We'll Always Have Havana

Book excerpt: Havana in December to 1958 was city on the brink of revolution, but it glittered on the surface. Over the previous twenty-five years it had become the Las Vegas of the Caribbean, made so by the Mafia money that supported a corrupt and oppressive regime. Into this explosive environment came Lila Corona and her gang of jewel thieves, determined to make the greatest heist ever. She had been hired by a jewelry company to steal their own jewels and smuggle them out of the country. She encountered Chester Yellowcat, an FBI agent who had met her before, knew that she was a thief, but had never been able to prove anything. Lila spotted him tailing her, confronted him, and started a relationship with him. As the head of the FBI section at the American embassy, Chester was involved with the ambassador in finding a way to get Batista, the Mafia-supported dictator, to leave the country. To get information to pressure Batista, Chester was obliged to hire Lila and her gang to break into the National Bank to photograph information about the location of Batista’s overseas financial holdings. Lila did, and this led to her becoming Chester’s lover. Because the jewelry heist involved far more jewels than she had expected, Lila was obliged to make a deal with one of the leaders of the revolution to use his resources to smuggle the jewels to Miami. Lila and her gang left the country after the heist. Chester wanted her to go, because he was afraid to have her there during the revolutionary takeover, which he knew was coming soon. The takeover came on the morning of the New Year, when Batista, the dictator, fled the country. After a brief period of tension, Chester and the other Americans at the embassy began sorting things out. By early spring, Chester was retired and staying at a hotel at Sarasota, on the Gulf Coast of Florida. He had asked a waiter to bring him a beer. When the waiter brought him two beers, he turned around to say something to the waiter, but discovered instead—Lila.