“A double barreled attack. Destroy any chance that Raven might have information, and discredit me at the same time, through her.”

“That’s why the luggage came on through. It’s probably loaded with drugs.”

“And it would look like Raven was smuggling.”

“And like I’m the world’s biggest hypocrite.”

*       *       *

When I asked the luggage question, I didn’t have a theory. I was just fishing for useful knowledge. The Senator’s reaction took me by surprise, and made no sense until I heard the story behind it.

Senator Daniel Cabral has a scar, low on his left side, just above his belt, the size of a dime, and a matching scar, slightly higher, that covers three square inches of his back just above his belt where partially successful plastic surgery left a white and lumpy mass. Entry wound and exit wound for a 38 caliber bullet. The other five bullets went through his partner.

He didn’t show me the scar, of course, but it was part of the story he and Ed Wilkes told me that night in Paris.

Dan Cabral was born in California of Mexican-American parents. His ancestors had been citizens for ten generations. He didn’t speak Spanish until he was ten years old and spent a summer with an uncle in Sinaloa. His parents were wealthy. His grandfather had bought farmland which had been in the path of growth. His father had sold it for development, reinvested, and repeated the process several more times. By the time Cabral was born, there were millions in the bank and in real estate.

Daniel had gone to college and, over his parents objections, had joined the FBI. He did well. The FBI needed Chicano agents to deal with Cuban refugee problems around Miami. Later, when Cabral became too well known there, they sent him to deal with drug smuggling across the Texas border. He spent two years, then transferred to Calexico to continue the same work.

Cabral had been with the FBI seven years when an arrest went bad on an empty road in the middle of the Mohave Desert. As he was falling, hit in the side, he shot the two smugglers who had killed his partner. One died there in the dirt beside his stalled truck. The other ran a hundred yards into the sage brush and bled to death. So did Cabral, nearly, before help came.

They gave him a commendation and four months leave to recuperate. He spent it thinking about all the things he had seen, and came to the conclusion that drug enforcement was causing the drug problem. 

I didn’t entirely buy his argument, but it went this way.

A drug user needs his drugs. If they are available at a reasonable price, he uses them. Sometimes he destroys himself, and sometimes he doesn’t. Lots of prominent citizens have gone through a successful lifetime on drugs without being found out. But if the drugs become too expensive, problems arise. To support his habit, the user might spend money that should have gone to his family, or rip off car stereos, or hold up a convenience store.

Or he might become a supplier. more tomorrow

“Don’t mind me,” I said. “I find all this fascinating; even the seventy-five percent I don’t understand. But I do have one question. Where does Raven’s safety figure in all this double dealing?”

Daniel Cabral had a temper, no matter how much he had trained his face not to reveal it, and that made him mad. I didn’t care. I didn’t give a damn about the Senator’s political agenda. I just wanted Raven to be safe.

“My daughter’s safety comes before anything else,” Cabral said evenly. “However, at the moment there is nothing I can do for her. She will call home and find out everything that has happened, or one of your street musicians will find her and notify Hayden. Until that happens, there is nothing I can do for my daughter. All I can do is try to keep my career from going down the toilet because of her stupidity.”

“And if it came to choosing between your daughter’s safety and your career?”

“The safety of my family comes before anything else!”

No qualifications. No equivocation. I liked that. I also realized that Raven’s lifestyle had made him consider the possibility long ago.

I spread my hands in friendly surrender.

“Let’s get back to your story.” Wilkes said.

“Not yet,” I said. “There are some loose ends dangling. Senator, were you ever notified that Raven was missing? And what became of Raven’s luggage on the cruise ship?”

“I was not notified. When she didn’t show up at the airport as scheduled, I checked back and there was nothing the cruise line could tell me. I assumed that she had gone off somewhere without telling me. She does that. It is her way of declaring her independence.”

There was a great deal of impatience in Cabral’s voice, the legacy of years of dealing with his wayward daughter.

“And the luggage?”

“It was being held for her. She had not claimed it. I assumed she would, and gave it no more thought.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Why? How could it make any difference?”

“Why depends on a basic assumption – was Davis smart or stupid?”

“I vote for stupid,” Wilkes interjected.

“Maybe. But I was impressed by the way he handled the situation in Venice.”

“He died.”

“Luck. There was some skill on my part, but mostly it was luck. Let the same situation develop twenty times, and nineteen out of twenty I would be the one to die.” It was something I had been thinking about a lot.

“Look at what happened on the ship. If I hadn’t been there, how would it all have ended?”

Wilkes admitted, “He would have succeeded completely.”

“And would have escaped without a trace.”

“Yes.”

“So why leave the luggage aboard? Raven and I talked about this on the way to Europe, and we concluded that he would drop it overboard. That way, no one would suspect that Raven never made it back to New York. No one ever checks to see who gets off of a ship or plane. They just take names when you get on. They would look for clues to her disappearance everywhere else but on the cruise ship.”

“An oversight?”

“Possibly. Or perhaps he had a reason for the luggage to make it back to the states. But I have no idea what reason that could be.”

Cabral turned pale. He and Wilkes exchanged glances. Wilkes said, “Of course!” more tomorrow

Chapter Twenty-seven

When I got back to the suite, Cabral had gone out. Wilkes had been waiting for my return, in case Joe Dias called early. After he left, I paced the room for a while, dispirited and irritable, then tried to catch up on some sleep. Uselessly. I alternated tracing cracks in the ceiling and staring at the phone.

I did have a life. Or at least, I used to have one. I had places to go and things to do. But I knew that I would make no move to leave. It wasn’t just Raven, either; there were too many unexplored possibilities in this new situation.

Wilkes and the Senator came in just as the phone rang. It was Joe. After I hung up, the Senator asked, “Well?”

“A week ago, someone torched Harvey Jacks’ office. Joe’s investigator talked to his wife. She didn’t know much, but she said Jacks had bragged about working for a big-wig in Sacramento. And Jacks had said she, not he, when referring to the big-wig. But he never named her. Seems he was very closed mouthed.”

“What was left of the office?”

“Not much. Joe’s willing to investigate further, but he did this much as a favor to me. I won’t ask him to do more without paying him. He has a living to make.”

“Call back and hire him in my name.”

I did, then covered the receiver and asked, “Anything else?”

Cabral looked at Wilkes, who shook his head. After I had hung up, Wilkes observed, “If Jacks was into blackmail, he would have had more than one copy of his evidence, and it wouldn’t have been in a file cabinet in his office.”

“Likely.”

“Let’s go back to the beginning,” the Senator said. “We’ll hear your story again, Ian, and look for anything we might have missed so far. I am not clear on timing and motivation, and I don’t understand how Davis and Alan found you so quickly in Marseille.”

I told the story again, sexually censored. I was talking to Raven’s father, after all. Wilkes sat at the table with a pad, taking notes. Cabral said nothing until I reached the fight on the Wahini in Marseille. Then he interrupted, “How much time was there between when Ramona called California and when the thugs jumped you?”

“Mid-morning of one day until the following evening. Maybe thirty hours.”

“Ed, make a note to check every airline with departing flights for Europe, particularly Paris, starting at the time of Ramona’s call and carrying forward twenty hours. Look for James Davis and anyone with a last name of Allen or a first name of Alan, under any variation of spelling. I’m particularly interested in how they paid for their trips.”

“Senator, you are asking a lot. The Bureau isn’t going to do that just as a favor. If you want to keep using them, you are going to have to make an official report on what happened to your daughter.”

Cabral said, “Shit.” It was the first coarse thing that had cracked his urbanity. Either he was beginning to accept my presence, or this was cutting close. Maybe both.

It helped bring some things into focus. Raven’s loose living would be an embarrassment to the Senator. What had happened to her since Bermuda would be a tabloid reporter’s dream come true. I could see the headlines in the Enquirer.

“Dammit, Ed, we need that information.”

Wilkes did not answer.

“You’re right, of course. It is asking too much. But we need to know. How else can we find out?”

“I could go ask,” Wilkes said.

“And flash your badge. That would be the end of you with the Bureau.”

Wilkes shrugged.

“No, Ed, I won’t let you. Besides, I need for you to stay inside.”

“I can find out without showing a badge or admitting my name. There are ways to finesse these things, but I would need to be on the spot.” Then he glanced sideways at me and raised a questioning eyebrow.

“Don’t mind me,” I said. “I find all this fascinating.” more tomorrow

I knew Cabral by contrast. He was as powerful as my own father had been weak. In his presence, I felt ten years old again. I wanted to please him. I wanted to be like him. All my orphan needs were exposed, when I was with him.

There were two dangers. I might let such a man become the lodestone of my life and live in his shadow as Ed Wilkes appeared to do. Or I might find myself opposing him even when I agreed with him, to keep my separateness alive. Like Raven did.

Already, I understood her better.

I closed my eyes and leaned back to absorb the dappled sunlight coming through the tree overhead. On April thirteenth, Raven had fallen into my life. Now it was two days until July.  For two and one half months, present or absent, she had been the focus of my life. The overpowering, erotic focus of my life. But she was not the entirety of my life. I had lived without her for two weeks now, and I was nearly my complete and normal self again.

My life was in need of review. At some deep level, I had been worrying at that, not for weeks, but for months.

The closest thing to a career I had had was when I worked for Joe Dias. There were things I had liked about the job – the excitement, the touch of danger, the intellectual challenge of finding clues to unravel a puzzle. I had not like the people I had to deal with. And finally, the day to day routine had been deadly dull.

I had liked college. The people you met were interesting; most were young and alive to possibilities. And they were, for the most part, not likely to shove a knife in your ribs when your back was turned. I had liked the work, the intellectual stimulation of chasing down clues in old record to see what had really happened, say, in the administration of Andrew Jackson. But the day to day routine meant long hours lethargically reading through dusty records. It, too, was deadly dull.

I had chosen the foreign service. To make a difference in the world. That’s what I told myself, but I was not so good at self deception. A semi-orphan from small town Wisconsin, deserted by an alcoholic father, a high school dropout who had clawed his way through college and graduate school – I knew what I was looking for. I was looking for respectability, and I was out to show the world that I was important.

I wanted to help Raven. I would help Raven. That was a given. 

But after that? Would the foreign service give me the chance I needed to prove myself, or would I become another petty bureaucrat. Or quit, because it was so deadly dull that I could not endure it. more tomorrow

“He was trying to shoot me, so I stomped his head into the pavement.”

“Very effectively, I’d say,” Wilkes added dryly.

It was an ugly picture. They had composed his features, and pushed his nose back more-or-less straight, but there was a curious flattening to his forehead that came through clearly in the grainy black and white.

“I don’t know him,” Cabral said calmly. After his early years with the FBI, the sight of death did not disturb him. “Do you?” Wilkes shook his head.

“Davis,” Cabral went on. “Why would he use his real name?”

“Assuming he did.”

“The coincidence with Alice Johnson’s maiden name is too great. I think we can assume as a near certainty that Davis is his name, that his first name probably is James, that he is related to Johnson-Fletcher, and that they are working together because they are related. So why would he use his real name?”

“Why not, Senator?” Wilkes said. “If he succeeded in killing your daughter on the cruise ship, it wouldn’t matter.”

Cabral drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair while he thought. I had a feeling that he was not so calm about all this as he tried to appear. Talking about an attempt on his daughter’s life had to make him angry. I thought I could see small indications of that anger, but his face was well schooled. Finally, he said, “No doubt that’s it. The simplest answer is often the best.”

I added, “Perhaps having used his real name, he was committed to finishing Raven in Marseille.”

“Or maybe it merely reinforced Johnson-Fletcher’s need. I am also assuming that she is the one Ramona had investigated, but we need to be sure.”

“I may be able to help there,” I said. “I need to make an overseas call.”

“Go ahead.”

I called Joe Dias. He was out, but Carmen said he had made an investigation. I gave her my number.

Wilkes said, “Joe Dias. The detective you worked for when you were going to college?”

“Damn, you are irritating. How much do you know about me?”

“When you applied for the foreign service, the CIA did a full background check. The Senator and I read it before we left California.”

That security check was the one thing that had made me hesitate about applying for the foreign service. It made me nervous. Especially about my time in Germany.

“Joe isn’t due back in his office for two hours. Meanwhile, I need some air. We can continue this later.”

“We will continue it now,” the Senator said.

“You daughter – Raven – has been on her own for two weeks. We have no reason to think she is in immediate danger. It will wait an hour while I collect myself.”

*       *       *

June was almost gone. In the two weeks since Raven and I had walked these same streets, the greens had deepened and a dusty pallor had come upon the sycamore leaves as the summer’s heat worked into them.

I found a bench overlooking a handful of grass trapped in a sea of sidewalks and streets. Things were moving too fast for me, and there were forces working at levels I could feel but could not touch. One thing I knew clearly, though. Daniel Cabral was a danger.

Ed Wilkes exuded a quiet competence and deadliness, but he was a pale candle in the sun of Daniel Cabral. Raven had spoken of competing with a powerful father, but that had been her wishful thinking. No child could have competed with him. Anything she might seem to have won over him, would have been a gift he had given without her knowing. more tomorrow

Chapter Twenty-six

It was noon when they returned, followed by a room service cart of breads, cheeses, and cold meats. Fifteen minutes later, fed, clean, and rested, I was ready for their questions.

Senator Cabral held out a fax and said, “Is this Susyn Fletcher?” It was grainy black and white, but there was no doubt that it was her. “Her name,” he said, consulting a second sheet, “is Alice Susyn Johnson. Her maiden name was Davis. She went by Alice around my office. She was a file clerk and relief secretary. My office manager was grooming her for more responsible work. She knew a great deal about what I was doing and, within a few months, would have known more. If she was in the employ of some enemy, she might have done a great deal to keep that position.”

“How long had she worked for you?”

“Two years, but she was unusually bright and industrious. She rose fast in my organization.”

“Then she was the one Raven suspected and had investigated.”

“Presumably. About six months ago, Ramona came to my office late one night to see me and found Alice – Susyn – there alone. She was going through some files. When Raven told me about it, I had my office manager check it out. He was satisfied with the reason she gave for being there.”

“Which was?”

Cabral shook his head. “I don’t remember her excuse. It seemed such a small incident at the time. Ramona wasn’t satisfied, but she has always been a mother hen toward my career. I didn’t listen to her doubts.”

Mother hen? Raven? That didn’t fit. Or did it? Her statement that it was hell to have a powerful father had always seemed a little too large to be completely believable.

Mostly, I couldn’t think of her as ‘Ramona’.

Cabral passed around photocopies. “This is her personnel record. See if anything strikes you strange, beyond the obvious fact of her maiden name.”

Date of birth, place of residence, social security number, salary. All of the facts and figures that constitute identity in a bureaucratic state. I read the document closely, with little enlightenment.

“Ed?” the Senator asked. Wilkes shook his head. “Ian?”

“Just one thing. On this salary, she couldn’t have so casually handed out the money she claimed was yours. Either she has been embezzling, or someone else is employing and bankrolling her.”

“I set an audit in motion this morning,” the Senator said. “I am expecting a preliminary report within twenty-four hours.”

Wilkes said, “I have been assuming that she was working for someone.”

“I think we all have, but let’s save analysis for later. What new facts do you have for us?”

I admired the crispness and efficiency of Cabral’s approach. Clearly, he had a first rate mind.

“I have a report from Interpol. The Venetians had Davis’ body on ice. Like we figured, they checked our description against their latest morgue residents and made a quick match. I got the embassy to send a courier from the nearest consulate to get photos and fingerprints. That’s where I spent my morning, waiting for the fax to come in. I forwarded the info to the Bureau and invoked your name to get a hurry-up. We should know more by evening, if his prints are on file.”

Wilkes held up a faxed photo. I nodded, “That’s Davis.”

“Or what’s left of him,” Wilkes observed, passing the fax to the senator. “What did you do to him?”

“He was walking me at gunpoint to where he could dispose of my body. I was unarmed. When he made his move, he had shifted to a knife for a quiet kill. I jumped him, and got lucky. He hesitated which weapon to use and I knocked him down. He was still trying to shoot me, so I stomped his head into the pavement.” more tomorrow

There are no guarantees in life. Sometimes you have to make a choice and take the leap.

“How much of the story do you know?” I asked.

Cabral said, “I have a copy of the story you and Ramona told at the embassy when you arrived. I have a copy of Cumming’s report of the fight on your boat. I have Hayden’s report of driving you to Nimes to put you on a train for Paris. Ed and I have read and discussed them at length.”

“When I say ‘Davis’, you know that I mean the heavier of the two attackers?”

Cabral nodded. Wilkes was leaning back in recording mode again.

“Two nights ago, in Venice, I killed Davis.”

*       *       *

The whole story took a while to tell, even though Cabral and Wilkes resisted the temptation to interrupt. When it was finished, the Senator said, “Ed, route this through the embassy and keep our names out of it. Suspicions that Davis and his partner may have gone to Venice. Give a good description. Maybe the embassy will use Interpol to send the message. We are to hear as soon as the embassy knows anything. No mention of Davis’ death.”

“Got it.”

While Wilkes was on the phone, Cabral turned back to me and said, “Thank you. Really thank you, this time. I said it before as a gesture, but I didn’t mean it. Since I didn’t know about the Fletcher woman, your actions had seemed foolish and destructive. Now I know better.”

I said, “I only had your daughter’s interest in mind. With maybe a bit of wounded pride as an added incentive.”

“Wounding people is Ramona’s special gift. You look tired.”

“In the last two days, I have only had a nap on the train. But, more than that, I need a shower.”

Cabral smiled. He said, “Now that I’ve heard your story, I will make some inquiries that may help make sense of things. One thing first: describe Susyn Fletcher.”

“About five feet one, bleached blonde hair cut shoulder length. Slim, attractive. Not beautiful, but the kind whose vivacity makes up for it. Face rather triangular. Her most prominent features – if they weren’t contact lenses – were her eyes. Violet. A most remarkable color.”

Cabral was lost in thought for a minute, then he said,  “Maybe. I may know her after all, under another name. I’ll call my staff to check. Meanwhile, make free use of the suite. Ed and I will both be out. You will be here when we get back?”

It was more an order than a question. I said, “Don’t knock when you get return; unlock the door yourself. I’ll be asleep on the couch.” more tomorrow