“Now you be a good boy tonight, Sam. It’s easy to get into trouble in Bangkok.”
She gave Tay a little wave and walked away through the dim lights of the pool deck.
When Cally had gone, Tay pulled his shirt on over his bathing suit and sank down on a lounge chair where he sat for a long time without moving. He thought back through what he had told Cally and what she had told him. He pushed and pulled on everything, turning it first one way and then another. He looked for different ways it could add up, ways that might be less scary.
He did not find any.
Tay could feel everything starting to come together now. He did not like how it was coming together and he wasn’t yet certain what it might all mean, but it still gave him a lift to know he was getting close.
Tay reached for his Marlboros and lit one. He was exhaling his first mouthful of sweet, sharp smoke when he looked off in the distance and saw a crescent moon rising very slowly between two buildings. It was burning like kerosene against the dark sky. As he sat and smoked and watched the moon, he felt an extraordinary silence settle around him and spread even to the city down below. It was a silence deeper and more profound than any other he had ever experienced. It was as if the whole world was holding its breath.
Tay shivered, stubbed out his cigarette, and went back to his room.
THIRTY-TWO
The next morning Cally was up before her wake-up call came. She had some coffee and toast from room service and flipped through the copy of
Just before nine, Cally entered the embassy through the main gate on Wireless Road. She went to the cafeteria to get another cup of coffee and took it with her to the security office on the second floor.
Jack Tanner was sprawled in a chair waiting for her.
“That was very subtle yesterday, Jack,” she smiled. “I loved the high-pitched voice.”
“Just looking out for you, Cally girl. Old Uncle Jack likes to know who’s screwing around with his girls.”
“Three things, Jack. First, I’m not one of your girls, whatever that means. And second, Sam and I are not screwing around.”
Cally took a long hit on the coffee and settled in behind a desk that looked unoccupied.
“What’s the third thing?” Tanner asked.
“Oh yeah, the third thing. I almost forgot. Go fuck yourself, Jack. That’s the third thing. Go fuck yourself.”
Tanner started out to mime a laugh, but the gesture turned into a yawn before it was done.
“Damn,” Tanner said, stretching his arms and rolling his shoulders. “I guess I must have been up a little late last night.”
“Please don’t tell me what you were doing, Jack. I’m sure I’d really rather not know.”
“Why, Cally girl, Uncle Jack’s adventures in Bangkok are the stuff of which legends are made. You would be fortunate indeed to-”
“Have you got something for me, Jack, or are you here just to bask in the unparalleled pleasure of my company?”
Tanner shifted his body around in the chair and swung his feet up onto the front edge of Cally’s desk. Crossing them at the ankles, he knitted his fingers together behind his head.
“I wanted you to know that the Agency is in the clear on this, Cally. We haven’t used that apartment in a couple of years.”
“Maybe not, but between the first time I was in it and when I brought Sam yesterday, somebody did a very effective job of turning the place over. It looked like your work to me, buddy boy.”
“It wasn’t.”
“You sure you weren’t taking out a few bugs, Jack? Maybe a couple of cameras and recorders? Something like that?”
“Nope. We did that a long time ago.”
“Why should I believe you, Jack?”
“Because I can tell you who really did toss the place.”
Cally swung her own feet up on the desk, crossed them at the ankles, and knitted her fingers behind her head in a mirror image of Tanner’s pose.
“I’m all ears.”
“I was there when the body was removed and thought I’d hang around a little longer to see if anything interesting happened afterwards. Sure enough, about a half-hour later, five or six guys wearing uniforms like local cops showed up. They stayed for fifteen or twenty minutes and then left. When I went upstairs I saw what you saw.”
“Thai cops turned the place over?” Cally made a face. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
“I only said they were wearing uniforms. Maybe they weren’t real cops.”
“But if they weren’t real cops, then who-”
“I can tell you where to start if you really want to find out.”
Cally folded her arms and waited.
“One of your guys was calling the shots for them,” Tanner said. “Ask him.”
“One of my guys?”
Tanner nodded. “Yeah, one of your esteemed colleagues from Singapore. Tony DeSouza. He went in with the guys wearing the uniforms and he came out with them. Tony boy looked to me like he was running the whole show.”
The coffee Cally had brought up from the cafeteria was well past its prime, but she picked it up anyway and swirled it around in its white Styrofoam cup while she thought about what Jack Tanner just told her. What the hell was Tony DeSouza doing at the apartment after Ambassador Rooney’s body had been removed? And why had he brought in Thai cops to trash the place, if they were Thai cops.
“Do you know if the FBI has been using that place recently?” Cally asked.
“No idea.”
Cally gave the coffee an exploratory sip. It was cold and foul and she made a face and put it down.
“Maybe DeSouza was just investigating the murder,” Tanner suggested.
“I don’t know why he would do that,” Cally said. The FBI has people here in Bangkok. Besides, you don’t toss a crime scene when you’re just investigating. You preserve it.”
“You’re assuming that the FBI has some reasonable understanding of how an investigation is supposed to be conducted.”
“That apartment was tossed. They were looking for something, Jack. My money is on hidden surveillance devices. How about yours? What’s your money on?”
Cally cocked her head and studied Tanner. He was an annoying bastard, but a good man.
“You always know more than you tell me, Jack. What were they looking for?”
Tanner shook his head. “This time I can’t help you.”
“Can’t. Or won’t.”
“Can’t, Cally girl. I’ve got no fucking idea. Hand to my heart.”
“Jeez, Jack, I didn’t know you even had a heart.”
Tanner felt around on his chest with his open hand.
“Sure, Cally girl, Uncle Jack’s got a great big heart. It’s just that I don’t use it often enough to remember exactly where I keep it.”
THIRTY-THREE
