The Ambassador's wife

“That doesn’t scare me.”

“It sure as hell ought to. It scares the shit out of me. Unless of course you’re just too dumb to be scared. Is that it, Sam? Are you just too damned dumb to be scared?”

“I’m staying.”

August pushed himself to his feet.

“Suit yourself, big man. As for me, well shit, I’m out of here.”

August walked over to the bed, scooped up the photographs, and slid them back into the manila envelope.

“Wait a minute,” Tay said. “I want those.”

“No fucking chance, fellow. They’re too easy to trace to me and nobody wants to be tied to a loose cannon.”

At the door August stopped with his hand on the knob. He looked back at Tay, who was sitting absolutely still.

“You don’t have any contacts,” he said. “You don’t have any help at all.”

“I have you.”

“No,” August shook his head. “You don’t.”

Then he opened the door and he was gone.

THIRTY-NINE

It was raining when Tay flew back to Singapore, and it rained all night. The next day, a hot Saturday afternoon, Tay was sitting in the cafe at Borders and it was still raining.

He watched the big fat drops splatter on the green umbrellas covered in Carlsberg logos just outside the windows and drip onto the empty tables the umbrellas were supposed to shelter and he wondered if he should have stayed in Bangkok after all. It was supposed to be the dry season in Singapore now, wasn’t it? So why wasn’t it dry? If it were the goddamned dry season, would somebody explain to him exactly how it could be raining like a motherfucker and it didn’t look like it was ever going to stop?

A half-drunk cappuccino in a ceramic mug and an unread copy of James Lee Burke’s new novel were on the table in front of Tay, but he had lost interest in both. He was thinking instead about Bangkok, and what he was thinking had very little to do with the weather. He was thinking about Bangkok because of what happened there. He was thinking about Bangkok because of what he had now decided to do about what happened there.

Tay sipped at his cappuccino, but it had gone cold and he put it down again. What he really wanted was a cigarette, but smoking was only allowed outside and it was raining like a son of a bitch outside, wasn’t it? How fair was that? How fair was it that he was permitted to smoke only when it wasn’t raining? And it was always raining in Singapore, goddamn it to hell, so he would probably never be permitted to smoke anywhere in Singapore again.

“When did you get back, sir?”

Tay looked up as Sergeant Kang pulled out the chair across from him and sat down.

“Last night.”

“The OC said to be sure and give you his best, sir. He hopes you’ll drop in to say hello, when you have the time, of course.”

Tay ignored the bait and went straight to the reason he had asked Kang to meet him at the cafe.

“I need your help with something, Robbie.”

“So you said on the telephone, sir.”

“It will have to be handled completely off the books.”

“Yes, sir. I gathered that might be the case.”

“Are you comfortable with that?”

“I’m ready for whatever you need me to do, sir.”

Tay thought for a moment about how best to put the idea to Kang, and then he stopped worrying about it and just told him.

“I may need to keep someone under around-the-clock surveillance.”

“For how long?”

“For as long as it takes.”

“Right, sir.”

“You’d need at least six men to do it. And they’d all have to work on their own time.”

“That wouldn’t be a problem, sir. You’ve got a lot of friends.”

“Don’t you want to know who the target is before you agree?”

“My guess is that it’s DeSouza.”

“That’s very astute, Sergeant.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Would you and your friends be uneasy about conducting off-the-books surveillance of an FBI agent?”

“No, sir. Not if it’s for you.”

Tay was pleased to hear that. He was, to be entirely honest, quite touched, but he had absolutely no intention of getting all misty-eyed about it. There might be a time for that later, but probably not.

“Okay, Sergeant,” Tay said. “I’m going to take a crack at the boss first and see if I can get this done officially. If that doesn’t work out, you and your men have the job.”

“We’ll be there if you need us, sir.”

Tay wondered if he had any real chance of persuading the OC to let him continue the investigation or if he would just be going through the motions. Either way, he supposed he would have to take a shot at it. Maybe the OC would respect his doubts and let him take a run at DeSouza. Or maybe he wouldn’t. Tay supposed all he could do was ask.

Tay felt like he ought to say something to Kang about how much his support meant, but he wasn’t sure how to do that. So he just kept it simple.

“Thank you, Robbie.”

“You’re welcome, sir.”

Now Tay really did need a cigarette, but it was still raining and it still didn’t look like it was ever going to stop.

FORTY

“Are you out of your mind, Sam? Are you out of your goddamn fucking mind? You want CID-SIS to put an FBI agent from the American embassy under surveillance?”

The OC’s face had turned an arresting shade of purple, or perhaps it was closer to puce. Tay wasn’t absolutely sure he knew the difference.

“Can you imagine…” the words stopped coming for a moment and the OC sputtered at the sheer impossibility of it, “what would happen to me if I let you do something like that and anyone found out?”

Tay recognized that he was not being asked a question to which he was actually intended to provide an answer, so he remained silent.

The OC abruptly stood up from behind his desk and walked over to the windows. He rubbed at the back of his neck with one hand while he rested the open palm of the other against the glass and gave the city outside the once-over.

“You remember what I said about retirement, Sam?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You think any more about that?”

“No, sir.”