Текст книги "The 38 Million Dollar Smile "
Автор книги: Richard Stevenson
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Текущая страница: 16 (всего у книги 17 страниц)
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Pugh and I rode back to the safe house and went up to
Griswold’s room. We relayed to him Ellen and Bill’s version of
events.
Without hesitation, Griswold said, “They’re conning you.”
“Maybe. But we don’t think so.”
“Hubbard and Mertz didn’t say a thing about a sex tape.
That makes no sense. They told me their tape had evidence of a
murder on it.”
“It was a bluff, and you fell for it. That’s what Ellen and
your brother think.”
Griswold’s face drooped. “But if they didn’t have Sheila
killed – if she just got drunk and fell overboard – that would
mean my whole exercise in atonement and trying to restore
moral balance for me and my family has been – pointless.”
“Making merit is never without its reasons,” Pugh said.
“And never without moral benefits for the merit-maker and for
the human race.”
I said, “I’d like to suggest that you at least see Bill and Ellen and hear them out before you take the final step. What’s to
lose? It might even make it easier for you. Tamp down doubts.
Clear away any pangs of conscience. Maybe they’ll even see how
worthy a project the Buddhism center is and want to make a big
contribution.”
“But the deed is practically done,” Griswold said. “I’ve
already accumulated controlling shares in Algonquin Steel. They
are in my name now, but unless I intervene the shares will pass
over to Khun Anant and his group at noon tomorrow, and the
consortium will begin work on the Sayadaw U project
immediately.”
Pugh said, “These valuable shares of stock are going
through Khun Anant? Oh, Khun Gary, I don’t know.”
256 Richard Stevenson
Now Griswold twitched. “But this is all for the propagation
of the Four Noble Truths. How could Anant dare to interfere
with such a worthy endeavor?”
Pugh shrugged. “Hypocrisy, as I believe I have mentioned
previously, is not unknown among Buddhists. Do you really
believe that Christians and Jews have a monopoly?”
Griswold looked at Pugh and then at me and then back at
Pugh. Finally, he said, “I’ll talk to Ellen and Gary first thing in the morning. Just to cover all the bases here. Can you set that
up?”
“Of course,” Pugh said. “Tomorrow is Friday, April
eighteenth, an auspicious day by anyone’s reckoning.”
“But my plan is to go ahead with the project,” Griswold
said. “Whatever Ellen and Bill might have to tell me about
Sheila and her death, it’s really too late to back out of the
Sayadaw U project. I’ll explain it all to Bill and Sheila and try to make them understand. Anyway, they have been such staunch
supporters of so much in America and the world that is greedy
and destructive, they really do need to have their souls cleansed even if they have not committed murder directly. Which I am
not yet convinced that they have not.”
I said, “You’re going to ruin their lives because they’re
Republicans, Griswold? That’s harsh.”
“Oh, I don’t think so at all. No, unless Bill and Ellen can tell me something I don’t already know about themselves and me
and the lives all of us have led, I really see no reason to
postpone the Sayadaw project at all. Also, I can’t quite bring
myself to believe that Khun Anant would attempt to cheat me.
That strikes me as extremely unlikely. Khun Pongsak has
vouched for him, after all.”
I said, “You mean Pongsak, the soothsayer who you just
bribed?”
Griswold nodded feebly, and you didn’t have to believe in
astral and planetary influences on human events to grasp that
Friday was going to be memorable.
§ § § § §
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 257
The plan was for Nitrate to pick Ellen and Bill up at the
Oriental at seven Friday morning before the morning traffic
became too grisly. We would all have breakfast together by the
pool, and then Bill, Ellen, and Gary would go sit under the
banyan tree in the back of the garden and hash out their
differences. Then Griswold would either proceed with his
turning over Algonquin Steel to Anant na Ayudhaya at midday
for the Sayadaw project, or he would do something else.
All that began to fall apart at six ten. That’s when Nitrate
drove back through the gate at the safe house ten minutes after
he had departed. He told Pugh, who told Timmy and me, that
roadblocks had been set up by the army – all over Bangkok,
apparently – and nobody in the city was going anywhere.
Public transportation didn’t seem to be running either. Minutes
later, Pugh’s cell phone began to ring. Pugh’s crew started
monitoring Bangkok television and radio stations. No official
word had yet come from anyone, including the king. But
everyone in the city seemed to have concluded that a military
takeover of Thailand’s democratically elected government was
under way.
Griswold came down from his room and looked almost
cheerful. A nurse had been in to change his dressings and
bandages, and he appeared less beat-up and bedraggled than he
had a day earlier.
The air hadn’t yet turned hot and soggy, so we all gathered
by the pool for tea and fruit. Pugh had somebody walk over to
the Topmost and come back with some rice and a bag of bacon.
I tried to phone Ellen and Bill at the Oriental to alert them
that no one would be picking them up anytime soon. But by
then the cell phone circuits were all jammed and I was unable to get through. The landline at the safe house wasn’t working
either. The hotel staff would no doubt cheerfully explain to
Ellen and Bill about the coup, an occasional feature of the Land of Smiles.
Griswold beamed. “Khun Anant is as good as his word.
General Yodying will be history by the end of the day, and we’ll all be safe and free to resume our lives. Isn’t that great?”
258 Richard Stevenson
Timmy said, “What will become of Yodying? Will he be
prosecuted for corruption?”
“Perhaps,” Griswold said. “Or he may flee the country. That
sort of thing happens.”
Pugh said, “He might fly to Singapore and visit his money.”
Kawee, Mango and Miss Nongnat came outside and joined
us. They were all antiregime and were delighted to see the
scoundrels getting heaved out.
Kawee said, “His Majesty the King, he save us one more
time. I love my king!”
“Won’t there be any resistance?” I asked. “The regime must
have some support or they wouldn’t have been elected.”
“Pro-regime crowds will march around yelling and waving
signs,” Pugh said. “But they won’t challenge the army. As soon
as an official announcement comes from the palace endorsing
the coup, people will go home and have some rice and burn
incense and light candles and watch soap operas. Then in six
months or so, new elections will produce another coalition of
crooks to run the country in cooperation with the banks and the
soothsayers and the tourism board. And the endless Thai cycle
of political birth, death and rebirth will resume. It’s all
reassuring, if you really think about it. It works quite as well as the political setup in, say, New Jersey, is my impression.”
“It works,” Griswold said, “because Buddhists understand
and accept that nothing is permanent. Change is the only reality, and Thais accept that truth and even embrace it. This
attunement with life’s deepest reality is why I love this country, and it is why this time I will never again make the mistake of
leaving Thailand.”
Pugh said, “Good luck, Mr. Gary. Just don’t neglect to do
your visa runs.”
Griswold said, “I really am sorry I won’t be able to speak
with Ellen and Bill before the Algonquin Steel takeover and the
commencement of the Sayadaw project. I think I might have
been able to help them understand that it’s best for all the
Griswolds just to move on. Business isn’t permanent. Family
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 259
history isn’t permanent. The only thing permanent is the spirit
of the Enlightened One and his teachings and, of course, the
Sangha that perpetuates his teachings.”
Pugh said, “I share your sentiments, Khun Gary, and I am
deeply disappointed that apparently I will not have the
opportunity to observe, even from a distance, your explaining
these matters to your older brother and your ex-wife. That
would have been a sight to behold.”
“Well,” Griswold said, “those necessary explanations will
have to take place in retrospect.”
“It’s bound to be dramatic either way.”
§ § § § §
By three in the afternoon, no official announcement had
been made of a change of government. Speculation was
rampant on the radio stations and television news channels as
to what this might mean. Did the king change his mind? Was
the aged king perhaps unwell, or worse? At three ten, Pugh’s
operatives, who had been out and about, began to filter back to
the safe house. They all reported that the roadblocks were being removed and the military trucks and troop carriers were
disappearing. Public transportation was soon up and running.
Radio and television began to report that the roadblocks and
military operations were merely part of an “exercise” and that,
contrary to widespread rumor, no coup had taken place.
Pugh said, “This is interesting.”
Griswold said, “Oh fuck.”
Pugh said, “That too.”
Just after four, nine police vehicles pulled up in front of the
safe house. Black-uniformed commandos quickly scaled the
walls on four sides to prevent any of us from making a run for
it.
A captain in a uniform that appeared freshly washed and
pressed despite the heat had all of us gathered together in one
place. He said calmly, “Please come with me. General Yodying
wishes to speak with you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
At the police station, we were all placed inside the same
holding cell. Four unwashed men with multiple tattoos were
already in there, lying on the concrete floor, and they looked
unhappy to see us. This was perhaps because now they would
have to share the single pail being used for urination and
defecation with the fifteen of us. The cell was unfurnished
except for the reeking bucket, and somebody had forgotten to
equip the room with air-conditioning.
“Surely they won’t keep us here for long,” Griswold said,
and all the English-speaking Thais in the cell turned away from
him and fixed their gazes instead on the cockroaches crawling
up the walls.
Timmy said, “I was once in a cell like this in rural India. It
takes me back.”
“You deal drugs?” Mango asked.
“No, I had transported a village boy trampled by a bull to a
hospital, and as a bureaucratic precaution, two policeman took
me to jail, just in case it had been I who had crushed the boy’s pelvis.”
“How long you stay?” Kawee asked.
“Just overnight. The district poultry officer came and bribed
somebody to release me.”
Now everyone looked at Griswold again, Mister Moneybags.
Pugh said, “The general may let us marinate a bit. To clear
our minds.”
“I really don’t see why he is doing this,” Griswold said.
“Obviously Yodying is in this with Anant. They have swindled
me out of just about everything I own, including my family’s
company. What more can they possibly extract from me?”
“I am sure they are at this very moment compiling a list,
Khun Gary. What else have you got?”
262 Richard Stevenson
“My condo. What’s left of the cash in the vault under my
spirit house. Minus, of course, the two hundred fifty thousand I handed over to Seer Pongsak last night. Oh. I suppose he was
also a party to the scam. And he knew where my cash reserves
were kept. So I suppose he informed Anant and Yodying, who
went over to the condo and helped themselves.”
“You’ll be lucky if they didn’t lick the paint off the walls,”
Pugh said. “They are greedy.”
“Maybe,” Kawee said, “they water plants, make offerings.”
“Let’s hope so,” Pugh said. “The general and the former
finance minister are, after all, good Buddhists.”
Griswold suddenly looked nauseated and hunkered down
with his back against the filthy wall and lowered his head
between his knees. “I think I’m going to throw up,” he croaked.
Timmy, Mr. Peace Corps, was the one who picked up the
bucket, carried it over, and set it down in front of Griswold.
Pugh said, “Let ’er rip, Khun Gary.”
Griswold did.
The Thais all averted their eyes from the violently retching
farang.
I said, “Timothy, at home you’re so careful to turn up only
in the most fastidiously kept surroundings. Maybe in one of
your past lives you learned to adapt to conditions like these.
Say, in the Crimean war.”
Would he laugh? Nope. He glanced over at me
noncommittally, but that was all.
After an hour or so, two guards returned. Were they going
to release us? We had been on the cement floor, shifting about
and trying to find comfortable positions without kicking one
another in the face. The four men who were occupying the cell
when we arrived, we had learned, were in on drug charges and
facing long sentences or even death and had been inert in this
cell for eight days. They hoped for a pretrial hearing within two or three months, they said. They knew better than to expect
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 263
anything good from the guards when they came back, but the
rest of us looked up expectantly.
The guards, however, were only delivering supper. One held
an automatic weapon while the other unlocked the cell door,
and two kitchen workers came with a cart and passed out to
each of us plastic plates of rice and bowls of dun-colored soup.
“This food makes me ashamed to be Thai,” Pugh said. “It
must be Burmese.”
The rest of us weren’t crazy about it either. Most of us ate
the rice but skipped the soup. The four tattooed drug dealers
ate the rancid soup eagerly. They considered the extra food a
treat.
Timmy said, “Is it really possible we’ll be here overnight?”
Pugh shrugged.
I said, “But Rufus, nothing is permanent. All we have to do
is wait for the transitory nature of all things to notice us here.
Am I right?”
Pugh chuckled, and he translated my joke to the non–
English-speaking Thais in the cell. Everyone laughed except the
drug dealers.
At ten o’clock, the guards came back and handed in a bucket
of water with a single plastic cup floating in it. All the Thais looked grateful, but I guessed that the three farangs – Timmy,
Griswold, me – were all thinking the same thing: Bangkok tap
water. No San Pellegrino was going to be provided.
§ § § § §
Just after eleven, two new guards turned up. They opened
the cell door, and one of them asked in English for Pugh, me,
Timmy and Griswold to follow them.
The second-floor captain’s office was more sanitary than our
cell, but it also lacked the charm we had come to associate with Siamese furnishings and decor.
The captain himself, the man who had arrested us at the safe
house, was present but he had little to offer us beyond a few
pleasantries. He said General Yodying would be along shortly.
264 Richard Stevenson
The captain apologized for Bangkok’s steamy weather.
Griswold asked if we would be permitted to phone the United
States embassy. The captain said no, that we should just sit
tight.
General Yodying ambled in around eleven thirty carrying a
sheaf of papers. The captain and Pugh wai-ed the general.
Griswold, Timmy and I followed their lead. The general wai-ed
us back and there were friendly exchanges of sa-wa-dee-cap.
He was big for a Thai, light skinned, with a broad forehead
and an immobile face. He was wearing a full dress uniform and
looked as if he might have come from a formal occasion,
possibly official. I doubted the general had dolled himself up
for us. He seated himself at his raised desk, and we took seats
across from and half a foot below him.
The general looked at Timmy and me and said, “It is a pity
your visit to Thailand has been disrupted by the taint of your
association with this bad man.” He indicated Griswold with a
curt nod. “And I certainly hope that neither of you shares Mr.
Griswold’s unfortunate tendencies. If so, I would advise you to
leave Thailand and take up residence instead in Phnom Penh,
Cambodia.”
I could see just enough of Griswold with my peripheral
vision to catch the flinch. He knew what was coming, and he
knew what had happened to him, and he knew he was finished.
“And you, Khun Rufus. I am surprised and disappointed
that you would allow yourself to be employed by such a
depraved pervert. I know you well enough to know that your
sexual appetites are entirely healthy. I suppose you are in it for the money – protecting a man like this – and I can appreciate
that. We all have families to support and temples to which we
must make appropriate offerings.”
Pugh looked at the general evenly but said nothing.
Flipping open his packet, the general pulled out a wad of
eight-by-ten color photos. He said, “Mr. Griswold, investigators under my command have compiled incontrovertible proof that
you have been molesting helpless little boys in and around
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 265
Bangkok. People like you have been coming to Southeast Asia
for years to prey on poor and vulnerable urchins like the ones in these photographs. But I have to tell you that those days are
over. Finished. Monsters such as yourself now serve long prison
terms for these despicable acts, and I want you to know that
you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Would
you like to make a statement?”
Griswold was entirely calm. His months of meditation were
paying off. He said, “I’ll make a statement. Aren’t you going to record it?”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“May I see the photos?”
“Of course.”
The general spread them out on his desk facing us. They
were bad. Boys no more than eight or ten grimacing and crying
as they were being penetrated by a foreigner who plainly was
not Griswold – although Griswold’s face had been ineptly
Photoshopped atop the face of the actual perpetrator.
Griswold said, “Where did you get these? That’s not me,
despite the crude attempts to make it look as if it is.”
“These photos were on your computer.”
Pugh said, “A mistake has obviously been made. I am in
possession of Khun Gary’s computer.”
“Perhaps you have one of his computers,” the general said.
“But this one was found in a hidden vault beneath the spirit
house in Mr. Griswold’s condo here in Bangkok. And of
course, the photos speak for themselves.”
Griswold said, “How much do you want? I have very little
left. Basically just what’s left in the vault under the spirit house.”
“No money was found in your vault, Mr. Griswold. Just
your laptop with these despicable pictures of your despicable
acts.”
“So what do you want from me? What can I possibly offer
you to secure my freedom, General?”
266 Richard Stevenson
“You can offer me nothing, Mr. Griswold. However, I am a
man of mercy. The only thing I require of you is your absence
from Thailand. Your visa to remain in Thailand was revoked
half an hour ago. Members of my department will personally
escort you to the airport at nine tomorrow morning. You will
be placed on a flight to Frankfurt and you will never be
admitted to Thailand again. We don’t want your ilk in our
country. We simply will not stand for it.”
Griswold said, “What about the Sayadaw U center? Will it be
built?”
The general smiled. “Of course, of course it will be built. If
that’s what you’re worried about, have no fear. Your name will
not be associated with the shrine, however, now that you have
the taint of moral corruption on you. And I should mention
perhaps that the center will be completed on a scale somewhat
reduced from what you had in mind. Your idea of it was far too
grandiose for Thai tastes. We are a humble people.”
Griswold sat quietly gazing at the general. After a moment,
he said, “I still love Thailand.”
“Oh, even though it has disappointed you! I am relieved to
hear that, Mr. Griswold. You are in many ways a good man —
despite your proclivities. You are a man of spiritual depth and
perspective. Perhaps after your soul has been purified by chaste behavior and generous offerings over a series of lives, you will return to Thailand under another, better guise. I am certain our immigration department would have no objection to that.”
Griswold said, “What about my friends here? They have
done nothing wrong. Of course, neither have I. But it seems as
if there is no point in discussing that.”
“No. You are correct. There is no point in discussing that.
But your friends will be released in the morning. Khun Rufus
can resume his colorful career as Bangkok’s Mickey Spillane.
And Mr. Donald and Mr. Timothy will, I hope, enjoy some of
the splendors of Siamese culture and civilization, and perhaps
have a pleasant visit at one of our hundreds of excellent
beaches. I don’t want them to return to America with a poor
impression of my country.”
THE 38 MILLION DOLLAR SMILE 267
Timmy said, “I like your beaches, General. We’ve been to
Hua Hin. But your criminal justice system leaves a lot to be
desired.”
Had Timmy fallen off his bicycle and landed on his head? I
had been determined to keep my mouth shut and leave for the
airport at the first opportunity. I thought, My God, he’s turning into me.
But General Yodying nodded sympathetically. “I do
apologize for detaining you, Mr. Timothy, and for doing so in
our admittedly fetid accommodations. Do understand, however,
that I could have left you all to rot over the weekend in that cell.
But I did not. In fact, I drove over here following my own
sixtieth birthday celebration at the Dusit Thani to deal with
Khun Gary and to assure the rest of your group that in the
morning I will be totally out of your hair. I could have gone
straight home with my wife or to my delightful girlfriend’s
house. So don’t complain too much.”
Pugh said, “Today is your sixtieth birthday, general? Please
let me offer my heartiest congratulations.”
“My birthday is actually tomorrow, the nineteenth,” the
general said. “Ah, it’s after midnight now. If I may say so, happy birthday to me!”
Pugh sang out, “How wonderful!”
Pugh’s enthusiasm seemed weirdly misplaced, until we got
back to our cell and he explained to me that the confluence of
events he had just learned of was heavy with auspiciousness.
