Take the Money: Romantic Suspense in Costa Rica (18 page)

“You ain’t getting away with this,” as Cody moved closer, Julie felt the heat of his body.  There was about him an aura of compressed energy, as if he were about to explode. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll tell us where you’ve hid the money.  You’re making me mad, and that’s not smart.” 

Julie saw a flash of silver as Cody raised his elbow.  She squeezed the trigger, aiming for his hand, but the bullet hit a palm tree with a loud crack. Cody’s arm dropped to his side, still holding onto the knife.  He spat in the dirt. “I’ll get you yet, bitch,” he said.  “Don’t even think about trying to sleep.” The men got in the car, and drove away in a haze of smoke and screeching tires.

Julie’s breath came in short gasps that erupted into a sob.  The sounds of laughter and mariachi music drifting from inside seemed like a cruel mockery of the turn her life was taking.  Hot tears dripped from her chin as she put the gun back in her bag with trembling hands.  She could scarcely believe she’d actually tried to shoot someone. She replaced the safety catch and shoved the gun into her backpack, but she knew if it wasn’t for Nellie’s weapon, she’d be headed back to San Jose with Cody.

Julie had bought herself some time, but how much?  If Cody had come this far to find her, he wouldn’t be so easily discouraged.

The exit doors from the pools opened and a surge of tourists spilled out into the parking lot--an amorphous mass of brightly colored clothes emanating a shrill cacophony of high spirited voices.  Still dazed by Cody’s unexpected appearance, Julie saw only a blur of faces until an armed guard approached her. 

“Are you looking for someone?” he asked in Spanish. 

“Some men just came and tried to rob me.  Luckily, the door opened just as these tourists were leaving, and they ran away.”

“Oh,
Senorita
,” the guard’s posture softened as he shook his head sadly, his dark eyes full of sympathy.  “How terrible for you, so many bandits lately.”

Julie wondered if she had understood him correctly.  He acted as if a woman being accosted in a parking lot was a fairly routine matter.

“You should come back inside and sit down,” he said.

I really must go,” she insisted.  Although a few hours of safety sounded tempting, she knew that once the pools closed for the evening, the guard would lose interest in her.  If she went inside now, she could be setting herself up for an ambush outside an empty building. The best thing was to get away while she had a few minutes lead-time.

What would Cody and Carlos do now?  Probably turn around as soon as they were out of sight and head right back.  She jumped in her jeep, revved up the motor, and headed North. 

She took a side road instead of going back to the highway.  There was a sign indicating that she could drive up to the volcano and walk around the rim.  That might work.  Cody and Carlos wouldn’t have the nerve to drag her away in front of a bunch of sightseers.  She checked the rearview mirror again.  Only a couple of motorcyclists were trailing her up the path.

Her visibility worsened as she drove up into the clouds. Shivering in her bathing suit, she clung to the steering wheel as the jeep bumped along on the narrow road, then came to a stopping place near the base of the rim.  The clouds had thinned out and a small roadside station was set up for visitors.

To Julie’s dismay, there were no crowds of tourists nearby.  A few people wandered down around the rim, so far away that they looked like insects. The view itself was a letdown, a bunch of lava and the sides of the craters.

“Is it possible,” she asked, “to climb up the sides of the volcano?”

“No, very dangerous.  Impossible. You could be burned to death.”  The guard at the refreshment stand seemed to doing double duty as a cashier and tour guide. He was a small man with sun-baked skin shriveled against his facial bones, yet his tar-black hair was thick and lustrous.

Out of the corner of her eye, Julie saw puffs of dust on the road.

She gripped his arm. “Want to earn 10,000 colones?”

“I don’t know.”  He stepped back, his dark eyes blinking rapidly.  “What would I have to do?”

“Those men you see coming, they’re going to ask if you’ve seen me.  Tell them I started climbing the volcano, even though you begged me not to.  Pretend you’re alarmed.”

“But why would I tell them such a thing?”  He glanced at a framed picture on the counter--a tiny woman in a bright pink dress surrounded by stair-step children.

“Because they’re bad men.  Trying to bother me.  I have to get rid of them.”

The guide’s eyes shifted from side to side like a pitcher on the mound.  Julie held her breath, afraid he’d turn her down.  But her offer was too tempting.  He held out his hand. “The money, please.”

She pulled a wad of bills from her bag.  “Here’s half of it now.  When they leave, I’ll give you the rest.  And be sure you tell them it’s dangerous, that they could be burned if they try to go up there.” She looked around for a place to hide--the women’s rest room, maybe.  But there were no facilities, only the small refreshment stand.

“You can wait in there,” he motioned to a small office.  “I’ll tell you when they’ve gone.”

She darted inside and sank down on the hard cement floor just as the car came to a stop several yards away. She heard Carlos speaking in rapid Spanish, asking what had happened to the tall American woman in the Jeep.

“I saw her,” the guide told them.  “She went in that direction, up the side of the volcano.  Very dangerous.”

“Not dangerous for you,
Amigo
. Go and bring her back here, now.” 

“Sorry.  I’m not allowed to leave.”

“That so?” she heard Cody say, “Well, I guess you will leave.”

“Please, you’re hurting me.” Julie peeked outside and saw Cody pressing the long silver blade of his knife against the man’s neck. 

Carlos said: “You know the paths up there and where she went.  If you don’t want your throat slit, you’ll help us find her.”

The guide’s composure wilted and his eyes widened. Chilling memories burst into Julie’s consciousness: Kevin’s twisted head, David’s water soaked face.  She couldn’t stand to see another man die.  She hid the gun on a shelf under the counter and walked out with her hands up. “ Leave him alone!” she said.

Carlos glared at her.  “Where’s the money?”

“It’s in the bank,” she said. “In San Jose.”

Cody stepped forward and slapped her face with the back of his hand.  She hit the ground, seeing stars, tasting blood. “You’d better be telling the truth,” he said, “and I want it all.”

Julie lifted her head from the dirt. “Everything I have is there,” she said. “You can look at my bank book.”

“Where is it?”

“In the car, in my backpack.”

Cody yanked her up by her hair and laid the knife blade across her throat.   He motioned to Carlos.

“Get the backpack. There’d better be $60,000, and don’t pull any shit this time.”

  Carlos brought her the backpack and held a gun to her head.  Her hands shook as she fumbled with the zipper, but the two men made no move to help her.  It was obvious they were enjoying the sight of blood running down her chin.

“There wasn’t nearly that much money,” she insisted, “Here’s my bank balance.” 

Cody looked at the bankbook.  “I can’t tell what it says.  I don’t know foreign money.”  He handed the bankbook to Carlos.

Carols grabbed the book and squinted.  It occurred to Julie that he might be too nearsighted to read the small figures--not something a macho man would care to admit.  Her suspicions were confirmed when he gave the book back to her without a second glance. “What difference does it make?  Whatever’s there, we’re going to get it.  You’ll be coming with us, now.”

“With you?  But what about the car?  It’s a rental.  I can’t just leave it.” Inexplicably, all Julie could think about were the tennis shoes and baby clothes that wouldn’t be delivered.  That seemed more important than the car itself.

“That’s your problem,” Cody said.

“Wait a minute. The roads are terrible. My jeep is much better riding than that tin can you’ve rented.”

Cody had no trouble deciding.  “You’re right. My butt’s sore from that pile of junk.  We’ll be back in Indy before they know we’ve left it here.  He motioned to Carlos.  “Get the stuff out of our car.”

Julie leaned against the cement wall and closed her eyes.  She was sure they would take her back to San Jose without too much hassle.  They were far too anxious to get their money.  But what would happen then?   

* * *

The volcano rumbled, echoing the tremulous feeling in the pit of Julie’s stomach. Suddenly there was an explosion. Then another.  It was a sound she remembered from her childhood, when she’d played in the woods near her grandfather’s farm.  Hunters. Their gunshots had terrified her cousins and they’d always taken off running across the creek, through the cornfields, and up the hill to the barn.

“Get inside!” Cody yelled, pushing Julie into the refreshment stand. The whites of his eyes were crisscrossed with red veins.  “Somebody’s shooting at us.”

Carlos dropped out of sight. Another shot rang out, and then silence fell like a stone. Carlos’ face appeared above the car just before he darted across the parking lot and staggered inside, grasping his arm. “I’ve been hit,” he cried. “Someone’s got an assault rifle.”

Cody grabbed the guide by his shirt collar. “What the hell’s going on?” he yelled.  “Who is it?”

“Bandits,” the guide responded, with a grim expression on his face. “They think you’re rich American tourists.” 

Carlos stared at the dark blood gushing down over his purple tattoo. 

“Gimmie a towel,” he demanded.

“Sorry,
Senor
.  I don’t have a towel.”

“He doesn’t have a towel,” Julie repeated.  She was feeling calmer.

“Then give me your damn shirt before I bleed to death.”

Wordlessly, the guide removed his shirt and handed it to Carlos, who pressed it against his arm with a grimace.  All the bravado was gone now; rivulets of sweat ran down his face as he looked out into the fog.

Cody paced like a caged animal and pushed the guide out the door. 

“Ask them what they want,” Carlos said. 

The guard called out “What do you want from us?”

“The woman! We want the woman.”

Julie’s knees buckled. She was going to be kidnapped.

“Please,” she begged, “don’t let them take me. You won’t get your money without me.  They’ll take me up the mountains and hold me for ransom, they’ll probably kill me.”

The shirt against Carlos’ arm was saturated a deep red. “I’m gonna bleed to death,” he whined.  “Let’s get out of here.” He turned to the guide. “Tell them she’s coming out.”

While Cody looked away, Julie reached under the counter.

“We’re making a run for it,” Cody said. “You’re going with us.” 

Julie pulled out the gun and raised it in the air with both hands. Cody’s eyes widened. He reached for her arm just as several shots came through the open window and ricocheted off the cash register.  Cody ducked his head, giving her a chance to run out the door. She still had a few shots left and she’d take her chances with the bandits.

“Let’s get out of here,” Carlos cried.

The men raced to their car, started the motor, and drove away.

Julie moved back inside, waiting to confront the bandits.  She scanned the horizon where the silhouettes of two figures emerged from the fog.

They were a mismatched pair, one thin and no more than five foot, the other as large as an American, stocky and--something familiar about that lazy walk. Then she recognized the smaller one.  She ran outside and cried, “you!  I know you.”

“
Si, Senorita.”
His mouth stretched into a gummy smile.

“You sell cigars at the Gran Hotel.  I saw you that day with Bud.”

“
Si
.”  He looked up at his companion who was removing his helmet, revealing a tangled mat of sandy hair.

Flooded with relief, Julie cried out. “Bud!  Oh my God, what are you doing up here?”

Deep dimples formed in Bud’s cheeks. “I might ask the same of you.”

Julie’s mind was stuck on freeze frame as she tried to make sense of Bud’s sudden appearance. “You saved my life.  But why?”

Bud said:  “I need to talk with you.”

“What is there to talk about?  What difference does all of this make to you?”  

“Look,” he put his arm around her shoulder.  “You’ve had a scare and you’re all shaky.”

“I have a tendency to get that way that when I’m terrified,” she said dryly.

“I understand.  Now, why don’t you follow me and my pal for a few miles?  I know a little place in the mountains where you can settle down, have a cold drink.  Then we can talk.”

Julie hesitated.  Should she trust them?  Maybe it was just another trap and she should try to make a run for it again.  But run where?  “All right,” she agreed, “you lead the way.”

Again they wound their way up and down narrow dirt roads, the acrid smell of fertilizer from the coffee plantations growing stronger.  Julie knew it was what made the fields and hillsides green with important crops, but right now she found it nauseating.  Bud came to a stop at the top of a mountain. She covered her bikini with shorts and a T-shirt and got out. A pathway lined with orchids led to a small wooden building in a dense thicket of trees and foliage.  The inside smelled of pineapple, papaya and the inevitable gallo pinto.