by Jeff Abbott
I hated that she described him with that veneer of respectability. “Not quite the same. He’s more like a military commander who doesn’t care how many troops he loses. As long as he gets what he wants.”
“But that is what commanders are supposed to do, yes?”
“You really don’t know what kind of man you married, do you?”
She crossed her arms. “Maybe I knew exactly who I married, Sam, and that is what bothers you.”
I ignored that last stab.
She shifted the topic. “You asked me to do checks on Kent Severin and a guy named Ricky, and Steve Robles’s bank accounts.”
“Yes.” Following Marianne meant we hadn’t had time to discuss this.
“Steve Robles was clean. No unusual amounts. Irregular deposits, since he was self-employed. But nothing suspicious.”
I felt relief. He hadn’t taken a bribe.
She got brisk. “Kent Severin grew up the son of a US diplomat. Like you, he spent a lot of time wandering the world as a small child. Then flight school, and he worked as a pilot for FastFlex. Retired after a crash here in San Juan.”
“Here? A crash?”
“Yes, and that was when he was blinded. He retired, obviously, got his MBA and went to work for the corporate office, no police record. His bank accounts match his pay at FastFlex. No suspicious financial trail, no unusual payments or purchases. No hidden accounts. No sign he is dirty at first glance.”
“And Ricky?”
“Oddly—nothing interesting on him yet.”
“There’s a regular at the bar. A librarian named Paige, who’s good at finding out info on locals. I’ll give you her phone number. See what she can find on him.”
“Fine.” She picked up her bag. “I’ll see if I can get the next flight back. Are you sure you don’t want me to stay? If Galo Varela saw you, you could be a dead man.”
“That’s true.” I wanted her to stay, but I couldn’t ask.
“Sam.”
“What?” I stopped on my way to the elevators.
“Be careful.”
I got on the elevator and the doors slid closed.
I found Cori in her room. She was frantic, pacing. “What the hell is going on? The news says there was a shooting at the Castillo.”
“Non-fatal.” I showed her the chip. “This was given to the messenger. Just like the one Steve had. Someone is paying people through this casino. What did your friend say?”
“She was off today. I called her on her cell and she’s come in to help us…she should be here soon.”
I turned on the television news. The coverage was confused as to whether there had been a shooting or it had been some sort of sick joke. No one had seen anyone bleeding, just a woman screaming, but she had run to a car and had not been found. Police were asking witnesses to come forward. No mention of the prominent Varela family.
“This is horrible,” Cori said. “Who shot her?”
“I’d guess Zhanna. Or Ricky, probably from a roof on one of the facing buildings. Sending a message. No more negotiation. She maybe didn’t like the clients saying she couldn’t have the job your father gave her.” But it seemed odd, literally shooting the messenger. It seemed unnecessary and would only enrage the mysterious clients further. Unless Zhanna meant it as sheer defiance, as a way to thumb her nose at the clients. The stakes must be extraordinary for Zhanna. I turned to Cori. “Your friend. How much can you trust her?”
“I helped Magali when she needed some money. I think she’ll be discreet.”
A knock at the door and I checked the peephole. A young woman in a suit entered, smiling uncertainly at Cordelia, glancing at me. Cori introduced me as her boyfriend.
“There has been a problem with someone following Cori. We’re trying to figure out why,” I told her as we all sat down.
“Why not call the police?”
“The family wants to keep it quiet.”
“I’m not sure how I can help.”
“Someone who was following Cori dropped a casino plaque from here. Rectangular, with an X symbol on it instead of a dollar amount. We also found a broken chip connected to another person we think was following her.”
I saw Magali’s throat tighten.
“I’m wondering what the chip means,” I said.
“I’ve never seen such a chip,” Magali said.
“It has the casino’s name on it,” I said.
“Maybe it’s counterfeit,” she said softly, not looking at us.
“Magali, please,” Cori said. “You’re not a very good liar.”
“I could just take these chips down to the casino cage,” I said, “and see what happens when I try to redeem them.”
Magali wet her lips. “I don’t want to get in trouble.”
“I’ll protect your job, Magali,” Cori said.
I wasn’t sure it was her job Magali feared for, but she took a deep breath. “I’ve only seen such a chip twice in my five years working here. When the first one was shown to me, I was told to summon a supervisor.”
“And then what?”
“Well, the supervisor did an electronic funds transfer from a casino bank account to the redeemer’s bank account. Two hundred thousand dollars. I guess people don’t want to walk away with large winnings if they can’t get to a branch of their bank here in San Juan.”
“But then those winnings, those chips, would still have denominations on them,” Cori said.
I watched Magali. She was nervous. “There’s a serial number on the chip,” she said, as if that excused the lack of a denomination.
“I guess that lets them tie the chip to specific transfers?” I said. “Is it reprogrammable, like a hotel key?” That is what you would need if one chip was worth two hundred thousand and another chip was worth three hundred thousand. It would depend on the payment you were making. She shrugged.
“Have you ever seen this kind of chip on the gaming tables?” I asked.
“No.”
“So where do these special chips come from?”
“I don’t know. Please, Cori, I don’t want to get into trouble.”
“You’ve said you’ve seen them twice. Do you remember the people who brought them?” Cori asked.
Magali bit her lip. “The first time, yes, it was a man. He had cold eyes. In his thirties. I’ve seen him here another time, with your brother, Cori.”
I glanced at Cordelia. “Did he wear a jacket?”
“This is Puerto Rico, we don’t often have to wear jackets.”
“Kind of geeky? But scary, at the same time?”
Slowly she nodded. “Cold eyes.”
Ricky. Cordelia frowned.
“What about the second person?”
She shrugged. “In his late twenties, early thirties. A bit taller than you. Gorgeous suit.” She gave me an awkward smile. “You know, he looked a bit like you in the face.”
Cori glanced at her, frowned at me. Like I’d told her a lie about myself.
“I mean, you know, clean-shaven, all-American.” Then Magali bit her lip again.
“Ha,” Cori said. “You mean all-Canadian.”
Oh, yes, she still doesn’t even know who I really am, I thought.
“I never saw him again,” Magali said.
“When was this?”
“The weird creep about six months ago. The other guy, around Christmas a year ago. I remember because he wished me a Merry Christmas and I thought he was cute, and you don’t see those chips very often at all.”
“Was Galo with the weird creep when he redeemed the chip?” I asked.
“Oh, no. Galo would have talked to me. The guy was alone.”
“Would there be a record of those transfers? I’d like to know what banks they went to.”
Magali’s nervousness returned. “I don’t know that I can find that out.”
“It’s a computer record, Magali,” Cori said. “And therefore searchable. Your job is safe, I’ll make sure of that.”
“All
right. I’ll try.”
“Call Cori when you have the information. Thank you, Magali.”
Cori gave her friend a hug and kiss on the cheek before Magali left.
“Ricky,” I said, “is the weird creep. Just a guess.”
“That makes no sense,” Cori said. “Galo wouldn’t pay him through the casino.”
“Two possibilities. One, Ricky’s also working for the underside of the business and this is how they pay him. Off the books.” Rey was insistent Galo stay clean. “Two, someone else is using this as a payment system. Zhanna or Kent or even your father. Or another partner in the casino. Who are the other owners?”
“Some consortium. Omega Investments.”
“Have you ever met anyone who works for them?”
“No,” she said. “We’re the majority owners.” A sudden frost in her voice. “Ricky. And a guy who looked like you.”
“That’s ridiculous,” I said. “It was over a year ago and I didn’t know you.”
A rapping at the door. We weren’t expecting anyone else. I drew the gun and checked the peephole.
Galo. Looking broken and panicked.
39
IF HE’D SEEN me driving the Yukon…my cover was blown.
“Sam, Cori,” he hissed at the door.
He’d known I’d had a room at the hotel already. As I reached for the doorknob I thought, You’ll know in his face in the first three seconds if he saw you or not. If he wants you back at the compound they saw you. Get rid of you like they did Nesterov.
I opened the door, hoping I wouldn’t have to kill him.
“Sam. You didn’t answer my texts…” He practically fell into the room. I shut the door.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
He went to Cori and embraced her.
“What’s happened?” Her gaze met mine over his shoulder.
“We met this woman who was the kidnapper’s boss. She delivered a message to us. And then she got shot.”
“Shot!” Cori was very good.
“Not badly hurt, I think, she ran off. But Papa and Kent and I were right there and we could have been shot…Papa could have been shot.” He didn’t seem scared—more angry. “What do I do?”
Galo, trying to be whatever the family needed him to be.
“Who shot her?” I asked.
“I don’t know. She knew…about Zhanna taking over the smuggling. The clients are spying on us.” He spoke in a rush.
It was the first time he’d used the word smuggling in front of me.“Did your father talk about giving the smuggling to Z before yesterday morning?”
“Not to me—he might have said something to her. Or Kent. Or someone else. His mouth runs.” He glanced at Cori.
“Where was Zhanna during the meeting?” I asked.
“Watching from a distance. On a roof. The woman ran toward a car—a man was driving for her—I tried to catch them, but they got away. And the police stopped me for honking and speeding.”
“What’d you tell the police?” Cori asked.
“I thought I’d heard a shot and then this woman ran like she was hurt. That I tried to follow her, to help her.” He sat on the bed. “Zhanna shot her, I think. She was the only one in position.”
“Why didn’t she go to the meeting with you?”
“She said we shouldn’t all go if they tried to trap us. So she stayed on a roof to watch. The clients don’t want Zhanna running the smuggling. I don’t know how, though, how could Z have heard what the woman told us?”
“Parabolic microphone,” I said.
“Like she carries that around with her?”
“Did she drive with you and your father?” I asked.
“She drove her own car,” Galo said slowly. “I guess she could have had any gear in it she needed.” He shook his head in anger. “Z wanted to send a message. She’s not backing down from them. She’ll get us all killed. What do I do, Sam?”
“That depends on who these clients are. I know the secret business, the underside, moves huge amounts of cash. What else?”
He said it as though the words were still hard to pry from his throat. “Papa has kept me out of it. Obviously, cash, since you saw it, Cori. Sometimes other goods, but I don’t know for certain. I don’t think it’s drugs,” he said, as if that would be worse.
“You could move millions in high-grade meth in small packages,” I said. “Dealers would love to have a legit cargo company in their pocket.”
Galo bit his lip. “If I knew, I’d tell you, I need your help, Sam.”
“They’ve all gone back to the house?” I asked.
“Yes. Papa wanted me to be sure Cori was okay. And I wanted to ask for your advice,” Galo said.
He hadn’t seen me, then. I needed a calmer Galo. So I called room service and ordered plates of appetizers, hamburgers, chicken mofongo, strong Puerto Rican coffee, and whisky. Cori sat next to her brother, and she put her head on his shoulder.
“Tell me about Zhanna,” I said. “Why do the clients object to her?”
“I don’t know.” He got up, paced. I thought of how they’d leaned together at the Or nightclub; she’d been angry and he’d tried to soothe her.
“Of course you do,” I said. “You’re family.”
“That’s the problem. Z has always preferred our family to hers.”
“Her family is gone. You all and Kent are what she has left.”
They glanced at each other. “Her father’s still alive, Sam,” Cori said.
“She said there was a crash…”
“Sergei was flying the San Juan to Miami run. With Kent, back when he was a pilot. They crashed on takeoff. Sergei was badly injured; he’s never worked again. Kent was blinded by fragments of wreckage. Papa takes care of Sergei. Pays his bills. He lives over in Sunny Isles.” I knew the area, between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, where many Russian immigrants had settled.
“She made it sound like he was dead. Was Rey her stepfather already when the crash happened?”
“No,” Galo said. “About six months after, Natalia—that’s Zhanna’s mom—left Sergei and married Papa. It was awkward.”
“More awkward than you know,” Cori said, and I couldn’t miss the annoyed, embarrassed expression on Galo’s face. There was a history there with him and Zhanna. Maybe not a good one.
“We’d grown up with Zhanna; she was the daughter of our father’s best friend,” Galo said. “And then suddenly my stepsister. We were teenagers, it was awkward.”
“Some friend your father was.” I spoke before I thought.
Galo couldn’t stand a criticism of Rey. “Papa took care of both of them. They had different needs. Sergei couldn’t ever be a husband again to her. Papa could.”
I couldn’t keep the edge off my voice. “So if you were married, and crippled in an accident, you’d be fine with Ricky marrying your wife and taking in your kid in a matter of months?”
Galo didn’t surrender. “I’d do my best to understand it. Especially if Ricky was taking care of me.”
“So the clients don’t want Zhanna. Who would they accept? You? Kent?”
Galo paced the room again and sat by me. “They want to appoint their own person.”
“Meaning that they want to take over the smuggling business.”
“Papa will never cave in.”
“So he loses this business,” Cori said. “That’s for the best, Galo.”
I hazarded a guess. “Maybe he can’t give it up. He’s under threat, something beyond money. Your father…owes somebody something. He told me that success could be a prison. This is what he meant.”
Galo shook his head.
The food arrived and we ate in awkward silence and Galo said, “Sam, what do you think I should do? Papa says I can’t be involved, but I have to be. I killed a man. I saw a woman get shot today. Papa can’t solve this and the clients won’t deal with Zhanna. It’s all up to me.” And he sounded beaten by it.
“You need to find out what they’re moving
,” I said. “You’re positioned in a way you can. That’s our only hope.”
“You want me to spy on Papa and Kent.”
“Yes,” I said bluntly.
“And then, Galo, walk away from it,” Cori said. “There are other jobs, other companies.”
“How do I do that? I give up the job I was groomed to do from when I was a kid? I can’t do that to the family.”
“It’s fine with me if you do it,” Cori said.
“Do you know how to not be rich, Cori?” Galo asked. “To do without?”
“Screw being rich. These must be the people who took Edwin. We can’t make peace with them, not now.”
“We don’t know that they took Eddie,” he said.
“Cling to your illusions much?” Cori said. “Please, Galo. These…clients don’t want Papa, they don’t want Zhanna. That means they might tolerate you. There’s no way you stay free of them. Unless we just give them what they want.”
“I can’t give away our family business, Cori,” he said.
Cori gave him a hard, unforgiving look.
We finished eating and Galo said, “Sam, would you walk me down to the car? Cori will be safe here, won’t she?”
“I’ll be fine.” Cori’s voice was stone. “I love you, Galo, please listen to me.”
“I love you, too. Now, shut up.”
40
WE WENT DOWN to the lobby. It was crowded, the casino was chiming.
Galo gestured toward two seats by a window and we sat, away from any listeners.
“Don’t get me wrong.” Galo’s voice was low. “I love my sister. But if there’s a traitor amongst us—it’s her.”
“What?” Shock colored my voice.
“Papa showed her cash she wasn’t supposed to see, and she panicked. She called us. We panicked. Maybe Papa told her more than I know. Maybe she knows who the clients are and she called them.”
“Why would she do that?”
“Because she wants us out of this business. She wants the clients just to take it over, take it away from me. She could think she’s protecting me.”
I kept my voice calm. “I don’t think Cori’s done that, Galo.”
“She has you. Her protector. The timing is great.” He looked past my shoulder for a minute. “Where were the two of you during the meeting?”