The Scottish Banker of Surabaya - By Ian Hamilton Page 0,116
streets were so crowded she could walk only at quarter speed. “Look, this is really inconvenient for me right now. Is it possible you could call me back in about fifteen minutes?”
“Ms. Kwong, we aren’t going to change our mind about needing more time,” Valliant said.
“And what do you mean by more time?”
“Several days at least.”
“That is quite open-ended.”
“I’m sorry, but we can’t be more specific.”
“Well, I can. I’m not going to give you more time, so I guess you have fifteen minutes to work something out.”
“And then what? You’ll really walk away?”
“Maybe I’ll go to the Americans.”
“What makes you think they’ll react any differently?”
“They have RICO. The money they can claw back from the real estate deals in and around New York City will pay me what I want and will leave them with a ton of cash and the credit for shutting down at least part of the ’Ndrangheta.”
“But will they give you and your client the level of security we can?”
Ava didn’t answer.
“Ms. Kwong, the information you gave us does have interest. What it doesn’t have right now is any credence,” Torsney said. “Two names and some copies of financial transactions do not justify sending you a thousand dollars, never mind thirty million. We need time to verify that what we have is exactly what you claim it is.”
“Call me in fifteen minutes,” Ava said, ending the call.
She walked into the hotel lobby, saw a vacant chair in a corner, and headed for it, dialling Sonny’s cell number as she went.
“He’s still in massage,” he said.
“I don’t care. Take your phone to him. We need to talk.”
“Ava —”
“Do it.”
She sat down, her mind churning. It was the Canadians or nothing, and nothing was beginning to look like the best option.
“Are you all right?” Uncle asked.
“No. Things are getting complicated. I’ve just heard from the Mounties. They want more time.”
“Why?”
“They’re having problems getting to the bottom of the real estate deals I sent them. There are layers upon layers. They say they need time to get to the roots.”
“Is that true?”
“Probably.”
“So what to do?”
“The way I see it, the longer this gets stretched out, the greater the risk. The Italians will know by now that Cameron’s gone to Singapore, and they’ll already be assuming he’s done a runner. I’m sure they’re trying to track him down.”
“Never to find him.”
“True, but my fear is that in a few days they might be paranoid enough and smart enough to figure out he never left. If that happens, and if they happen to talk to a certain Singapore Air supervisor at Juanda Airport, their attention would switch to Surabaya and to how Cameron spent his time after leaving work on Friday. That is something I don’t want to happen.”
“It seems unlikely.”
“But not impossible. And if I give the Mounties more time, who knows who they’ll start talking to. Uncle, I think our only chance to get our money and to get distance from this entire affair is to push for a quick resolution.”
“All we have are the bank records. If that is what is causing the delay, that is not going to change. What surprises me is that they have not insisted on meeting or having direct communication with Cameron.”
“That, I think, will be the next thing they want.”
“What do you want to do? End it?”
“No, I would like to have the money. But I’m beginning to think that what I want even more is every law enforcement agency in the Western world hounding the ’Ndrangheta. I want the Italians to be focused on that and not on hunting the ghost of Andy Cameron. A good offence is often the best defence.”
“But you do not want to give the Mounties the time they say they need to establish that what we are telling them is accurate.”
“Not if it involves days or weeks of work going through bank records. We simply cannot give the ’Ndrangheta that kind of time.”
“I am beginning to wish I had not called my friends at the Hong Kong police. I should have thought this through better.”
“There is nothing wrong with your plan if we can move fast enough.”
“Is there anything we can do to make that possible?”
“There is one thing. It’s a bit of a gamble, but it has the main advantage of providing positive proof in the quickest way possible and the secondary advantages of giving the Mounties the money they need to pay us and taking the Indonesian-based Italians out of the game. It would