The 38 Million Dollar Smile - Stevenson Richard - Страница 57

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“That may make it harder,” Pugh said, “to talk your younger

brother out of the transaction he is determined to conclude in a matter of hours — a transaction that will be detrimental not

only to your financial well-being but to your reputation in the

larger society. I know face is less important among farangs than among Thais. But may I please be the first to offer you my

deepest sympathies for your coming out of all this with an awful lot of egg on your face.”

It was then that Bill Griswold said he needed to have a look

in the minibar too.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Pugh and I rode back to the safe house and went up to

Griswold’s room. We relayed to him Ellen and Bill’s version of

events.

Without hesitation, Griswold said, “They’re conning you.”

“Maybe. But we don’t think so.”

“Hubbard and Mertz didn’t say a thing about a sex tape.

That makes no sense. They told me their tape had evidence of a

murder on it.”

“It was a bluff, and you fell for it. That’s what Ellen and

your brother think.”

Griswold’s face drooped. “But if they didn’t have Sheila

killed — if she just got drunk and fell overboard — that would

mean my whole exercise in atonement and trying to restore

moral balance for me and my family has been — pointless.”

“Making merit is never without its reasons,” Pugh said.

“And never without moral benefits for the merit-maker and for

the human race.”

I said, “I’d like to suggest that you at least see Bill and Ellen and hear them out before you take the final step. What’s to

lose? It might even make it easier for you. Tamp down doubts.

Clear away any pangs of conscience. Maybe they’ll even see how

worthy a project the Buddhism center is and want to make a big

contribution.”

“But the deed is practically done,” Griswold said. “I’ve

already accumulated controlling shares in Algonquin Steel. They

are in my name now, but unless I intervene the shares will pass

over to Khun Anant and his group at noon tomorrow, and the

consortium will begin work on the Sayadaw U project

immediately.”

Pugh said, “These valuable shares of stock are going

through Khun Anant? Oh, Khun Gary, I don’t know.”

256 Richard Stevenson

Now Griswold twitched. “But this is all for the propagation

of the Four Noble Truths. How could Anant dare to interfere

with such a worthy endeavor?”

Pugh shrugged. “Hypocrisy, as I believe I have mentioned

previously, is not unknown among Buddhists. Do you really

believe that Christians and Jews have a monopoly?”

Griswold looked at Pugh and then at me and then back at

Pugh. Finally, he said, “I’ll talk to Ellen and Gary first thing in the morning. Just to cover all the bases here. Can you set that

up?”

“Of course,” Pugh said. “Tomorrow is Friday, April

eighteenth, an auspicious day by anyone’s reckoning.”

“But my plan is to go ahead with the project,” Griswold

said. “Whatever Ellen and Bill might have to tell me about

Sheila and her death, it’s really too late to back out of the

Sayadaw U project. I’ll explain it all to Bill and Sheila and try to make them understand. Anyway, they have been such staunch

supporters of so much in America and the world that is greedy

and destructive, they really do need to have their souls cleansed even if they have not committed murder directly. Which I am

not yet convinced that they have not.”

I said, “You’re going to ruin their lives because they’re

Republicans, Griswold? That’s harsh.”

“Oh, I don’t think so at all. No, unless Bill and Ellen can tell me something I don’t already know about themselves and me

and the lives all of us have led, I really see no reason to

postpone the Sayadaw project at all. Also, I can’t quite bring

myself to believe that Khun Anant would attempt to cheat me.

That strikes me as extremely unlikely. Khun Pongsak has

vouched for him, after all.”

I said, “You mean Pongsak, the soothsayer who you just

bribed?”

Griswold nodded feebly, and you didn’t have to believe in

astral and planetary influences on human events to grasp that

Friday was going to be memorable.

§ § § § §

THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 257

The plan was for Nitrate to pick Ellen and Bill up at the

Oriental at seven Friday morning before the morning traffic

became too grisly. We would all have breakfast together by the

pool, and then Bill, Ellen, and Gary would go sit under the

banyan tree in the back of the garden and hash out their

differences. Then Griswold would either proceed with his

turning over Algonquin Steel to Anant na Ayudhaya at midday

for the Sayadaw project, or he would do something else.

All that began to fall apart at six ten. That’s when Nitrate

drove back through the gate at the safe house ten minutes after

he had departed. He told Pugh, who told Timmy and me, that

roadblocks had been set up by the army — all over Bangkok,

apparently — and nobody in the city was going anywhere.

Public transportation didn’t seem to be running either. Minutes

later, Pugh’s cell phone began to ring. Pugh’s crew started

monitoring Bangkok television and radio stations. No official

word had yet come from anyone, including the king. But

everyone in the city seemed to have concluded that a military

takeover of Thailand’s democratically elected government was

under way.

Griswold came down from his room and looked almost

cheerful. A nurse had been in to change his dressings and

bandages, and he appeared less beat-up and bedraggled than he

had a day earlier.

The air hadn’t yet turned hot and soggy, so we all gathered

by the pool for tea and fruit. Pugh had somebody walk over to

the Topmost and come back with some rice and a bag of bacon.

I tried to phone Ellen and Bill at the Oriental to alert them

that no one would be picking them up anytime soon. But by

then the cell phone circuits were all jammed and I was unable to get through. The landline at the safe house wasn’t working

either. The hotel staff would no doubt cheerfully explain to

Ellen and Bill about the coup, an occasional feature of the Land of Smiles.

Griswold beamed. “Khun Anant is as good as his word.

General Yodying will be history by the end of the day, and we’ll all be safe and free to resume our lives. Isn’t that great?”

258 Richard Stevenson

Timmy said, “What will become of Yodying? Will he be

prosecuted for corruption?”

“Perhaps,” Griswold said. “Or he may flee the country. That

sort of thing happens.”

Pugh said, “He might fly to Singapore and visit his money.”

Kawee, Mango and Miss Nongnat came outside and joined

us. They were all antiregime and were delighted to see the

scoundrels getting heaved out.

Kawee said, “His Majesty the King, he save us one more

time. I love my king!”

“Won’t there be any resistance?” I asked. “The regime must

have some support or they wouldn’t have been elected.”

“Pro-regime crowds will march around yelling and waving

signs,” Pugh said. “But they won’t challenge the army. As soon

as an official announcement comes from the palace endorsing

the coup, people will go home and have some rice and burn

incense and light candles and watch soap operas. Then in six

months or so, new elections will produce another coalition of

crooks to run the country in cooperation with the banks and the

soothsayers and the tourism board. And the endless Thai cycle

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