Gone Bamboo by Anthony Bourdain Read Free Book Online Page B

he said.
    "Yeah. I can feel what's moving. Forget it. I'm dressed."
    "They live in that big stone house up on the hill," said Henry, stepping back into the bedroom while Frances braided her hair.
    "I know."
    "With Charlie . . . and a team of marshals."
    "They look after the house."
    "They hang out. That's what my friend says. Like father and son."
    "He's a good cook. Maybe Charlie likes his cooking. The kid is picking up a few extra bucks. That doesn't make him a bad guy. Next you're gonna be saying he was in Dealey Plaza. Maybe we should run the Zapruder film again . . . Tommy's face might pop up in the grassy knoll."
    "Hysterical," said Henry. "Listen. All I'm saying is they hang. It's not like an employer-employee relationship. My friend has his little Vietnamese dude watching the place, and they hang."
    "Okay, okay. So what do you want me to do?"
    "Well, I want to talk with Charlie. It's a tricky situation. There's marshals all around him. I don't want him to take it the wrong way. That would be bad."
    "Uh-huh."
    "I have to be careful."
    "Explain, please, why you don't just kill the guy. Finish the job . . . so we can have a little peace of mind."
    "No can do. My friend was . . . very specific on that point. He wants me to have a nice talk with Charlie. Let bygones be bygones and all that."
    "Is that wise? I mean, you're supposed to just walk up to Charlie and say, 'Hi, Charlie, sorry I shot you in the ass. Let's be friends'?"
    Henry sighed loudly. "Pretty much."
    "Nice plan."
    "Well. He assumes, he expects me to get an idea of the man's intentions first. If possible. You know, get an idea of his state of mind, feel things out, see what's possible, what isn't." Henry paused to lie back on the bed and stare at the ceiling. "I was thinking Tommy . . . if he's straight like you think he's straight . . ."
    "What if Charlie's real pissed? Then what?"
    "Then we get tossed off the island, I guess. If we're lucky. If we're not so lucky, if Charlie blabs to the marshals, then we have a serious problem."
    "Bummer," said Frances. "That sucks. All I can say is, we better get the guy a real nice housewarming gift. Somebody shot me in the ass, I'd be kinda angry."

8
     
    H enry lay on his back in the gin-clear water, his mask and snorkel held loosely in one hand, and gave a few desultory kicks with his flippers. A single puff of white cloud drifted slowly across the sun. Around him, the sea was flat and calm, only slightly cooler than the balmy afternoon air and his warm, sunburned skin. He raised his head and looked back toward the beach, around a hundred twenty yards away. He could see Frances, in her black thong bathing suit, the one he'd bought her on his last trip to New York, sitting on a barstool at Tommy's Tropical. She was drinking Heineken from the bottle and talking to a young woman who stood in the shadows under the bar's thatched roof.
    He paddled around, repositioning himself so he had a view of his hotel, beyond the reef. Through the open French doors of the second-story balcony, he could just make out a green and black figure moving around inside, probably Esme, the chambermaid, making up the rooms. He put his head back in the water and closed his eyes. He'd give Frances a little more time with Cheryl before heading in.
    He was startled by the sound of a pelican crashing into the water around twenty yards off. Henry turned and watched the big bird come up empty, water dripping from its bill. The pelican lifted itself with a few powerful strokes of its wings and quickly resumed its lazy, circular flight pattern overhead, gliding motionless over the reef, scanning the water below for fish.
    Henry looked back at the beach again, at Frances. He righted himself, pushed the hair off his forehead, and fitted the dive mask over his face. He put the mouthpiece of the snorkel between his teeth and plunged deep beneath the surface. A few inches above the coral heads, he lay motionless, arms extended, and allowed the current to