Santiago, the ranch manager. His house is next door. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Jack knocked on the door of the nearby ranch manager’s home, and a moment later a voice asked who was there. “Santiago, it’s me, Jack Trout. I’m sorry to bother you, but there’s an emergency at the lodge.”

Santiago flung the door open and said, “Senor Trout, what is it?”

“One of the guests is dead. It looks like he was murdered. There’s a whip wrapped around his neck, and it looks like he was strangled to death with it. I didn’t know if I should call the police or what I should do, so I came here.”

“Come in, Senor Trout. I will get dressed and call the police. They have jurisdiction over matters such as this. I will be back in a moment.”

He returned a few moments later and said, “The police are on their way. The chief of police is my brother-in-law. I will walk with you to the lodge, and we can wait there until they arrive. Who has died?”

“Ray Martin. He’s the owner of the company that all of the guests at the lodge work for. They’re going to be in shock when they hear about it. I don’t know what we’ll do about their fishing trip. I suppose they’ll want to cancel the trip, since their boss is dead. I need to tell them before they hear it from the police.” He looked at Santiago who had a strange look on his face.

“What is it, Santiago? You had a very strange look on your face when I told you who had died.”

Santiago took a deep breath and said, “I know it is not my place to tell you this, but there may be some problems with this death. It sounds like a murder has been committed, and you will probably not like what I am going to say. I would ask that this conversation go no farther. I have known you for many years, and I know you to be a man of your word. Can you assure me that this is between us?”

“Yes, of course. What is it?”

“My brother-in-law is a very good man, however his daughter, my niece, married an American man several years ago and left Argentina to go with him to the United States. The man she married is not a good man. My niece was given a great deal of money from our family here in Argentina as a wedding present. We asked that it be kept in her name, and told her if she ever needed to return to Argentina she was welcome to do so. We didn’t think the marriage would last. Evidently she told her husband about the money. Soon thereafter, my brother-in-law received a letter from her saying she would never return to Argentina, that her husband’s family had become her real family, and that she had given all the family money to her husband. It broke my brother-in-law’s heart, not to mention the fact that the money was gone.”

“That is very sad, Santiago, but I fail to see what it has to do with the murder.”

“It pains me to say this, but my brother-in-law, the police chief, has developed an extreme hatred for all Americans.”

“I’m sorry to be so dense, but I still don’t see what any of this has to do with my client’s death,” Jack said.

Santiago stopped walking and turned to Jack. “His hatred of Americans is so intense I don’t think he will do anything to find the killer. I believe he will simply feel it is a kind of karmic justice, your client’s life for his daughter’s life.”

“You can’t be serious!” Jack exclaimed. “Doesn’t he have to uphold the law in his position, and wouldn’t that mean he has to investigate this case?”

“He will go through the motions, but it will be at the bottom of his things to do. I have seen this before with him, although not with a murder. When Americans have had problems of one kind or another, they pretty much have to figure out what to do on their own. Jack, there is also the problem we have here with corruption.”

“Yes, I’ve lived on and off in Chile long enough to know it exists in South America.”

“It not only exists, there are plenty of people who like to give the police money in hopes that their problems will be the first ones to be taken care of, and they usually are,” Santiago said. “We are at the lodge now, and since so many lights are turned on, I would imagine your guests already know about the murder. There is one more thing I need to tell you before we go in.”

“What is that?” Jack asked, his hand on the front door handle.

“Your guests might as well go fishing for three days. There is only one flight out of San Martin each day. It goes to Buenos Aries, and it is booked for weeks in advance. There is no way your guests can get out of San Martin until the day on which they have already made their flight reservations.”

“I’d forgotten about that. Carola mentioned she was glad someone had tipped her off that she needed to book the plane reservations so far in advance. I guess we’ll continue pretty much as planned, but that also means the victim’s wife won’t be able to transfer his body out of the country until their scheduled flight.”

“That is correct, my friend, but at least if your clients fish for three days the guides will still get their tips. They need those very much. A guide’s life is not an easy one.”

CHAPTER 12

Santiago was right. When he and Jack got to the top of the stairs, all of the guests were in the hallway as well as several of the ranch workers. Jack walked over to where Carola and Lisa were standing, Carola with her arm around Lisa, who was softly weeping. The guests and the ranch workers turned toward him.

“This is a tragedy. The police chief has been notified, and he’s on his way here. Santiago tells me it will be impossible to change our reservations and get a flight out of San Martin, as there’s only one flight out per day, and it’s booked months in advance. I believe you told me the same thing, Carola, right?” Jack said looking over at her.

“Yes. To try and hire drivers and arrange for the necessary vehicles would mean delays far longer than waiting for the scheduled flight on Thursday. We have no choice but to stay here. Jack, what about the fishing?”

He looked at the guests and said, “The guides have been hired and will be ready for you in the morning. While I know how tragic this must be for each of you, there really is nothing we can do. It may sound trite, but knowing Ray as I knew him, I honestly think he would want you to continue with your trip. He prepaid for everything before he left the United States, so you might as well take advantage of it.”

“Jack,” Kevin said. “Ray was a wonderful boss. All of us know how important fishing was to him, and I’m going to think of it as kind of like an Irish wake. Where the Irish honor the decedent with some whiskey, I think all of us should pay a final tribute to Ray by catching the biggest trout we can and do it in his honor. What do you say?” he said looking at the other guests.

One by one, they nodded their heads in agreement. “Since that’s been decided, we should go back to bed,” Kevin said. “Morning will come early enough. Hopefully we may know something by then. All we know now is that Ray’s dead, and it looks like he was murdered, although that seems hard to believe.”

“Does that mean someone here at the lodge killed him?” Brad, a middle-aged man with a shock of red hair and freckles asked.

“No, not necessarily,” Santiago said. “We are so remote here that we never even lock our doors. It could have been anyone. Senora Martin, do you know if anything was taken from your room?”

“I simply don’t know. I can’t stand the thought of having to go back in there,” she said in a tremulous voice.

“Everyone, please go back to your rooms, and I’ll see you in the morning,” Jack said. He motioned for Santiago, Lisa, and Carola to step into his and Carola’s room. It became very quiet and the four of them could hear Cayo mewling in his carrier.

“Lisa, do you know if Ray carried much money? Did he have any jewelry or other things of value?” Jack asked.

She took a sip of water from the glass Carola had given her and said, “He mentioned you’d told him to bring about $1,000 in U.S. dollars for each of us to use as spending money. Ray said instead he was going to bring $3,000 for us, and then I could buy whatever I wanted. As far as jewelry, the only things he had were a Rolex watch and a large diamond ring.”