Out on the Rim

Chapter Forty-two

At 1:45 that afternoon Artie Wu entered his suite, accompanied by Otherguy Overby, to find Durant leaning against the wall and Booth Stallings pacing up and down the sitting room, a glass of what looked like straight Scotch whiskey in his right hand, the attache case in his left.

Wu turned to Durant and said, “What’s wrong with him?”

“He thinks we should’ve stopped the ferry.”

“To rescue Georgia?”

Durant nodded.

“You didn’t tell him?”

“How could I?” Durant said.

“Of course. You didn’t know for certain.”

“Sit the fuck down, Booth, will you?” Otherguy Overby said. “The cops fished her out.”

Stallings stopped pacing and turned quickly to face Overby. “She didn’t drown?”

Overby grunted. “Do fish drown?”

“Where is she?” Stallings said.

“In jail,” Overby said. “Where the hell’d you think she’d be?”

Artie Wu went over to Stallings and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Sit down, Booth. Please.”

Stallings sat down in an easy chair, the attaché case on his lap, the dark drink still in his right hand. He looked up at Wu who was staring down at him with an extremely gentle expression. “Let’s have a beer, Otherguy,” Wu said.

“Sure,” said Overby and went to the room refrigerator.

“All of us, Booth, are very fond of Georgia,” Wu said. “Some of us, at one time or other, have been even more than fond of her. Therefore, we wouldn’t do anything to her that she didn’t deserve.”

“Unless we had to,” Overby said, handing beers to Wu and Durant.

“It was Otherguy who thought she’d make it past the cops,” Wu said and took a swallow of his beer. “I didn’t. It was Quincy who suspected she’d use the ferry and make the jump. Again, I didn’t think so. But when you two headed for the ferry, I went to the Hong Kong police — the red-faced man, did you notice him?”

Stallings nodded.

“And suggested that he send a police launch after the ferry. Which he did. The reason we’re so late is that Otherguy and I had to find Georgia a lawyer. A solicitor, actually.”

“The first thing he wanted to talk about was money,” Overby said.

“What about extradition to Manila?” Stallings said.

“He’ll try to delay it.”

“What about bail?” Stallings said.

“I don’t think so,” Wu said.

Overby grinned. “If she got bail, it’d be goodbye, Georgia.”

Durant left the wall and went over to Stallings. “It’s over, Booth. All over.”

Stallings nodded.

“Except for one thing,” Durant said. “Are you sure you gave her the right envelope?”

Stallings thought about it. “Christ, I don’t know. I was getting nervous in the bank. But I think so. I sure as hell hope so.”

Overby looked at Wu. “Did she still have her shoulder bag when they pulled her out of the drink, Artie?”

Wu slowly shook his head no.

“Jesus,” Overby whispered.

Durant cleared his throat. “May we take a look, Booth?”

“You do it,” Stallings said and handed the attaché case to Durant.

Durant went to the couch, sat down and put the attache case on the coffee table. He stared at it as Overby and Wu gathered round.

Durant looked up at them, shrugged, undid the brass snaps and raised the lid. A Bank of Hong Kong and Shanghai envelope was all the case contained, except for Stallings’ passport. Durant tossed it to him.

Again, Durant stared at the envelope, then snatched it up and ripped it open. Inside were five buff-colored checks.

“I think I’m going to cry,” said Otherguy Overby.

At 4:15 that afternoon, Booth Stallings stepped out of a taxi and again entered the small Chinese restaurant that was two blocks east and six blocks north of the Hong Kong Peninsula Hotel.

The same young Chinese woman smiled at him in recognition and led him back to the same last booth. Sitting there, gazing into a glass of beer, was Minnie Espiritu.

She looked up as Stallings slid into the booth. “I didn’t think you’d show,” she said.

“I wasn’t sure you would,” Stallings said.

“Beer?” she asked.

“Tea.”

“One tea,” Minnie Espiritu said to the young Chinese woman who turned and left.

“Well?” Minnie Espiritu said.

“You want the ground rules again?”

“Just the catch.”

“No catch. I give you one million bucks that you can spend any way you want.”

“Providing?” she said.

“Providing you give Al his funeral. The biggest one Cebu’s ever seen.”

Minnie Espiritu leaned back in the booth and examined Stallings coldly. “They don’t know Alejandro’s dead, do they? Manila, I mean.”

“No,” Stallings said. “They don’t.”

“But they think you guys are going to kill him.”

“That’s right.”

“For the five million. That way they’re not out anything.”

“Right again.”

“I could blow both you and Manila out of the water, couldn’t I?”

“It’d be a one-day story, Minnie. Maybe two. And you’d be out a million bucks.”

Seconds went by before she nodded. “Let’s see it.”

Stallings reached into an inside breast pocket, brought out a buff-colored check and handed it to her just as the Chinese woman returned with his tea. Minnie Espiritu clapped the check against her breasts until the Chinese woman left. She then stared at the check, her lips moving silently as she carefully counted its six zeroes.

“Made out to cash and certified, I see,” she said and silently counted the zeroes for the second time.

“No way to stop payment on it either,” Stallings said and sipped his tea.

“One... million... dollars.”

“One million,” he agreed.

“I could run it through our Panama account,” she said more to herself than to him as he took another sip of tea. When he looked up he saw two tears rolling down her cheeks.

“I spent five years in the States begging for money,” she said, “and in all that time I didn’t even raise one third of this.” She smiled a winner’s smile. “Okay, Booth, he’ll get his rotten funeral.”

Stallings raised his cup of tea to her. “Have a nice revolt, Minnie.”

When he returned to the Peninsula Hotel at 5:21, Stallings called Artie Wu’s room. When there was no answer, he asked hotel information for the room numbers of Durant and Overby. A few moments later, the operator said, “I’m sorry, but Mr. Durant and Mr. Overby have checked out.”

“What about Mr. Wu — Mr. Arthur Wu?”

It took her another five seconds to check. “I’m sorry, but he too has departed.”

Booth Stallings thanked her, hung up the house phone, and wandered over to a table in the lobby where he ordered a Scotch and water. As he waited for it, he took out the other buff check and, like Minnie Espiritu, counted the six zeroes silently, wondering how he would spend the money.