hair flat against his head, the golf shirt stuck to his chest, his belly protruding like an upside-down bowl of jelly, his shorts and underwear heavy with water and lying in a lump at his feet.
“How are you doing, Andy?” she asked.
He grunted.
“This will be over soon enough,” she said, as Perkasa led the brothers back into the house for their talk. “Now there’s a personal matter I want to go over with you.”
He stiffened, and Ava knew he was imagining the worst.
“I’m going to take the tape from your mouth. When I do, I want you to stay quiet until I have a chance to ask my questions. And then all I want you to do is answer me. Got that?”
He nodded.
She reached out and stripped the tape from his face. He threw his head back, gulping in air through his open mouth. “I checked your story and I discussed things with my partner, and it appears you were telling me the truth about the bank. So that’s a good thing. We’re also prepared to work a deal for your million or so dollars. That’s also a good thing. What’s not quite so good is that I think you stole a set of green jade cufflinks from my hotel room.”
Cameron started to protest and then clamped his jaw tight.
Ava waited for a few seconds and then said quietly, “Don’t make me ask again.”
“I took them,” he said, his voice hoarse and breaking.
“What were they to you, Andy, a trophy of some sort? Is that how you immortalize your conquests? Do you have a large collection of date-rape mementos?”
He shook his head. “It isn’t like that.”
“I don’t care what it’s like. What I need you to tell me is where they are.”
“At my house.”
“I want them back.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll get them back to you,” he said quickly.
“I know you will, and you’ll do it today. In fact, you’ll do it before you leave here and before we transfer that million dollars you say you have.”
“But how can I do that?”
“Where are the cufflinks?”
“On my dresser.”
Ava sat quietly, letting him worry about what was coming next. “Is there anyone at your house?” she said.
“I have staff there.”
“And who runs the staff?”
“Yannie, my housekeeper.”
“Does she speak English?”
“She has to. I have hardly any Indo.”
“That’s good. Now, Andy, tell me, is your mobile phone in the Porsche?”
“Aye.”
“Good. So here is what we’re going to do. My friends will get your phone and you’ll tell us your home phone number and we’re going to call it for you. You will ask to talk to Yannie. When you get her, you will tell her that you’re at the golf course, in the middle of your game, and that you’ll be there until dinner time. Then you’ll say you forgot to bring the jade cufflinks with you. Tell her you bought them as a gift for a business associate and that you’re meeting him for dinner. Ask her if she could wrap them for you and then tell her you’re sending one of the security people from the golf course to pick them up. What do you think, Andy? Does that sound reasonable?”
“Yeah, it does.”
“She wouldn’t find it unusual?”
“No.”
“And do you think you can make that call without causing a fuss? I mean, can you do exactly what I just outlined, that and nothing more?”
“Aye, I can do it.”
“Because if you can’t, Andy, I have to tell you that what you received earlier will seem like a tickle.”
His head bobbed up and down as if it were on a string. “I’ll do it, word for word.”
“That’s good to hear. And if you do, then we’ll figure out something about the money and send you on your way, in time to make dinner with your Italian friends. How does that sound?”
“Great, just great,” he said, his brogue thickening.
“Good. Now you wait here and I’ll be back with your phone.”
Ava walked back into the kitchen. The three men standing near the stove turned simultaneously. There was no hesitation in their manner, no doubt in their eyes. Uncle had a good man in Perkasa, and Perkasa had good men in Waru and Prayogo.
“We need to get the banker’s cellphone from his car,” she said.
Perkasa spoke to Prayogo and then said to Ava, “What did you arrange?”
“He’s going to call his housekeeper and tell her he’s sending someone from the golf course to pick up a gift for a friend. You’re going to be the someone.”
“Okay.”
“When you get there,