Read Online Hillerman, Tony by Finding Moon (v4) [html] - Free Book Online

a direct flight and took a roundabout way. All flights have been checked. And there are no flights any longer from Phnom Penh.”
    “You don’t know where she is?” Somehow this didn’t really surprise him. Somehow he’d half expected some awful screwup. It seemed fitting and logical. He just hadn’t allowed himself to think of it.
    Castenada was shaking his head. “Not in Cambodia, we think. And that is the very important thing. Because if she was still in Cambodia it would be very, very complicated. And maybe not in Saigon, which is where she was supposed to be placed on the flight. Thailand closed its border with Cambodia, and Ricky’s people in Bangkok say they don’t believe she came there.”
    “My God!” Moon said. “You’re telling me you really don’t have any idea where the baby is?” His voice was louder than he’d intended.
    “Not yet,” Castenada said.
    “Not yet,” Moon repeated. “When will you know?”
    Castenada’s expression suggested he’d not liked Moon’s tone. He removed his hands from the desktop, leaned back in his chair, and examined Moon over his glasses. “Perhaps never,” he said. “If you wish me to be realistic, perhaps never.”
    “I’m sorry,” Moon said. “I just don’t understand the situation. My mother was too ill to explain anything. I hoped I was just coming to Manila to pick up the girl and take her back to the States. All of this is—”
    “Of course,” Castenada said. “I should have taken time to explain on the telephone.” He explained now, his expression cordial again but still leaning back from the desk. He said Castenada, Blake and Associates represented small international companies, mostly export-import, which operated across the various borders of Southeast Asia. Ricky had retained him first to incorporate R. M. Air in the Republic of the Philippines, then to handle the leasing of property where Ricky intended to establish a repair operation north of Caloocan City, to unravel a misunderstanding with a bonded warehouse in Singapore, and to recover an aircraft impounded by Laos authorities at Vientiane. Castenada delivered this recitation slowly, digressing to explain if it seemed necessary. He paused and threw his hands open in a gesture of finality.
    “The point is that our relationship was primarily business. Which bureaucrat at Bangkok in which office did one need to approach? Which law in Malaysia was being enforced this year and which one winked at? So I know his business associates. But I do not know his friends.”
    He paused again, thinking, then added, “Only a few of them. And of course one’s daughter would be entrusted to friends, not to business associates.”
    Moon could think of nothing to say to this.
    Castenada waited, made a wry face. “I think to find the child you will need his friends. To help you.”
    “I don’t know his friends either,” Moon said. “Not his friends out here.”
    If Castenada heard this, he ignored it. “Because I think this person who was bringing out the child, I think he must have gone to earth somewhere. Somewhere safe until they could travel again.” Castenada threw up his hands. “Everything is going to hell over there. Dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. Nothing can be counted on, nothing. Offices closed. Flights are canceled. Telephones go unanswered.”
    “So,” Moon said, feeling totally out of his depth, “what do I do now?”
    Castenada considered, looking first at the pyramid he’d made of his fingers and then at Moon. To Moon’s amazement, Mr. Castenada was grinning.
    “Oh, I know about you, Mr. Mathias,” he said. “Ricky told me. I think you will find a way.” The grin widened. “I think if Ricky’s daughter can be brought to Manila, you will bring her.”
    “What the hell did Ricky—” Moon began, but the question was interrupted. A short plump woman slid into the room, bearing a black laquered tray. On it were two cups, a plate of rolls, and an oversized black