Philip Kerr - The Five Year Plan (1998)

Bowen kept on grinning through Kate's obdurate silence.

'He does have a name, doesn't he? The captain of the Juarista?

'His name is David Dulanotov and he's not the captain, he's the owner,' Kate said quickly. Almost immediately she regretted her alacrity. Telling Bowen anything was as good as telling him too much, for it was plain he was jealous.

'The owner, eh? Same as me.' Bowen allowed the grin to become his irritating chuckle. 'I should have known. As soon as I saw him, I felt he and I had something in common.' He drank some more coffee. 'Peer recognizing peer. You know the kind of thing. And you know boats. So tell me, Kate, how much do you think a boat like the Juarista would cost?'

Kate was uncertain if she should leave him in impotent ignorance or tell him and make him feel small. Finally she couldn't resist rubbing his nose up against Dave's obvious wealth. She said, 'I don't know. Maybe three million dollars?'

'Three million bucks. Jesus, he must be worth a bundle.'

'It's hardly the biggest boat on the ship, Kent. Rocky's boat has twenty or thirty feet on David's.'

'David?' Bowen smiled. 'You know how long it would take me to get that kind of money together? Maybe fifty years.'

'Don't tell me, tell your Congressman.'

'And if that's what he spends on a goddamn boat, can you imagine what kind of house he lives in?'

Kate found she could imagine all kinds of things about David Dulanotov and most of them involved her being naked.

'What are you? A real estate agent?'

'I mean, you don't spend more on the boat than you do on the house. It stands to reason the guy's house has got to be three or four times as much as his boat. It's got to be a seven or eight million dollar place, he's got. Imagine that. Jesus.'

Kate sighed and looked into her coffee cup.

'What's he do for a living? Young fellow like that. Rob banks? Smuggle cocaine?'

'I see there's nothing wrong with your imagination. As far as I know he works in the Financial Center on Biscayne Boulevard. Commodities or something.'

'That's as good as robbing a bank. Better. Those guys are harder to catch when they get up to something. Fraud, insider dealing, shit like that.'

'What are you? The Securities and Exchange Commission? Kent, you haven't the first idea what you're talking about. You don't even know the guy.'

'I know the type,' insisted Bowen. 'Maybe better than you think. Maybe better than you.'

Exasperated, Kate tossed the rest of her coffee into the sink.

'It's not every day we rub shoulders with multi-millionaires, Kate. It's natural we should feel curious about these people. That we should be dazzled by them and their wealth.'

'Is that a personal observation? What is this?'

'I just want you to be careful, that's all. We've got a job to do here. Don't get distracted by anything. Don't get your head turned by anyone. By this guy, for instance.'

'You know what this is? This is connected to something else,' said Kate. 'Which is that you feel uncomfortable on a personal level with me talking to other men. I think you're jealous.'

'Me, jealous? That's ridiculous.'

'I don't think so.'

'I just don't want you to get hurt. I don't want you to screw things up for yourself, or for this whole operation.'

Kate smiled bitterly. 'And I suppose the way you were conducting yourself with the captain of the Jade last night somehow evades the category of foolish, does it?'

'Look Kate, I'm a little older

'That's something we can agree on anyway. Better not push your luck and try wiser, OK?'

'I know where to draw the line.'

'Don't you mean spin a line? You were coming onto Rachel Dana like you owned Kansas.'

'Now wait a minute --'

'No, you wait a goddamn minute. You're trying to make me feel guilty. To wrong-foot me about this. Well you can save your shoes. I don't feel guilty for anybody. And don't lecture me about keeping my mind on the job, sir. Keeping my mind on the job cost me a husband. Did you ever lose a marriage because of your work? It has its depressing moments. One of the things that gets you through to the other side is the idea that your job means something. That it's important. That doing it makes a difference. So don't lecture me about my job. You can leave that job to my husband's divorce lawyer. Sir.'

Kate walked swiftly out of the galley. A minute or so later Bowen saw her going along the high side of the ship and stopping to speak to the owner of the Juarista. Bowen finished his coffee and then went up to the flybridge. He sat down in one of the pilot's chairs, switched on the digital scrambler, and picked up the radio handset.

'This is turkey in the hay calling turkey in the straw. This is turkey in the hay calling turkey in the straw. Are you receiving me? Over.'

There followed a short pause filled with the noise of static and then Bowen heard the voice of the USS Galveston's duty radio man.

'Turkey in the hay, this is turkey in the straw, receiving you. Are you secure? Over.'

'Turkey in the hay, all secure. I want you to relay a message back to FBI headquarters in Washington. Have the Records Division run a check on a David Dulanotov. That's D-U-L-A-N-O-T-O-V. Also other permutations of that name. Spelling was never my forte. In addition, I'd like to have them check on a boat called the Juarista. That's J-U-A-R-I-S-T-A. Originally registered in San Diego, California. Everything and anything. Oh yeah, one more thing. All of this information is to be given up by you only on my specific request. Me. ASAC Kent Bowen. It is to be withheld unless specifically asked for. Got that? Over.'

'Turkey in the hay, this is turkey in the straw. We copy. Over.'

'This is turkey in the hay, over and out.'

Bowen turned off the radio and leaned back in the fine leather chair. He was quite impressed that Kate could make sense of all these computer screens. Several times he'd watched her run various troubleshooting sequences -- that's what she'd called them anyway -- and still he had no idea what she'd been doing. Maybe she did know a lot about boats, but he knew about investigation and all things forensic. Being inquisitive, finding out about people, knowing exactly who you were dealing with -- all of that helped keep you ahead in the game. Bowen believed that most rich people usually had something to hide. Along the lines of the old saying that behind every great fortune was a great crime. It would be interesting to see what David Dulanotov's secret was, and what Kate's reaction would be when eventually he got to tell her all about it.

'The boat at the stern of the ship, the one we're going to steal and use as our getaway, it's called the Britannia,' Dave told Al.

They were sitting on the double bed in Al's stateroom. With no windows or portholes, it was the most secure place on the Juarista. And since Al had never bothered to change his sheets since Costa Rica, it was also the most malodorous.

'It's not as fast as this boat, but looking at her I'd say she can do twenty-five knots, no problem. She's got twin bow thrusters, so there won't be any difficulty maneuvering her out to sea. Power's not going to be a problem either. I've been watching them. She's got more solar panels than a fuckin' space station, and the captain -- who, incidentally, looks just like Gilbert Roland -- he keeps the engines turned over. The only outstanding question I have about her is how much fuel she has on board.'

Al frowned. 'Who the fuck is Gilbert Roland?'

'Played a lot of Mexicans in movies.' Dave shook his head as Al's face remained a blank. 'It doesn't matter.'

'And what about the money?'

'What about it?'

'What I mean, motherfucker, is that you don't know how much fuel there is on this other boat, so maybe you don't really have a fuckin' clue about how much money there is either.'