“Why did you do that movie?” Renata asked Max.
“Why not? What have I got to hide?”
“That you’re a drug dealer.”
“Never. This was economic opportunity, major wages for moving some money. I worried about being robbed, not arrested. Alfie liked my access to exclusive clubs in Washington, and in New York and Miami where he could do business with diplomats and see his customers from Sutton Place and Park Avenue. There was nobody on his payroll with my credentials. And the money I carried was always explainable. Alfie pays his taxes as a gambler and he makes heavy investments in real estate.”
“The police would never believe that.”
“He’s been doing it for years and they never came after him till now.”
“Alfie is not a drug dealer, and you’re an innocent fugitive, so you can spend all afternoon at a bar.”
“Hiding in plain sight.”
“What did he gamble at,” Gloria asked.
“Marijuana,” Max said.
They were in the Dodge Coronet Renata had rented for Max in her name, with his cash. She had driven her car to the Avis lot at Albany Airport, with Gloria in the backseat, switched Max’s suitcase to the trunk of the Coronet, and left her own car in the public parking lot. They then headed for the concert, which Gloria had not wanted to see until Renata persuaded her Roy might be there and she could talk to him.
Renata had not yet heard whether Max could enter Cuba, but she had begun the circuitous route of calls that would, perhaps, reach Moncho’s ear in Havana. The question was, can Mr. X enter Cuba and if so, how? What her sources deemed likeliest was a Cubana Airlines flight from Gander, Newfoundland, to Havana. All Cubana flights to and from Europe refueled at Gander, and the reservation would be easy once Max had the okay. Next problem: enter Canada without confronting U.S. Customs; can’t drive or fly, but the border is porous. You can walk across it, and many now do — peaceniks and draft dodgers avoiding the war, it’s a migration. Max needed wheels to get near the border, hence the Coronet; then he needed contacts to help drop off the car and walk him into Canada to new wheels and a driver, and all that was in process. Money was no problem. It all depended on Moncho convincing Fidel that Max was a worthy visitor.
What would Max bring to the revolution? First, a lot of money. Also the frequent favorable coverage of Fidel’s battle victories that Max had authorized as editor of the Post, despite pressure from Batista to ignore him. There would also be the revelation of his CIA history in Cuba and Miami, but would Fidel trust any of that? He will trust the money. Max is also a confederate of Alfie, one of Fidel’s major gun suppliers, and he’s a friend of the great Renata, and of Moncho, who is close to the Comandante. Outside of the money, Max, this doesn’t add up to a whole lot. But Renata is on the case, even so, and just negotiating you into Canada is a giant step for any fugitive.
The aroma of the new Coronet’s interior called up Renata’s memory of the police car that they put her in when they took her out of the Casa Granda Hotel, flying her to Campo Columbia’s airfield in Havana and shoving her into the backseat of another police car. Her guardian policeman kept the barrel of a Thompson against her neck, and now in the Coronet she could almost smell the oil on that gun again. She knows the Thompson, how to break one down and clean it, how to fire it, also she knows it fits unbroken under the front seat of a car. This she learned when she was driving Diego, two Thompsons between them on the seat and he said, hide that gun, and he slid one under his own seat. She did the same as two policemen ambled toward them, maybe ready to help, for the car had stalled and wouldn’t start, wouldn’t start, wouldn’t start. Or were they coming to search the car, who knows why? Then the car started, and she waved them away with a smile, thanks but not necessary, and drove away from disaster, maybe death. Had the police searched and found the guns in the trunk, or the weapons under the seats, Diego would have shot them — both Thompsons were loaded — and Renata, God save us, might have done the same.
She was not then part of the Directorio, just a passionate friend of rebels, one in particular; and being such a friend means you help your friend unconditionally. It also means that such forceful allegiance has transformed you into a conditional cop killer, Renata, which suggests that you have lost your reason. But she shrugged that away, ascribing it to love and her passion for justice.
At the DeWitt Clinton Renata, Max, and Gloria sat with Matt and his father, Martin, he looks so old, and George and his new lady friend, gordita pero shapely, and quite stylish. George does look unusually happy, the poor man is starving for affection, living with us. The ballroom was nearly full, hundreds and hundreds of fans smiling to Cody’s beat, some still eating, nobody dancing yet, and Cody beaming and playing and singing the tune he wrote, “Home in the Clouds.” Yes, he’s thin, but he looks fine, still handsome. Quinn was not here, but he will be, Matt said. He’s over at the paper, writing his bombshells for tomorrow. And he gave them a brief summary of his and Quinn’s odyssey through the assassination plot, the Four Spot fight, the riot, and Quinn arranging for Tremont to surrender himself and the AR-15.
“Roy Mason’s also in custody,” Matt said. “They may be charging him with inciting a riot and telling a group of black kids in front of the Four Spot they should have guns and he could get them for them. But those are both fake charges, they just wanted to bust him. His bail could be twenty-five or fifty thousand, which he doesn’t have.”
“Where is he?” Gloria asked.
“The Second Precinct lockup at headquarters. They may convene Police Court there tonight. They’re holding forty people. If Roy doesn’t make bail they’ll put him in the county jail.”
“Can I see him?” Gloria asked.
“I doubt it,” Matt said.
“We should raise his bail money,” Gloria said. “Can we put up anything, Aunt Ren? You only need ten percent of whatever the bail is. I’ve helped do that for a few people.”
“That could be five thousand dollars,” Renata said.
“I have some money, and there are people I can borrow from,” Gloria said. “I’ll go see how much it is. Headquarters is just down the block. I know some of the detectives.”
“I don’t want you out alone,” Renata said.
“I’m all right.”
“Of course you are.”
“I am.”
“You shouldn’t be on the street by yourself, especially tonight.”
“I can’t stand that they put him in jail again.”
“Let’s find out what the bail is.”
“I can do that,” Matt said, and he got up from the table.
“I’ll go with you,” Gloria said.
As they left Renata said softly to Max, “I think she’s seriously smitten with this young man. Would you consider putting up that money?”
“As a favor to you?”
“Yes.”
“One good turn deserves another, and that was a good turn with you.”
“Yes, it was. But I may not see you for a long time, and you keep rescuing me. You are a generous man.”
“My generosity has only just begun. I’ll put up his bail.”
“Thank you, dear Max.”
“Are you also smitten with this kid?”
“No, but I used to like his father.”
“I remember,” Max said.
When her guardian policeman pushed her out of the car she almost fell, and she knew then they really would hurt her. You are a coward, Renata, but you must not let them know. The one with the Thompson poked it into her back to hurry her along toward the grassy bank of El Laguito in the Country Club barrio. This is where they found Pelayo Cuervo Navarro after the Palace attack he had nothing to do with. But he was Batista’s longtime enemy and they put three bullets in his back, five in his chest and dumped him here at the edge of the lake.