The 38 Million Dollar Smile - Stevenson Richard - Страница 61

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perhaps violence would suddenly break out. Then we realized it

was flowers that people were tossing through the air, and some

of the soldiers had wrapped garlands of marigolds and jasmine

around their helmets.

Timmy said, “I hate the corruption in Thailand. I really do.

And I’m not prepared to mutter, ‘It’s Chinatown, Jake,’ and just gloomily move on. If I were Thai, I would definitely be up to

my receding hairline working with the good-government

groups, just like I did in Albany in the eighties. But the

corruption here isn’t what’s most profoundly Thai. What’s most

deeply Thai, I think, is Buddhist perspective and ethics and

sane-heartedness.”

“Don’t forget sanuk.”

“Maybe that especially.”

“And of course, lying down in the early evening with some

satiny-skinned butch lady-boy for a few kisses and a relaxing

mutual wank before enjoying a splendid green curry under a full

moon.”

“Those are definitely among the most enchanting forms of

Thai sanuk.”

I said, “It’s a shame about the Griswolds. Especially Gary —

the guy’s instincts were as pure as they could possibly be. He

THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 273

was oh so naive, but his heart was good. We have to track him

down when we get home and see if we can be of any help. It’s

the least we can do, since I was hired to get the guy out of any scrape he was in and I didn’t exactly succeed at that. Anyway,

without Griswold, it’s unlikely we would have come here and

rediscovered — discovered for the first time in your case —

this magical kingdom.”

“I wonder,” Timmy said, “what really happened with Sheila

Griswold? It was her disappearance that set all this craziness in motion in the first place.”

“Sometimes,” I said, “‘It’s Chinatown, Jake’ isn’t about a

strange and unknowable place. It’s about a strange and

unknowable family. The Griswolds may be one of those

families.”

Timmy said, “Do you think we’ll ever know the truth about

Sheila?”

“Maybe in our next lives,” I said. “We’ll just have to be

more patient than we’re used to.”

But then people all around us began to shush one another,

and us. For the king was about to speak.

EPILOGUE

Thailand was inexpensive enough for us to stay around for

another eight days without breaking the bank. The coup

discouraged new tourists from arriving, so it was never hard to

get a table in a restaurant, and there were fewer buff Bavarians to compete with during our predinner visits to Paradisio.

Both General Yodying and Anant na Ayudhaya, choosing

exile over jail, had flown to Singapore for extended stays, so it was unclear what would become of Gary Griswold’s condo.

Meanwhile, Kawee, Mango and Miss Nongnat moved into the

apartment. All three had been hired by Pugh to work as

operatives for him, so among them they could afford the

maintenance on the condo.

A few months later, we heard from Pugh, the condo was

sold for a good price. Pugh took a commission, but the bulk of

the proceeds went to Griswold back in the US. He used the

money to open up a Sayadaw U storefront Buddhist meditation

and study center on Duvall Street in Key West. Somebody also

established a Sayadaw U center in Bangkok, but it wasn’t a

thirty-eight-million-dollar operation. That money had flown

away, into Algonquin Steel stock and elsewhere. The Bangkok

center was just a stall in the lobby of the Grand Hyatt, and

Griswold’s request for a visa to attend the formal opening was

denied. He never returned to Thailand, although he told us later that he had become involved with a Thai-American

orthodontist in Miami who was into ballroom dancing and

model railroading. Also, a friend in Massachusetts ran into the

two men when they got married on a beach in Provincetown in

a Buddhist ceremony.

Timmy and I were startled to read in the Albany Times Union

a month or so after we returned from Thailand that two men

had died when they somehow fell from the roof of the high-rise

apartment building where they lived together on Central

Avenue in Albany. The two were identified as Duane Hubbard,

276 Richard Stevenson

a local personal trainer, and Matthew Mertz, a businessman and

sometime actor. Police said it looked like an accident — tests

showed that the two men were high on crystal meth when they

fell — although officials were not ruling out a double suicide.

Friends said both men had been despondent after losing money

in a business investment that had not worked out.

Bill Griswold was just barely able to wrest back control of

Algonquin Steel. A sizable minority share of the company

remained with a group whose base was in Singapore, although

Griswold found out that this organization was almost certainly a front for unidentified Thais.

I learned about Algonquin Steel’s fate when I ran into Ellen

Griswold at the Subway shop down the street from my office in

the early fall of that year. She was a morning-shift volunteer at the fund drive for the public radio station across from my

building, and she had stopped in at Subway to pick up some

eats to take home for her kids’ lunch.

“Well,” she said, “if it isn’t the man who swindled me out of

— how much was it?”

“I actually lost money on your case,” I said. “Or broke even

at best. And I didn’t appreciate your trying to have my business-class plane ticket back to New York downgraded to coach.

Somebody Rufus Pugh knows at Thai Airways tipped him off,

and he told me what you were trying to pull.”

“The airline basically told me to go fly a kite. I was just

terrifically upset at that point. So was Bill.”

“But he’s still CEO at Algonquin, I see. So you two landed

on your feet well enough, it looks like.”

It was then that she told me about the legal machinations —

as well as a sizable cash payment to the group in Singapore —

that enabled the family to retain control of the company.

“So you must have some fairly bitter feelings about

Thailand,” I said. “Your experience with the place was less

happy than mine was in the end.”

“Yes, for a while that was true. But it’s all worked out for

the best between Bill and me and Thailand. Bill is opening three THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 277

Econo-Build stores in Bangkok next year and one in Chiang

Mai. In fact, he’s in Bangkok right now working on the

financing. Three of the younger army generals are investing, as

well as a few others. I’m actually looking forward to going along on Bill’s next trip. Both of us have always loved travel, and we travel well together. It’s one of the best things about our

basically good marriage. Speaking of significant others, how is

your partner Timothy? Has he fully recovered from his nearplunge-off-a-balcony ordeal?”

“Timmy came through all of that less traumatized than you

might expect,” I said. “In fact, he’s so enthusiastic about

Thailand that we’ll probably take a winter vacation there.”

“If we’re there at the same time, maybe you could join us for

dinner at the Oriental. You could pay. On second thought, that

might not work. Bill still holds you responsible for siding with Gary in his absurd attempt to give away Algonquin Steel to a

group of religious fanatics.”

“I know you’re not in touch with Gary,” I said. “I’ve spoken

to him a few times in Key West. He seems to be doing okay,

but he did not speak well of either of you two.”

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