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Paris when they are
unhappy.”
    “Is that why you’re there?”
    “Don’t be cranky, Shepherd. It doesn’t become
you.”
    “No? Most people think it does.”
    Darling puffed on his cigarette and watched
Shepherd without expression. Either he didn’t have much of a sense
of humor or he didn’t think Shepherd did.
    “Anyway,” Shepherd went on when Darling
didn’t say anything else, “I wasn’t unhappy and I didn’t run away.
I just decided it was time for a change and Hong Kong seemed like a
place to start a law practice.”
    He tossed out his own shrug, not nearly as
good as Darling’s, but then he didn’t have so many role models.
    “Do you ever miss Bangkok?” Darling
asked.
    “No.”
    “Dealing with Thais gets old pretty quickly,
doesn’t it?”
    “It does.”
    “And yet,” Darling said, taking another puff
of his cigarette, “here you are today.”
    “And yet,” Shepherd nodded, “here I am
today.”
    “You are a walking contradiction, Shepherd. A
living conundrum.”
    Shepherd had the feeling this conversation
was about something. He just couldn’t figure out what it was.
    Adnan came back into the room carrying a
thick manila envelope. “These are the documents I was asked to
collect for you,” he said.
    Adnan walked over and shoved the envelope at
him. Shepherd took it and nodded. He made a point of not thanking
Adnan.
    “There are copies of the statements for all
the accounts at Bangkok Bank and Siam Commercial Bank,” Adnan said.
“Both the corporate ones and the personal ones.”
    Shepherd nodded, but he didn’t say
anything.
    The expression on Adnan’s face was
transparent. He wanted to know why he had been told to give those
statements to Shepherd.
    Shepherd said nothing at all and Adnan was
left with no alternative but either to come right out and ask or to
let the matter go.
    He came right out and asked.
    “What are you going to do with them?”
    “These are copies, aren’t they? They’re not
the originals?”
    Adnan nodded. “Yes, they’re copies.”
    “Then I’ll destroy them when I’m done.”
    Adnan’s eyes shifted quickly to Darling, then
back to Shepherd.
    “Done with what?” he asked.
    “I’m sure if Charlie wanted you to know, he
would have told you.”
    Adnan blinked at that and in the silence that
followed Shepherd heard Darling snort softly.
    “Well, gentlemen, I’ll leave you to it,”
Shepherd went on quickly. “I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
    “No bother at all, Shepherd,” Darling said.
“You and I ought to have lunch while we’re both in town. Perhaps
get to know each other a little better.”
    “Sure,” Shepherd nodded. “Give me a
call.”
    “Maybe I’ll do that,” Darling said.
    Adnan, Shepherd noticed, said nothing at
all.
    ***
    DARLING WATCHED THOUGHTFULLY as the door closed
behind Shepherd. He took a last pull on his cigarette and stubbed
it out in a heavy glass ashtray.
    “What do you think?” Adnan asked.
    Darling glanced back at the door through
which Shepherd had just left.
    “About him?” he asked.
    Adnan nodded.
    Darling cocked his head. “I’m not sure.”
    “I am,” Adnan said. “He’s just another one of
the general’s whims. He doesn’t matter.”
    Darling pondered that for a while. He pursed
his lips and let his eyes wander the room.
    “I don’t know about that,” he said
eventually. “I have a feeling he just might matter more than you
think.”

 
     
     
EIGHT
     
    OUTSIDE THE OFFICE was a ceramic-tiled terrace
similar to the one outside the villa where Charlie lived. Shepherd
settled into a green cushioned chair, swung his feet onto an
ottoman, and pulled back the flap of the envelope Adnan had given
him. Before he could take anything out of it, Sally Kitnarok sat
down in the chair next to him.
    “Hello, Jack,” she said. “Over yesterday’s
excitement yet?”
    “Still in recovery.”
    “They say you weren’t hurt.”
    “They’re right, whoever they are.”
    Sally had been married