THE COFFEE WAS awful. Worse than awful really, if that was possible. It tasted sour, burned and vinegary.
“How can you drink this stuff?” Tay asked.
“I don’t. I just give it to policemen I’m trying to poison.”
Tay mimed a laugh and glanced around. He and Goh had taken seats at a table far enough away from the few other people in the cafeteria not to be overheard. It looked like that’s what everyone else had done, too. Tay knew he could never even imagine the things that had doubtless been whispered about in this room. And he didn’t even want to try.
Goh tore the end off a packet of sugar and dumped it into his coffee. Tay didn’t think it would help very much, and he watched as Goh gave the cup a quick stir with a plastic spoon, then picked it up and took a hit. To Tay’s surprise, Goh not only swallowed it, he smacked his lips and then drank some more.
Tay didn’t know how Goh could get the stuff down. Maybe working for the Internal Security Department required a stronger stomach than being a policeman. Yes, now that he thought about it, he could see how that well might be.
“So what do you have to tell me?” Tay asked.
“Nope. You first. I bought the coffee.”
“You show me yours and I’ll show you mine?” Tay asked
“But no hands below the waist.”
***
Tay sketched out the basics. He told Goh about the key to the safety deposit box, he told him about the ledger sheets in the box with his father’s initials, and he told him about the picture tying his father to the dead man. He even told Goh who Johnny the Mover was and about his connection to American intelligence a few decades back. But he didn’t tell Goh how he knew that, and he certainly didn’t mention John August. He didn’t tell him about Kang’s conclusion that his father had been a money launderer either. Candor has it limits.
“You have a source in the CIA,” Goh said as soon as Tay finished his story.
Tay shrugged.
“I’m not going to ask you who it is. I know you wouldn’t tell me and I don’t blame you. But if you have a source in the CIA, then I’m guessing you probably also know…”
Goh stopped talking and just looked at Tay.
“That blaming JI for the bombings is complete bullshit and you really think it was an act of domestic terrorism?” Tay asked. “Yeah, I heard that somewhere.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“My guess is it’s exactly that simple.”
Goh pursed his lips and thought for a moment.
“And you’ve told this to other people at CID?” he asked when he was apparently done thinking. “Your boss? Your sergeant, maybe?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“To tell you the truth, I’m not entirely sure.”
“Look, Tay, you got to understand that the security of the country may—”
“Spare me, Goh. I’m not trying to save the country. I’m not even sure I care about saving the country. I’m just trying to do my job here and solve a murder case.”
Tay noticed Goh’s scar was less red now than it had been when he had first burst into his office. Maybe that was a good sign. On the other hand, maybe Goh’s body was just too busy fighting off the coffee to deal with anything else.
Goh shifted his weight in the chair. A moment passed, then he folded his arms and leaned forward.
“Congratulations, Tay.”
“For what?”
“It looks to me like you’ve won. You’ve got yourself a chip in the big game now.”
“I don’t want a chip in any game. Big or small.”
“Then what do you want?”
“I just told you. I want to close this murder case. I want to do my job.”
“And that’s it?”
“Well…” Tay made a show of thinking about it. “Maybe world peace and a date with Angelina Jolie, too. But right now I’ll probably settle just for finding the guy who killed Johnny the Mover.”
***
“You want some more coffee?” Goh asked.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Suit yourself,” he said. “I’m getting some.”
“And then what?”
“And then we’ll have a conversation.”
“Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?”
“Well, Tay, the way I see it, on the one hand, there’s talking. And that’s what we’ve been doing. Then, on the other hand, there’s having a conversation. I may regret it later, but I think we ought to try that, too.”
“In that case, you better bring me some more coffee. I’m probably going to need it.”
“There you go. You’re learning, man.”
***
Goh returned and placed a fresh cup of coffee on the table in front of Tay. He dumped three packets of sugar into it, stirred quickly, and sipped cautiously. It tasted exactly the way it had before. This stuff was a black hole of skunkiness. Three packets of sugar in it and they were just gone. The coffee tasted as sour as it had without any sugar in it at all.
“So let me make sure I understand this,” Goh said. “You’re telling me your dead guy was connected to American intelligence.”
“No, I’m telling you I understand he worked for American intelligence once, but that may have been some years back.”
“He worked as a transporter.”
“Yes.”
“But your source told you he’d retired.”
“Yes.”
Goh smiled slightly. “And you believed him.”
Tay said nothing. It had never occurred to him not to believe John August, but suddenly he felt like an idiot. What else was August going to tell him? He certainly wasn’t going to finger Johnny as an intelligence asset now, was he? Certainly not after Johnny had been killed in Singapore on the day the city was blown up. That could have led to some embarrassing questions, like…
What was an American intelligence asset doing dead in Singapore immediately after the bombings? Did him being dead have any connection to the bombings? And, if it did…well, Tay didn’t want to think about where that might lead.
Those were all questions Tay should have asked August, of course. But he had taken August’s information at face value and he hadn’t asked any of them.
Goh must have seen the embarrassment in Tay’s eyes.
“Don’t worry about it. You trust your source. I know how that works. Maybe he was telling you the truth. Why don’t you go back and push him a little?”
“I can’t find him.”
Tay could see Goh didn’t like the sound of that, so he changed the subject as quickly as he could.
“You know where to find your spook pal Ferrero,” Tay pointed out. “Why don’t you ask him if Johnny was still connected when he was killed?”
Goh shook his head. “Vince isn’t CIA.”
“But you said—”
“I told you Vince was with the American embassy. And I could see your lip curl when I said it.”
“Because that’s a common expression for—”
“Yeah, it’s a common expression for the local Agency guys. That’s why I used it.”
“You thought it would impress me.”
“I thought it would shut you up. Little did I know.”
“So who is Ferrero, really?”
“Vince is a contractor. He’s strictly private enterprise.”
“But he was CIA once?”
“I’ve always assumed he was, but I don’t know that for a fact. He’s been private as long as I’ve known him. Probably a lot longer.”
“What does he do?”
“Support and logistics stuff. Nothing very sexy really.”
“Who does he work for?”
Goh hesitated. “I can’t tell you that, Tay.”
“Why not?”
“Well…I’m not absolutely sure, to be honest, but it’s restricted information.”
“You and I are on the same side.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’re still just—”
Goh suddenly realized what he was about to say and abruptly stopped talking.
“Just a policeman? Is that what you were going to say, Goh? That I’m just a cop?”
Goh looked for a moment like he was about to claim he wasn’t going to say anything of the sort, but then he shrugged.
“I didn’t mean anything by it, Tay. I meant you’re not ISD and the details of the people we work with are internally restricted. I don’t make the rules.”
“But you break them when you feel like it.”
Goh shrugged again, but he didn’t say anything else.