Seductive Poison (42 page)

I hastily signed my name and handed the pen to Dan, wondering if he would protect me and keep my secret.

“Excellent. Let me show this to the ambassador and you’ll be on your way.” He disappeared behind the door and Daniel came back in.

“Thought you could use a drink.” He smiled warmly, offering me an orange juice.

“What is the consul doing with the ambassador?” I asked.

“Your statement is the first corroboration we’ve had regarding the serious situation in Jonestown.”

“How long will he be? I need to run to Pan Am and pick up the ticket my sister has waiting for me there.”

“Just finish filling out your passport information so it can be typed onto your passport.”

“But, Dan, I also have to have tax clearance to get out of the country. I mentioned it to the consul as well. I’ve been here over five months and the limit is three.”

The consul returned, his face flushed. I again explained that I couldn’t leave the country without tax clearance. “I arranged it for Carolyn Layton a few weeks ago. They will not let me out of the country without it.”

“Now there. There’s no need for you to worry about that. This is an emergency passport. You needn’t bother with it.”

“Please, get it for me? I have to have this stamped.”

The consul, vice consul, and I made our final plans. I explained that it was too dangerous for us to make contact after this meeting. I would be at the Pegasus Hotel at 8:30
P.M.
and Dan would drive me to the airport. I explained that I would not be able to call or to be called, nor would I know exactly how, or when, I would be able to get away. But whatever happened, no matter how late, he was not to leave the Pegasus without me. The trip to the airport would take almost two hours. The consul handed me the passport.

“No! I cannot have that on me. It’s too dangerous.” I was shocked. Didn’t he get it? “They might find it. Dan? Will you keep it till tonight? In fact, I’ll drop my ticket on your desk. You’ll have both when I meet you tonight.”

I called Beth from the consul’s phone.

“The meeting’s at two.”

“Are you coming home first?”

“Well … no, I’ll wait here for you.”

“You okay? I’ll hurry and wait with you.”

I looked at Dan in a panic. “She’s on her way!” I rushed out of the building to Pan Am’s office a couple of blocks away. I stopped outside the thick glass doors, wiped the sweat from my neck, and bent down, pretending to fix my shoe. Looking around, I concluded that no one had followed me.

I pushed the doors open and felt suddenly refreshed by the cold air on my drenched skin. A young man sauntered over to the desk.

“Can I help you?”

“My sister has a prepaid ticket waiting for me here. It’s for tonight at eleven fifty-five
P.M.
” The young man asked my name, fiddled
with his terminal, and walked over to another agent. They talked for a while, then went to another terminal and again began fiddling with a keyboard. Then they both approached me.

“Sorry, miss. There is no such thing here.”

“Of course there is,” I assured them. “My sister made all the arrangements weeks ago. The ticket is here! It’s waiting for me! It’s all set up!” My eyes blurred. “You have to find it! I gotta be on that flight!” I wiped at my eyes to stop the tears.

“I’m not sure how we can …”

“Please
… Call my sister.” I was pleading. “Here’s the number. Help me, please! I can’t wait.” The agents looked bewildered. I had to get out of there. Beth could walk by at any moment. I turned to leave.

“But how will we get in touch with you?”

I called back through the closing door. “Call the American ambassador!” Jesus … Now what?

I began to sweat through my shirt. I rushed back to the embassy and headed straight for the bathroom to rinse off.

As I stepped out of the bathroom, Dan walked by me and smiled.

“Did you get it?”

I was about to tell him when I glimpsed Beth’s sandals behind Dan’s pant leg.

“We’ll see you later,” I said nonchalantly to Dan, as he proceeded toward his office.

“Hello, Debbie.” Beth was sweating, and out of breath.

“Beth … Wow, you got here fast!”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t want you left here alone. Jim was a little miffed with me for endangering your safety by letting you come alone to set everything up.” Did he already know? Had someone told him?

“Well, nothing to worry about. No one’s accosted me.”

“You look really stressed.”

“Really? No, just hot.”

“It’s cold in here. Do you have it in your satchel?”

“Yeah.”

“Let me test it once more in the bathroom, make sure the volume is high enough.” I handed her the bag, relieved that I refused the passport. With Beth in the bathroom, I quickly ran to Dan’s office to tell him about my ticket problem. The office was empty.

“Debbie?” Beth was standing in front of me. “What’re you doing?”

“Looking to see where the consul is. He should be here by now.”

“He’s got five minutes.” She looked flustered, concerned about my behavior.

Just as we entered the consul’s office, I glimpsed Dan’s return. I suddenly grew desperately cold. The consul was behaving differently, unfriendly, strange, and reserved. He acted as if he knew something. Was he going to give it away? He didn’t look in my direction, only at Beth. There was a long moment of silence and I nervously began to talk. He interrupted me.

“I know why you’re here, and I’m not going to repeat what you want to hear,” the consul said. Dear God, I had entrusted myself to an idiot!!! “What I said was said only in jest.” He was staring directly at the satchel on Beth’s lap. His actions broadcast the possibility of my having snitched. The meeting was coming to a frightfully abrupt ending and I still hadn’t talked to Dan. I excused myself. “May I use the rest room?” The ploy was extremely stupid and dangerous, but I had no other choice. Beth scowled at me in disbelief as I closed the door behind me.

“Daaan?” I whispered into his office.

“Debbie!!” He jumped.

“Something went wrong at Pan Am. My ticket isn’t there. Please … help me!” I turned and rushed back to the consul’s office. Beth was standing and ready to leave. We offered our hands to shake and left the building.

Outside, Beth stopped and looked directly into my eyes. “Do you believe that? He knew why we were coming. He’s broken our code and listened to our transmissions. He’s CIA. They knew. Say, what was that all about anyway? Asking to use the bathroom. Your period start?”

“Uh-huh.”

“We gotta tell Jim our codes have been compromised.”

Having finished her transmission with Jonestown, Beth ran up the stairs and plunked herself down on the couch next to me.

“You lazy thing. How come you didn’t get on the radio with me just now?” She hugged me. “You were so silly today! Tonight, are you working on the report for Dad?”

“Yeah, I guess. Why?”

“Let’s work on it together. Maybe do it outside where Karen can’t bug us. I got us a Coca-Cola …”

Suddenly, a male voice bellowed out from the floor below. Beth and I walked to the stairs and down a couple of steps. Jack was standing outside the radio room’s door.

“What’s going on, Debs?” Jack yelled. “The embassy just called and left a message for you.”

Beth looked at me quizzically. Oh my God. Now he had really blown it.

“What?”

“Yeah. He said that you’d left some documents there and you should pick them up from Dan Weber tomorrow.” Tomorrow?

Beth turned her head toward me. “Why would he call here?”

“Something’s wrong with him.” I looked at her. “We didn’t leave anything there.”

“Deb, the guy’s up to something,” Beth announced.

She continued down the stairs while I desperately tried to think clearly. I will bolt from here when Jack tries to grab me, I thought to myself. I’ll run over there, jump the fence, and …

Now several more people were standing at the radio room listening and wondering what the covert message could have meant.

“The guy’s an idiot.” I rolled my eyes, continuing to calculate the distance from here to the road.

“No, Debbie. He specifically said you left something in his office,” Jack remained firm. He had come in from Jonestown yesterday with Beth. One of Jim’s oldest cronies, he’d traveled out West with his family in the sixties. Big, powerful, and deadly serious, he continued to grill me.

“Tell us, Debbie. What was it you left with him?”

With my heart racing, I shrugged, trying to look nonchalant.

“Was it … your panties?”

Everyone started to laugh. I felt the heat in my face as though I’d turned crimson.

“Sure, Jack. Just like I was assigned to do.” I smirked and turned to go back upstairs.

“Maybe he’ll wash ’em for you.”

Relieved, everyone moved back away from the radio room and into the crevices they’d crawled out from. My hands were shaking so severely I folded my arms. I was afraid my body’s involuntary reactions would be the death of me.

“What do you think he’s trying to get at?” Beth wondered aloud.

“Damned if I know … or even care.” I headed down the hallway and closed the bedroom door behind me. I was so afraid and
angry. Why was he risking everything? What was he trying to get at? What was the message he’d risked my safety for? The plan must have been changed to tomorrow. I had to get to a phone. I jumped at a knock on the door. I was edgy and wanted to cry. I had to get my composure.

“Come on,” Bobby called. “We’re supposed to be gone now. Dad asked us to go back out and procure another hundred dollars this evening. Let’s go.”

“Me? Bobby, I just got back from the embassy and I have to write up my impressions for Jim.”

“Karen scheduled you. It’s on the calendar. And she just snagged Beth for some project, too.”

I put on Sharon’s spaghetti-strap summer dress and sandals, and headed back out with Bobby into the hot and dirty streets of the capital. Two hours later, Bobby and I were still asking Guyanese citizens for their hard-earned money for our agricultural project and I was becoming increasingly anxious. I had to get to a phone. What was the consul trying to tell me?

Bobby stopped a well-dressed black gentleman walking out from a run-down neighborhood. “Please, will you contribute to the Jonestown Agricultural Project by donating a dollar? It is well spent on medicines to better the lives of the Amerindians in the jungle.”

The man looked vaguely familiar, like the old man at the hotel phone banks who warned me of a “storm coming.” As we waited, he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out his wallet, leafed through several bills, and handed one to me.

“Take this, children, and go home. It’s a dangerous neighborhood to be begging in,” he cautioned, then crossed the street and disappeared into the marketplace. Bobby grabbed the bill from my hand and unraveled it.

“Holy shit, Debbie, it’s a hundred-dollar bill! We’ve made our goal and it’s only seven o’clock! Let’s go home!”

I snatched the bill back from Bobby and we headed home.

16
No Place to Hide

At 7:20
P.M.
I stepped into the shower. The water was cold. I quickly washed my hair and scrubbed the dust and grime from my legs. I changed into a clean pair of shorts and tank top, and put the money we had procured back into my pocket for accounting later that night.

Already at the kitchen table, Beth was eating curried rice and talking to Karen. I walked calmly by them and stepped into the pantry. I reached for the last bottle of Johnnie Walker Red and pulled it down from the shelf.

“Whatcha doin?” Beth sang to me.

“Jim asked me to give a bottle of whiskey to Dr. DeCosta as a thank-you for coming to Jonestown and giving free dental care last month,” I lied.

“Tonight?”

“I should have done it earlier and was too busy. I thought I’d go now and drop it off.”

“You can’t go now. It’s seven forty-five and we’re leaving at eight-thirty to meet the new arrivals at the airport.”

“Tonight? I didn’t realize more folks would be coming tonight.”

“Debbie, what is with you? You set it up. Are you going nuts? Maybe you did leave something with the consul—your sanity.”

“Ha, ha. Very funny, Beth.”

“I don’t remember his asking us to deliver anything.”

“Well, Miss Perfect. It was last week. Before you got here. Anyway, I was too busy.”

“I’ll go with you.”

“Oh, Beth, I’ll be two minutes.” She was too close.

“Debbie, I don’t think it’s a good idea to go tonight,” Karen interjected.

“Jim asked me to and Dr. DeCosta is expecting me.”

“Where did you see him?” Beth asked.

“This morning when I was making arrangements,” I lied.

“You can’t go alone. I’ll go with you,” Karen insisted.

“Fine, if you want to.”

“No, Karen. Debbie doesn’t need you. Please stay and help me with this report for Jim. He wants it before midnight,” Beth pleaded. “She was able to handle the embassy all by herself. And Dr. DeCosta is an important person for us.”

Karen finally acquiesced. I had to wait until eight-fifty before I could climb into the van with the airport Welcoming Committee. The vehicle had been cleared of all the crates filled with necessities for Jonestown we’d received the day before: mothballs used for keeping the hundreds of thousands of dollars in currency stored in Jonestown from mildewing, soaps, clothes, boots, batteries, antifungal medications, and agricultural tools. I wondered if the crates contained guns hidden in the false bottoms. Bobby had swept the van clean for the newcomers we were expecting. Finally, five blocks from our home, I was dropped off, alone, at the home of Dr. DeCosta.