The 38 Million Dollar Smile - Stevenson Richard - Страница 55

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“When they approached Bill and threatened to turn him and

Ellen in, he told them that company stock was down and he

was unable to sell any shares, and he was cash poor. He told

them I had a lot of cash, and he knew that I would do the right

244 Richard Stevenson

thing in order to protect the reputations and memories of our

parents. And he was right about that. My parents were not

understanding with me when I came out, and that hurt. But

overall they were decent human beings who did their best in the

world. And they never disinherited me either, and that has made

the Sayadaw U project possible, and a lot of other meritorious

works too. Not just concert halls in Rochester, but projects that will make the world a saner and more peaceful place for

thousands of years to come.”

“Did you listen to the so-called incriminating tape?”

“It was actually a video. A DVD, they said. I didn’t want to

see it and really didn’t need to. Duane said they had showed it

to Bill and Ellen, and that’s when they were told to get in touch with me. Bill and Ellen, in fact, were given a copy of it. Of

course, they probably destroyed it immediately.”

“Did you tell them that Hubbard and Mertz had come here

to blackmail you and that you had acceded to their demands?”

“No. My plan is to inform them after the takeover of the

company by my Thai investment group and the transfer of the

shares to the Sayadaw project. That would have been on the

twenty-seventh, but now it’ll be the eighteenth, which is even

better. There’s less chance that anything will go wrong if we

wrap this up posthaste.”

“There may be a hitch,” I said.

Griswold stiffened. “What hitch?”

“Ellen and Bill know what you are up to. She called me.

They are plenty upset about the company takeover. And they

also know that you know about the Hubbard–Mertz

connection. I seem to have indirectly and inadvertently tipped

them off about that. Sorry. But it might actually be good that all the Griswolds are finding out what all the other Griswolds are

thinking and what each of you is up to. And unless all of you lie through your teeth even when you are face-to-face, some useful

clearing of the air might be about to break out. That’s because

Ellen and Bill are en route to Bangkok as we speak. They’ll

arrive later this afternoon.”

THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 245

Griswold went white. “Oh no. Do you realize what this

could mean, Strachey?”

“What?”

“More sorrow and bloodshed.”

Griswold sat looking over at me from between his bandages,

his eyes full of desolation and fear. I wasn’t sure if he was

uncannily prescient or if he basically just needed to stay off

bicycles.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Griswold would not agree to see his brother and sister-inlaw until the day after their arrival late Thursday afternoon. He said this was for their own safety. On Friday, Griswold said, a

change of government would remove General Yodying from

power, and he would no longer be a threat to any of us. Friday

would also, of course, be too late for Bill and Ellen to talk Gary into holding on to the controlling shares of Algonquin Steel

instead of turning them over to the Thai group running the

Sayadaw U project. I asked Griswold about that, and he said,

“Yep. Too bad.”

Griswold was kept under close watch at the safe house

through the day, and then while Nitrate picked up Bill and Ellen at Suvarnabhumi. They were coming in on the same flight from

New York that Timmy and I had arrived on six days earlier.

Kawee, Mango and Timmy splashed around in the swimming

pool throughout the day. I had a brief swim too, and also

managed to reach Bob Chicarelli in Albany just before he went

to bed.

“Hey, Bob, somebody you were asking about Hubbard and

Mertz blabbed to Bill and Ellen. They’re spitting nickels. It isn’t pretty.”

“I know. Sorry, Strachey. They’re trying to get me

disbarred.”

“Can they?”

“Nah. I’m not representing them in anything.”

“Me either. I’m not sure I’m representing anybody. At this

point, it’s all for the Enlightened One.”

“Don’t forget to send him a bill.”

“So, did you pick up anything on Hubbard and Mertz?”

“They’re in Albany and not doing all that great. Hubbard is

back working as a personal trainer, and Mertz is supposedly

dealing crystal meth. They got hold of a lot of money

248 Richard Stevenson

somewhere last fall, but they lost it. Some guy from Miami

conned them out of it with a scheme to open a Mexican fast-

food chain where you could also work out. But then this dude

disappeared with most of the dough. It was going to be called

Taco Terrifico or something like that.”

I told Chicarelli that Ellen and Bill Griswold were at that

moment high above the Pacific en route to Thailand to

confront Gary. “Gary thinks Ellen and Bill had Sheila Griswold

killed by Hubbard and Mertz, and he’s determined to ruin their

lives. Their present lives anyway. Over here people make those

distinctions. I’m not sure what Bill and Ellen know or think, but they absolutely deny any involvement in Sheila’s death. The

only really sure thing is, we’ve got quite a face-off in the works over here.”

“It might interest you to know,” Chicarelli said, “that

Hubbard and Mertz used to dabble in gay porn. They’re a little

too mature for that by now. But a guy I know in the DA’s

office said there was a gay porn video production operation in

Schenectady for a while in the nineties, and those two were

involved in both production work and performing.”

“So Schenectady was the Budapest of the Mohawk Valley? I

never knew that.”

“It didn’t last, apparently.”

I said, “Was it just gay? Or did they do bi stuff, too?”

“That I can’t tell you.”

“Well, good luck keeping your license, Bob”

“You too, Strachey.”

§ § § § §

The Oriental Hotel, where the Griswolds had chosen to stay

despite their apparent precarious financial state, had retained its cachet but only a little of its former Victorian-era charm. The

ghosts of Conrad and Maugham did not greet us as Pugh and I

strode past the doorman toward the elevators. But even the

rooms in the modern tower section of the hotel were spiffy and

THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 249

spacious and had a nice view of the hotel’s riverside gardens

and the dragon-tail boats on the Chao Phraya beyond.

The rooms also had TV sets with built-in DVD players, and

that was useful for taking a gander at the video Pugh and I were about to watch along with Ellen and Bill.

“I’m really hurt,” Ellen said to me, “that Gary would think I

could kill another person. I thought he knew me better than

that, and this really all just breaks my heart.”

“Gary and I were never close,” Bill said, “and I know he

rejects many of my values. But same as Ellen, I’m really just

terribly, terribly disappointed that my brother would see me as a person who would take a human life.”

“Even Sheila’s,” Ellen added and threw me a look.

The Griswolds were not their freshest. Both had showered

and changed clothes before Pugh and I arrived just after eight

Thursday night. But the seventeen-hour slog across the Pacific

and the twelve-hour time difference had beaten them down,

and they looked as if they could have used a week on the beach

at Phuket instead of a confrontation with a man bent on making

them pay for committing a murder they denied having anything

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