The Four Corners of the Sky_ A Novel - Michael Malone [187]
“Where’s Raffy?” he asked. “Raffy can get you to our plane and into Cuba.”
“Dad, forget it. Raffy’s a prisoner at NAS Key West. He can’t help me or you either.” Below, beside the pool, she saw a slender man in the moonlight step back into shadows.
“Who told you I’m going to Sigsbee tomorrow?” she asked, trying to follow the gleam of white shirt in the shadows. He didn’t answer her. “Dad? Whatever the FBI asks me to do to get your sentence reduced, I’m doing it. I want you to turn yourself in and go to the hospital.”
“Full immunity. They offered me eighteen months if I’d give them what they want, and that includes Diaz and the Queen.”
“Take it.”
“Not eighteen days, baby.” He paused a minute, coughed. “Okay, just listen. You’re the only one but me who can get access to my account at Banco Central. So let the government send you to Havana. The FBI honestly believes it’s about catching criminals and protecting sources. But this State department jerk, Fierson, is the key. He’ll pretend it’s all about Cuba and the Catholic church and the statue. Our picture’s what he really wants. I told him the print in the bank pouch is the only print. You know it isn’t. But he doesn’t. Sam’s got the original. There’s a negative in the bank, too. Palm the negative out of the pouch. Don’t give it to anybody but her. She’ll be there.”
“‘Her’? Who’s her? Sam? What do you mean?”
He spoke quickly. “Helen Clark. Tell her it’s my gift. And give her the Queen. She’ll have the cash. Here’s all you have to remember. King, Queen, Sam. The Queen’s in the plane. And you can count on Raffy. Tell Raffy to be ready to do what he always does. I’ve got to go. I love you, baby. Good-bye.”
“Dad! Don’t disappear on me again!”
“Good-bye. I’m so glad I got to see you.”
“Dad!”
Her shout awakened Dan. “What’s the matter?”
“It’s my dad. He was just on the phone.”
They dressed quickly and hurried down to the pool. It was empty. They couldn’t find her father on the grounds or in any place they searched up and down the street.
But back at the pool they saw a cell phone lying silvery on the patio bar counter, like a good-bye gift. It was Dan’s phone.
Annie and Dan talked late into the night. What had her father meant by “our picture” being what Fierson wanted? Why should Annie give that picture, whatever it was, to Diaz’s mistress instead? Annie understood trading the Queen for cash, but how was she supposed to find either the Queen or Helen Clark? Her father had sounded so strange on the phone that maybe he didn’t even really know what he was saying; mostly he was rambling on about old movies and the moon. But somehow he knew Annie was going to the base at Sigsbee in the morning; he knew the name of the State department representative, McAllister Fierson, for whom the meeting had been postponed. Dan said, “It’s got to be FBI. He must have talked to some agent, about this deal he turned down.”
“The only thing clear is, he wants to sell the Queen to Diaz and he needs me to make the trade.” In St. Louis, the Queen had been hidden in a rear panel of the King of the Sky. Maybe that’s what her father had meant by “The Queen is in the plane.” He’d hidden it in his amphibian plane that was parked here in Key West, in a panel the way he’d hidden it in the King. “King Queen.” But why had he added “Sam” to his list of the three words she should not forget? And why should she count on Raffy to do anything?
Dan said it sounded as if her father might have some sort of photograph that he at least thought would be of interest to the government. There was no telling what sort of blackmail goodies Jack might have hidden away in places to which he’d illegally flown the Cessna. And after all, they knew he could hang onto photos for a long time, despite his vagabond life. Hadn’t he kept those baby photos of Annie?
Crouched on the bed, Annie hugged her knees. “I’m scared for him.”
Dan shrugged. “He wouldn’t take a deal for eighteen days, much less eighteen months. That man is not going to jail if he can help it. I don’t know what he’s up to