as far as he was aware nobody at the hotel knew him. ‘Hello?’
No answer, just another knock. Irked, he put down his drink and answered it.
‘Evening, Dad,’ said Eddie in a scathing voice, pushing past him. ‘How’s things?’
‘Uh . . . fine,’ said Larry, shocked. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘Here on business. You?’ Eddie dropped into a chair, gesturing for him to retake his place.
‘Same here. How did you know I was here?’
‘Found something you left behind.’ Eddie held up the business card, still in the evidence bag. His father froze for the briefest moment before lowering himself into the armchair and picking up his drink. ‘So I called your home number to see where you were. Spoke to Julie, said hi.’ He returned the card to a pocket of his battered and seawater-stained leather jacket.
Larry downed another slug of whisky. ‘How’s Nina?’
‘She’s fine, doing her thing – working out how to find lost cities in Peru, recovering stolen treasures. Stolen Inca treasures.’
His father was composed enough by this time not to react. ‘Inca treasures, eh? Sounds interesting. Like that cartoon you watched when you were a kid.’
‘Wow, you remembered something about my childhood? Must have been one of the three days you were actually there for it.’
Larry gave him a cold look. ‘Despite what you think, I wasn’t a bad father. At least Elizabeth—’
‘Turned out okay?’
‘I was going to say had no complaints, actually.’ Another swig. ‘But I get the feeling you’ve got some, and they’re nothing to do with your opinion of my parenting skills.’
‘You could say that.’ Eddie produced an envelope and took out two photographs, which he tossed on to the table beside Larry. ‘Recognise those?’
Larry didn’t look at them. ‘There’s not much point me answering, is there? Since I’m sure you think you already know the answer.’
Eddie laughed sarcastically. ‘Don’t worry, I’m not fucking taping you. You don’t need to get all evasive.’
Larry sat forward. ‘What’s this all about, Edward?’
Eddie did the same, fixing him with a stony stare. ‘It’s about whether you’re going to do the right thing. For once in your life.’
‘Don’t you talk to me like—’
‘Shut up!’ Eddie barked.
Larry flinched, then stood, bristling. ‘I don’t take that kind of attitude from anybody. Least of all you.’
Eddie didn’t move, eyes locked on his father’s. ‘Sit down. Or I’ll make you sit down. And you know I’ll do it.’
His jaw tight with anger, the elder Chase returned to his seat. ‘Get to it, then,’ he growled. ‘What do you want?’
‘First off, I want you to look at those photos.’ His father picked them up. ‘The big gold face is an Inca sun disc – religious thing, their version of a cross. The other thing’s called a khipu. Not as impressive, since it’s basically a load of strings, but this one’s important ’cause Nina thinks it’s the key to finding El Dorado.’
Larry raised an eyebrow. ‘What, the El Dorado?’
‘No, Elvis’s Cadillac.’
‘You can be sarcastic or make your point, Edward. I’m not going to listen to you do both.’
‘All right. My point is that they were stolen from an archaeological site in Venezuela, and that you shipped them out of the country. And when I say shipped, I mean smuggled. ’Cause let’s not beat around the bush – that’s what you do, isn’t it?’
‘You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about,’ said Larry. ‘I don’t handle anything illegal.’
‘What about those?’ Eddie demanded, indicating the photos. ‘They’re stolen goods – I’d call that illegal right off the bat.’
‘Stolen? From who? I’ve got access to international watch lists from customs, police, insurers – neither of these things were on any of them. Due diligence; I carry it out before taking on any job.’
‘That’s a technicality and you bloody know it. It’d never stand up in court.’
‘As a matter of fact, it has, on more than one occasion. I know what I’m doing. I’m very good at it.’
‘So good that you don’t care who you work for as long as they pay well?’ Eddie said. ‘That guy you gave your business card to was a fucking drug lord!’
‘How he makes his money isn’t any of my concern. All I was doing was delivering a cargo to him – a cargo that as far as I knew was totally legitimate. If it had been drugs I wouldn’t have touched it. Do you think I’m a fucking idiot or something?’
‘You’re something, all right. Didn’t it even cross your mind that the job was a bit dodgy when Diego del Cocainio