by Blake Banner
She sat forward. “What?”
“I killed them, took the money and the box.”
“Are you out of your mind?”
I sipped my whiskey and returned to my chair. She was barely three feet away from me. Her eyes were wide and bright. Her brows were drawn forward into a scowl. Yet I couldn’t find fear or alarm in her face. What I saw was curiosity disguised as fear.
“I killed them, and after I had killed the first two, I heard a car reversing away, then speeding back toward Freeport.”
“That had nothing to do with me.”
“Then I sat and had a good think about these five million dollars and this enigmatic box, and I decided what I was going to do.”
Now her cheeks colored and the curiosity in her eyes turned to anger.
“And what have you decided to do, Lacklan?”
I smiled. “I put the box somewhere where neither you nor Gregor will ever find it, and after that I took your five million bucks back to Gregor at his casino and returned them to him.”
She stood and stared down at me with wide, furious eyes. Her voice was shrill. “You did what? You returned the money? Why, for God’s sake? What is wrong with you?”
We stayed like that for a moment, her staring at me like she wanted to shoot me, and me carefully studying her expression. Finally, I said, “Sit down.”
Instead, she marched to the credenza and mixed herself a stiff martini with plenty of gin. Then she turned to face me and rested her ass against the sideboard.
“Would you please explain to me why you decided to give my money back to Gregor Ustinov?”
“I told him he was negotiating with me now and that I found the offer of five million dollars insulting. I told him where he could find his four dead soldiers and that I would be back tonight to hear his improved offer.”
She went very still. “My God,” she said after a moment. “You are insane. You will get us all killed.”
I raised an eyebrow. “All? Don’t you mean both?”
She didn’t answer. She just kept staring at me.
After a moment, I asked her, “Aren’t you even a little curious?”
“About what? Forgive me, I am still reeling at your…” She seemed to search the air for a word and eventually came up with, “Temerity! To steal my property, my money, and then give it back and demand more…!”
“Are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Curious.”
“About what, for goodness’ sake?”
I frowned and narrowed my eyes. “About what Gregor said.”
She took a pull on her drink. “Of course I am, but I imagine he told you to go to hell and is at this moment burning down your house, on his way here to murder me!”
I shook my head. “No.”
She watched me carefully.
“He reminded me that you two had agreed there would be no auction.”
She looked quickly away. I waited. She didn’t say anything.
I smiled. “So tell me, Emily, what kind of report on criminal activity is kept in that kind of sleek, black box, and is auctioned off to the highest bidder? And, if we hold out and don’t sell to the Russians, who else is going to be bidding?” I labored the irony in my voice. “The NYPD? The Galveston County Sheriff’s Department? Perhaps the FBI…?”
She looked at me long and hard. “No,” she said at last. “The CIA.”
Six
We remained in silence for a while, she sitting, staring at the fire, I leaning with my elbow on the mantelpiece, watching her, waiting, while the fire crackled and the light from the flames bathed her face with wavering light.
Eventually, she said: “I don’t blame you for being cynical, Lacklan, and I don’t blame you for doubting my word. Perhaps I should have come clean from the start and told you the truth, but be honest.” She looked into my face with eyes that said they had been hurt once too often. “How many men do you know who would have helped me if they’d known what I aimed to do? Would you, if I had come clean?”
“Yes.”
She gave a snort, then seemed to regret it and sighed. “Even if that’s true, how could I have known it?”
I shook my head, moved to the chair and sat down. “You couldn’t have.”
“So how can you blame me for elaborating on the truth? I am in desperate danger, through no fault of my own. Have you any idea what those men would do to me if they caught me and I had no protection?”
“I know exactly what they would do to you. Which is why I keep telling you to cut the crap. Stop playing games, Emily. First you ask me to believe that two sports bags full of money, weighing over a hundred pounds, are in fact a couple of memory cards, and now you want me to believe a featureless black box eighteen inches long, six inches deep contains enough documentary proof to bring down one of the biggest clans in the Russian Mafia—and that the CIA are prepared to bid millions for it. How stupid do you think I am? What the hell is going on in your head, Emily?”
She fell back on the sofa, covering her face with her hands, and half-shouted, “God!” She dropped her hands by her side and spoke to the ceiling. “Why do you have to pick at everything? Question everything?”
“Because it’s not just your life on the damned line! You asked for my help, and if I am going to risk my life for your crazy plan, I expect you to come clean with me.”
She didn’t react. She stayed lying back, staring at the ceiling. Finally, she spoke in a dead, monotonous, almost mechanical voice. “The information is in a digital format. It contains more information than you could possibly imagine. There are bank accounts, transactions, contracts of every imaginable type. More than half of it relates to money laundering operations through major international financial institutions, but there are also payments for deliveries of prostitutes from Chechnya, Ukraine, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico…”
She paused to sit up, resting her elbows on her knees.
“There are details of cocaine and heroine shipments, and payments going back years, we are talking about tens of billions of dollars. There are payments for assassinations, bribes and blackmail. Some very significant names are involved—and most important of all—there are details relating to the relationship of senior members of the Russian government, including the president, to the leading Pakhan in the Russian Mafia, to the godfathers. Believe me, there are several governments around the world who would give a lot to get hold of this information.”
I raised an eyebrow, sighed and shook my head. “And you got hold of all this from working in a gym?”
“Oh for goodness’ sake, Lacklan!” She stood and walked across the room, then turned suddenly to glare at me. “Why won’t you listen to me?”
“I’m listening, Emily. I’m just not hearing anything I can believe.”
“No! I did not get all of that information from working at the goddamn gym! I told you! I was promoted to be Gregor’s personal assistant! And that made me privy to a great deal of highly secret information! I got all that information from working on yachts, in restaurants, at meetings in investment banks in New York and Hong Kong. And I had access to his computers! Is that clear enough for you?”
I was quiet for a long while, turning her story over in my mind, following it through from beginning to end. After a while, I frowned at her and asked:
“So you watched that guy get beaten to death, and you stayed in your job…”
Her voice was shrill: “Of course I did!” She stared at me, breathed and then repeated more quietly, “Of course I did, Lacklan. Maybe you can kill four men with your bare hands and walk away as though nothing had happened—but look at me, for God’s sake! I am a small woman! I weigh barely a hundred pounds! I haven’t got your physical strength… or ten years training in the SAS! If I had tried to walk away after what I had witnessed, they would have killed me! I had to pretend I was with them, gain their confidence, encourage them to trust me! You do what you have to do to survive. You know that!”
She pause
d, her shoulders sagged and she spoke more quietly. “And over time, I was able to gather the information I needed to make the break and protect myself.”
It made sense, and however much I prodded her, she was sticking to that story. I moved to the armchair and sat facing her. “So you sat on the information for two years.”
She nodded. “Yes. My mother had died and I had found my father. That part of what I told you was true. I got away and at first, it seemed they would not come after me. I confess I was chicken. I let the days slip by and run into weeks and then months, enjoying being with Harry and feeling safe. Having an almost normal life. But it was a fool’s paradise and in the end, they caught up with me.”
Suddenly, her face seemed to contract. She got up and rushed across the room, dropped on her knees in front of me and clutched my hand. There were tears in her eyes.
“Please, Lacklan, stop punishing me. I’ve been living in hell these last few years and I am fighting to get out, but I can’t do it alone. Please help me. Please stop attacking me. Perhaps I should have told you the truth from the start, perhaps I should have come clean, but how was I to know? You can’t blame me for being careful. I have leveled with you now. I have told you the truth. I have told you everything there is to know, please help me. I am begging you.”
I nodded. “Get off your knees, Emily. Don’t ever kneel.”
She ignored me and asked, “What have you done with the box, Lacklan? If they get their hands on it, I…”
She trailed off and I waited, smiling.
“I wondered how long it would take us to come to this. If they get their hands on it, you are defenseless against them… and yet. And yet it was you who got me to deliver it straight into their hands. You want to explain that to me, Emily?”
She got off her knees and sat, perched on the edge of the sofa. “The money…” she said, “It would have been enough to…”
I interrupted, “You’re still bullshitting me, Emily. You know damn well that five million bucks would have done nothing to protect you, or your father, from an organization like that.”
She didn’t answer. I sighed, stood and moved toward the door. She snapped, “Where are you going?”
I turned. She had gotten to her feet and now took a step toward me. I said, “When you’re prepared to come clean and tell the truth, then we can talk. But as long as you are trying to hoodwink me, I have no reason to talk to you. Meantime, I have an auction to organize.”
“No! Lacklan, wait!”
I waited.
She closed her eyes. “I had somebody there.”
“I already know that. Who? Who was it?”
She swallowed. “Jerry. The name will mean nothing to you. He…” She covered her face with her hands and dropped onto the sofa again. She looked ragged. “I am sorry! I was desperate! I keep telling you I was desperate! Can’t you understand that? Why won’t you listen?” She dropped her hands to her lap and looked up at me. There were genuine tears on her cheeks. “He was there to… If you didn’t kill them, he was to start a fire fight.”
“I could have been killed.”
“He was also there to protect you.”
My voice was bitter with irony. “Gee! Thanks.”
She wiped her cheeks with her fingertips. “From what Harry had told me about you, I was pretty sure you would not hand over the money, and you would probably try to take them out. So I asked Jerry to keep an eye on you, and if things didn’t go as they were supposed to…”
“Meaning if I didn’t do as expected and kill them.”
“He was to shoot the man with the automatic rifle.”
I frowned. “How did you know there was a man with an automatic rifle?”
“There is always at least one, it’s procedure. But in any case, Jerry told me.”
“So he takes out the assault rifle, triggers a firefight and I take care of the rest.”
“He would have given you cover.”
“You could have got us both killed. Who is this Jerry?”
“A colleague. It’s best you don’t know him.”
“You’re quite something. The cute, demure girl next door. Gregor lost more than he knows when you walked out. You shouldn’t be in the Mafia, you should be in the GRU, organizing operations.”
“Please stop it. That’s not fair. I did what I had to do. I didn’t ask to be press ganged into organized crime.”
“You did what you had to do? You recruited me, tried to seduce me, reeled me in, played me—the works! That was a damned sight more than you needed to do! What you needed to do was go to the Feds and come clean!”
“Lacklan, stop! You must realize I would not have done any of this if I had not been desperate. I have come clean. I have told you all the truth. Can we please stop this now!”
I didn’t answer. I stood looking at her and thinking. Finally, I said, “I am going to go. I am going to go to the casino and see what kind of offer Gregor is prepared to make. While I’m there, I will also make sure he understands you and your father are off limits. I need to think about what you’ve told me. We’ll talk again soon.”
She took a couple of steps toward me. “Lacklan, you’re scaring me. Please tell me where it is. You have to!”
“I don’t have to tell you a damned thing.”
“You can’t do this!”
“I’ve done it already. And if you’re smart, you’ll stop trying to play me. I can help you, Emily, and I am willing to, but not if you are going to keep doing crazy stuff like this. All you’ll achieve is to get yourself, and everybody else killed—or worse.”
We stared at each other for a while in silence. Her chest was rising and falling like she’d been running. “You will help me then?” she said at last.
“I am helping you.”
“You are going to the casino now…”
“Yes.”
“All right. And you will contact me tomorrow?”
“I’ll let you know what Gregor says.”
She took another step toward me. “Lacklan, don’t cut me out. I need to be a part of this.”
“No. You don’t. You need to stop acting crazy. We’ll talk, but first I need to know you’re done with your wild plans.”
She closed her eyes. “All right… I have just…” She opened them again and they were moist and pleading. “I’ve had nobody to turn to till now. Can you understand that? I have had to deal with everything all on my own.”
I nodded. “I get it.”
She sighed, then said, “Will you take me to Harry’s house? I don’t think I can be alone tonight.”
I raised an eyebrow. “What about Jerry?”
She looked startled, then frowned. “Forget about Jerry.”
“Forget about the guy you dispatch with a rifle to assassinate Russian mobsters? That’s not going to happen. I’ll postpone it for tonight, but I won’t forget.”
Her face flushed and she spoke through clenched teeth, “Enough!”
I figured she was right and she had had enough for one day. In any case, I was curious to see what I was going to find at the casino. So I nodded and said, “Let’s go.”
We didn’t talk in the car. She called her father to tell him she was coming and then sat with her arms crossed, staring out the side window so I couldn’t see her face. I didn’t know if she was mad, scared or crying. Most likely, it was all three. I dropped her outside the Colonel’s house, she got out, slammed the door and ran through the big gate and up the drive. I saw the front door open, bathing the path in warm light around her black silhouette and the Colonel’s. She hugged him and kissed him, they went in and he closed the door.
I pulled away and headed toward Galveston Island. At Surfside Beach, I turned north and accelerated along the Bluewater Highway, leaving the lights of Freeport behind me. The moon had not yet risen, but the sky was a mass of stars, distant and icy. I drove fast, with the windows open and the night sea air battering my face and cooling my head.
At San Luis, I slowed
for the bends before the bridge, and then accelerated again across the mile wide expanse. There is no town on the Galveston side of the San Luis bridge, and mine is the only house. So it was pitch dark, apart from the slight luminescence of the white sand and the foam from the waves. That fact made the twin cones of light from the headlamps all the more noticeable as they pulled onto the blacktop off my track, and accelerated toward Jamaica Beach, bathing the sides of the road in amber light, with the two red taillights chasing them into the darkness.
For a moment, I thought about going after them, but then I thought better of it. I pulled over beside the house and ran up the stairs to the terrace. The lock had been picked and the sliding doors stood gaping onto the blackness inside the house. I pulled my Sig and cocked it, though I knew there was nobody there now.
I snapped on the light and looked around. It was as though a tornado had passed through the house. The sofa and the armchairs had been gutted. The rugs had been pulled up and every floorboard inspected. Every drawer had been pulled out and emptied onto the floor. Every cupboard stood gaping and empty, every cushion slashed. The kitchen was in a similar state, as was the bathroom. There was not a nook or cranny in the house that had not been searched, but equally, there was nothing of any value missing.
I left the house as it was and went back to the Zombie, rolled onto the road and continued my journey toward Jamaica Beach, and the Caribbean Island Casino.
When I got there, the parking lot was almost full. The windows of the elaborate, palatial building were all a blaze of light, and the hideousness of the Rococo fountain was enhanced by green and blue spot lamps located within the water. I parked the car and climbed the stone steps to the foyer. There was a different pretty girl behind the desk this time. I told her, “I’m here to see Gregor Ustinov. He’s expecting me.”
“Your name, sir?”
I smiled. “He doesn’t know my name.”
She wasn’t fazed. “Oh, you must be Mr. Lacklan Walker. Mr. Ustinov is engaged in a meeting at the moment. Will you please have a complimentary drink in the cocktail bar, and he will join you very shortly.” I hesitated a moment, wondering whether to go up anyway, but she gestured at the big mahogany doors with the brass handles, and the doorman in the violet coat with a violet top hat, and I figured I could use a complimentary drink.