Chapter One - Richard Lewis

"Your mother's never gotten over it. And I live here, your family is now my
family. You should have told me about the skeletons. At least before all the other women
down by the beach found out. I should have told them instead of the other way around."
Ah. Confusion cleared. This was not about the lost money, but the found bones.
"It was a crazy day," Nol said. "First the prostitute raid and then we were called out of the
blue to control this crowd at the beach—and by the way, the raid was a success. All the
girls were there. Amazing. I don't know who was more surprised, them or us. We must
have rounded up twenty of them." He added, teasing, "The girl I arrested promised to
show me a trick and make me happy if I'd let her go."
"I'd better shower," Suti said, with a lazy, coquettish stretch, her breasts straining
the tight fabric. "And then I might show you a new trick myself."
Nol's grin about floated off his face as he watched her sashay to their bedroom
pavilion.
A new trick. Little flutters of anticipation.
But what new trick? And where would Suti have learned it?
Why would a Manadonese man join all those women in an aerobics class?
Suti had left her bag and cell phone on the pavilion. Nol picked up the cell and
thumbed it to the message menu. He hesitated and then came to his senses. What was he
doing? It'd be a terrible breach of trust. He resolutely chucked the cell phone into her bag
and zipped it shut.
"A Jakarta tourist left behind a copy of this new women's magazine, called
Kosmopolitan," Suti said, snuggling up to Nol after they'd caught their breaths. Outside
the bedroom window a moon glowed and Nol felt like he was floating on a cushion of its
light. "It's an American magazine," Suti said, "but it's now published in Indonesian. I
couldn't believe how naughty it was. All these, well, tricks. We were all giggling like
crazy."
"Keep reading it," Nol said.
"Tell me about the meeting. How did it go?"
"I tell you what, that Raka, he's so full of himself. People are starting to talk, you
know, how ambitious he is, how he wants his father out of the way so he can take over."
"I haven't heard that."
"Well, he does."
"You better be careful what you say about him."
"There was this American woman there, too."
"What did she want?"
"An argument. Those Americans. Dharma really put her in her place."
"Mr. Bombastic," Suti said. She slipped on her nightgown to sit at her computer
and complained that there was still no email from Putu.
Nol abruptly sat up. "Can you check this E-Bay thing for me?"
She clicked her keys. "Here," she said.
He looked over her shoulder. "It looks complicated."
"It's easy. You can sell all kinds of things on the Internet. I'm wondering if I
should make my own on-line shop."
"How do you do that?"
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