“I can get us on the ferry. I will get you to Bhamo, and then my job is done.”
“Is that why you stayed around?” asked Temple. “You suspected her?”
“When I saw the reward offered, yes, I thought there might be. . .a problem.”
Nash said, “I misjudged you. I’m sorry.”
Thura shrugged. “Life and people, not so easy to figure out.”
Temple said, “What do we do with her body?”
“She will be taken care of. I will see to it. We will meet at the ferries at dawn.” He looked them over. “I will bring you some other clothing. You will not stick out so much.”
“Thank you, Thura,” said Nash.
“It is my job, American. And I do my job.” He glanced sadly at Amrita’s body. “No matter what.”
CHAPTER
19
EARLY THE NEXT MORNING NASHand Temple were standing on the deck of the ferry, gripping the rail and staring out at the water. Thura was asleep on the deck, using his backpack as a pillow. The air was crisp on the water, and they turned their faces away from the biting wind as the sun rose.
Thura had been true to his word, getting them on the slow ferry and providing them with hooded cloaks.
When they boarded the ferry Nash had told him, “We need transportation when we get to Bhamo, preferably an all-terrain vehicle.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” he said. “What do you need it for exactly?”
“To pick someone up and take them someplace else.”
Thura raised his eyebrows at this cryptic comment. “I know a guy.”
“I thought you might.”
Thura had taken out his phone and gone over to a corner of the ferry to make a call.
Now Temple, after glancing over at the sleeping Thura, said, “What do you think he did with her body?”
Nash eyed the water where perhaps creatures that ate corpses lurked. “I don’t even want to go there. You ever travel on the Irrawaddy on your previous trips here?”
Temple shook his head. “My dad and I were in other places. Yangon and Mandalay primarily, where the money was back then. Yangon has these fabulous gilded pagodas, temples that go up, up into the sky. I mean, they look like they’re solid gold. And then there’re modern skyscrapers and this beautiful lake, I forget the name. It also had this ship shaped like a dragon. It was pretty cool. We came over to develop some opportunities while I was still in college. Nothing came out of it, but it was a learning experience.”
“I take it this was pre–Victoria Steers?”
Temple smiled bitterly. “My old man hadn’t become involved with her. Yet.” He stared down at the water and said in a contemplative voice, “He was an asshole back then, too, Dillon, but nothing like what he eventually became. I looked up to him. I really did,” he added, as though to convince himself. “He was the most confident person I’ve ever met in my life. He’d walk into any room, any meeting, didn’t matter where the hell in the world it was or who it was with, and just take over the room by the sheer force of his personality. I’ve never seen anything like it. Biggest balls in the world.”
“Must have set a pretty high bar for you,” noted Nash, who had seen the elder Temple do that very thing many times.
“Animpossiblebar,” growled Temple. “And you know how parents usually want their kids to do better than they did?”
Nash thought of his own father and nodded. “Yeah?”
“Well, not my old man. He beat me down every chance he got. I didn’t know it at the time, but after he hooked up with Steers it got really bad. I think he was pissed at himself for losing his wealth and needing to get bailed out by her. And he took that anger out on me. And worst of all he got me involved with her. And I only found out about it shortly before he died.”
“How?”
“He came right out and told me. He did it to shock me, play mind games, and also to stick it to me.” He paused. “But he did say something. . .that I wanted to believe was true, only I’m not sure I can.”