Clint Faraday Mysteries Collection B :This Job is Murder Collector's Edition Page 6

  Clint pulled into the dock at six twenty five with Judi aboard. She’d decided that, seeing she’d never been to that particular place, she’d like to come along. Clint met Pablo and Maria Garza, from the Dominican Republic. They were small attractive people who were very nervous for some reason. They tended to be very quiet. They seemed a bit reserved and ... wary, for some reason. Maria dropped her small maleta and crossed herself before she picked it up.

  There were very few on the dock that early. A couple of men were sitting on the end. One man and a teenage boy were throwing hand lines for fish. A man and woman were walking past toward downtown. Clint had a talent for seeing everything about a place. It had been a handy talent to have in some of his cases.

  Everyone in their party were in the boat and they were pulling out into the bay. Mike said, “The adventure begins! I think I like this place more than any of the places we ever went – and we’ve gone to a lot of places!”

  “A four hour climb riding horses to a mountaintop where you can see the Caribbean and Pacific by just turning around? I think it’ll be fantastic!” Mark agreed.

  “I like this kind of thing,” Cori agreed. “I get awfully sick of hanging around a hotel.”

  “There won’t be phones and boomboxes out there,” Ann warned.

  “Thank god! We can get away from salsa and regatón for awhile!”

  On the Comarca

  “We will be to Obilio’s by three thirty,”A Luis decided. “I will call him to say we are coming so Lila can have the rooms ready. He has two and the bodega, so the men will sleep in his room and the women in the other and the ones who can’t decide which they are can sleep with whoever. Whoever wants to can sleep in the bodega. (Clint almost let a grin escape at the subtle joke.) I will return the horses to Manuel’s finca almost three quarters of the way there and will return with the horses when you wish to go. Clint knows how to put the flag to tell me to come and how many horses will be needed..

  “Obilio was saying a few days ago that he would like to see Clint again. He will be very pleased that you are coming.”

  “You have phone service out here?” Matt asked.

  “Only on the top. If he’s in the house he will receive. If not we will not be able to tell him that we have already decided on all the arrangements.” (Clint was the only one who got the joke – except maybe Judi. She had an amused look on her face.)

  “I have a lot of food so we’d better be able to pack the horses where it won’t be in the way and won’t get tangled in the shrubs,” Judi suggested. “I know from the pictures Clint showed me from his last trip here that it gets very close in places.”

  “I am bringing another horse to carry a lot of things,” Luis said. “You have enough food for the Policia National here! Will you be staying for the year?”

  They all laughed, then Mike looked confused for a few seconds and let a small additional laugh escape. “Ann insisted,” Judi said. “I’ve met Obilio, but none of the Campbells have so it’s proper that they bring food in the states.”

  It would be slightly insulting for a friend who was only occasionally there to bring food. This would make it an acceptable and even a thoughtful thing for them to bring extra food. Strangers, new people who were friends of friends or people who came often brought food. Occasional close friends did not.

  Judi had insisted on practicality. No steaks or spoilables that couldn’t be kept for three days.

  “The food is fresh and in good state,” Luis decided with perfect innocence. Mike slapped him on the back and laughed, which made the rest catch the joke. That brought the problem that Obilio grew yuca, yampi, most fruits, coffee and most of what they ate right there. Rice, onions, potatoes, pasta, flour, dried beans of types that Obilio wouldn’t grow (Those that grew at altitude he had in excess. He traded some things with neighbors who lived lower) and such. Ann had insisted that they take four times as much as Judi suggested. She said Obilio’s wife would surely know people who would use it if it was too much for them. Cori said that crowd could out-eat the policia any day.

  Hard to argue. Clint was impressed that these people who he was warned were not what they seemed were actually very considerate people.

  A man brought another horse to leave with Luis, who began to place the extra food and bags on it. Judi and Ann were talking with a few of the native women, Mike, Cori and Mark checked over the saddles and gear, Clint and Matt helped pack the riding horses. Pablo and Maria were off to one side. They were mostly very quiet and seemed to be studying the passersby. Some of the Indio women were in colorful traditional garb. There were few strangers around the almacen this far from socalled “civilization.”

  They soon were ready. They headed along the road for half a kilometer, then took a path to the side through a log gate and started up the mountain. They would go around this one partway up, then cross a high valley to the mountain Obilio occupied. Other than their party there were only Indios here for kilometers in any direction. The scenery was magnificent and humbling. It was quiet, except for a few birds and insects. They even talked quietly. At times when Luis heard someone working across the valley he would call the “Oye!” the people here used to greet each other from a distance. He was always answered. Cori wanted to learn how to call the greeting, but Luis explained that the women didn’t use that call. He managed to ride close to Cori when he could. They exchanged a lot of jokes. All of the Campbells spoke excellent Spanish. Cori was learning some of the Indio dialect from Luis. At one point Clint got Matt aside and asked if Cori knew how to handle a proposition. She was good-looking and 16 was past the legal age in the comarcas. Matt assured him there would be no problem. No offense would be taken. Cori could handle things very well. She wasn’t raised like most gringas. She was as independent as anyone you would meet.

  Luis was in his early twenties. Clint was perfectly well aware that he would come on to Cori. Matt told Ann about it and she laughed. Cori could handle herself. Luis was a very handsome man. Too bad he didn’t come on to her!

  Matt laughed and said the Indian women were very sexy and that long thick black hair was one hell of a turn-on. They joked a bit about it. Mark came over and was told about the joke. He said Cori probably was no virgin, but the family was on the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” bus. They all knew how important protection was today and what kind of situations not to allow to develop. It was an individual decision as to what and with whom you decided to do. Mike, who was the most talkative of the family, talked to Clint a lot of the way. He explained that their father always taught them that the fact they were so fortunate meant they owed others some thought. The result was that they went all over the Americas and made friends, for the most part. Others they had met traveling were exactly what many people thought gringos were. Overbearing, arrogant and totally selfish. He really liked people like Luis who could make little jokes about anything. People with good senses of humor were generally good people to be around. Cori had some experience and might even take Luis up on it. It was her decision.

  Clint said he’d met enough of the asshole type. There were places where gringos congregated, communities, and a lot of them were exactly like that. Pains in the ass. Mike said it right. “And all gringos have to live with what those few are.”

  Pablo was riding silently beside them where the trail was wide enough. He said some gringos were worse than the curses from the brujas. He should know! Many of the ones who came to the Dominican Republic thought all natives were slaves to be ordered around. They were very deeply resented. Then the Campbells came and showed them all gringos were not alike.

  They passed two younger Indios (early twenties) going down the mountain and stopped to chat. One of them was wearing a wig and make-up. He was introduced as Rigo, better known as Lola. He was going to David for a transvestite show at the Texas. Clint didn’t know how the Campbells would take that, but they seemed merely slightly interested. Ann even showed Rigo how to use eyeliner and shade in a way that made him attractive wi
thout making him look like a cheap whore.

  He said that was the object. Look like a cheap whore or a movie star.

  “But who you attract as an attractive girl is not the same as when you look like a puta,” she pointed out. “Of course, I don’t know if you want to attract a certain type.”

  “I’d like to attract someone who looks like either of those!” he replied, pointing to Mike and Mark.

  Mike grinned and said, “Yo, Mom! I think I don’t care for all this mountain stuff so maybe I could go to David with these guys!”

  “When you’re eighteen. You can’t go as a minor. You have to wait until they get back and you can stay at their house here. Use protection. I’ve warned you about AIDS and herpes.” She giggled and smirked.

  “Then I don’t think I’ll go to David!” Rigo cried.

  Pablo and Maria (who seldom said a word, anyway) were the only ones who seemed uneasy or in any way bothered by them. They moved away and waited, looking at some of the many bromeliads and orchids in the trees by the trail.

  They joked a bit more, then went onward and upward. Mike said he had gay friends and that they were just people. Who anyone slept with was their own personal business – which is the Indio philosophy.

  “It is not natural,” Pablo protested. “They are cursed!”

  “Oh, bullshit,” Mike said. “They aren’t any different than anyone else. You’ll get all preachy about what’s natural, then brag about screwing some whore in the ass or getting a blow job.

  “Got news for you! That isn’t anymore natural than the gay people.”

  “Rigo is a handsome kid. That’s the sad thing. He won’t have kids to pass it along,” Mark said.

  “Oh, he’ll do the drag queen thing for a year or two, then get married – as much as they do – and have a couple of kids,” Judi said. “They seem to do that. The Indios like sex and don’t pretend otherwise. We’re the ones with the taboos and inhibitions.”

  “He’s so openly gay, yet a girl will marry him?” Matt asked. Pablo snorted.

  “They think nothing of it. It’s sort of a stage that some of them go through. They’re genetically bisexual to one degree or another,” Clint said. “They don’t think it’s even a little unusual. Some people like yuca, some don’t. Some people like fish, some don’t. That’s what life is like.”

  “Oh?” Mike asked innocently. “Do you sleep with many of them?”

  “Only when I’m in the mountains and in their culture,” Clint replied, leaving them all uncertain of how to react, so they changed the subject. They didn’t know if he was putting them on or serious. Pablo seemed actually shocked. He dropped back a bit. Matt asked if it was natural to make everything center around sex out there. He had seen that in several places.

  Clint had slept with a few of them, but sleep was all they did. They slept wrapped up in each other in the mountains. It got cold at night and they usually didn’t have but one blanket. If something developed from that closeness, it happened. Clint had wondered what was going to happen at times. He agreed that it was pleasant to sleep close to someone.

  So far as talking about sex a lot, what else was there to do for recreation in these mountains? They were sexy people, so they talked and joked about sex. It was a thing they were comfortable with. Almost everyone thought of sex a lot, so why not talk about it? Gringos bragged and lied about it, Indios simply made it part of their conversations and jokes. They didn’t have a need to try to impress anyone with the fact they were no different than other people – except for the honesty part.

  They stopped several times to take pictures and to just enjoy the view. They passed across a valley from a waterfall that dropped more than a hundred meters. The sun was at just the right angle to have a very bright rainbow at the bottom. Judi stopped several times to take pictures of various plants. Orchids worth thousands in the states were as much as weeds here.

  They finally reached the house. It was down in the trees about a hundred meters from the top. The convection winds would make being on the top extremely uncomfortable at times. Obilio ran out to embrace Clint and welcome him. He embraced Judi and shook hands with all the Campbells and the Garzas. Ann said she brought some food because that’s what you did in the states. Where to put it? Lila came out to embrace Clint and to meet the others.

  Obilio is in his seventies. He thinks nothing of walking four hours up the mountain to his house. The Campbells, on horses, were as much as exhausted. Pablo seemed a little tired. Maria didn’t seem affected one way or another.

  Lila showed them the men’s room and the women’s room and pointed to the creek a little down the mountain. The Indios are clean to almost an extreme. The water is ice cold, but they bathe at least once a day. Obilio had a small outhouse built over the ravine the creek fell into.

  Lila served a drink she made from corn that was delicious and refreshing. They all knew about the chicha, how it was corn fermented very slightly in water and sugar, then milk was added. Ann was allergic to it, but the rest would like a glass. Ann preferred water, anyhow.

  Lila, Judi, Cori and Ann hit it off quickly and became pals. Cori, unlike a lot of gringas her age, pitched right in around the house. That impressed Lila and Obilio. The few gringas and Latinas her age they knew were little princesses who would be insulted if anyone expected them to do anything.

  Clint rested with the others for an hour or so, then said he was going to the top to see the view. Obilio said they could see the Caribbean this time of the year, but it wasn’t very often you could see the Pacific. It was the rainy season that side of the mountains.

  There was one small patch in the clouds where the Pacific could be glimpsed. The Caribbean was visible most of the time. Everyone was thrilled, but went back to the house. Matt was a bit winded, as was Ann. Clint told them they were at an altitude where the air was getting a bit thin. Mike said he felt that and Mark said the only places that had affected him much were at Machu Pichu and La Paz.

  They went back for dinner. Pork aguisada with rice and beans. There was a stew of a number of vegetables that were found in the mountains. Lila had boiled a pan of mustard greens because she knew how Clint liked them. The Indios seldom ate mustard, but it was a weed around the place. She put some pork skin in the pot when she boiled them (at Cori’s suggestion) and Judi brought vinegar. Obilio and Lila tasted them that way and said they would probably be eating them all along if they knew how to fix them. The vinegar and pork skin made them very tasty. Cori said mustard greens were called the perfect green. It had everything a green leafy vegetable could have in the way of healthy vitamins and minerals.

  When they went to bed the men went in one room and the women in the other. Pablo and Maria wanted to stay in the bodega. They weren’t used to sleeping in the same room as others since they were very young and slept in the same room as their brothers and sisters. If anyone had a curse on them the others in the room might suffer when it came.

  Judi shook her head. When they went out to the bodega Mike said that was the kind of thing he heard everywhere on the islands. Some curse or a zombie or a demon was chasing everyone for one reason or another. People were downright paranoid about it. It was tiresome. They had to live with a lot of terrors – all in their own heads. You could see what it did to the psychology of the people. Everyone on this jaunt was having fun except them.

  Clint was amused when there were only two pallets and two blankets. They had bathed in the stream. Obilio and Clint were on one pallet and Mike joined them. Mark and Matt took the other. Mike said if anything happened he wouldn’t want it to be with his father or brother. Matt said that was true. Anyone he screwed ended up thinking they were in love with him and that wouldn’t be right with a little brother.

  When they first got in bed Clint and Obilio laid close together and Mike grinned and hugged them both. Matt and Mark were a bit apart when they went to bed. They were together later after the temperature had dropped into the mid-fifties when they awoke to a scream from th
e direction of the bodega sometime after midnight. They all jumped up and ran for the shed.

  The moonlight makes things fairly visible at that altitude. The door to the bodega was open. Pablo was inside, ripped from his neck to his crotch with what looked like three large deep claw tears. His throat was ripped open. He was obviously dead. Maria was nowhere to be seen.

  “What the hell did that?!” Mike exclaimed. Judi, Ann, Cori and Lila came running from the house and Clint stopped them and said Pablo was dead. Go inside and stay there.

  “What kind of animal up here could do that?” Mark asked.

  “There are no animals up here that could do that,” Obilio said. “There is a story of a demon that kills people who invade the natural places. It only kills on dark nights. This is not a dark night. It kills by breaking the neck, not with claws.”

  “We have to find Maria,” Matt said. “There’s something I’ve heard. There’s something they were running from. Pablo said he was trying to break a curse on him a couple of times. A vengeful ghost was chasing him.

  “No ghost did that!”

  Live and Learn

  Clint used his cell phone to call the police, who said it was in the comarca so would be handled by the council. If the council requested they would come immediately. Obilio took the phone and identified himself as a member of the council and asked them to come to investigate this one thing. Clint would represent full authority of the council in the matter. They would fly in on a helicopter at dawn. They couldn’t land at night on those mountains.