The 38 Million Dollar Smile - Stevenson Richard - Страница 43

safe and sound. But they had to be told — originally I had been

hired to find him, after all — so I told Chicarelli to inform the Griswolds we had Gary with us but that there were still plenty

of nettlesome unanswered questions as to his past activities and future intentions.

After Timmy’s shower and then mine, we heard a

commotion outside our room and went out to find Griswold

throwing a hissy fit at Pugh.

“Although I don’t object to your men watching over me to

see that I don’t bolt,” Griswold was saying, “you have to

understand that I am not going to run off. What I do object to is their listening in on all of my telephone conversations and —

good grief! really! — taking notes on whom I speak with and

what I say. You are not doing yourself or me any favors by

butting in this way, Rufus, and I am telling you that it is a great big pain in the neck.”

Pugh said, “Khun Gary. Do you have secrets from us? We

are your friends.”

THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 189

“It’s not a question of secrets, Rufus. There are no great

secrets on my part. It is a matter of simple privacy. I must be in touch with business associates to complete the Sayadaw U

project, and some of this involves sensitive information and

delicate negotiations involving people who would not be at all

pleased to be eavesdropped on.”

“I’m sorry you consider our watchfulness intrusive. We are

all in this together, after all. When I say that, I don’t mean the part about your worthy project. I mean the part about keeping

you from being hurled from a high place, as well as the part

about keeping your head from being made to explode. We do

need to be all on the same page in that regard, Khun Gary. So I

hope you will indulge us in this small way and let us keep track of your activities in a manner consistent with personal security professional standards.”

“Rufus, you’re quite the bullshit artist. Did anyone ever tell

you that?”

“Let me think.”

I said, “Griswold, I, for one, don’t trust you at all. You have

a track record of flying off the rails and causing all kinds of

ridiculous trouble, and you are definitely going to be monitored.

So get used to it.”

“I’m a little unclear,” Griswold said, “exactly what your

current role is here, Strachey. As I recall, didn’t my sister-in-law shit-can you? I think you told me that yourself. Hence, your

extortionate request for fifty thousand dollars to underwrite

what looks to me increasingly like a mere seaside vacation.”

Now Timmy spoke up. “Well, it certainly has not been any

kind of sun ’n’ sand holiday for me, Gary. Or haven’t you

noticed that?”

“Well, I am sorry about your being kidnapped. Really, I am.

It must have been a horrible ordeal. But the fact is, Timothy,

you did not need to come to Thailand in the first place, and I

can’t imagine what you thought you were getting yourself into.

Surely you must have done enough research to know of the violently inclined criminal elements in Thailand and about the

190 Richard Stevenson

corrupt police forces. Or didn’t your friend Donald inform you

about any of that?”

Timmy snorted with what could have been amusement.

“What’s so funny, Timothy? And you know, you both are

now free to leave Thailand at any time. Khun Rufus could drive

you over to the ferry terminal and put you on a boat for

Sihanoukville in Cambodia, and you could travel on to Phnom

Penh and be on your way out of Southeast Asia by this time

tomorrow. There’s really nothing holding you here as far as any

of the Griswolds are concerned. Am I right?”

Pugh said, “We’ve got your fifty K, Khun Gary. You hired

us to protect you until April twenty-seventh. Remember?”

Griswold bristled, but before he could tell us all to take the

fifty thousand dollars and shove it, I said, “Griswold, were you in Cambodia about two and a half weeks ago?”

“Yes, I was. Why?”

“What were you doing there?”

“Why do you ask? How would you even know that?”

“Elise Flanagan saw you.”

“That was Elise Flanagan. Oh God! I thought I saw her and she spotted me. At the Aranya Prathet border post. What the

hell was Elise doing entering Cambodia? She can barely find her

way from Key West to Homestead.”

“Elise was on her way to Angkor Wat with a tour group.

And you?”

“I was on my way back into Thailand on a visa run.”

“A what?”

“It’s hard for foreigners to obtain a long-term visa in

Thailand. The Thais like to be able to keep the worst of the

riffraff from overstaying their welcome in the Land of Smiles

— penniless ravers and druggies and notorious pedophiles and

so on. So in order to stay here, most farangs must have the

means to leave the country every three months and then reenter

with a new visa. It’s a kind of racket, actually. The government charges you for the visa, and airlines and tour operators make

THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 191

out even better. Me, I just hop on a van at Ekamai, read for a

couple of hours, and then cross and recross the border. You

can do it really fast by paying an extra twelve dollars for VIP

treatment, so-called. That means the Thai operators stand in the visa queue for you and bribe the Cambodian immigration

officials for fast service. In hot weather like this, it’s a bargain.”

“Well, it’s the only way your friends in Key West knew you

were even alive,” I said. “They were hugely relieved, but

confused too. Anyway, what happened six months ago that sent

you careening into oblivion? It would certainly help us decide

what to do next if we had a clearer picture of what precipitated all this weird to-ing and fro-ing in the first place.”

Griswold’s look darkened, and he was about to say

something and then didn’t.

I went on, “You e-mailed Janice Romeo that you had had a

disturbing reading from a soothsayer. Was that Khun

Khunathip?”

Griswold nodded. “Yes. It was.”

“Janice says you told her that the seer predicted bloodshed

in your life, and he said that great sorrow was in store for

people close to you.”

Griswold grunted. “Well? Was he right, or wasn’t he?”

“And that’s why you disappeared? Because of this

astrological forecast?”

“No,” Griswold said. “Khun Khunathip’s reading was just

the beginning.”

“The beginning of what?”

“Of a chain of events that led eventually to the Sayadaw U

project.”

“You’re leaving some stuff out, it seems.”

“You bet I am.”

“Why?”

“It is very dark.”

“Enlighten us. It can only help.”

192 Richard Stevenson

“Not yet.”

“Okay, when?”

“April twenty-seventh.”

“That’s a week and a half away. Today is the fifteenth.”

“That’s right. One and five. That is six.”

“Unlucky six. Okay. What about tomorrow, the sixteenth.

That’s a one and a six. Which equals seven. Isn’t that better?”

“Better but not best.” He looked at Pugh. “Am I right,

Khun Rufus?”

“Right as rain,” Pugh said and gave me a look that said not

to worry, we would find a way to squeeze it out of him.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Timmy and I walked over to Monkey Mountain to watch the

sunset. A long concrete staircase led up to the temple atop the

hill. Most of the gray monkeys were swinging in the trees at the foot of the staircase next to the food stalls, or scampering

around on the ground gobbling up bits of food left by tourists.

One of the bigger monkeys was hissing and squawking at the