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    The Dark Side of Pura Vida: Murder, Betrayal, Abduction and Revenge in the Vacation Paradise
    The Dark Side of Pura Vida: Murder, Betrayal, Abduction and Revenge in the Vacation Paradise
    The Dark Side of Pura Vida: Murder, Betrayal, Abduction and Revenge in the Vacation Paradise
    Ebook119 pages1 hour

    The Dark Side of Pura Vida: Murder, Betrayal, Abduction and Revenge in the Vacation Paradise

    By James J. Brodell

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    About this ebook

    Retired baseball player Jack Patterson becomes suspicious after his younger sister dies in a Pacific Ocean rip tide while on vacation in Costa Rica. Jack has to go there to find answers to troubling questions. But soon he is hijacked by a gang of self-described justice avengers led by a young and icy Costa Rican-American woman who carries twin pistols strapped to her chest and does not balk at using a car battery and cables to get the answers she needs. Jack soon helps uncover corruption and greed that runs counter to the country’s laid-back slogan of Pura Vida, the pure life. The crimes seem to come from the highest levels of the Central American nation’s society as the pair try to find the kidnapped sister of the gun-totting woman. They are shocked to find they are dealing with baby sellers and illegal adoptions amid a swamp of criminality. Jack and his new teammates confront a litany of the dark secrets of the vacationland and make narrow escapes with six infants rescued from the baby sellers but with prices put on their heads by the intellectual authors of the loose criminal network.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJames J. Brodell
    Release dateJun 25, 2017
    ISBN9781370124992
    The Dark Side of Pura Vida: Murder, Betrayal, Abduction and Revenge in the Vacation Paradise
    Author

    James J. Brodell

    James J. Brodell considers himself a skeptic or an iconoclast, perhaps due to the 50 years as a reporter and editor. His novels and short stories builds on the wacky incidents he has witnessed. He said he prefers short stories because he has a short attention span.

    Read more from James J. Brodell

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      Book preview

      The Dark Side of Pura Vida - James J. Brodell

      The Dark Side of Pura Vida

      Murder, betrayal, abduction and revenge in the vacation paradise

      By

      James J. Brodell

      Published by James J. Brodell at Smashwords

      ISBN: 9781370124992

      Retired baseball player Jack Patterson becomes suspicious after his younger sister dies in a Pacific Ocean rip tide while on vacation in Costa Rica. Jack has to go to find the answers to troubling questions. But soon he is hijacked by a gang of self-described justice avengers led by a young and icy Costa Rican-American woman who carries twin pistols strapped to her chest and does not balk at using a car battery and cables to get the answers she needs. Jack soon helps uncover corruption and greed that runs counter to the country’s laid-back slogan of Pura Vida, the pure life. The rot seems to run to the highest levels of the Central American nation’s society as the pair try to find the kidnapped sister of the gun-toting woman. They are shocked to find they are dealing with baby sellers and illegal adoptions amid a swamp of criminality.

      Copyrighted 2017 James J. Brodell

      Table of contents

      Chapter One: A death in the family

      Chapter Two: The suspicion grows

      Chapter Three: It’s time for action

      Chapter Four: A special hooker

      Chapter Five: An evacuation snatch

      Chapter Six: Off to the swinger hotel

      Chapter Seven: A narrow escape

      Chapter Eight: An initial interrogation

      Chapter Nine: Learning the territory

      Chapter 10: The helpful lawyer

      Chapter 11: The deadly raid

      Chapter 12: Fleeing to the States

      Chapter 13: Resolution

      Chapter One: A death in the family

      The phone was ringing, and the clock said 3:45 a.m.

      Nothing good comes this early, thought Jack as he roused himself enough to answer. As expected considering the time, the call was his mother with bad news. Adriana, his sister, died in a rip tide somewhere in Central America.

      You've got to go and bring my baby home, said his mother.

      The news was a shock. He was not that close to his sister. She was 12 years his junior at 25. He was a high schooler when she was a tot. But she did try to come to all his baseball games when the Sox were in town. And he was hoping for some nice nephews if she, the consummate professional woman, ever married.

      How the heck did an athlete like her get trapped in a rip tide, he asked himself. Gazing at the icy world outside, a trip south was not unwelcome. But not under these circumstances. Not that he, a retired major league ball player, had anything pressing at the moment. He was starting to get fat around the middle, and he had not yet found anything to substitute for those 20 years of dedication to the game.

      He had heard about Costa Rica from some of his teammate buddies. The sports fishing, the women chasing, the women catching. He seldom ventured outside Illinois except to play baseball and hunt. And his Roman Catholic upbringing pretty well lobbied against casual romances. Just like my sister, he thought as he quickly chronicled her life from high school to an accounting degree and progress in a major company. She was dedicated, too, and look what happened, he thought.

      The trip from Chicago to Houston and then to San José was uneventful. One youngster recognized him and got an autograph. That was the first time in four months, he mused. How quickly fame flees, he thought, remembering that he never was one of those world famous long-ball hitters. He was a journeyman second baseman who had fought his way through university, the minors and the internal politics to win five good years as a starter on a major league team. Nothing really prepared me for afterwards, he said to himself as he toyed with self-pity.

      He had money. While teammates self-destructed themselves with multiple divorces and alimony, he quietly invested his earnings. Even after providing support for his mother in Florida, he had enough for a quiet, frugal retirement for the next 50 years.

      Uggg! he shuddered. What a thought.

      There were not a lot of baseball fans in Costa Rica, so he passed unknown through immigration and customs. No one even opened his carryon bag. The taxi setup was slick with English speakers in the dispatcher's booth as well as driving the orange cab. Ditto at the Holiday Inn.

      But the assistant manager, a fellow named José, seemed sincere as he expressed his sympathy when he learned why Jack was there. You better find a translator to accompany you because not a lot of the policemen speak English, he cautioned. I got a nephew who grew up in Los Angeles, and he just came back last month. He would go with you for a reasonable price. I'll tell him you are here on a mission of family tragedy. He can be here in an hour.

      José's nephew, Gerardo, was a bit rough on the edges with his tattoos and English laced heavily with street slang. But $10 an hour seemed like a good price for a few hours of translating.

      After telephone calls, Gerardo announced to Jack that his sister was at the judicial morgue in nearby Heredia. In a half hour and $30 later, the two were in an office at the morgue discussing the procedure for repatriation of his dead sister. The morgue attendant, the assistant director, also was very sympathetic.

      Mr. Patterson, you have no idea how many Northern Americans, Gringos, die here each year, and many are victims of the sea, he said. There was nothing unusual in your sister's case. It was just one of those dangerous Pacific rip tides that carried her away from the beach, and there are no life guards on that section of Herradura. There should be, but this is a poor country.

      The assistant director already had made arrangements with a local funeral home, and the funeral home was where arrangements would be made for a flight home.

      I have some personal effects here, said the assistant director via Gerardo. Everyone thinks we Costa Ricans are all thieves, but we have respect for the dead and their families, he said as he placed a small envelope into Jack's hands. She was swimming, so there is not much here, but I understand her companions took back all her luggage.

      Jack opened the envelope. Inside were a pair of gold earrings and a gold bracelet. She was wearing that on her ankle, said the assistant director via Gerardo.

      The funeral home representative came to the Holiday Inn. Just a few credit card numbers were all that he needed to assure that the casket would be on the next Continental flight to Houston and then to Chicago. He, too, lamented the tragedies that take place when people are enjoying their vacation.

      The next morning, Jack was on his way back home with his sister in the cargo compartment. He watched the ground crew send the casket up the conveyor belt.

      His mother would meet him at the airport. She was flying in from Florida. The funeral Mass would be at the family's old parish, near where they lived for nearly all Jack's life until his father's death and his mother's flight to warmer weather.

      Jack spent the funeral supporting his mother and had little time to meet all who attended. Colleagues from work. A young man named Ronnie, who said he was dating Adriana. He gave Jack his card. There were even a few old neighbors and a couple of Jack’s former teammates.

      Jack was anxious to see Fred and Mary Ryan. They were with his sister when she was swept out to sea. Fred had done well for himself and Mary in the insurance and real estate businesses. It actually was Mary who’d invited Adriana to the Costa Rican vacation. She was patching up a rough year with Fred when they almost divorced. She wanted to share the trip and lean on

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