Deadly Distractions, A Stan Turner Mystery Vol 6

by William Manchee

CHAPTER 29

  THE INJUNCTION

  The next day Paula filled me in on her new informant, Jill Murray. She was excited about what she had learned about Don Harris and I agreed it was a major breakthrough. My mind, however, was on my next appointment. Tex was due in to explain to me how he got the $1.8 million and what happened to him in Ecuador. I was anxious to send General Moya the final installment and put this chapter of my life behind me. Before Tex arrived, however, Jodie advised me there was a constable in the reception room to see me. My heart sank. What could this be about?

  The constable gave me the paper. I signed for it and began reading. It was a temporary restraining order, issued out of the Judge Lopez’ court, restraining me and the firm from sending the remaining $900,000 to General Moya. A chill suddenly overcame me. I remembered General Moya’s warning that if he didn’t get the second installment he’d send an assassin to kill me and Tex. I showed Jodie the paper and told her to get Logan on the line

  “Maybe the judge won’t grant the temporary injunction,” Jodie said solemnly.

  I shrugged. “I hope not.”

  Jodie left and got Logan on the line.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” I said. “I told you General Moya would kill us if he didn’t get the money.”

  “That was an empty threat. He’s not about to send an assassin up here.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “He’ll know it wasn’t your fault. . . . Don’t worry, Stan. We’ll protect you.”

  “How? How could you possibly protect us? Are you going to assign us a bodyguard for the rest of our lives—put us in the witness' protection program?”

  “No, we’ll assign a couple men to watch you for a while, until things die down.”

  “Well, that’s not good enough,” I said. “Just as soon as we’re left unprotected, we’ll be dead.”

  “Listen, Turner. General Moya is an enemy of Ecuador and under U.S. indictment. The president has made a pledge to help the civilian government there get rid of him. There is no way you’re going to be allowed to send him another million dollars. This is a foreign policy issue and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  I knew I wasn’t going to get anywhere arguing with Logan. It was up to Judge Lopez and I had a bad feeling about the final outcome. Logan was probably right, this was a political issue that would be dictated by Washington without regard to how it might affect Tex and me. The thought of an assassin stalking me made me uneasy. How could I function knowing someone was out there ready to kill me at any moment?

  When Tex showed up, I didn’t mention the injunction at first. I didn’t want him distracted from the purpose of our meeting, which was to find out how he got into this situation in the first place and what had happened to him in Ecuador. I sat back in my chair as he began to tell his story.

  “When I got the letter I thought it was a joke, but several days later Senor Alfaro called me. He asked me if I'd read the letter and what my answer was. I told him I had but that I didn't see how it could possibly work. He assured me all the details were worked out and that all they needed was an American to stand in as Dr. Wells' beneficiary.

  “Nine hundred thousand dollars was a lot of incentive to go down to Ecuador and check the situation out. Besides, if I didn't get the money, he said some corrupt general would get it.

  “Anyway, you know how I am. I couldn’t pass up such a great opportunity, so I contacted Senor Alfaro and told him I was coming to Quito. He was ecstatic and arranged to meet me at the airport. He said he knew a good hotel and that the whole transaction would only take a few days. He said to come on Friday so he could show me around Quito over the weekend, and then we’d transact our business on Monday.

  “When I got there, he treated me like a long lost brother. I got the grand tour of the city. We went to all the historical sites and to some great restaurants. Saturday night he showed me some hot night spots. I wish you'd have been there, Stan. You wouldn’t believe what those women were doing with their bodies.”

  I wanted to ask him to clarify that, but then decided it wasn’t relevant to the story, so I didn’t. “Hmm,” I replied.

  “Anyway, on Monday I met Victor at his lawyer’s office. Victor gave him a folder full of letters, papers, and documents supposedly showing that I was Dr. Wells’ brother. He reviewed the paperwork and seemed satisfied that I was Dr. Wells’ heir.”

  “Were they speaking English?”

  “No, Spanish.”

  “So, you really didn’t know what they were saying?”

  “No, not really.”

  “What happened next?”

  “I signed some papers and we left to go to the bank.”

  “What kind of papers?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure. They were in Spanish. Victor said it was an application to have the money transferred to me.”

  “Did Victor explain how the deal was going to work?”

  “He said the bank would wire the money to my account in the Cayman Islands. He and I would then fly there and split it.”

  “So, how did I end up getting all of it in my trust account?” I asked.

  “Well, I knew Victor might try to take all the money so I figured I’d stay one step ahead of him. On the way to Ecuador I stopped in the Cayman Islands and made arrangements with the bank to wire the funds to your trust account immediately upon receipt. I didn’t have it wired to my account because I didn’t want anyone to know that I had it. When we got to the Caymans I figured I'd call you and have you wire Victor’s share to him.”

  “Weren’t you worried Victor would kill you when he found out the money wasn’t in your account in the Caymans?”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I knew he’d be pissed off, but I figured as long as I could wire the money to him, he’d get over it.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “You like to live dangerously.”

  “Perhaps, but it didn’t make any difference, because we never made it out of the country. We were both arrested at the airport.”

  “What went wrong?”

  “I’m not sure, exactly. We were taken to some kind of miliary base and questioned for hours. I tried to stick to our story, but they obviously didn’t believe me. When they started to torture me, I came clean.”

  “How did they take the truth?”

  “Not well. Some high ranking officer came to see me and said if I’d send instructions to the bank in the Caymans to wire the money back, he’d let me go.”

  “General Moya, I bet.”

  “Perhaps. . . . Unfortunately, because the bank had forwarded the money to you, I couldn’t do that.”

  “Why didn’t you just call me?”

  “I got to thinking that if I called you and told you to send the money, they’d probably kill me anyway. They wouldn’t want any witnesses to what had happened since I’m sure the general was planning on pocketing the money.”

  “You’re exactly right. He had planned to take the money and then you showed up and spoiled his plans.”

  “Right. So, I figured I’d just sit tight and hopefully you or somebody would come looking for me. I thought my chances were much better if I still had the money.”

  I shook my head. “You were right. When we got there and put out the word that we were looking for you, it didn’t take long for the general to find out about it.”

  I told Tex about what had happened in Ecuador and about Monty’s subsequent murder. Then I showed him the temporary restraining order. He wasn’t as upset as I thought he would be. In fact, he said he agreed with Logan. He didn’t think General Moya would do anything to either of us. We argued for a while on that point, but Tex couldn’t be convinced we were in any danger. I advised him as his attorney, and urged him as a friend, not to take any chances, but he wouldn’t budge on his position. In fact, he told me not to fight the temporary injunction. Then I realized why he was so adamant. He wanted to keep the $900,000!

  I couldn’t believe the money was so important that he’d
risk his life as well as mine to have it. For a split second I wished I hadn’t gone down to Ecuador looking for him. My only hope now was that with further reflection he would come to his senses and instruct me to fight the government in their efforts to prevent us from completing the transaction with General Moya. Perhaps if I talked to Toni she could talk some sense into him. I hoped so, because I was quite confident General Moya would send an assassin to kill us for double crossing him.