“ Earl, you have a way with words.” She turned toward the yachts in their slips and pulled her long hair out of her eyes. Then she turned back toward him. “You’d never think about slapping me around though, would you, Earl?”
“ No, ma’am,” he said, grinning like a schoolboy.
“ Why not?” she asked, unable to hide the humor in her voice.
“’ Cause you’d probably cut it off and make me eat it before you killed me,” he said, grinning even wider.
“ And don’t you forget it,” she said.
“ I never would.”
She watched him as he dug into his food. In a few hours he’d be doing his part in the assassination of a prime minister, and now he was tucking into his lunch like it was the only thing on his mind. He had nerves of steel, nerves like hers.
He set his fork down and took a long drink of water. He was still holding the glass in his hand when he said, “The bodyguard won’t be a problem tonight.”
“ What have you done?” she said.
“ I caught him with my wife. They came up to the room for a little hanky panky.”
“ Earl, you’re being obtuse.”
“ Not fair to use words normal people don’t know,” he said through a good ol’ boy Southern smile.
“ Just get to the point, Earl,” she said. She couldn’t help herself, she still cared for Broxton. She hoped he hadn’t done anything rash.
“ Relax I didn’t hurt him. I got the drop on them and tied them up.”
“ Where?”
“ In her room at the Hilton.”
“ Shit. Now he knows we’re still alive. He’ll try and get Ram to call off tonight’s speech.”
“ You think you’re dealing with a twelve-year-old here? He’s not getting away. I made them take the pills, then I stripped them and duct taped them together, arms to arms, legs to legs, several wraps. Then I taped their mouths. They’re not going nowhere. Shit, they probably won’t even wake up till it’s all over.”
“ You’re sure?”
“ Sure I’m sure.”
“ What do you plan on doing with them?”
“ That’s up to you. It’s still your show as far as I’m concerned. You want I’ll call the hotel after it’s over and Mr. Broxton and my wife can live happily ever after, have ten kids for all I care, long as you think you can keep him from talking. Or if that’s not to your liking, I’ll stop by the hotel on my way to Rampersad’s and pop them both. It’s for you to decide.”
“ You’d do your wife?”
“ She’s been getting it on with your friend Broxton. She doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. No loyalty.”
“ Loyalty means a lot to you?”
“ Yeah.”
“ But you weren’t loyal to her.”
“ That’s different.”
“ How do I know you’d be loyal to me?”
“ That’s different too.”
“ How?”
“ You’ve earned it. She never did.”
“ You mean you’re afraid of me and you were never afraid of her?”
“ That too,” he said, smiling. “But afraid or not, after tonight it’s fifty-fifty. Fear don’t run my life and you’re not gonna either. I pay my way and I take my chances. We can be a team, you and me, but we ain’t ever gonna be anything else. If that don’t work for you, tell me now and after tonight, I’m outta here. I got enough stashed away that I can live real good down in old Mexico and I’m the kind of guy that the senoritas really go for.”
“ What about the money I promised you?”
“ I can live without it. I’d like it, but I ain’t gonna push. In fact if truth be told, I’m kinda thinking about walking away after tonight no matter how it comes out.”
“ Why?”
“ It’s your line of work. Someday someone’s going to walk up behind you and put a bullet in your brain and anybody that’s close to you is liable to go down as well. Eventually you’re gonna be expendable.”
“ I’m impressed, Earl. The average man would have said that eventually I’d get caught.”
“ There’s that, too, but I’d worry more about the other.”
“ Kevin was my control,” she said.
“ I wondered how you did it, but then it wasn’t my business.”
“ I met him in Israel years ago. He wrote that book defending the Hezbola’s right to take hostages.”
“ I remember the guy,” Earl said. “I thought he was a jerk.”
“ Yeah, that’s him. He was a reporter with an idea for a book. He sent me the proposal and I was intrigued. He also sent me the price of a round trip ticket and that intrigued me even more.”
“ So you went to Israel?”
“ Yeah. I liked the idea for the book, but unfortunately he couldn’t write anything longer than a news story, so I helped him with it. While we were working on it one thing led to another.”
“ And you wound up in bed.”
“ Yeah, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Kevin had all these inside contacts with the Hezbola and I saw a story developing that would make me a fortune. I was running all over the country interviewing all the wrong people and drawing the attention of the Israeli government. One night while Kevin and I were driving near the Golan Heights a couple of soldiers stopped us. They wanted Kevin to get out of the car, and when he wouldn’t they jerked him out and started using him for a punching bag. It was the last thing they ever did.”
“ What do you mean?”
“ Kevin kept a forty-five automatic in the glove box. I knew this, the soldiers didn’t. They were so intent on teaching him a lesson in Middle Eastern politics that they forgot about me.”
“ You shot the soldiers?”
“ And afterward Kevin turned me into an assassin. You could say that our roles became reversed. He became my agent. He’d hand me cash and a name and I did the rest. The incident with the soldiers turned me into a rabid supporter of any Arab cause. I killed to further their aims and got paid well in the process. After a few years it didn’t matter anymore. I was in too deep to quit, and besides I enjoyed my work. I got hooked on the challenge, the adrenaline and the adventure. They never knew who I was. Kevin kept it that way, both to protect me and to see that he never got aced out of his cut. But now he’s dead and they have no way to contact me. As far as the world’s concerned the Scorpion has gone into retirement.”
“ Jesus,” Earl said.
“ So what do you think, now that I’ve bared my soul to you?”
“ I think that now you don’t have to do Ramsingh.”
“ Think of the money. You can take Kevin’s place training the troops and heading up Chandee’s security. He’s already agreed to it. In a year we could leave here richer than our wildest dreams. You and me Earl. Forever. Do I still have your loyalty?”
“ Always,” Earl said. “Till death.”
“ And the money? What about that?”
“ I’d love being richer than God, but do we need it? I’ve been a crooked cop a long time. I’ve got enough for us to be happy. Let’s just go to Mexico. You’d love Cabo. We’ll lay on the beach, drink margaritas, windsurf and dance till dawn everyday for the rest of our lives.”
“ I want this Earl,” she said. She had plenty of money too, probably a lot more than he did, but she wanted more than plenty of money. She wanted it all. She’d worked for it, she’d earned it, she wasn’t going to walk away now.
“ Okay, babe. I’ll stick with you,” he said. She sighed. She’d been right about him. He was the man for her. Together they’d be unstoppable.
“ It’ll be great, you’ll see,” she said.
“ There’s your man,” Earl said. She turned and watched as George came into the restaurant from the dock.
“ Look, Daddy it’s George Chandee, the Attorney General,” she said in a perfect White Trini accent, loud enough for everybody to hear. She jumped out of her chair and went up to him. “Mr. Attorney General this is an honor,” she blushed.
He smiled at her. “I’m sorry, I’m pretty busy right now.”
“ What’s the matter, George, don’t you have time for your friends,” she said, lowering her voice and dropping the accent as she took his hand. She turned to Earl, added the accent and said, “Daddy, Minister Chandee is going to have a drink with us.”