"Smith, Martin Cruz - Havana Bay" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Martin Cruz)

HAVANA BAY

BY

Martin Cruz Smith

Author's Note

Although this novel is set in Havana, Cuba, the characters and dialogue are products of the author's imagination and do not portray actual persons or events. Any resemblance to living people is entirely coincidental.



for Em



Acknowledgments

I would like to thank, in Cuba, the writers Jose LaTour, Daniel Chavarria and Arnaldo Correa; in Spain, Justo Vasco; in Russia, Konstantin Zhukovski of Tass. They are in no way responsible for any political opinions expressed in this book.

In the United States I was aided by the medical knowledge of Drs. Neil Benowitz, Nelson Branco, Mark Levy and Kenneth Sack, the arson expertise of George Alboff and Larry Williams, the camera of Sam Smith, the lyrics of Regla Miller, the worldly advice of Bill Hanson and the critical reading by Bob Loomis, Nell Branco and Luisa Smith.

Most of all, I owe Knox Burger and Kitty Sprague, who waited for the story.


Chapter One

A police boat directed a light toward tar-covered pilings and water, turning a black scene white. Havana was invisible across the bay, except for a single line of lamps along the seawall. Stars rode high, anchor lights rode low, otherwise the harbor was a still pool in the night.

Soda cans, crab pots, fishing floats, mattresses, Styrofoam bearded with algae shifted as an investigation team of the Policэa de la Revoluciєn took flash shots. Arkady waited in a cashmere overcoat with a Captain Arcos, a barrel-chested little man who looked ironed into military fatigues, and his Sergeant Luna, large, black and angular. Detective Osorio was a small brown woman in PNR blue; she gave Arkady a studied glare.

A Cuban named Rufo was the interpreter from the Russian embassy.

"It's very simple," he translated the captain's words. You see the body, identify the body and then go home."

"Sounds simple."

Arkady tried to be agreeable, although Arcos walked off as if any contact with Russians was contamination.

Osorio combined the sharp features of an ingenue with the grave expression of a hangman. She spoke and Rufo explained, "The detective says this is the Cuban method, not the Russian method or the German method. The Cuban method. You will see. "

Arkady had seen little so far. He had just arrived at the airport in the dark when he was whisked away by Rufo. They were headed by taxi to the city when Rufo received a call on a cellular phone that diverted them to the bay. Already Arkady had a sense that he was unwelcome and unpopular.

Rufo wore a loose Hawaiian shirt and a faint resemblance to the older, softer Muhammad Ali. "; The detective says she hopes you don't mind learning the Cuban method. "

"I'm looking forward to it."

Arkady was nothing if not a good guest.

"Could you ask her when the body was discovered?"