by Ian Hamilton
“Chen said Lau Lau is doing well in rehab.”
“He told me the same thing yesterday,” Fai said.
“Then there’s no reason to think he won’t be fit to direct.”
“I wish I had your confidence.”
“And I wish I had your talent.”
“Put those two things together and you have a great team,” Fai said.
“Which is what we are.”
Fai groaned. “I miss you.”
“Me too, and I’m afraid we’ll be missing each other for at least another week or so. I’m finishing up in Chengdu but I have to head back to Toronto. I have unfinished business there.”
“Have you recovered the money stolen from Mimi’s father?”
“I know what happened to it. All I have to do now is get it back.”
“How hard will that be?”
“I don’t know. It depends on the other parties.”
“And if they aren’t reasonable?”
“It could be a mess,” Ava said. “I just hope they have the sense to realize there can only be chaos if they decide not to give in.”
“You’ll succeed. You always do.”
“That’s not true, but I have won more times than I’ve lost.”
“You’ll let me know your schedule?”
“Of course. I’ll call you once it’s set.” Ava saw the Ritz-Carlton come into view. “Fai, I’d better go. I’m getting close to the hotel. Love you, and I’ll talk to you later.”
“Love you too.”
Han turned to look at Ava after she ended the call. “Call me too once your schedule is set. I’ll send my driver to take you to the airport.”
“That isn’t necessary.”
“I know, but I want to do it all the same.”
A moment later the car pulled up in front of the hotel. “I’ll be in touch,” Ava said to Han as she got out.
She walked briskly through the lobby, mentally prioritizing the calls she was going to make. It was late in Toronto, so those would be first, and then Jasmine Yip, May, and finally Xu. In between calls she would need to eat, and there were still flights she had to book. It was going to be a busy few hours, which was how she liked it when the end was in sight.
Ava went directly to the desk when she entered the suite. She found the room service menu, phoned downstairs, and ordered an Australian wagyu beef burger with bacon, cheese, and a fried egg. When that was done, she opened her notebook, reviewed the notes she’d made while Su was speaking, and added some comments and questions. There were still several loose ends to tie up, but at least she could identify them, and that was the first step towards resolving them.
She took her phone from her bag and found Todd Howell’s mobile number. It rang five times before going to voicemail. “This is Ava. Call me as soon as you can,” she said.
She was starting to dial Derek’s number when her phone rang and she saw it was Howell. “Hey,” she said.
“I was in bed and couldn’t get to the phone quick enough,” he said.
“I apologize for calling so late.”
“There’s no need for that. I’m glad to hear from you. I thought about phoning you earlier this evening, but I had nothing to report. The entire day was an exercise in frustration. We couldn’t find any companies attached to Rogers or Cunningham.”
“Well, let’s try a different approach,” she said. “Muir and the Harvest Table crew are selling painkillers online, opioids that include fentanyl and carfentanil. I’m told they operate multiple sales websites, which probably feed into a master server.”
“I still find this shocking. Have you actually confirmed it?”
“I have. I’ve met with the company manufacturing the pharmaceuticals and with the outfit that’s handling distribution from China. The distribution is all done by mail, using lists of customers provided by Malcolm Muir. He also personally negotiates pricing and orders the products from the factory. I have a complete paper trail connecting him to the distributor and the factory,” she said. ”I’d like you to locate all the Canadian websites that sell these products and find out who operates them. I’ll be surprised if some familiar names don’t appear on the registrations.”
“Yes, that makes sense. I’ll put my people on it first thing tomorrow morning,” Howell said.
“I’d like to know what they’re selling, how they’re pricing it, and how people are expected to pay.”
“Okay. I’ll call you as soon as I have some information.”
Ava hesitated, thinking about her schedule. “It’s better for me to contact you. I’m not sure where I’ll be during the next twenty-four to thirty-six hours. There’s still more digging to be done on this end.”
“However you want to handle it.”
“Thanks. Oh, there’s one more thing I meant to ask,” Ava said. “Did your hackers have any luck getting into the Harvest Table bank account at Eastern Canadian Commerce?”
“No, sorry,” he said.
“I may have someone who can help. I didn’t want to ask him, but he may be our only option,” Ava said. She ended the call, waited for a few seconds, and then hit Derek’s number. It rang only twice before she heard his familiar voice.
“I’m still working on Evans Trust,” he said.
“Any progress?”
“Not yet.”
“Then let’s change direction,” she said.
“In what way?”
“There’s a website in the U.S. called www.healthepain.com. It’s selling painkillers online, and it may operate as the master server for similar websites. Who registered the website? Who owns it? Who operates it? What are they charging for pills? What kind of payments is it set up to receive — credit cards, electronic transfers, cryptocurrency? No matter how the payments are made, I believe all the money eventually ends up in an Evans Trust account in Vanuatu, but I don’t know how it gets there. Is it automatically redirected through the master website, or does it have to go through an American financial institution of some kind?”
“I am not saying I won’t jump right on this, but why are we focusing on an American website?”
“One, it might give us a back door into Evans Trust, and two, there’s a good chance that Muir set up a similar structure in Canada. I’ve asked Todd Howell to investigate Canadian websites selling painkillers. I would have asked you to do it, but I figure you’ll have enough on your plate figuring out what’s going on in the States.”
“I get it,” Derek said. He paused. “I can hear some excitement in your voice. This is like the old days.”
Ava’s doorbell rang. “My lunch is here,” she said. “I don’t need this information right away, so get some sleep. If you come up with something and can’t reach me by phone, send me a text or an email.”
“Where are you headed next?”
It was Ava’s turn to hesitate. “Toronto,” she said. “I’m leaving tonight, and I’ll be home within the next twenty-four hours.”
“Ah,” Derek said, excitement in his own voice. “You’ve already locked your sights on those sons of bitches.”
(34)
The wagyu burger was good, although Ava wasn’t focused on the flavour. She ate at a coffee table in the sitting room before returning to the desk and opening her laptop. She started searching for flights and quickly realized that, if she didn’t want to spend another entire day in Chengdu, she would have to move fast. Her best option was a late afternoon Air China flight to Beijing that connected to an early evening Air Canada flight to Toronto. If all went smoothly, she could be home by around seven o’clock the following night.
With that arranged, she reached for the phone again.
“Wei?” a woman’s voice answered tentatively.
“Jasmine, is that you? This is Ava Lee.”
“It’s me.”
“I’m
glad I reached you. How are things going? Have you heard from Muir?”
“No. He never calls unless it’s to tell me to transfer money.”
“I guess I can assume he hasn’t put any money into your Mercantile account.”
“You have my password. You can check.”
“I just want to confirm that things are okay and that the password hasn’t been changed.”
“The password is the same.”
“I’m pleased to hear that. Contact me at once if anything changes.”
Ava ticked Jasmine’s name off her mental list and moved on to the next.
“Wei,” May answered.
“It’s Ava. Are you free to talk?”
“Yes, but I haven’t heard back from the banker about the SCM account in the Mercantile Bank.”
“There’s no need to pursue that now. I found what I needed through another source. Please thank your banker for me, and tell him I apologize for putting him through the unnecessary bother.”
“He won’t mind. He was happy to do me a favour,” May said. “But if you got the information you want, does that mean you’re getting your hands on the stolen money?”
“Close enough that I’m heading to Toronto tonight. Hopefully I’ll have more leverage by the time I land.”
“I’m pleased it’s gone well, but Amanda is going to be disappointed. I told her there was a chance we might get together in Hong Kong while you’re here.”
“If I can wrap this up quickly, I’ll be coming back to visit Fai in Taiwan. I could stop in Hong Kong on the way back.”
“We’d both like that. I take it Fai’s film shoot is going well.”
“It sure sounds that way,” Ava said.
“What about Lau Lau’s film? Are you still having second thoughts?”
“Not as much as I was,” Ava said. “Brenda Burgess has set up a company in England called BB Productions and opened a bank account with Barclays. Several law firms are layered between them and the company so there’s a level of anonymity. Now, when it comes to the money to finance the film, let’s put any discussion about that on hold for now.”
“Hey, we’re partners. Amanda and I talked this over, and we’re both prepared to put in our fair share. She was wondering when that might be.”
“There’s no rush, and my point is that it may not be necessary. There might be other options.”
“Have you told Amanda about this?”
“No. You know I always speak to you first.”
“Do you want me to tell her?”
“If you want to.”
“We have a call planned for later this afternoon to go over some expansion plans she intends to propose after the numbers are finalized,” May said.
“Thanks, May,” Ava said. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever thought about doing something that’s caused me this much worry. Truthfully, there are times when I ask myself if I did the right thing by making that commitment to Lau Lau.”
“Is it too late to back out?”
“The time for that was when Lau Lau called me to say he was prepared to go to rehab and described the film he wanted to make. Then I didn’t quite grasp all the complexities and sensitivities surrounding Tiananmen. If I had, I might not have committed,” Ava said.
“We’ll deal with whatever happens,” May said.
Ava sighed. “Well, first things first. I’ve got to settle things in Toronto. I’ll call you from there.”
“Travel safely.”
“Thanks, and I love you, May.”
“Love you too.”
Ava immediately hit the speed dial button for Shanghai. Xu’s house phone rang six times and wasn’t answered. That was odd; it was rare for Auntie Grace not to pick up. She switched to Xu’s cellphone.
“Ava, your ears must be burning,” Xu answered.
“Why do you say that?’
“I just got off a call from Han telling me how impressed he was with you, and of course to make it clear that he’d greatly contributed to your success in Chengdu.”
“Actually he was tremendously helpful. Without him, I don’t know what I would have accomplished. He deserves a bonus.”
“To set up the meeting with the lab, I promised him an allocation of iPhones. He says he set up two meetings, not one, and that the allocation should be doubled.”
“He did set up two, but the allocation is for you and him to work out — although he isn’t a man I’d choose to annoy,” she said.
“He does have a style that’s all his own. Suen and Sonny remind me a bit of him, except, as big as they are, they don’t have his ability to frighten people just by looking at them.”
“He did more than look. He screamed at people. He picked a man up by the neck. He slapped a middle-aged woman. He terrified them all,” Ava said. “That’s not a criticism. I needed them to co-operate, and he made sure they did.”
“Maybe I will send him those extra iPhones.”
“Speaking of phones, I called the house first and Auntie Grace didn’t answer.”
“She’s gone for a walk to the French bakery.”
“Where are you?” Ava asked.
“I’m sitting by the fish pond having a smoke.”
“And I’m getting ready to leave Chengdu. I’m flying back to Toronto tonight.”
“You’ve solved the problem you were chasing down?”
“I can’t solve it until I’m back in Toronto, but I think the end is in sight.”
“Keep me up to date on it.”
“I will,” Ava said, pleased that he cared enough to want to know.
“Auntie Grace will be sorry she missed you. She’ll ask me when you plan to visit Shanghai again. What should I tell her?”
“After this case is over, I intend to see Fai in Taiwan. I’ve also promised May and Amanda that I’ll fit in a side trip to Hong Kong. I’ll try to spend a few days in Shanghai as well.”
“That will make both of us happy.”
“Give her a hug for me. I’ll call you in a few days.”
Ava checked the time as she put down the phone. She needed to go to the business centre to print the emails from Muir that Su Na had forwarded. When those orders were tabulated, she could match them with the purchase orders Muir had issued to Golden Emperor. That was her work project for at least part of the flight home. But while she would know what Muir was paying for the opioids and the volume he was moving, she still wouldn’t know the selling prices or the profits being made. There were also the huge question marks that were the Evans Trust account in Vanuatu and the Harvest Table bank account in Toronto. Evans Trust was in Derek’s hands, but she had to decide what to do about the Harvest Table account. She scrolled through her contacts and found Johnny Yan’s cell number. It would be rude to call him at this hour; she’d phone him from Beijing, she decided. She just hoped he’d take her call.
Johnny had been Ava’s classmate at York University and then went to work at one of the major Canadian banks. While at York, he and Ava were part of a support network that consisted of Chinese and Chinese Canadian students. Ava thought of it as Canadian-style guanxi. The network continued after school, the members trading favours and assisting each other to advance in their careers. Ava had directed a lot of business to Johnny and in turn had gone to him several times for help, which included unlocking bank accounts. But the last time he helped her had involved the governor of Nanjing, and Johnny’s assistance had drawn unwarranted attention and became a problem for him. He wasn’t asked to leave his position, but he sensed that his career was at least temporarily dead-ended, so he moved to another bank. Ava hadn’t spoken to him since the change and wasn’t sure how he would react to her approach. All she knew was that it was worth making the effort. What was the worst that could happen? Johnny telling her he couldn’t help?
Time to do some
printing, she thought. She got up from the desk, collected the room service tray, and left it outside her door before going to the elevator. Half an hour later she returned with copies of the documents. There were more than she’d realized, but it was a long flight from Beijing to Canada. Two more things to do before I pack, she thought as she called Han.
“Ava, what can I do for you?” he answered.
“You offered me a ride to the airport. My flight is at four.”
“Then Willie will pick you up at two. I won’t be with him, though.”
“I didn’t expect you to be. Thank you for sending Willie, and for everything else you did for me.”
“No, thank you. Xu has just increased my supply of iPhones, and I’m sure you had something to do with that.”
“Perhaps I did,” Ava said, not reluctant to earn a favour. “I told him you were wonderfully supportive.”
“Wonderful is a word I haven’t often heard attributed to me.”
“Perhaps you’re spending too much time with people who don’t appreciate you.”
Han chuckled. “Now I know why Xu prizes you so much.”
“That’s a nice thing to say, even though it is an exaggeration,” Ava said. “Anyway, I enjoyed meeting you and the rest of your family. Say goodbye to them for me.”
Ava checked the time. She still had to change her clothes and pack, and she wanted to call Fai with her schedule. She went into the bedroom and put on a clean black T-shirt, ankle socks, Adidas training pants, her running shoes, and an Adidas jacket. Her mother chided her for dressing so casually when travelling, but Ava had learned that on long flights, comfortable clothing took precedence over fashion. She packed quickly then went into the sitting room to call Fai.
Until she met Fai, Ava had never enjoyed long phone conversations. Her style was to keep calls short and to the point. But when they were separated, the phone was the way they kept connected. They had tried Skype, but Ava never felt comfortable with it. They had used WeChat, a popular multi-purpose Chinese app, for about a week, until Ava discovered that the Chinese government was using it for surveillance. So they talked on the phone, and, given that Fai loved to chat, they sometimes talked for hours. Ava had about an hour to kill before Willie got to the hotel. She could devote that time to tabulating numbers or talking to Fai. Not a hard decision to make, she thought, as she called Taiwan.