The 38 Million Dollar Smile, стр. 43
safe and sound. But they had to be told — originally I had been
hired to find him, after all — so I told Chicarelli to inform the Griswolds we had Gary with us but that there were still plenty
of nettlesome unanswered questions as to his past activities and future intentions.
After Timmy’s shower and then mine, we heard a
commotion outside our room and went out to find Griswold
throwing a hissy fit at Pugh.
“Although I don’t object to your men watching over me to
see that I don’t bolt,” Griswold was saying, “you have to
understand that I am not going to run off. What I do object to is their listening in on all of my telephone conversations and —
good grief! really! — taking notes on whom I speak with and
what I say. You are not doing yourself or me any favors by
butting in this way, Rufus, and I am telling you that it is a great big pain in the neck.”
Pugh said, “Khun Gary. Do you have secrets from us? We
are your friends.”
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 189
“It’s not a question of secrets, Rufus. There are no great
secrets on my part. It is a matter of simple privacy. I must be in touch with business associates to complete the Sayadaw U
project, and some of this involves sensitive information and
delicate negotiations involving people who would not be at all
pleased to be eavesdropped on.”
“I’m sorry you consider our watchfulness intrusive. We are
all in this together, after all. When I say that, I don’t mean the part about your worthy project. I mean the part about keeping
you from being hurled from a high place, as well as the part
about keeping your head from being made to explode. We do
need to be all on the same page in that regard, Khun Gary. So I
hope you will indulge us in this small way and let us keep track of your activities in a manner consistent with personal security professional standards.”
“Rufus, you’re quite the bullshit artist. Did anyone ever tell
you that?”
“Let me think.”
I said, “Griswold, I, for one, don’t trust you at all. You have
a track record of flying off the rails and causing all kinds of
ridiculous trouble, and you are definitely going to be monitored.
So get used to it.”
“I’m a little unclear,” Griswold said, “exactly what your
current role is here, Strachey. As I recall, didn’t my sister-in-law shit-can you? I think you told me that yourself. Hence, your
extortionate request for fifty thousand dollars to underwrite
what looks to me increasingly like a mere seaside vacation.”
Now Timmy spoke up. “Well, it certainly has not been any
kind of sun ’n’ sand holiday for me, Gary. Or haven’t you
noticed that?”
“Well, I am sorry about your being kidnapped. Really, I am.
It must have been a horrible ordeal. But the fact is, Timothy,
you did not need to come to Thailand in the first place, and I
can’t imagine what you thought you were getting yourself into.
Surely you must have done enough research to know of the violently inclined criminal elements in Thailand and about the
190 Richard Stevenson
corrupt police forces. Or didn’t your friend Donald inform you
about any of that?”
Timmy snorted with what could have been amusement.
“What’s so funny, Timothy? And you know, you both are
now free to leave Thailand at any time. Khun Rufus could drive
you over to the ferry terminal and put you on a boat for
Sihanoukville in Cambodia, and you could travel on to Phnom
Penh and be on your way out of Southeast Asia by this time
tomorrow. There’s really nothing holding you here as far as any
of the Griswolds are concerned. Am I right?”
Pugh said, “We’ve got your fifty K, Khun Gary. You hired
us to protect you until April twenty-seventh. Remember?”
Griswold bristled, but before he could tell us all to take the
fifty thousand dollars and shove it, I said, “Griswold, were you in Cambodia about two and a half weeks ago?”
“Yes, I was. Why?”
“What were you doing there?”
“Why do you ask? How would you even know that?”
“Elise Flanagan saw you.”
“That was Elise Flanagan. Oh God! I thought I saw her and she spotted me. At the Aranya Prathet border post. What the
hell was Elise doing entering Cambodia? She can barely find her
way from Key West to Homestead.”
“Elise was on her way to Angkor Wat with a tour group.
And you?”
“I was on my way back into Thailand on a visa run.”
“A what?”
“It’s hard for foreigners to obtain a long-term visa in
Thailand. The Thais like to be able to keep the worst of the
riffraff from overstaying their welcome in the Land of Smiles
— penniless ravers and druggies and notorious pedophiles and
so on. So in order to stay here, most farangs must have the
means to leave the country every three months and then reenter
with a new visa. It’s a kind of racket, actually. The government charges you for the visa, and airlines and tour operators make
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 191
out even better. Me, I just hop on a van at Ekamai, read for a
couple of hours, and then cross and recross the border. You
can do it really fast by paying an extra twelve dollars for VIP
treatment, so-called. That means the Thai operators stand in the visa queue for you and bribe the Cambodian immigration
officials for fast service. In hot weather like this, it’s a bargain.”
“Well, it’s the only way your friends in Key West knew you
were even alive,” I said. “They were hugely relieved, but
confused too. Anyway, what happened six months ago that sent
you careening into oblivion? It would certainly help us decide
what to do next if we had a clearer picture of what precipitated all this weird to-ing and fro-ing in the first place.”
Griswold’s look darkened, and he was about to say
something and then didn’t.
I went on, “You e-mailed Janice Romeo that you had had a
disturbing reading from a soothsayer. Was that Khun
Khunathip?”
Griswold nodded. “Yes. It was.”
“Janice says you told her that the seer predicted bloodshed
in your life, and he said that great sorrow was in store for
people close to you.”
Griswold grunted. “Well? Was he right, or wasn’t he?”
“And that’s why you disappeared? Because of this
astrological forecast?”
“No,” Griswold said. “Khun Khunathip’s reading was just
the beginning.”
“The beginning of what?”
“Of a chain of events that led eventually to the Sayadaw U
project.”
“You’re leaving some stuff out, it seems.”
“You bet I am.”
“Why?”
“It is very dark.”
“Enlighten us. It can only help.”
192 Richard Stevenson
“Not yet.”
“Okay, when?”
“April twenty-seventh.”
“That’s a week and a half away. Today is the fifteenth.”
“That’s right. One and five. That is six.”
“Unlucky six. Okay. What about tomorrow, the sixteenth.
That’s a one and a six. Which equals seven. Isn’t that better?”
“Better but not best.” He looked at Pugh. “Am I right,
Khun Rufus?”
“Right as rain,” Pugh said and gave me a look that said not
to worry, we would find a way to squeeze it out of him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Timmy and I walked over to Monkey Mountain to watch the
sunset. A long concrete staircase led up to the temple atop the
hill. Most of the gray monkeys were swinging in the trees at the foot of the staircase next to the food stalls, or scampering
around on the ground gobbling up bits of food left by tourists.
One of the bigger monkeys was hissing and squawking at the