Tampa Burn

THREE

Along with the DVD, Pilar told us, the package also contained an Iridium satellite phone receiver. The kidnappers could contact her, but it couldn’t be used to call out.

Though I didn’t mention it, I knew that the phone could probably also be used as a tracking device. Global Positioning System trackers are neither expensive nor difficult to acquire. For a few hundred bucks, a suspicious hubby or wife can hide a GPS transmitter in the family car and follow every movement.

As she told us about the phone, I read the transcript once again, reviewing the list of demands made by Masked Man:

She had to leave for Miami within forty-eight hours. She couldn’t contact law enforcement. If she’d already contacted police, she must now stop cooperating. Along with the phone, she was to either carry a portable computer or find a way to check her e-mail at least twice a day while traveling.

Masked Man said they would contact her via satellite phone or Internet and tell her how next to proceed. As long as she continued to cooperate, they would continue to provide proof that Laken was alive.

In the video, he used the royal “we.” Excessively, it seemed.

“Before you leave for Miami,” he said, “collect half a million dollars in cash, U.S. Don’t ask us how. The Masaguan treasury has plenty. You’ve got pull and connections. Find a way. Pack it in the kind of briefcase photographers use to protect their stuff. The kind that seals tight without locking. Then have the briefcase delivered by diplomatic pouch to the Masaguan consul general’s office in Miami no later than Wednesday morning. Don’t wire the money, don’t transfer it from a foreign bank. Do it just the way we say.

“Once you’re in the States, we’ll call and tell you when to go to the consul general’s office and get it. Don’t do it until we tell you. Or check your e-mail. Check it a lot. The half-million is for starters. Just to show us you really care about your kid. We’ll want more than that. This is all about politics. Political change. Jobs and better pay. Schools, health care, all the standard stuff. And quit fucking over the Indios”-the staccato laughter again-“I bet you Spaniard bastards regret that you ever burned a single Indian at the stake now. Especially since they let yours truly back out on the street. Paybacks are a bitch, huh?”

That’s how the video ended. With Masked Man walking toward the camera, his chest blackening the screen.

A couple of details interested me. Things that I thought might give us information the kidnappers didn’t expect us to have, or want us to know.

As Tomlinson futzed with the computer, I asked Pilar, “Has anyone else studied this? I’d be interested in hearing what your experts had to say.”

She said, “The first thing I did when I found Laken’s room empty, I called the head of our national police. The same when the video was delivered. Two investigators were with me when I watched it for the first time. But you heard the demands. They said I had to stop cooperating, so I did. The police wanted to stay on the case, but I said absolutely not, leave me alone.”

“Just because you’re not cooperating doesn’t mean they’ve dropped it,” I said.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. As I told you, I can’t trust anyone in the government. You hear one thing, but something else is really happening.”

“Did your treasury department come up with the money? A half-million’s a lot of money. If you’re not cooperating, why would they provide the ransom?”

“I didn’t ask the treasury. I would have had to explain why I needed the money. People gossip, and the wrong people could find out. I wasn’t going to put Laken at greater risk.”

Pilar explained that, instead, she’d gone to an old and trusted friend for help, her country’s wealthiest jeweler. Like Colombia, Masagua is famous for its emeralds. Pilar had inherited stones from her family estate, and she’d also collected emeralds since childhood. She’d asked her friend to spend the weekend liquidating her collection on the international market.

“It’s all the savings I have, and I loved those stones. I mean, I really loved some of them. But what choice did I have? I hate those bastards for putting me in this position!”

She was furious.

Trying to calm her, Tomlinson told her that money, jewels, and other such things were nothing more than symbolism.

“They’re trophy collections,” he said. “But when someone you love is in danger”-he made a poof noise with his lips-“the trophies, your collection, it becomes meaningless.”

Nodding as if agreeing, she said, “Yes, but I had so many superb stones… I just hope there’s enough.”

I said, “You’re not alone in this. I’ll put up at least half. I can get the cash in-” My main account is on Grand Cayman Island. I took a moment to calculate how long it would take to transfer money to my bank on Sanibel… how much I could borrow, and how quickly my broker could sell off most… probably all of my stock portfolio. “By tomorrow afternoon late. Or I’ll just reimburse you. That’ll be easiest.”

I live so simply, have so little interest in the things money buys, that I’ve saved quite a bit over the years. Emeralds I’d taken from Masagua had contributed to my pile.

“No,” she said, “you don’t have to do that.”

Her tone told me more. It said to accept my offer equated to indebtedness, and she preferred not to be indebted to me. She didn’t want my help.

I said, “I insist.”

Pilar made a noncommittal gesture that dismissed the subject, then told us that her friend was going to pack the money in a heavy-duty photographer’s briefcase addressed to her. He’d make certain it got into the consul general’s diplomatic pouch and on a flight in time so that it was in Miami by tomorrow morning, Wednesday.

Clever. It’s illegal to bring more than ten thousand dollars cash in or out of the U.S. without declaring it, so it would have been idiotic to try and sneak a half-million through Miami customs. Diplomatic pouch-which, by international law, could not be searched-was the only safe, legal way to get that amount of money into the country.

I asked, “Before you told the two feds to drop the case, did they happen to make any comments about the video?”

Pilar hesitated. “They did. But what I’d prefer first is for you to tell me what you think. Maybe you saw something they didn’t. I don’t want to bias your thinking. Does that seem reasonable?”

It seemed more than reasonable. So Tomlinson and I batted it back and forth.

For starters, I’d gotten the impression that Masked Man may have spent many years in Central America, but he wasn’t a member of the two most common ethnic groups. He was neither Mayan nor of Spanish descent.

It wasn’t just the accent, either. His sentence rhythms had a white-trash crudeness. Same with his tasteless, honky-tonk comedian shtick. There are degrees of inappropriate behavior that raise hackles on the back of the neck, and Masked Man exceeded the limits. His pornographic rant, the mood shifts, his showy behavior, all pointed to either a personal viciousness or pathology. The line is sometimes fine, and difficult to decipher.

Tomlinson said, “Just from the few scars that were visible, his face has gotta be a mess, man. Normally, I’d feel sympathy for someone like that. But I’ve got a very strong vibe that this one’s got snakes crawling around up there where his brain should be. He was all messed up on the inside long before he got those scars on the outside. That’s my read.”

Tomlinson and I were sitting on lab stools, the laptop between us. Pilar stood listening, letting us talk even though our words hurt her-her expression was not difficult to interpret.

Something else we agreed on was that only two people were in the room. Just Lake and Masked Man, although for some reason he wanted us to think there were more. The way he consistently referred to “we” or “us.” It seemed intentional.

“Maybe it’s a power trip,” Tomlinson guessed. “The more people he’s got behind him, the more power he has. He wants us to see him that way. He’s in control, man. A force. But it’s bogus.

“The same with his political tirade. The pro-Indian stuff. More schools, jobs, and hospitals. He didn’t mean any of it; complete bullshit. I agree with the whole power-to-the-people philosophy, but that’s not where that dude’s head was at. The vicious ones, the really bad dogs, they manufacture excuses for revenge. Politics, injustice to the Indians. I think that’s his excuse.”

I’d been watching Pilar’s reactions. Now I said to her, “You know a lot more about this guy than you’ve told us. I’d like to hear it.”

Years ago, when Pilar was nervous or upset, she couldn’t stand still. In that way, at least, she hadn’t changed.

I watched her move across the lab and pause by a tank that held snappers, then cross to another that held octopi. She stopped and stared at octopi that were peeking out from their rocky ambush holes, focusing on her with golden, glowing cat eyes.

Without turning, she said, “You two are good together. Maybe it’s the combination, one of you analytical, the other intuitive. You’re right on most points. Maybe all points. I don’t know enough about him to say. What I do know is, out of all the mercenaries that Balserio brought into the country, the criminal you just saw is the worst.

“Our federal police identified him right away. Everyone in Masagua knows him by reputation. Not by his name. His reputation. His real name’s Praxcedes Lourdes. He’s a Nicaraguan. During their revolution, he was a death squad assassin. But when the war ended, he kept on killing. The police tried to catch him, but they never did, so the courts tried him in absentia. They found him guilty and sentenced him to time in a psychiatric prison. When that didn’t bring him in, they finally sentenced him to death by firing squad.”

But they still failed to catch him.

“He’d become famous the way certain serial killers become famous. The peasants in Nicaragua called him ‘the Man-Burner.’ Some variation of that. He terrorized that country. Then Jorge paid cash or maybe political favors to get Nicaragua to drop the charges against him, and Lourdes came to Masagua and terrorized our country.”

I said, “Praxcedes. That sounds like an Arawak name. An Indian name.”

“Yes. He’s from the Moskito Coast. Moskito Indio country, but he behaves more like a Carib Indian. The crazy violence.”

“You heard his accent. He’s not Nicaraguan, and he’s no Indian. Where do you think he’s from originally?”

The woman shook her head. “A padded cell. Or hell, as far as I’m concerned. That’s where he’s taken me.”

I had to ask: “His nickname, ‘the Man-Burner.’ Does he really-?”

She was already moving her head in affirmation, still looking at the octopi, her expression numb. “There are so many stories… I won’t tell you. They say he enjoys it. He’s the reason our people are afraid to leave their homes at night. The psychological effect of what he does, always at night… incredible. That one sick person can change the political momentum of a country is incredible…”

She let the sentence trail off into silence. Tomlinson gave her several seconds to finish before he asked, “But why would Balserio have someone like that kidnap Lake? You’re well known and well liked in your country. A popular figure. Your son has to be just as well known. I’d think the public would be outraged. It’d be political suicide to be associated with something like that.”

Pilar turned to him, her expression soft, private; an expression that seemed to share uncertainty. Once upon a time, she’d exchanged such looks with me.

“I agree,” she said. “But I can’t think straight. Since I found Laken’s bed empty, I’ve been in shock. So I’m trusting in you to help me understand this. Jorge is shrewd, that much I can tell you. He wouldn’t have chosen Lourdes to abduct Laken if he didn’t have a plan.”

She hesitated, seemed to wince with distaste before she added, “Our police dug out a little more information on him.” She leaned and, from her purse, she took a manila envelope, then handed it to me.

“In the files, they found old photos taken of Lourdes when he was a teen. They were part of his medical records when he was in the burn ward of the indigents’ hospital in Managua. They’re the only known photos of him without a mask or a scarf over his face. I can’t stand to look at them again. Even be in the same room when they’re out, so I’ll go outside for some air while you look.”

When the screen door had closed behind Pilar, I removed two glossy black-and-white photos and handed one to Tomlinson. One was a close-up of Prax Lourdes’ face. The other was a wider head-and-shoulders shot.

He had suffered second- and third-degree burns over most of his face. In medical terms, a third-degree burn is called a “full-thickness” burn because the outer layer of skin is destroyed along with the entire layer beneath. Often, there is also damage to subcutaneous tissue, muscle, and bone. Lourdes had been burned to the bone on the right cheek area, much of his chin, and on the top of his head. The man’s mouth was a wedge of skeletal teeth that suggested a dental schematic-something to be used in medical schools, like a cadaver.

Tomlinson whistled softly and said, “I guess I should feel sorry for him. But I get such a bad vibe, man…”

I said, “Pilar said the Nicaraguan authorities had a warrant out for this guy’s arrest, but never caught him. How can you not find someone with a face like this?”

I looked at Tomlinson. “Does that make any sense to you? He was sentenced to time in an insane asylum, then to die by firing squad, yet he somehow manages to blend in with the general population? How? ”

Tomlinson shrugged.

I slid the photograph I was holding back into the envelope. “At least now I understand why he wears the mask.”

“Fast forward. I’ll tell you when to stop,” I said.

Several short sections of the video interested me. The first was the silence that was punctuated by the bird’s call: a hushed, two-toned whistle that was distinctive.

Pilar had returned. We listened to it several times before I turned to her. “Do you recognize the bird?”

At first, she seemed puzzled, but now her expression brightened. “Nine or ten times I’ve watched this nightmare, and I completely missed it. A quetzal bird. It’s singing in the background. Maybe it’s because I’ve forgotten how rare they are in other countries.”

To Tomlinson, I said, “The quetzal is a really beautiful green bird with a long tail. You find it in the high mountains, the cloud forests-only in Central America.”

He said, “I know, I know, I saw one once. A bird with, like, these emerald crystals for feathers. I love the way your brain is working today, Dr. Ford. A little bird could tell us something. It’s already telling us they’re still in the mountains. And it might tell us more.”

I said, “Some birds are time specific.”

“The time of the day or night when they sing, you mean?”

“Exactly. Let me check my library. While I do, find the section where the camera gets a clear shot at the lamp beside the bed. There’s a moth on the lampshade. See if you can freeze it and zoom in.”

I returned a few minutes later with my Field Guide to the Birds of Mexico and Central America, along with Daniel Janzen’s Costa Rican Natural History -an excellent primer on the flora and fauna of the region.

I read silently from both books before saying, “The male quetzal begins a round of territorial calling just before dawn. He usually calls until a couple of hours after dawn, then goes silent during the day. So there you go. It does tell us something. It suggests this video was shot in the morning. Probably very early morning, because the window blinds don’t seem to be that bright. Not much light at all.”

To Pilar, I said, “Lake was abducted late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning of last week.”

“Yes.”

“What time did they find the package outside the convent gate?”

Sounding eager, as if a bulb had just gone on in her brain, she replied, “I see where you’re going with this. It was around ten A.M. on Thursday. The same day the newspaper he was holding was published.”

“Do you have any idea what time the Latin edition of the Miami Herald arrives in Masagua City?”

“It comes on the first direct from Miami. A LACSA flight that arrives at the international airport at seven-twenty A.M. I’ve flown it enough, I should know.”

“This time of year, sunrise in Florida is around six-forty. In Central America-”

“We’re an hour earlier. We don’t use daylight savings time. But sunrise is nearly an hour later because of the volcanic peaks to the east.”

I said, “I remember it being about a forty-minute drive from the airport to downtown Masagua City. I’m talking about how long it took the kidnappers to drive from the airport to the convent, and deliver the package after shooting the video.”

She replied, “About forty-five minutes if it’s early in the morning, because the traffic’s light, yes. Sometimes an hour.”

“Your people found the package around ten, but it could have been dropped off an hour or even two hours before.”

Pilar nodded.

Looking at the screen, Tomlinson interrupted, saying, “O.K., here’s the moth.” Then he turned his blue, weary prophet’s eyes on me. “A very savvy piece of reasoning, Doc. I certainly wouldn’t have caught it. Mind if I try to nail it to the wall? To make sure I’m thinking independently and not just following your lead?”

“Go right ahead.”

“O.K. First, let me verify something before I try to distill this little gem into a couple of sentences. Pilar, am I correct in assuming that Masagua City is high enough in the cloud forest that you might hear quetzal birds?”

“We hear them often. It’s the only capital city in Central America where the bird is found.”

“Do you know of any other airports that are at an elevation high enough to find quetzals?”

“No. None.”

“Are there any other major cities at a similar elevation where the Herald is delivered early in the morning?”

Pilar said, “All the major cities in Central America get the Miami Herald, but only Masagua is high enough.”

Tomlinson was twisting a frazzled end of his hair, concentrating. “Then here’s what we know: This video was shot within a few minutes’ walking or driving distance of the international airport in Masagua. The room has to be nearby because the time window is so damn narrow. They buy the paper in or near the airport, return to the room, and start the camera going while it’s still early enough for a quetzal to be calling. Unless the bird’s behaving unusually-which birds sometimes do. Even so, it seems a reasonable conclusion.”

I said, “That’s the way I read it. I think the data’s strong enough to hold up. I think we can say with some certainty that slightly more than four days ago, Lake was being held in a building that was within a few minutes of the international airport in Masagua.”

Tomlinson added, “They also have to be in a structure near trees, don’t forget. Almost certainly tall trees. A cloud forest bird? A combination like that-all near an airport?” He sighed, pained by what we’d discovered. “Even stoned out of my gourd, if I’d had half an hour, even I coulda found him.”

Outwardly, I was calm. Inside, though, I was seething. The Masaguan feds had seen this same video on Thursday morning, shortly after the CD was delivered. If they’d realized the importance of the bird call, figured out the significance, they could have sealed off all the likely housing around the airport, sent in a hostage rescue team, and my son might be safe right now.

In any hostage situation, abductors are at their most vulnerable in the earliest stages, before they’ve had time to calm down, reassess, and reorganize.

It would have been an ideal time to hit them.

I know because I’ve become a reluctant amateur expert not only on kidnapping, but kidnappings that take place in Latin America. I’ve been forced to learn because of events in my life, and because I’ve spent so much time living near equatorial lines.

Latin America is the most dangerous place in the world when it comes to that particular crime. More than six thousand people are abducted annually. In Colombia, it’s a tax-free, $200-million-a-year business. In Mexico, there are as many as two thousand kidnappings a year, with ransom demands ranging from five thousand dollars for common citizens up into the multimillions for bankers and businessmen.

Foreign executives who work in the oil and energy industries are favorite targets. Insurance agencies such as Chubb, Fireman’s Fund, and Lloyd’s of London now offer policies that underwrite ransom payments, medical treatment, and interpreters, and even continue to pay the salaries of the missing.

Premiums are not inexpensive.

Business? Kidnapping has become an international industry.

It was in Guatemala that kidnappers started a chilling, profitable trend. They began to abduct and ransom the children of wealthy locals and foreign workers. Payoffs became bigger, negotiations easier. The practice spread through Ecuador and Venezuela, where each country suffers about two hundred kidnappings a year.

Pilar’s country, Masagua, soon followed.

I’d heard and read so much about it and become concerned enough, slightly more than a year ago, to warn Lake in an e-mail. I told him why he was an obvious, high-risk target. Of far more value-now, at least, it seemed-I’d also included advice on how best to survive an abduction. The tips had been assembled for him by a friend of mine, a hostage negotiator who works for the State Department.

I’d sent the paper along with a note from me that read:

During these screwy times, everyone in the world should be prepared, and they should damn well know that: • During a hijacking or hostage assault, the most dangerous phases are the first few minutes and-if there is a rescue attempt-the final few minutes. Anticipate what you should do before it happens so that you won’t panic if it happens. • In the first minutes, terrorists are adrenaline-fogged and prone to irrational overreaction. This is when most hostages die. Remain calm. Avoid eye contact. No sudden, threatening movements. • Do not struggle or try to escape unless success or your own death are certain. • Aspire to be inconspicuous. Do not give your captors the impression that you are memorizing their facial features or keeping note of their actions. • Talk normally. Don’t complain, don’t show anger. Follow all orders and instructions. • If questioned, keep your answers short. Don’t stand out. • If involved in a lengthy hostage situation, the opposite becomes true. It’s easier to kill an object than a human being. Make sure your captors know your name, the names of your family members. Establish a rapport. • Remember that you are a valuable commodity to your captors. It’s important to them to keep you alive and well. Find a way to survive. Others have. You can, too.

All good advice. The kind that can save a life or lives. Trouble was, I knew there was a possibility that Lake hadn’t even read the damn thing. He’d certainly never made any specific references to the data in a reply e-mail.

Boys his age are bulletproof. Or think they are.

But maybe, just maybe, it’d helped him.

Even so, I was immensely thankful that I’d made the effort. Thankful because it took a bit of the sting out of the overwhelming guilt I felt. It was guilt that any parent would have experienced.

My child had been taken. Even though I’d anticipated the possibility, I wasn’t there to protect him when it happened.

Unforgivable.

It’s guilt that destroys us -one of Tomlinson’s favorite sayings.

Pilar felt the guilt, too. Of that, I was certain. And for good reason.

When I’d sent my warnings to Lake, I’d sent the same warnings to her. Our son was an obvious, high-risk target. Serious measures needed to be taken.

She’d never responded.

I’d yet to mention that to her.

I never would.

Oh yeah, she was feeling it.

Pilar pressed a blinding hand over her eyes, moaned softly, and then I listened to her say, “I’m so sorry, Marion. It never crossed my mind that a noise in the background could be important.”

The bird call. She was still punishing herself for not zeroing in on the quetzal.

She added, “That morning, while I was watching this awful thing, Laken was just a few miles away? We could have sent in soldiers and saved him. Oh dear God. I feel terrible I didn’t understand…”

Tomlinson reached and put his big hand to her shoulder, communicating with touch- Don’t blame yourself. Victims should never blame themselves -but stuck to business, saying, “O.K., O.K. We’re done with the subject. There’s nothing more to learn from background noise. Let’s discuss other elements in the video.”

He watched me nod before saying, “So far, we both agree that Lourdes videoed this by himself. But I’m still thinking he had to have one or more accomplices.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because the way Pilar describes it, your son was kidnapped from a place that’s downtown in a busy city. And from a building that was guarded. There almost had to be a driver. Don’t you think? Or a chopper maybe. Someone waiting to get away fast.”

I said, “O. K, I’ll go along with that.”

He turned to Pilar. “Do private planes fly in and out of the international airport?”

“Yes. Of course.”

I was looking at the moth on the screen, comparing it with photos in the book. The insect’s wingspan was massive-more than six inches. Finally, I found it: Ascalapha odorata, the Bruja Negra or Black Witch moth. An insect common to Central America-further confirmation that the video had been shot in the region.

I said, “That’s what I’m asking myself. Why would someone kidnap the son of a popular political figure, then head straight for a hideout close to the airport?”

Tomlinson was now allowing the video to play in slow motion-an eerie thing to watch-as he asked, “Does your ex-husband have enough political juice in neighboring countries to get passports for Lourdes and your son? Visas, I.D. s? I’m talking about credentials good enough so they could hop on a private plane and take refuge in another country. No way you can fly a kidnapped child out on a commercial plane, so that leaves military or private.”

I leaned close to study my son’s haunted eyes staring back at me, then focused upon the red welt that snaked up his arm. I’d dismissed the possibility of it being a burn. Now, though, I reconsidered.

As Pilar replied, “Yes, documents, passports, Balserio could get anything he wanted,” I looked across my laboratory sink at the Bunsen burner. I pictured the scalpel-blue flame it produced, then reviewed variations of propane torches.

A portable welder’s torch came to mind. They were cheap, easy to use, readily available even in Third World countries, and intimidating if used as a weapon-something that would appeal to a sociopath who liked fire.

I remembered Pilar saying that the fish in Lake’s main aquarium had been killed. Stick a welder’s torch in an aquarium, and the swim bladders of fish would soon explode, expanding in the super-heated water.

Son-of-a-bitch.

Lake had been burned. The wound seemed a defensive variety. People under attack throw their forearms up to protect their face.

It told me something that I couldn’t share with Pilar, and would not share with Tomlinson. That brand of assault is indicative. If Praxcedes Lourdes had already burned Lake, then he planned to kill him. That seemed probable to me.

What was the statistic I’d read? It had been compiled by some government agency in Britain. In kidnapping cases worldwide, only about forty percent of the victims are recovered alive even after the ransom is paid in full. If the victim has been seriously abused or mistreated-severed ears or pinkie fingers are common examples-then chances of the abductee surviving drops to nearly zero.

Paying Lake’s ransom, following his kidnapper’s orders, made sense only in that it might buy us a little time.

I jumped, startled that anyone could speak calmly when Tomlinson said, “As long as we have the computer out, maybe you should check your e-mail. They said you should check it often.”

Pilar still sounded despondent. “You’re probably right. I tried from my hotel last night, then again this morning. So far, nothing. I need to buy a laptop while I’m here. I don’t have one.”

I pointed to my desk model on the far side of the room. “You can use mine, or we can hook Tomlinson’s up to the phone. His’ll be faster.”

We did. She checked.

She had an e-mail from the kidnappers. There was also a note from our son.

Sitting at the computer, nervously regarding what she was about to read, Pilar said, “When Jorge Balserio is back in the presidential palace-and he probably will be, unfortunately-he’ll owe that animal a debt more than favors and money. I wonder how he’ll deal with his famous monster then?”

She was talking, once again, about the possibility that Balserio had provided passports and a private plane. She was also talking about the man who’d abducted our son.

I was picturing the burn scar on Lake’s arm, my child’s terrified eyes staring back into mine, and I was thinking: If Balserio’s smart, he’ll kill Lourdes.

But I was also thinking: If I get to Lourdes first, he’ll never have the chance.