“That’s true.”
“And it says you were doing things for him having to do with a new destination resort he’s building out on the Great Barrier Reef.”
“Still true.”
“And that Curtis just now found out that you tried to sell trade and business secrets to a Swiss company called Intertekno, whose principal owner is a financier named Robert Bendix.”
“I’ve never heard of Robert Bendix, or Inter whatever.”
“He claims you went to Bendix personally and showed him some documents,” Gary said. “According to the Journal piece, Bendix neither confirms nor denies, and Curtis has a warrant for your arrest on various felony charges, including theft of privileged documents belonging to him, and you have disappeared. You were last seen in Brisbane.”
“I’m still in Brisbane,” George said. “Or near it.”
“Well, that’s probably not a good career move, George. On the other hand, you really shouldn’t try to come home, or leave that country for anywhere else, because they’ll surely grab you at the airport and then you will look guilty.”
“Oh, he’s done it to me, hasn’t he?”
“Give me your number,” Gary offered, “I’ll ask around, get the name of a good lawyer for you over there.”
“I’ll have to call you back,” Manville said. “What if I call you at noon your time, would that be too soon?”
“No, fine. I should have something by then.”
“Thanks, Gary.”
“You’re in a mess, huh?”
“A rotten one.”
“Tell me about it when it’s all over.”
“I’m looking forward to the day.”
“I’m afraid you broke the old rule, George,” Gary told him. “Never fight with somebody whose pockets are deeper than yours.”
“Now you tell me,” Manville said, but he didn’t feel much like joking. “I’ll call you in two hours.”
“I’ll be here.”
Walking back to the room, wondering what he would tell Kim, Manville thought, Curtis doesn’t have to have me killed, not anymore. He doesn’t have to kill me, because he just did.
5
The pleasant pale green skirt was a wraparound, which meant it had to fit her. The blouse was loose, creamy white, scoop-necked. The panties were stretchy, and would do for now. He had wisely not tried to buy her a bra.
All in all, Kim was satisfied not only with the clothing, but with Manville himself. From time to time, when she remembered the suddenness with which he’d shot that man on the ship, she felt astonishment all over again, because he just didn’t seem like that kind at all. He was so reserved and low-key most of the time that you didn’t ever expect anything sudden from him, and certainly never anything violent.
She had gotten over both her panic and her deep exhaustion by now, and was beginning to return to her normal optimistic self. She’d removed the Ace bandage in order to shower, and though her torso felt stiff and achy without it, and there were still twinges in her rib cage if she breathed too suddenly, she felt she’d rather try to live without that wrapping from now on. The long sleep had helped, the shower had helped, the fresh clothing had helped, and the knowledge that George Manville was reliably at her side helped a lot.
She heard him come back into the room after his phone call, and shouted, “Be right out!”
“Take your time.”
“Oh, no,” she said, but not to him, to her reflection in the mirror. “I’m too hungry to take my time.”
She finished with her hair — not much she could do about it, really — then washed the underwear she’d had on for the drive and hung it on the towel rack, and went out to find him seated cross-legged on his bed, reading his paperback novel again. He put it aside, stood, looked her over, smiled tentatively, and said, “Not so bad, I guess.”
“I’ve had better compliments,” she said.
He looked flustered: “No, I meant my part. The clothes.”
“They’re great,” she assured him, and turned in a circle, arms out. “But now,” she said, “I really have to put some food in here, before there’s nothing under these clothes but skin and bone.”
“There’s some kind of diner or cafe just down the street, doesn’t look too bad. We just have to be back here in two hours, so I can make another phone call.”
“You talked to your friend?”
“I’ll tell you all about it,” he promised, “while we eat.”
The best thing you could say for the place where they had their late dinner was that it wasn’t as garishly overlit as the similar place across the street. The food was acceptable, and there was beer; Fosters, in cans. Ladies could have a styrofoam cup with their beer, on request. Kim decided not to request.
Over the various fried foods, George told her about his phone call and what Richard Curtis had done. She stared at him, appalled: “But why?”
“Destroy my credibility,” he said. “No matter what I do now, it isn’t a case of me charging Richard Curtis with something, it’s just me reacting to the charge he’s made against me.”
“What an awful man he is,” Kim said, “Jerry Diedrich was absolutely right.”
George shook his head at her. “Not absolutely right,” he said. “He was sure I was going to destroy the reef.”
That made her stop eating to consider him thoughtfully and then say, “Two days ago, you were my enemy.”
“And now?”
Suddenly, she felt awkward. “Well, you’re not my enemy,” she said. “We know that much.”
When he came back to the room from his second phone call, she was feeling very sleepy again, probably because of all the food and the two beers, but she needed to stay awake to know what was going on. And also, her ribs were hurting again.
He came in and looked a little less grim than when he’d told her about Curtis’s mad accusations back at the cafe. “There’s somebody for me to call in the morning,” he said. “A business friend of my friend’s, here in Australia.”
“What can he do?”
“No idea. Maybe nothing. I’ll find out tomorrow morning.” He stretched, like a man who’s been too stiff and cramped in a too-confined space for far too long. “Right now,” he said, “I think we both need sleep.”
She said, “I shouldn’t have left that bandage off, I’m getting very sore again. Could you help me put it on?”
She picked the soft roll of it up from her bed, and handed it to him.
“Sure.”
As he took the two snaps off the bandage, she said, “Wait, I have to—” and pulled the blouse off over her head. “Okay.”
He looked at her, and became awkward again. “I didn’t know how to buy a, I don’t know how the—”
“That’s all right.” She held her arms out from her sides, so he could wrap the bandage around her torso. When he stepped close, it was only natural to rest her hands on his shoulders. He put his arms around her to start the bandage and she lifted her face up to him, and they kissed, and that was natural, too.
When they kissed again, he’d dropped the bandage onto the floor, so he could stroke the skin of her back with both palms. She murmured, and their teeth bumped, and she held him tighter, but then he pressed her close and the sudden pain in her ribs made her gasp and pull away.
“I’m sorry,” he said, “I forgot.”
“No. I’m sorry,” she told him, still holding to him, not wanting to let go. “Damn these ribs! George, what can we do?”
Slowly he smiled. “Well, it’s an engineering problem, isn’t it?” he said. “And I’m an engineer.”
6