Mr. Clarinet

they want the child to be on his or her best behavior in front of adult company, they'd play a disc where re is the dominant note. You get the picture?'

'In Technicolor,' Max mumbled disgustedly. He looked at Paul and felt his gaze buried deep behind the shadows in his sockets. He sensed waves of rage coming off him. He turned back to Eloise. 'You used that zombie potion too, didn't you?'

'How did you know?'

'Got it all on tape,' Max said.

'Tape? Where did you find it?' She looked worried.

'It doesn't matter. Answer my questions: zombie juice?why was it used?'

'To keep the children docile and receptive to conditioning. It's easier to manipulate a stupefied mind. Clients are provided with bottles of the solution to use at home. It was part of the deal,' she said.

Max shook his head and then rubbed his temples. He needed to stop?stop hearing this, stop being here.

'So you're telling me that's Gustav Carver on those CDs, right? Playing the clarinet?'

'He used to participate in the hypnosis. He'd sit and play his clarinet to condition the children. When you get to the headquarters in La Gonave you'll find the video vault?there are plenty of tapes and photographs of him sitting in the middle of groups of children,' Eloise said. 'Maurice told me he once asked him why he participated, why he didn't just record the notes once. Monsieur Carver said it was the closest he came to having absolute power.'

'When did he stop playing?'

'Sometime in the mideighties?because of his illness. He might have retired, but his myth didn't.'

'Mister Clarinet?Ton-ton Clarinet?'

'Yes, like I keep saying, Tonton Clarinette is real. Tonton Clarinette is Monsieur Carver?Gustav Carver.'

'But if it's all supposed to be a secret, how did the myth get out?'

'A few of the children escaped over the years,' she said quietly. 'Not from us, but from their masters. Three are still at large.'

'Was one called Boris Gaspesie?'

'Yes. How did you know?'

'I ask, you answer. What about the others?'

'Two girls?Lita Ravix and Noelle Perrin.'

Max wrote down the two names. He was done with her. He gave a long, hard look, searching those ratlike features for something close to regret or shame for what she'd done. There was nothing of the sort there. There never had been.

He nodded to Paul to indicate that he was through, then he got up and left the room.

Chapter 53

MAX PACED AROUND in the street outside the house, his head churning with all the revelations.

He'd need to see all the evidence and, above all, confront Gustav Carver to be sure?even if he believed Eloise was telling the truth. She didn't have a lying way about her, because all the self-preservation instincts had been brutalized out of her. Liars tripped themselves up with inconsistencies and improbabilities, often in the smallest details, the loose threads that when tugged unraveled the whole tapestry. What Eloise had told him all fit, all flowed in one direction.

What he couldn't understand was what Gustav had been thinking, getting outsiders in to investigate Charlie's disappearance. Hadn't he thought that they might find out about his business along the way? Hadn't he at least considered it a risk?

Of course he had, Max concluded. You don't stay on top of your game for as long as Gustav had by flying close to the sun. People like Gustav never took blind risks; they took informed risks. They didn't just look before they leaped, they knew every single millimeter of the ground they'd land on.

But then, like all absolute tyrants, Carver had always had his own way. He'd never met a challenge he hadn't flattened. So what if he got found out? What could one person do against Carver and his network of contacts who, even if they were a fraction as powerful as Eloise had suggested, would wipe that person clean off the face of the planet? Carver considered himself untouchable, and with good reason.

Had Gustav Carver been behind what had happened to Beeson and Medd? Had they got too close? No. Max didn't think so. At least definitely not Beeson. Beeson would have tried to blackmail Carver and Carver would have had him killed. Why leave him alive so he could tell people what he knew?

So what about the reason he'd originally come here? Charlie Carver? What had happened to him?

He didn't know for sure, but he suspected Charlie was dead.

What about Eddie Faustin? What part did he play? He'd definitely been trying to kidnap the boy the day he was killed. That was beyond doubt. Faustin had been waiting for the kidnappers to come and get Charlie at a prearranged rendezvous, and then the mob had turned up and things had gone badly wrong.

Or had it?

Maybe Eddie had been set up, double-crossed by the kidnappers. It was possible. They'd paid the mob to start a riot around the car and kill him. It would make sense if the kidnappers wanted to avoid being identified?or suspected.

Yet Codada had said that Faustin was loyal to Gustav Carver, that he loved Carver like a father. Why would he betray Carver? What had the kidnappers offered him? Or maybe they hadn't offered him anything at all?maybe they had something on him. That wasn't hard?an ex-Macoute with bloody hands, now working for the head of a child sex ring.

How much had Faustin known about Gustav's business? Was the kidnapping related to it?

But that still left Charlie unaccounted for and unexplained.

What was there to go on?

He didn't know. He'd hit a dead end.

Where to now?

* * *

Half an hour later, Paul came out to join him in the street.

'She's given me the location of the place in La Gonave. They've got about twenty kids in there now. They used a cargo boat to get them over there. Every month they filled the hold up with new kids,' Paul said. 'We'll be getting them out tomorrow evening.'

'What about the military here?'

'It'll be a joint operation with the UN. I have a good friend there,' Paul explained.

'What about Gustav?' Max asked.

'You bring him in.'

'Me?'

'Yes, you, Max. Tomorrow. I want to avoid casualties. If we go up to the Carver estate his people will start shooting. The Americans are stationed quite close by and they'll come to investigate. Knowing them, they'll kill all of us and tell Carver to have a nice day.'

'He's got a lot of security.'

'You'll have plenty of backup, if you need it. Our guys will follow you up to the estate and wait close by. You'll have radio contact with them.'

'Assuming I get him out, where do I take him?'

'Get him out on the main road. We'll take him from there.'

Max didn't want to do it. He'd never had to bring a client in.

'Make sure you tell Francesca so she's out of the way. Allain too.'

'It's in hand,' Vincent said and started heading back to the house.

'What about them?Codada and Eloise?' Max asked. 'You gonna let them live?'

'Would you?'

Chapter 54

THE NEXT MORNING Max woke up with the phone ringing in his ears.

It was Joe. He was all apologies. He said he'd been too busy to work on the stuff Max had asked for.

Max told him he needed to talk to Clyde Beeson. Joe said that was the main reason he was calling.

Beeson had been found dead in his trailer. Forensics estimated he'd been there at least two weeks. His pit bull had eaten away one leg and was working on the second when the cops had broken down the door. Although the postmortem report had yet to confirm it, it looked like suicide. Beeson had opted out with his Magnum.

Max took the news quietly, bitterly disappointed that he hadn't had a chance to have a detailed talk with Beeson about the case that had ruined his life.

He wasn't surprised that Beeson had died bad. He'd had it coming. He'd scored impressive results and made a small fortune off the back of them, but he'd pissed off a lot of people along the way; Max had been one of them, Joe another. He'd come within a hair of ruining their lives. They'd come within a hair of killing him.

Max had loathed and despised him.

'Anything you want to say about the late Clyde Beeson?' Joe asked.