Take the Money: Romantic Suspense in Costa Rica (26 page)

She ran to the hallway, wondering if it might be a reporter.  But instead, she saw the strange sight of Bud Jimenez bundled up in a trench coat and wool muffler.  Why had he followed her all the way from Costa Rica?  Had he come to arrest her?  She backed up against the wall, feeling like a trapped animal.  Maybe he’d go away if she didn’t answer the bell.

“Can you get that?”  Jed called.

“Sure.” Julie swallowed hard and told her legs to take her to the in the right direction, even though the rest of her body was screaming to cut and run.

Bud stood with his back to the morning sun, a puff of steam coming from his mouth.  Bud and winter seemed absurd, out of context.  He belonged on the loggia at the Gran Hotel with fans swirling overhead, nursing a frothy beer and dripping with perspiration.  “Surprised to see me?” he asked with a puckish grin.

“Surprised isn’t the word.  How did you find me?”

“I heard you left in a hurry.”

“You haven’t answered my question.”

“Your friend Nellie, she was pretty upset, said Cody had your mother.  I thought maybe I could help.” Bud did a little dance to keep warm, blowing on his hands and rubbing them together.  

“Come on in,” Julie said in a low voice.

Bud stepped inside, and looked up the stairway. “Your folks home?”

“Why do you want to know?  They have nothing to do with anything.  Please, my mom’s been through a lot.”

Bud’s eyes followed the beads of light the overhead crystal chandelier sent dancing across the ceiling.  “I hear you made a rather generous contribution to the Bishop’s Relief Fund.”

“All right,” Julie said.  “We’ll talk, but not here.  If you’ll wait, I’ll get my coat. 

“Where are we going?”

“I have a rental car to pick up. Then, we’re going to start at the beginning.”

* * *

Once again, Bud and Julie were sharing a car, this time with Julie navigating through the mean ugly streets of Lewiston.

Standing against a backdrop of tin-colored skies were flat narrow buildings of brick or concrete, surrounded by piles of dirty snow. The inner city was full of abandoned or ramshackle houses with peeling paint and broken windows. Twice, they waited at railroad crossings while freight trains rumbled through the city during the morning rush hour.

  “So,” Bud said.  “This is the methamphetamine capital of the Midwest.”

“If you look around,” Julie said. “You might understand why.  It’s a depressed area.”

“Why did you ever come back to such a town?”

“I told you before, I was at loose ends.  Didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.  Thought maybe I’d go to med. school.”

“Why didn’t you?”

“It wasn’t because I couldn’t.  I passed the entrance exams, could have gotten some student loans. But then I started looking around at the young doctors I knew.  As far as I could see, they were mainly interested in how much money they were going to make. I wasn’t sure how important it was for I U Med to waste the taxpayer’s money to crank out another lady doctor.”

“If you think so poorly of the medical profession, why were you so taken with Dr. Rojas?”

“Enrique is different.  He represents everything I’d thought a doctor should be.  He’s doing something that will make a major difference to humanity, not just working his butt off to pay for a million dollar house and a couple of Beemers.”

“Speaking of the good doctor, it looked to me like you two had something going.  You planning to go back?”

Julie hesitated.  “I’d like to, but I’m not sure how he feels about me.”

“Not sure?”  Bud’s voice rose in disbelief. “You have to be kidding.”

“I’d like to attend med school in Costa Rica.” Julie heard herself say.  It was the first time she’d put her feelings into words.

“ Why not here?”

“I can’t explain it.  I’ve wandered around Europe, lived on the East Coast.  But that was the only place I ever really felt at home.  Maybe I lived there in another life.”

Bud paused.  “That would take some money wouldn’t it?  Your own money, I mean.  I don’t imagine an American would qualify for student loans over there. Unless you were planning to work your way through school by waiting tables at the Memphis South for the next several years.”

They were getting into sensitive territory here. Julie chafed under the seat belt, thinking that either the car was too small or her coat too tight. The air was hot and dry; she opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out except a hoarse croaking sound.  Bud offered her a mint, which she accepted gratefully, savoring the burst of flavor on her tongue.

They crossed the bridge over into West Lewiston, a town of crumbling buildings and shotgun houses that were never much to begin with and had only grown worse with age.  At the first stoplight, they turned right on the road that twisted and curved, shot under a viaduct and cut north through rolling farmland.  Julie felt herself breaking out in a cold sweat. The car behind her honked impatiently as she let up on the accelerator.  She glanced at Bud and saw him leaning forward to look at her.

“What is it?” he asked. “You look sick.”

“We’re almost there.”

  “Almost where?”

  “The place where we went off the road.”

  “You mean, where Kevin DuFrain was killed?”

The terror of that night was coming back.  The unbelievably loud, jolting sound of another vehicle crashing against theirs, the horror of the car skidding, the knowledge that they were plunging into an abyss.  Julie pulled off on the opposite side of the road and stopped the car where she’d first seen Cody standing at the top of the hill.

She sat for a few minutes, trying to sort through fragments of memories about that night so that she could give a coherent description of the accident.   Nothing fit together; she could only recall bits and pieces.  There were segments of times she couldn’t account for.

“I thought we were going to pick up some steaks,” she said.  “That’s what he’d told me.  Then all of a sudden we were being followed and rammed by a truck.  I must have blacked out for awhile.  When I came to, I heard Kevin moaning.  I was sore all over.  I found the light and that’s when I knew he was dying.” Julie rested her head against the steering wheel.

“Did you know he was dealing drugs?” Bud’s tone was gentle.

“Of course not.  When he showed me the Porsche that night, I was shocked.  I knew the restaurant wasn’t doing that well.”

“I can’t understand it. You’re a pretty smart girl.  How could you not have known?”

“You may find this hard to believe, but I’d never dated anyone like that.  The only men who found me attractive were the studious types--nerds like me, I suppose.”

“You don’t have to be a nerd,” Bud said.  “You could be a knock out if you’d quit wearing those baggy jeans and--”

“Stop,” Julie held up her hand. “You’ve been talking to Nellie.”

Bud grinned.  “Yeah.”

There was something about the look on his face. “Wait a minute,” she said.  “Something going on between you two?”

“There could be.” Bud’s cheeks turned pink. “I know she’s a little bit older than me, but…”

“Please, don’t try to explain, just enjoy it.  I’m thrilled for both of you, and now, if you don’t mind, I have a question for you.”

“Sure.”

“What’s going to happen now?”

Bud looked surprised. “You mean you don’t know?”

“Don’t know what?”

“About your mother’s deal with Ed Corey?”

“My mother’s deal?  Who is Ed Corey?  I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Ed is your own hometown prosecutor.  Your fate is up to him.”

“I don’t understand.”

“It’s simple.  My assignment was to find out what you were doing in San Jose.  Everyone on the Drug Task Force assumed you were involved in drug trafficking or money laundering.  That whole theory turned out to be a bust.  I had to report you weren’t doing a damn thing except buying shoes for poor people, giving money to earthquake victims, and working as a waitress.  Nothing very incriminating.”

“But you know about the check to the Bishop’s Relief Fund.  Isn’t that a problem?”

“It caused quite a stir with the folks over at the cathedral.  They called me and wondered if I knew if a check from a Julie Lawson--obviously from the US--was any good.”

“How did they happen to call
you
?”

“Got a cousin on one of the committees there.  Unfortunately, your friendly banker at Banco de San Jose wasn’t so cooperative.  Refused to share your financial records.”

Julie envisioned Ortega with his hawk-like vigilance.  Hey, he wasn’t so bad after all. “You said my mother made a deal. What’s that about?”

“Just this.  You left the country with some money; that much is obvious. It’s up to Corey whether or not to initiate an investigation.  But Corey is also up for re-election in the spring, and he’s dependent upon the support of the police department.  That’s the way the party politics work in Lewiston. A scandal is the last thing they need right now.  So, your mother agreed to a gag order.  She won’t talk about the rats in the police department who were in cahoots with Cody, if Corey agrees not to investigate you.
Quid pro quo
.”

“So those guys are going to get away with it?  I can’t believe she agreed to such a thing.”

“They won’t get away with it.  Mike Basinki has a witness, a guy who can identify them and heard them talking at some tavern. They’ll be asked to resign.”

“But why in the world didn’t Mom tell me that last night?

“I don’t know.  Were you alone, or was your stepfather there?”

“We were alone just a few moments.  She said she wanted to avoid public disgrace for the sake of her and Jed.”

“That’s it then.  See, she doesn’t want your stepfather to know about the deal.  Figures he’s too idealistic, would insist those guys shouldn’t get off so easy.  Seems he thinks she’s over-protective of you.”

“That would be Jed.  He probably would think I should go to jail or pay for my evil deeds.”

“I would doubt that.  But I do know your mother is tired of being caught in the crossfire between you two. And she’s one sharp lady. She pulled that deal off last night without the benefit of an attorney.”

Julie stared into the ravine. The place where she and Kevin had crashed was covered with a blanket of snow.  Like the ebb and flow of ocean tides, the Indiana seasons would go on. Spring would come and in the summer there would be wildflowers blooming in the spot where Kevin had died and her own life had been changed forever.

“So your interest in me is over,” she said.  “I guess we won’t be seeing each other again.”

“What do you mean?  Any friend of Nellie's is a friend of mine.” Bud adjusted the sun visor as a mass of gray clouds parted, flooding the car with sunlight.  A dump truck drove by leaving a trail of blue smoke, and a mangy yellow-haired dog wandered out of the woods to stand in the middle of the road.

“Dumb dog,” Bud said.  “But what can you expect from a half-breed?”

The dog’s head--out of proportion to its long thin body--had floppy ears covered with burrs.  “Do you suppose he belongs to anyone?” Julie asked. 

“From the looks of his fur, I’d say not, I imagine that old boy has to fend for himself. But he’s tougher than you think.”   Bud reached in his coat pocket for a stick of beef jerky, tore off the wrapping with his teeth and threw the meat into the bushes. The dog cocked his head and darted toward the unexpected treat as a car approached.

“Just in time,” Julie said.  “That car would have hit the dog if you hadn’t done that.”

“So maybe I didn’t do him much of a favor.” 

A great sweep of cool country air came through the open window, and they sat for a few moments, breathing in the fresh smell of it.   Bud checked his watch.”  “I need to leave,” he said. “Got a plane to catch this afternoon.” 

Julie swallowed the lump in her throat. “I want to thank you for everything you’ve done.  You didn’t have to save my life back in Arenal, and you didn’t have to go to Santa Clara.  Without you, I’d still be under suspicion.  You must be highly respected by the Drug Task Force.”

Like a chameleon turning colors, Bud’s facial expression changed from stoic implacable Indian to dimpled teasing Hoosier.   “Don’t you know?” he said, “I’m a Very Important Person.”

* * *

Julie didn’t bother taking off her coat before dialing Nellie’s number. Water pooled on the floor from her damp boots, but she was too impatient to worry about such trivial matters.

“Memphis South,” Nellie answered in her southern drawl.

“Nellie, it’s me, Julie.  I wanted to let you know I’m all right and my mom is safe.”

“Thank God, I was hoping Bud would get there in time.”

“By the time Bud got here, it was all over.  But I did see him this morning, and he told me about the two of you.  I’m glad, Nellie, he’s a good guy.”