“What are you talking about?” Kroy asked me. “You know computers?”
“No, but I used to date a computer programmer. That’s mostly what he talked about. He knew the guy who wrote the original ricochet program. But it sounds like you put a new twist on it if your program blocked a counterattack.”
“Yes, it worked quite well. No important data got compromised.”
“This time, you mean,” Kroy said. “What about the next time?”
“Well sir, I have some suggestions I’d like to make. One is for a new encryption program that…”
Kroy put up his hand and silenced the man in mid-sentence. He turned to me. “We are going to have a talk. Connie, get that useless twerp out of here.” He gestured to the cowering young man with one hand and grabbed my arm with the other.
Chapter Fifteen
Kroy marched me down the hall to his study. I didn’t protest or try to pull away. If anything, I deliberately relaxed. Any resistance on my part would just feed his rage. I needed to stay calm and put on what Aunt June always called my “who, me?” face if Kroy accused me of anything. Plenty of time to go all moral outrage if he didn’t believe me.
I glanced back at the group in the foyer. Connie descending on the visibly terrified computer tech and Elizabeth, not terrified but worried-looking, watching Kroy march me down the hall. As soon as she saw me watching her, she smoothed the worried frown from her face. Elizabeth worried? That bothered me much more than an enraged Kroy.
Kroy pushed me into his study ahead of him and pointed to a chair. “Sit.”
I sat. He remained standing, arms crossed, frowning at me. “I want to know why you’re here. I see you in Vegas. I can tell you’re related to Beth, but you blow me off. Next thing I know you’re on my doorstep. So I invite you into my home, and things start going to hell. So give. And no bullshit.”
“I’ve been looking for Elizabeth for years. She always has a big con going, and I wanted to work with her again. I found out from Ashley where Elizabeth was living, and came straight here from Vegas.”
“How do I know you’re not lying?”
I shrugged. “Ultimately, you don’t. But here’s where I’ve been the past five years.” I pulled out my wallet with the twenty-seven library cards. “The dates are sequential.”
He grabbed it from me and the long plastic strip of cardholders unfolded. While he looked at the cards, I took in his office setup. Especially the computer. It would be easy to pop the microprocessor into the USB port, not so easy to find an excuse to be alone in the office for ten minutes.
Kroy tossed the wallet back in my lap. “What were you doing in all these places?”
I slowly refolded the strip that held my cards. “Working my magic act, mainly busking—you know, street corner stuff. And working for other magicians, getting paid under the table.”
“You forgot to mention running cons and picking pockets.”
I nodded. “That too, but nothing with a big payoff.”
“And you’re here because you think Beth is running a con on me?”
“Hah! Not likely. All I know is that she’s running a con with you, but she won’t tell me anything. And apparently neither will you.” I got to my feet. “So I’ll do my act tomorrow night as agreed. You’ll pay me, and I’ll be out of here.”
“Sit down. I’m not done with you.” He paced the room. The image of a caged animal came uncomfortably to mind.
I sank down into the chair and watched him pace. He stopped in front of the French doors and stared out at the well-tended garden.
“Someone’s out to get me,” he said without turning around.
“Do you mean ‘get you’ as in kill you?”
He turned and faced me. “Kill me. Rob me. Ruin me. Or all of the above.”
“Who is it?” I asked.
“If I knew that, do you think he’d still be alive?”
“Good thing you have Connie, then. And your security system. No one can get through that.”
“Really? Then how did someone manage to hack into my computer? My high-priced tech support, who supposedly set up an unhackable system, doesn’t have a clue. Then there’s the goon who came after Beth. And guess what? Same guy tortured and killed an FBI agent, and the police don’t know jack about it.”
I flinched. He knew about Phil?
He narrowed his eyes at me. “You didn’t know about that, did you?”
“I heard that someone had been killed, but they didn’t mention torture.” In fact, I knew the FBI deliberately withheld that detail. “Was that on the news? I must have missed it.”
“Hell no. You think the cops are going to advertise their failures? A police commissioner is a pal of mine. I asked him about progress on finding who tried to attack Beth, and he told me the whole situation was bigger than they thought.”
I just stared at him. Carter had told me that Kroy had connections, but it hadn’t fully registered what that meant.
“So I’m asking you. What do you know about the threat to Beth and the attack on my computer?”
I locked gazes with him. “Nothing.” It was partly true.
“I have ways of finding out if you’re lying to me, and I have no qualms about using them.” He fixed me with a hard look.
My heart rate quickened, but I kept my face blank. I matched him stare for stare. “Good luck with that.” I pulled up the sleeves of my shirt and showed him the scars on my arms.
It was his turn to flinch. “What the hell?”
“That’s what I say.” I stood up and pulled down my shirtsleeves. “What the hell? If you think I’m working against you, throw me out, but enough with the threats, because I’ve been there so many times that it just doesn’t faze me now.”
“What was the number on Rico’s credit card?”
I blinked at the sudden change of subject, but answered right away. “8881437273454200. Why?”
He gazed at me for several moments, then crossed the room and lifted a picture. It swung upward on hinges to reveal a keypad and a wall safe. He glanced over his shoulder at me and shifted so his body blocked my view. He punched numbers into the keypad then twirled the dial on the safe back and forth. When he reached the last number, the safe opened without a sound. He reached in and pulled out banded stacks of bills and a sheet of paper. He closed the safe, lowered the picture and turned to me.
“You wanted a job? Okay, you’re hired.” He approached me and tossed the money into my lap and placed the sheet of paper on his desk.
I picked up the money and fanned through the stacks. All hundreds. At a guess, ten thousand dollars. I lifted my gaze to meet his. “What’s the job?”
“I asked Beth about you. She said you were helping her run cons before you were toilet-trained and that you could do that memory trick from the time you could read. Is that right?”
“Yeah, I guess. As far as I can remember, I’ve always been able to do it.”
“Turns out that I need someone with your peculiar talent. I’m going to hire you for two jobs. One as a board member of the Kroy Foundation. The other as director of the BK Trading Company. That money is a good faith payment. I’ll give you triple that when you finish the job.”
I frowned and held the bundle of hundreds up between my thumb and forefinger. “Hmm. I don’t know. You must have gotten the impression that I’m a cheap date. Not true. I know that you’re going for a big score, and here you’re offering me below minimum wage. This will pay for the privilege of putting my name on the company masthead, but if you actually want me to do something…” I let the sentence trail off.
“How much do you want?” Kroy asked.
“What’s Elizabeth’s cut?”
Kroy gave me a considering look.
“I can always ask her, you know,” I said.
“I paid her one hundred thousand to si
gn on for the two positions that I’m now giving you.”
I whistled. “One hundred K? Does that include her supervising the organizers of the gala?”
“No. That was a separate agreement.”
“Does she get a percentage beyond the one hundred thou?”
“No, and she resigned from the foundation and BK Trading as of today. If you’re hesitating out of loyalty to her, you should know that it was her idea that I hire you.”
I kept my gaze neutral but my heart rate ratcheted up. If Elizabeth had bailed it meant either the deal was too hot or that it was a bust—or about to be a bust. If the deal wasn’t going to go down, then all my work and the FBI’s would be for nothing.
“And what do you want me to do?” I asked.
“Sign on for those two positions and commit to memory all addresses, account numbers, routing numbers and phone numbers that I give you. I’ll retain no other record. Think you can do that?”
“You know I can. Anything else?”
“Your absolute loyalty to me. You breathe a word to anyone—and I mean anyone—about this, and I’ll have you killed. Understand?”
I was tempted to make a flip answer, but settled for giving him a serious look and nodding. He loved the feeling of power that holding threats over people gave him. I’d use that against him if I could, but I wouldn’t appear to challenge it or undermine it. “In that case, I’ll take double what you gave Elizabeth. Half up front. Half when the deal goes down.”
“Double? How’d you come up with that figure?”
I smiled. “I’m actually going to work for my money. And I hope that you’re not going to pay me all in cash because my mattress isn’t big enough.”
He laughed and patted me on the shoulder. “Not to worry, Miss Magic,” he said, exchanging his threatening tone for his usual bombastic bonhomie, which, weirdly enough, was even scarier. “We’ll set you up with your own offshore account.” He moved behind his desk and sat down. “We’ll do that while we’re arranging all of the other paperwork. I’m calling my attorney right now.” He reached for his mouse.
“Hang on a minute,” I said. “I need some clarification.”
He sighed. “What is it?”
“You’re turning me into your living safe deposit box, and quite frankly, I don’t see you as the kind of man who would trust another person to that degree. How do I know you won’t simply kill me after the deal goes down?”
“That’s the beauty of it, Miss Magic. My name doesn’t show up anywhere on BK Trading documents. Yours will, however, and if anything goes sideways, I won’t have to kill you, because you’ll be arrested. All I’ll have to do is act shocked and indignant because I’m a known and respected citizen, while you are quite literally nobody. Understood?”
I nodded. I understood all too well that Kroy was feeding me a line, but I kept my expression neutral.
“Excellent. Let’s get this done.” He clicked his mouse and in a second said, “You there, Ted?
A disembodied voice came from the computer. “Hey there, Bobby. How’s it going?”
“I’m good. In fact, I’m great. You coming to my shindig tomorrow night? It’s going to be the biggest fund-raiser this town has ever seen. People flying in from all over—New York, Paris, London, Hollywood, you name it. Half of them are coming to see all the famous people and the famous people are coming to be seen. All at twenty thousand a head. But I need all my ducks in a row, know what I mean? So are you ready to sign up my new board member and company director, Valentine Hill?”
“Ready and waiting.”
“Valentine,” Kroy said, “come over here and meet Ted Spears.” He pulled a side chair over for me.
I joined him behind the desk and saw the outline of a man’s head and shoulders. The figure itself was cast in shadow.
“Hello, Mr. Spears. You know, I can’t see you very well.”
“That is on purpose. I prefer to keep a certain degree of anonymity because of the—shall we say—delicacy of the work I do for my clients. Did I hear Bobby correctly? Your name is Valentine?”
“Yes, that’s really my name. What information do you need, Mr. Spears?”
“Let’s see, Bobby said your name was Valentine Hill. Do you have a middle name?”
“No.”
“Address?”
“Same as mine,” Kroy said. “And phone contact, too.”
Spears fell silent, but I could hear him typing on a keyboard. “Social security number?”
I glanced at Kroy and gave a brief shake of my head.
“We’ll need you to fix that up for her. That okay, Ted?”
“Certainly. No problem. Just give me a minute and I’ll fax the documents to you for your signatures. Before I do that just let me confirm we’re talking about BK Trading as the onshore nominee company for the corporation we’ve set up in Panama. Is that correct?” Spears asked.
“Yes, exactly. But I still want all the banking done in Hong Kong.”
“Of course. You know that you can safely bank in Panama, as well. There’s complete anonymity and no tax treaties in place, so no one can go on a fishing expedition. But it’s as you wish.”
“I prefer Hong Kong for now. And make the arrangements with the banks so Valentine can be a signatory on the two accounts. The Foundation’s and BK Trading’s. And while you’re at it, she’ll need her own account. Make it in the Caymans. Transfer one hundred thousand into it via today’s untraceable route.”
“You got it. Hang on a few so I can fax these documents to you.”
Kroy swiveled in his chair to face me. “See how I take care of you? Your money will be in your own offshore account before the end of the day. And here’s how you’ll earn it.” He picked up the sheet of paper he’d taken out of his safe and handed it to me. “The top line is Rieman’s Pharmaceutical’s secure phone contact and the second are the account and routing numbers you’ll deposit the money in today, as well as the address you’ll give them for the drugs. Ted will fax all the signed authorizations to Rieman’s. The third line is the account information of another company we’ll call company X. You will authorize payment to them as well, when they call me with the phone number they’ll use that one time only. The fourth line is the address they’ll use to arrange the drop shipment of the drugs. When I tell you to, you’ll call and give them the address. So do what you do to memorize these.” He handed me the sheet of paper.
“These numbers aren’t in your computer?”
“Hell no. You saw how risky that is. I don’t care what that computer geek says. The hell with him and his shadow partitions. They’re going to keep trying until they get past his trick partitions. And when they find out it’s all encrypted and they can’t break the code, they’ll come after me for the information.”
“Only you won’t have it,” I said. “I will.”
“Correct.”
“And if they—whoever ‘they’ are—try to persuade you to hand over the information, you’ll give me up.”
“Possibly. Depends on their persuasion tactics.”
I stared at the numbers on the paper. I was pretty sure that Phil had never intended for me to get in this deep. And I didn’t even know how deep “this” was myself. Oh well, it couldn’t be any worse than being trapped in an old broken-down elevator, could it? I lifted my head. Look at me—I’d become so good at lying that now I was lying to myself.
The fax machine whirred softly. Kroy swung his chair around and pulled the pages out of the feeder bin. “Here you go. Sign and date every place Ted’s marked.” I did as he said, and Kroy faxed them back to Spears. Then I conducted my first duties as a board member and sent three million dollars to Rieman’s Pharmaceuticals and the same amount to an anonymous account while Kroy held the page and checked that I had the numbers right.
He and Spears ended their conversation with anoth
er jovial exchange, and Kroy shifted his gaze to me. “Good job. How about the other numbers?”
“You can test me if it’ll make you feel better,” I said.
He blinked as if considering it, but shook his head. “You wouldn’t say that unless you were positive.” He fed the sheet into the shredder and transformed it into bits of confetti.
I stood up to leave.
“Oh, and one more thing,” he said. “You’re to have no contact whatsoever with Rico or anyone else outside, for that matter. You won’t leave the house until we go to the gala. And I’ll need your phone.”
“My phone? Why?”
“I need to guarantee that you follow my rule. No contact.”
“I don’t understand. I thought you were doing a business deal with Rico.”
“I was. Just not the business he thought. He made an offer to help me ship some product and manage the profits. He came up with a very good rate of return and I used his offer to negotiate a better deal with the guys I used before.”
“So you double-crossed him.”
“Don’t be naïve. It’s just the way things work in business. But he doesn’t need to know until the deal’s gone down.”
“What if he comes here?”
“Connie has his orders. Rico won’t make it through the door. You can make up with him later.” He held out his hand. “Phone.”
I gave Kroy my phone and stuffed the stacks of hundred dollar bills into the back of my pants waistband. “Why are you buying the medicines now? Aren’t you going to raise more money at the gala?”
He fixed me with a steady gaze for a moment. “You’re a smart girl. I can see that. But the smart thing to do right now is don’t ask questions. Not of me. Not of anyone else. Understand?”
“Got it.” I made the motion of zipping my lips.
“That’s the way,” he said. “Now get out of here and let me get some work done.”
I left and went upstairs in search of a phone. I hesitated a moment in front of Ashley’s door before I knocked. She hadn’t been too happy with me that morning. What were the odds I could talk her into letting me use her cell phone? I knocked and waited until I heard her sulky, “Who is it?” I opened the door a crack. “It’s me, Valentine. May I come in—please?”
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