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MAMACOCA, p. 3
Groves slips into Clare's room. He tells her that he is leaving town but that something big is about to happen in San Ramon. She nods and hands him an envelope. Groves pulls out his wallet and gives her a wad of cash. This should take care of her for a while. Groves then slips out. The desk clerk watches Groves leave in haste. Charles and Clare meet in the lobby and agree to go out and get something to eat. The clerk's eyes follow them as they go. They walk into a cantina and order a meal. Clare introduces Charles to the potent native drink "chica." Charles and Clare laugh and have a good time together. Charles, loose with drink, reaches across the table and kisses Clare She responds. They leave the restaurant and walk into the market place. Indians are appraising and trading dried coca leaves. A young mestizo boy in the crowd approaches the couple and offers them an opportunity to buy cocaine. Charles tells Clare to go back to the hotel and that he'll take care of business. Charles follows the boy down narrow streets and ends up in a dingy hovel. There he meets an old man who shows him a bag full of cocaine. The merchant lets him sample some. Charles decides to buy a small bagful, pays the old man, and departs. Charles and Clare in her hotel room snorting cocaine together. A passionate love scene follows. San Ramon police station. The mestizo boy who offered cocaine to Charles is receiving a few coins and a pat of approval on the head from the police chief. The chief accompanied by his deputy leave the station. Clare is asleep. Charles gets up and quietly walks out. He enters his room and finds himself confronted by police a gunpoint. His room is a shambles. He is searched and cocaine found. The chief shakes his head in disapproval and sadistically details to Charles the horrors of the Peruvian prisons. There is a way out he says, and smiles greedily. Soon Charles is signing over all his travelers chicks and surrenders his cash and valuables. The chief, pocketing the bribe, tells him that for everybody's sake, he should get out of Peru immediately or risk serious danger. Meanwhile, two Americans, underworld types, enter the hotel. They hand a large tip to the desk clerk and without verbal exchange are given a key. Clare is still naked on her bed, feeling good. Suddenly, her door is burst open. Her happiness turns to terror. She tries to get up. The two men are on her and hold her down. They muffle her screams. One of them hatefully calls her a CIA bitch. The other, in one lightening motion, pulls out a knife and slashes her throat. The man step back, unable to turn their eyes away from Clare's beautiful body, jerking in the throes of death. Blood gushes from her neck over her pulsing breasts into the bed, forming a red pool. One of the men throws the blanket back over her. As soon as the police are gone, Charles quickly packs, leaves everything ready to go, and runs to Clare's room. He knocks on her door. He knocks again, then opens the door. He thinks she is asleep and calls out to her that he's been busted. Silence. He climbs on the bed and, reaching for her, pulls back the blanket. He freezes in shock, then shakes in terror as he sees his hand covered with blood. He draws back and dashes frantically into the bathroom to wash off his hands. Just about to run out the door, he remembers he had left his watch. He grabs it and runs to his room. There he finds his backpack gone. Charles is now in a panic. He walks quickly down to the lobby, goes to a phone booth, and tries to place a call to the U.S. The damn Peruvian phones don't seem too work At last he has the Lima international operator on the line. His call cannot be placed for three hours because the circuits are busy. He leaves the booth in rage. He cannot wait that long. He must get out or risk being arrested for Clare's murder. He asks the clerk whether there are other public phones in town. There are none. As a last resort he asks the clerk to page Groves. Groves has left. Charles gets out and loses himself in the crowd. Feeling the cold afternoon wind, he tries to keep warm by rubbing his shoulders. As Lorenzo enter the valley of San Ramon on his final stretch into the town, he sees the US limousine and escort pass by at high speed. |
