The CAT is the Center for Tropical Agriculture located on the Atlantic slope of Costa Rica. Inspector Bismark Pacheco, the most respected man man in the entire country, is called to solve the mystery of who killed a visiting scientist with a lance to the throat.
Bismark Pacheco Pacheco, descended from the Bri Bri Indians and trained as a guerilla fighter in the Nicaraguan civil war by operatives of the United States Central Intelligence Agency, goes to work for the Costa Rican Ministry of Justice after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point. Pacheco soon becomes the premier crime detective in the land.
Inspector Pacheco is called to investigate a murder at the Center for Tropical Agriculture (The CAT) on the Atlantic slope of Costa Rica where he finds an international web of intrigue that tests the limit of his skills.
Eight more violent deaths are recorded as Pacheco's investigation proceeds, and Pacheco himself is threatened. Pacheco contemplates the comfort of frontier justice when he weighs his knowledge of the Costa Rican court system against the depth of villainy he uncovers.
Excerpt
Bismark Pacheco Pacheco was in charge. But for the lack crossed cartridge belts over his chest, Pacheco could have been a survivor of Pancho Villas' army. He was of medium height, solidly built, with thick powerful wrists, and a dense black mustache that drooped almost to his jaw line. Beneath his wide black belt were two cream-colored money belts, one positioned just below his well-muscled abdomen, the other in the small of his back; each held 50 United States of America 100 dollar bills. Pacheco never went anywhere without enough cash to take him around the world at least once.
