Kate looked unimpressed. She said, ‘You ask me, it’s your personality that needs the laundering.’
‘Maybe you’d care to take my list.’
‘You’re in enough hot water already.’
‘Do you poke fun at all men? Or just the ones you know?’
‘Don’t flatter yourself. I don’t know you at all. You’re just some guy I once slept with. Most of the time I had my eyes closed, remember?’
Dave smiled uncomfortably. ‘You can sell yourself that story if you want, Kate. Who knows? Maybe you can write the report and say that there was a lone gunman and no guys standing on the grassy knoll. Maybe you can even produce a magic bullet. But I’ve seen the Zapruder film of what happened between you and me, Kate. It wasn’t like you described at all.’
Kate shrugged dismissively. ‘It’s not just the Warren Commission who can cover up. And when it comes to what happened between us, I’m Earl Warren and Richard Nixon and Oliver North all rolled into one. In my head this cine film’s already been edited. The scissors have been out. Crucial scenes have been cut. Cut, d’you hear?’
‘Snip away, Kate,’ said Dave. ‘But which of us is the more dishonest? I steal money. You lie to yourself. Not just any lie, mind. But the worst kind of lie. This is the kind of lie that might stop you being happy.’
‘Exchange an honest life for a crooked one? That’s not even worth ten cents on the dollar. I’ll say one thing for you, Van, you’re full of surprises. I always thought your kind placed no value on sentiment.’
Dave sighed. ‘Well, I had to try. Any law against that, Kate?’
‘None that I heard of.’ Kate shook her head, and quickly wiped a tear from her eye. ‘You know, when I met you, I thought you were the perfect man.’
‘You’re confusing me with that other guy, in the Bible. The guy you’re thinking of got himself nailed.’
‘You knew Shakespeare. And Pushkin.’
‘When you’re in prison, you make all kinds of new friends.’
‘It wasn’t meant to end like this.’
‘You just remember you said that, Kate. When you’re back home in Miami. I know I will.’
‘And where will you be?’
‘Murmansk. St Petersburg. Riga.’
‘Sounds cold.’
‘They wear a lot of fur in Russia. Don’t you like fur, Kate? You’d look good in mink.’
‘To tell the truth I sort of hate to think of all those mink going to so much bother.’
‘It won’t be for very long. I intend to travel.’
‘With all the enemies you’ve made, you’ll need to.’
‘Maybe even come back to the States, when it’s safe.’
‘Make sure you let me know in advance, so I can book you a cell in a nice jail.’ Kate shook her head. ‘Don’t even think of it, Dave. I see so much as a homesick dog in the Miami Herald’s Classified and I’ll track you down like your name was Doctor Richard Kimball.’
‘I’ll be looking out for you.’
‘Don’t bother. You won’t see me coming.’
‘That I’ve seen already.’
Kate felt herself blush again. But this time it was not with anger.
Dave smiled and said, ‘Did you know blushing is considered to be evidence of a moral sensibility?’
‘What would you know about that?’
‘Nothing much. I just know I’ll always remember that night we spent together. When I’m old and gray it’ll keep me occupied just thinking about it.’
‘I hear cons have all kinds of ways of getting through a long sentence. But if I were you I’d think of a canary. I believe they can be quite affectionate.’
Dave looked around for inspiration and saw Einstein Gergiev tapping his watch. Sadly he looked back at Kate, her face as implacable as ever. The one tear that had encouraged him had quickly dried. The blush on her smooth cheek had cooled. There seemed to be no way of getting past her sharp tongue. He could see that she’d steeled herself to say some of the things she was saying. None of it came from the heart. He was certain of that anyway. But it was as if she had engaged the services of a smart attorney, like Jimmy Figaro, and the smart attorney was chambered in her mouth. There was no getting past him.
Desperate now, he said, ‘Didn’t you ever want to take a ride in a submarine?’ He took her by the wrist. ‘C’mon, Kate. Take a dive with me.’
She retrieved her wrist from his hand.
‘Me? Sorry Captain Nemo, but I get claustrophobic taking a shower. No way would you ever get me down in one of those cigar tubes.’ She went on glibly. ‘So you see, even if I wanted to come with you, I couldn’t. I’d be climbing up the walls in less than twenty minutes.’
‘Then I guess I’d better be going.’
‘It’s what I’ve been telling you,’ she said sombrely. ‘You should never have done this, you know. You should never have stolen all this money. Maybe you can convince yourself it’s just drug money and that it doesn’t matter. One thief stealing from another and shit like that. But when you need guns to do it, then you’re just as evil as the way the money was made. That’s what counts. Nobody can build his happiness on another’s pain. Next time you look in a mirror just see if I’m not right.’
‘Evil?’ He laughed. ‘If you ever change your mind... Well, it’s you I want to see Kate, not the police. I don’t look in mirrors very much. Kind of got out of the habit while I was in prison. They don’t have them in case you use the glass to make a point on yourself. But the sun. Now that’s something I do look at, a lot. What I say is, why look for another light when there’s one we already have? Good and evil? Don’t be so melodramatic. You know, even the sun, the brightest thing in the solar system, has some black in it. Take a look at a picture of it sometime and see if I’m not right. When you do, you’ll realize that those black spots are the sun’s most obvious feature. And you know something else? Those spots, they affect everything, more than we’d ever suspected until quite recently. Nobody knows what causes them. Probably nobody ever will. But the next time you look at the sun, just ask yourself if I’m really as black a villain as you say. So long, Kate. It’s been fun.’
Dave turned to walk out of the galley, and then remembered about Al. He said, ‘By the way, you can take Al with you when you leave. Our partnership is dissolved.’
‘No honor among thieves?’
‘Just don’t turn your back on him.’
Kate waved the handcuffs she had brought with her from the Carrera. Her own FBI set. Not the pair she was still wearing on one wrist. She said, ‘I was saving these for you.’
‘How did you do that anyway?’ asked Dave. ‘How did you get out of those cuffs?’
Kate smiled. ‘Same way I got rid of my husband. I escaped.’
They came out of the galley and stepped back onto the aft deck, where Al was still held between the two Russian sailors.
Seeing Dave again, he said, ‘Hey Dave, you’re not planning to leave me here?’
‘When you’re back in Miami, Al, I don’t advise you try a career reading people’s minds. There isn’t any plan. Not any more.’
‘After all we’ve been through?’
‘I’ll always think fondly of you, Al. Right up until the moment when you were planning to kill me.’
Kate walked back to Al and quickly snapped the cuffs on his wrists. Turning to look at her, Al said, ‘I hope you’re as tough as you think you are, girlie. Because I’m gonna enjoy tellin’ people your sordid little story.’