Cinnamon Skin Read Online Free PDF Page B

silence, leafed through page after page, his forehead furrowed. It is a tiresome device.
    "What is your source of income, Dr. Meyer?" "Please, I do not like doctor used as a form of address except for brain surgeons and such. I am used to being called Meyer. My income comes from lecturing, from consultant work, and from dividends, interest, and capital gains from my investments." He snapped his ferret head around to stare at me from those two pale close-together eyes. "And you, sir?"
    "Me what?"
    "What is your source of income?"
    "A little of this and a little of that."
    "Impertinence makes me uncomfortable, MeGee."
    "Me too, Service."
    Housell broke in. "Please, let me explain what he's trying to establish-"
    "Damn it, I'll ask my own questions!"
    "After I explain the background. Two organizations in Washington have contacts within the underground groups in Chile, with information contacts arranged through our embassy. The regime has an information network as well. Mr. Service here spent most of yesterday and yesterday evening drawing a complete and total blank not only on the so-called Liberation Army of the Chilean People but on any antipathy toward any economist who attended the Santiago conference three years ago. Things have quieted down a great deal there. There has been enough economic progress to make people look with more favor on the generals. Within the context of everything those groups know, the attack upon Dr. Meyer here is incomprehensible to them. And so the-"
    "I'll take it," Service said. "The way we see it, that phone call claiming responsibility was a cover story, intended to mislead. It is far more likely that the explosion was connected to the drug traffic that has proliferated along the Florida coast."
    Meyer set his coffee aside and stared at the man. "Drug traffic!" he said incredulously. "Drug traffic! My niece was a respected geologist who worked for-"
    "Don't get agitated. She checked out clean as a whistle. We are wondering about her husband"-he turned a page in his notebook and read off the names-"Evan Lawrence, and the boat captain, Dennis Hackney Jenkins, a.k.a. Hacksaw Jenkins."
    "Not likely in either case," I said. "Evan Lawrence came over here with his wife from Houston because she wanted to have him meet her uncle, her only living blood relation. Hacksaw was a successful charterboat captain. He had a long list of people who wouldn't fish with anybody else. He had a talent for finding fish. He kept that fishing machine of his in fine shape at all times. He was booked solid every season at premium rates. Once upon a time he was a professional wrestler. Once upon a time he spent a year in a county jail. He was raised down in the Keys. There are dozens and dozens of Jenkinses there, all related to him. He settled down when he met Gloria. He was fifty a couple of months ago. I went to the birthday party. They have three sons. The youngest is fifteen. Neither Hack nor the kids would be into drugs in any way, shape, or form."
    The ferret looked bleakly at me. "We'll check all that out, of course."
    The big florid staff person said, "Please forgive my temporary associate here. He has an unfortunate manner."
    "I'm here to do my job," Service said, "not beat the bushes for votes."
    "Do it elsewhere," Meyer said.
    They both looked at him. "What was that?" Service asked.
    "That was the end of cooperation. No more questions and no more answers. End of interview. Leave."
    "I know all about you high-level experts," Service said angrily. "Next time you come sucking around the government for a consultant contract, maybe you'll find-"
    Housell stood up abruptly. "Come on, Rowland, for God's sake. You're acting like a jackass."
    "And you don't know the first thing about interrogation!" Service yelled.
    Housell led him off, still protesting, and turned to smile apologetically at us. The door closed. The bell bonged as they stepped on the mat at the head of my little gangway to the dock. Meyer went over to the