Chapter One - Richard Lewis

"That's confidential!" Nol snapped, trying to grab it back, but Gong fended him
off with a meaty forearm as he flipped open the folder.
"You give that back or I'm driving you straight to the police station." Gong let the
folder go, and Nol stuck down his door's side pocket, out of reach.
Gong burped. "I was thinking about Men Djawa," he said as Nol ground the
gears. "I'm missing her cakes. I guess you're missing them too. Missing them so much
you had to go see her in the Gianyar clinic."
"Why shouldn't I go see her?"
Gong burped again. "That was spicy. The doc says I should cut my food. I have
high blood pressure. I'm not supposed to get excited. Don't get me excited, Nol."
"What's there to get excited about? So I went and saw her."
"About what?"
"People in hospitals, you go see them. That's what you do."
"Mbeh, calm down, brother. You're going to have a stroke."
At the Ramayana Mall, Nol turned into the entrance, which had a parking booth
and an attendant asking for two thousand rupiah.
"I'm just dropping him off," Nol told her. "I'm not parking."
"Sorry, sir. You have to pay."
"I don't have small money on me," Nol said to Gong.
Gong reached for his wallet and gave him a five thousand note. "You were always
cheap," he grumbled. When the attendant gave the change, Gong shoved the coins into
the ashtray. "Keep it for next time."
Nol assumed that the file Gong had pawed through held another contract draft for
a land deal. At a red light he opened the cover and was stunned to see that in fact the
contract was a concept for a lawsuit against Anak Agung Gdé Raka.
Nol startled as the cars behind him honked. For the first time that he could
remember, he'd missed gunning a green light.
He found his uncle at his compound, taking delivery of bamboo and thatch for the
temporary structures necessary for the tooth filing ceremony. After a last check, Dharma
led Nol to a back porch where they sat on the steps, facing the pig sty, a contented porker
snoozing in the dirt, fattening up for the feast and blissfully unaware of his fate. Dharma
took the folder but didn't immediately open it, asking instead about Nol's new renter.
"Was she the American woman at the meeting, asking about the bones?" Dharma
asked.
"Her rent was up and she was still here for a few more months and she heard
about my place."
"It's odd," Dharma said.
The comment wasn't an accusation, but a reflection. Nol's uncle was thinking of
something, his shrewd mind whirring away, but Nol knew better than to probe. Dharma
harrumphed and opened the folder. "Have you had a look at this? I'm suing Raka. The
bastard took a big land deal right out from under my nose. This is that deal you did some
work on, so you better hope he backs off because your percentage is riding on this."
"You mean the land out in Tabanan?"
"That's right."
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