Mr. Clarinet

years, so that all the emotions he'd felt at the time had been bottled up, sealed away and never given the space to dissipate.

'It's all right, Vincent,' Max said quietly.

Paul took a few deep breaths, regained his composure, and continued.

'A few weeks later Josie went missing. Someone told me she'd gone off in a car with Eddie Faustin. I sent people out looking for her, but they couldn't find her. I went to Faustin's house. They weren't there. I carried on looking. I combed the city, I went to all the spots Faustin hung out. She was nowhere to be found.

'When I got back home there was Gustav Carver, waiting for me indoors. After the petrol incident, Carver had done some digging. He had two Scotland Yard detectives with him, as well as a copy of Josie's police record, and a whole bunch of English newspapers with headlines about her case and how she'd skipped the country. Some papers even claimed I'd kidnapped her, and had cartoons showing me as King Kong. Carver said it was a good likeness.

'He told me he'd had a long chat with Josie and that she'd understood her predicament and agreed to his terms. But it all hinged on me saying yes?or so he said. If I said no, the detectives would take Josie and me back to England. If I gave my consent they'd go away and say we weren't in Haiti.'

'What did he want you to agree to?giving up Josie?'

'Yes. He wanted her for his son, Allain. She was to remain with him for the rest of her life, bear him children, and have absolutely no contact with me whatsoever. That was it. As for me, well, I was free, as long as I never made any attempt to see her or contact her ever again. Oh, and I had to personally pump Carver's gas whenever he stopped by.'

'And you agreed?'

'I had no choice. I reckoned he would have sent me back to England and kept Josie in Haiti. At least, me staying in the country meant that I was close to her.'

'I don't get it,' Max said. 'Carver destroyed your father and everything your family had built up. Why not go the whole way and get rid of you too?'

'You obviously don't understand the man, Mingus.' Vincent chuckled sourly. 'You've been to his house? You've seen the Psalm haven't you?in gold, near that picture of his dead wife? Psalm twenty-three, verse five?'

'Yeah, I've seen it.'

'Did you read it?'

'Yeah, I know it: 'Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.' It's from the famous 'The Lord is my Shepherd' Psalm. And?'

'I take it you didn't do too well in RE.'

'RE?'

'Religious Education?sorry, you probably call it 'Bible study.''

'I did OK.'

'The meaning of psalm twenty-three, verse five, is this: in ancient times, the best form of revenge on your enemies wasn't death or imprisonment, but for them to watch you living it up and having a good time. After all, isn't success the greatest triumph over those who've hated you and wished you ill?'

Max was struggling to stay objective, neutral, even on his client's side, but what Paul was saying, coupled with the things he'd heard and read about Gustav Carver, were tempting him out of his professional shell.

'So he kept you here so you could watch Allain step out with the love of your life?'

'Technically, yes,' Paul chuckled. 'But?theoretically, no.'

'What do you mean?'

'She wasn't stepping out with Allain.'

'But I thought?' Max stopped. He was lost.

'What kind of detective are you? I thought you were supposed to be good?no, the best.'

Max didn't say anything.

'You mean you really didn't notice anything at all?' Vincent was on the verge of laughing. 'About Allain?'

'No, should I?'

'You've lived in Miami all your life, you've just spent seven years in prison, and you still can't tell a queer a mile away!'

'Allain?!!?' Max was shocked all over again. Something else he hadn't expected or seen coming. He could normally tell people's sexual orientation, not that it was too hard to spot in America?especially Miami?where people tended to be more open and upfront about which way they swang. Had his skills deteriorated that much?

'Yes, Allain Carver is a homosexual?G-A-Y?a massissi, as we call them here. Actually, Mingus, I'm not so surprised you missed it. Allain's very discreet and straight- acting.

'There had been rumors about him for years, but no proof. Allain's never shat on his own doorstep. He just goes for long weekends in Miami, San Francisco, New York. Does his thing there, bottles it up over here.'

'How do you know?'

'I've got photographic proof?videos too. Clyde Beeson took them for me. I employed him?anonymously, through a second party?about ten years ago.'

'Figures. He fishes for shit,' Max said. His head was still spinning. 'So I guess coming out here is a big no-no?'

'Squared. You know what they say about gays? They say: 'There aren't any in Haiti?they're all married with kids.' It's like that all over the Caribbean. Homosexuality is viewed as a perversion, a sin.'

'Poor Allain,' Max said. 'All his money, influence, status, position?and he has to sneak around pretending he's something he isn't.'

'He's not a bad guy,' Vincent said. 'Quite the opposite, in fact.'

'So why did you get those pictures taken?'

'To smear him. I was going to plant the pictures in the Haitian press.'

'Why?'

'Ying and yang. The ying, to liberate Allain, free him of his secret. The yang?revenge on Gustav, to embarrass him. The timing would have been perfect: the old man was in poor shape. Baby Doc had fallen from power, his wife was dying, his health wasn't good?I thought a little public humiliation would push him over the edge?you know, kill him with natural causes.'

'Why didn't you see it through?'

'I couldn't do that to Allain, exploit the poor guy's sexuality, trample over him so I could get to his father.'

'How honorable,' Max sneered. 'I can see where you're coming from and God knows you've got as good a motive as any, but if you hate him that much why don't you just shoot the bastard?'

'Once bitten, twice shy.'

'You tried that?'

'Eddie Faustin stopped the bullet.'

'That was you? Figures.' Max nodded. 'So, Gustav married Allain to Francesca to put an end to the rumors?'

'Yes.' Vincent nodded. 'And?'

'And?'

'That wasn't all Gustav wanted her for. He also wanted her for himself?not just for sex, but for breeding. He desperately wanted a grandson. All he has is granddaughters and he's backward enough to believe that men make better leaders.

'He spent most of a decade trying to get her pregnant. He referred to their sessions as 'making a deposit.'' Vincent laughed bitterly. 'Josie had two miscarriages, a stillbirth, a daughter who only lived for six months, but no son.

'We got involved again in the late eighties. When she got pregnant with Charlie, Gustav thought it was his, the country thought it was Allain's, and I knew it was mine and Josie's. Besides, I've got the results of a paternity test. She was barely sleeping with Gustav by then. She'd managed to limit him to the days when she was ovulating?although she'd lied to him about which days those were, so he was basically too early or too late.

'She had Charlie in Miami. Allain was with her. They're actually very good friends, you know. He helped her get through the early years in that family. As far as he saw it, he and Josie were in the same boat?obviously at opposite ends.'

Max let out a deep breath.

'Why are you telling me this now? Why not earlier?'

'Because I'm telling you now. The time and place are right.'

'Why didn't you tell Beeson or Medd?'

'Beeson I didn't trust. Medd?I didn't think he was good enough.'

'So I meet your standards?'

'Up to a point.'

'Thanks,' Max mumbled sarcastically, although he agreed with Paul. He wasn't as good as he used to be. Or maybe he'd never been that good in the first place; or maybe he'd just got very lucky for a very long time, because a lot of breakthroughs were little more than that?luck, and the carelessness of the criminals who made it