Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition

by Moulton, CD

  “No. I can take the notes. After all, Clint will hear the answers so will know if I change anything.”

  “Smart broad,” Clint said to Menendez.

  “Yes. That’s what I’m afraid of,” Mario replied.

  “Mario, Judi didn’t kill anybody. I don’t suspect her for one second. She may know something important about these people and might spot it in their answers.”

  “I’ll defer to your experience. I do wish I could be as certain as you.”

  “Please be seated, Dr. Goodwin,” Clint greeted. “This sort of thing can be a real pain in the ass, but I have to ask some questions. Please don’t pretend to be offended or any of that crap because even one night of watching TV makes it damned obvious those questions will be asked.”

  Goodwin grinned and replied, “I think I like you. No shit, just answer the damned questions so we can all go home.

  “Okay, ask away. If you want to know where I was and what I was doing since about midnight last night, I was entertaining a girl named Carlotta Donatti at the Bahia. She’ll confirm that I’m sure because several people knew we were exploring the movements of heavenly bodies together.

  “Let’s see. Donna was to be a witness in that missing funds thing so, unless she was sleeping around – and she wasn’t – it will be about that. She could have been sleeping with Enzio – Dr. Marcos – if she likes the overweight studious type. He’s going through a nasty divorce right now because he tends to stray. She’ll clean him out. Neither here nor there. Sorry. I do gossip a bit.

  “I was pretty suspicious about that Popa deal all along and even went out there once. Donna asked me about it and I told her it was either in or next to the preserve so she should keep right on checking out where the requests and disbursements came in. I rather tend to imagine that’s what she discovered and that’s why she’s in there sliced up.

  “Jorge took me out to Popa. I know he’s a friend of yours. So he’ll tell you I was a bit perturbed ... Donna put information about all of us on data disk! She updated regularly so you can find the answers there! I’m sure of it!

  “Faraday, was it? Listen! She kept those disks somewhere where she knew they couldn’t find them! Find those disks and you’ll likely find your killer!

  “Did I cover it?”

  “Had that rehearsed or do you just have a file-case mind?” Clint asked, looking interested.

  “The latter. I always sound like I’m quoting from a sheet. Did that for fifteen years as a professor and got in the habit to the point I picture the sheet when there isn’t one. I did think about what I was going to say, though.” He grinned at Clint. “Slipped in the bit about Marcos because I don’t like him.”

  “She kept the disks somewhere where THEY couldn’t find them or where WE couldn’t find them? The ‘we’ meaning your group.”

  “Damn! I thought I could slip that one by you!” he said with a humorless chuckle. “I was included. Didn’t mean to sound like it pretty obviously did. That was from the perspective of Donna telling me about it. It wasn’t an intentional attempt to deceive you.”

  “I didn’t think it was. You have a solid alibi, I’d say, but you could be part of the killer.”

  “Part? What does that mean?” Judi asked, clearly puzzled.

  “That I might have conspired with one or more others to silence her,” Goodwin said. “Very astute. I think you’ll find our culprit. I contend that I was no part of her death in any way, but you have to be suspicious of all of us and you can’t leave out any possibility.

  “I always liked Donna. I want you to get the person – or persons – who killed her. I also want you to find the one or ones who were embezzling funds here. I rather imagine they will be the same.”

  “I agree,” Clint replied.

  “Hello, Dr. Porth,” Clint greeted. “Please have a seat and we’ll get this over as soon as possible.”

  “Call me Ed. Terrible thing. This will put my studies back quite some ways, but that is hardly of any major importance here now.

  “I was with Lydia – that’s Dr. Graham – until about twelve o’clock or so, then went back to my room, showered and such and went to bed. I believe, had I left during the morning hours, that the security man would know it, but also realize there are any number of ways one could contrive to have your whereabouts unremarked.

  “This is a round-about method to tell you I have no alibi. I insist I haven’t killed anyone. I left Lydia in her rooms – there is and was no deeper relationship between us – so can vouch for where she was until approximately midnight. I am and was no part of any misappropriation of funds here or elsewhere, but that is something that you will discover in your further investigations. I had and have no motive to have harmed Donna.

  “Anything I didn’t cover?”

  “We’re just getting basic background information right now. Motive and opportunity are part of that, of course.

  “Do your studies include trips to Popa?”

  “Well, yes and no,” Porth said, thinking. “What I mean is that there is vast material for study there, but I have yet to visit the place. I was aware there was some intention to purchase that and other areas where permanent research fields could be established and was certainly supportive of any such business-end endeavors, but don’t personally involve myself in those kinds of projects. I’m in research of a direct type and can’t spare the time or effort required if you understand.”

  “I know I do!” Judi interjected. “I’ve worked with you on two projects and can say you do direct all your time and energy to the work.”

  “You can say it, but I wish you wouldn’t,” Clint said.

  “Sorry.”

  “Dr. Graham, please have a seat. We’ll try to do this as quickly possible,” Clint said. “There are a few questions I have to ask.

  “You were with Dr. Porth until after eleven?”

  “Yes. Close to twelve or a few minutes after.”

  “You were working on the research in the Popa area?”

  “No. We were working on listing classification from all areas,” she answered, volunteering nothing more.

  “Oh, yes. Popa wasn’t Porth. I threw that in to trip you up,” Clint said. She didn’t react and wouldn’t look at him directly. She studiously avoided looking at him at all and seemed to flush a bit when she did look at him. Judi smirked and mouthed “You. Nude. Yesterday morning.”

  He hid a grin and said, “Well, that sort of agrees with Ed’s statement. Thank you.”

  She stood, paused as if she wanted to say something, thought better of it and left without comment. When she was out of the room Judi grinned at him. He gave her the middle finger salute.

  “Dr. Beckman, I’m Clint Faraday, this is Judi Lum,” Clint introduced. “Please have a seat.”

  “How could such a thing happen here?” she asked. “I can’t bring myself to believe it! I was in my room since about nine o’clock until they got me up this morning, so have no alibi. I can’t think of any reason I would have to ever kill anyone and couldn’t, anyhow. Not like that. I’d use a more womanish method. Maybe poison.”

  “We have to establish where everyone was. It’s too early to make any conclusions about any of ... this stuff. I have to get the disks and will find my answers there, I suppose.”

  “Disks?”

  “According to Dr. Goodwin she has some stuff about the embezzling on disk at her place,” Judi explained. “I imagine we’ll get the embezzler and the killer at the same time.”

  “That’s logical.”

  When she left Judi raised an eyebrow at Clint. “I just remembered something.”

  “She do it?” Judi asked.

  “She’s on the list. I think Porth is off and probably Goodwin. Maybe Graham, but I have a few very pointed questions to ask about that one. She’s got a lot to hide for some reason, but it may not be about this mess.”

  “Well, Donna did tell me she slept her way through college and there were some ... ethical questions when s
he was beginning practicing phytopathological medicine.”

  “Phytopathological?”

  “Mostly fungal infections, from what I understand. I don’t know what it was about.”

  Clint sighed and nodded. “Tell Mario to put a close watch on Donna’s place. The word will get out that there are disks there and someone is going to try to get to them before we do.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Dr. Franklin, please have a seat,” Clint greeted. “We’ll take as little of your time as possible. I think you’ll know the first question?”

  “Of course. I was meeting with Dr. Marcos and a real estate agent by the name of Sylvia Goldman from about ten o’clock until a bit after two thirty. I’ll tell you it had to do with the embezzling taking place. I’m doing a bit of investigating and Goldman was the agent who handled two of the deals and Marcos was involved in the institute’s end of it. He may have just been a dupe.”

  “And Goldman?”

  Franklin wobbled his hand in reply. “Something’s not adding up on this list, here. In total confidentiality you understand, my personal leaning at the moment is that Goldman is definitely involved in some manner, Marcos may be and there is someone else who’s the, shall we say, mastermind of the entire scheme. There may be two because one will be on the real estate end and the other in the institute. It’s looking very much like that kind of thing.”

  Clint paused for a moment, an intense look on his face, then he smirked and said, “Thank you, Dr. Franklin, for your insights. You’ve brought something I’ve seen out of the ‘nagging at the fringes of thought’ phase.”

  “So you know for certain who did it!” Judi accused.

  “Let’s say it’s narrowed down to four, so it will be a matter of separating appearances and facts. Two things have suddenly added up. My problem is that number four is ‘somebody I haven’t considered yet,’ so we keep on.

  “Who’s next?”

  Franklin grinned and stood. He saluted Clint and took Judi’s hand as he left the room.

  “One more here. Marcos,” Judi said.

  “So? Let’s get it over with. Two words. ‘Looking’ and ‘list.’ It’s a matter of finding what’s there by accident – or if it’s BY accident or maybe BECAUSE of an accident.”

  She gave him the finger.

  “Hello, Dr. Marcos, please have a seat,” Clint said, as the slightly “portly” man entered. “I only have a couple of questions.”

  “I didn’t kill anybody!” Marcos defended. “My god! This is horrible! How do these things happen?!”

  “You have a very solid alibi. You were with Dr. Franklin and Sylvia Goldman when the murder was committed.”

  “Yes! Thank god for that! This is horrible! That poor girl! Do you think it was a jealous boyfriend or something? Did it have to do with the money problem here?”

  “Definitely to do with the money problem here and the investigation. She was shut up. She knew too much. Now she can’t appear in court to testify, can she?”

  Marcos looked a bit relieved and nodded

  Judi didn’t miss that look anymore than Clint did so couldn’t resist adding, “But the disks have everything she knew on them and they’re as good, seeing she was killed to keep the information from coming out.”

  Marcos looked like he would pass out. “Disks?” he squeaked.

  “Yeah,” Clint replied. “She had back-ups at her place. Anyone who puts that kind of stuff onto disks knows you have to keep back-ups in another location. My only other question was about what you know about the embezzling scheme, but I think you don’t really have any idea what’s going on.”

  “I don’t seem to know anything anymore! Nothing makes any sense!”

  “Well, it’s beginning to. It’s a matter of your perspective. When someone strikes out in panic they always miss the details and that’s what ends up putting them in the pen for life.

  “Thanks. That about covers it, I think. Now I have to talk to some people, then I can either start looking elsewhere or close this one out.”

  Marcos went shakily out and Clint told Judi, “Have Mario tag him when he runs.”

  “He do it?”

  “The murder? No. He’s ’way over his head in the embezzling end, though. That will be my lever to finish this one.”

  “Ah!” she said, grinning at him. “So his info about the money will tie the killer up tight!”

  “And the rest of their little select group of crooks.”

  Finish

  Clint went with Menendez and Llanas to Donna’s apartment where they made a thorough search. They didn’t find the disks, but Clint said from the moment they went into the place that they wouldn’t find anything. The killer had probably come directly from the murder to find those disks. There was a computer and printer, but there wasn’t a disk in the place.

  Clint turned on the computer and it went directly to DOS. He groaned and tiredly said, “I’d say the drive was formatted as insurance. There’s nothing here – except maybe one little thing!”

  He went to the printer, inserted two pieces of paper, turned it on and punched a code on the keys. A page and a quarter printed out.

  “The last use is still there unless you delete the file. You can have it repeat the last operation and this was it.”

  They read the pages, but it was simply a statement that all the preceding information was authenticated and spelled out very clearly that those two people from the institute and the one person from the RE agency were the perpetrators of the embezzling scheme and she didn’t yet know who – if anyone – else was involved.

  “Well, it looks like we were thwarted there,” Llanas said, sourly.

  “Nope! Motive has positively been established, Your Honor!” Clint said, happily. “Now we have to establish – no! It could only be one of them! Marcos and Goldman were with Franklin! You can arrest Dr. Alice Beckman on a charge of murder one, Mario. There’s no other suspect with all the motive and opportunity parts. I can even show you where she got the murder weapon replacement if she didn’t toss it. It could be in the garbage if she did! Hell! It was on the institute account, so who cares if she did toss it!”

  “You don’t make any sense!” Mario accused. “If I arrest her we can’t hold her for more than three or four hours without proof. The coregidor will let her go.”

  “I can prove it,” Clint stated. Definitely. “To make it absolutely and positively certain, all you have to do is establish the relationship – BLOOD relationship – between two people.”

  “I see!” Jose Llanas cried. “They look too much alike! They almost HAVE to be related! It occurs to me one of them will have those disks or evidence that they DID have them! I hope they haven’t burned them or something. Maybe they erased them.”

  “I don’t think there’s time yet,” Clint said. “They’ll have to read them to find where else to cover their slimy asses. If Donna found the crap someone else can.”

  Mario and Jose both nodded.

  “Okay, let’s lay this out with the bunch of you here, then I can go home and get some sleep,” Clint stated to the group gathered for the arraignment. “You will see exactly how Dr. Beckman was caught.

  “It started because Donna Dorman saw some strange irregularities in the institute accounts and investigated the scheme. It took her a few weeks, but she had a very solid case against two people from the institute – you, Dr. Marcos and you, Dr./Mrs. Beckman – and you, Mrs. Goldman. She discovered, as did Captain Menendez, that you, Dr. Beckman and you, Mrs. Goldman, are sisters. The RE agency is under suspicion for unethical and possible criminal actions already. You two cooked up a scheme to defraud the institute of funds. You then needed someone who could convince the institute it should purchase the land the fraud was built on and Marcos was obviously the weakest one on the board and the easiest one to use. He was caught in a nasty divorce and desperately needed funds.

  “Things were going along beautifully! You could get the funds and get out of Panamá and it woul
d be virtually impossible to ever charge anyone with anything, except maybe Marcos, who was purposely set up as the goat if anything went wrong. The whole crooked deal depended on nothing being discovered until it was done – then Donna discovered it.

  “Now Marcos couldn’t be the goat because it wasn’t completed to that point, so the bunch of you would end up in the pen – unless you could shut Donna up. You were suddenly in a panic. Marcos and Goldman were going to meet with a representative of the institute to try to lay a foundation where they could weasel out of direct charges, but Beckman would then be the goat because it would come out the scheme was her idea in the first place.

  “That was NOT going to be allowed, so she made a plan. Marcos and Goldman would go to the meeting to more or less feel out Dr. Goodwin to see if their plan to get out of charges would work and Beckman would try to get Donna not to testify. Maybe a big bribe. Perhaps that was something you actually tried, but Donna wasn’t about to take any bribe.

  “You came prepared. Had you simply grabbed a knife and killed her it would be murder two, but you bought a paring knife of the same type used at the institute for the purpose of killing her if she didn’t make a deal. Buying that knife and taking it there makes it murder one. Period. The institute buys those items by the dozen or more. Did I miss anything?”

  “Only that I wasn’t the only one with motive and opportunity!” Beckman cried. “Anyone could have killed her! This is crazy!”

  “Oh?” Menendez asked. “Who, for instance?”

  “Hell! Someone from the island in a boat!”

  “All boats coming here are noted and none came in the time period, though one left,” Llanas replied. “Boat four, with a single female in it.”

  “Well, anyone here at the institute!”

  “All are accounted for,” Clint pointed out. “Even those who had the time couldn’t have come out here without being noted. You are the only one who has no alibi for the critical time. That’s what I meant when I said people in a panic miss the details. Now and then things work out very much like the books in the courses lay them out. This was one of those times. I won’t count on it ever happening again!”