“So where does this leave things with the thirty million?” she asked, knowing the answer.
Cameron drew a deep breath. “You need to forget about it.”
“There’s nothing you can do?”
“I can give you my own money, what I have, and that’s about a million dollars in ready cash. But as for the bank, nothing. No chance. They control every dollar in and out. They’d kill me for trying. Then they’d find you and kill you too. Believe me, they’d find you.”
Ava heard the words and believed he meant them. And she believed them too. “What time were you supposed to play golf this morning?”
“Eight.”
She looked at her watch. It was just past seven thirty. “Who were you supposed to play with?”
“Friends, just friends.”
She turned to Perkasa. “Call the golf club. Tell them you’re calling for Mr. Cameron. He’s feeling ill and he’s headed to the hospital for a quick check-up. He won’t make the game. Send his apologies and say he’ll call his friends later in the day.”
Perkasa nodded and headed into the kitchen.
“Is there anything else I need to know about today? Did you have any other appointments? Are there any other people who will be concerned about your absence?” Ava asked.
Cameron shifted in the chair again, a grimace crossing his face. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to walk,” he said. “The pain is unbelievable.”
“I asked you about other appointments.”
“I meet the Italians every Sunday night for dinner at an Italian restaurant in CitraLand.”
“What time?”
“Seven.”
“You shouldn’t have a problem making it,” she said.
“You think?”
No, Ava thought, I don’t think that at all, not yet, anyway. “Listen, I have to go and chat with my man. You’ll be here by yourself for a few minutes so I have to tape your mouth again.”
“Could you move me into the shade?”
“No, I like you where you are,” she said as she tore a strip of tape from the roll.
She walked into the kitchen to see Perkasa closing his phone. “That was the golf club,” he said.
“Any problem?” she asked.
“No.”
Ava went to one of the other kitchen chairs and sat down. “Well, what do you think?”
“About his story?”
“What else?”
“It’s crazy, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Do you believe him?”
“I think I do,” she said. “It isn’t exactly something anyone might come up with on the spur of the moment, especially with a picana as a distraction. So, yes, I believe him.”
“Me too.”
“Tell me,” Ava said, “is it really that easy to bribe your way into that kind of setup in Indonesia?”
“That depends on how much money you have to throw around. In this country it isn’t a matter of whether someone can be bribed, it’s just a question of how much it will take. And these guys are moving their own money around, so it isn’t like they’re hurting anyone here. Paying taxes on a phony set of books is pretty smart.”
“He’s supposed to meet with the Italians tonight,” she said.
“If he doesn’t show . . .”
“I know. We were lucky to grab him this morning.”
Perkasa looked down at her and she saw a question in his eyes. It was the same as the one in her mind.
“I need to talk to Uncle,” she said.
( 32 )
She let the car run for five minutes with the air conditioning on full blast as she gathered her thoughts. The problem she had now was that the secondary objective of recovering some money had gone sharply sideways. If everything he’d said was true, there was no way she was going to get her hands on the thirty million unless she was willing to take on the Italians.
So what if she took the million he had offered and left with it? Even that wasn’t without its problems. Would he be able to get his hands on the money today? And if he couldn’t, did that mean he would meet with the Italians tonight? How much trust could she put in him? She would have to talk to Uncle about the Italians and about Cameron’s offer.
For once he answered the Kowloon apartment phone himself. “Wei.”
“Uncle, it’s Ava.”
“How did it go?”
She paused. She hadn’t told him the schedule. “Well enough,” she said, realizing that he and Perkasa had probably talked the night before.
“No problems picking him up?”
“No. It was easier than I would have thought possible.”
“Good, good.”
“No, Uncle, not quite so good. I’ve just finished questioning him and things aren’t what we supposed. In fact, things are a lot more complicated than I ever imagined.”
She could hear