Murdered in Argentina: A Jack Trout Cozy Mystery (16 page)

“Santiago, what is so important that it couldn’t wait until the storm lets up?” Carola asked.

“I need to give you a little background. First of all, let me apologize for not mentioning this before now. I don’t know if anyone told you, but yesterday was the day that we hold our annual festival at the ranch in honor of the gauchos that work here. You see, many of our ranch workers had fathers and grandfathers who were gauchos on this ranch and prior to that, on the Argentinian plains before the land began to be fenced. Gauchos go back for generations. Actually, you may notice that Pablo always carries a knife with him in a sheath attached at his waist. For nearly two hundred years it has been the custom and practice of gauchos to carry such a knife.”

Carola looked at him without comprehension. “All right, but I fail to see what any of that has to do with me.”

“I have been thinking only of the festival for the past few weeks. You see, we celebrate the final branding of the last of the calves with a festival that is similar to the large one in June which is held in the city of Salta. That festival is held in honor of the bravery of the gauchos who fought against the Spanish forces during Argentina’s War of Independence. Here at the ranch we honor our gauchos with a large barbecue and much singing and drinking that goes on until late into the night. Yesterday and last night we did just that. My mind was so filled with planning the festival, I forgot about the camera.”

Carola looked at him and asked, “What camera? You never said anything about a camera.”

Santiago sighed deeply and said, “This is not a pretty story. The owner of the ranch, Senor Silva, lives in Buenos Aires. He is a very nice man, but he has what I guess you would call a nasty little personality quirk. He is very interested in knowing if any of his guests here at the lodge are having affairs, and if so, with whom.”

“Santiago, I’m sorry, but I must have missed something. I’m not following you at all.”

“Senora Trout, please, just listen to me, and I think it will become clear. When Senor Silva comes to the ranch house, he likes to look at the film from a camera he had installed in the upstairs hallway.”

Carola rose from her chair, nearly spilling her tea and exclaimed, “Are you telling me there’s a camera in the hall that shows who goes into which room and when? I’ve never noticed one.”

“Yes, that is exactly what I’m telling you. I remembered it this morning. Between planning for the gaucho festival and too much celebrating last night, I didn’t get up this morning as early as I usually do. I was in the middle of breakfast when I remembered that the camera might have recorded something on the night of the murder. And no, you wouldn’t have noticed it, because it is very cleverly hidden.”

“Did you find anything? Can I see it?” she asked excitedly.

“Yes, I did see something. Please, sit here at my desk. The camera feed goes into my computer. Each frame is dated and has the time on it. I went back to the night before last and looked at the tape from the time you heard the Martin’s door slam to when you and Senor Trout said Senora Martin banged on your door. Let me show you. Mostly there is nothing and the hallway seems to be empty, but continue to look at the left hand side of the screen.

“There,” he said pointing to the screen. “Do you see what appears to be a woman going into the room that was Senor Martin’s? The way the camera is set up it doesn’t show much from the mid torso down. Senor Silva is only interested in capturing the faces on film. Anyway, I don’t think it is Senor Martin’s wife. Now watch for a couple more minutes. Ahh, there it is. See, she’s coming out. Her face is turned down, so you can’t identify her, and the camera can’t capture what she has in her hands, but it looks to me like she’s carrying things. Like I said, I can’t get a good look at her face, but I was sure you would want to see this.”

“Would you run it again? It’s a little grainy, and I want to make sure it is a woman.”

“Of course.” They were both quiet as they watched the tape for a second time.

“Do you recognize the woman, Senora?” Santiago asked.

“I think so, but there’s also the process of elimination. It isn’t me, and it isn’t Lisa Martin, because we both have dark hair. The color of the woman’s hair is light, and I haven’t seen a light-haired woman working here at the ranch. That means it must be Janelle Byers.”

“Yes and no,” he said. “Remember, I told you on the night of the murder that the lodge is rarely locked. It still could have been a random woman from outside the ranch.”

“Santiago, that would be too much of a coincidence, and a friend of mine who’s solved several murders says there are seldom any coincidences when it comes to solving a murder. I need to tell Lisa Martin what you’ve found. Are you going to call the chief of police and tell him about this information?”

“No, there would be no point.” He turned up the palms of his hands in a defeated gesture. “He’s very busy solving other crimes,” he said, refusing to look her in the eye.

Carola remembered what Jack had told her about the police chief and how he hated Americans and probably felt that Ray’s death was karmic justice.

“Well in that case, I guess we’ll have to take justice into our own hands.”

“Senora Trout, please don’t do anything that could result in danger to you. Senor Trout would never forgive me if something happened to you because of me.”

“Don’t worry. Thanks for this information, Santiago. Right now I need to think about this. I may want that tape.”

“Senora, I’m sorry, but I can’t give it to you. It is the property of Senor Silva, but what I can do is make a copy of it for you. I will bring it to you at the lodge after the weather clears a little. Again, I am sorry for being remiss in not telling you earlier that the camera was there.”

“I understand. Thank you, Santiago. I’ll talk to you later,” she said as she slipped on her boots and poncho, ready to fight the elements on her way back to the lodge.

CHAPTER 31

Carola went to her room, not sure what to do next. She thought she heard footsteps in the hall and then remembered it would be perfectly normal to hear them since Mitch and Janelle had returned to the lodge. She sat down and looked out the window at the driving rain, thinking about what she had just seen on Santiago’s computer screen. Lost in thought, it took several knocks for her to realize that someone was at her door.

“Who is it?” she asked as she walked over to the door. Cayo started purring and went over to the door as well.

“It’s me, Lisa. Do you have a minute to talk?”

“Of course,” Carola said as she opened the door. “As a matter of fact I was just thinking about going to your room. You saved me the trip. What’s wrong? You look pale.”

“I think I know who murdered Ray,” Lisa said as she sat down, visibly shaken.

“Quick, tell me. What have you found out that would make you say that?”

“First of all I received a long email from Bea. Evidently she tried to call me late last night, but I was so deep asleep I never heard the phone ring. I slept in uncharacteristically late this morning. I thought some yoga would help, so I spent an hour doing that and some light exercises. When I was through I went over to my computer and saw that Bea had written a long email to me. I won’t bore you with all the details, but she confirmed without a doubt that there is a discrepancy of nearly a million dollars from the last report Janelle had given Ray and what the actual numbers on Janelle’s computer indicated.”

“This may sound terribly naïve of me, but didn’t Janelle use a password to protect that information?”

“Not naïve at all. Yes, she did. Bea remembered a conversation that had taken place once between Janelle and Bea about dog’s names. Evidently Janelle’s dog was named Killer. Bea remembered it because it was so unlike the image Janelle always tried to portray. Anyway, Bea knew that a lot of people use their pet’s name as their computer password, so she tried it, and it worked. After she found the discrepancy and realized nearly a million dollars was missing, she wondered why Ray had suspected that the numbers on the report Janelle had given him were phony. She went to Ray’s office and searched his computer. Evidently Janelle has an enemy in her department who knew about the discrepancy, and that person sent a copy of the two reports to Ray, alerting him.”

“Wow! That certainly explains the dinner conversation between Ray and Janelle I overheard the first night we were here at the lodge.”

“Wait Carola, there’s more. A few minutes ago Pablo came to my room. He said he was very sorry to bother me, but he had learned something he thought I should know. He told me his wife, Catalina, cleans the guest rooms in the mornings here at the lodge. Last night his wife told him she dropped a can of spray that she uses when she’s cleaning, and it rolled under the bed in Senora Byers’ room. Catalina looked under the bed and saw what she thought was the antique fly rod and reel Pablo had told her about the night before. He didn’t know what it meant, but he thought it was strange the items were under the bed in Senora Byers’ room, and not in my room. I think that pretty much proves that Janelle murdered Ray and here’s why.

“She cooked the books by producing a phony report to cover the loss of the money that should have been in the Moving Graphics account but was missing, presumably transferred to her fiancé, Andrew White. When Ray mentioned to her at dinner that he wanted to talk to her about it, she must have panicked and decided to kill him in order to keep the loss of the money secret. In order to shift suspicion away from her after she killed Ray, she stole the antique fly rod and reel to make it look like Ray’s death was tied to the theft of his antique fishing equipment. What do you think?”

“She very well might be the killer,” Carola said. “I find it very honorable that Pablo told you about the discovery of the fishing equipment in Janelle’s room rather than getting Catalina to take the items, so he could sell them to raise the money they so desperately need for her medical treatment. Even though he was on our suspect list, I really never thought it was him, plus, when I talked to him late yesterday afternoon, he told me he, his wife, and his mother-in-law had been up all that night at their home trying to think of a way to get Catalina to Buenos Aires and be seen by a specialist.”

“I hadn’t thought about that,” Lisa said. “He easily could have had his wife take them and somehow sold them, maybe even to one of the sporting goods stores we saw in San Martin yesterday. Even if he only got a fraction of what they’re worth, it would probably be enough for him to pay for a cancer specialist for her. What an honest man.”

“Let me tell you what I’ve found out this morning,” Carola said. First she told Lisa about the email she’d gotten from Kelly. “I know you’re fixated on Janelle, but you have to admit that Brad certainly had a strong motive. I can’t rule him out just yet. What we have is a series of things that point to Janelle. When I tell you about the conversation I just had with Santiago, it will probably be the final linchpin in convincing you that Janelle is the murderer.”

When Carola finished relating her conversation with Santiago to Lisa, she sat back and waited for Lisa’s reaction. Lisa stood up, sat down, and stood up again. Then she started pacing from one side of the room to the other and said, “If the police were at all involved in this case, we could turn over what we’ve discovered to them, but that doesn’t seem like a viable option.”

“No, I don’t think it is,” Carola said. “I believe the best thing for us to do is just let this simmer until tonight. I’ll talk to Jack and see what he says, and I’ll also call Kelly and get her opinion. From what I understand, based on everything we’ve discovered, while it appears Janelle is the murderer, we can’t actually say with certainty it is her. So, I guess what I’m saying is she could leave here, go home, and never be charged with Ray’s murder. Since the Moving Graphics money is missing, she probably gave it to her fiancé, which, based on what Colin told me, seems to be the case. Anyway, if she quickly replaced the funds she might never be charged with embezzlement. Then she’s free and clear to marry the handsome wealth management guy and she’d ride off into the sunset, essentially getting off scot-free. Is that how you see it?” Carola asked Lisa who was still pacing back and forth. Lisa stopped for a moment and picked up Cayo, absentmindedly petting him.

“Yes, that’s how I see it, and it’s wrong. I don’t know what I can do about it, but I can’t believe this. I’m going to my room. Maybe an answer will come to me. Mind if I take Cayo? He seems to like being with me.”

“Of course not. I’m going to make some notes about everything we’ve learned, so I don’t forget anything. If you get tired of Cayo, or you start sneezing, feel free to bring him back. See you later,” she said as Lisa walked out the door and down the hall.

CHAPTER 32

After she returned to her room, Lisa continued to pace from one side of her room to the other. Occasionally she stopped to look out the window at the heavy rain which showed no signs of letting up. She held Cayo in the crook of her arm, still absentmindedly petting him as she paced. The more she paced, the angrier she became until she finally came to a decision.

“Cayo, we’re going to Janelle’s room. I saw her going down the stairs when I walked out of Carola’s room. If nothing else, I’m going to retrieve Ray’s antique fishing equipment she has hidden under her bed. At least she won’t have it, and she won’t dare ask what happened to it once she discovers it’s gone, because if she does, everyone will know she’s the murderer.” She opened the door of her room and walked purposefully down the hall to Janelle’s room. She stood outside and listened for a moment. Not hearing anything she carefully opened the door and looked in the room. There was no sign of Janelle.

Good.
She must have gone down to the kitchen and gotten something to eat
, Lisa thought.