As he finished his beer, he glanced at the telephone beside the table and, just to be sure, put the phone to his ear. It was dead.
He gave the finger in the direction of the front door, the Border Patrol captain being somewhere the other side of it, and then went into the bedroom, found his toilet kit, and went into the bath and took a long shower and then shaved.
He decided that a second bottle of beer was in order, and wrapped a towel around his waist and went into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. There were three bottles of beer in it.
I’d have sworn there were a half-dozen the first time I was in here.
He took one of the remaining bottles and looked for the opener.
Where did I put the goddamn bottle opener?
He went to the stove to open the bottle using the edge of the stove. When he sort of squatted to see that he would open the bottle and not break its neck, the towel around his waist fell to the ground.
He rather loudly uttered a lengthy vulgar and obscene curse in the Spanish language, then with the heel of his hand knocked the cap neatl
y off the bottle.
He had just put the bottle to his lips when a familiar voice said, “Unless you knew better, you’d never guess that that sewer-mouthed, naked man in dire need of a haircut was a Marine officer, would you, Howard?”
“Oh, I could,” another male voice said. “You can always tell a Naval Aviator by the tiny dick and huge wristwatch.”
Frade snatched the towel from the floor, wrapped it around himself again, and went into the living room. There the mystery of the missing beer bottles was explained, as was the missing bottle opener.
Colonel A. F. Graham, USMCR, was seated in an armchair and holding one of the bottles. Howard Hughes, sitting in a matching armchair across the coffee table from Graham, held another bottle. The opener was on the table between them.
Hughes wore scuffed brown half-Wellington boots, stiffly starched khakis, a crisp white-collared shirt, and an aviator’s leather jacket. Even slumped in the armchair, it was clear that he was a commanding and confident figure: a tall— if somewhat sinewy—ruggedly handsome man with slicked-back black hair and deeply intelligent eyes.
“How goes it, Clete?” Hughes said casually in a clearly obvious but not thick Texas accent. “Long time no see.”
“Hello, Howard,” Frade said, then looked at Graham. “Good evening, sir.”
“I’ll be goddamned,” Hughes said. “He’s so surprised he’s almost polite.”
“I didn’t expect to see you here, Howard.”
“With Alex, you mean?” Hughes asked.
Clete nodded. “Or him, either.”
“I’m the reason you’re here with him,” Hughes said.
“What?”
“Alex was out here about—what, Alex? A year ago?”
“Fourteen, fifteen months,” Graham furnished.
“Doing what?” Frade asked.
“That’s none of your goddamn business, Clete,” Hughes said with a smile. “Particularly since that Border Patrol guy thinks you’re a draft dodger.”
“You heard that?”
“Alex and I were playing house detective in the lobby,” Hughes said, and mimed holding up a newspaper to hide his face. “Anyway, Alex was here a little over a year ago, and I told him I had just thought of something, and asked him if he remembered Cletus Marcus Howell from the trial. . . .”
“I’m afraid to ask, but what trial?”
“Right after my father died, my goddamn relatives were stealing me blind. I was a minor; they had themselves appointed my guardians, and they headed right for the Hughes Tool cash box. Your grandfather saw it, didn’t like it one bit, and neither did A. F. here. So I borrowed from your grandfather the money I needed for lawyers and we went to court. Your grandfather and A. F. told the judge what an all-around solid citizen I was, wise beyond my years, and got me liberated—”