Текст книги "The 38 Million Dollar Smile "
Автор книги: Richard Stevenson
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CHAPTER THIRTY
Everything began to unravel when Ellen Griswold woke me
up in the middle of the night. Griswold had been successfully
spirited over to his condo and back, and half a million dollars
extracted from a vault that had been constructed under his
spirit house. Seer Pongsak had been paid off and been driven
away in his gold car. Fate had been nudged into moving our
way. But then my cell phone rang at two forty-eight a.m.
“Strachey?”
“Ellen?”
“What the hell are you trying to pull?”
“I’m not sure I should explain to you what I’m doing. You
fired me, and I’m working for your brother-in-law now. It’s a
question of professional ethics. I think I can’t talk to you. Also, I’m half asleep.”
“What I am about to say will wake you up fast. Listen to me.
Gary is trying to take over Algonquin Steel, and I think you not only know all about it but you are a party to the conspiracy. As is Bob Chicarelli. Who probably sent me to you so that you
could spy on me and keep Gary up to speed on what I know
about this monstrous betrayal and what I don’t know. What you
are doing is so professionally beyond the pale that I am certain I can get you disbarred. Would you like to comment on that?”
Timmy was now stirring next to me.
I said, “I’m not an attorney who can be disbarred, but there
is a licensing commission for private investigators. Just Google New York State PI licenses to file a complaint. But here’s the
thing, Ellen. You’ve got things really bollixed up. Where did you come up with this wild-eyed theory anyway?”
“And the other thing is,” she went on, as if I had never
spoken, “you are dragging Duane Hubbard and Matthew Mertz
into this, and I am so mad – and so insulted and so offended
– that I am just…beside myself with anger! Is Gary himself
240 Richard Stevenson
now retailing the absurd story that Bill, or Bill and I, paid
Duane and Matthew to shove Sheila off the cruise ship? Is this
part of his grand plan to discredit Bill and take control of the company and come back to Albany and make us pay for
something that is a pure figment of his and other people’s
imaginations?”
“I don’t know if that’s what Gary has in mind. I think,
however, that I had better ask him. Timmy and I have been
batting around a somewhat different version of what you have
just outlined.”
“I think you’re lying, Strachey. I think you know exactly
what Gary has in mind. Bill found out that the people in the
Caymans trying to take over the company and drive us all into
the poorhouse are fronting for a Thai group. Did Gary really
believe that we wouldn’t realize that he was behind this cruel
and misbegotten betrayal of the memory of Max and Bertha
Griswold? Or was he planning to tell us when it was all a fait
accompli and then gloat over his ghastly trick and laugh at our
pain?”
“The latter, I think.”
“Also, Bob Chicarelli has been asking around Albany about
Duane and Matthew. I demand to know why.”
“Oh, has he? And what has he learned about them?”
“I am not in touch with them and I am not in touch with
Bob. I heard about his obnoxious snooping through a reliable
third party. But there is something you should know about
Duane and Matthew. It will explain a lot.”
“Okay. I’m listening.”
“To bury those vile stories once and for all about Bill hiring
Duane and Matthew to throw Sheila off her boat, I am going to
fly over to Bangkok and show you something that will put
everything into perspective and erase any doubt about who
Sheila really was and about what became of her.”
“You’ll love Thailand, Ellen. It’s exciting. But how about a
sneak preview of your revelations? Events here are moving at
too fast a clip for any leisurely explication on your part.”
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 241
“I’ll be there in under twenty-four hours. I’m at JFK now,
and my Thai Airways nonstop boards in half an hour. And Bill
is coming with me. He is going to try to talk some sense into
Gary if it isn’t too late. And to you.” She gave me her flight
information, and I told her that someone would meet her plane.
One of Pugh’s people would be at the airport holding up a sign
that read ALBANY GROUP.
Timmy was awake now, and I repeated to him what Ellen
Griswold had just told me.
Timmy said, “She’s going to be awfully disappointed if she
gets over here and her ex-husband tells her that he hired Hubbard and Mertz to kill Bill’s ex-wife. And that now he’s
atoning for it by handing the family company over to a
Buddhist study and retreat center.”
“If that’s what actually happened. But I don’t think it did.”
“I don’t either.”
“It’s time for Griswold to fess up. I’m going to ask him to
tell me the truth about Hubbard and Mertz. And if he refuses,
I’ll threaten to gum up the whole Buddhism center deal. Tell the seer that Trump Tower is made out of Cheez Whiz or
something.”
I got out of bed and into my pants. “You’re going to ask
Griswold now?” Timmy said. “He’s on painkillers. How
coherent is he going to be?”
“Not too coherent, but just enough, I hope.”
§ § § § §
One of the Dream Boys was on sentry duty on a chair
outside Griswold’s room squinting at a Thai soap opera on a
TV set the size of a brick. I saw light under Griswold’s door,
and when I knocked lightly he murmured something and I
opened the door. He was not only wide-awake but was seated in
front of the computer in his underwear. He turned and actually
smiled at me.
“The deal is done,” he said. “On Friday, the eighteenth, our
group will own the controlling shares of Algonquin Steel. This
242 Richard Stevenson
will coincide with a change of administration in Thailand that
will rid us of the pesky General Yodying. We can proceed with
the Sayadaw U center without having to worry about people like
the general whose only motives are greed and self-
aggrandizement. Having transferred most of my wealth into the
project, I’ll be close to penniless except for my condo and some cash reserves. But I will have helped establish an institution of great spiritual significance, and I will have helped atone for a great moral crime.”
I sat down on the edge of Griswold’s bed and said, “Was the
great moral crime the murder of your former sister-in-law,
Sheila Griswold?”
He flinched just once, then seemed to relax. “Yes. My
brother and your former client – and my ex-wife – Ellen had
Sheila killed. I’m going to confront them with the evidence of
the atrocity they committed, and then I’m going to tell them
that I have set the moral balance right and from now on it is
only their consciences they need fear. And of course, the abject misery of their future lives.”
Griswold actually looked peaceful. He had nine candles
burning on his desk and a jasmine garland draped over the PC
he was using.
I said, “So you didn’t pay Duane Hubbard and Matthew
Mertz to throw Sheila off the ship?”
He gave me a look. “Me? Don’t be absurd. Why would I do
that? God, Strachey, what kind of man do you think I am?”
“Then why did you pay Hubbard two million dollars six
months ago?”
He registered mild surprise but was so into his reverie of
moral satisfaction that he didn’t seem unduly fazed by my
knowledge of the two goons.
He said, “They blackmailed me. They came over to Thailand
to tell me they had proof that Bill and Ellen had hired them to
kill Sheila, and unless I paid them two million dollars, they
would send an incriminating recording that they had to the
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 243
police. They would then disappear, but Bill and Ellen would be
prosecuted.”
“Why were they blackmailing you? Why not blackmail Bill
and Ellen? They could have saved a bundle on airfare.”
“Because they had found out that I had cashed out my
shares in the company and had access to large amounts of ready
funds, and Bill and Ellen were merely stock rich. Duane and
Matthew had some scheme they wanted to invest in – a chain
of fitness-slash-fast-food centers called Bitchin’ Burritos. The idea was, you’d spend half an hour on a treadmill sweating and
then get a cheese and bean burrito as a reward, and with no net
gain in calories for the visit. Have any of these places opened in Albany that you know of?”
“Not yet.”
“I decided to pay those two criminals off for two reasons.
One was, I really don’t want Bill and Ellen to go to prison.
There’s no love lost between my brother and me, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for Ellen. She never gave me a really
hard time when I came out, and she still really cares for me, I
think.”
“That’s my impression.”
“Also, there is a higher justice, and it is that higher justice I wanted badly for them to become acquainted with. It would
mean that in their next lives they might choose to devote
themselves to activities that could lead eventually to moral and spiritual redemption.”
“How,” I asked, “did Hubbard and Mertz find out that you
had cashed out your shares in Algonquin Steel? Presumably
they were not privy to company goings-on.”
Griswold looked at me wearily and said, “I’ll bet you can
guess.”
“Bill and Ellen told them?”
“When they approached Bill and threatened to turn him and
Ellen in, he told them that company stock was down and he
was unable to sell any shares, and he was cash poor. He told
them I had a lot of cash, and he knew that I would do the right
244 Richard Stevenson
thing in order to protect the reputations and memories of our
parents. And he was right about that. My parents were not
understanding with me when I came out, and that hurt. But
overall they were decent human beings who did their best in the
world. And they never disinherited me either, and that has made
the Sayadaw U project possible, and a lot of other meritorious
works too. Not just concert halls in Rochester, but projects that will make the world a saner and more peaceful place for
thousands of years to come.”
“Did you listen to the so-called incriminating tape?”
“It was actually a video. A DVD, they said. I didn’t want to
see it and really didn’t need to. Duane said they had showed it
to Bill and Ellen, and that’s when they were told to get in touch with me. Bill and Ellen, in fact, were given a copy of it. Of
course, they probably destroyed it immediately.”
“Did you tell them that Hubbard and Mertz had come here
to blackmail you and that you had acceded to their demands?”
“No. My plan is to inform them after the takeover of the
company by my Thai investment group and the transfer of the
shares to the Sayadaw project. That would have been on the
twenty-seventh, but now it’ll be the eighteenth, which is even
better. There’s less chance that anything will go wrong if we
wrap this up posthaste.”
“There may be a hitch,” I said.
Griswold stiffened. “What hitch?”
“Ellen and Bill know what you are up to. She called me.
They are plenty upset about the company takeover. And they
also know that you know about the Hubbard–Mertz
connection. I seem to have indirectly and inadvertently tipped
them off about that. Sorry. But it might actually be good that all the Griswolds are finding out what all the other Griswolds are
thinking and what each of you is up to. And unless all of you lie through your teeth even when you are face-to-face, some useful
clearing of the air might be about to break out. That’s because
Ellen and Bill are en route to Bangkok as we speak. They’ll
arrive later this afternoon.”
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 245
Griswold went white. “Oh no. Do you realize what this
could mean, Strachey?”
“What?”
“More sorrow and bloodshed.”
Griswold sat looking over at me from between his bandages,
his eyes full of desolation and fear. I wasn’t sure if he was
uncannily prescient or if he basically just needed to stay off
bicycles.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Griswold would not agree to see his brother and sister-inlaw until the day after their arrival late Thursday afternoon. He said this was for their own safety. On Friday, Griswold said, a
change of government would remove General Yodying from
power, and he would no longer be a threat to any of us. Friday
would also, of course, be too late for Bill and Ellen to talk Gary into holding on to the controlling shares of Algonquin Steel
instead of turning them over to the Thai group running the
Sayadaw U project. I asked Griswold about that, and he said,
“Yep. Too bad.”
Griswold was kept under close watch at the safe house
through the day, and then while Nitrate picked up Bill and Ellen at Suvarnabhumi. They were coming in on the same flight from
New York that Timmy and I had arrived on six days earlier.
Kawee, Mango and Timmy splashed around in the swimming
pool throughout the day. I had a brief swim too, and also
managed to reach Bob Chicarelli in Albany just before he went
to bed.
“Hey, Bob, somebody you were asking about Hubbard and
Mertz blabbed to Bill and Ellen. They’re spitting nickels. It isn’t pretty.”
“I know. Sorry, Strachey. They’re trying to get me
disbarred.”
“Can they?”
“Nah. I’m not representing them in anything.”
“Me either. I’m not sure I’m representing anybody. At this
point, it’s all for the Enlightened One.”
“Don’t forget to send him a bill.”
“So, did you pick up anything on Hubbard and Mertz?”
“They’re in Albany and not doing all that great. Hubbard is
back working as a personal trainer, and Mertz is supposedly
dealing crystal meth. They got hold of a lot of money
248 Richard Stevenson
somewhere last fall, but they lost it. Some guy from Miami
conned them out of it with a scheme to open a Mexican fast-
food chain where you could also work out. But then this dude
disappeared with most of the dough. It was going to be called
Taco Terrifico or something like that.”
I told Chicarelli that Ellen and Bill Griswold were at that
moment high above the Pacific en route to Thailand to
confront Gary. “Gary thinks Ellen and Bill had Sheila Griswold
killed by Hubbard and Mertz, and he’s determined to ruin their
lives. Their present lives anyway. Over here people make those
distinctions. I’m not sure what Bill and Ellen know or think, but they absolutely deny any involvement in Sheila’s death. The
only really sure thing is, we’ve got quite a face-off in the works over here.”
“It might interest you to know,” Chicarelli said, “that
Hubbard and Mertz used to dabble in gay porn. They’re a little
too mature for that by now. But a guy I know in the DA’s
office said there was a gay porn video production operation in
Schenectady for a while in the nineties, and those two were
involved in both production work and performing.”
“So Schenectady was the Budapest of the Mohawk Valley? I
never knew that.”
“It didn’t last, apparently.”
I said, “Was it just gay? Or did they do bi stuff, too?”
“That I can’t tell you.”
“Well, good luck keeping your license, Bob”
“You too, Strachey.”
§ § § § §
The Oriental Hotel, where the Griswolds had chosen to stay
despite their apparent precarious financial state, had retained its cachet but only a little of its former Victorian-era charm. The
ghosts of Conrad and Maugham did not greet us as Pugh and I
strode past the doorman toward the elevators. But even the
rooms in the modern tower section of the hotel were spiffy and
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 249
spacious and had a nice view of the hotel’s riverside gardens
and the dragon-tail boats on the Chao Phraya beyond.
The rooms also had TV sets with built-in DVD players, and
that was useful for taking a gander at the video Pugh and I were about to watch along with Ellen and Bill.
“I’m really hurt,” Ellen said to me, “that Gary would think I
could kill another person. I thought he knew me better than
that, and this really all just breaks my heart.”
“Gary and I were never close,” Bill said, “and I know he
rejects many of my values. But same as Ellen, I’m really just
terribly, terribly disappointed that my brother would see me as a person who would take a human life.”
“Even Sheila’s,” Ellen added and threw me a look.
The Griswolds were not their freshest. Both had showered
and changed clothes before Pugh and I arrived just after eight
Thursday night. But the seventeen-hour slog across the Pacific
and the twelve-hour time difference had beaten them down,
and they looked as if they could have used a week on the beach
at Phuket instead of a confrontation with a man bent on making
them pay for committing a murder they denied having anything
to do with.
Ellen had flopped onto an easy chair in her aubergine
pantsuit and tangerine headband, and Bill was seated at the desk in fresh khakis and a white polo shirt. Here was the man I
remembered from the Albany airport ten days earlier, a beefier
version of Gary, with thinning hair and puffy dark eyes. He had
popped a piece of Nicorette gum soon after Pugh and I arrived,
and I felt for the guy. Having your wealth and your life’s work
crumbling while you were in nicotine withdrawal was a lot of
people’s idea of hell. I wondered if he would make it through
the next few days without bolting down the street to pick up a
pack of Marlboros, which in Thailand were required by law to
display hideous pictures of rotting gums on the front of each
package.
The Griswolds did not appear pleased to have Pugh in the
room – their handshakes with him were brief and perfunctory
250 Richard Stevenson
– but they apparently accepted my explanation that he was the
man who would keep us all safe while these complex Griswold
family matters got sorted out.
I laid out Gary Griswold’s story that he had let himself be
blackmailed by Hubbard and Mertz in order to keep Bill and
Ellen from going to prison and to protect the memories of Bill
and Gary’s parents. They both shook their heads and threw up
their hands.
“That’s idiotic,” Ellen said.
“Pure bullshit,” said Bill.
“And what proof did Duane and Matthew offer of this
heinous crime supposedly sponsored by Bill and me?”
“They said they had an incriminating recording and you had
a copy of it too.”
“Well, they did bring Ellen and me a DVD and try to extort money from us,” Bill said. “But it was no proof of murder, for
God’s sake. It’s the DVD you are about to see. They said we
should pay up, or the family would be embarrassed by Sheila’s
history. Apparently they were bluffing with Gary about proof of
a murder having been committed, and their outrageous bluff
paid off. How much did Gary give them?”
“A lot. Two million dollars.”
“Oh no!”
“He did it for you two supposedly. And for the future wellbeing of your souls.”
“Oh, please,” Ellen said.
Now Pugh spoke up. “Mr. Gary plans on building a
Buddhist study and meditation center here in Bangkok, also
with an aim of easing your way along the bumpy paths of time.
It is a gesture of great magnanimity, and you will be among its
primary beneficiaries. You may not wish to thank him in this
life, but I am guessing that on down the road your gratitude and appreciation will be immense.”
“Mr. Pugh,” Ellen said, “when I die, I plan on staying dead.
So if Gary wants to ease Bill’s and my burdens, he might start
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 251
by dropping this insane plan to rob us of the great company
that Bill’s father built out of literally nothing. And he might
fucking apologize to Bill and me for going around calling us
goddamn murderers!”
Pugh shrugged. “You two are of course free to aim your
souls in any direction you wish, including anybody’s idea of
heaven, hell, purgatory or Venezuela. But it is your actions that will decide things, not your intentions.”
The Griswolds shot each other a Who-is-this-guy? look.
Ellen said, “Thanks for clearing that up. Now I can just close
my eyes anytime I feel like it and drift toward the white light.”
I said, “How did Hubbard and Mertz know that Gary was in
Thailand with a lot of cash in the bank? They told Gary that you sent them his way.”
Bill said, “They knew about Gary from another one of
Duane’s clients, a man Gary had dated when he was still in
Albany and who had tried to contact Gary on a visit to Key
West. Gary’s friends there told this guy what Gary had done —
left the company and moved to Thailand. Duane and Matthew
told us if we didn’t pay them – they wanted something
laughable, like half a million dollars – they would go to Gary
and show him the DVD and tell him what a slut Sheila was, and
did he want this gross family stuff turning up at six and eleven on Channel Thirteen?”
“As if Gary would give a crap,” Ellen said.
“As if we would,” her husband added.
“Well,” Ellen said. “Of course we would care if Bill’s ex turned up on the news in the altogether with those two dorks,
her face and tits all blurred out to save the Hudson Valley
grannies and kiddies who were watching from wondering what
that was all about. Yes, we would care. But not to the tune of half a million dollars. Or even half a million – what’s the
currency here?”
“Baht,” Pugh said.
“Yes, or even half a million of those. Bill told Duane and
Matthew to get lost. We never heard another word, and
252 Richard Stevenson
naturally it never occurred to us that they actually followed
through and went after Gary for money. It all just seemed too
preposterous.”
Pugh said, “It is my duty to inform you that pornography is
illegal in Thailand. That does not mean that it is not ubiquitous.
Nonetheless you are breaking the law by possessing the DVD
you have brought into the country, and I hope you do not end
up in one of our notorious, squalid, soul-destroying prisons for eight or ten years. But anyway here we all are, so let’s have a
look.”
The Sheila Griswold who soon appeared on the hotel
room’s TV screen was quite a specimen: rangy, taut, bright-
eyed, nicely coiffed and made-up, and above all, eager and
versatile. On the fifty-minute video – much of which Bill
Griswold fast-forwarded through – the notorious JAP did
everything but shop. Hubbard and Mertz were also physically
well put together: muscular, fine skinned, with better-thanaverage endowments. And while equally busy, the two men seemed perceptibly more keen on each other’s parts than on the
ex-Mrs. Griswold’s. Though they did do what the DVD’s
producers apparently had required of them, and at every
opportunity Sheila Griswold was ready to help out.
Ellen had only just glanced at the video from time to time
while Bill, Pugh, and I sat paying attention.
“Jesus,” Ellen said when The End came on. “If any of you fellows need to go take a shower, feel free. Me, I could use a
beer.” She was seated near the minibar and got up and extracted
a Singha.
I said, “So this is why Hubbard and Mertz were on the
cruise ship with Sheila when she disappeared? What was it?
They were blackmailing her too? Making her pay for their
Caribbean vacations?”
Ellen laughed. “If only.”
“Sheila was paying those two to travel with her and service
her,” Bill said evenly. “It was one of the expenses I was
expected to pick up after the divorce.”
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 253
“Too sad,” Pugh said. “It sounds like a Thai soap opera.
Except, in Thai soap operas of this kind, murder often is the result.”
“What I still don’t get,” I said, “is why Gary ever believed
that Hubbard and Mertz had proof of the murder accusation.
This DVD certainly would not serve that purpose.”
“In Thailand it might,” Pugh said. “And Khun Gary had
been living here and could conceivably have picked up some of
the local attitudes.”
“But he never even saw the DVD.”
“Perhaps,” Pugh said, “he wished to believe the worst of his
brother. Is that a possibility, Mr. Bill?”
Again, Ellen and Bill glanced at each other. He nodded and
said, “It could have happened that way.”
“That may make it harder,” Pugh said, “to talk your younger
brother out of the transaction he is determined to conclude in a matter of hours – a transaction that will be detrimental not
only to your financial well-being but to your reputation in the
larger society. I know face is less important among farangs than among Thais. But may I please be the first to offer you my
deepest sympathies for your coming out of all this with an awful lot of egg on your face.”
It was then that Bill Griswold said he needed to have a look
in the minibar too.
