Part 10 (1/2)
”Did she have one of those hemorrhagic fevers?”
”No. She miscarried a seven-month fetus. Stillbirth. A boy. Hard to believe we had a little nephew and never knew it.”
Archer didn't answer. He couldn't. He could barely breathe around the vise gripping his gut. Len had never mentioned Hannah's near-fatal illness or the loss of their child.
”Did you know about that?” Kyle asked after a minute.
”No.”
Though Archer said nothing more, Kyle knew his brother too well to be fooled by silence.
”It got to me, too,” Kyle said simply. ”I went and found Lianne and held her, just held her. When I felt our babies move, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.”
The uncertainty of life and the finality of death haunted Kyle's voice as surely as it haunted Archer's mind. He forced himself to breathe, to talk, to rea.s.sure his youngest brother that their twins would be the lucky ones, the ones who not only survived but thrived.
”Don't worry about Lianne and your twins,” Archer said. ”Len dragged Hannah through some of earth's deepest h.e.l.lholes. He didn't live fancy, either. What the natives ate, he ate. What they drank, he drank. That didn't change after he got married.”
”I know. I rechecked the pa.s.sport stamps after I found the hospital records. A week here. Two weeks there. Two days at the next place. Sometimes only a few hours. Flying all over the South Pacific with side trips to j.a.pan or Jakarta just for variety. Was it a coincidence that every place Len went grew, traded, or smuggled pearls?”
”No.”
Kyle waited, but his brother didn't say anything more. He started to snap at the lack of response; then he remembered that his brother had been up for more than twenty-four hours, had seen his half brother's corpse, and had just found out about the baby nephew they would never get to nuzzle and tease and love.
”I gotta say,” Kyle muttered, ”our half brother had s.h.i.+tty taste in friends. I ran the names of some of the people he met with. Bad cess. Really bad. Right down there in the toilet with the Red Phoenix Triad. Different names, of course. Same slime.”
”When you go looking for secrets, you make your bargains where you have to.”
”Was he a spook?”
Archer didn't want to answer, but he did. Len had been Kyle's brother, too. ”He began as an officer in a U.S. foreign intelligence agency. He finished as a mercenary. Sometimes he worked for us. Sometimes for them. And always he worked for himself.”
”I'm not sure I like the sound of that.”
”You have good instincts. But remember Len didn't start out where he ended up. What else did you find out about Hannah?”
”She keeps the books for Pearl Cove. She orders equipment locally and electronically. If she shops locally for clothes or cosmetics, she pays cash. The farm has open accounts at several places in Broome.”
”What kind of payment record?”
”Pretty good. Not great. Just okay. The last year must have been hard. Some of the accounts started dunning.”
”How serious is it?”
”Pearl Cove is on a cash-only basis with an outfit called Smithe and Sons Equipment. The Broome Green Grocer is a little more flexible, up to one hundred dollars Australian. She orders men's and women's clothes by credit card at a virtual store that specializes in casual tropical gear. She orders books at several virtual used-book stores and book exchanges. Reads everything from science fiction to philosophy, with stops in between for Chinese poetry and girl fiction.”
”Girl fiction?”
”Yeah, stories about family and marriage and love, that sort of stuff.”
Archer grunted and drank more coffee. The breeze through the verandah's screen door was heavy with brine. The temperature was as close to cool as it got in Broome in late November. ”Anything else?”
”If she ever saw a doctor, it was the kind who kept old-fas.h.i.+oned handwritten files. Len's doctor was modern. Kept his files electronically and used the virtual diagnostic sites all the time. Len's spine was slowly deteriorating. His doctor had him on morphine. If the local bottle shop is any indication, Len had himself on booze. Or is it Hannah who's heavy on the sauce?”
”If she is, you can't smell it on her breath or her skin.”
”That close, huh? Fast work, bro.”
”Shove it.”
”Ah, there's the Archer we all know and love.”
”Shove that, too,” he said without heat. ”I'm emailing a list of Pearl Cove's employees for the past year. See what you can get on them.” He yawned wide enough to make his jaw crack.
Kyle snickered. It wasn't often he had his oldest brother at a disadvantage. ”Bet you're not going to be a chirpy little camper at dawn tomorrow the way you usually are.”
”No bet.” Archer rubbed eyes that felt like they had gone skinny-dipping in sand. ”Anything else?”
”Nope. Her name never appeared on any of the singles sites or the s.e.xual chat rooms, so virtual s.e.x isn't her thing.”
”She could have used an alias,” Archer pointed out.
”h.e.l.lo, this is Kyle, the brother who can spin rings around you on a computer. Remember me? I can track an alias faster than you can think.”
”Good thing I can't reach you, runt.”
”Runt? I'll runt you the next time I get you on a gym mat.”
”Yeahyeahyeah. Lianne can dump you on your a.s.s without breaking a sweat.”
”Lianne can put me on my a.s.s any time, anywhere, and any way she wants. Naked is her favorite.”
The smug, utterly male note in Kyle's voice made Archer feel a lot more than thirty-seven, going on thirty-eight. He felt ancient, desolate, a ruin on top of a stony hill with nothing but the empty sky for company.
”I left a list of Len's phone calls for the last six months in your coded email,” Kyle continued.
”Cellular or land phone?”
”Both.”
”Right. Thanks.”
”Right, huh? Less than a day and you're sounding like an Aussie.”
”It's called camouflage,” Archer said dryly.
”You'll need it. Be careful, bro. Very, very careful. My gut wants you the h.e.l.l out of Australia.”
”I'm always careful. 'Bye, Kyle. And thanks.”