Fiction: Finsoup (a novel) [28]

To Con or Not to Con

By edRogers

[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]

Charlie was driving himself crazy with worry. The thing with Howard was bad, very bad. If indeed Howard was working with Mr. Tai, that meant that Tai knew who they were and what they were up to.
    None of it made sense to him. If Howard was working for Tai, he thought, why didn’t he fly right over me as I lay on that beach and let me die? Why did he help Margot year after year? Charlie had to come up with a way to test Howard’s loyalties. They had to be sure, one way or the other. That was Charlie’s problem: he had no ideas as to how he could do that.
    At five he showered and changed clothes. He decided to take the report that Tommy had given him and show it to Margot. She knew Howard and might see a way to prove whose side Howard was really on.
    It was a nice night to be on the bike. The rainy season was coming to an end and the downpours were no more, having been reduced to only a shower in the afternoon that cooled everybody off. He turned onto Margot’s road without passing one car. Small towns around the world were alike – people worked and went home. To look at Puntarenas, a person would never guess of the evil that lived within its city limits.
    Margot had heard his bike coming and opened the gate before he got there. She walked out front and watched him walk down the hill. The thought that haunted her mind came back once more, How long will this thing between me and Charlie last? She had no illusions that their relationship would be long-lasting. Their differences weren’t that great but would show themselves sooner or later and that would be that. She raised her shoulders, smiled, and waved at Charlie. Tomorrow we may be dead – better to live for today.
    Charlie kissed her and she led him inside. “Would you like a drink before we go eat?”
    “I would love one. I have something to show you, which we need to discuss before we go to dinner.”
    Margot was at the bar making his run and coke. “What’s so important that it can’t wait until after dinner?”
    Charlie finished spreading the papers on the coffee table as Margot returned with his drink and her glass of wine. “Just take time to read these, and then we’ll have all night to discuss what to do about it.”
    Margot picked up the top sheet and cuddled next to Charlie. She took a sip of wine and placed the glass on the table in front of her. She smiled at Charlie. “You’re being very mysterious tonight.”
    “I don’t intend to be, but once you’ve read these you’ll understand why it needed to be done before dinner.”
    She settled back onto the couch and read about half the page before reaching for her wine. “Where did you get this?”
    “Tommy found it while searching Rodrigez’s background.”
    Margot shook her head and deposited the glass back on the table. She finished the page and picked up the next one before finishing off her wine. She handed the emptied glass to Charlie. “Get me more wine, please.”
    By the time the next glass of wine was emptied she had read all the papers. She turned to Charlie with tears in her eyes. “I can’t believe this.”
    “I know, I’ve been trying to deal with it all day. We need a way to find out if he really is working for Tai, or not.”
    “We don’t need a way to do anything. I’m getting Howard over here tonight and he is going to explain what the hell this is all about.”
    Charlie hadn’t seen that coming. “If we do that we’ll be leaving ourselves wide open. If he is working for Tai, we’ll be dead before morning.”
    “No, Charlie! We aren’t using Howard. He is a dear friend and he gets a chance to tell his side of the story.”
    “You’re making a mistake, Margot.”
    “We all make mistakes, Charlie, but this is my friend and it’s my call.”
    Charlie was pissed, to say the least. He had spent all day trying to come up with an idea, and to be treated as though his opinion didn’t count for shit was a little hard to swallow. “Do you want me to leave, or do I get to be part of the questioning? There are answers I would like to have myself.”
    Margot picked up her cell phone and dialed. As it was ringing Howard’s number, she told Charlie, “You are welcome to stay, but you will not attack Howard, no matter what.”
    “I never planned on hurting Howard.”

Margot hung up her cell phone. “He’ll be here in fifteen minutes. I have some cold roast beef in the refrigerator, if you would like a sandwich. It looks like dinner is off.”
    “I’m fine. I’ll have a rum and Coke, which I feel I need more than food right now.”
    Margot got up and started toward the hall. “I’ll be back in a little while, my makeup is smeared.”
    Charlie made his drink and stepped out the back door and into the night air. Things weren’t going the way he had thought they would earlier in the day. Information was the key to any operation, but once your enemy knew the information you had, that information was no longer of much or any use. Everything in his body was crying out to stop Margot’s insane act of confronting Howard with what they knew. However, that would destroy everything also. He was between a hard place and a rock. All he could do was let it play out and hope for the best.
    He heard a car horn and closed the back door. He walked to the front, hollering, “Howard is here.”
    Margot came out of the back as Howard and Charlie entered the living room. “I want another rum,” said Charlie. “Howard, may I get you something?”
    Howard sat in the chair across from the couch. “I would love a cognac. What is this all about?” He looked at Margot as she took a seat on the couch. “You seemed awful upset.”
    “Charlie,” requested Margot, “could you bring me a cognac also?”
    “Sure. I guess I’ll have one too. That’ll be three cognacs coming right up.”
    Charlie handed out the drinks and took his seat next to Margot, who raised her glass toward Howard. “Here’s to good friends through thick and thin.”
    Howard raised his glass. “Amen to that.”
    Charlie said nothing but did tilt his glass. After all, it was Margot’s party, and he was only along for the ride.
    Margot placed her glass in front of her on the table and picked up the papers. Handing them to Howard, she asked, “Can you explain this?”
    Howard took the papers and began to read. Charlie noticed his face getting whiter by the second. Howard put the papers back on the coffee table. “Margot, there is much more to this story than is in these papers.”
    “That’s why I asked you to come over. I want to hear your side of what happened.”
    Howard emptied his glass, which Charlie retrieved and refilled. “One year before Ike hit Texas, my only child, Debbie, was in a car wreck. She had brain damage and the doctors in the States could do nothing to help her. I was at the Lapar plant in Port Arthur at the time of her accident. I was in the middle of trying to explain to them that I would have to close their plant if one of the chemicals in the two tanks was not moved. It was a major undertaking. It would require them to build a new tank on the other side of their property and transfer the contents from the old tank. It was going to cost millions and shut down the plant while the transfer took place.”
    Howard sipped some cognac and pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his brow. “I’m so sorry, Margot.”
    “Go on with your story, Howard.”
    “I got the call about Debbie’s accident and informed the people at the plant that I would have to leave, and I explained why. They said to let them know if there was anything they could do to help. I said I would and gave them a temporary permit to keep operating.”
    Howard had tears coming down his face at that point and picked up his cognac again. “The doctors offered no hope that she would ever be the same. However, one doctor pulled me aside and told me of a hospital in Sweden where they were having success in rerouting the brain. He gave me the name of the doctors and I called the next day. Travel in a private plane plus the cost of the operation and rehab was two hundred fifty thousand dollars. I had nowhere near that kind of money.”
    Charlie was getting tired of things dragging out and spoke up, “Okay, Howard, your daughter was hurt and you cut a deal with Lapar to pay for her operation. I believe we’re more interested in the dealings you had here in Costa Rica with Rodrigez.”
    Howard wiped the sweat from his brow and eyes. “It’s all the same story.”
    Margot spoke up, “Charlie, I warned you about attacking Howard.”
    “I wasn’t attacking him, I was trying to move the story along.”
    Margot returned to Howard. “Tell your story any way you want to.”
    “Thank you, Margot. Like I said, it is all the same story. Lapar lost their plant with the explosion following Hurricane Ike. The E.P.A. removed me from field service and demanded I retire the following year. My daughter died on the operating table and my wife left me.”
    Charlie stood and asked if anyone wanted another glass of cognac. Looking at Howard, he said, “That is one long line of bad luck.” He walked to the bar and returned with fresh drinks all around.
    “After I retired, I had no place to go and nothing to do. One night I got a knock on my hotel door and it was my contact that worked for Lapar. They offered me a job at three hundred thousand dollars a year. I honestly thought it was a real job, but what it turned out to be was a front for bribing government officials. My job was to approach government types like Rodrigez and offer them money to approve projects that the local E.P.A. had control over. That was how Rodrigez and I met…I bribed him.”
    Charlie asked, “Are you still working for Lapar?”
    Howard shook his head. “No, they’re no longer in business. The Canadian government opened an investigation into their dealings. That closed their doors and put some people in jail. I was here in Costa Rica with a house, an airplane, and three hundred thousand dollars in the bank and saw no reason to return to the States.”
    Margot stood and walked to the back door and looked out into the dark night. To her right, she was watching Howard’s reflection in the glass door. “Howard, have you been giving information about us to Rodrigez or anybody else?”
    “God no, Margot. Is that what you thought? Is that why I’m here?”
    Charlie leaned closer to Howard. “That would seem to be the logical conclusion. The two of you seem to be two peas in the same crooked pod.”
    “Margot, Charlie, you have to believe me, I have never spoken your names to anyone. Rodrigez and I share a secret together and he trusts me because of it. That is why I have over the years been able to get information for you from him. But I would never betray you.”
    Margot came back to the couch and reached over and took Howard’s hand. “I believe you, my dear friend.”
    “By God!” exclaimed Charlie, “I’m going to need more than this cock and bull story before I’ll trust you again!”
    Margot touched Charlie’s arm. “No you won’t. This matter is closed.”
    “Thank you, Margot,” Howard said. But Charlie was already on his way out of the room.
    Margot stood and hollered, “Charlie, where are you going?”
    Charlie had already hit the button that opened the gate. “I’m going home.” He stormed out the door and a few seconds later, Margot and Howard looked at each other as they listened to his motorbike roaring away.

Copyright © 2018 by Ed Rogers