Artifact

Artifact Page 30

Peta had returned to Grenada with a lot of thinking to do. Most of it was unpleasant at worst and difficult at best, so she was perfectly happy to find ready-made excuses to avoid it.

She got her wish. Independence Day festivities, just over, had increased her patient load. The newly arrived medical students, unruly as the ones before them, demanded far more than their fair share of attention. Not only did she have to help them in the classroom, but she was constantly needed to reassure angry landlords who wanted to kill the kids or sue their parents, whichever turned out to be simplest.

Her life developed a tedious rhythm. She worked. She slept. She ate. Now and then she had dinner with an old friend, but knowing she was not good company, she soon gave up on that. She had heard nothing from Manny and assumed that he was off-island on one of the mysterious trips which often kept him away for months at a time.

Now, suddenly, somehow, it was nearing the end of May.

Carnival wasn't until August, the students had settled down, and fewer tourists than usual demanded her time. She even found herself with a whole weekend to spend sitting on her balcony. The postcard perfection of St. George's and the Carenage provided her with a backdrop for a too-long-delayed replay of the happenings in her life since December.

Mostly, her mind was not so much filled with questions, but rather with answers she was loath to accept. For one thing, she was sure now that Frikkie - who had not so much as called with a trumped- up apology for the events at San Gabriel - didn't care if the rest of the Daredevils were killed. In fact, though she had no proof, she suspected that he had been instrumental in killing Arthur.

Worse yet, thinking back to that night in New York almost five months ago, she remembered that Ray had gone to the restrooms a little while before Arthur. Ray was a demolitions expert. It would have been easy for him to rig a bomb in the toilet, wait for Arthur to enter, and then detonate it by remote control.

That would place Ray Arno squarely in cahoots with Frik.

But why?

What she needed was someone to talk to about all of this, someone she could trust completely.

With Arthur dead, that left only Manny. She would have called his home to see if he was back in town, but he eschewed telephones and refused to have one in his house. His message center was Aboo's, a bar owned by his father.

Since she was tired of her own company and her circular thoughts, around sundown on Sunday she left her house to find him.

Accompanied by the sound of church bells, she walked past the Parliament building and through the marketplace, abandoned this late in the day to island dogs and stray humans picking through the wilted leftovers of Saturday's traffic. Rather than struggle over the hill on Young Street, she cut through Sendall Tunnel to the Carenage. Grenadian drivers weren't known for their caution, and the narrow hundred-year-old passage under the large hill provided little room for error. She walked at a brisk pace, hugging the stone wall. Then, safely through, she slowed to stroll along the Carenage, enjoying the sounds and smells of the compact waterfront.

When she passed the new Cable and Wireless building, she crossed the street to Aboo's Bar.

The small, run-down blue shack doubled as St. George's Grand Central Station for a certain class of people. Though Peta had chosen never to ask Manny about it or to explore it herself, rumor had it that there was a dark room behind the bar which had served - still served - as the meeting place for everyone from murderers and ministers to government officials and their underage mistresses.

The bar itself was small and utilitarian. Manny was behind the counter, relieving his father of Sunday- evening duty. He grinned broadly when she entered and instantly pulled out two cold bottles of Carib from the ice chest, one for each of them.

"Looking good." He kissed her on one cheek, then the other, and handed her a bottle.

Peta smiled. "I'm glad to see you too."

"You come all this way for a beer or - "

"I need to talk to you." Peta drank deeply, hot after her long trek.

"So talk." Manny waved at the empty bar. "Crowd won't hit till after church."

Peta settled herself on a worn barstool and lit a cigarette. Manny took it from her. "You gotta stop," he said, inhaling deeply. Peta nodded and lit another.

"You're hopeless," Manny said.

"Probably." She flicked into a piece of misshapen aluminum that passed as an ashtray. "There's so much...I'm not sure where to begin."

"The last time I saw you, you were headed up the hill in San Gabriel," Manny said.

"Right. I was off to save Simon."

"Did you?"

Peta shook her head. Like someone who had lost her place in a good novel and found it again, Peta was off and running. She told him about finding Simon and about the attempt on her life. "Blaine got the artifact. If the sharks didn't get him, I assume he made it to the exploration platform and, eventually, back to Frik," she said.

"So you think Frikkie has it now?" Manny asked.

"Absolutely." She crushed her cigarette, reached for another, and thought better of it. Twirling the pack around like a top, she filled in Manny on her convictions about Frik and her suspicions about Ray.

Manny put his hand over hers to stop the nervous mannerism. "I can't believe Ray would do anything to hurt Arthur, so let's talk about Frik," he said. "Correct me if I'm wrong here. You're saying Frikkie has two pieces of the artifact, one that he had in the first place and the one Simon died to retrieve. The same one Blaine took from you. And you're saying that you think Arthur died because of the piecehe had - which the police took to their evidence lockup. Have you tried to retrieve that one?"

"Yes. I've called NYPD countless times. They're not ready to let go of it. The good part is that they've assured me they won't release it to anyone else."

In San Gabriel, Peta had told Manny that she had a piece of the artifact, yet neither one of them added the obvious: if Frik knew she had it - and if her theories were correct - he wouldn't hesitate to kill her for it when he was good and ready to do so. Now, Manny verbalized his fears for her safety. "We know he's unscrupulous," he added, after a short pause.

"Believe me, I've thought about that a lot," Peta said. "I think that I'm safe, for the moment."

"Why?"

"Because it suits his purposes. We talked before about the possibility that Frik was the person who had Arthur killed to get at the artifact. We know for a fact that the killer didn't get it. My guess is that Frik called NYPD, said he was Arthur's closest friend, and asked them if they had it."

"In which case," Manny said, "they would have told him that they had guaranteed to hand it over to you when they're done with the case."

"Yes, so his best bet is to make nice to me and try to regain my confidence so that he can talk me into giving him both my stone and Arthur's."

"I have to think about this." Manny stared through the open doorway, as if simply looking at the sea would provide answers. "Oh shi-yit," he said. "Trouble approaches from all sides."

Peta followed his line of vision. Out on the horizon, she saw the masts of theAssegai .

"Maybe he's come to apologize." Manny's voice was heavy with sarcasm.

"Apologize for what?" Ray asked, filling the doorway with his muscular form.

"Here's the other trouble I saw," Manny said.

"I got here yesterday. Didn't your father tell you?" Ray shook Manny's hand and hugged Peta. She froze, not knowing whether to shrink from his touch or hug him back, the way she had always done. He looked at her strangely, but said nothing.

"My father didn't say a word." Manny handed Ray a beer and Peta a second. "Better get a refund on your bribe. How much was it?"

"Twenty dollars."

"American?"

Ray nodded. "He said he hadn't seen you for weeks. I asked the other people in here too. A couple of leathery old men and that layabout fisherman whose wife always comes in looking for him."

Manny laughed. "How much did you tipthem ?"

"Not much." Ray set down his beer among the many circular rings on the single Formica tabletop in the corner of the bar. "Feels like home," he said, cooling himself under the slow-moving ceiling fan.

"To what do we owe this visit?" Peta asked.

"I've been with Terris and - " He stopped short, clearly reluctant to continue whatever it was he had to say in front of Peta. "Look, this is confidential."

"Don't worry about it. The last thing I need is your little-boy games." Peta slid off the stool.

"I'm sorry," Ray said. "Arthur's dead, but you're not yet officially a member of the club. That doesn't mean you don't have my respect."

"No problem. I'm leaving."

"Stay," Manny said. "I'm not a member of the club either. Whatever I can hear, you can hear."

Peta was torn between her first instinct, which was to tell Ray to stick it, and her need to find out what part - if any - he had played in Arthur's death.

"If you have doctor-type things to do, I can call you later," Ray said hesitantly. "You're in my database."

"Bad idea," Manny said. "You know as well as we do what a problem it is keeping things confidential when dealing with our telephone system."

Peta knew that Ray couldn't argue with him, not after being privy to many an argument with Grenadian officials about the fact that line tapping was legal on the island. Any attempt at privacy here was more of a challenge than all of the death-defying feats Ray had accomplished in his lifetime.

Judging by the look on the American's face, he was making a tough decision. "I've been on theValhalla with Terris," he said finally. "Took a short island hop from the rig to Trinidad, then a flight here." He looked around, as if searching for eavesdroppers, then lowered his voice and looked at Manny. "We need your help."

Without wasting words, he filled them in on McKendry's plan to find Selene. Even before he was finished, Manny had admitted that he knew where to find the camp and agreed to participate on the condition that killing was minimized.

"I'm coming too," Peta said.

"No - "

"Yes. I'm going to do what Arthur would have done. First of all, it'll save time if I fly you to Trinidad. Second, you may need a doctor - "

"No - "

"Don't argue with her," Manny said. "It's both of us, or neither. I'll sail down so we have my boat. I can leave in the morning."

"I'll clear things with my locum tonight," Peta added. She thought for a moment. "Frik will probably call me on the pretext of seeing if I'm all right after the incident in the cavern."

She was about to ask what she should say to him when, right on cue, her cell phone jangled.

"Yes."

"Frik here. I'm sailing in. I want to apologize to you for the debacle in San Gabriel. Will you have dinner with me?"

"I'm busy," she said.

"Tomorrow?"

"No. I'm flying out in the morning."

There was silence at the other end. "I really need to see you," Frik said at last.

"It'll have to wait."

"I won't be here again until Carnival."

August will be too late to feel me out, too late to find out what I know, Peta thought. Nevertheless, deciding she needed some insurance should he become persistent, she said a cursory farewell to Frik and a warm one to Manny. To Ray she said merely, "Be at the airport at noon."

Exiting Aboo's, she made her way past the awnings of the tourist shops toward the coal pot where an old woman was roasting corn on a makeshift grill over glowing coals. She bought several ears, wrapped them in one of the sheets of newspaper piled next to the fire, and flagged down one of the few taxis that roamed the Carenage on a Sunday evening.

With darkness descending and the sound of a lone steel drum in her ears, she directed the driver to take her home. She called the airport to tell them to have her plane ready for departure at noon. Then she ate her corn, bathed, and packed a small overnight bag. Before midnight, she was fast asleep.

The next morning, carrying nothing but a tote and her medical bag, she drove her Honda to the bank. She took her pendant out of her safe-deposit box, pocketed it, and headed toward Morne Rouge and her Rasta friend, Ralphie Levine. He was the only person on the island who could be trusted to do what she needed to have done: replicate the piece in her pendant and swap the two, putting his fake in the bezel while he held on to the original.

Everything went so smoothly that Peta was at the airport thirty minutes early. She made one last check on her plane and headed upstairs to the coffee shop. Ray was already there, eating a lunch of chicken roti. He pulled a small bone out of his mouth.

"Have some," he said, pushing the roti toward her. "It's good."

"I know it is." Though she never tired of the lightly curried chicken, cut into small pieces and wrapped, bones and all, in a thin East Indian flatbread, she scooted the dish back at him. "I don't eat before I fly."

"What's wrong, Peta? Have I done something to upset you?" Ray looked genuinely distressed.

"I don't know, Ray. Have you?"

"I would never do anything to hurt you. Surely you know that."

Ray took her hand. His touch was warm and reassuring. "I do know that." She smiled at him and retrieved her hand. "Now let's get out of here."

It wasn't until the two of them stepped onto the tarmac that she saw Frik. He was dressed in long pants, wore shoes, and carried a briefcase - formal attire for him. His eye remained partially closed; his hand was wrapped in pressure bandages in a continuing attempt to minimize scarring from the deep burns he'd suffered.

"I know where you're going and what you're going to do," he said. "McKendry told me all about it. I'm coming along."

"Not a chance," Peta said quietly. "It's my plane and you're not getting on it."

He blocked her path. "You'retellingme what to do?"

"Yup. Now get out of my way."

Frik didn't move.

"You heard the lady, Van Alman," Ray said.

"Even if we wanted you on board, you're in no shape to come," Peta added.

Frik stood his ground. Peta and Ray walked around him and headed for the plane. He followed them. Peta slowed down almost imperceptibly. When he was so close that she could feel his breath on her neck, she stopped in her tracks and turned around, forcing him to step aside.

"What part of 'no' do you not understand?"

Frik stared at her, eyes filled with hatred. Waving his bandaged hand perilously close to her face, he said, "You'll regret this, bitch. One hand - no hands - I'm twice as good as any woman."