The Testament, Page 24

  million for Snead seemed such a reasonable sum.

  ________

  JEVY AND Nate limped to the trading post early in the afternoon. The outboard was missing badly and low on gas. Fernando, the owner of the store, was in a hammock on the porch, trying to avoid the scorching sun. He was an old man, a rugged veteran of the river who’d known Jevy’s father.

  Both men helped Nate from the boat. He was burning with fever again. His legs were numb and weak, and the three of them inched carefully along the narrow pier and up the steps to the porch. When they folded him into the hammock, Jevy delivered a quick review of the past week. Fernando missed nothing on the river.

  “The Santa Loura sank,” he said. “There was a big storm.”

  “Have you seen Welly?” Jevy asked.

  “Yes. He was pulled from the river by a cattle boat. They stopped here. He told me the story. I’m sure he’s in Corumbá.”

  Jevy was relieved to hear that Welly was alive. The loss of the boat, however, was tragic news. The Santa Loura was one of the finer boats in the Pantanal. It went down under his watch.

  Fernando was studying Nate as they talked. Nate could barely hear their words. He certainly couldn’t understand them. Not that he cared.

  “This is not malaria,” Fernando said, touching the rash on Nate’s neck. Jevy moved to the hammock and looked at his friend. His hair was matted and wet, his eyes still swollen shut.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “Malaria doesn’t produce a rash like this. Dengue does.”

  “Dengue fever?”

  “Yes. It’s similar to malaria—fever and chills, sore muscles and joints, spread by mosquitoes. But the rash means it’s dengue.”

  “My father had it once. He was a very sick man.”

  “You need to get him to Corumbá, as quickly as possible.”

  “Can I borrow your motor?”

  Fernando’s boat was docked under the rickety building. His outboard wasn’t as rusty as Jevy’s, and it had five more horsepower. They scurried around, swapping motors and filling tanks, and after an hour in the hammock, comatose, poor Nate was shuffled back down the pier and laid into the boat under the tent. He was too sick to realize what was happening.

  It was almost two-thirty. Corumbá was nine to ten hours away. Jevy left Valdir’s phone number with Fernando. On rare occasions a boat on the Paraguay would have a radio. If Fernando happened to encounter one, Jevy wanted him to contact Valdir with the news.

  He sped away at full throttle, quite proud to once again have a boat that sliced through the water with speed. The wake boiled behind him.

  Dengue fever could be fatal. His father had been deathly ill for a week, with blinding headaches and fevers. His eyes hurt so badly that his mother kept him in a dark room for days. He was a tough river man, accustomed to injuries and pain, and when Jevy heard him moaning like a child he knew his father was dying. The doctor visited every other day, and finally the fever broke.

  He could see Nate’s feet from under the tent, nothing else. Surely he wouldn’t die.

  THIRTY-THREE

  _____________

  HE WOKE once, but couldn’t see. He woke again and it was dark. He tried to say something to Jevy about water, just a small drink, and maybe a bite of bread. But his voice was gone. Speaking required effort and movement, especially when trying to yell over the howl of the engine. His joints pulled him tightly into a knot. He was welded to the aluminum shell of the boat.

  Rachel lay beside him under the smelly tent, her knees also pulled close and just touching his, same as when they sat together on the ground in front of her hut, and later on the bench under the tree by the river. A cautious little contact from a woman starved for the innocent feeling of flesh. She had lived among the Ipicas for eleven years, and their nakedness kept a distance between themselves and any civilized person. A simple hug was complicated. Where do you hold? Where do you pat? How long do you squeeze? Surely she’d never touched any of the males.

  He wanted to kiss her, if only on the cheek, because she had obviously gone years without such affection. “When was your last kiss, Rachel?” he wanted to ask her. “You’ve been in love. How physical was it?”

  But he kept his questions to himself, and instead they talked about people they didn’t know. She’d had a piano teacher whose breath was so bad the ivory keys turned yellow. He’d had a lacrosse coach who was paralyzed from the waist down because he cracked his spine in a lacrosse game. A girl in her church got pregnant, and her father condemned her from the pulpit. She killed herself a week later. He’d lost a brother to leukemia.

  He rubbed her knees and she seemed to like it. But he would go no further. It wouldn’t pay to get fresh with a missionary.

  She was there to keep him from dying. She’d fought malaria twice herself. The fevers rise and fall, the chills hit like ice in the belly, then fade away. The nausea comes in waves. Then there is nothing for hours. She patted his arm and promised he was not going to die. She tells everybody this, he thought. Death would be welcome.

  The touching stopped. He opened his eyes and reached for Rachel, but she was gone.

  ________

  JEVY HEARD the delirium twice. Each time he stopped the boat and pulled the tent off Nate. He forced water into his mouth, and poured it gently through his sweating hair.

  “We’re almost there,” he said over and over. “Almost there.”

  The first lights of Corumbá brought tears to his eyes. He had seen them many times when returning from excursions into the northern Pantanal, but they had never been so welcome. They flickered on the hill in the distance. He counted them until they blurred together.

  It was almost 11 P.M. when he jumped into the shallow water and pulled his rig onto the broken concrete. The boat dock was deserted. He ran up the hill to a pay phone.

  ________

  VALDIR WAS watching television in his pajamas, smoking his last cigarette of the night and ignoring his cranky wife, when the phone rang. He answered it without getting up, then jumped to his feet.

  “What is it?” she asked, as he ran to the bedroom.

  “Jevy’s back,” he answered over his shoulder.

  “Who’s Jevy?”

  Passing by her on the way out, he said, “I’m going to the river.” She couldn’t have cared less.

  Driving across the city, he called a doctor friend, who had just gone to bed, and cajoled him into meeting them at the hospital.

  Jevy was pacing along the dock. The American was sitting on a rock, his head resting on his knees. Without a word, they gently shuffled him into the backseat, and took off, gravel flying behind them.

  Valdir had so many questions he didn’t know where to start. The harsh words could wait. “When did he get sick?” he asked in Portuguese. Jevy sat next to him, rubbing his eyes, trying to stay awake. His last sleep had been with the Indians. “I don’t know,” he said. “The days all run together. It’s dengue fever. The rash comes on the fourth or fifth day, and I think he’s had it for two days. I don’t know.”

  They were racing through downtown, ignoring lights and signs. The sidewalk cafés were closing. There was little traffic.

  “Did you find the woman?”

  “We did.”

  “Where?”

  “She’s close to the mountains. I think she’s in Bolivia. A day south of Porto Indio.”

  “Was she on the map?”

  “No.”

  “Then how did you find her?”

  No Brazilian could ever admit to being lost, especially a seasoned guide like Jevy. It would hurt his self-esteem, and perhaps his business. “We were in a flooded region where maps mean nothing. I found a fisherman who helped us. How’s Welly?”

  “Welly’s fine. The boat’s gone.” Valdir was much more concerned about the boat than about its deckhand.

  “I’ve never seen such storms. We’ve been hit with three of them.”

  “What did the woman say?”

 
; “I don’t know. I didn’t really talk to her.”

  “Was she surprised to see you?”

  “She didn’t seem to be. She was pretty cool. I think she liked our friend back there.”

  “How did their meeting go?”

  “Ask him.”

  Nate was curled tightly in the backseat, hearing nothing. And Jevy was supposed to know nothing, so Valdir didn’t press. The lawyers could talk later, as soon as Nate was able.

  A wheelchair was waiting at the curb when they arrived at the hospital. They poured Nate into it, and followed the orderly along the sidewalk. The air was warm and sticky, still very hot. On the front steps, a dozen maids and assistants in white uniforms smoked cigarettes and chatted quietly. The hospital had no air conditioning.

  The doctor friend was brusque and all business. The paperwork would be done in the morning. They pushed Nate through the empty lobby, along a series of hallways and into a small exam room where a sleepy nurse took him. With Jevy and Valdir watching in a corner, the doctor and nurse stripped the patient bare. The nurse washed him with alcohol and white cloths. The doctor studied the rash, which began at his chin and stopped at his waist. He was covered with mosquito bites, many of which he’d scratched into little red sores. They checked his temperature, blood pressure, heart rate.

  “Looks like dengue fever,” the doctor said after ten minutes. He then rattled off a list of details for the nurse, who hardly listened because she’d done it before. She began washing Nate’s hair.

  Nate mumbled something, but it had nothing to do with anyone present. His eyes were still swollen shut; he hadn’t shaved in a week. He would’ve been at home in a gutter outside a bar.

  “The fever is high,” the doctor said. “He’s delirious. We’ll start an IV with antibiotics and painkillers, lots of water, maybe a little food later.”

  The nurse placed a heavy gauze bandage over Nate’s eyes, then strapped it down with tape from ear to ear. She found a vein and started the IV. She pulled a yellow gown from a drawer and dressed him.

  The doctor checked his temperature again. “It should begin falling soon,” he told the nurse. “If not, call me at home.” He glanced at his watch.

  “Thanks,” Valdir said.

  “I’ll see him early in the morning,” the doctor said, and left them there.

  Jevy lived on the edge of town, where the houses were small, the streets unpaved. He fell asleep twice as Valdir drove him home.

  ________

  MRS. STAFFORD was shopping for antiques in London. The phone rang a dozen times before Josh grabbed it. The digital gave the time as 2:20 A.M.

  “This is Valdir,” the voice announced.

  “Oh yes, Valdir.” Josh rubbed his hair and blinked his eyes. “This better be good.”

  “Your boy is back.”

  “Thank God.”

  “He’s very sick, though.”

  “What! What’s the matter with him?”

  “He has dengue fever, similar to malaria. Mosquitoes carry it. It is not uncommon here.”

  “I thought he had shots for everything.” Josh was on his feet, bent at the waist, pulling his hair now.

  “There is no shot for dengue.”

  “He’s not going to die, is he?”

  “Oh no. He’s in the hospital. I have a good friend who is a doctor, and he’s taking care of him. He says your boy will be fine.”

  “When can I talk to him?”

  “Maybe tomorrow. He has a high fever and he’s unconscious.”

  “Did he find the woman?”

  “Yes.”

  Atta boy, thought Josh. He exhaled in relief and sat on the bed. So she’s really out there. “Give me his room number.”

  “Well, they don’t have phones in the rooms.”

  “It’s a private room, isn’t it? Come on, Valdir, money is no problem here. Tell me he’s being taken care of.”

  “He is in good hands. But the hospital is a little different from yours.”

  “Should I come down there?”

  “If you wish. It’s not necessary. You can’t change the hospital. He has a good doctor.”

  “How long will he be there?”

  “A few days. We should know more in the morning.”

  “Call me early, Valdir. I mean it. I have to talk to him as soon as possible.”

  “Yes, I will call early.”

  Josh went to the kitchen for ice water. Then he paced around his den. At three, he gave up, made a pot of strong coffee, and went to his office in the basement.

  ________

  BECAUSE HE was a rich American, they cut no corners. Nate got pumped into his veins the best drugs available from the pharmacy. The fever dipped a little, the sweating stopped. The pain vanished, washed away by a tide of the finest American-made chemicals. He was snoring heavily as the nurse and an orderly rolled him to his room, two hours after his arrival.

  He would share the room for the night with five others. Mercifully, he was blindfolded and comatose. He couldn’t see the open sores, the uncontrolled shaking of the old man next to him, the lifeless shriveled creature across the room. He couldn’t smell the waste.

  THIRTY-FOUR

  _____________

  THOUGH HE held no assets in his own name, and had been on the financial ropes for most of his adult life, Rex Phelan had a talent for numbers. It was one of the very few things he inherited from his father. He was the only Phelan heir with both the aptitude and the stamina to read all six of the petitions contesting Troy’s will. When he finished, he realized that six law firms were basically duplicating each other’s work. In fact, some of the legalese sounded as if it had been borrowed from the last petition, or the next one.

  Six firms fighting the same fight, and each wanting an exorbitant piece of the pie. It was time for a little familial harmony. He decided to begin with his brother TJ, who was the easiest target because his lawyers were clinging to their ethics.

  The two brothers agreed to meet in secret; their wives hated each other and discord could be avoided if the women simply didn’t know. Rex told Troy Junior on the phone that it was time to bury the hatchet. Economics demanded it.

  They met for breakfast in a suburban pancake house, and after a few minutes of waffles and football talk the edge was off. Rex got down to business by telling the Snead story. “This is enormous,” he gushed. “It could literally make or break our case.” He layered the story, slowing building to the promissory note the lawyers wanted to sign, all lawyers except for Troy Junior’s. “Your attorneys are screwing up the deal,” he said grimly, eyes darting around as if spies were grazing at the egg and bacon bar.

  “Son of a bitch wants five million?” Troy Junior said, still in disbelief over Snead.

  “It’s a bargain. Look, he’s willing to say he was the only person with Dad when he wrote the will. Whatever it takes to strike it down. He only wants half a million now. We can screw him out of the rest of it later.”

  This appealed to Troy Junior. And changing law firms was certainly nothing new to him. If he’d been candid, he would have admitted that Hemba and Hamilton’s firm was intimidating. Four hundred lawyers. Marble foyers. Art on the wall. Somebody was paying for their good taste.

  Rex switched gears. “Have you read the six petitions?” he asked.

  Troy Junior chomped a strawberry and shook his head no. He hadn’t even read the one filed on his behalf. Hemba and Hamilton had discussed it with him, and he’d signed it, but it was thick and Biff had been waiting in the car.

  “Well, I’ve read them, slowly and carefully, and they’re all the same. We have six law firms doing the same work, all attacking the same will. It’s absurd.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” Troy Junior added helpfully.

  “And all six expect to get rich when we settle. How much are your boys getting?”

  “How much is Hark Gettys getting?”

  “Twenty-five percent.”

  “Mine wanted thirty. We agreed o
n twenty.” There was a quick flash of pride because Troy Junior had outnegotiated Rex.

  “Let’s play with the numbers,” Rex continued. “Hypothetically, let’s say we hire Snead, he says all the right things, we got our shrinks, the mess gets stirred up, and the estate wants to settle. Let’s say each heir gets, I don’t know, say twenty million. That’s forty at this table. Five goes to Hark. Four goes to your boys. That’s nine, so we get thirty-one.”

  “I’ll take it.”

  “Me too. But if we take your boys out of the picture, and join up, then Hark will cut his fee. We don’t need all these lawyers, TJ. They’re just riding each other’s backs and waiting to pounce on our money.”

  “I hate Hark Gettys.”

  “Fine. Let me deal with him. I’m not asking you to be friends.”

  “Why don’t we fire Hark and stick with my guys?”

  “Because Hark found Snead. Because Hark found the bank that’ll loan the money to buy Snead. Because Hark is willing to sign the papers and your boys are too ethical. This is a nasty business, TJ. Hark understands it.”

  “He strikes me as being a crooked bastard.”

  “Yes! And he’s our crook. If we join forces, his take goes from twenty-five to twenty. If we can bring in Mary Ross, then he’ll cut it to seventeen-five. Libbigail, down to fifteen.”

  “We’ll never get Libbigail.”

  “There’s always a chance. If the three of us are on board, she might listen.”

  “What about that thug she’s married to?” Troy Junior actually asked the question with complete sincerity. He was talking to his brother, who was married to a stripper.

  “We’ll take ’em one at a time. Let’s cut our deal, then we go see Mary Ross. Her lawyer is that Grit guy, and he doesn’t strike me as being too sharp.”

  “There’s no sense fighting,” Troy Junior said sadly.

  “It’ll cost us a bloody fortune. It’s time for a truce.”

  “Mom will be proud.”

  ________

  THE HIGH ground on the Xeco had been used by the Indians for decades. It was a camp for fishermen who sometimes stayed the night, and it was a stopping place for river traffic. Rachel and Lako, and another tribesman named Ten, huddled under a lean-to with a straw roof and waited for the storm to pass. The roof