05.5 Netting

Morning papers’ headlines read; ‘WIFE OF OIL BARON – KIDNAPPED’.

Jamal Carreon drove to Don Bosco and met with Danny Witt. “Have you seen the morning papers? That woman I told you about has been kidnapped.”

“How did that happen?” asked Witt.

“I passed a photograph to a crook.”

“Jesus!” cried Witt, “Why are you telling me this?”

“I thought you should know,” frowned Jamal.

“You kidnapped her!”

“No, Danny, no, but I am in some kind of trouble,” he confessed.

“Tony! Go to the police.”

“I can’t,” cried Jamal, “I was in it or sort of. They cheated me.”

“You shouldn’t have come here! They’ll be looking for you. Better go talk to the police. Show up!” counselled Witt.

“I can’t go to the police!”

“Why not?”

“I was involved,” claimed Jamal.

“Good Lord!”

“I can slip away,” said Jamal, “I need to get my hands on a few things at my lodge. A pack of passports. Money and those prints, if I could dispose them. Police might have gone in there already.”

“Tony!”

“I have an idea, Danny. You can go and pick my stuff. Nobody will notice you. Carry in a bag not too many. I will wait outside.”

“I can’t get involved,” uttered Witt, “I’m too old for this.”

He swayed Danny Witt and drove to La Rosaleda. The sun shone bright at this hour in the morning – nine-thirty. Danny Witt climbed the stairs slowly and opened the door. He put the bag down on the bed and began to put the items Jamal asked for. A pack of passports, a satchel, a stack of photographs and negatives. Slowly going through the mess and could not find exactly what he wanted.

Jamal parked the van a block away and since Witt took time, he sauntered on Sardou moving up slowly towards 612, staring up at the window behind the balustrade.

Someone opened the door a width and sent his arm extended with a gun in his hand. As Witt turned, he shot him in the arm twice. A blunt sound made from the long suppressor attached to the weapon. Witt fell to the floor holding his left arm and groaning meekly. Two guys rushed in.

“Holy Shit! It’s not him!” cried one guy.

The other guy reached down grabbing his collar, “Where is Fish?”

Witt pointed to the window, “Outside.”

One guy stepped up to the window and peered out to see Jamal standing below on the roadside and staring up at him. And before he could shoot, Jamal ducked into the junk shop and escaped a couple of bullets.

“Let’s go!”

Right there they heard police siren and had to run. It did not give them the chance to chase and kill him as Carlos instructed. Those two guys couldn’t even grab the bag that Witt set ready on the bed with all the items.

Police arrived at La Rosaleda to find an old man shot in the arm. Somebody at Malibet identified the photographer as Mister Fish and police rushed to the lodge. This somone said that Mr Fish met with three ladies in maximum robes. He had a conversation with one seated in the patio.

Everyone called him Fish and everyone else knew him as Jamal Carreon. Following the search at La Rosaleda, they found five forged passports but not a single one in the name of Jamal Carreon.

Witt survived and recovered well at the hospital. Then the police learned his real name was Anthony Yunis. He entered the country in that name, travelled in that name, got a visa in that name.

Police took everything in this room that belonged to Jamal but they missed the maroon shirt hung on the toilet door for it opened to the lee of the wall.

Carlos sent these guys to eliminate him for he posed a threat. Jamal realised it was not safe for him to hang around in town. Both the police and Roco’s men were after him. He was lucky enough to retain money and a couple of passports in the Dodge along with his camera. He still carried the black-and-white negatives of the duplicated version in negative sleeves in the van.

Police returned to the Silverside Club to question the two maids who were there at Malibet. Those two maids were sworn to keep secrets for Marina. Layla and Adela admitted that they were the two maids with her that day and Marina met him there because she wanted to obtain the film. These two maids had seen the photographs while in Marina’s possession. With it they blew their cover in the Falak Camp and uncertain of what would happen next.

Police called a manhunt to find Jamal Carreon or Tony Yunis and a Dodge Caravan.

Diego Lopez read in the papers and to his surprise this woman was enormously rich. He took a good look at the print Jamal passed. A brilliant picture, sharp and fine, in black and white. He could possibly make something out of this nude card. Jamal would never pay fifty dollars. He took the print and the voodoo doll to a broken-down caravan at Lugones bend. He began to stab it with red pins to derive entirely a different energy – revenge.