Chapter 3: Maria Aguilar

As we prepared for takeoff, she opened the window and I looked out. She caught my eye.

“Are you American?” she asked in that cute accent of most Panamanian girls.

“Yes, but I have lived here in Panama for three years now.”

“Boquete?” she inquired.

“No, the other side of the mountain. Near Rio Sereno.” I joked.

“I’m stationed in Rio Sereno at the moment. I’m sorry, I should introduce myself, I am Maria Aguilar, actually Captain Aguilar, with the National Police. I am what you Americans call a prosecuting Attorney. How about you?”

“My name is Cody Taylor.”

“Are you with that big coffee farm?”

“I own it.”

Then we were instructed to get ready for take-off. Once we were in the air I asked, “So how do you like living in Rio Sereno?”

“I hate it. I’m a city girl. I was assigned up here to investigate a gang living in Costa Rica but harassing the businesses in Rio Sereno. They provide a ‘vaccum’ to protect your store from being vandalized. Nothing more than extortion. I have discovered that they are negotiating with a cartel in Colombia to open a new drug smuggling route through Rio Sereno. We also believed them to be involved in other endeavors like selling drugs there in Chiriqui and human trafficking.”

“Sounds like a bad group of guys.”

“They are. They call themselves Los Diablos, the devils. They are led by one man, Roger Caparosa. He is a Panamanian that did 5 years in an American prison for selling drugs while he was an exchange student in the States. I have enough evidence to seek indictments on him and some of his men when I get back.”

I decided to try and change the subject. “So what were you doing in Panama City?”

“Visiting my mother and father for the holidays.”

It was the first week in November and Panama celebrates their independence for a week. There are lots of parades and parties.

We were talking about the rain as we prepared for landing. There is always a lot of rain in November, but this year it was exceptionally heavy.

We landed and of course it was raining. In the terminal she took my arm and asked if I was driving home tonight. I was.

“Can I follow you through the mountains to Rio Sereno? It will be dark and with this rain there are sure to be trees down in the road. I would feel safer if I was behind someone.”

I told her I always carried a machete and an axe in my truck so for her not to worry. As we left the airport I thought I should have asked her to supper before we left David, but I too wanted to get home before it got too late. That road can be dangerous at night.

We were about 30 minutes from Rio Sereno when I pulled to a stop. There was a tree in the road. I grabbed my machete and axe and exited the truck. The rain had stopped about 10 minutes ago, thank God. I laid the axe down and began cutting the branches with the machete. Maria exited her car and stood watching me in the headlights. I looked at her and smiled. Typical city girl! A girl raised here in the mountains, a Chiricana, would be helping. She would have a machete in her car and use it to cut the branches while I used the axe to cut the trunk of the tree. This girl just stood and watched, she did not even offer to help as I moved the branches off to the side of the road. After I cut the trunk of the tree into pieces that I could move off the road, we were back in the vehicles and on our way.

I took her all the way into Rio Sereno. She had told me she lived at the police station near the border, so I escorted her there. She parked as I turned my truck around. As she leaned in the window and told me thanks for escorting her home. I invited her to visit me at the farm, offering that she might like a home cooked meal and saying that I had a really good cook. I was surprised when she said she was very busy with her case against the diablos and probably would not have time.

I can take a hint, so I wished her luck with her case and drove home.

We were busy harvesting coffee so I did not have much time to think about Maria. Three days later I walked into my kitchen to find both my cook and the housekeeper along with Jose watching the television.

“Have you seen the news about what happened in Rio Sereno last night?”

“No, I have not”.

“There was a drive by shooting at the police station. Two policemen were killed and a captain badly injured.”

“Who is the Captain?”

“There on the screen, that woman.”

A picture of Captain Maria Aguilar in her dress uniform, her hair pulled back in a bun under a military cap, was looking at me from the TV as a voice said she was badly wounded but expected to survive. She was in the hospital in Rio Sereno.