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Pumo said, ‘The goddamned war still isn’t over, I guess.’
Conor looked up from his copy of the Bangkok clipping. ‘Hey, it could be anybody, man. These guys here say it’s some political thing. To hell with this, anyhow.’
Beevers said. ‘Do you seriously think it’s a coincidence that this murderer writes the name Koko on a playing card which he puts into his victims’ mouths?’
‘Yeah,’ Conor said. ‘Sure it could be. Or it could be politics, like this guy says.’
‘But the fact is, it almost has to be our Koko,’ Pumo said slowly. He spread the three clippings out beside him on the table, as if seeing them all at once made coincidence even more unlikely. ‘These were the only articles your brothers could find? No follow up?’
Beevers shook his head. He then bent over, picked his glass up from the floor, and made a silent, mocking toast to them without drinking.
‘You’re pretty cheerful about this,’ Pumo said.
‘Someday, my friends, this is going to be a hell of a story. I’m serious, I can definitely see book rights in this thing. Beyond that, I can see film rights. But to tell you the truth, I’d settle for a mini-series.’
Conor covered his face with his hands, and Poole said, ‘Now I know you’re nuts.’
Beevers turned to them with an unblinking gaze. ‘Some day I’ll want you to remember who first said that we could all see a lot of money out of this. If we handle it right. Mucho dinero.’
‘Hallelujah,’ Conor said. ‘The Lost Boss is gonna make us rich.’
‘Consider the facts.’ Beevers held up a palm like a stop sign while he sipped from his glass. ‘A law school student who does our data-gathering did some research on my instructions – on the firm’s time, so we don’t get billed for it. He went through a year’s worth of half a dozen major metropolitan papers and the wire services. Net result? Apart of course from St Louis stories about the Martinsons, there has never been any news story in this country about Koko or these murders. And the stories in St Louis papers didn’t mention the playing cards. They didn’t mention Koko.’
Is there any possible connection between the victims?’ Michael asked.
‘Consider the facts. An English tourist in Singapore – our researcher looked up McKenna, and he wrote a travel book about Australia-New Zealand, a couple of thrillers, and a book called Your Dog Can Live Longer! With an exclamation point. Maybe he was doing research in Singapore. Who knows? The Martinsons were a straight Middle-American business couple. His firm sold a load of bulldozers and cranes throughout the Far East. Then we have two print journalists, Frenchmen who work for L’Express. Guibert and Danton went to Bangkok for the massage parlors. They were longtime friends who took a vacance together every couple of years. They weren’t on an assignment in Bangkok, they were just cutting up.’
‘An Englishman, two Frenchmen, and two Americans,’ Michael said.
‘A pretty clear example of random selection,’ Beevers said. ‘I think these people were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were shopping or sitting at a bar, and they found themselves talking to a plausible American guy with a lot of stories who eventually took them off somewhere quiet and wasted them. The original Mr Wrong. The All-American psychopath.’
‘He didn’t mutilate Martinson’s wife,’ Michael said.
‘Yeah, he just killed her,’ Beevers said. ‘You want mutilations every time? Maybe he just took men’s ears because he fought against men in Vietnam.’
‘Okay,’ Conor said. ‘Say it’s our Koko. Then what?’ He looked almost unwillingly toward Michael and shrugged. ‘I mean, I ain’t going to no cops or nothing. I got nothing to say to them.’
Beevers leaned forward and fixed Conor with the stare of a man attempting to hypnotize a snake. ‘I agree with you absolutely.’
‘You agree with me?’
‘We have nothing to say to the police. At this point, we don’t even know with absolute certainty that Koko is Tim Underhill.’ He straightened up and looked at Poole with the trace of a smile tugging at his mouth. ‘Celebrated or not-so-celebrated thriller writer and Singapore resident.’
Every man in the room but Beevers all but closed his eyes.
‘Are his books really nuts?’ Conor finally said. ‘You remember all that crazy stuff he used to talk about? That book?’
‘“The Running Grunt”’, Pumo said. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I heard he published a couple novels – he talked about it so much I figured he’d never do it.’
‘He did it, though,’ Poole said. Without wanting to be, he was surprised, even dismayed that Tina had not read any of Underhill’s novels. ‘It was called A Beast in View when it came out.’ Beevers was watching Poole expectantly, his thumbs tucked behind his rosy suspenders.
‘So you really do think it’s Underhill?’ Poole asked.
‘Consider the facts,’ Beevers said. ‘Obviously the same person killed McKenna, the Martinsons, and the two French journalists. So we have a serial murderer who identifies himself by writing the name Koko on a playing card inserted into the mouths of his victims. What does that name mean?’
Pumo said, ‘It’s the name of a volcano in Hawaii. Can we go see Jimmy Stewart now?’
‘Underhill told me “Koko” was the name of a song,’ Conor said.
‘“Koko” is the name of lots of things, among them one of the few pandas in captivity, a Hawaiian volcano, a princess of Thailand, and jazz songs by Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker. There was even a dog named Koko in the Dr Sam Sheppard murder case. But none of that means a thing. Koko means us – it doesn’t mean anything else.’ Beevers crossed his arms over his chest and looked around at all of them. ‘And I wasn’t in Singapore or Thailand last year. Were you, Michael? Consider the facts. McKenna was killed right after the Iranian hostages came back to parades and cover stories – came back as heroes. Did you see that a Vietnam vet in Indiana flipped out and killed some people around the same time? Hey, am I telling you something new? How did you feel?’
The others said nothing.
‘Me too,’ Beevers said. ‘I didn’t want to feel that, but I felt it. I resented what they got for just being hostages. That vet in Indiana had the same feelings, and they pushed him over the edge. What do you suppose happened to Underhill?’
‘Or whoever it was,’ Poole said.
Beevers grinned at him.
‘Look, I think this whole thing is nuts in the first place,’ said Pumo, ‘but did you ever consider the possibility that Victor Spitalny might be Koko? Nobody’s seen him since he deserted Dengler in Bangkok fifteen years ago. He could still be living over there.’
Conor surprised Poole by saying, ‘Spitalny’s gotta be dead. He drank that shit, man.’
Poole kept quiet.
‘And there was one more Koko incident after Spitalny disappeared in Bangkok,’ Beevers said. ‘Even if the original Koko had a copycat, I think good old Victor is in the clear. No matter where he is.’
‘I just wish I could talk to Underhill,’ Pumo said, and Poole silently agreed. ‘I always liked Tim – I liked him a hell of a lot. You know, if I didn’t have to work out that mess in my kitchen, I’d be halfway tempted to get on a plane and see if I could find him. Maybe we could help him out, do something for him.’
‘That’s an amazingly interesting idea,’ Beevers said.
2
‘Request permission to move, sir,’ Conor barked. Beevers glared at him. Conor stood up, clapped Michael on the shoulder, and said, ‘Do you know what time it is when darkness falls, bats fill the air, and wild dogs begin to howl?’
Poole was looking up in friendly amusement, Harry Beevers – pencil frozen halfway to his mouth – with irritation and incredulity.
Conor leaned toward Beevers and winked. ‘Time for another beer.’ He took a dripping bottle from the ice bucket and twisted off the cap. Beevers was still glaring at him. ‘So the lieutenant thinks we ought to send a little search party after Underhill, check him out, see how crazy he is?’
‘Well, Conor, since you ask,’ Beevers said very lightly and quietly, ‘something along those lines might be possible.’
‘Actually go there?’ Pumo asked.
‘You said it first.’
Conor poured nearly half of the beer down his throat in a continuous series of swallows. He smacked his lips. Conor returned to his chair and took another slug of the beer. Things had just gone totally out of control – now he could sit back and relax and wait for everybody else to see it.
If the Lost Boss says that he still considers himself Underhill’s lieutenant, Conor thought, I am gonna puke.
Beevers said, ‘I don’t know if you want to call this a moral responsibility or not, but I think we should handle this situation ourselves. We knew the man, we were there.’
Conor opened his mouth, swallowed air, and let the pressure build on his diaphragm. After a second or two he emitted a resounding burp.
‘I’m not asking you to share my sense of responsibility,’ Beevers said, ‘but it would be nice if you could stop being childish.’
‘How can I go to Singapore, for Chrissakes?’ Conor yelled. ‘I don’t have money in the bank to go around the block! I spent all my money on the fare here, man. I’m sleeping on Tina’s couch because I can’t even afford a room at my own reunion, man. Get serious, okay?’
Conor felt immediately embarrassed at blowing up in front of Mike Poole. This was what happened when he went over his limit and got drunk – he got mad too fast. Without making himself sound like an even bigger fool, he wanted to explain things. ‘I mean – okay, I’m an asshole, I shouldn’t ought to’ve yelled. But I’m not like the rest of you guys, I’m not a doctor or a lawyer or an Indian chief, I’m broke, man, I used to be part of the old poor and now I’m part of the new poor. I’m down at sore heels.’
‘Well, I’m no millionaire,’ Beevers said. ‘In fact, as of several weeks ago I resigned from Caldwell, Moran, Morrissey. There were a lot of complicated factors involved, but the fact is, I’m out of a job.’
‘Your wife’s own brother gave you a pink slip?’ Conor asked.
‘I resigned,’ Beevers said. ‘Pat is my ex-wife. Serious differences of opinion came up between myself and Charles Caldwell. Anyhow, I’m not made of money any more than you are, Conor. But I did negotiate a pretty decent golden handshake for myself, and I’d be more than willing to loan you a couple thousand dollars interest-free, to be repaid at your convenience. That ought to take care of you.’
‘I’d help out too,’ Poole said. ‘I’m not agreeing to anything, Harry, but Underhill shouldn’t be hard to find. He must get advances and royalties from his publisher. Maybe they even forward fan mail to him. I bet we could learn Underbill’s address with one phone call.’
‘I can’t believe this,’ said Pumo. ‘All three of you guys just lost your minds.’
‘You were the first to say you’d go,’ Conor reminded him.
‘I can’t run out on my life for a month. I have a restaurant to run.’
Pumo hadn’t noticed when everything went out of control. Okay, Conor thought, Singapore, what the hell?
‘Tina, we need you.’
‘I need me more than you do. Count me out.’
‘If you stay behind, you’ll be sorry the rest of your life.’
‘Jesus, Harry, in the morning this is going to sound like an Abbott and Costello movie. What the hell do you think you’re going to do if you ever manage to find him?’
Pumo wants to stay around New York and play games with Maggie Lah, Conor thought.
‘Well, we’ll see,’ Beevers said.
Conor lobbed his empty beer bottle toward the wastebasket. The bottle fell three feet short and slanted off under the dresser. He could not remember switching from vodka to beer. Or had he started on beer, then gone to vodka, and switched back to beer again? Conor inspected the glasses on the table and tried to pick out his old one. The other three were giving him that ‘cheerleader’ look again, and he wished he’d made his net shot into the wastebasket. Conor philoso-phically poured several inches of vodka into the nearest glass. He scooped a handful of cubes from the bucket and plopped them in. ‘Give me an S,’ he said, raising the glass in a final toast. He drank. ‘Give an I. Give me an N. Give me a…G. Give me an A.’
Beevers told him to sit down and be quiet, which was fine with Conor. He couldn’t remember what came after A anyhow. Some of the vodka slopped onto his pants as he sat down again beside Mike.
‘Now can we go see Jimmy Stewart?’ he heard Pumo ask.
3
A little while later someone suggested that he lie down and take a nap on Mike’s bed, but Conor refused, no, no, he was fine, he was with his asshole buddies, all he had to do was get moving, anybody who could still spell Singapore wasn’t too bent out of shape…
Without any transition he found himself out in the corridor. He was having trouble with his feet, and Mikey had a firm grip on his left arm. ‘What’s my room number?’ he asked Mikey.
‘You’re staying with Tina.’
‘Good old Tina.’
They turned a corner and good old Tina and Harry Beevers were right in front of them, waiting for the elevator. Beevers was combing his hair in front of a big mirror.
The next thing Conor knew, he was sitting on the floor of the elevator, but he managed to get back on his feet before the doors opened.
‘You’re cute, Harry,’ he said to the back of Beevers’ head.
The elevator door opened and for a long time they moved through long, blank hallways crowded with people. Conor kept bumping into guys who were too impatient to listen to his apologies. He heard people singing ‘Homeward Bound,’ which was the world’s most beautiful song. ‘Homeward Bound’ made him feel like crying.
Poole was making sure he didn’t fall down. Conor wondered if Mike actually knew what a great guy he was, and decided he didn’t – that was what made him so great.
‘I’m really okay,’ he said.
He sat down beside Mike in a darkened hall. A black-haired man with a narrow moustache, wearing what looked like a prize-fighter’s championship belt under his tuxedo, was singing ‘America the Beautiful’ and jumping around onstage in front of a band.
‘We missed Jimmy Stewart,’ Mike whispered to him. ‘This is Wayne Newton.’
‘Wayne Newton?’ Conor asked, then heard that his voice was too loud. People were laughing at what he had said. Conor felt too embarrassed for Mikey to set him straight – Wayne Newton was a fat teenager who sang like a girl. This Las Vegas toughie wasn’t Wayne Newton. Conor closed his eyes and the whole dark hall instantly began to swing him around with it in great zooming circles. Conor found that he was unable to open his eyes. Applause, whistles, shouts of approval filled his ears. He heard his own first snore, and less then a second later fell into unconsciousness.
4
‘We don’t have as many groupies as musicians,’ Harry Beevers said to Poole, ‘but they’re out there. They’re basically earth mothers with a kinky little yen for excitement. Is he getting heavy? Put him on your couch and come back down to the bar with us.’
‘I want to get to bed,’ Poole said. Conor Linklater, a hundred and sixty pounds of dead weight bequeathed to him by Tina Pumo, was draped over his shoulder.
Beevers breathed alcohol at Poole. ‘Nam groupies are complicated, but by now I’ve got them figured out. They get off on, one, the idea of our being soldiers and fighting men but more spiritual somehow than other vets – two, they’ve got a little slug of social worker in them and they want to demonstrate that our country loves us after all – and three, they don’t know what we did over there and it turns them on.’ Beevers glittered at him. ‘This has got to be the place. They’d come thousands of miles in their sleep just to hang out at the bar.’
Poole had the uneasy feeling that, without knowing it, Harry Beevers was describing Pat Caldwell, his ex-wife.
After Michael had rolled Conor onto the side of the bed the maid had not turned down, he pulled off his friend’s black running shoes and undid his belt. Conor moaned; his pale, veined eyelids fluttered. With his cropped red hair and pale skin, Conor Linklater seemed to be about nineteen years old: without his scraggly beard and moustache, he looked very like his Vietnam self. Poole covered Linklater with a spare blanket from the closet; then he switched on the lamp on the other side of the bed and turned off the overhead light. If Conor was to have slept on a couch in Pumo’s room, Pumo must have taken a suite – Poole’s own room did not offer a couch for the comfort of sodden visitors. Undoubtedly Beevers had also taken a suite. (Harry had never considered turning over his own couch to Conor.)
It was a few minutes to twelve. Poole turned on the television and turned down the volume, then sat in the closest chair and removed his own shoes. He draped his jacket over the back of the other chair. Charles Bronson was standing on the grassy verge of a road in a dainty, empty landscape that looked like western Ireland, looking through binoculars at a grey Mercedes-Benz pulled up in the gravel forecourt of a Georgian mansion. For a moment anticipatory silence surrounded the Mercedes, and then a bulging wall of flame obliterated the car.
Michael picked up the telephone and set it on the table beside him. The maid had lined up the bottles, stacked clear plastic glasses, removed the empties, and wrapped the plate of cheese in cellophane. In the bucket, one bottle of beer stood neck-deep in water, surrounded by floating slivers of ice. Michael dipped the topmost glass into the bucket and scooped up ice and water. He took a sip.
Conor muttered ‘googol’ and rolled his face into his pillow.
On impulse Michael picked up the phone and dialed his wife’s private line at home. It was possible that Judy was lying awake in bed, reading something like The One-Minute Manager while successfully ignoring the television program she had turned on to keep her company.
Judy’s telephone rang once, then clicked as if someone had picked it up. Poole heard the mechanical hiss of tape, and knew that his wife had turned on her answering machine with its third-person message:
‘Judy is unable to answer the telephone at this time, but if you leave your name, number, and message after the beep, she will get back to you as soon as possible.’
He waited for the beep.
‘Judy, this is Michael. Are you home?’ Judy’s machine was attached to the telephone in her study, adjacent to the bedroom. If she were awake in her bed, she would hear his voice. Judy did not respond; the tape whirred. Into the waiting machine he uttered a few mechanical sentences, ending by saying, ‘I’ll be home late Sunday night. Bye-bye.’
