Memory and Desire by Philip Caputo

Author:Philip Caputo
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781956763812
Publisher: Arcade
Published: 2023-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

19

He met Edith in the rooftop bar at La Concha, at one time the tallest hotel on the island—five stories—and now that it had been rehabbed and renamed La Concha Hotel and Spa, it was among the most expensive. Dressed in Neiman Marcus resort wear, she sat in a deep wicker chair, sipping a fourteen-dollar martini while munching an eighteen-dollar crab cake salad. Her tastes in lodging, food, and drink occasioned a lecture from her managing editor, who’d ordered a beer: the grand old days were gone, the Examiner was trimming costs wherever possible, and he and Nick Ortega were struggling, against pressure from above, to hold onto their best staffers. Edith would do well not to submit an expense report for this excursion and absorb the costs herself.

“I did get a senior discount,” she huffed. “Turned sixty-two this week.”

“Happy birthday. Then it won’t hurt your pocketbook too much.”

“Christ, when did you become a bean-counter?”

Tired and sunburned from the day’s fishing, Luke was a little irritable; it was an effort to restrain himself from telling her that the bean-counters, right up to the chief beans, the Ritters, had their parsimonious eyes on her as a prime candidate for forced retirement.

“You don’t want certain people to think you’re a luxury they can’t afford,” he said, putting the idea across in general terms. “I’m not one of them, but you get the point.”

Holding her glass by the stem, Edith raised it to acknowledge that she did. “Not to intrude on your holiday, but I thought you might like an update.” She turned her head slightly, appearing to take in the technicolor sunset. “Incroce losing his appeal was a setback. But the ruling was on narrow grounds, it just denied the merits of the appeal, it didn’t rule on who holds title to Astoria, Incroce or the federal government. So what’s his next move? He needs to clear title. How does he do it? If he’s successful, full speed ahead.”

“A big if.”

“Maybe not too big,” Edith said. She plucked a martini olive off the stick with her teeth and gulped it down. “He’s got a few things going for him. His family has paid property taxes on Astoria ever since his daddy won it in the poker game, and a while back, the US paid lease fees to him to use the island for training Navy SEALs. His argument will be that the feds, in effect, relinquished their claim on that basis alone. He’s got other arguments on legislation called the Submerged Lands Act, the Quiet Title Act, et cetera, et cetera. Dry stuff, if you want to hear it.”

“Spare me,” said Luke. “Remember I mentioned—when we had lunch at Joe’s—that without the money-laundering connection all you’ve got is a story about one more sleazy Florida land deal.”

“Remember it clear as glass,” she said, and lowered her voice. “I’ve got sources who tell me, yeah, Oceanaire scrubs dollars for the Colombians and is invested in Incroce’s company. What I don’t have are names and documented proof.

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