Nick Carter - The Aztec Avenger

“I think you ought to move out of here,” I suggested.

“Huh?”

“Tonight,” I said, almost conversationally. “I think it would be best for you.”

“Hey, listen—” Henry began, and then he stopped and stared at me, trying to read my expression in the darkness and failing. He gave in.

“Okay,” he said with a sigh. “I’ve leaned on enough guys in m y time. I guess it’s my turn now, huh?” He shook his head. “Me and my big mouth.”

Slowly, he backed away from me until he was near the lobby doors and then he turned quickly and went inside.

I sat down in the chair again and took out another cigarette.

“You smoke too much,” said the voice from the far, darker-shadowed end of the terrace. “I’m surprised that a man who smokes as much as you can move so fast. I thought for a certainty that you were going to be hurt That Henry, he is a big man, n’est ce pas?”

“Hello, Jean-Paul,” I said without surprise. “How long have you been out here?”

“Long enough. You expose yourself to too many dangers, my friend.”

“He’s no danger. He’s a punk.”

“He almost got himself killed,” said Jean-Paul. “If he knew how close he came, I think he would have dirtied his underwear.”

“I made a mistake about him,” I said soberly. “I thought he was after Stocelli. I should have known better. He’s a nobody.”

“It happens. Better to be wrong and sorry if you can’t be right. By the way, who was that Mexican who came up to you this afternoon?”

“He said his name was Luis Aparicio. He tried to sell me his services as a guide, assistant or pimp— whatever I wanted. I thought your friends might have sent him.”

“Possibly. What makes you think so?”

“My suspicious nature,” I said drily. “On the other hand, Consuela says she never heard of him before.”

Jean-Paul was silent for a moment. Then, almost as an afterthought he said, “By the way, I have a message for you. Apparently, whatever it was you told them tonight got you a quick response. Tomorrow afternoon, please plan on going out to El Cortijo to see a bullfight. It starts at four o’clock.”

“When did you get this message?” I asked suspiciously.

“Shortly before you returned to the hotel. I was coming out to deliver it when your friend Henry showed up. I decided to wait until we were alone.”

“Who’s it from?”

“He said his name was Bickford. He said he passed the word on to his boss. You’ll be talking to the top men.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s enough, isn’t it?”

“If you talked to Bickford,” I said, “then you know what I told them. I want you to lay off Stocelli.”

“So he said. He also told me of the threat you made.”

“Well?”

Even in the darkness, I could see Jean-Paul’s face turn serious. “My people in Marseille want Stocelli punished. We can’t push our Mexican friends any more than we have already. It’s their decision.”

“And you?”

He shrugged. “If we have to, we can wait. Stocelli will never leave this hotel alive. However,” he added, “if they decide not to agree to what you’ve suggested, if they decide to go after Stocelli in spite of your threats, then, in all likelihood, you won’t be alive much longer, either. Had you thought about that?”

“It’s something to think about, isn’t it?” I said, easily, and went into the lobby by myself.

In my room, I unpacked the Xerox Telecopier 400 from its case and moved it next to the telephone. My call to Denver went through with no lengthy delay.

“Have you come up with anything?”

“We hit it,” said Denver. “We don’t have all the passenger manifest lists in yet, but we found it on Air France, Air Canada, and Eastern. Can we talk openly, or do you want it on the Telecopier?”

“On the machine,” I said. “There are complications down here. Michaud’s organization has gotten into the act. And they brought their local friends in on the action.”

Denver whistled. “You’ve got your hands full, haven’t you?”

“I can handle it.”

Denver said, “All right, we’ll put it on the Telecopier. We ran into some luck, by the way. We have a file on the subject. Came through our credit checking bureau. They did a report on his company a few years back. We’ve included some of the highlights in our report We don’t have all the information about him yet, but he sure doesn’t fit into Stocelli’s group of friends in any way we can see.”

“Put it on the wire,” I told Denver and placed the phone handset in the Telecopier cradle and turned on the equipment.

When the machine was through, I picked up the phone and said, “Let me have whatever else you find out as soon as possible.”

“Did you read the last line of the report?” asked Denver.

“Not yet.”

“Read it,” said Denver. “It should scare the hell out of Stocelli if he finds out about it.”

I packed away the equipment and settled back to read the few paragraphs of the facsimile report

COMPARISON OF PASSENGER MANIFESTS FOR? AIR FRANCE, JFK TO ORLY, 4/20 —AIR FRANCE, ORLY TO MARSEILLE, 4/20 — NATIONAL AIRLINES, JFK TO MIAMI INTERNATIONAL, 4/28 — AIR CANADA, NEW YORK TO MONTREAL, 5/4.

STOCELLI PASSENGER FIRST-CLASS ON ALL ABOVE FLIGHTS. NO DUPLICATION OF OTHER FIRST-CLASS PASSENGER NAMES. HOWEVER, DUPLICATION ON ALL ABOVE FLIGHTS — REPEAT — ALL ABOVE FLIGHTS IN ECONOMY SECTION HAD PASSENGER LISTED UNDER THE NAME HERBERT DIETRICH.

CHECK OF AIR CANADA PASSENGER MANIFEST,

MONTREAL TO LAGUARDIA, 5/6 — LISTS NAMES OF RAYMOND DUTTOIT AND HERBERT DIETRICH.

FINALLY, CHECK OF AEROMEXICO, JFK TO MEXICO CITY AND ACAPULCO, 4/5 —STOCELLI AND DIETRICH.

CONTINUING TO CHECK OTHER PASSENGER MANIFESTS. WILL REPORT AS SOON AS INFORMATION COMES IN.

BEST INDICATIONS ARE THAT HERBERT DIETRICH IS NOW IN ACAPULCO.

— END MEMO—

I turned my attention to the second sheet:

INFORMATION EXCERPTED FROM CREDIT CHECK REPORT ON DIETRICH CHEMICAL COMPANY, INC.

HERBERT DIETRICH, PRESIDENT. FULL REPORT AVAILABLE. FOLLOWING IS PERSONAL DATA ONLY: HERBERT DIETRICH, AGE 63, WIDOWER, ADDRESS 29 FAIRHAVEN, MAMARONECK, NEW YORK. DIETRICH BORN LAWRENCE, KANSAS. GRADUATE OF KANSAS UNIVERSITY. M.A. DEGREE CHEMISTRY, CORNELL. RESEARCH CHEMIST, UNION CARBIDE, E.I. DUPONT, WORKED ON MANHATTAN PROJECT A-BOMB CHEMISTRY DURING WORLD WAR II. INTERWORLD CHEMICAL AND CHEMO-GLOBAL DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH FOLLOWING WAR. OPENED OWN R&D LABORATORY, 1956. DIETRICH CHEMICAL CO. NOW EMPLOYS STAFF OF THIRTY. PROFITABLE OPERATION SPECIALIZING IN RESEARCH PROJECTS UPON

ASSIGNMENT. SOME INDEPENDENT RESEARCH. SALE OF SEVERAL VALUABLE PATENTED FORMULAS BRINGS IN ANNUAL ROYALTIES IN SEVEN-FIGURE RANGE. TOTAL ANNUAL VOLUME WELL OVER $3,000,000. DIETRICH HAS LIVED IN MAMARONECK SINCE 1948. WELL-KNOWN, HIGHLY RESPECTED. FINANCIALLY SECURE. ACTIVE IN CHURCH AND COMMUNITY GROUPS. CHILDREN: SUSAN, BORN 1952. ALICE, BORN 1954. NEITHER MARRIED. WIFE: CHARLOTTE, DIED 1965.

HAVE STARTED FULL INVESTIGATION. WILL FORWARD REPORT UPON COMPLETION.

— END MEMO—

I put down the two sheets of paper, then undressed and got into bed. As I lay in the dark, in the short time before I fell asleep, my mind went over the last line of the first page of the reports:

BEST INDICATIONS ARE THAT HERBERT DIETRICH IS NOW IN ACAPULCO.

Who the hell is Herbert Dietrich, I wondered, and what possible connection could he have with criminals like Stocelli, Michaud, Duttoit, Torregrossa, Vignale, Webber, and Klien?

I was at the pool the next morning when Consuela Delgardo came down the steps and walked across the grassy area surrounding the pool to join me. I was surprised to see how much more attractive she was in the daylight. She wore a loosely-woven, light beach coat that ended just below her hips, showing superb legs that swung in a rhythmic, lilting walk as she came toward me.