By edRogers
[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]
Charlie pulled up to his gate only to find a policeman on a motorbike waiting for him. He looked to Charlie to be in his early twenties and fresh on the job.
He leaned his head out of the window and asked, “Can I help you?”
The young officer got off the motorbike and walked toward Charlie. “Are you Charlie Blankenship?”
Charlie stepped out of the jeep. “Yes I am.”
The young officer handed Charlie a piece of paper. “Captain Araya would like you to follow me to the station. He has some questions about the murders that have been taking place lately.”
Charlie looked at the paper. It was in Spanish but he could tell it was a summons and not a friendly request. He got back in the jeep and said, “Lead the way.”
Charlie parked in one of the policemen’s parking spots. The station was inside a stately old building constructed of stone in the late 1800s. It housed most of Puntarenas’s city government offices. Charlie walked to the window and handed the summons to the lady behind the glass. She took it and said something in Spanish that Charlie didn’t understand, but when he looked over at the benches she was pointing at, he got the idea.
Captain Araya kept him waiting for over an hour. The bench was hard, so he spent a lot of the time walking around the hall. He had just gone to the bathroom when finally the door beside the window opened and an officer waved him inside. He walked among desks with more police conversing more than working on any police matter. Then he was motioned into a room with a metal table and two metal chairs across from each other. There he sat for another hour.
At last the door opened and a tall, lean man who looked more American than Costa Rican came in and pulled out the chair across from Charlie. He had a large folder that he dropped on the table as if it were a bomb. “I’m Captain Araya, Mr. Blankenship.”
Charlie raised his hands palms up. He had never been questioned like this by the police. He had been asked questions about Margot at the hospital but they had never asked him to go to a station for questioning. “What can I do for you, Captain, other than keeping your benches and chairs warm?”
The captain made a big deal of opening the folder and looking over some papers before he said, “I’m sorry you had to wait, Mr. Blankenship. But there have been a rash of murders lately and you seem to be in the middle of them all.”
Charlie shifted his buttocks on the hard chair. It was getting difficult to sit still. “I was questioned concerning the only one I knew about. I’ll be happy to try to answer any questions you have, but I’m afraid I can’t be of much help.”
The captain began to lay out pictures of the scene of the murder of Tommy and Howard, never taking his eyes off Charlie. “You never know, Mr. Blankenship. People see things or hear things that make no impact until their mind is jolted, and suddenly there it is.”
The last picture was of Margot. Charlie couldn’t move his eyes off her. He reached out and touched the picture. “Seeing Margot killed in front of my eyes was all the jolting I needed, thank you very much.”
“I’m sure it was, and I’m sorry for your loss. Now that some time has passed, have you come up with any idea why someone would want her dead?”
“Like I said before, she has been pissing people off for years.”
Captain Araya pulled a paper from the file and acted as though he were reading it for the first time. “I have run across a report that says you were working with the D.E.A. on one of Mr. Tai’s boats. Could that have played into the murder of your friends?”
“That wasn’t me. That was a rumor started by Rufino, one of the other owners of the boat. I wasn’t working for the D.E.A. – it was the deckhand. I owned part interest in that boat and when it went down I lost a lot of money.”
Araya dropped the paper back into the file as if it had never held any importance. “You see, that is what is bothering me.”
“What’s that?”
“A person who is making his living killing sharks is sleeping with a lady who has devoted her life to stopping the killing. It just doesn’t add up, my friend. In fact, your entire involvement with these people doesn’t add up. You show up out of nowhere Texas and suddenly you’re in the middle of all kinds of shit.”
The chair was eating into Charlie’s backside and he couldn’t sit still no matter how hard he tried. “Is there a question you want to ask?”
Araya moved some more papers around as if looking for something. “Where were you the night Mr. Bates and Mr. Harris were shot?”
Charlie stood up, rubbing his butt and the small of his back. “I was home, the same as every night since Margot was killed.”
Araya had been wondering how long Charlie could hold out before getting up, and it was longer than he had expected. “I don’t guess you can prove that?”
Charlie was bending over trying to get the kink out. “I didn’t think about needing to prove anything.”
Araya put the pictures and papers back into the folder. “Would you mind giving us a DNA sample?”
Charlie came back to the table and took a seat. “I don’t mind, but can I ask why?”
Araya showed him the picture of the gun. “There was blood on the murder weapon at Mr. Bates’s house. It doesn’t belong to Bates or Harris, so it must belong to the murderer.”
Charlie shook his head in disbelief. “Why in the world would you think I could have killed Tommy and Howard?”
The captain put the picture back in the folder. He stared at Charlie. “You see, Mr. Blankenship, that is the problem I’m finding myself facing. Why was Juan Reyes shot, why was Margot Rosenburg killed and why were Bates and Harris murdered? And, Mr. Blankenship, I believe you know why.”
Charlie leaned back in the chair and shook his head. “You are welcome to my DNA, but other than that I can’t help you.”
Captain Araya stood up. “Can’t or won’t? There will be someone in to get your DNA and then you can leave. But we are not finished, Mr. Blankenship – not by a long shot.”
The door closed behind him and Charlie settled in for the long wait he knew he would have before anyone came to get his DNA. He looked up at the mirror across from him and knew Captain Araya was looking back. Charlie was impressed with the captain – he was sharp and his English was perfect. No doubt he had studied at Quantico, Virginia. The way he moved and asked questions was far too professional for Costa Rica. He had that F.B.I. air about him.
Suddenly the door opened and a nurse came in to draw blood. Charlie had thought it would be a swab in the mouth. Captain Araya seemed to like inflicting pain.
Charlie was starting toward the door when Captain Araya came back in. He had another picture, which he laid on the table. “Have you ever seen this man before?”
Charlie looked down at the picture of the man he had killed in the hotel in La Virgen. He looked Araya in the eyes and said, “I’ve no idea who that is.”
| Copyright © 2018 by Ed Rogers |
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