The car was where she had last seen it. Davey saw her first and said something to Robbins. The big man whipped his head in her direction, his eyes drawn to the envelope. Ava gave thanks to whatever impulse had made her remember the second wire.
She climbed into the front seat and said, “I’m starving. I need to eat.”
“Was the money sent?” said Robbins.
“Yes, I told you it was.”
“Is that the confirmation?”
“Yes.”
“I want to see it. Pass me the envelope.”
“Do you have your brother’s permission?”
His voice rose. “You need to stop fucking around with me.”
Ava turned around to face him. “I’m not fucking with you. I’m doing business with your brother. I’m not showing this to anyone unless he tells me to.”
Robbins stared at her. Ava could see that he was trying to make up his mind whether she was being respectful towards the Captain or pissy towards him. “I’ll call him,” he said.
“That’s the wise thing to do,” she said.
He climbed out of the car and crossed the sidewalk to a white stucco wall. He leaned against it, the phone appearing in his gloved hand. Davey looked sideways at her as if to say Be careful. Ava realized it was the first time she’d actually been alone with the driver. “Why does Robbins wear those gloves?” she asked him.
“Ugly, huh?”
“Certainly not pleasant.”
“Nothing freaky, if that’s what you’re worried about. He got what he thought was eczema a few weeks ago. It comes and goes, except this time it didn’t go. The doctor told him he’s got some kind of ringworm. He got some medication but he has to wear the gloves for a few days.”
“It hasn’t done anything for his disposition.”
“Hey, with or without the gloves, Robbins is a piece of work.”
“How long have you worked for him?”
Davey laughed. “What makes you think I work for him?”
“I assumed.”
“He’s got his own day job and I got mine. This is just a short-term gig for me. I crew for a living. This is the busiest charter port in the Caribbean. I’m off again in two or three days. We got some honeymooners going island-hopping for a week.”
“What does he do?” Ava asked.
“He’s a cop.”
“I should have guessed.”
“Why? He sure as shit doesn’t look like one.”
“And what does your typical cop look like?” Ava asked.
“Not like the Michelin man.”
Robbins lumbered towards the car. Davey said, “Best for us not to talk so much. He’s a suspicious son of a bitch.”
“My brother wants to speak to you,” Robbins said from the door, holding his phone over the back of the front seat.
“Captain,” Ava said.
“I understand congratulations are in order, Ms. Lee.”
“The money has been sent.”
“Well done, very well done. Now do me a favour and pass the confirmation to my brother. He’ll need the phone back as well.”
Ava handed them both over. The big man retreated to the wall again. She started to speak to Davey, but he turned his head away.
She watched as Robbins read the wire details to his brother. When he was done, he climbed into the car, a fat, sloppy grin spreading across his face. He handed her the phone.
“Yes, Captain,” she said.
“I imagine you’re eager to inform Hong Kong of your success?”
“You know I am.”
“I’ve told my brother that you’re free to use your computer. Please show him the transfer requests you did before and then follow the same model.”
“The only difference, obviously, is that I’m going to ask our accountant to fax and email you directly a copy of our bank’s wire transfer to your Cayman account.”
“That’s understood. I must say, Ms. Lee, it’s a pleasure doing business with someone who values efficiency as much as I do.”
“Well, speaking of efficiency,” Ava said, “while I’m on the computer I wouldn’t mind booking a flight out of here for sometime late tomorrow.”
“I guess that won’t do any harm,” Robbins said slowly. “But until things are concluded, you understand, our current working arrangement will remain intact.”
“I didn’t expect anything different.”
“Good. Now let me speak to my brother again.”
Jack Robbins listened for a minute, closed his phone, and said to Davey, “Take us back to the apartment.”
“Hey, I need to eat,” Ava protested.
“We’ll have something delivered.”
(38)
Ava really did have to eat. the memory of the fish and chips was long gone, and the rice crackers and hummus she’d snacked on during the afternoon hadn’t done much to fill the void in her stomach, a void that had expanded as the tension of doing business with Jeremy Bates and the bank subsided.
She wanted Chinese. Robbins told her there wasn’t any in Road Town, and when she said that was impossible he turned to Davey. “Tell her, will you?”
“There ain’t none.”
“How about Italian?” she asked.
“You like pizza?” Davey asked. “The Capriccio is good,” he said to Robbins.
“Drop us off at the apartment and then head over there. Better get three large, with sausage, mushrooms, and olives. That okay with you?” Robbins said to Ava.
“Thin crust?”
“Two regular, one thin crust. Call when you get to the building. We’ll come down and get the food.”
As Ava and Robbins walked back to the Guildford she could feel that he was less tense now as well. She wondered if his brother had said anything in particular to him. When they got into the apartment, he said, “Where do you want to set up the computer?”
The cable connection was in the kitchen, next to the phone. While Ava got her computer and notebook from her bedroom, Robbins went into the fridge for a Stella. He was sitting at the kitchen table, the bottle already half empty, when she came back and started to get set up.
The connection was good and Ava quickly got online. “I’m going to sign into my email account now,” she said.
He came over to her side, his head almost touching her shoulder. “Don’t crowd me, please,” she said. He pulled back about six inches.
Her inbox had more than thirty messages. “I have to open that one from your brother. It has his fax number in it,” she said, ignoring the others. She opened her notebook to the Guyana page where she’d recorded the Captain’s bank account information, and wrote the fax number underneath. Then she hit the messages sent tab, scanned down, and found her first email to Uncle with Robbins’s bank information.
“There, that’s what I sent before,” she said to Robbins, not remembering exactly what she had written in addition to the bank details. Not much, it turned out. At least no editorializing, nothing negative about the Captain.
“Okay,” Robbins said.
Ava clicked on the compose button, typed in Uncle’s email address, and then copied the email she had shown Robbins, changing only the amount of money to be wired and adding a request that a copy of the confirmation be emailed and faxed to Captain Robbins at the address and number provided. When she had finished, she said, “Here, read this and make sure it’s all right. In fact, why don’t you call your brother and read it to him? That way neither of us has to worry about being accused of screwing up.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” he said.
“Good. While you do that, I’m going to the bathroom,” she said, standing up. He pulled back to let her pass. She didn’t know which she needed more, to pee or to get out from under the hovering Robbins. Even in mute mode he was still oppressive.
Ava was about to sit on the toilet, skirt pulled up and panties around her knees, when the copy of the second wire transfer fell to the floor. God help her if she hadn’t remembered it back at the bank. She would have been hard-pressed to talk her way around that problem. It would have cost her more money at the very least, and more important, it would have destroyed any trust the Captain had in her. She picked it up and tucked it back into her underwear.