Clint Faraday Mysteries Collection B :This Job is Murder Collector's Edition

by Moulton, CD

  They went to search along the six feet Gault had crawled. Clint searched among the orchids and around the rock. He found a small plastic bag with a couple of sheets of paper in it. It was shoved under the rock behind a large sobralia with a little bit of dirt piled on top. The sheets contained a number code. It would take some decoding – If Clint could find a base for the code.

  “This means he’ll be back,” Matt suggested. “We can jump out and yell surprise!”

  “I think he’ll feel safe enough that he won’t come unless he knows none of us are here. He can wait.,” Mike suggested. “Maybe we should all go to David for a couple of days?”

  “The helicopter is returning now. Clint will be expected to go,” Obilio said. “We can take the horses and go to David this afternoon when Clint will already be there.”

  “But Clint will not be there after all of you arrive and we’re seen putting the girls on the bus for Bocas,” Clint said. “How wonderful! ALL of us went to Bocas! We even had a special bus, a privado, to take us!”

  “He’ll be watching,” Mike warned. “Is there somewhere you can get off that he won’t be able to know about?”

  “Yo!”

  “Should we inform your Mr. Mittermann of our plan?” Obilio asked.

  “I’ll decide on the way to David,” Clint replied. “I don’t trust any CIA agent. If he’s being straight with us I’ll be straight with him. Otherwise ...”

  Mittermann landed the chopper and came out to ask, “Did you find it? He damned well didn’t have anything on him when we landed in David. He said he didn’t find anything here, that he was looking for an item that Maria had left by accident, but didn’t find anything.”

  He looked at the bodega and Clint shook his head very slightly at the others.

  “We took the place apart, literally,” Mike said. “Whatever, it definitely ain’t in that bodega.”

  “Damn! He couldn’t have gotten rid of it since we let him out! Even in the house there wasn’t a second I didn’t have him in view.

  “That leaves one time. When he was shot and we were looking at the mountain over there.”

  “You can look, but we thought of that,” Mike said. Clint liked the way he told the exact truth and left out a small detail or two.

  He went carefully along to the rock garden, then searched around the rock. “It looks like something was dug up ... but that could be from the flower bed. There’s nothing there now. Shit!”

  “Maria!” Mark cried. “I’ll be damned! She was watching him through the scope and saw him hide it! She could have come back and got whatever it was! You think?”

  “How could she?” Matt asked innocently. “We were right there in the house.”

  “Or all of us in the bodega, taking it apart and making a lot of noise?” Mark asked. “As Mittermann said, shit!”

  “You were watching her run across the meadow over there,” Mittermann pointed out.

  “Half a minute or more after the shot and he dropped,” Clint said. “There was time for something like that. Maybe after she crossed the meadow. No one could see her then. A quick look to see he was against the rock.”

  “Shit!” from Mittermann and Mike at the same time.

  “We might as well go back to David. Obilio will have the Indios watch for Maria and to call him if she’s seen. She seems good at staying out of sight,” Clint suggested. “I hope this bit will let the Campbells out of it. They simply don’t know anything.”

  Mittermann nodded. Matt said they would come to David in an hour or two. They would go back to Bocas. Obilio said he and Lila would go with them if they would allow. Clint said he and the women would go. He’d arrange for a private bus. They were out of it. It was Mittermann’s headache now. Mittermann seemed relieved and said he thought there was no further danger to any of them – except be careful of Maria. She was nuts.

  Clint got in the chopper and Mittermann took him to David. They didn’t talk much on the trip. When he got there he went to the pensión to pack up his stuff. He talked a bit with Lee and Bob, then went to the terminal where the bus he ordered was waiting. After that was settled and ready he went to several places to ask some innocent questions and to leave copies of the coded sheets with a friend.. He managed to be back at the terminal when the bus came with Obilio and company. He called Judi. She said they would get there in twenty minutes. They would get to Bocas after dark, but them’s the breaks. She had called Bocas and the Campbells would stay at the Bahia.

  Obilio got a call as they were leaving the terminal to say that Maria was seen near the road. She may have left the area. Obilio said the reason she was there was gone.

  There was a woman Clint had noted before on the comarca near the bus stop sitting in front of the restaurant at La Mina. It was logical they would stop at the restaurant there, considering the time they left David. The next stop was Punta Peña. That was two hours.

  Clint and the men went into the restaurant before the women and ordered food for them all. Clint had a beer, as did Matt and Mike. They walked around a bit while the women took a bit long to eat (as arranged). When they got back on the bus the woman just happened to be selling empanadas and tamales. She stepped into the bus just before it left, but the driver said it was private. She knew she couldn’t go onto a private bus to sell anything.

  She didn’t argue. She stepped back off. She had seen that they were all there.

  The bus left. It was followed at a short distance by a small truck. Just before the divide the truck pulled off the road and turned around. Just past the divide Clint got off the bus and it continued on. Clint went back a short way, then down a path past Gabriel’s place and to the town of La Mina. There was a horse left there by a friend of Luis. It was a long trip to Obilio’s, but no one could get there faster. Clint had a friend on the other side of the valley who would drive him to the comarca on the back road.

  It took four hours to get there. Clint went up the path carefully and arrived at the house. Nobody had been there from front or back. Clint knew how to make a trap that someone who knew methods would find. They would trip the real trap going around those.

  Clint went back to the house and waited. He didn’t expect anything until dawn and there wasn’t anything. Then a chopper came. He had ridden in that chopper so he hid and watched as Mittermann and Gault went to the rock to check carefully. Mittermann and Gault were speaking French, but Clint knew enough to know that Mittermann was telling Gault that he figured Maria had gotten it. Gault swore very colorfully about something on his computer, then they got in the chopper and left.

  Clint was very satisfied that he hadn’t told Mittermann anything. He would have to find just how deeply Mittermann was involved. He may be playing both ends.

  Clint checked once more. He was about to leave when he heard something out back so slipped behind the door to the second bedroom. Maria came in the window in back to look around the kitchen. She had a silly grin on her face as she went to the small cupboard where the rice and dishes were kept. Clint made a noise by throwing a shoe toward the front of the house just as she was starting to move things. She quietly closed the cupboard and slipped back out the little window. Clint moved to the main door and came into the room that way. He took out his Glock, checked it, and moved toward the bedrooms. He went in the first one and went to look out the window, studying the area. He then went toward the second bedroom. Maria would have to get back to the forest to wait for him to leave.

  He went to the cupboard, searched around until he found two sheets that looked much like the two he had. He remembered enough to know the number code was different in a few spots than the two he had. He took out his notepad and wrote, Tu siempre falta una cosa. Esta medio intelligente. G and put it where the sheets had been secreted. He then puttered around for a while, then stepped outside to scan the sky, checked his watch, closed the house and walked off down the path. He stopped just past the forest end of the path where he could be seen from above the house. Maria would be there
. He acted as though he was waiting for someone. After another half hour he went back toward the house a little, then turned and went to Luis’ friend’s place. He got a horse he would leave with Luis. He left the horse and asked Luis to see if it would be possible to detain Maria for one day. Luis said this was the comarca. He could detain her for one century if he chose.

  Clint said she was a homicidal maniac. It wasn’t important enough to take chances. Luis nodded and looked grim.

  Clint took the bus to the airport and got a seat on the plane to Bocas. Judi would have made it seem he was there to a watcher. He arrived with a small disguise on that made him look shorter and fatter than he was. He went to Judi’s in a taxi and swam across to his deck. He was home for about fifteen minutes, Judi had brought over some supper, when the phone buzzed. He answered.

  “Clint? Mittermann. I’ve been busy, but wanted to see that your bunch got to Bocas Town safely.”

  “Yeah. We got here a little before midnight so stayed in Changuinola last night and came to Bocas on the first water taxi. I crashed for most of the day. You can ask Judi if anything else happened.”

  Before Mittermann could answer Clint handed the phone to Judi. She chatted a minute about how the whole bunch were tired except her and Mike. She could sleep on the bus, Mike could sleep on the bus, but none of the others could so Clint and Matt drank beer and talked. The others said they hadn’t slept at all when they reached Changuinola and it was almost two before they found a hotel, then got up before dawn to get to Bocas. It was always good to get home. Had he learned anything else?

  This was an act to make him believe Clint was really there the whole time. Judi had been plenty visible and he knew damned well she was there. If Clint simply handed her the phone he had been there all day.

  Clint could picture him steaming while he had to sound totally unconcerned about anything. He said Gault said there was some kind of package left that was gone, but he couldn’t find out what. Gault was in the hospital until the wound was stitched or something.

  Judi finally let him go. She laughed a bit about sounding like a chatty airhead while he was trying to come up with an excuse to hang up.

  Clint took the sheets and copied them, then hid the originals with the first two sheets. He noted the differences, which seemed to be on a list that was headed and followed by paragraphs.

  Somebody cooking the books?

  If they could find the key to the code it would tell them one hell of a lot. Clint had a case where a man who developed code-breakers for comps was murdered. He had left a program. Clint was trying it out. If he could find any base at all ... the numbers were all less than four hundred. What could that mean?

  A page and line number in a book? There was one number, then a hyphen, then another number, then a hyphen, then a number between one and eight.

  It was logical that was a page, line and word number.

  Too many sentences had more than eight words. It was something else.

  Whatever, it was useless if he didn’t know the book. What book was mentioned in all this by any of them?

  Clint grinned. Dr. Freud would make a case of her. Freudian slip?

  He Googled Freud to find what books he wrote. He then checked the page numbers in the books. Nothing – except references to something called “A Student’s Guide to Dr. Sigmund Freud” in a College Reference Library edition. Expensive. 487 pages. He thought for a moment. That would be a book almost no university in Central America would have. It was for medical students. Advanced medical students.

  Granada? They would have most things. They were closest.

  Stupid. Gault would have a copy. He would even have it here if he came to get those sheets.

  Clint grinned. Even better! Gault was supposed to be in the hospital in David. If Mittermann was in on some kind of scheme with him he would have to appear to really be there the way Clint had pretended to be in Bocas Town.

  Clint called Mittermann and said he had to ask Gault a few questions about Maria. He was owed answers to those questions. Seeing he was in the hospital Clint could be there in the morning to ask the questions, then could tell the Campbells whether or not what they suspected was true. It would be a way to make very damned sure Maria didn’t bother any of them again.

  Mittermann mumbled around for a couple of minutes, then said Gault might not be in the hospital anymore. Clint said he could talk with him anywhere. He would stay in a hotel there for three days to be sure there was no infection. If he didn’t want to do that the police wouldn’t allow him to leave until they investigated how and why he was shot. He told them it was an accident so it would be normal for him to stay until the doctors released him.

  “It would be normal if he was scheduled to go and did,” Mittermann argued.

  “No. It would look like he was running from someone,” Clint replied. “He’d be a fool to do anything to make them suspicious.”

  “He’s staying at the City of David. I suppose he’ll be here for part of tomorrow, anyhow.”

  Clint told him thanks. It probably didn’t have anything to do with his case. It was about something that was said about him at a party in Jamaica. That seemed to relieve Mittermann.

  Clint caught the plane to David and was there just at dark. He would be expected to meet Gault in the morning. Gault wouldn’t be there tonight until late. He had a date.

  Clint had a good meal in the restaurant at the hotel. He talked with the man at the desk about his friend from Haiti and said he was supposed to meet him tomorrow, but came in early. Would he ring his room, please? The clerk rang 306. There was no answer. He said Mr. Gault was apparently not there.

  Clint thanked him again and went back into the restaurant. A few minutes later he went back through the lobby toward the door and slipped into the open elevator when no one was looking.

  It was easy enough to get into the room. Clint has experience in that. He knew how to read the card and to use the hotel entry code. The computer was on the desk with the charger on it. Clint took a memory stick from his pocket, went to the inicio page, to documents and to a folder labeled “Books” to find “Freud” listed. He copied the book to the memory stick, cleared the screen, put the comp back on charge and left. In the morning he met with Gault and asked why people kept saying at that party that he was a drug supplier to France and England – did he know that was being said?

  He was actually shocked! NO one ever said he had anything to do with the drug trade. Who was saying it?

  “Cori heard it. She said that must be why you’re here, but it couldn’t be – because it was just something she heard. She wasn’t sure who said it, except he was an obnoxious sort of pig who kept pawing at her. I don’t think much of you, but I know how that kind of thing can fuck up your reputation among those political asses. If you didn’t know it you probably aren’t messed up in that crap. If you knew it there might be a basis. You might be after her. As it is, she’s done you a favor.”

  “She did that! I can drop a little word and that shithead – I can guess who it was – won’t say another word about me again. Ever. I will say to you that my reputation is that I give one warning, then act. Never two. Never say a thing unless you are prepared to follow your words with action. One or two times a long time ago and the problem doesn’t arise again.”

  Clint said that was all he wanted to know. Thanks.

  “You came here only to ask that?”

  “The answer was in the way you reacted, not in the words you used. You were actually shocked. It was all over your face. I can believe that. I couldn’t ever be sure from a phone call.”

  “I think you scare me. I hope there is never reason you will be after me.”

  Clint grinned and said he had a reputation to uphold himself.

  He left.

  Codes

  Clint stretched, sighed, turned on his computer and stuck the memory stick in the USB port to bring up the book.

  It was in German.

  So what? He could use t
he code to write what came up and have a friend translate.

  Assuming that the first number was the page number, the second the line number and the third was ?

  He cut and pasted all he had, putting the whole line on the page. Most of it was the same on both sets of sheets. Only the lists noted were very much different.

  Clint studied the thing awhile. He didn’t know enough, but one thing caught his eye in the main paragraphs. The one through eight seemed to be the number of words included, starting from a period. Thus seven came out to be “This later was seen to be the major” and the next line had a one that said “Directions” followed by the line with a four. “To take this further” followed by something he couldn’t translate from his meager knowledge of German. It did tell him, he hoped, how the code was read. Four and a half hours later he had the whole thing except the lists. There had to be a different base to that code. It was the same three number system, but none was ended with a number higher than three. The first number was no higher than four. The second number was as high as fifty five.

  Clint couldn’t find a key to that.

  He called Judi, who came over to look at the lists. She went from the first of the book to the end. The end had appendices and reference to footnotes and credits. Four pages.

  She took the first one, 2-37-2. She went to page 2, to credit 37, and to the second name. Marks, Konrad. The next was 1-19-3. That was strange. The first name on the credits there was Reighter, Adolf Enrique. There was no third name.

  “Ah!” Clint said. “The third word is Enrique. Marks and Enrique. Mean anything?”

  “Cori said there was some German attaché named Marks at that party.”

  “And an Enrique somebody. I think this is a very important list. We have to get a translator we can trust.”

  “Ben. He speaks German. I’ve heard him.”

  Ben was a close friend and neighbor. He was involved in a couple of cases and Clint could trust him. Judi called and asked him to come over. He said half an hour. He had to get his latest boyfriend to the water taxi. He was on the way right now.