Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition (26 page)

Batty was thin and about 5'10" with wavy
brownish hair and almost colorless brown eyes. He was in his early
forties and wore a lot of too flashy jewelry. He was dressed just a
bit more formally than anyone ever dressed in Puerto Armuelles.
Clint chatted a few minutes, then asked what it was about. Batty
said he wasn’t sure, but a couple of his friends said the character
who talked to him, Paulo Lariez, seemed too much like those old
Godfather movies to him. He wasn’t at all sure he hadn’t been
threatened and wanted Clint to find out what was happening and warn
them he was a very important businessman here so they’d better not
bother him.

“
Paulo
Lariez is here?”

“
He said
that was his name, but the bunch with him call him Don Paulo. I
don’t know which it is.”

“
Jeez!
Don Paulo ... Don, like a mafia don. He’s a powerful mafia
character all over Central America! What in HELL is he doing here?
He’s not going to insert himself into the refinery. That can’t
happen!

“
Kee-RIST!

“
Okay.
Tell me exactly what’s been going down since the first time you ...
since you got here. Everything. Don’t leave out even the least
detail.”

“
Well, I
guess it really started in Panamá City. I was in the Hotel
California for a few days while Yvon was setting up the office here
for me. I was talking with that guy who hangs around the restaurant
– the manager, I guess. Lariez came in and as much as ordered that
his people get those tables in back. They actually made four people
move! I said something about it and was told that he was greatly
respected in Panamá and that they tried to always get him what he
wanted because he did so much for so many people or
something.

“
I said
something about the definition of respect and that it was something
earned, not given. If the people had offered their table to him,
that was respect. They were told to move, which was NOT respect,
and that no one earned respect by such actions, they earned
contempt.

“
Anyhow,
nothing else was said until they were leaving and Lariez came over
to say he’d overheard my little oration about respect and maybe I
didn’t know how things were done here.

“
I was a
little nervous and explained that I’d just come to Panamá and maybe
he was right. Things were certainly not the same in Panamá and the
states, in a lot of ways.

“
He was
scary. I was about to say there’s a difference in fear and respect,
but had enough sense to not push the issue in some country where I
definitely wouldn’t have the protection I have back home. Call the
police here and he slips them fifty dollars and his friends beat
hell out of me. I know how that works!

“
Anyhow,
I stewed a bit, then forgot it.

“
I came
here two weeks later and have been here for five months now. You
met me in Bocas just before then and later here.

“
Well,
just two days ago I was eating at that restaurant over toward the
west if town. The fancy place that’s so popular. Lots of women and
transvestites – it’s a fancy high-class whorehouse, but the
important people do go there and I make some contacts there. Most
of my crowd go there every week or so. I’ll have to introduce you
to some of my friends here. Very important business people. Most
are working in real estate and supplies and such.

“
Well,
this Lariez character came in with his entourage and pulled the
same act as at the Hotel California. I told Sam Downy and Frank
Abel about it and they said he was a typical syndicate lord here.
They’d seen him, but didn’t know him – and didn’t want to. Sally
and Vern Wallace came in and Vern said he was a bigshot mafia chief
or something who wanted to get into the delivery end of the
refinery they’re building. Monica Standing, another of our little
clique, said she saw him with some women who were obviously
terrified of him, but no one would say or do anything.

“
He saw
me and I waved – try to be amiable, you know. He waved back and I
forgot it.

“
Well,
yesterday morning some people from the Frente de Corruption Board
or something such came and asked me all kinds of questions about
him. I just told them I saw him in Panamá City and only spoke a few
words, then I saw him here and waved. They said they had a record
of me speaking with him in Panamá City and that was why they were
asking here. He’s suspected of something vague or they’re trying to
not make it sound important.

“
I was in
the Hotel Central restaurant last night and he came in and sat
across from me. He was very ... charming and calm, but I didn’t at
all like what seemed to be the real conversation, if you know what
I mean.

“
He said
he was doing a lot of charity work and that it was going to hurt a
lot of poor people if anyone tried to stop him. He supplies
employment for many hundreds of local people and for thousands of
others in a lot of places and he’s greatly respected. It was just a
conversation if you read the words. The way he was looking at me
and stressing words made the meaning very clear. He was demanding
respect from me. He’d heard what I said about respect being earned,
not given, and he was demanding that I respect him. I was going to
get a lesson in respect if I didn’t kiss his ass – figuratively, of
course.

“
I said
if he was doing so much for so many people I most surely did
greatly respect him. Not many people do anything in life except for
themselves and one has to respect a person who does things for
others. THAT is what I meant about respect being earned, not given.
It seemed to satisfy him for that part, but he seems to think, just
from the tone and hints, that I’m going to interfere with what he
calls his work. He’s a very scary person.”

Clint nodded. “You’d better watch your back
and don’t go anywhere alone. I’ll have to find what he’s into here
and why he thinks you might interfere.

“
What are
you into?”

“
Er, just
some real estate over toward Las Olivas, and trying to set up some
ocean transport – import stuff. I’m also trying to get a lot of
that land just inland that’s not being used for anything important.
Growing bananas and that kind of thing. It would be a great place
for a sort of housing project for the people who’ll work at the
refinery. Regular jobs, not the exec stuff. Tract house sort of
thing. I should be able to get that land pretty cheap and can
either build or flip it. It’s no good for much and the locals won’t
figure what it’ll be worth in a few years, what with the cash
influx and new industry the refinery will bring. There’s one man I
think I saw with Lariez who seems interested in that place that’s
part in the mountains and part flat toward the east a bit. The
owner is a local Indio and won’t sell, but he’ll come around when
the price is high enough. Count on it! You want to invest, it’s an
opportunity that won’t be around long. As soon as it gets started
prices will triple or more in a year.”

“
Food is
unimportant? You want to screw the locals out of what little they
have so you can make a bunch of money building something that will
turn into a slum in less than three years and do I want
in?

“
No, I
don’t. And the Indios aren’t interested in a lot of money, which is
what gringos can’t seem to understand.

“
Okay,
give me the thou and I’ll see what I can find out about Lariez and
if he’s really going to have you knocked over because you don’t buy
his brand of respect. I’m dead serious about watching your back.
Don’t go anywhere alone.”

Batty stared at him for a few seconds, then
reached into a desk drawer and handed him ten hundred dollar bills.
He inspected the bills.

“
Where
did you get this?”

“
What? At
the fancy whorehouse. El Critico. Why?”

“
Okay.
This starts to explain a thing or two. Why did they give it to you?
Cash a check?”

“
Yes. We
all get checks cashed there when we need money after the BNP is
closed.” He looked quizzical.

“
This is
printed in Colombia and distributed by the Mexican mafia. You can
get the thou at the bank in twenties. Hand them one of these and
ask them to change it. If they do there’s someone there in on it.
If they don’t you don’t remember where you got it. Maybe in Panamá
City.”

“
You
expect me to take a lot of counterfeit money and not report
it?!”

“
If you
want to go on living, I very strongly recommend it.”

Batty really looked sick, at that.

“
Oh, and
tell your friends, VERY QUIETLY, to stop cashing checks at the
whorehouse. No stink or you’re doing exactly what a powerful mafia
don told you not to do. You’re interfering in his
business.”

Batty looked very sick now. “I think I have
business in Panamá City that I ... but that’s where he usually is!
Oh, God!”

“
I don’t
think he’ll be in a place like Las Tablas for a while yet. Do NOT
make waves. This has to be quiet and fast.”

“
I have
to go to Texas at the end of the month. Would now be a better
time?”

Clint nodded. “Might be a good idea to take a
Nature Air flight to San Jose’ tomorrow and go to Texas from there.
Announce you have to go to San Jose’ for business for three days
and have an emergency come up when you’re in San Jose’. Don’t book
a flight to Texas from here.

“
Maybe
book a flight to Mexico City in San Jose’ and go from there to
Texas.”

“
I don’t
think I like this socalled international intrigue one little
bit!”

Batty went to a little safe under a cabinet
and got a thousand dollars in old twenties to hand to Clint, who
inspected them and took out two. “Those are probably just stuff
passing around, but the original source will be the same. These
would probably pass the bank, unless they’re specifically looking
for them – which will be starting today.

“
Do try
to get the bank to change one of the hundreds, just so I’ll know if
they’re part of it.”

“
They do
change them every once in awhile. Not many will change hundreds out
here. The China.”

“
Ah! But
the frente wasn’t here a couple of days ago. They came here when
Lariez came here. Now you’re here and are on record talking to him
in Panamá City and again here. One bill, you’re innocent. More,
you’re suspect. If the frente wants to check out whatever bills you
have around try to not let them find more than a couple – and tell
them you were suspicious is why you hired me. I told you to hang on
to them while I tried to find where they’re coming from. If they
come call me and say something came up and you have to go to San
Jose’ and that you gave them the bills I told you to hold. They’ll
check with me and I’ll tell them I’ve been working with a person I
know in Panamá City. He’s a big pol and will tell them he’s
investigating the system and plans to turn over whatever evidence I
can get to the frente.

“
Let’s
hope they don’t. I don’t want Lariez suspicious of you. He’ll know
I’m onto it and will think he can buy out. It’s better if he thinks
you’re deaf, dumb, blind and stupid. Got it?”

Batty nodded and looked desperately sick.
Clint left.

Okay. Lariez was into dropping paper in a
place that wouldn’t be suspected for awhile. He would know Clint
would find that in minutes and would think he could buy out fairly
easily.

Bullshit! That wasn’t nearly enough to get
him into the intimidation bit! Something else – something big – was
going down here and it had to do with the expected refinery. For
the standard paper exchange thing he wouldn’t draw attention to
himself with a nobody like Bathner.

Of course, he wouldn’t know Bathner knew
Clint.

Yes, he would. It wouldn’t take him more than
ten minutes in Puerto Armuelles to learn that. If he knew anything
about Clint Faraday in the first place? Did he?

Unlikely, but certainly not impossible.

Clint went to several places to talk with the
locals. A few gringos were around town and he met Sally and Vern
Wallace, but only mentioned in passing that he knew Batty. She was
the good-looking uppity type, but he was a much more human type. He
was the college jock type and seemed genuinely friendly. The way
she seemed to be the one in control made Clint think she had the
money and married him as a trophy husband. Any mention of business
and it was plain who held the authority there. He was a laid-back
easy man who just wanted to live an uncomplicated pleasant life and
she was the greedbag money-oriented type.

Clint liked Vern. He did NOT like Sally. She
would be better situated to be the one married to Batty. They could
spend their days scheming to screw everyone around them out of what
little they had. She was the type who felt she could scheme or buy
her way out of anything. It was all about money.

Sally talked too much. She had tried to get a
hundred dollar bill changed in David and the bank said it was
counterfeit and seized it! She was glad she had been able to pass
the other four off at different merchants! SHE was certainly not
going to take a bath like that because some place gave her
funny-money when they cashed a check for her! That was just the day
before yesterday and yesterday. She was telling everyone she knew
in Puerto Armuelles and in Frontera to check any hundreds.