The 38 Million Dollar Smile - Stevenson Richard - Страница 37
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She’s a Bangkok A-list celeb from an aristocratic family —
distantly related to Jack and Jackie, as she likes to remind folks
— who gets her name and her picture in the papers regularly.
She’s often seen in the company of soothsayer Surapol at merit-
making rituals at temples and upscale shopping centers around
Bangkok. Of course, there could be another wife of a Bangkok
pooh-bah with a sixtieth birthday on April twenty-seventh. I’ll
ask Khun Thunska to hack into city records and do a quick
search for other April twenty-seventh sixtieth birthdays. But
present circumstances do strongly suggest to me that Paveena is
our gal and General Yodying is our boy. I believe I assured you
earlier that General Yodying was our crook, not someone else’s.
You have my sincerest apologies for that miscalculation.”
I thought about this and said, “So, can I get my twenty-four
thousand dollars back?”
“Retrieving your money is the least of our worries,” Pugh
said. “Yodying is no doubt in touch with the kidnappers,
perhaps even directing them. It’s good that we did not involve
the police in the rescue effort we have planned.”
“You mean the rescue effort that might result in Timmy or
Kawee getting thrown off a building as a warning to us to back
off?”
“Yes, that very rescue effort. But we now have enough
information to deal with that particular thorny aspect of this
complex situation. Knowledge is power, after all.”
“I love your bromides, Rufus. I find them soothing. Back in
New Jersey, I may someday endow a bromide center at
Monmouth State and name it after you.”
“Thank you, Khun Don. You are a kind man.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Griswold phoned somebody he refused to identify to us and
tried to make a deal. First he offered 20 percent of the new
project, then 30, then 40, then 50. He told whoever was on the
other end of the line that that was as high as he could go. He
had told us before placing the call that offering 90 percent
would have been fine with him — after all, he’d be in the clear
with these people as of April 27 — but that doing so would
arouse suspicions about his sincerity. Also, he was unwilling to describe to the kidnappers the exact nature of the new can’t-gowrong project, and that probably did not inspire confidence.
Griswold hung up after a few minutes looking pale and
exhausted. “I’m sorry. They said no deal. They want me. I
suppose they think they can torture me and make me pay them
back the money they lost, and then they’ll kill me as a lesson to others not to fuck with them.”
I said, “Why not just give them the money? Three lives are
at risk here. How much did they lose?”
“Forty-three million US. I haven’t got that much. And what
I do have I will need for the Sayadaw U project. And also to
right a wrong that has festered for far too many years.”
He sat there beside Pugh’s desk in his shiny biking outfit,
reeking of stale sweat, and suddenly I wanted to pick him up
and toss him out a window myself. Here was a man who had
employed six month’s worth of meditation to empty his mind
of impurities and locate the peaceful core within, and yet he was going around wreaking bloody havoc wherever he turned. His
wheel of life was like some kind of rampaging buzz saw.
Surprising both Pugh and myself, I said, “Griswold, you
really have to consider giving yourself up to these people.
Maybe your present life just isn’t going to work out for you.
Plainly, your heart is generally in the right place, and if I
understand the rules of reincarnation correctly, you’ve earned a pretty good karmic report card overall. You’ve donated to lots
164 Richard Stevenson
of good causes over the years — Amnesty International and so
forth, and I’ll bet the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Fund.
And your Buddhist study center and theme park, even if it
never gets built, will surely earn you about a zillion points for good intentions. Your next life is bound to be both noble and
cushy. So maybe the right thing for you to do is to just call it quits for this particular incarnation and let Kawee live out his current putrid existence as he sees fit, and the same goes for
Timothy Callahan. Just give yourself up and let the karmic chips fall where they may. What do you think?”
Griswold sat glowering at me — he really would have to
speak to his ex-wife about the hired help — but Pugh looked
bemused.
Pugh said, “Khun Don, there is a certain Buddhist common
sense to what you say. But I am thinking that it really need not come to that.”
“So what do you have in mind, Rufus?”
“We can talk some more about that. Meanwhile, let’s get
Khun Gary spruced up a bit and into some fresh duds. Egg has
some clothes in the outer office that should fit you, Khun Gary.
There’s a shower, and if you like we can call in a masseur and
send out for a sack of grasshoppers in fish sauce for you to
nibble on. Be assured you shall have whatever your heart
desires, short of absconding. Egg will be following you
wherever you go and he will not hesitate to crack a few ribs to
sustain your cooperation. You are an extremely valuable
property for us, so there’s no chance we can allow you to slip
away. For now, Egg, please remove Khun Gary’s handcuffs.”
Griswold’s look softened, and he said, “This has turned into
quite a mess, I know. I do apologize for that. It’s not at all what I had in mind.”
“Apology accepted,” Pugh said. “Think nothing of it. Oh,
there is one thing you can do to express your regrets in a more
tangible way, and your doing so will be appreciated all around.
Your former wife has discharged Investigator Strachey and will
shortly cease paying his fees and underwriting his expenses. He
has already spent many thousands of dollars trying to save you
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 165
from a particularly unattractive form of dying fairly young.
Acting as Khun Don’s subcontractor, I also have incurred
expenses. If you could kindly cough up about fifty K, this
would go a long way toward easing any remaining bad feelings
in this room. We know you’re worth about thirty-eight mil, so
fifty thousand would be no skin off your back. How about it?
Good form is always appreciated in Thailand, as I’m sure you
know. Economic justice is farther down on our list of social
graces, but we here in this room like it, and we happen to own
your sorry ass.”
All serene again, Griswold said, “I can help you out, yes.”
He was back in Lady Bountiful mode.
“It would not be a charitable contribution, Khun Gary. It
would be a fee for a service rendered. That service being:
preventing three people, one of whom would be you, from
meeting the same sad fate as Khun Khunathip and your old
friend Geoff Pringle. Though please do understand. While we
are professionals at bailing out the hapless, we can only do what we can do. Your coughing up the fifty K in the next half hour,
if you please, does not guarantee success. We will, however, do
our darnedest.”
“The next half hour?”
“There are banks nearby. Or if you have a cash stash —
which surely you must — you can direct us to it.”
Griswold said, “Get me my bag.”
Pugh had already been through Griswold’s shoulder bag. It
contained a bottle of water, some vile PowerBar sort of thing
with a Malaysian label, and Griswold’s wallet. Griswold selected an ATM card from the six or seven in his wallet and wrote the
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