Clint Faraday Mysteries collection A Muddled Murders Collector's Edition

by Moulton, CD

  “Okay. Frieda and Lindsay arranged for the killings, meaning to get both of them by having the...! I just got a scenario that would damned well work! Those injections were in a case that used disposable plastic hypos ... I have to talk with Doc Astrades! I may have a scenario that would cover a lot of it!”

  Not California Again!

  “So. I did find it in the phial that was most recently used,” Astrades answered. “Perhaps that was the reason it happened here and when it did. He finished the old phial the night before. The next one had the curare. I can judge by the time they were here and the dosage that this would be the end of a phial that had two to three uses before they left California. It would be easy to time because a new phial is ordered from any local pharmacy when there are no more than six injections left. The one with the curare was put in the case a day or two before they left California.

  “Do you think he put it there himself?”

  “No. I think the only real coincidence in this mess is that he planned his suicide for the night the new phial was used for the first time. It ended up with this ludicrous bit where nothing seems to fit. It also caused several more investigations that led to even more.”

  “Yes. Serg was telling me about some of it. I quite frankly don’t care to know about anything except my own part as the local medical examiner.”

  “I almost wish I didn’t. Someone in that family went into that hotel room where Donald had just killed Lawrence with an injection someone else put in the medical case in California ten or twelve days ago. It was timed for here and now. They didn’t have a clue that the nasty old bastard was planning to suicide and make it look like murder here and now. That tells me it’s still pretty complicated. It means someone else in that family meant to get rid of Donald when any good opportunity arose. That came together here and now. This is really three murder cases with two victims. They’re actually separate and only loosely connected by the first triple coincidence I’ve ever come across I can believe.”

  “Or you could still be wrong,” Doc pointed out.

  “There is that.”

  He went into town and to Bohmfalk’s. There was a sign that Sunday was a big farewell party. He’d known the place was for sale and that they had a buyer, but not that it was a done deal. It saddened him a little. He had always liked both Sharon and Bill. He hoped the new owners would continue with the Key West theme and beach town atmosphere.

  “Where do you stand now?” Judi asked Clint at her house the next morning.

  “Just about where I started. It’s taken out a lot of things that happened to come together at this particular time. The killer was after Lawrence and came in there when Donald had injected only a little of what was in the syringe. There was enough more in it to take care of Donald, too. I don’t think Donald wanted Lawrence dead – quite yet. It was to his great disadvantage.

  “Lawrence’s death was planned by either Frieda or Frank Lindsay. Or both. Lawrence was killed when a phial planted ten or twelve days before was used. Planted before he left California. They have access to concentrated curare. Doc said one drop of what was in that syringe would kill a man in fifteen seconds. There was plenty for five or six murders in that one phial. Donald started the injection and Lawrence immediately went totally limp, so he pulled out the syringe. Maybe he put it down on the end table to try to revive Lawrence when someone else in that family came into the room and got rid of Donald. They then injected more of the curare into Lawrence’s neck, thus that injection point. I still can’t figure who or why.

  “Trudy found her blackmail evidence was copied by Donald and was going ... no! Donald didn’t need to blackmail Lawrence with that evidence! He was ALREADY blackmailing him in another way and had been from years ago. That was probably why Lawrence wanted him suspected along with the others. He had become resigned to it and it wasn’t more than he could afford. He was probably into the race-fixing and laundering with Donald. He might have believed the money was in his name, as far as that goes. He planned to die soon and didn’t much give a shit about the money.

  “Orison and Rasmussen knew about the abuse from before Lawrence came under Orison’s treatment and have been deliberately killing him slowly and painfully with the cancer. They might have started by trying to help the family, but didn’t do the right thing when Lawrence’s wife died, which was to put a bullet between his eyes. I doubt they were ever anything more than they are now, but had that excuse for doing whatever they did since. I think they’ll be murdered themselves within a few days or weeks if I don’t tag the Lindsays.”

  “From what I’ve seen and heard of them, make it a point not to expose the Lindsays for a few days or weeks,” Dave suggested. Judi, Sergio and Manny agreed. “But don’t tell anyone I said that,” Sergio added.

  “We can now blackmail YOU!” Judi cried.

  “Well, yes, but I can then have you held for investigation and deported as an undesirable, should it come to that! No one will take the word of some cheap prostitute who was expelled from Panamá where it’s LEGAL!” Sergio fired back. Judi gave him the finger.

  They lightened up and decided to go snorkeling off of the Zapatillas where Clint was supposed to have been for a few days diving anyhow. Sergio complained that just about everyone else in Panamá could take time off anytime they wanted to go swimming but HE had to work!

  They all gave him the finger.

  “I don’t want to have to go to California again!” Clint complained. “I don’t know what I can do from here. I might not even be able to prove enough to have them extradited to Panamá.”

  “You don’t have proof of anything except for what had to have happened,” Dave pointed out. “You have to have something more solid than the simple fact it couldn’t have been anyone else, under the circumstances. If you can get the one who’s working this end, the one who killed Donald Lesley, you can get enough from what they tell you to get them sent here – if you can prove it was both of them. If it could have been either one, not both, they can use that to deny extradition.”

  “Well, one good thing is that the one they’re using here is more than likely to be the one who knocks off Orison and Rasmussen,” Judi suggested. “So we go fishing for a day or two until that part’s handled, then you can tag the connection and close it out.

  “Don’t I sound like those TV molls?”

  “They haven’t used ‘molls’ for thirty years,” Manny said. “You managed to sound a little like some of the more hard-ass female PI’s on TV. Now all you have to do is get into some kind of stupid overdone karate fight with twenty-odd trained assassins and kick hell out of the bunch so you can call Serg and tell him to come pick up the bodies.”

  “After you crash your boat into a helicopter that results in an explosion that would make Bikini look like a firecracker,” Dave added. “Seriously, you won’t get the killer here that way. I think this one walked in on something and retaliated.

  “Have you considered that someone went in there and thought this Donald character had killed the old bastard and took it into his or her hands to get rid of ... I’m not making any sense.”

  “There are already ‘way too many coincidences in this mess,” Clint replied. “That would be one more. I think maybe the killer knew Lawrence would get his with that injection and wanted to get Donald out of the equation. Maybe they knew Donald was getting a lot of money sent down here and thought it would end up in their hands.

  “How about...!”

  “Mr. Faraday!” someone called, loudly, just outside of Manny’s door on San Cristóbal where they had gathered this morning. “Urgency, Mr. Faraday!”

  “What the hell?!” Judi cried. Manny went to the door and asked what was going on. It was a police officer who had come from the police boat at his dock.

  “Telephones aren’t working. Sergio said for me to come tell Mr. Faraday that another one of the Lesleys has been murdered. He said to tell you it wasn’t the doctor or lawyer, it was a Lesley.”

  “Oh, c
rap!” Clint snarled. “What’s THIS one about? Who?”

  “A Mrs. Martime, I think the cleaning lady said.”

  “WANDA?!” Judi cried. “Why would ... I mean, who would ... WANDA?”

  “And where was her husband?” Clint asked.

  “I don’t know except that Sergio said for you to please come back with me.”

  Clint nodded, downed the last of his coffee, swore very colorfully and said to lead on. He waved at the others as he went down to the dock.

  “She was smothered. Someone held a plastic bag over her face. Someone pretty strong, judging by the bruising,” Dr. Astrades reported. “She’s been dead for about two hours. Put it at six this morning to six fifteen.”

  Clint and Sergio asked a few questions, but that was all the information he could give them at the moment. He had to make some tests, but it seemed clearcut enough.

  “I have to know where everyone was from five thirty to six thirty,” Clint said. Sergio said that was done. George was out past Bastimentos with four other people fishing. He checked with the boat captain, Maxie, and he was there. Amanda was staying at the Olas. She was in her room asleep when he got there and no one noticed that she had left and returned. She would have to pass the girl at the front after five. The doctor and lawyer were at the Swan’s Cay Hotel in their rooms. If any of them had been on the streets at that hour it would be noted. No one was up then except for a few workers on their way to the other islands. Gringos would very certainly be noted by the regulars. Maria was collecting aluminum cans along the front of the hotels and from the Limbo to the Mar. She would note any non-Panamanian.

  Clint started to say something, then said he’d be back in a minute. He went to the back dock and looked over the area, then asked Nino, the boy who kept the docks and slides clean, if anyone had come in that morning – or left.

  “Only Lila and Dorita. The usual Indios on their way to work for the gringos who come in the boat with Lila from Bastimentos. The Johnson woman came with a gorda who works at the marina. She went back a little later with some things from Rukel. The bags had ‘Rukel’ on them.”

  “You didn’t know her?”

  “She was a little fat and had long black hair. I didn’t see her close. Maybe an India or Mestiza. I think she’s come before. Some come from the marina with Johnson to pick things up at the stores.”

  “Rukel is open at five AM?” Clint asked. He shrugged.

  “Thanks, Nino,” Clint said and went back upstairs to Wanda’s room where George had just burst in. Maxie had brought him straight back. Sergio looked a question at Clint, who nodded the slightest bit. Sergio turned George over to the officer he left in charge and he and Clint went to Chitres for coffee and some empanadas.

  “Who?” Sergio asked.

  “Amanda. She would have to ditch the wig somewhere, but she would also have to wear it back to Olas. We find it and we have her.”

  Sergio didn’t say anything for a moment, then, “How? She didn’t come in from the ... oh. She caught a boat at the dock at Olas and came to the suites, then returned the same way. You need a wig, so she was disguised as a native.”

  “Yup!”

  “You want to pick her up or maybe find the wig and wait for her to go after someone else? Who would it be?

  “I don’t believe it will be hard to find the boat that carried her.”

  “I think Trudy has put herself into a more safe position with ... but that’s only if it was about money. I don’t think it was. I really DON’T think it was!

  “Still, I don’t think she’s in real danger – but I didn’t think Wanda was, either. Orison and Rasmussen will have to know it was her after this. She might go after them somehow.

  “Let’s wait awhile and go have a talk with her. It’ll be better to give her some time to think maybe we missed something as obvious as this one ... or that we’ll think it was Razzy and/or Doc.”

  Sergio nodded. He would meet with Clint about three and they’d let Amanda know they had her figured. Clint wondered if she would have any reaction to the news.

  “We can go to the Olas,” Sergio suggested. “I imagine she’ll be there. She walks around town a lot. She’s popular with the natives.”

  They headed for the Hotel Olas, but she’d left about ten and hadn’t returned. She was carrying a backpack and might have gone to Bocas del Drago for the day.

  They went to the Swan’s Cay to speak with Orison and Rasmussen. They hadn’t left their rooms since breakfast. Sergio looked puzzled. Clint sighed.

  “What?” Sergio asked.

  “Wouldn’t they logically have checked out early enough to get the flight to Panamá? After all, they knew they didn’t have protection here and might be able to get out through the airport at Tocumen.

  “I think maybe we should check out their rooms.”

  “I see. Little lady’s been pretty busy, huh? Well, we said we might wait until they were murdered to be able to catch the killer.”

  They went to Orison’s room. He wasn’t there. The hotel clerk opened the door with the passkey.

  “He’s packed and ready to go,” Clint noted when they went in to find the packed bags by the door. They went to Rasmussen’s room. Where the people in the next room asked if they would please tell them to turn the TV down. It sounded like a war was going on in that room!

  It had to be opened, too. Rasmussen and Orison were sprawled on the floor, cut to pieces. The TV was on one of the channels that showed violence flicks all day. Loud.

  “THAT is a rage killing if I ever read about them in the books!” Sergio cried. “Dios mio!” He turned the TV down to just audible.

  Sergio called Astrades, who was still at the Suites. He said he’d be there in ten minutes.

  “Do you know why she would do that to them?” Sergio asked. “I mean, she stabbed Rasmussen just twice. He wouldn’t have time to make any loud noise. Either wound would have been fatal in my estimation. One in the throat and once in the heart.

  “Orison ... he was cut to pieces! I doubt he was killed quickly. Why didn’t he cry out or something to find rescue?”

  “He might have, but she might have had him by the throat. Look at the bruises. I think I told her something she had suspected already, but not quite believed.”

  “Oh?”

  “That he could have stopped Lawrence from raping his kids at anytime, but chose not to.”

  “He did that?”

  “It’s what it amounts to. He was so intent on getting money from Lawrence he didn’t go very far to try to help those kids and the wife. He said himself that he should have shot him when the wife died. He could have, or he could have used his expertise in psychology to stop him. Instead, he used it to manipulate him into the money thing.”

  “He died much too quickly and easily!”

  “Amen!”

  Astrades came in, shook his head and asked if this exposed the killer. Clint said yes, but they already knew who she was. Donald’s, Wanda’s and these two. Lawrence was killed from the US. She had to have known about it. She used the timing.

  “Ah! Let Donald kill off the old man, then eliminate him. She knew the poison was there and that she could make it appear they both died by the same device.

  “It wouldn’t work.”

  “It would work to the point there would be reasonable doubt, no matter what. At least, she saw it that way.

  “She shouldn’t have gone off and killed the others the doubt could be focused on. She has no way out.”

  “You have her in custody?” Astrades asked.

  “No. She went to Drago or somewhere,” Sergio said.

  Clint said he never heard of any “Drago” in California. Astrades grinned and Sergio swore.

  “I guess she’s going to finish off the Lindsays now?” Sergio asked.

  “I hope so. She should have plenty of time before I can get there.”

  “You hope so?” Astrades asked.

  “Well, that will save Panamá the costs of their extr
adition and trial, Clint pointed out.

  “There is that!” Sergio agreed.

  Clint called Aeroperlas and booked a flight to Panamá City, then Modesto, California. Another damned trip around the world over this mess! It would be nice to be able to just go fishing or with Dave in the mountains or to simply lay around doing nothing.

  Like that would ever happen!

  It was drizzly in Modesto, but clearing. The trip to the farm was beautiful with a very strong sense of peace about it. It was almost surreal compared to what he expected to find.

  Frieda opened the door and looked a question at him. He certainly hadn’t expected THAT!

  “Hi! Has Amanda gotten here yet?” he greeted.

  “Amanda? Is coming here? She is being held down in Panamá until the death of Lawrence is explained, according to my latest information.” She looked a bit scared.

  “Well, she was. We know who the killer is and who knew about it. She’s on a rampage getting revenge on people she blames for all the troubles in her life. She doesn’t see that it was always only Lawrence and Orison. She’s after everyone who helped him – or who knew about it and didn’t do anything. She sees them as being as guilty as they were, which is kind of the way it is, really.”

  “You know who the killer is? It was Amanda?”

  “No. You and your husband. That was easy. No one else could have worked the curare bit with the phials on Lawrence. I think maybe she overheard you or something and used the opportunity to kill Donald. If she’d stopped then we most likely couldn’t have ever proven beyond reasonable. She killed off all the other suspects for Donald.”

  “She killed ... who?”

  “Donald, Wanda, Dr. Orison and Rasmussen. She sneaked out of Panamá to come here after you and Frank. I was somewhat surprised you’re still alive to answer the door.”