Malice in Mexico

by Gayle Wigglesworth

Jeff was sitting at the table outside near the pool. He looked up and waved her over. “I have coffee, fruit and rolls. Will you want anything else?”

  “No, I need coffee, thank you.” She sat down and poured the hot fragrant brew out of the thermos carafe on the table. After her first swallow she felt she could be a little more social. “How are you feeling this morning?”

  “Groggy, slow, sore, but okay. I think I’m getting too old for shenanigans like we pulled the other night.”

  “You think?” Now she was starting to feel alive and she helped herself to orange juice and papaya before checking out the rolls in the bread basket.

  “I could fix you eggs if you wanted me to,” Jeff offered tentatively.

  “No, you’re doing plenty. I’m fine with what you have here. What’s the agenda for today?”

  “I don’t have any. I would suggest we go pack up your things later this morning, and then I’ll have Tia call the cleaning people so they can go in. Is there anything you planned to see while you were here that you haven’t gotten to yet?”

  “Probably,” was Claire’s dry answer. “But I was thinking last night how good it will be to get home. I’m thinking I’ll change my reservations and go home tomorrow.”

  “Well, good luck with that. The flights are frequently full, making it a little difficult to make last minute changes.”

  She nodded. “But I have connections with people at the airlines, so I think I’ll be able to do it. I’ll call later today.”

  Jeff nodded, but his expression was still skeptical. “What I’m going to do today is clear out my studio. I’m going to destroy all my little models of the Frog Prince. I know I will never complete the sculpture for Teddy now, and I don’t even want to look at the prototypes anymore. They will only remind me of this whole nasty incident and how treacherous Graves turned out to be. If you still want one for your friend, you can take your pick.”

  Claire shook her head, saying thoughtfully, “I think I’m with you on that. I don’t think I ever want to see one again. It would just remind me of everything I’d like to forget about San Miguel.”

  “I hate this.” Jeff was angry. “Look what Graves and Kathleen have done. They killed innocent people, they’ve betrayed the trust of the community and they’ve caused all of us to question our life down here. Suddenly San Miguel no longer seems like the pleasant little town it has always been for many of us.”

  “Jeff, there are bad people everywhere in the world. And bad things happen all over. San Miguel is a beautiful town and it will continue to be lovely. You’ll see. These few people can’t and shouldn’t be able to ruin it for you. You wait, you will forget.”

  Jeff shrugged. “I’m afraid you’re right, but I’d like to think I’ve learned to be a little more discerning in picking my friends and a little better at identifying the phonies amongst us.”

  They were both silent while they finished their coffee, both thinking about the events of Tuesday night.

  “Jeff, if you want to work in your studio I can easily walk over to the Pruitts’, do my packing and grab a taxi back here. You don’t have to take me,” Claire offered.

  “No way, not on my watch. I told Jack I would look after you until I put you on that plane, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

  Claire laughed. “I’m a big girl, you know. Kathleen and Graves are gone, and Jack checked the house. I’ll be perfectly safe. What could happen now?”

  Jeff shook his head stubbornly. “I don’t know, but I’m taking no chances. I’d be worrying the whole time you were gone, so I may as well go with you.” He got up, gathering an armload of the items on the table. “Let’s just put these in the kitchen for Tia to take care of and I’m ready.”

  Claire got up to help and soon they were headed down the steep hill toward the Jardin and the road where the Pruitts’ house was located.

  When Claire opened the door to admit them to the charming patio, the house still looked just as she left it. But somehow it felt different. She looked around carefully. She didn’t see any noticeable difference, still she was uneasy. She walked through each room with Jeff hovering at her shoulder, her eyes quickly assessing the items she needed to pack.

  “Looks all right to me,” Jeff said softly, “but it seems a little spooky for some reason.”

  She turned and looked at him gratefully. “So you feel it too? I thought it was just my imagination.”

  “No, it seems empty and a little threatening.”

  “Well, let’s get my stuff and get out of here. I’m so glad you and Jack decided I shouldn’t stay here by myself. I think I’d be up all night looking for boogeymen.”

  She led Jeff to the dining room where she and Jack had put all the things they had bought. Of course there wasn’t much now, there was the box packed with pottery, the jewelry from Isobelle’s, and a few odds and ends they had purchased since Sunday’s theft.

  “These can all go. Here, let’s put these odd things in this bag. I’ll pack them in my luggage when I do my final packing.” She quickly filled a plastic grocery bag.

  Then while Jeff carried these things out to the car she checked out the living room and gathered the papers Teddy had given her that first day, Jack’s library book, which he hadn’t yet finished and a book she brought from home. She put these in another plastic bag, and when Jeff returned for another load she asked him if he wanted any of the groceries.

  When he shook his head, she added a full bottle of Tequila to the bag of books. “You may as well have this. We might want to have Margaritas tonight.” She threw in the limes still sitting in the bowl on the counter. “Have Tia tell the cleaning people to take any of the food we left or throw it away, whatever they choose.” Handing the bag to Jeff she turned and headed for the bedroom.

  She emptied her clothes from the drawers and closet on to the bed. All of Jack’s things were gone, of course. He didn’t have much, and he had packed everything to take with him. Since some of her things were at Teddy and Jeff’s, she thought she wouldn’t have any trouble packing the rest in her suitcase, which was sitting on the luggage rack near the door to the bathroom. She spent a few minutes folding and stacking her clothes, assembling her shoes and adding her cosmetics from the bathroom to the pile. Finally, she had everything in one place and she was ready to pack. She turned to her suitcase, deciding to just leave it on the rack. Her hand was on the zipper when she noticed something strange about the way it was zipped. She took her hand away, carefully looking at the suitcase. It was right were she had put it on Sunday, when she had picked it up from the jumble of things thrown on the floor, and put it on the luggage rack out of her way while she gathered some things to take to Teddy and Jeff’s house. She remembered she had closed the lid, zipping it closed just as she usually did, with both zippers touching on the front left hand corner of the long side of the suitcase. Now one zipper was about four inches from the right hand corner and the other zipper was about two inches away from the first.

  She stared at it a moment as she realized someone had been in her suitcase.

  Who would have been in her suitcase?

  She couldn’t believe the women cleaning for Helen Marie would touch it. Why would they? Then she thought maybe Jack had, thinking he would just pack the suitcase for her.

  No, that would be silly. He only brought a few things for her to change into. Why would he want to open her suitcase? He knew it was empty.

  But why were the zippers in a different position?

  Then she felt the hackles rise along her spine. Kathleen had been in the house. She had come to kill them on Tuesday night. She was connected to Guiness. And Claire had already experienced Guiness’s penchant for using explosives.

  She was finding it hard to breathe. She felt chilled and was sweating at the same time.

  “Can I help you with that?” Jeff came into the room and headed directly for the suitcase.

  “No! Don’t touch it!” she cried out too shrilly in panic.

  Jeff
put both hands up and backed away, surprise written all over his face. “Sorry, just wanted to help.”

  She shook her head. “No, no, it’s just that something is wrong with that suitcase.”

  He looked at her as if wondering if she had flipped out.

  “Jeff, do you think Kathleen could have planted something in the suitcase?”

  Jeff shook his head slowly, clearly not understanding what Claire was talking about.

  “Jeff, somebody has been into this suitcase. I put it on the luggage rack myself last Sunday after the break-in. Why is it different? Why are the zippers in different locations?”

  Seeing she still hadn’t conveyed her concern appropriately, she tried again. “Jeff, could Kathleen have planted a surprise for us? Do you think she would have put something in my suitcase so when we opened the bag to pack, we’d set it off?”

  Now Jeff understood, but he was clearly skeptical. “Claire, don’t you think that’s a little melodramatic?”

  “Well, maybe. But she tried to run us over with a truck outside the Agave.”

  Jeff nodded slowly.

  “She climbed over the wall to kill us.”

  Jeff just looked at her.

  “She and her uncle had somebody run Raphael’s car off the road.”

  He nodded, this time his face puckered with thought.

  “Her uncle was going to shoot you, Jack and Steve Carter.”

  Now his face had a dark angry look. “I see what you mean. But I thought Jack had the place checked out.”

  She nodded. “He did, but I’m sure they didn’t bring in the bomb squad, or the dogs trained to sniff out explosives. Heck, maybe they don’t even have those resources available here. I’ve had some experience with these people before, and both times there was a bomb involved. They are very good with bombs.”

  Jeff’s eyes widened as he slowly backed away from the suitcase. “What do you think we should do?”

  “I think we should get out of here. Here grab some of these clothes.” She grabbed an armload and headed out of the bedroom rather hastily. “We need to call the authorities and have them check. I could be just acting like a nervous Nelly, but I’d rather be embarrassed than dead.”

  Jeff didn’t waste any time following her, the rest of her things bunched up in his arms, as they headed out of the house.

  They both dumped the clothes unceremoniously in the backseat of Jeff’s car and when they were in the front seat Jeff suggested a visit to the local police station on the other side of the Jardin.

  “It might be easier to explain in person,” was his thought.

  That turned out to be a wise decision as it took a lot of explaining and then waiting, until finally it was decided to bring in a team and dogs from San Luis Potosi, a large city to the north of San Miguel de Allende.

  Now that she wasn’t staring at the suitcase Claire was beginning to feel a little silly, but she decided there was no way she wanted anyone to unzip that suitcase without making sure it was safe. She didn’t need that on her conscience. So she and Jeff returned to his house to wait until the dog team had checked the house and declared everything safe.

  Claire used the phone to contact a representative at Vantage Airlines, who after seeing Claire’s designation as a VIP on the passenger list, graciously made the changes necessary to book her on a plane out of Leon for the next afternoon, three days earlier than she had planned to leave. That settled, she wandered out to Jeff’s studio to see if she could help him with his clean up. They spent a couple of satisfying hours, wearing eye protectors and using big mallets to smash and discard every one of his black frog prototypes. Claire used a method of projecting Grave’s face on the frog before swinging the mallet. After the last pottery shard was thrown into the big trash barrel they collapsed, satisfied, in chairs by the pool where Tia served them a pitcher of frosty Margaritas and some guacamole and chips.

  “I invited Steve and Kaye to dinner tonight, Claire. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “Mind, no of course not. This is your house after all. And I’d like to see them before I go. We’ve kind of bonded, don’t you think, after the last couple of days?”

  Jeff nodded. “That’s what I thought. I didn’t really feel like going out, but since you’re leaving tomorrow I wanted to do something. I keep thinking we’ll hear from the police about the suitcase you left.”

  Claire nodded, taking a sip of the tangy, refreshing drink. “Frankly I’m on pins and needles. In spite of how embarrassing it will be, I’m hoping I was wrong.”

  “What do you want to do about the suitcase? You need it for tomorrow’s packing, don’t you? Should we go out in the morning and buy another?”

  “No, why don’t I just take one of those cardboard boxes you have in the studio. I can pack that up and we can check it. I don’t want to buy another suitcase just to pack. I have plenty at home. And besides, I don’t think I’m going to be traveling much in the coming months.”

  They heard the phone ring in the house and soon Tia brought the receiver out to Jeff.

  Claire was fairly dancing in her chair as she closely watched Jeff’s serious expression, unable to learn anything from his rapid-fire Spanish words. As soon as he disconnected she bombarded him. “Was it the police? What did they say? What did they find?”

  He looked at her soberly, and then said, “If you had pulled the zipper back, the suitcase would have exploded with enough force to level the whole house. You saved us both.” He drained his glass and filled it up, drinking it again. “Tia, could we have a refill please?” he said very calmly in spite of the tremor in his hand when he put his glass on the table.

  The End

  Maps reprinted with permission from the

  Insider’s Guide to San Miguel

  Contact Archie Dean, Author and Publisher, to purchase your updated copy of this valuable guide to San Miguel.

  http://www.insidersma.tripod.com

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17