Mike Smith Is Dead—Pt. 9

The priest in Maggie’s church in Liberty, Missouri, stopped her and Bob as they departed on Sunday morning. “Can I speak with you two, privately?”

“Certainly Father,” said Bob with a worried tone. He whispered to Maggie. “Who died?”

Maggie shrugged.

Bob and Maggie followed the priest through the church and into his office. Once they were seated the priest opened his desk drawer.

“This is quite unusual, but I am told it is of upmost importance. The letter came through the Bishop’s office.”

“What is it Father?” Bob nearly begged.

The priest slid the envelope over to Bob and Maggie. Together they pulled the contents out and scattered them on the front of the priest’s desk.

“This is an anomalous gift, not a contest or anything like that, but the benefactor asks that you not breathe a word of it outside of this room.” The priest sat back in his chair.

In the large envelope were two first class round trip tickets to Costa Rica; a golfing package to a course in San Jose; and a four night stay in one of San Jose’s nicest hotels. Also included was a cashier’s check for eight thousand dollars. A note was attached. It read—arrive in Costa Rica in one month, on the Tuesday on the ticket—a guide will meet you and take you to your hotel. From Hotel you will go to the golf course the next morning, and the next two mornings, and tour the rest of the day. On Saturday, you will attend a morning event. That afternoon you will return to Kansas City. “There’s a check here for two thousand dollar donation to the parish too.”

The priest’s eyes got big. “Thank you.”

Maggie grinned. “I guess our passports are still good from the Ireland trip two years ago.”

Bob shook his head. “I don’t know what to say. I bet that crazy uncle Billy arranged this.” His uncle Billy was an exotic used car man in St. Louis. “He probably sold a Ferrari or something. Paying me back for those NCAA tickets last year. Trying to one-up me. I tried to tell him that they were corporate tickets.”

The priest wagged a finger. “Remember. You can tell nobody about this, just schedule some vacation days. Take lots of pictures and tell folks about it afterward.”

Kip couldn’t invite anyone, and couldn’t allow Rosa to invite more than a select few. Father Luis officiated. Linda was there, as was Paulo and Maria. It was to be a morning ceremony. Linda had prepared everything for the wedding, in the rectory the priest officially and legally married Kip and Rosa, thus the legalities were done, it only had to be blessed by the church, and so it was.

Before Kip walked into the chapel a sedan pulled up to the church and Bob with Maggie escorted by a guide, stepped out and entered the church.

Kip gasped when he looked out on his sister in the second row. Rosa just winked and smiled at Maggie.

When Father Luis read Kip’s birth name he saw Rosa gulp slightly, he knew she was thinking of the man he told her was killed in El Salvador. Although, it was used in the legal ceremony it apparent hadn’t registered with Rosa. She was so busy in the rectory making sure everything was in order. Nobody currently in the United States State Department knew his real name, and the records of the cover-up were buried in the literature of the time.

After hugs and kisses and chatter they said goodbye to Bob and Maggie with Kip giving a paranoid speech.

Nearly exhausted they arrived back at the house. Rosa hadn’t said anything since the church. “Who did I marry?”

Kip pulled in the driveway, turned off the key to the Land Cruiser and looked at his wife. “Me.”

“No, I mean whose name is on the marriage license?”

“You’ll see it in a couple of weeks.”

“Kip, Michael, or whatever; don’t tease me, please.”

“Officially, Michael David Smith was killed in El Salvador about ten years give or take a year. There’s a death certificate. Like I explained to you some time ago, the United States State Department wanted me to be a non-entity. I officially don’t exist.”

“Is that why there’s that large sum of money in the bank?”

“It’s not mine.”

“Who does it belong to?”

“Well, at one time it belonged to the United States, now, they can’t claim it cause they can’t explain it. So, it sits. There’s actually no record of it. But, it is part of a much bigger amount that I did distribute for many years.”

“That was your old life, right?”

“Yes, dear. Now, I just hide from folks who know the accumulated unspent monies are somewhere and want to steal it, and US agents who don’t want me to exist but are trying to figure a way to get the money back without any explaining why it exists in the first place.”

Rosa looked concerned. “You could be killed.”

Kip laughed. “There’s the rub. Kill me and nobody gets the money; that’s also what worries me; you could be held to force me to turn over the money. But, we’ve been over this before. Hopefully, my friend at the bank has discovered a way to protect both of us from extortion.”

Rosa giggled. “I just run a realty company in the pool house. Only Father Luis, Linda, Bob, Maggie, Maria, and Paulo know the difference.”

“Well, a whole lot of clerks will know when Linda files the marriage papers.”

“But they will see I married Michael Smith. But you are Kip Waller, right? Technically, I guess I am living with a stranger, who in name is not my husband.”

Kip grinned. “We might survive. Will any of the rest of your family know?”

“Yeah, but they’ve never seen Michael Smith or Kip Waller.”

“What will they think about the combination of names? Will they think it’s odd?”

Her eyes glistened. “No, my registered address is the pool house. And, as you can tell, they hardly know any of the rest of the family. When I moved to the states we kinda lost touch.”

Kip sat with his hands still on the steering wheel.

She opened her door. “Can we go in now? I want to explore my new home.”

Kip laughed. “I have to carry you in.”

“Is the housekeeper in?” she looked concerned.

“I gave both her and the gardener the day off. Besides you are legal now, Ms. Smith.”

She smiled broadly, “So carry me in Mr. Waller.”

Kip pushed open the door and immediately set Rosa on the entry floor. The furniture was in disarray. Kip ran to the bedroom. “The laptop is gone,” he shouted.

“The kitchen television isn’t here, or the big screen television in the den,” Rosa yelled from the core of the house.

They both ran through the house to the bedrooms, although drawers were on the floor and furniture pulled away from the wall it appeared nothing else was missing. “We need police, I guess.”

Rosa dialed her cell phone and gave directions in Spanish to someone.

Minutes later the police arrived. Rosa acted as interpreter, however largely what they were told was that was probably someone who had watched the house or a gang of kids. They would notify shops and others the possibility of someone selling equipment on the streets.

After the police left Kip collapsed on the davenport. “Well, they won’t get far with the lap top. Three wrong attempts at the password and a worm starts to eat the hard drive. Also, an electrical pulse from the battery burns the boards. Largely what they have is a paperweight. And if they pull the hard drive before accessing the proper protocol it locks and has to be removed by a techy. And that’s when it’s disconnected a fire starts.”

Rosa sat beside him. “Well, they took both of the televisions. But that’s all they seem to have taken.”

Kip laughed. “The televisions came with the house, and I hadn’t turned any of them on yet. Make a nice Christmas gift for their families.”

“I thought we paid for a security system.” Rosa looked around. “But, I don’t see a keypad.”

“Tomorrow, it’s to be installed tomorrow. They were supposed to come out today, but put it off until tomorrow because of the wedding, actually this is the second system, the original one was defective.”

Rosa picked up her phone again. “It was probably the security company who robbed us.” Rosa dialed Paulo and explained what happened, and then turned to Kip, “He says he’ll listen to the street talk, maybe even ask around as if to buy another television off unusual sources.”

“Police will probably question the housekeeper and gardener, but I hardly think they would rob us and give up a decent and well paid job.”

“I guess we go shopping tomorrow.”

“I think we ought to find out how much our home and business insurance will pay; I mean we pay quite a bit to have it.”

“I’ll call Linda tomorrow, she can handle that as our Corporate Secretary. But, what did you have on the laptop?”

“Not much, mostly software, all of my documentation is in a cloud. When I get a new computer I can bring it all back down. Definitely, there was no real estate or banking info in desktop files.”

“They pulled all the furniture away from the walls and mattresses off of the beds.” She started to get up. “I’ll fix tea and we can start putting in back together. I wonder if they were looking for something?”

“Rosa, you know about the investment. I think it’s possible they’re looking for a clue, a key, some way to get to it.”

Rosa put her hand on Kip’s shoulder. “Honey, did you check the safe. Kip, the safe, did they try the safe?”

Kip stood. “I don’t know, let's look.” They both raced to the master bedroom. Kip counted the large tiles on the floor 'til he came to the fifth one. He lifted the fake grout and pulled up the tile, the safe was undisturbed and the same digits faced up on the lock. “I always lock a safe with the digit 3 at the top. Apparently, they didn’t find it or look for it, but right now it has only papers and about fifteen grand in cash.” He replaced the rock and the grout and looked for Rosa. “Rosa?” Kip walked out on the veranda. In the moonlight he could see the pool house, suddenly a light clicked on and there was a scream.

“Kip, come quickly,” she shouted.

Terror was in Rosa’s eyes. He looked over her shoulder. A body was on the porch in a pool of blood.

The police came again and both Rosa and Kip sat through a ton of questions, this time the police brought an English speaking detective and a medical examiner.

“She’s been dead several hours,” said the examiner.

The detective turned to Rosa and Kip. “You were at the church in Quepos? Correct?”

“Yes, Father Luis, my brother Paulo, Kip and I, and friends, attorney Linda Cortez oh, and Paulo’s wife Maria were there. We were in church from about 9 AM until noon, and it takes over an hour to get there from here, if there’s no traffic. We had snacks after the ceremony.” Rosa held out her left hand. “See my rings. Then we drove up here, about a two hour drive more cause we stopped and picked up some tea. Then, called you the first time around 3 PM”

Kip thought to himself. Maggie and Bob should well be on their way back to KC by now.

The detective made a note on his pad.

“We were in the process of searching the house to see what the robbers took. We were robbed while we were gone. Two officers came when we reported that last hour.” Kip looked at his watch and then nodded to Rosa. “She discovered the body just a few minutes ago, and we called the police again.”

The detective folded his notepad. “We’ll check your alibis but my guess is that this is one and the same with the robbery. But, I need to get your fingerprints and, if possible DNA, just to clear you. We found a possible murder weapon, the lab will check it out for prints. We’re not NCIS but we do okay. Something must have gone wrong during the robbery, maybe an interruption. However, bodies showing up around here seems to be a popular thing. Just don’t go anywhere, we may need to speak with you again later.”

Kip pulled Rosa aside, “I may need to get up with the American Embassy.”

She had panic in her eyes. “I’ll call Linda.”

“We need to give him what I asked for otherwise it’ll arouse suspicion for sure.” Kip paused and looked for the detective. “Detective,” he called, “do we give you DNA here or do we have to go into town?”

The detective walked toward them. “Truck parked in your lane is a mobile lab of sorts; we can get your prints and DNA there, but it will be processed in the main lab downtown.”

“Cool.” He knew his voice was a bit shaky, but didn’t want to seem hesitant. “And, will be okay for my wife and I to go to the bank when you are finished. We still have some things to take care of.”

He nodded. “We’re checking your alibi right now. I imagine there’s no problem.”

It took almost three hours for them to negotiate the roads from Florencia to San Jose and Publica Bank. The bank kept evening hours for customer convenience and business deposits. They parked on a side street and Kip walked hand in hand with Rosa into the lobby. His old friend Jorge Salas was not in his office so Kip told Rosa. “Ask for a manager, you need to sign our account, and I need to get into my box.”

Rosa squeezed his fingers. “You are going to learn Spanish, if I have to hire a tutor.”

“Okay, okay.”

Rosa spoke to a clerk and after a few minutes they were ushered into a small office where a pleasant looking woman in a starched white blouse and dark brown skirt greeted them. She had the look of a worried executive with stress lines running from her eyes. Her dark hair was tied in a bun, which extended the stressed look. Kip thought she might have been a junior executive, too young for the old boys club, but older than most of the clerks; probably an attractive woman out of the bank. He extended his hand. “I’m Kip Waller.”

The woman smiled and shook his hand but did not introduce herself.

Rosa explained what they were there for, the woman presented a card for Rosa to sign after Kip punched in his code on the pad. Then Rosa typed in her own code. The woman typed on her computer, smiled slightly and entered Rosa’s information.

“¿Ambas cuentas? (Both accounts?)” She asked about the other account.

“No senora, el secondo es solo mio. (No, Mam, the second one is mine),” Kip held up a key to the box.

“The vault,” she said in English. She gave Rosa another card, “sign here.” Rosa complied and Kip guessed Rosa was entered in as a signee to the bank box. “This signature for all the boxes, correct?” She spoke in English.

“That’s right. But, for now I just need number 101.”

A different clerk helped with accessing the vault and the routine Kip had followed early was duplicated. Except this time, he removed the three jump drives and two computer chips from the brown envelope. Kip handed Rosa $50,000 cash, which she stuffed into her bag, then closed the box and asked to return it.”

When they got to the car Rosa asked, “Kip, how much is in that box? Your Spanish was suddenly better, what gives?”

He tried to smile. “Less than when I got here. Honestly, we may have to sit and count it some day, but it’s one of eight boxes. It’s all the money I retained for work expenses over the years. I think it’s about a million in that one, but I’ve used some of it. The other boxes are accumulation of investments not necessarily cash.”

“Is that the investment she was talking about the one everyone is trying to get you to release?”

“No, honey, that’s in a separate account; locked away. I didn’t put you on it to protect you. I told you, it’s not my money, and until I can return it to the rightful owners, the United States Government, it’s just going to sit there. But, you are on the interest account, and you should get a separate bank card for that one, and we need to go to Scotia Bank next.”

Rosa looked worried. “Now what? You gave me a lot of cash. And the regular account contains a fortune. And you have more in Scotia Bank?”

“Yeah. Hold the cash I gave you. You may need it and until you get your bankcard you’d have to drive to San Jose to access our account. We’re going to put you on the Scotia Bank account too, that’s where my retirement pay goes. We gotta go see Father Luis on the way home.”

Rosa tried to smile. “We were just there, honey, you can’t undo what you just did.”

Ninety minutes later, after a brief pause at Scotia Bank bank, for Rosa to be put on Kip’s retirement account, they stopped at the side of the small chapel in Quevos. The priest was in his quarters having dinner.

Kip knocked and walked in. “Padre, un favor por favor.” Kip asked him for a favor.

The priest smiled when he saw Rosa, but turned to Kip. “¿Que?”

“Estes. (This)” Kip held out the chip and the jump drive. "¿Puedes ocultarlos? (Can you hide it?)"

The priest nodded and took the jump drive and chip and then walked to a counter and picked up a sandwich bag, which he deposited the two items, then he got a canvas bag from the pantry and pushed the sandwich deep into the bag. “Frejoles, (Beans),” he said. It appeared to be a large bag of dried beans. He carried the bag back into the pantry.

Kip turned to Rosa, “What if he uses the beans?”

The priest returned and laughed and waved for Kip and Rosa to follow. “Total el mundo me da frijoles, hay muchas bolsas allí. (The whole world gives me beans, there are many bags here.)” The priest moved a couple of sacks of flour then pulled up the floor of the pantry. He turned and began climbing down a steep stairs. “Come with me,” he said. Kip handed him the bean sack then followed the priest down the stairs followed by Rosa.

The priest screwed in a small light bulb and Kip and Rosa looked around.

"I didn’t know this was here. I grew up in this church and didn’t realize there was a cellar."

“On the shelves with jars of fruit and vegetables and amid sacks of beans and rice were crosses and platters and candle holders and other silver pieces. The priest crossed himself and put the sack of beans on a high shelf. “Es de la iglescia. (It's from the church).”

He nodded toward the stairs and Kip and Rosa crawled up the steep stair ladder. Once at the top Kip helped the the priest pull a barrel and several sacks of oats and beans over the opening.

“Padre, no sabe de este. (Father, I don't know about this).” Kip pointed to the pantry.

The priest smiled. “My children.”

He must have noted Kip’s concern. He told Kip that the special bag had a red stripe.

Kip shook his hand, “Thank you Father.”

He put both his hands on Rosa and Kips hands. “With God Children.”

As they drove toward Florencia Kip’s cell rang. Rosa answered then mouthed to Kip, “It’s Marcos.” She put it on speakerphone.

“Air Marcos, traveling north, any passengers need to be traveling my way.”

Kip laughed. “You mean escaping?”

Marcos coughed. “I have a Citation X to deliver to Mexico City tomorrow. Sam’s been begging to come shopping in Costa Rica. She could get a commuter flight to San Jose. She’d probably rather do that than ride back with me. I’m taking the trade in, an old Dash eight turbo prop. I’ll have to stop every 800 miles for fuel and hope I don’t end up in a jungle somewhere.”

Kip grinned and nodded toward Rosa. “Okay, have Sam call Rosa when she arrives.“

“Good to me, just hope Sam and Rosa don’t spend our commissions while shopping.”

Rosa giggled. “I’m listening you know.”

“Oops, suddenly got busy. Sam will call.” He disconnected

“Okay, you and Sam are shopping tomorrow. And, while you’re out buy her a ticket back to Buenos Aires.”

Rosa shook her head. “Expensive shopping trip.”

Kip shivered. “If you only knew.”

To be continued...