Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition (81 page)

“
I can
only wait until they tell me what to do. It could come today or not
for a week. I can figure it’s going to include giving them the land
they’ve paid for. Those people are a hell of a lot more adept at
this kind of crap than you’ll ever be. They’ve been doing it for
generations. One of the people you scammed was in charge of a ...
group in Texas. They made their money a lot like you took them for.
They know the drill and you’d very damned well better know you
can’t hope to get any protection here. You can’t pay off the police
with ten percent of what they have. Money or other
considerations.

“
I’ll be
in touch. You may have the bad luck to’ve pulled this act on
someone who’s looked back at what they did and want to redeem
themselves with the lord for their past sins. They’re Catholic to
the Nth degree and want to assuage their guilt. I hope to hell you
haven’t crossed the line with what you’ve done to people
here.”

“
I don’t
know what you’re talking about! The mafia? I checked on
everyone!”

“
Are you
such an amateur that you thought that kind of information wouldn’t
be hidden from you? Do you think you’re more clever than those
people? Even Marko Bocinni was able to go somewhere and disappear
from sight! Are you that stupid?

“
If so
... God! I’m sorry as hell I got involved with this! You’ll get me
killed along with your family!”

Caldwell was almost crying. His voice shook
as he said, “Clint, find out what I have to do! They just have to
let my daughter go. I don’t care that much about Linda, but Frances
is my life! I’ll get their land back. I still have most of it. Let
me know which ones. Please, Clint! Please!”

“
If you
know which ones you’ll know who came here to ... I’ll see what
they’ll work out. Be careful you don’t end up with information
that’s more deadly than some pitiful land fraud. Do NOT even try to
find which ones are doing this. They came here to disappear from
view.

“
Caldwell, these people have more money than Panamá. They
couldn’t care less about it except that they liked the places they
bought. They could buy anywhere and not miss a few hundred grand
here. What I heard is that ... I’ll call you later. Don’t answer
calls from anyone but me and, for God’s sake! do NOT make any
stupid calls to anyone you think can help you yourself! If this wo
... person has become a religious fanatic we might be in for pure
hell for awhile. God! I wish I hadn’t ever heard of you!

“
Clear?”

“
Whatever
you say. I swear!”

Clint rang off and grinned an evil grin.

Phase three

“
Clint!
It’s been two DAYS!” Caldwell whined when Clint called him. “What
do they WANT?”

“
I have
an appointment in an hour with someone. I suppose I’ll get an
explanation as to what they demand. I called you just to let you
know I’m meeting someone. It might have something to do with this
or it might be something else entirely. I personally think it’s
this BECAUSE it was unspecific.

“
I’ll
call you later. How are you getting along”

“
I’m
miserable! I can’t sleep or eat and I can’t go
anywhere!”

“
Hang in.
A little longer.”

He hung up and went to the restaurant by the
bombas. It was Saturday morning and Clint knew there were a lot of
religious people who were going around with their books and
pamphlets. He would manage to speak with some of them. He didn’t
doubt for one second Caldwell would have someone watching. He
wanted to spot who.

Sure as sunset four Seventh Day Adventists
came to try to convert him. He sat at the table with them for a few
minutes, then leaned back and had another cup of coffee when they
left. Another group came, he spoke with them more shortly. A lawyer
from David that Clint knew slightly came to sit and chat. He soon
got on the bus to David.

A crooked lawyer from Bocas, Manuel
Something-or-other saw him and waved for permission to sit with him
until the bus to Bocas left. He waved to the seat. This one would
be the watcher. He said the wrong things and knew too much. Clint
said he was waiting to meet some people about a business deal. It
WAS Panamá! They were only an hour late now.

The bus to Bocas left. The lawyer managed to
be in the restroom and missed it. Yeah, right!

Some Indios came by on an old truck. Clint
waved. An Indio came walking from the pineapple farm and asked if
he was Mr. Faraday. He said he was. The Indio handed him a note. He
managed to not quite hide it. It simply said that having Manuel
Moraveras there was just plain stupid. Another appointment would be
made. They were growing impatient.

Clint gave Moraveras a withering look, stood
and said, “I can’t believe Caldwell could be this stupid!” and
stalked off to hail a cab.

Phase four

“
Clint!
What went wrong?!” Caldwell cried.

“
You’re
not dealing with some gringo idiot who doesn’t know his ass from a
hole in the ground! How can you be so stupid as to send that damned
crooked lawyer to check on these people? What? You don’t have the
brains to figure ... Christ! Now we have to wait until they think
they’ve taught you a lesson. They’ll know damned well I didn’t have
anyone there to fuck up the deal! You can hope they don’t decide to
knock off one of your family to send you a message!

“
You do
realize that if you find out who they are you get eliminated as a
future problem?”

He was actually sobbing. “I swear it won’t
happen again! I swear!”

“
You
already swore. So much for that shit. We wait. There’s not one
other damned thing we can do now.” He rang off. and called Jorge to
ask if that lawyer was involved in the land taking
directly.

“
Him and
another one. A woman. A friend of Mrs. Caldwell. Anita
Quinterez.”

“
They
need a little message, too. Get him out somewhere and beat hell out
of him. Don’t mess with Quinterez or they’ll know too much for this
soon.”

Jorge agreed. Clint would wait another day
for Caldwell to steam. The Indios were getting damned tired of
sweet little Linda and would probably enjoy cutting her into little
pieces.

“
Moraveras is dead!” Caldwell whined the next morning on the
phone. “I have to know if it’s about this!”

“
Why
would they kill him? It was probably something not related – unless
they figure he knew too much when he met me.”

“
This has
to end! I’m going to go over a cliff in my car!”

“
That
would put it all directly on your wife and daughter. They’ll be
getting tired of waiting. I expect to hear from them again very
soon. Don’t do anything stupid again or I’m out of
this.”

Caldwell agreed. Clint went to meet with
Jorge and David in a little café close to the dock in Chiriqui
Grande to compose the terms of what they needed. He then called
Caldwell and said he had the information for him – and he was NOT
going to like it.

Clint “read” the message: “You will return
the lands you have stolen from the natives, first. You will then
return the land of the pensioners who purchased through the fraud.
You will then leave Bocas del Toro Province and never return. The
sooner you comply, the sooner your family is returned to you.”

“
I can’t
get ... the pensioners’ land IS the land we took from the Indios!
Oh, God!”

“
I have a
number. I’ll see what they’ll work out. I was afraid of this. She’s
a religious fanatic and wants to right some wrongs to save her
soul. I’ll call in ten minutes.”

He rang off and waited, then, “Okay. File
return of the land to the rightful owners tomorrow. Pay back the
money to the pensioners who would lose everything. Any other land
you hold as part of the scheme is to be given to the pensioners you
scammed. This can be done in the morning and your family returned
to you as soon as the papers are filed. They promise to arrange for
the papers to be recorded instantly.”

Clint had already had powerful friends to
contact the government offices to explain that the bunch involved
in the fraud were known and would be prosecuted unless it happened
within hours. They had Caldwell’s confession, so don’t be stupid.
Handle it. They knew how because they’d done that exact thing to
the Indios.

“
I have
to go to Mali for the papers. I can be there in a couple of hours.
You can go over everything with me so we don’t miss
anything.

“
Linda
will have to sign the papers. How do we manage that?”

“
The same
way you did the first part. You have a POA. Don’t get
stupid.”

“
Okay.
Okay. I’ll be there.”

“
Don’t
drive too fast. We can’t file anything until morning anyhow,” Clint
warned.

“
Yes, we
can! That was worked out from the first. Menendez will file anytime
if he’s paid enough for it.”

“
So take
your time anyway. You have a wreck and it’s over.”

“
Okay.
Okay. I’ll be as careful as I’ve ever been in my life.”

Phase five

“
You’re
positive the women never saw any of you from around here? Not a
glance?” Clint asked of David and Jorge. “No one from here was
involved in any way?”

“
We did
what you said. They never saw any of us except when we took them
and we had on the rags and the pillows to make us look fat and
where they couldn’t see any of our faces,” David assured him. “The
two women and the three men they saw are from past Las Tablas. They
are not known by the people here. If anyone is asked they are to
say they were from Colón or somewhere.”

Clint nodded. “The women are held in a room
that’s just locked so they can’t get out? They aren’t harmed?”

“
No, but
Wil says he would like to cut that stupid girl’s throat for her.
She thinks she can give orders and we must do as she
says.”

“
It’s how
she was raised. We can have your friends leave on the next bus for
David, then they can disappear for awhile back in Las Tablas. I
worked with Caldwell most of the night getting the papers for your
land back into your names. Some of it was a legitimate sale, most
wasn’t. The ones that were legal will go to the pensionados who
bought them. I tried to find the ones who could least afford the
loss of the land. The thing I regret is the killing of that lawyer.
I didn’t approve that. I said to beat hell out of him. That’s
all.”

“
He had a
knife and cut Pablo. Pablo took it away and cut him back. Pablo was
cut on the arm, he cut back on the throat. I do not
care.”

Clint nodded and sighed. He went back to the
municipal offices to see the last of the legal papers registered.
It was a process that should take three to six months but that was
handled the way the land theft was handled – backdated on the
computers. This was a lot easier because the recent thefts were
simply erased. There was no record of the transfers ever being
made. The Indios had never lost the land according to the records.
Any papers anyone brought now would be declared false.

When it was done and Caldwell was whining
that he had to borrow money against his own home to do this Clint
gave him a map to where the women were and a key to the padlock on
the room. He said an Indio had delivered it five minutes before he
came back half an hour ago.

Caldwell started to say something, then shut
up. He asked that Clint go with him to be sure the women were
alright.

They got the wife and daughter out of the old
abandoned house where they had been kept. The wife said they
weren’t treated badly at all, but the daughter could do nothing but
complain about how they were treated like common trash and “Daddy”
should teach them all a lesson about how they should treat their
betters. Clint could see that Caldwell got the message about her
being spoiled purely rotten.

Clint had Caldwell drop him off at the bombas
where he could get the bus back to Bocas. Caldwell couldn’t thank
him enough for saving his wife and daughter from a horrible death
or worse. He had explained to Linda on the way that they had less
than nothing left. He had to give it all up to save them. He even
had to borrow against the house and car at high interest to be able
to pull it off. He didn’t have a clue as to how to get enough to
save anything at all except the little house in Changuinola.

“
If you
think I’m going to live in Changuinola the way I was raised you’re
very
very
much
mistaken!” she charged. “I will never go back to that life again!
It was as bad as where we were the past week!”

“
You’ll
never be able to pull another scam like you were again,” Clint
pointed out. “You have the talent to make an honest living as a
private secretary or bank officer.”

“
I will
NOT!”

“
Then
you’ll go back to your former life or less,” Clint said as he got
out of the car. “Have a nice day.

“
Frances,
you are now one of the trash you so despise. You’re going to have a
very hard life from now on.

“
Sam, you
can make a pretty fast comeback with a legitimate business. If you
go back to the scams you’ll probably end up dead with your family
joining you. Those people will watch you. That woman will bring
what she thinks of as the wrath of God on your head if you try to
screw anyone who can’t afford it again. Clean it up and do it
right, Okay? Don’t call me again if you get into trouble from
trying to run another scam.”