Deadly Decoy by Poch Peralta (best book clubs txt) 📕

The prototype of a small, training plane of Capt. William Morayta was almost finished. Almost after a week more before the awaited test flight. He was working on it when Army General Deramos, an acquaintance, paid a visit.
‘The door was closed’, General Deramos abruptly said. ‘But since what you need to know is urgent, I let myself in without knocking’. Captain William Morayta was unsure how to reply so he just stared at the arrogant Deramos and waited. The prototype of a small, training plane of Capt. William Morayta was almost finished. Almost after a week more before the awaited test flight.
‘What you’re doing is good for the county’s economy. But someone up there doesn’t like what you’re doing,’ the general continued.
‘What are you trying to tell me? Do you want me to scrap my project when it’s almost finished?’
‘I just don’t want you to get in trouble.’
‘So what would you do if I go on with this?’
‘Up to you. I just came to give you a friendly advice and I hope you listen. Good day captain.’ Deramos turned then walked away.
Now why would someone from high would want Morales to abandon his project when it was good for the economy? Morayta’s joy with his project now turned into worry or even dread. But he wasn’t a pushover. No one could scare him from going on.

Carolyn Morayta was a recent widow and is now a client of Joe Picasso. She’s fifty-one and was married to Captain William Morayta. Was because her husband Will just recently died from a bullet in his head. And that’s why Mrs. Morayta was talking to Joe P now.
Capt. Morayta was a pilot of Madrid Airways. He was fifty-four when he died. Two years earlier, he started building a prototype of a light two-seater plane. His project was a success. The plane passed the test flight. He parked the plane where he built and designed it—in a hangar owned by Madrid Airways.
The next day during the celebration party, The Moraytas and some of their guests went to the hangar (of course the guests would like to see the successful plane). When they arrived at the hangar, there wasn’t any plane there. Of course the captain was shocked. After a moment of shock, he told his guests to return to his house with his wife while he ‘clarify this mystery’.
After everyone was gone, Morayta asked every employee of Madrid Airways : ‘Where’s my plane?’
Nobody knows. Of course everyone was busy doing their job.
The next day, Captain Morayta was found dead somewhere between his house and the hangar.


‘A whole damn plane is missing and the only damn clue we have is a 9mm bullet,’ Picasso said to Victor Bravo whom he calls Torv. He’s his partner at the Picasso Investigation Agency.
They questioned the guard assigned on the night of the plane’s disappearance. The guard said he saw two men—one in a pilot’s uniform, the other in a Madrid Airways uniform. They drove the plane away. He wasn’t sure if the plane took-off or not.
Stealing a plane had become easy too in this new millennium.


Joe P is fairly ruggedly handsome. Medium-build at five foot nine. In contrast, his partner Bravo is neatly handsome. Taller than Joe P at five foot eleven but with less muscle. Joe P is forty-one while Bravo is thirty-seven.
‘Got any idea Torv?’
‘Maybe it was stolen so that the design could be copied. A friend of Morayta told us that the design wasn’t expensive so the plane would be good for mass production. Maybe the captain threatened the guy who killed him.’ A pause. Then, ‘What about the general Deramos Mrs. Morayta said warned her husband.’
‘We got no evidence of the meeting. Maybe the general was too foxy as to avoid any witnesses or threaten them. He denied ‘warning’ Morayta about the plane.’


On his bed and ready to sleep, Joe P recalled the word ‘design’ mentioned by Bravo earlier. Design. Of course the design would be on sheets of paper. Blueprints they call them. So what to do about them even if the blueprints were produced? Seconds of time passed. Then BANG! Finally a great idea was in Joe’s head.

Next day at Joe P's office.
‘We gotta see Mrs. Morayta and hope that the plane blueprints are still in her house.' Joe told Bravo. The house was just about two miles away. Or fifty minutes away.
When Mrs. Morayta met them at the door, Joe said, 'Good morning ma'am. Could we come inside and ask a few questions?' 'Sure. Of course. Come in.' Mrs. M replied. When they were all seated, Bravo said, 'We need to know if you still possess the design, the blueprints of the plane.' 'The design? Let me see if I could find it in Will's room. It must still be there.' She stood up and left.
After a minute, she came back carrying nothing. Oh oh. Joe and Bravo glanced at each other. But she announced: 'I think you should come and take a look yourselves. They're too heavy for me to carry alone anyway.' Bingo!
Some of the papers were on a table. Some still inside a drawer. But it was definitely the plane design. They gathered all the papers and went back to the living room.
'Do you want a drink or a snack?' Mrs. M asked. Both men only wanted water.
'Now this is my idea ma'am. What I plan to do is bait the plane thieves. I suggest we build another plane with this same plan or blueprints. I believe the thieves or the murderer of your husband will try to stop or steal the project again. When they do, we’ll be able to identify them.’ Joe paused then went on.
‘Now this plan is a gamble and would cost you as high as .8 million dollars depending on when the criminals would react for us to catch them. If you decide to continue with this plan, you just tell us. If you decide not to, then I’m afraid we have to end this investigation. This plan is our last chance. The only thing left for us to go on.
‘We have to go now ma’am…’
‘Wait,’ Mrs. M said. ‘I want this to go on. I have two sons and a daughter who can help me with the expenses. Raising money wouldn’t be too hard. I want the investigation to continue.’
‘If that’s what you want ma’am, then we’ll continue. I need you to give me all the contacts of the captain. Friends, acquaintances, everyone in his address book. We’ll come back for it later. Remember to keep the plan confidential ma’am. We don’t want to waste time and money.’
‘Of course. I understand.’
‘Then we’ll see you later ma’am.’


Picasso hired a different contractor to build the ‘bait’ plane. If he used the same builders Capt. Morayta hired, the plane thief would smell the trap. Since Madrid Airways honored and sympathized with their fallen captain, The company confidentially cooperated with Joe P. They let him use their facility. Of course, they used a different hangar too this time.
To further avoid being detected by the perp they were trying to bait, Joe sub-contracted another Private eye and friend Elvis Pico to pose as one of the plane mechanics. Elvis was at the hangar only once a week just to ‘show face.’ All the other metal workers don’t know the real reason why they’re building the plane.

A little more than two months later, Elvis informed Joe.
‘Someone’s nosing around. Sometimes in army uniform, sometimes in civvies.’ Elvis was able to steal a digital camera shot of the soldier later and gave the picture to Joe.
Bravo tailed the man until he learned that the soldier was a Deramos aide. Surprise, surprise! Time for Joe P to join the legwork.
Through one of Joe’s friends in the army, he learned that the soldier’s name is Brett Almonte. A captain.
The hangar where the second plane was being built is now in constant watch 24/7 (twenty-four hours everyday). The blueprints of the plane was returned and kept safe everyday in one of Joe’s safe house from the hangar. The foreman named Gary Mastela who carries the blueprints was tailed everyday, sometimes by Joe or Bravo or another PI.
The foreman and the prints were also now targets for the perps. On the bright side, also baits now!
Joe and his men were now awaiting and expecting a major move from the bad guys.

Six days later, a major break came. Joe made a background check of a man meeting with Gen. Deramos. The man turned out to be an executive of Sierra Leone Aire named Conrad Espares.
‘It gets more interesting. From top to bottom, everyone in SLA are left leaning.’ Joe said. ‘Communists or socialists, whatever.’
‘So it’s a political war?’ asked Bravo.
‘Or economic. Or both. If SLA murdered Morayta for politics, he was also killed as an economic rival because if his plane was ever mass- produced, Madrid Air would surely shoot up financially. I don’t have to tell you that most political murders are done for money. Only a few crazy idealists kill for pure politics.’
‘Hey man! I think we’re going big time with this if it’s politics. National politics isn’t always just national you know.’
‘Yeah. Mostly it’s international. We might have to send legmen abroad. Even hire foreign agents… wow.’ Joe said wistfully.

Joe failed to buy crime books earlier because there was no time left to do that. It was his longtime habit to read before sleeping.
He found a stray book by Emily Carr—a journal. He scanned the book until he reached this passage :
(Sep 4 1939)

'...perhaps some day radio will be so powerful (probably she meant phones too) that battlefield screams and the suck of sinking ships with their despairing chorus of the drowning will reach our ears... if the air were filled with sobbing nations, one could not bear it... when I told my maid there was a war, she laughed. It made me very angry. It was so with the two maids before this one... here was some new half- joke to explore and they sniffed around it, pleasurably excited on any change in the monotony of life that would make for variety.' True prophecy and comedy in one article! Sometimes, it pays to read stray books thought Joe!
Two days later, while the foreman was walking towards his car, someone approached him on the stealth.