The 38 Million Dollar Smile - Stevenson Richard - Страница 50

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was going to be insinuating Griswold out of the hospital and

into the back of one of Pugh’s vans without further injuring

Griswold or spooking the hospital staff into calling the police.

Pugh found the supervising physician and talked to him for

a few minutes in Thai, and then told Timmy and me, “It’s cool.

They’re going to load Khun Gary into the van in a few minutes.

They’ll even provide a mattress and sheets.”

“What did you tell the doctor?”

“That Nitrate is a seer who did Mr. Gary’s chart and

discovered that if he is to recover from his injuries expeditiously he must do so in Bangkok. It’s best that everyone here believe

that that is where we are heading. Also, I mentioned to the doc

that the phee of a man who has it in for Mr. Gary was spotted at the site of tonight’s car–bicycle accident, and he was also

observed outside this hospital a little while ago. So we must

move the patient for his own protection.”

“And the doctor believed that story?”

“Not necessarily. But he thinks I believe it, and he is

acquiescing in my wishes.”

“But won’t he ask Griswold what he wants to do?”

“Ek is at this moment informing Mr. Gary that General

Yodying is hot on his trail. And if he wants to complete his

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project instead of being flung into an abyss, he must come

along with us and recover from his injuries elsewhere. Ek is also telling him that he will be provided with the phone and

computer he wishes to have, and the privacy.”

“Rufus, this is getting dicey. Are we going to make it to

April twenty-seventh? I have a bad feeling that guys on

motorcycles wielding Chinese revolvers are going to turn up

well before then.”

“That, Khun Don, is why it may become necessary quite

soon to go on the offensive.”

“And how do we do that?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

§ § § § §

The clinic was a small but well-appointed place the size of

an American branch bank with a couple of tile-roofed

bungalows out back surrounded by flowers and fruit trees. Pugh

explained that Thailand had a two-tiered health care system, one public and one private, and as in the US, private was better,

though the public system wasn’t bad either.

It was after midnight when we got Griswold into his

bungalow. The hospital staff had doped him up for the ride. So

he was only half conscious when we laid him in his bed and

Pugh’s doctor pal, a woman named Nual Winarungruang, went

over Griswold’s charts, checked him out, put him on an IV

drip, and hooked him up to her own monitors. A nurse had

been called in to keep an eye on Griswold through the night. It

did not appear that we had been followed by anyone from

outside the hospital, so Pugh left Nitrate and the two part-time Dream Boys to watch over Griswold while the rest of us rode

back to the guesthouses.

Everyone had gone to bed except Kawee, Mango and Miss

Nongnat, who were still out by the pool drinking beer. Mango

was giving Miss Nongnat a massage on the chaise. For the sake

of efficiency, Pugh spoke to them in Thai and explained that

Griswold was recovering from his injuries, which were not

THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 223

severe, and he had been deposited in a safe house outside the

hospital.

We were all hot and worn-out, and Pugh said there were

extra bathing suits in the pool house if we wanted to have a

swim. We did want to, and we floated around under the stars

for an hour or so. Pugh excused himself and said he wanted to

pop in where Furnace and Miss Aroon were staying up the road

and would be back soon.

After Pugh left, Miss Nongnat asked Timmy and me if

either of us would like a smoke.

I wasn’t sure if she meant cigarettes or weed. Anyway, I said

no thanks, that I had quit years ago. Timmy mentioned that he

had never smoked at all, and Nongnat, Mango and Kawee all

had a good laugh over that.

Miss Nongnat said to Timmy, “No, honey, a smoke is a

blowjob.”

Timmy and I politely demurred, saying we had already had a

full day. Though after we excused ourselves and were heading

inside, we glanced back to see the three Thais strip off their

bathing attire and slide naked into the pool together in a kind of eroticized NFL-style huddle.

Up in our room, Timmy and I talked it over and concluded

that it was possible before we left Thailand we might join in one of those friendly huddles. But for the moment we just wanted

very much to be next to each other, relieved to be reunited, and happy to be alive.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

The unexpected flight from Hua Hin began just after dawn.

Pugh banged on our door and said we were leaving town

immediately. Police roadblocks had been set up on all the main

routes, and we would be departing Hua Hin by boat in twenty

minutes. His police sources had confirmed that General

Yodying had learned that we — and Griswold — were in Hua

Hin, so there was no way we could safely move about. And

anyway the general might dig up information on who Pugh’s

friends and acquaintances were in Hua Hin and launch a raid on

the compound. Pugh’s wife and children were moving into a

beach hotel under assumed names, and Miss Aroon and

Furnace would drive the two vans back to Bangkok.

Griswold was already at the compound, accompanied by Dr.

Nual and a nurse. He would be carried down to the nearby

beach on a stretcher, and we would have to get him into a small

boat and then out to a waiting cabin cruiser.

The skies had clouded over during the night, and just as we

began the hike down a sandy track to the beach, the clouds

broke loose and rain came crashing down in drops the size of

melon balls. Ever efficient, Pugh had anticipated the bad

weather and two of his crew had gotten hold of broad-brimmed

straw hats that they passed out to each of us. There were a

number of extra hats, and the Dream Boys wore those stacked

up on their heads one atop another. Occasionally a gust of wind

blew the extra hats off and all the Thais went chasing after

them, joshing one another and laughing. We were all soaked in

under a minute, although the air was so warm that nobody was

all that distracted or uncomfortable. Thunder rumbled and I

asked Pugh if people were ever struck by lightning on or near

this beach. He said sometimes but that on this day he was

feeling lucky.

A local guy Pugh knew had dragged his small boat with its

outboard motor up onto the beach. The surf was light, even in

226 Richard Stevenson

the rainstorm. Griswold was wide-awake and complaining about

being pummeled and shoved this way and that, and who could

blame him? He still had a headache, he said, and he was sore all over. He agreed, though, that Yodying and his agents were to

be avoided at all costs, and it would actually be easier to hide in Bangkok than in Hua Hin, now that Yodying had their number

locally.

Kawee, Mango and Miss Nongnat were hungover and not

happy about being yanked out of bed to go to sea in a

rainstorm, but once they were on the beach, they began to play

in the waves. The rest of Pugh’s crew were helpful and

attentive, but not without a lot of kidding around in between

tasks.

The forty- or fifty-foot cabin cruiser Pugh had arranged for

was anchored a hundred yards or more out in the surf, and we

were ferried out to it four at a time. There were twelve of us

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