by John Gubert
They kissed and he felt a pang at her departure. He knew she was right. She had to go out on her own. “I’ll join you at the weekend. That’ll be normal. Just try to find Juliet this week and we can see if we can spring her later.”
She nodded but Charles was not convinced. If the opportunity came, they would act. It was right they should. They would have no other option. But he needed the delusion that they would be in no danger. And so he stuck with his self-deception as they parted. She made her way to her departing flight and he headed to the car, to home and then the bank where preparations really did demand his attention.
The journey into London allowed him to reflect on the events ahead of him. They needed to move quickly on the take-over and build up some more of the loans with the different companies they had targeted. They could move money around the system without trace and without effort. They could ensure that the movements were authorised by people other than themselves. More important, they would be people who were unaware of the plot, but whose own accounts would benefit sufficiently from their actions to raise the required suspicions.
They would also get some of the complex trades in place. That would be done through Stephens and would be easy to place at his door. He also needed to check with his father that all was progressing to plan on his side. In the unpredictable world of finance, all seemed to be working in their favour. It was their personal world that was threatened. Di Maglio again was the cause, but this would be his last chance. And they needed to be careful, the stakes now were very high. One mistake would be disastrous.
Charles arrived at the bank to be greeted by the Honourable James. His face was flushed with excitement. He had taken a call from the Bank of England and they had indicated their keenness to help accelerate the take-over. It was obvious that they’d heard from the Americans. Everyone had swallowed their story; hook, line and sinker. The Honourable James was leaving for New York himself that very evening to see the resident idiot-elect, the new chief executive of their prospective US operations.
“He seems such a damn good chap,” enthused the Honourable James in the voice he reserved for people of his own class. “We’re going to meet over a drink and go on to dinner. He’s sorted a place out for me at his club. Says it’s much more comfortable than the hotels. Damn good chap. Good find. Sounds tops.”
And with that gush of absolute irrelevance, their number one stool pigeon fussed back into his office to double check with his secretary his tickets, his cars, his reservations and all the other trivia that the unseasoned traveller finds indispensable for the smallest of inconsequential trips.
Charles then called Di Maglio. “Why didn’t you come with Jacqui? She’s not well,” snarled Di Maglio.
“I took her to the airport,” retorted Charles. “She had Claire in any case. We couldn’t both be out of the office today. Too many things need to be done on the other deal. In any event, I need to be here for when the kidnappers reveal their hand. They said they’d contact me and I waited for them at the cottage, but there was nothing. The strange thing is that they didn’t look Russian. They didn’t look anything actually. And thanks for the nanny. She was a great find!”
“She didn’t let you down. I know her and her family. She must have been kidnapped alongside Juliet. Don’t give me your shit.”
Charles was staggered that he’d try to pull that one off and responded in kind.“Your whole organisation’s becoming a fucking disaster. Your driver screws up. Your nanny screws up. And you can’t do anything about it. The cops get to the driver first and you become useless. The nanny fouled up. She was in cahoots with the kidnappers. She worked with them. And you make out otherwise to protect your inflated bloody ego.”
Di Maglio swore violently. Charles was not surprised, the gist was clear. If Jacqui and Charles agreed to take on his Empire, then he could get it back on track. The fact that he was old and wanted to retire was the cause of all the troubles. And, if they would work with him, Di Maglio ranted on, “Then Rastinov will opt out. He would be scared of a united organisation. His strength is in our disarray. He’s no fool even if he’s a bastard. He’d let Juliet loose. Not even a man like him is going to harm her. They’d drop her somewhere and disappear. We need them to see us united and the organisation in firm ownership.”
And he went on in the same vein, “The people I employ aren’t angels. I don’t go for boy scouts. Of course, the place gets scary if you say you’re going. Everyone fights if they’re not run through fear. Fear’s what makes the organisation disciplined. Who’s afraid of a guy who’s about to quit?”
“Find Juliet,” shouted Charles in the end. “Then we take over the bank. But nothing else is on my radar for the foreseeable future. That’s enough.”
He hoped that gave his father-in-law some hope they would cede in time. If Di Maglio relaxed, it improved Jacqui’s chances. Charles wondered if she would find Juliet. She knew the compound well and would be able to see where security had changed. They would have hid Juliet somewhere on, or perhaps near, the compound. Di Maglio himself would have kept well away from her. He would have kept her away from his normal henchmen. It would spoil his plans if anyone knew he was holding her or ever realised he had had her kidnapped.
Charles spoke to Jacqui. They played out the charade they had started and that allowed him also to give an account of his discussion with her father. Then he turned his mind back to the scam. They met lawyers and the others you require when you make a take-over. Then he worked through details on some strategies with his father, who had good control over Stephens and all his complex trades. That relieved Charles, he found that area difficult to follow. This was where he needed his father’s skills, honed as it was by years of study during his spare time in his former banking days.
The week progressed. The Honourable James was satisfied. The regulators were satisfied. Giovanni and Charles agreed all the documents. The trust deed for the Di Maglio holding was drawn up. It was now in favour of all their children, whenever they were born. As the weekend approached, the kidnappers had still not sought contact. Charles headed for the late Friday flight to Geneva and the hope of finding little Juliet.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
A Di Maglio driver was waiting as Charles exited customs at Geneva. He had driven with him before. He was a thickset man with little charm and no conversation. Like many of the Di Maglio entourage, he was a lifer. He had graduated from pimping to the extortion rackets and now to his trusted position as driver. He would have two classical key loyalties. He would obey without question and he would kill without compunction.
Charles sometimes wondered how Jacqui had emerged unscathed from this dysfunctional background. Yet, that was a strange characteristic of many of the Mafia women. Jacqui, Claire or Maria were all basically soft, they could be ruthless to a point, but that was simply to achieve their goals. Claire and Maria would work for Di Maglio, but out of a desire for wealth. Once they had achieved that, would they throw away the skills they had honed in their temporary profession and revert to their truer and better natures.
Charles entered the house with his luggage. He had, in London, bought some rather expensive and highly sophisticated equipment. It would allow him to check out the house at night. He hoped it would let him find where they held Juliet. Jacqui and Claire hadn’t been able to trace her so far. Otherwise, they would have somehow got him a message, if only to tell him to stay away.
He had talked to Jacqui each and every day. They had pretended to wait for news on Juliet but none had arrived. They continued to pretend they were worried about her whereabouts. In reality they were. But it was more about her exact whereabouts than anything else. And they firmly believed she would be unharmed. That calmed them down. But Di Maglio mustn’t suspect that they knew more about his plot than they made out.
The house was quiet and Charles walked to the rooms that he knew were reserved for them. They were on the second floor in the so-called East Wing guest suite. There were four large room
s in that area. Each had its own bathroom and an even larger lounge area. He walked to theirs. It had the best view of distant mountains.
On a clear day one could make out the peak of Mont Blanc. Today was such a day.
A door to the corridor opened and Claire appeared. “Charles, Jacqui’s with the doctor at the moment. She’s in the pool area. He’s making her do some exercises. It’s just physio. She should be back in the next ten or fifteen minutes. The doctor was late and she didn’t expect you so soon.”
“I’ll head over there,” he said. “I’ll just drop off my case.”
He walked into the room and looked at Mont Blanc. He felt comforted by the familiar sight. Claire had followed him and motioned him towards the bathroom. He went there and switched on the shower and the taps.
“What is it?”
“We can’t trace her. We haven’t looked everywhere. We can’t do that without raising suspicion. Your father-in-law acts well. He seems concerned. Jacqui is more worried than she made out. But she’s holding up.”
“What about you?” he gave her a questioning look.
“I’m fine. Look, I’m not due for another couple of days. I can only tell you then. The risks were not that high. There were risks. That’s all. But I promise nobody will know who the father was. I’ll find a way to cover up if I have to. There’s nothing to be done about that for the moment. What are we going to do about Juliet?”
“I’ve bought some of the latest detection gear. It is electronic and has a range of up to three hundred yards or so. It is radar based and not detectable. It sends back signals of the contents of any room and has been programmed to tell the shape of an object and also define certain key ones.”
“Which ones can it tell?”
“Things like a bed, cupboard or table. But it also identifies humans by weight and height and so on. We’ll try it out tonight. It takes a shot of each room and then stores it in a mini computer. We’ll go floor section by floor section. The shorter I keep the running time, the lower the risks of detection. Mind you, the claim is that it cannot be traced. It’s just that time increases the risks of any possible detection.”
“Let’s hope it’s better than our attempts at detection so far. Are you going to hide it? You’ll have dinner downstairs tonight. Someone’s bound to check out your luggage.”
“True. I’ll hide it easily though. It’s only a small thing. All miniaturised.”
The door opened and Jacqui walked in. Her arm was out of a sling and she looked much better now. They talked but were conscious that they might be bugged. Their distrust of her father had really plummeted to new depths. Although it would not be the first time he had bugged them, they had thought such fears would be in the past. Claire suggested they go for a walk. It was a pleasant enough night for that despite the cold.
Out in the open, walking along the still green lawns of the compound, they talked more openly.
“We’ve checked everywhere in the house other than the West wing. That part is too well guarded. It always has been. It’s the nerve centre of his Empire. I don’t think she’s here. I think she’s somewhere else.”
“She’s in the vicinity. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have come here. I suspect he feels he can keep her safe here. He’s got enough people. Perhaps we’ll need to scan the houses around here. Tonight I’ll do the West wing. We better also screen the attics. Are there any cellars?”
Claire nodded, “Yes, but I wandered round them the other night. There’s nothing there but wine and stores.”
“What about false walls or hidden mezzanines?
“I know the place too well,” said Jacqui. “I would have noticed.”
“They could have been there always.”
She shook her head. “I played here as a kid. I was always alone. I explored every corner of the place other than the West wing. That’s always been taboo. I can’t believe there is anything I don’t know.”
“When will you need to return? If you stay here too long, he’ll get suspicious.”
“I could stretch it another week. But anything longer would be suspicious. Have you got to be back on Monday?”
“I have to meet the Honourable James on Sunday night. I need to fly out to New York on Monday morning. I’ll fly back Tuesday.”
There was a bench in the grounds in the shadow of a large pine tree. Jacqui sat down on it and looked wearily over the long expanse of well-trimmed and tended lawn. The borders were cut back and flowerless at this time of year. The trees had already long lost their leaves. The whole garden seemed to be mournful. She shook her head.
“Charles, tell me the state of play in the office. I need to think of something else. It’ll clear my mind.”
He sat down beside her. Claire decided to wander off to a pond nearby and watched the ducks swim around.
He recounted the latest news. “We’ve started lending to the phoney companies. I have about half a billion of loans to them and we have already passed all the money through the banking system and into our secret accounts. It will be totally untraceable. We’ve targeted six companies so far and in four cases we’ve had fun getting the signatures onto phoney instructions.
Lord Dunkillin signed off on two of them and then promptly transferred the money to the Dunkillin Trust in Liechtenstein. The money then vanishes from there. Ffinch Farquar signed a couple more. He pushed the money to a couple of the companies. His wife is on the board of them and she was asked to sign some papers. She’s unwittingly siphoned off the money from the company to an account in another name in Cayman. She doesn’t realise it but the account is in her name. It’s disappeared from there too. Staff who didn’t see anything strange about them did the others.
Giovanni also did around three quarters of a billion for us through the American arm to make sure the loans do not start with the purchase. That would be a bit too suspicious! But the good news is that the proceeds are also with us and not, as I had feared, in one of your father’s secret accounts.
So we’ve made our first billion or so and the bank will assume it’ll make about twenty to forty million a year in interest margin on the loans. The interest is payable annually and so, unless something happens to scare the credit guys, nobody will know it won’t be paid until twelve months time. And that’ll be far too late.”
“What about Stephens and your father?”
“They’ve been writing these strange deals to a couple of shadow organisations we have. The way it’s done, the bank has received several million of commissions. The deals look as if the bank has no problems as we are valuing the things incorrectly. They’re crazy deals and in reality the bank is already losing around a hundred million on them. When we’re ready, we’ll crystallise those losses. The bank takes those and we get the profit in our accounts. But we’ve now trimmed our sights in this area back slightly and are targeting just two billion of shortfalls. That will only come about after we sell the bank to the public.”
“When will that be? Have we a firm date in mind yet?”
“I’m trying to accelerate everything as much as I possibly can. The prospectus is being prepared. We want to complete the bid. That should be through in a couple of weeks. We’ll wait for the six monthly figures in May. Then we’ll float in late June and go bust in August at the earliest, maybe a couple of months later.”
“What about the investment scam?”
“That’s progressing well. My father’s doing the usual job of accumulating the shares and making sure he doesn’t move the market. For instance, we’re buying a couple of shell companies. Both are quoted on strange little stock exchanges and are really worthless. With careful manipulation, we can change them into hot property and get their prices soaring. Once that happens, we’ll get the US funds to buy them from us. As the companies cost us hardly anything to acquire, anything we sell for is almost entirely profit. It’s all going like a dream.”
“If only we had Juliet, everything would be perfect.”
“Tonight we scan the house. Otherwise tomorrow we search the neighbourhood.”
Jacqui shivered. “Come on, you’re cold. Let’s get you back inside. I’ll have to meet your father. I suppose we’ll have to have a nightcap with him. And he’ll expect us for dinner tomorrow,” said Charles.
“No. I said I needed a break. We’ll go into Geneva. Claire’s going to stay here. I need to be with you. I want to be alone.”
Charles put his arm around her and hugged her gently. “We’ll find her. And then we’ll deal with your father.”
She looked grimly at him. “And we will deal with him.”
The three of them returned to the house. They went to the lounge where Di Maglio sat in splendid isolation. He did not look a happy man. The first thing he did was turn on Charles.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing in London when your kid’s missing and your wife’s shot? I’ve a good mind to keep Jacqui here and kick you out.”
They thought instantly that Di Maglio must be suspicious. He obviously wanted to rile Charles. He needed to react but he had to keep control of himself. Charles turned to him in fury. The hatred was evident and it was not make believe. But he had control of his temper. There was no way that he was going to blow this one. “First of all, get one thing into your head. You don’t own Jacqui. You don’t own me. We asked for your help. We asked it in two ways. Jacqui needed peace and quiet. We thought she was safer here than in London. We asked you to find Juliet. We thought you were at least good for that, but no. You haven’t found one thing.”
“Look you,” he yelled, but Charles cut him off.
“We’ll leave tomorrow. Juliet is our concern. You forget this is your fault. You’ve put her at risk with your drugs, your extortion, your pimps and your prostitutes. You live with shit and contamination all about you. We don’t need you. We can cut out the bank deal. I’ll do that happily.”
“You’ll go ahead with that deal. After your crawling up to the regulators, they’d crucify us if you dropped out,” roared Di Maglio.