contracts signed. One person per family, and I need to see the last financial statement you received from the Emerald Lion Fund. We’ll put that amount in the contract and then you will sign two copies, with your name, address, and phone number. I’ll sign the contract for my company. You get one copy, I get the other. So if you could, please come up here one at a time.” Ava sat behind the table and took her Mont Blanc pen from her bag.
Trinh and Theresa organized a line along one wall. “I’ll go first,” Theresa said.
One by one, seventeen people came to the table and handed Ava a statement with a green lion logo and a slip of paper with their bank information on it. She recorded the information in her notebook, and after each contract was signed she wrote the person’s family name and the amount owed in a running tally. By the tenth contract she was already over fifteen million dollars. After the last one was signed, the total was thirty-two million. Ava was beginning to realize that Lam Van Dinh had probably scammed a hell of a lot more money than had been reported.
When she had the last signature, Ava gathered together her copies of the contracts and tucked them into her Chanel bag. People were lingering, chatting among themselves and glancing at Ava. She imagined they had all kinds of questions, but she knew most of them would be hypothetical, and she wasn’t in the mood for conjecture.
It was past eight o’clock when she left the pho restaurant. Theresa and Eddie Trinh walked her to the door. She saw in their faces that they had questions too, or at least the two questions that every client had: How long is this going to take? How much do you think you can get back?
“I meant what I said in there,” Ava said. “I have no idea if I’ll be able to find Lam, or, if I do, if he’ll have any money, or, if he has, how much I can get back. I could be on this for weeks.”
Trinh began to speak but Theresa interrupted him. “Thank you, Ava. I’m sure, if something important happens, you’ll call.”
“Yes, if something important happens,” Ava said. “One thing I would like to know is the name of the friend of your brother who is the friend of Lam — the one who got you into this mess.”
“Lac, Joey Lac.”
“How can I reach him?”
Theresa paused. “I’m not sure he’ll talk to you.”
“Why not?”
Another, longer pause. “When the troubles began, my brother went to see him and told him he had to do something for us, and for other friends we recommended the fund to. He said he would try, and maybe he did, but nothing happened. My brother got very angry with him and they had words and, well, my brother hit him. He hasn’t heard from Joey since.”
“Theresa, I need you to call your brother and I need your brother to call or go to see Joey Lac and make some kind of peace. It’s important that I meet with him. Give my phone number to your brother and ask him to pass it along to Lac. I’d like to get together with him right away.”
“Maybe I should call him myself.”
“If you think that’s best.”
“I do.”
“Okay, but when you talk to him, please be persistent. I’ll meet him anytime at all, and I don’t care where.”
( 7 )
The drive back to the city was quick, and by nine o’clock Ava was sitting in the Italian restaurant a few steps from her condo, digging into a dish of linguine with rapini and portobello mushrooms. Her black Moleskine notebook was open on the table, and between bites she began to make a list of the things she wanted to do the following day. She kept a separate notebook for every job she undertook. In it she recorded names, numbers, dates, summaries of conversations, questions to be asked, questions answered, and her thoughts as the case unfolded. When the job was done, the notebook was put in a safety deposit box at her local bank. Ava’s friends teased her for being so old-fashioned, but there was something about putting pen to paper that cemented memories and sparked her imagination. It had been three months between notebooks. And as she wrote, the first stirrings of anticipation began to form. Maybe I’ve missed working after all, she thought.
She phoned Uncle’s apartment and Lourdes answered.