Renaldo (76 page)

And who were these people that were showing his picture around? Police? Montoneros?

Assassins?

Lonnie wondered how much lower he could sink. He felt like sobbing in

his mother’s arms and repenting for all the bad little things he had done. But

they were not little boy things these actions that had brought him to Boca. He

had committed a cold-blooded killing, and his mother’s love could not save him

now. He was on his own, and he felt the noose getting tighter and tighter.

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RENALDO

Orville Richard Geary Jr. liked to think of himself as a Porteño, even

though he was born in Palo Alto, California. The offspring of a homesick

U.S. Army colonel bound for Korea in April of 1950, and a fiery, red-headed

Argentine exchange student at Stanford University, Orville Jr.’s namesake was

killed in action before his son entered this world.

Carmela Gaspero claimed to have married the colonel two days before

he had shipped out. Wanting to avoid a scandal, Orville Sr.’s distraught New

England widow and family paid the extremely pregnant foreigner a tidy sum

of money to make her disappear back to Argentina as soon as the baby was

born.

Whatever documentation Carmela had obtained from Orville Geary

during their brief romance was enough to convince the authorities to put the

surname ‘Geary’ on her newborn baby’s birth certificate instead of her own

name ‘Gaspero.’ Little Orville would be an American citizen with an American-

sounding name. That was very important to Carmela. She would always

remember America, and she would always remember her handsome Colonel

Orville every time she looked at her beautiful Yankee son.

It seemed that Carmela had a thing for men in uniform, for shortly after

her return to Buenos Aires, she wed a young captain in the Argentine army.

Orville Junior was raised along strict military guidelines by his cold and often

abusive stepfather, but the boy reveled in the pseudo army-camp lifestyle. His

birth father’s military picture adorned the wall above his bed, and even his

stepfather showed a certain amount of respect for the memory of his fellow

soldier-at-arms.

Orville was sent to one of the finest military academies in all of Argentina

by the time he was eight. It was there that he fostered the strong right-wing

views that remained with him to this day. Loyalty to the country, the army, and

to the family. That was all that mattered.

An officer’s commission into the army upon matriculation was not enough

to keep eighteen-year-old Orville content, however. He had become so enthused

about things military that he wanted to put his classroom training to the test.

In real life. On a real battlefield.

Orville Richard Geary Jr.’s American birth certificate was the passport

to travel and adventure that he needed to accomplish this feat. His first port

of call on what would turn out to be an extended four-year stopover was at

Bien Ho, South Viet Nam, in December 1968. Orville had joined the U.S.

Army to help stop the dreaded forces of communism from gaining a foothold

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in this lovely Asian country. The grunt with the Spanish accent was assigned

to be a radio man in ‘C’ Company, Second Battalion, Twenty-Eighth Infantry

Regiment of the First Infantry Division. Charlie Company of the Big Red One!

‘Duty first, no mission too difficult, no sacrifice too great.’ Orville Geary was

in deep, and he loved it.

A transfer to Army Rangers and a promotion to sergeant followed the

end of his first tour, then three more years of blood and guts. He had become a

skilled, methodical killer who relished a ‘clean hit,’ ‘large enemy body counts,’

and ‘firefights.’

It was a disillusioned and frustrated Orville Geary that returned to South

America with an honorable discharge in early 193. He could not shake the

stinging humiliation of the shellacking that the U.S. forces were taking several

thousand miles away. But it didn’t take long for the former American combat

soldier to find out that the political backdrop in Argentina provided a perfect

venue in which a trained killer might ply his trade.

Left-wing advocacy had been on the ascendant during Orville Geary’s

absence from Argentina, along with increased civil strife, terrorist attacks

against industry and state-run commerce, and a lack of respect for the

ineffectual military. One seemed to have only two political choices, radicalism

or Perónism. There was no right-wing military option at all, and that fact

stirred Orville Geary into action.

The highly proficient killer took it upon himself personally to eliminate

anyone that was obstructing the eventual return of a strong military junta

to power. That was the only hope for Argentina as Orville Geary saw the

situation.

There were many people to eradicate on his list, but each select ‘hit’ would

carry the process a step further. Originally, Orville operated on his own, but

as time passed, he found it useful to employ the services of other patriots that

shared his philosophy. Supplies for his missions were always readily available,

as were schedules and timetables of important targets. Ironclad alibis could be

provided, if necessary.

The last item was never needed, for Geary was so good at his profession

that the trail he left behind always turned cold. He drew around him a band

of disillusioned military specialists, forming his own platoon of underground

right-wing activists. Through the ensuing years, he played a large part in paving

the way for the eventual bloodless military coup that took place in March of

1976. The country had witnessed the return of Juan Perón in June of 1973, his

untimely death from pneumonia in July of 1974, the assumption of his office

by his widow Isabel, and her eventual exile in 1975.

During all these events, Orville Geary was working in the shadows to

strengthen the position of the right-wing military coalition. The ousting of

Isabel Perón was the last stumbling block.

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RENALDO

Her successor, President Italo Luder, declared a state of siege and

immediately signed a decree ordering the army to annihilate armed left-wing

subversives. With the economy stagnant and inflation at eight hundred percent,

the general population was looking for relief from the civil strife and terrorism

that rocked the country. Only the military could provide the strong, often

ruthless, guidance so many sought, and President Luder read the writing on

the wall.

After March 24, 1976, the country was run by men in uniform, and those

men continued to hold Orville Geary in extremely high regard. His particular

skills were constantly required, especially those which involved removing thorns

from the junta’s paws. Orville Geary and his platoon could be relied upon to

handle the most delicate assignments, and Orville Geary always accomplished

his missions.

While young Geary had inherited his military bearing from his father, he

had just as significantly inherited a shock of red hair from his mother. It was a

characteristic that would give him his lifelong nickname,
Rojo,
meaning ‘Red,’

in English.

Among his friends in Buenos Aires initially, then to his fellow grunts in ‘

’Nam,’ he was always ‘ Rojo’ Geary, never Orville. It was the same Rojo Geary

that Astor Gordero hired to track down Lonnie De Seta in early May of 1978.

The trail, after a long, frustrating month, was now heating up nicely.

June the sixth had turned out to be a particularly rewarding day for Astor

Gordero. The initial good news came via Wolfgang Stoltz shortly after eight

a.m. Florencia De Seta had consented to A.R. Gordero and Sons handling her

personal investment portfolio and estate matters, and she had promised to

pursue the same arrangement with her seventy-eight-year-old mother-in-law

Lydia immediately.

Stoltz had convinced Florencia that it made sense to consolidate all the

asset supervision under one roof, considering Lydia’s age. She alone controlled

the De Seta empire, and it was imperative for Astor Gordero’s plan to work

that Señora Lydia De Seta be brought into the fold. Stoltz had pointed out to

Florencia that it would be much better for the decision-making powers to be

handed over to the future heir’s financial advisors while the family matriarch

was still living. That would ease the strain of bureaucratic paperwork for the

bereaved family after Lydia’s departure. Renaldo’s grandmother had granted

Florencia and Wolfgang Stoltz an audience in Pergamino one week hence to

discuss the matter. Things looked very positive!

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JAMES McCREATH

The second piece of uplifting news came by phone on Astor Gordero’s

private line shortly after nine a.m. Rojo Geary had been instructed to phone

in once a week, using this constantly monitored and debugged line. He had

relayed positive progress for the first time. It appeared certain that Lonnie De

Seta was hiding out in the Boca section of the capital, and Geary was close to

making the initial, and also the final, contact.

The beautiful Symca had accepted Gordero’s invitation to accompany him

to that evening’s football match without hesitation once Gordero relayed the

news that Renaldo De Seta would be in the starting lineup. Octavio Suarez had

confirmed the boy’s starting role in a noon telephone conversation with The Fat

Man, who, in turn, relayed the news instantly to Señorita Symca. He would not

tell Renaldo of the lady’s presence in the stands, however, for fear that it would

distract his concentration.

“We only need the boy running on two legs, not three!” he had

laughingly told Wolfgang Stoltz. A stellar performance by his young client

before a worldwide audience would certainly increase Renaldo’s value on the

open transfer market. Now all that was needed to make Astor Gordero’s day

a total success was an Argentine victory and a strong showing by his client.

An extended lunch at the Jockey Club with Stoltz, then a few hours of sexual

frolicking with two blonde, Dutch sisters seeking tickets to the tournament

would kill much of the time until kickoff. As things transpired, June the sixth