The Scottish Banker of Surabaya - By Ian Hamilton Page 0,75
to worry about him not showing up for work at the bank. And if we do it in the morning we can have access to him for the day, and I don’t think we’ll need more time than that.”
“You’re sure about his being accessible in the morning?”
“As I said, he’s scheduled to play golf. When do most people play in this climate?”
“The morning.”
“Exactly. Getting him on Sunday at any time is more important to me than waiting for Monday.”
Perkasa said, “Let’s make sure about the time if we can. I’ll phone the club on some pretext and try to confirm that Cameron is playing and when he’s supposed to tee off.”
“Good idea,” Ava said, realizing she’d been making a lot of assumptions.
“Regardless of when he’s scheduled to play, you want to grab him somewhere between his house and the club?”
“That’s my idea, but I don’t know how far one is from the other and I don’t have a clue about the roads in between. I’m thinking that early on Sunday morning they won’t be that busy, but we need Waru to check all that out.”
“Won’t Cameron be expected at the golf club?”
“You or Waru can call and tell them he’s had to cancel.”
“What was the name of the course again?”
“Paradise Run.”
He picked up the paper with Cameron’s address on it. “Excuse me for a minute while I talk to the guys,” he said.
Ava watched the brothers as Perkasa spoke, his tone completely matter-of-fact. Their facial reactions were equally neutral. The minute turned into something approaching five; then Waru interrupted and Perkasa passed the piece of paper to him. He and his brother looked at it together and then had their own quiet discussion. Waru finally handed it back with his own monologue and what sounded like a question.
“They want to know if the banker has a driver or not. It isn’t unusual for that to be the case, and if he does, then in all likelihood the driver will be doubling as a bodyguard and could be armed.”
“I don’t know anything about a driver. All I know is that he drives a Porsche 911 Targa.”
Perkasa smiled and spoke to Waru, who smiled back. “There’s no chance he has a driver for that car,” Perkasa said to Ava.
“I didn’t think so. Now, how about the house? Do they know where it is?”
“Yeah, Waru used to patrol the area. The house and the golf course are both in west Surabaya, about twelve kilometres apart. Waru says the banker has about a two-kilometre drive from his house, through a residential community, to the highway, and then about an eight-kilometre drive on the highway to the cut-off for the golf course. The road going to the course is only two lanes, and very winding. He says it isn’t developed around there. The course is quite isolated.”
“That sounds like the ideal spot, doesn’t it.”
“That’s what Waru said.”
“Then that’s the plan. How do you want to coordinate it?”
“Let me call the golf club first,” Perkasa said.
He walked over to the hotel desk and started a conversation with the concierge. She punched some information into her computer and then turned the screen for Perkasa to look at it. He spoke to her again and she reached for a phone and made a call while he watched. When she was done, Ava saw him slip a banknote across the desk to her.
“He’s playing tomorrow and he’s supposed to tee off at seven thirty,” Perkasa said when he returned.
“What did she tell them?” Ava asked.
“She said she was calling for a hotel guest who has some paperwork he needs to get to Cameron first thing in the morning. She said the guest wanted to meet up with him before he started to play.”
Ava looked at Waru. “Is he willing to wear his police uniform tomorrow?” she asked.
Perkasa repeated the question in Indonesian. Waru nodded.
“Great,” Ava said. “Then I suggest that we position one of our vehicles — you and I should be in it — near the banker’s house very early tomorrow morning. The other one, with the brothers, should be on the golf course road; we can leave the exact location to Waru. You and I can tail the Porsche after it leaves the house. We’ll need to be in phone contact with the other car so they’ll know when he’s left and just in case he changes his route. When the banker exits the highway, he’ll be only a minute or so from our second car. Waru