Havana Bay (10 page)

"The numbers are discrepancies in measurement
between the missing man and the skull when they are
exactly matched. So we prove, scientifically, they could
not possibly be the same man."

Bias started over again, this time with photo no. 3, a boy smiling proudly in a Chicago Bulls shirt, one hand
weighing a basketball. Bias sliced off, enlarged and
enhanced the boy's head, then brought up and posi
tioned the skull on the screen. The distances between
marker darts came up virtually the same, and when Bias
merged the two images the numbers ratcheted down to
zero and a single face that was both dead and alive
looked out from the screen. If ever there was a picture
of a ghost this was it.

"Now our missing man is not missing anymore and
you see that even if things are supposed to be impossible
in
Cuba
we do them anyway."

"That's why you wanted a photograph of Pribluda?"

"To make a match to the body we took from the
bay, yes. But the photograph you brought was insuf
ficient and the Russian embassy refuses to provide
another."

There was an expectant wait until Arkady picked up the cue.

"I don't need a diplomatic note to go to the embassy."

Bias acted as if the thought had never occurred to
him.» If you want to. The Revolution always needs volunteers. I can write the embassy address, and any car
on the street will probably take you there for two
dollars. If you have American dollars this is the best
transportation system in the world."

Arkady was awed by the doctor's ability to put a
good gloss on anything. His attention returned to the
screen.» What was the head cut off with?"

"In the Dumpster?" said Bias.» A machete. The
machete cut is a distinct wound. No sawing."

"Did you identify the murderer?"

Osorio said, "Not yet. We will, though."

"How many homicides a year did you say?"

"In
Cuba
? About two hundred," Bias said.

"How many in the heat of passion?"

"Overall, a hundred."

"Of the rest, how many for revenge?"

"Maybe fifty."

"Robbery?"

"Maybe forty."

"Drugs?"

"Five."

"Leaving five. How would you characterize them?"

"Organized crime, without a doubt. Paid murders."

"How organized? What were the weapons in those
cases?"

"Occasionally a handgun. The Taurus from
Brazil
is
popular, but usually machetes, strangling, knives. We
have no real gangs here, nothing like the Mafia."

"Machetes?" To Arkady's ear, that did not have the ring of modern homicide. True, he remembered when any Russian murderer who wiped his knife after slicing
a victim's throat was rated a smooth operator, back in
the curiously innocent days before the worldwide spread
of money transfers and remote-control bombs. Which
left
Cuba
in terms of criminal evolution the equivalent of the
Galapagos Islands
. Suddenly, the Institute de
Medicina Legal was put in perspective.

"We have a ninety-eight percent homicide solution
rate," Bias said.» The best in the world."

"Enjoy it," Arkady said.

 
Chapter Five

The Russian embassy was a thirty-story tower with an
architectural suggestion of squared chest and armored head looming like a monster of stone that had crossed continents, waded through oceans and finally stopped
dead in its tracks ankle-deep among the green palm
trees of Havana. Plate glass shone on its face, but overall
the building stood in its own shroud of shadow and
stillness. Inside, office after office was stripped to bare walls and phone jacks. Ghosts lingered in the bald spots
and stains of hallway runners, in the hazy, unwashed
bottles standing along the walls, in a ventilation system
that spread an ancient reek of cigarettes. From the office of Vice Consul Vitaly Bugai, Arkady looked down at a
world of white-colonnaded mansions, embassies French,
Italian and Vietnamese, their roofs strung with elaborate
radio dipoles and antennae, satellite dishes framed by
gardens of pink hibiscus.

Bugai was a young man with small features squeezed
into the center of a soft face. He wore a silk robe and
Chinese sandals and floated in a liquid atmosphere of
air-conditioning, moving, it seemed to Arkady, by con
tradictory impulses; relief that another Russian national
was not dead and irritation that he would have to deal
with the survivor for another week. He was also, per
haps, a little surprised that any vestige of Russian
authority had been able to defend itself.

"Those houses were all from before the Revolution." Bugai joined Arkady at the window.» They were rich
people. The biggest Cadillac dealership in the world was
in
Havana
. When the Revolution came, the road to the
airport was lined with Cadillacs and Chryslers left
behind. Imagine being a rebel in a free Cadillac."

"I think I've seen some of those cars."

"Still, this is not a Black Hole. A Black Hole would be a posting in
Guyana
or
Suriname
. There's the music,
the beaches, shopping in the
Bahamas
an hour away."
Bugai flashed a golden Rolex on his wrist.»
Havana
's sea
level and for me that's important. Of course, it's no
Buenos Aires
."

"It's not like the old days, either?" Arkady asked.

"Not at all. Between technicians and military support we had twelve thousand Russians here and a diplomatic
staff of another thousand in attaches, deputies, cultural liaisons, KGB, secretaries, clerks, communications,
couriers, security. We had Soviet housing, Soviet schools
and camps for Russian children. Why not? We put
thirty billion rubles into
Cuba
.
Cuba
got from
Russia
more foreign aid per person than any other country in
the world. You have to ask yourself, who did more to
bring down the
Soviet Union
than Fidel?" Bugai caught
Arkady's glance.» Oh, the walls have ears. The Cubans
are excellent at electronic surveillance. We trained
them. The only really safe lines are at the embassy. You
just have to stop worrying. Anyway, now we have a
diplomatic staff of twenty people. This is a ghost ship. Never mind that we drove ourselves into bankruptcy to pay for this floating circus, that our entire system came crumbling down while they danced the salsa. The point
is, relations between us and the Cubans have never been
worse and now you tell me that you can't identify
Pribluda's body?"

"Not conclusively."

"It was conclusive enough for the Cubans. I've talked to a Captain Arcos and he seemed very reasonable, considering he pulled a Russian out of
Havana
Harbor
."

"A dead Russian."

"As I understand it, death was caused by a heart
attack. A tragic but natural event."

"There's nothing natural about Pribluda floating in
the bay."

"With spies these things happen."

"Officially, he was a sugar attache."

"Right. Well, all he had to do was drive around the
island and visit some cane fields and see the Cubans
won't make their sugar quota, because they never have.
As for secret intelligence, the Cuban army is now
moving missiles with oxen instead of trucks, that's all
you need to know about that. The faster we get this
little episode behind us the better."

"There is the other little episode of Rufo and me."

"Well, who knows what you are? We've lost a driver
and an apartment thanks to you."

"I'll stay at Pribluda's. It's empty."

Bugai pursed his lips.» That's not the worst solution.
I intend to keep this problem as far from the embassy
as possible."

Arkady discovered that talking to Bugai was much
like trying to catch a jellyfish; every time he groped for
an answer the vice consul floated out of reach.

"Before the Cubans even found the body someone
here at the embassy knew that Pribluda was in trouble
and sent me a fax. It was unsigned. Who could that
be?"

"I wish I knew."

"You can't find out?"

"I don't have enough staff to investigate my staff."

"Who assigned Rufo to me?"

"The Cuban Ministry of the Interior assigned Rufo
to
us.
Rufo was their man, not ours. There was no one
else on hand when you arrived in the middle of the
night. I didn't know exactly who you were and I still
don't know exactly who you are. Of course, I've called
Moscow
, and perhaps they've heard of you but what
you're really involved in I don't know. Crime is not my
specialty."

"What I'm involved in is identifying Pribluda. The
Cubans asked for photographs of him and wanted to
come to the embassy. You refused."

"Well, this is my field. First, we had no photographs.
Second, the Cubans always use any opportunity to gain access to the embassy and poke around sensitive areas.
It's a state of siege. We were the comrades, now we're
the criminals. Punctured tires in the middle of the
night. Being pulled over for shakedowns when the
police see Russian license plates."

"Like Moscow."

"But in Moscow the government has no control,
that's the difference. I have to say we never had any
trouble with Rufo until you."

"Where's the ambassador?"

"We're between ambassadors."

Arkady reached for a notepad from the desk and
wrote, "Where is the resident intelligence agent Pribluda
reported to?"

"It's no big secret," Bugai said.» The chief of guards
is here, he's just muscle. But the chief of security has
been in Moscow for the past month interviewing for a
position in hotel management, and he made very clear
to me that while he was gone he wanted 'no red flags.'
And as for me, I do not intend to be recalled to Moscow
over a spy who had a heart attack floating around in
the dark."

"When Pribluda communicated with Moscow he
used a secure line?"

"We send encrypted E-mail on a hooded machine that wipes clean, not even a ghost on the hard drive once you delete. But not that many messages are
encrypted. The usual faxes, calls and E-mail are plain
text on ordinary machines, and I would love a shredder that actually worked." Arkady produced the photograph
of the Havana Yacht Club to ask about Pribluda's
Cuban friends, but the vice consul barely glanced.» We
have no Cuban friends. It used to be an event when a
Russian artist visited Havana. People just watch Ameri
can films on television anyway. Fidel steals them and
shows them. It costs him nothing. Some people have
satellite dishes and pick up Miami. And there's Santeria.
He's willing to promote voodoo to entertain the masses.
African superstitions. The longer I'm here the more
African these people get."

Arkady put the Yacht Club away.» The Cubans need
a better picture of Pribluda. The embassy must have a
security photograph of him."

"That would be up to our friend in Moscow. We'll
have to wait until he returns from his job search, and that could be another month."

"A month?"

"Or more."