“As much as I did. Maybe more.”
I paused, unsure whether to pursue my thought. But the morning talk with Duncan about the FBI had stirred up my curiosity, and I couldn’t let it go. “If Dad knew you were pregnant, why would he take the risk of going to a place as dangerous as Colombia?”
“I can’t answer that.”
“You mean you don’t know or you can’t tell me?”
She looked at me funny. “I mean I don’t know.”
“Did he tell you why he was going there?”
“No. But that’s just the way your father operates. It was dangerous to go to Nicaragua, too. But he didn’t dwell on the risks, and he didn’t give me all the scary details.”
“Nicaragua’s one thing. That’s where the company is. I just don’t understand what could have been so pressing about a trip to Colombia that he would take chances while you were pregnant.”
“Your father has a different perception of risk than most people.”
“But he still saw it as risky enough to buy kidnap-and-ransom insurance.”
“That’s true. Which leads me to believe that he must have had a very good reason for going there.”
“I’m sure,” I said, knowing that “good” didn’t necessarily mean “legal.”
Mom got up from the table, hit the eject button on the VCR, and grabbed the videotape that the technician had made of my future sibling. “Let’s go home,” she said.
“Sure. I’m right behind you.”
27
On Tuesday night I met Alex for a drink. It was business, of course, but she didn’t want to meet in her office. She was on retainer with Quality Insurance Company, and so long as my family was in a coverage dispute, it was best for me not to visit her place of business or for her to be seen coming and going from my home. She suggested neutral territory, like a bar, trusting that I’d pick a place reasonably obscure. I told her I’d see her at Duffy’s Tavern at eight.
Duffy’s was on Red Road between historic Coral Way and what was once just plain old Eighth Street, now Calle Ocho, the main drag through Miami’s Little Havana. The Duffy’s side of Red Road was a commercial mixed bag, home to adult video stores, run-down repair shops, and a little Italian restaurant that served the best minestrone I’d ever tasted. The other side marked the boundary to Coral Gables, where expensive Old Spanish-style homes and manicured lots faced tree-lined streets with dreamy names like Valentia or Obispo. Of course, most of those picture-perfect side streets didn’t feed into Red Road anymore. Many had been tastefully barricaded with recently erected metal gates, stone pillars, and thorny hedges. The idea was to eliminate quick escape routes for brazen thugs who followed wealthy women home from the grocery store and clubbed them over the head for an emerald ring or diamond tennis bracelet. As more residents became victims-some for the second, third, or even fourth time-more barricades went up, until it seemed that the ultimate goal was to turn the entire city of Coral Gables into one big gated community.
In a weird way it reminded me of Bogota.
Duffy’s was a curiously popular hangout that over the years had become something of a local institution. It was the kind of place my father’s friends might have gone for a beer after a hot day of bone fishing, or where a group of University of Miami grad students might unwind over a pitcher of beer. Its brick facade and blackboard for daily specials were more suited to a South Boston tavern than the typical slick Miami sports bar. Inside, the floors were old wood planks that bore the stains of countless spilled drinks. Long shelves at near-ceiling height displayed a seemingly endless collection of empty beer cans, one after another, like an aluminum crown molding. Varnished-over baseball cards served as wallpaper. Pendants, posters, framed newspaper articles, and just about anything else that had ever commemorated a sporting event were mounted everywhere, including the ceiling. The U-shaped bar was crowded with beer-guzzling carnivores who enjoyed their weekly quota of protein and cholesterol in one meal-size patty with cheese while watching twelve television sets at once, each tuned to a different sports channel. A bumper sticker behind the bar proclaimed DUFFY’S-WHERE THE ELITE MEET TO EAT.
I took a table by the window and ordered a pitcher of beer and a basket of jalapeno poppers. The group next to me was counting aloud as one of their buddies pitched peanuts into the air and caught them in his mouth, never missing. It was part of the atmosphere, though I was beginning to wonder if it was Alex’s style.
“Come here often?” said Alex as she slid into the chair across from me.
“Nice line,” I said.
The college kid at the next table was choking, then finally coughed up a flying peanut that had gone down the wrong pipe.
“It’s not a line,” she said. “Do you really come here often?”
I poured her a beer into a frosty mug. “Don’t be a snob.”
“You’re right. I guess this is one place I can relax and not worry about the CEO of Quality Insurance walking through the door and seeing us together.”
“Actually, that’s him right over there.”
Across the room was a fat, drunk old man dressed in a tight T-shirt and spandex bicycling shorts that were at least two sizes too small. He was dancing a waltz by himself, eyes shut, his arms around his imaginary Ginger Rogers.
Alex snickered at the sight. Then she turned serious, eager to hear the upshot of my meeting with Duncan Fitz. For the next several minutes she listened without a word. The last bit of news, I thought, was sure to elicit a telling reaction of some sort.
“The insurance company denied the claim as fraudulent.”
“I know,” she said without hesitation.
“You know?”
She nodded, as if no explanation were needed.
“Then why are you sticking with me?” I asked.
“Because you’re cute.”
I blinked twice and probably even blushed a little.
“That was a joke,” she said.
“I know. But I’m still wondering why you haven’t dumped this case.”
“Because no one at Quality Insurance will tell me what the alleged fraud was. In my book a person is innocent till proven guilty.”
“But you said it yourself in Bogota. You thought the kidnappers not only knew my father had insurance, but they knew the exact coverage limit.”
“That doesn’t mean your father tipped them off and staged his own kidnapping. He could have been set up by someone else.”
“Like who?”
“If I were you, I’d sit down and make a list of every person who could have known your father’s travel plans and might have known that he had insurance.”
“There’s my mother, of course, but she’s said all along that she didn’t know anything about insurance.”
“You honestly think she’s a suspect?”
“No way. She’s practically in mourning over this.”
“Could be guilt.”
“Yeah, theoretically. If you want to go down that road, the bad guy could be me, too, in theory. But it isn’t.”
I was thinking, and then a familiar voice snagged my attention. “Nick, hi.”
I turned and saw Jenna, my ex-fiancee. She was wearing a softball uniform from a women’s league, her cap on backward. It was normal attire at Duffy’s.
I rose, unsure whether to shake her hand or give her a little kiss on the cheek. After a split second of awkward indecision, I did neither. “What a surprise to see you here,” I said.
“My softball team comes here every other Tuesday after a game. Don’t you remember?”
“Must have slipped my mind.”
“Must have,” said Alex, a tad sarcastic.
I took that as my cue to make the introductions. “Alex, this is Jenna, who I’ve told you about. Jenna, this is Alex.”
“Very nice to meet you.” They said the exact same thing at the same time in the same insincere tone. I wasn’t sure why it mattered to her, but I could tell that Jenna suddenly wished she didn’t look as if she’d just
run off the baseball diamond.
“How do you know Nick?” asked Jenna.
“I’m not sure I do know him,” said Alex.
I laughed too hard, then steered the conversation toward Jenna. “So how’ve you been?”
“Good. We won our first game tonight.”
“Terrific.”
“Not really. The other team didn’t show up.”
I glanced at the group of women in clean uniforms ordering drinks at the bar. “Well, any excuse to celebrate.”
“Right.” Her smile faded. “Is there any news on your dad?”
“We’re making progress, I think. Long way to go, though.”
She lowered her voice, as if to keep things just between me and her. “I wasn’t just being polite when we talked on the phone. If there’s anything I can do, please let me know.”
I felt her touch my arm as she spoke, just the tips of two fingers resting an inch or so away from my pulse. It was hardly any contact at all, but it was the first physical connection since the breakup, and I could have kicked myself for allowing it to confuse the hell out of me.
“I’ll definitely let you know. Thanks.”
One of her teammates called from their table and raised a glass. Jenna looked at me and said, “Guess I better get back to the victory party.”
“Sure. You go ahead.”
She smiled weakly and was gone. I returned to my seat and took a long sip of beer, only to meet a cold stare from Alex.
“Are you playing games?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“You picked this joint because you knew she’d be here, didn’t you?”
The accusation stunned me, but the strange truth was, I’d been thinking about Jenna a lot since yesterday. The ultrasound had triggered memories of the good times between us-getting engaged, planning a wedding, dreams of our own future family. We’d even gone so far as to toss around possible names for children. We settled on none but were in complete agreement that there would never be a Moon Rey, Sting Rey, or X Rey.
“I swear, this was a total coincidence.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute.”
“Why would I want to see Jenna?”
“You didn’t. You wanted her to see you. With me.”
“What purpose would that serve?”
“You tell me.”
“You think I was trying to make her jealous or something?”
Alex didn’t answer. She simply rose, dug in her purse, and threw a ten-dollar bill on the table to cover the tab. “I thought you could be more professional than this, Nick. I’m doing you a huge favor by staying on your father’s case. Don’t blow it by messing with my head.”
“You have the wrong idea, totally.”
She just glared, silent.
“Alex, please don’t go away mad.”
She left without another word, not so much as good-bye. I was about to follow when I sensed that someone was watching. I turned, expecting to see Jenna giving me a sideways glance from across the room. I saw only the back of her head. I scanned the entire bar. Not a single set of eyes was on me.
Yet the feeling of being watched was almost palpable.
It gave me a creepy sensation that I tried to shake off quickly. I finished my beer in one long swig and headed for the exit, resisting the urge to look back at Jenna-or whoever else it was who’d made me feel watched.
28
The Swede was beginning to freak. Matthew had been watching Jan closely the last few days, fearful that he might do something stupid. He’d been acting strange ever since the guerrillas took the Canadian into the jungle and shot him. One minute he was withdrawn, the next surly and angry. Perhaps it was his way of grieving. He and Will used to argue and hurl insults back and forth, and only after the execution did Matthew get the sense that the two men hadn’t merely worked for the same mining company but had actually been close friends.
Just days after Will’s death two new prisoners arrived, a young married couple from Japan. The woman spoke English and told Matthew what had happened. They were bird-watching along the Colombian border near Ecuador, one of the most beautiful hiking areas in the world. They’d felt safe because they were traveling with a guide who knew the area and, presumably, the dangers. Joaquin and four of his guerrillas surprised them near a mountain stream during their lunch break. The guide was Colombian and talked to Joaquin for nearly half an hour, at times a heated discussion. In the end the guide went free and the tourists were taken away at gunpoint. The woman had been angry at first, suspecting that the guide had pleaded for his own release and not theirs. Soon she realized that the more likely scenario was that she and her husband had been set up from the very beginning, led into Joaquin’s lair by their own guide, who was probably haggling with Joaquin over his commission.
The arrival of new prisoners further unsettled a group that was already on edge from the execution. The threat of death had always been in the air, but the lone gunshot that had pierced the night and the empty space around the campfire the following morning had made it all too real. Each of them had submitted to captivity while clinging dearly to the notion that a prisoner was more valuable alive than dead. Surely Joaquin wouldn’t discard his merchandise and deprive himself of a hefty ransom. Will’s death and the wisdom of the old-looking Colombian with orange hair-“Flea Man,” as Jan called him-had set them all straight.
“Sometimes it’s just easier for a guy like Joaquin to negotiate with the family for the return of a dead body,” said the Flea Man.
With tensions running high, Matthew was thankful for his new source of sanity: fishing. While Joaquin and his abduction team were out hunting for Japanese tourists, Matthew had convinced the remaining guards that he could fish trout from the stream. They were as tired of the bland diet as anyone, so they let him try. He fashioned a hook from a small safety pin, and the line was a six-foot length of thread he unraveled from the frayed hem of a canvas tarp. Worms and grubs were a plentiful source of bait. In the company of two guerrillas, he fished almost an entire afternoon and caught sixty-one trout from a quiet eddy near a fallen log. They were no bigger than his hand, but anything larger would have snapped the line of thread and taken off with his only hook. Last night Aida had grilled them over the fire in the hut, and the guerrillas ate most of them. She brought the five smallest ones to Matthew, his reward for having caught them. The other prisoners got the usual rice and beans. Matthew gave one fish to each of them. Even with the heads on, they were barely enough to add a little flavor to the rice.
Yesterday it had rained all day, so they didn’t go fishing. This afternoon, however, the sun was shining, and the guerrillas were hungry for more trout. They’d found another safety pin, and Matthew rigged up a second line with more canvas thread. He told them he couldn’t watch both lines at once without risk of losing one of them, so they let him bring along a fishing buddy. The prisoners drew straws to see who could go. The Swede won.
They left camp after lunch and returned to the same eddy, about a fifteen-minute walk. Four guards went this time because of the extra prisoner. For added security they chained the prisoners together at their ankles. Aida and her boyfriend perched themselves atop a rock in the sun. They were soon groping each other. The two other guerrillas entertained themselves with a Spanish-language travel book that Joaquin had taken from the guide who’d led the Japanese tourists into trouble. Every few minutes they hooted with laughter, pointing at yet another passage that read, “This area is safe for tourists.” Travel books were like the kidnapper’s guide to hunting and fishing.
In thirty minutes Matthew had caught eleven trout. The Swede hadn’t caught any.
“Will you stop making me look bad?” said Jan.
“You’re doing fine. Just be patient.”
“Don’t patronize me. These guerrillas are going to think I’m worthless.”
Matthew smiled, thinking he was kidding. But Jan’s expression was tense and deadly serious. “Lighten up
, all right?”
“How do you expect me to lighten up? Can’t you see I’m next on their list?”
“What list?”
Jan lowered his voice, as if to make double sure that the guards couldn’t overhear. “Their list of expendables.”
Matthew glanced toward Aida and her boyfriend. They’d moved from atop the rock to the bushes behind it. “You’re giving these punks too much credit. They don’t make lists.”
“Go ahead, brush it off. You’re now their fair-haired boy, Mr. Fisherman. But me, I’m just Will’s friend. Will, the pain in the ass.”
“They’re not going to kill you just because of that.”
“You heard what the Flea Man said. Joaquin’s group has enough guards to handle five or six prisoners, tops. With this new Japanese couple, we have seven now.”
“He also said Joaquin eliminates only the ones who look like they won’t pay off. Will was stupid. He flaunted the fact that his family wouldn’t pay.”
“That wasn’t just a pact he’d entered into with his wife. That’s the philosophy of our whole company. Will and I got extra pay to come to Colombia, but we knew that if we were kidnapped, the company wouldn’t pay.”
“Joaquin doesn’t have to know that.”
“He’ll know soon enough. I’m not married. I don’t have a wife or family to come up with the money to get me out of here. Joaquin is sure to make a ransom demand on my company. And they won’t pay.”
Matthew lowered his eyes. A trout was skimming the surface, flirting with his hook. “You don’t know that for sure.”
“Management thinks exactly the way Will did. I’m telling you because I trust you. My only way out of here is on my own two feet.”
“You mean an escape?” Matthew whispered.
Jan made a face, as if saying it would jinx things. “If I stay, I’m a dead man. And you’re in the same boat.”
“Why do you say that?”
“These little underlings might like you now that you’re catching fish for them. But Joaquin, he’s got a score to settle with you. That guerrilla who got killed in the shoot-out on your boat in Cartagena was one of his best men.”
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