by Chuck Logan
“Okay.” LaPorte brought his palms down on the wire arms of the chair as if to rise. But it was meant as an emphatic gesture. “I’ll fucking tell you then. Our former worthy foes are less worthy since they opened the door to the west. I’m doing some business over there, building a hotel in Hoi An; great site, virtually untouched. Which means I’ve had to spread the dash around. Take a few ranking party members out to dinner. Some long cruises on my boat.
“So I asked one of these gentlemen to do a little digging for me and it turns out we didn’t know half of what was going on that night.”
“Like what?”
LaPorte pointed his finger. “Who was the key to pulling former assets out of the central provinces?”
“Trin.”
“Correct. And what was Trin’s first rule?”
“Trust no one.” Broker felt his shoulders curl forward, body-armoring against the tug of LaPorte’s will.
“And who did Trin trust?”
“Pryce.”
“Now, back to my Commie bureaucrat, who was panting like a bitch in heat for the new Land Rover I was going to buy him. He checked around. Didn’t take much. A number of people made their reputations capturing Trin. According to this guy, Trin was grabbed in a secure house in Hue because the North Vietnamese were tipped by an American…”
LaPorte paused. “This alleged American arranged a clandestine meet, through a double agent. On the coast. To give up Trin. And hear this. My informant said it was written right in the report: The American was described as having a gold cigarette case.”
“What did this guy get in return for handing over Trin?” asked Broker.
LaPorte smiled thinly. “Bastard wouldn’t tell me. That’d probably cost another Land Rover.”
“Hearsay,” said Broker.
“My ass. It was planned in depth. First position Trin as the bait. Then send you in as the decoy. And I tried to defend that sonofabitch…” His eyes scanned the rustling foliage and he said softly, “For which I paid a very steep price.” LaPorte stood up abruptly and seized the railing until his knuckles turned white. “Give me a cigarette, please,” he asked softly.
There was a time when Broker could not imagine Cyrus LaPorte losing control. He shrugged and held out his pack. LaPorte took one and a light from Broker’s lighter.
LaPorte inhaled, blew a stream of smoke and immediately rested two fingers on his left wrist to test his pulse. Broker remembered what his dad had said and he wondered if LaPorte, who was in his early sixties, had glimpsed death creeping the iron lilacs, staking out squatter’s rights on his estate. LaPorte tossed the smoke away and made a face. “I haven’t had one of those in eight years.” He spun on Broker. “So you can see why I’m not crazy about Nina Pryce nosing around in my affairs.”
“What do you care. You’ve found your helicopter.”
“Goddammit, man, we’ve gridded the bottom and sonar mapped the whole area. We’ve been all over that wreck and we’ve got bones and coral-wrapped hand grenades, but we’ve only brought up seven bars of gold,” said LaPorte. “It’s not there.”
“And you think Tuna knows where it is?”
With a glare like point-blank muskets, LaPorte fumed, “Of course I do. Don’t fuck around. So do you!”
29
THE WOMAN WALKED OUT FROM BENEATH THE BALCONY, staying to the dappled shadows along the right side of the pool deck. Divots of sunlight peeked through the hedge and caught in her dark hair and flowed in snake-skin patterns on her olive arms and legs. She wore a high-necked T-shirt and light shorts like a coat of black cotton paint and she carried a faded blue rubber mat under her arm. She used absolutely every muscle in her body in the simple act of walking.
Broker’s eyes stayed fixed on the woman as she knelt and smoothed out her mat.
“I don’t know about Minnesota, but down here it’s not considered polite to stare at a man’s wife,” said LaPorte.
“Very attractive,” said Broker.
“Really? All you can see is her back.”
“And young.”
LaPorte snorted. “No, Lola’s merely well preserved.”
Impolitely, Broker continued to stare at Lola LaPorte as she swung her body through a continuous series of postures. Her limbs swung light as balsa, but they were anchored in the tension of driven pilings.
Yoga. Irene Broker studied it to file down the teeth of aging. But Mom did it on rocks.
LaPorte leaned over the balcony and called out, irritably, “Lola, cut that shit out and come over here.”
Lightly she unwound from a pose and stood, staring up at them. Her large eyes, wide cheeks, full lips, and perfect shoulder-length hair communicated a certain taboo physical range: rich guy’s wife. As cool in the tropical heat as a pristine winter shadow Lola LaPorte walked halfway to the balcony and put her hands on her hips. “What?” she said, annoyed, not turning her face up.
LaPorte rose and leaned over the balcony. “Mr. Phillip Broker is up here, he’s the detective from Minnesota we discussed last night. I get the impression he’s embarking on a new career as a blackmailer.”
“Is he here to study or to practice?” said Lola in a bored voice. Broker appreciated that the LaPortes, in conversation, volleyed a siege energy of contempt.
LaPorte made a face and lowered his voice. “You married, Broker?”
“Divorced.”
“Kids?”
Broker shook his head.
“I wanted kids,” said LaPorte in a sour tone. Then he called to his wife. “I was thinking of inviting Mr. Broker to supper.”
“Sorry, I have plans,” said Broker who didn’t want to seem too eager to curry LaPorte’s favor.
“So does Cyrus,” said Lola sweetly. She waved her wrist idly in parting and returned to her exercise.
LaPorte grimaced and then inclined his palm back toward his office and they went inside and sat in the chairs in front of the desk. This time their eyes were on the same level. “Let’s get down to it, Phil. I’ll tell you what I want. You tell me what you want.”
Broker waited, expressionless.
“I need Nina Pryce contained,” said LaPorte. “Bought off, diverted, made happy, whatever it takes. Things are too delicate right now to have a loose cannon on deck. Second, I have to locate Tuna.” He held up his hand. “Let me enlarge a bit: I’ve had Tuna watched for years. Every approach I’ve made to him he turned down. When Nina started visiting him I had her watched. So, after she went to see you last January, I’ve had you checked out in detail.
“Bevode can do more than drag his knuckles. He ran a credit profile on you. We know you’ve been trying to arrange large loans through your employees’ credit union. We’ve been in contact with Neil Naslund, the banker in Devil’s Rock. We know about your problem.” LaPorte steepled his fingers. “If we can find a way to cooperate, I can make that problem go away.”
Broker’s turn. He ad-libbed easily.
“The map I gave you is a Xerox. The original shows a grid coordinate circled in grease pencil that pinpoints a location well within the coastal waters of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. And I have the original chopper graphic. And a transcript of an FBI inquiry into a ruckus in the Milan Pen visitor’s room between you and Tuna in 1980.”
LaPorte stroked his chin ruefully. “Now there’s a hitch that Robert Louis Stevenson didn’t have to deal with. Xerox machines.”
Broker paused to let it sink in. “I left them in a sealed envelope in my lawyer’s files in St. Paul. And I wrote a speculative letter that mentions your name frequently. If anything unusual happens to me or Nina Pryce the envelope gets delivered to the United States Attorney. Another copy goes to the Vietnamese Embassy.”
LaPorte glanced at his watch, then smiled. “Maybe you and Bevode Fret are more kin than you think. Have you put a figure on it?”
“First let’s get Nina off the table.”
LaPorte leaned forward. “Is she really…unbalanced?”
“She’s just extreme.”
&
nbsp; “Okay, okay…What do you think would solve her problem?”
Broker smiled. “To see you hang for killing her father.”
LaPorte chuckled. “Does she have a fallback position?”
“I could suggest one,” said Broker.
LaPorte opened his hands in an entreating gesture. Broker continued. “You pay for a year of discreet counseling. I mean serious stuff, a psychiatrist. Then you make a good-faith effort to help her get reinstated in the army.”
LaPorte sputtered and smiled at the same time, instantly grasping the symmetry in the solution. “Getting back in would make her well, huh?”
“Just my opinion.”
LaPorte shook his head. “God. I’d lose my pension. The good old boys in the army think she’s a libber fanatic bitch. She was all over the TV.”
“You could do it,” Broker said mildly.
“Jesus Christ, I don’t know. Maybe with the Bush crowd but these Arkansas hippies—”
“Easier with the hippies. You could do it,” repeated Broker. “For Ray.”
“Fuck Ray Pryce, the horse he rode in on, and the colonel who sent him.” LaPorte thumped his chest. “I signed for that fucking helicopter he lost. They made me pay for it. You know how much a Chinook costs. I was pay-deducted through Ford and Carter and finally Reagan got me off the hook and got me my money back.”
Broker found the outburst curious. In the public library he’d read that the LaPorte family was worth $70 million. His eyes strayed to the tall portrait of the pirate on the wall. “You’re not in this strictly for the money, are you?” he asked.
“We’re not talking about money. Money just sits in a bank and accrues. This is…treasure. I’m sixty-one years old. This is probably the last exciting thing I’ll do in my life.” LaPorte shook his head impatiently. “The Pryce kid? Will she shut up?”
“Can you grease the skids to get her back in?”
“That would take an absurd, and not entirely legal, contribution to a presidential campaign.” He grimaced. “It might be done.”
“I’ll take that as a yes. Now for Jimmy Tuna—”
LaPorte raised a hand. His eyes glowed faintly and Broker had conflicting impressions. Sensuality. And molten lead being poured.
“Are you sure you want to mix in our dirty business, Phil?”
Broker looked directly into LaPorte’s metallic eyes. “The Hue gold is…morally ambiguous.”
“The Eagle Scout I knew twenty years ago wouldn’t have said that.”
“People change.”
Something merry danced in LaPorte’s eyes and Broker thought it might be the old male slow dance; LaPorte wanted him to admit he was rolling over and baring his throat to the stronger alpha wolf. “Please continue, Phil,” said LaPorte.
“I don’t want Tuna hurt.”
“The man is dying,” LaPorte said impatiently. “Do you know where he is?”
“Not yet.”
The heat left LaPorte’s eyes and they froze with a subtle click of calculation above his smile. Broker had ceased to be important.
And Broker’s own false smile masked the ice pick that suddenly pinned his heart. He’d made a fatal mistake. A number of them. LaPorte had probably shut his eyes and drawn a circle on that map. The treasure map had no leverage power because it was a phony. Easy bait for an eager Nina. And he knew Fret wasn’t alone. His whole act was designed to siphon Broker off to New Orleans. And if I could figure out that the trail to Tuna led through his banking records, so could Cyrus LaPorte. They were still following her. And if they grabbed her coming out of the bank in Ann Arbor…
“How much?” said LaPorte with a convincing pained expression. Broker was treading water. LaPorte was comfortably standing on the bottom.
“Five hundred thousand. For Nina, for my silence, and for Tuna. Half now. Half when it’s done. And do it some way it can’t be traced.”
“I’m willing to pick up the note on your dad’s white elephant and hold it. If everything works out, you’ll get another hundred thousand.”
“That’s a hundred and fifty thousand shy of the figure I had in mind.”
“Let’s think about it.” LaPorte stood up briskly and pressed the button on his desk. “When are you leaving New Orleans?” he asked.
“Ten tomorrow morning.”
“Where are you staying?”
“The Doniat. On Chartiers.”
“I’ll pick you up at eight and drive you to the airport. We’ll see where we’re at then.” They shook hands.
The old black guy in the shiny trousers appeared at the door and LaPorte said cordially, “Hiram, show Mr. Broker out. I’m leaving through the garage. I’d drop you but I’m going in the other direction. Hiram can call you a cab, but you should really take the streetcar.” LaPorte smiled and walked energetically down the hall and through a doorway.
“I need to use a phone,” Broker immediately said to Hiram.
“Uh-huh, but you wait a second.” Hiram cocked his ear out the open balcony doors. Seconds slid by like abacus beads on a wire of sweat. Broker heard the faint squeal of tires on hot cement down near the pool apron.
“Okay. Now you use that phone right there,” said Hiram, pointing to the raised desk. Then he turned and shuffled into the hall.
Broker stabbed in Nina’s number. On the third ring a rough male voice answered, “Hello,” and Broker hammered the desk with his fist. Then the voice said, “I say, Merry. What do you say?”
Broker shook his head, blinked and then almost shouted, “Weather.”
“Hi there,” said Nina in a bright voice.
“Who—”
She cut him off. “I told you we shouldn’t split up. The only guy who was good at that was Robert E. Lee.”
“Nina?”
“Relax. I’m playing Scrabble with Sgt. Danny Larkins of the Michigan Highway Patrol. We took a grad course together, remember.”
In the background the deep voice said, “Sociology of deviance. It was boring.”
Nina continued. “For an outrageous amount of cash Danny has taken two personal leave days to squire me around and tuck me on an airplane. And he’s got this great big gun.”
“She’s just dying to touch it,” yodeled Danny Larkins. They both laughed.
Broker, glad that someone was having fun, sagged on LaPorte’s desk. “I screwed up.”
“That’s okay. I didn’t. How’s it going?”
“You’re it. They got me down here on a draw play. The map’s all bullshit. Watch yourself.” He wondered if the call could be monitored. “Especially tomorrow.”
“About what I figured. No sweat. We’re having a poker party tonight. Six cops. I’m buying the beer.”
“Strip poker. And all of us are these huge motherfuckers,” crowed Larkins.
“I gotta go, I’m using LaPorte’s phone,” said Broker.
“I’m covered. You take care,” said Nina. Broker thought he heard her blow a kiss into the receiver. He hung up, dismounted the dais, and started for the door. Hiram appeared in front of him.
“You ain’t leaving yet,” said the old man.
Broker glowered down at Hiram’s mostly bald beige skull. “Say again?”
Hiram shook his head. “Out there on the balcony. Go ahead. Somebody you gotta talk to.”
“Who? Why?”
Hiram’s voice was eloquent with the absurdity of watching white people. “Cause they in over they head just like you.”
Lola LaPorte smoothed her hands through her hair as she walked along the pool deck toward the balcony. When she was within easy speaking range, she looked up. Through a haze of anger and humiliation Broker saw that her features keyed to the way she moved, hard and soft, a mobile pentagram of squares and triangles seamlessly turning inside of circles. He thought that her wide, somber eyes might be light brown.
“He’s gone,” she called up to him. Nice voice when her husband wasn’t around. Full range, like the rest of her. Mature and disciplined. “When policemen
visit my husband it usually concerns money. What exactly is Cyrus paying you to do, Mr. Broker?”
With a tight smile Broker grabbed at the only straw in sight. “Get some counseling for a girl named Nina Pryce and let Bevode Fret out of jail in Minnesota.”
She put her hands on her hips in a self-consciously mocking feminine pose and pitched her voice to match. “Nina Pryce is hardly a girl and I myself, given the opportunity to keep Bevode Fret in a jailhouse, would never consent to letting him go; a sentiment shared, I assure you, by half the sensible people of New Orleans. But then, half the sensible people in New Orleans would be a distinct minority.”
“What can I say—”
“Are you corrupt, Mr. Broker?”
“Only in Louisiana, so far.”
Broker tried to make out her expression, but she stood in a subtle riot of shadow cast by the hedges and he couldn’t tell.
“Relax, we’re alone for a while. I’ll be right up,” she said.
30
HE RETREATED FROM THE BALCONY AND THE HOT sensation stoked in his cheeks and in his hands. LaPorte had made a fool of him. The fury banked like coals when he recalled Bevode Fret’s assured smile. Broker prayed that Danny Larkins and company knew their stuff better than he did.
The second wave of anger was packed harder and took a direction. Get even. No. Punish…
His eyes tracked the office as his hands burned to seize on something. Something that would make LaPorte feel as foolish as he felt right now. He yanked in frustration on a locked desk drawer. He kicked the desk.
Lola’s cool voice reined him in. “Forget it, Broker. Cyrus is crazy as a March hare but he wouldn’t leave anything valuable just laying around.”
The breeze carried the tangerine scent of sweat from her damp clothing. She’d tied a filmy purple silk scarf around her throat and put on a pearl silk kimono with billowing sleeves. She was around five seven. Hard to estimate the weight she packed in all that velvet muscle. He’d been close on the eyes, brown but lighter, sand-colored. A streak of premature gray twisted above the left side of her widow’s peak.
And Broker was suddenly very eager to discover the exact dimensions of the marital tension between Lola and Cyrus LaPorte.
