Clint Faraday Collection C: Murder in Motion Collector's Edition by CD Moulton Page A

going on here. Mention Xavier Franconi in passing or
something when they’re around.”
    “ This is
somehow connected with the mobs, then?”
    “ Yeah,
Clint. I just can’t get a hint as to how.”
    They talked, then Clint called Judi, who said
Manny and Sergio were trying to contact him. She didn’t know why,
but it was urgent.
    Sergio said he was in the police boat headed
for Bastimentos. There was a lot about those people that didn’t
click – such as that Lesterinni had had extensive plastic surgery.
Such as at least one of them had a phony passport. Such as the
business Dickerson was supposed to have sold was never his to
sell.
    Clint said he’d get over as fast as he could,
which was fast with his boat. He hung up and headed for
Bastimentos. Sergio was standing on the dock talking with Victor
when Clint pulled up a few minutes later. They waited. Clint said
he wanted to try something to see if they could get a reaction.
Victor said that Cathy-sweetheart hinted about bribing him, but he
let her know there wasn’t a chance.
    “ Sergio,
get DNA samples from all of them.”
    “ They’ll
refuse.”
    “ They
don’t know the law here. Just tell them Doc is going to take
samples, so line up.”
    Sergio grinned. He said that might light a
fire or two!
    They went to the house. They did know that
about the law. Sergio raised an eyebrow.
    “ Well, I
suppose that means you can take them all to the lock-up,” Clint
suggested. “The law says they don’t have to volunteer, but that not
volunteering shows they have something to hide so you can hold them
for investigation for as long as six months. I’m sure they’ll leave
a sample or two around in that amount of time.”
    “ Er, can
I speak with you privately, Faraday?” Dickerson asked.
    Clint went out on the verandah with him and
his wife.
    “ We can’t
allow this!” he cried. “My god! This is impossible! We can’t let
these people dig around in our past! We have to have privacy. We
came here because we heard there was no place in the world where
you could have as much privacy as here!”
    “ Up to a
point. Murder suspects don’t get privacy anywhere when they refuse
to cooperate.”
    “ But ...
I swear, we didn’t have anything to do with any murder here!” Cathy
cried.
    “ Here?
Then why go through all this crap?”
    “ I guess
we don’t have a choice,” Cathy said. “No, dear. We have to do
it.
    “ You see,
Mr. Faraday, we’re on the witness protection plan in the states, in
Oklahoma. We’re witnesses in a big trial about stock fraud where we
were threatened and two people were already killed by those people.
We don’t know what to do. We didn’t know how much trouble we would
get into or we wouldn’t have ever agreed to anything. I think
they’ve found us. I think we’ll all end up dead if we can’t get
away from here!”
    “ Plus
these damned people will kill us in a blink!” Dickerson said. “They
hate us because we’re more, er, civilized. They’re jealous and
violent. I don’t think the people in Kansas, er, Oklahoma have
found us. It was the niggers here.”
    “ If you
go to any place and act like asshole snobs you’ll be resented. The
Indios don’t hate you, they pity you. Your lives are nothing but
fear, greed and false fronts. The blacks won’t do anything other
than try to make life here so miserable you’ll leave. That’s what
happened to Flannery, the one here before you.”
    “ They are
certainly not our kind of
people,” Cathy complained. “They have no breeding. They’re
savages!”
    “ Shit!
They have a hell of a lot more breeding than any of you. They
couldn’t care less how much money you stole somewhere else. They’re
exactly what you see. You are, too. You just don’t realize that
it’s so obvious to them that you’re what they call `trailer trash’
in the states. You’ve never been anywhere and never made an honest
buck in your lives, now you pay the price.
    “ I think
one or more of you