Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition (97 page)

“
No.”

“
Hah!
‘Watch out for those soft shoulders and dangerous curves’,” Gortas
sang the old country song.

“
So I’ve
heard from someone who has seen her. Often.”

Gortas handed him a slip with a cel number on
it. He left to head for the bus. Gortas wouldn’t break the
agreement.

He arrived in Boquete a bit after six and
went to a good Mexican restaurant. He learned that the Vega man
usually went out after eight. That was plenty of time, so he
strolled up to in front of the house and yelled, “Buenas!” A man
who had to be Vega came to the door and asked what he wanted.

“
I want
to try to keep you and the lovely lady from being killed. I’m Clint
Faraday. I believe she called me with a cryptic
message.”

“
Not her.
Come on in.”

Clint went in. Vega didn’t waste words. “How
can we get out of this damned mess?”

“
I don’t
know if she can. You can.

“
How
could anyone be stupid enough to think they could blackmail people
like those?”

There was a pause, then he nodded. “So that’s
how it came apart. I was wondering why they were so suddenly trying
to kill us. That would be, to my thinking, the fastest way to have
the information she holds distributed.

“
I
learned two years ago, when we came here, that I was in a very bad
situation because of her. I did not know what she was or her
history. Then. I, quite frankly, wouldn’t lift a finger to protect
her. I need a way to protect myself FROM her!”

“
She
isn’t here?”

“
She went
into town to purchase groceries. She wants to know if anyone was
asking about us. She knows about the woman in Bocas.

“
I am
most sorry about that. My caller was thought to be her.

“
Mr.
Faraday, I want out of this! I tried to cause something that would
allow me out. She is the one who was arranging for the
assassination of Velasquez. He should be shot, but not by such as
her.”

“
Why
would she try to hit Velasquez?”

“
He has
much of the information she holds. He made it quite plain that he
would have her eliminated as a problem if he finds her. She is very
good at hiding in plain sight.”

“
I
figured that. So did another person here.

“
Is the
information here?”

“
In a
safe in her room. Yes.”

“
All of
it?”

“
It is
there with all the copies. She couldn’t find a way to place the
copies where she could feel secure about them.”

“
Can you
call her?”

“
Certainly.”

“
Call
her. When I do certain things, act like it’s real. First, tell her
there are two men in the house. You think one is a man you saw in
Panamá City.”

He went to the desk phone and called a cell
number. When she answered he said what Clint suggested in a
whispered, panicky voice. Clint slammed a nearby door against the
wall. Clint acted like he was throwing a fist. Vega grunted and
dropped the receiver. Clint knocked the phone off the table and
Vega made some more grunts. Clint turned the table over onto the
phone and made a lot of noise, then picked up the phone and said,
“Te matarse, puta!” and hung up.

Vega grinned at him. “What now?”

Clint took out his cell and called Gortas.
“The stuff is in a safe in her room. Get it! She won’t be back
here.

“
Oh.
Boquete. Hill road, fourth house. The ostentatious one. Her room’s
... (he raised his eyebrows at Vega) North corner. Carved teak
door. Vega is out of it so long as nothing else happens where he
involves himself.”

Gortas grunted and hung up.

“
Get
whatever you can’t do without and let’s get out of here. They’ll
have someone close, so we don’t have much time.”

He said, “She’ll be somewhere she can watch
the place pretty fast. She’ll sneak in to see if the stuff’s still
here.”

“
There’s
a back way out?”

“
Yeah.
She’ll watch that more than the front ... which means we can go out
the front if we stay right against the wall and she won’t be able
to see. She knows if someone is in here they had to come in from in
back somehow because the security in front is damned good. The
laundry room is the only place they could get in.”

Clint asked where the laundry room was. He
went back to wrench the door askew so it would look forced from a
distance. Vega grabbed a suitcase, threw a lot of things in, asked
Clint to carry the briefcase he slid from under a chair in the
dinning room. They slipped out the front door and along the wall to
the corner.

They could be seen from the hill she would
have to be on if they crossed the intersection. Clint was looking
around when a car stopped in front of the house and three burly men
went to find the door open. Clint grinned at Vega, said, “It’s
done. She can run, but I doubt she can hide.”

They walked across the intersection and down
toward town, caught the last bus back to David and went to the
Costa Rica. In the morning Vega caught a bus to Panamá City and
Clint went back to Bocas. On the bus the radio announced that a
burglary in Boquete in a very wealthy area had resulted in the
death of the woman who lived there. Her husband was missing. The
blood on the scene indicated that he was probably also dead. The
robbery seemed to be of a safe and all its contents that had been
removed from the house.

Clint was
trying to remember the words to that song Gortas sang a line
of.
Watch Out
for Those Soft Shoulders and Dangerous Curves
. Something about trouble and ruining your
nerves or something.

True.

C. D. Moulton’s works are available on most
major outlets as printed or e-books. CD writes the CD Grimes, PI
mysteries, the Det. Lt. Nick Storie mysteries, the Clint Faraday
mysteries, the Flight of the Maita science fiction series, books on
orchid culture and many others of many types. Mystery, adventure,
intrigue, science fiction, fantasy, paranormal, mild erotica, and
factual.