Al sat up, swallowed the pill and, taking the glass out of Dave’s hand, drained it of the water covering his dentures.
‘You bastard,’ he whispered and collapsed back onto the bed.
‘Yeah, I know. All my patients say the same thing. My manner’s more dockside than bedside.’ Dave wiped Al’s forehead with the towel. ‘Takes a little while for the Scopoderm to kick in. The dope’s attached to your arms as well, just in case your stomach’s paying less attention than your brain. Just one note of precaution. No booze while you’re tripping on this stuff. That means no booze until we’re off this ship, right? You and I have got a job to do.’ Dave glanced at his watch. ‘In less than twelve hours. You want some character motivation? Then think about that for a while. This time tomorrow you and I are going to be multi-millionaires.’
‘So,’ said Sam Brockman. ‘We’re on our own now. Excepting when there’s a NATO exercise, the Navy generally stays this side of the Atlantic. It makes things less complicated for the ASW people.’
‘ASW?’
‘Anti-submarine warfare,’ he told Kate. ‘French’ll pick us up in a few hours, just west of the Azores.’ He sighed. ‘Shit.’
‘What?’
‘Just that I almost wish something would happen. Seems kind of a shame to hand the collar over to Interpol.’
Kate agreed without much enthusiasm. For her there was more than enough happening already. More than she had bargained for, anyway. Since breakfast she had stayed on the Carrera, grateful that the bad weather gave her the excuse not to go up on deck and see Dave. Perhaps it was as well the sub had gone. It meant that there was no temptation to get a message relayed back to FBI HQ and check on Dave’s criminal record. Assuming Dulanotov was his real name.
A very green-looking Kent Bowen came up to the galley and stood breathing heavily over the sink for a moment before fetching a glass and taking some water from the faucet.
‘How are you feeling, Kent?’ Sam asked the ASAC.
‘Like dog shit.’
Kate gave Bowen a look as if to say dog shit was what he was. She hadn’t yet worked out a way of paying him back for implying to Dave that he was fucking her. But she was working on it.
‘The Dramamine not effective?’ said Sam.
‘That’s the top of the news,’ said Bowen. ‘I take any more of that stuff and I’ll fall asleep. I’m nearly out on my feet as it is.’
‘You know, nothing much is happening right now,’ said Kate. ‘Turkey in the straw has signed off. There doesn’t seem much point in staying awake if you’re feeling lousy. Why not go to bed?’
Bowen smiled weakly. ‘Why not go to bed? Is that your personal motto or something?’
Kate bit her lip. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ she said evenly.
‘I think you know what I’m talking about, Agent Furey.’
‘God, you sound just like my mother.’
‘I doubt that. I doubt that very much. Clearly your mother can never have offered you anything in the way of moral guidance.’
Kate felt her cheeks color. Then she laughed scornfully. ‘Listen to Bob Guccione. What would you know about moral guidance?’
Persisting, Bowen said, ‘If she had—’
‘I’m assuming it’s the Dramamine that’s making you sound like an asshole, Kent.’
‘If she had, you’d have returned to this boat last night.’
‘Did you come up here especially to insult me?’
‘You don’t deny it then?’
‘Deny what?’
‘That you slept with that guy?’
‘Actually we didn’t really sleep at all. We were too busy fucking.’
‘I was right, then.’
‘But what I did or did not do last night is really none of your goddamn business.’
‘If it affects the integrity of this operation, it is.’
‘And you’d know all about that, watching porno all evening.’
Bowen leaned forward and retched into the sink.
‘You make a lot more sense with your head in a toilet bowl,’ she sneered.
Bowen straightened and wiped his mouth with a paper towel. ‘It was not all evening.’
‘It was a couple of hours, Kate,’ said Sam. ‘Maybe three.’
‘So don’t lecture me on integrity,’ said Kate.
Sam said, ‘Never seen that kind of thing before. Probably won’t ever see it again. Last night, I reckon I saw everything it was possible to see. There was one particular female—’ He glanced awkwardly at Kate. ‘Well, I’ll just say this. That now I know what it really means to have your head screwed on.’ He laughed. ‘Anyway, I don’t see that any of us have affected the integrity of this operation. Nothing happened last night that’s anyone’s business but his or her own. Now why don’t we just leave it at that, huh, Kent?’
‘That kind of adolescent behavior may be OK in the Coast Guard,’ hiccuped Bowen. ‘But Agent Furey’s illicit sexual activities are not in the best traditions of the FBI.’
‘Who do you think you are?’ demanded Kate. ‘J. Edgar Hoover? Illicit sexual activities, my ass.’
Bowen grinned through a wave of nausea that drained the last shade of color from his face. He said, ‘Well, I know who I am. Yeah. That’s right. I know who I am.’
‘The secret files of Kent Bowen.’
‘But can you say the same about your sexual partner? Answer me that, if you can. Exactly what do you know about Mister David Dulanotov?’
‘This is bullshit,’ said Kate. But the truth was that she had spent the whole morning asking herself the same question.
Bowen took a deep breath and said, ‘I am a pillar of strength in a city of weak men and women. And I will maintain the law. But Mister David Dulanotov is something else. He is not a righteous man. The rancorous eye and the finger of scorn are pointed against him.’ He exhaled unsteadily.
‘Pillar of shit more like. What are you talking about?’
‘I’ll tell you. I’ve done a little checking on Mister David Dulanotov. And it turns out that the boat he owns is registered in Grand Cayman.’
‘There’s no law against that.’
‘The previous owner was a guy by the name of Lou Malta, formerly an associate of Tony Nudelli. Even you must have heard of Tony Nudelli.’
Kate stayed silent.
‘Naked Tony Nudelli. I say formerly an associate, because Lou Malta is listed with the Miami Police Department as a missing person. No one has seen him in months.’
Kate shrugged and said, ‘I don’t see what that proves.’
‘Nothing. Except maybe that this Lou Malta guy has been murdered.’
‘All we ask of someone when they sell us something is that they possess a proper title to the goods. Not that they are a proper person.’
‘S’right, Kent,’ agreed Sam Brockman. ‘Guy who sold me my first car was one of the biggest crooks in Florida.’
‘Keep out of this,’ said Bowen.
‘Be careful, Sam,’ said Kate. ‘Or the crazy son of a bitch’ll open a file on you too.’
Bowen said, ‘I haven’t been able to find out about the other guy. The knuckles he has for company. But I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he was some kind of mobster too.’
‘You sound like you’ve already established a prima facie case against David,’ said Kate. ‘What I’ve heard so far is about as circumstantial as the time on your cheap watch. Boy, when you throw up it’s not just last night’s dinner, is it? It’s a lot of other bile and rat shit as well. In case you’ve forgotten, Kent, it’s dogs that are interested in puke, not the DA. He’d laugh you out of his office with what you’ve told me so far.’
‘I never said I had anything other than—’ Bowen stopped, gulped biliously before covering his mouth and then waiting for another wave of nausea to subside. After a moment or two, he added, ‘Other than a strong suspicion, that he was not, a proper person for an agent to become, associated with.’ Then he belched.