Hill and McDowell exchanged barely perceptible glances, then Hill glared at Turner. “Our calculations indicate that Servito stole over three hundred million. Conservatively, that amount would have doubled over the past ten years, so six hundred million gets our attention,” he said.
Turner, the consummate professional, struggled to postpone a blink. “That amount closes your files, and all charges dropped?” he asked, aware that his client had no chance of getting his hands on anywhere close to that amount.
Both Hill and McDowell nodded.
“Why not give my client a break and round it out to five hundred million? Do I still have your attention?”
“Show us the money. We’ll talk again,” Hill replied, showing five fingers
CHAPTER 99
Monaco. Friday, September 28.
“Hi, Pierre,” Kerri said, her middle and index fingers of both hands crossed.
Lambert stepped inside her suite and closed the door. He displayed a huge smile. “A numbered Iacardi account just received an injection of slightly more than one hundred and sixty-six million dollars?”
“Yes!” Kerri shouted, her waning confidence having received an enormous boost. “Thank you, Pierre. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”
“Congratulations. It took an enormous amount of courage to do what you’ve done. You’re now my wealthiest client.”
“I’ll never see or touch that money, Pierre.”
Lambert frowned. “On that subject, I just talked to Dan Turner. He regretted to inform me that he tried every trick in the book to get the charges against your father dropped, but couldn’t. He said the Feds’ influence was obvious. He speculated that they leaned on the court. They did it to put maximum pressure on your father to talk. Now here’s the really bad news. He further advised me that if your father can turn over six hundred million to them, they’ll drop the charges and close their files. They refused, however, to put it in writing.”
Kerri closed her eyes and bit her lip. In spite of all of her efforts, including risking her life, she had nowhere near that amount. “I don’t know my father very well, Pierre, but I’m sure even if they gave him a life sentence, he still wouldn’t talk.”
“Dan was delighted to hear that you had recovered the money. He said he would pass the information along to your father as soon as possible.”
“Thank you. What about me? When am I going to be allowed to leave Monaco?’
“I don’t know. I’m having a lot of difficulty getting answers from anyone. The police appear to be delaying any formal action on your case. Whenever I press the issue, they just tell me to be patient. I suspect they think you know where the money is.”
“Will you call me as soon as you know anything? I’m really scared.”
“I will. I suspect the delay is to get you to talk. I’m sure the Monaco police have been informed of the enormous amount of money involved in this case.”
“Then I want you to get a message to my father as soon as possible. Tell him that hell will freeze before I breathe a word about that money to anyone.”
“I’ll certainly do that, but I’m confused. What could you possible hope to achieve by continuing to hide it?”
“I want my father to use it to negotiate with the Feds. Unfortunately, it’s not enough, not nearly enough.”
CHAPTER 100
“So what’s with the collect call?” Miles jested. “I’m shocked that one of the wealthiest women in Europe can’t afford to pay for a telephone call to New York.”
Kerri laughed. “So deduct it from my salary.”
“Congratulations. You continue to amaze me. You’ve done exactly what you said you were going to do. I knew you were a winner from the day I met you.”
“I haven’t done everything yet. I still have to get my dad out of prison. Then I need to get my ass out of this wonderland.”
“Why is he in prison, and why can’t you just leave?”
“Dad tried to dodge a subpoena by hiding on an island north of Toronto. The Feds found him and convicted him of obstruction of justice. I think I’m being detained here because of the money. Pierre Lambert thinks the Monaco Police are delaying action on my case to put pressure on me to tell them where it is.”
“That infernal money! Everyone who touches it rolls snake-eyes.”
“Well you’re touching it now, Miles.”
“What do you want me to do with it?”
“Make it grow.”
“And how do you expect me to do that?”
“Short crude oil.”
Dennis laughed. “Let me amend my last statement. Everyone who touches that money rolls snake-eyes and goes stark raving mad.”
“I’m serious, Miles. I’ve had nothing to do but watch television for days. I’m convinced that the Kuwait problem is going to come to crashing end and crude oil is going to crash with it.”
“You know we could lose it all.”
“Yes, but what the hell do we have to lose?”
“Work with me on this. Please explain why a hundred and sixty-six million is nothing to lose.”
“My only interest in that money is using it to clear my father. We need at least six hundred million to have any hope of doing that. If you can’t pull off a miracle with that money, we might as well give it away to charity.”
“How high do you want me to fly?”
“As high as you can. Back up the truck and bet the farm.”
“What name do you want to put on the account?”
“Forta Equitas, S.A.”
“What’s that?”
“Visconti’s company.”
“Incredible!” Dennis declared. “Now I know you’ve gone stark raving mad. You’ve risked your life to give me a ton of money. Then you’ve told me it’s useless unless I almost quadruple its value. Now you’re telling me to put into an account for your dead boy friend.”
“Forta Equitas is mine now. I inherited it from my dead boy friend… Have fun, Miles.”
CHAPTER 101
Monaco. October 14. 11:00 A.M.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” Kerri shouted, then stepped from the shower. She hurried to put on her pink silk robe and ran to the door, her hair still wet and dripping.
Lambert met her with a frown. “May I come in?”
Her heart pounding, she clutched Lambert’s arm and led him to a chair near the balcony. “Tell me what happened,” she demanded, taking the seat next to him.
“If there was any doubt that the Monaco police are playing games with us, they put it to rest today. The good news is that Ullman told me that the government of Monaco strongly preferred to avoid the publicity of a murder trial. He also told me that forensics confirmed that Visconti strangled Schnieder, and that the medical evidence confirmed that Visconti raped you… The bad news is that he said they still aren’t convinced that you don’t know where the money is.” Lambert’s lips tightened, his eyes fixed on Kerri’s. “We have to prove you don’t, and I’m powerless to do that.”
Lambert’s statement hit Kerri like a sledge hammer. She too was powerless to do that, and unless she could, or unless Miles Dennis could perform a miracle, she was condemned to her Monaco prison, alone, scared, bored, and miserably unhappy.
CHAPTER 102
Ottawa. January 16, 1991. Seven P.M.
Alex McDowell, relaxing in the den of his suburban home, was stunned by what he saw and heard on his television set. Live from the window of the Hotel Al-Rasheed in downtown Baghdad, the excited voices of CNN reporters, Bernard Shaw, John Holliman and Peter Arnett described the night sky, ablaze with tracers, and the city, disrupted by the explosions of Tomahawk missiles and smart bombs.
His telephone rang minutes later. He answered, annoyed by the interruption and anxious to return to the unfolding drama in Iraq.
“Alex, It’s John Hill. Sorry to bother you. I had to call. I have extremely interesting news.”
“Well give it to me fast. I want to get back to the extremely importa
nt news on my television set.”
“I just got a call from one of our treasury people in Europe. He just came from a meeting with a man by the name of Olaf Leutweiler, the president of the Weisscredit Bankhaus in Geneva. Leutweiler claims his bank just received a deposit of exactly five hundred million dollars. He said a lawyer by the name of Pierre Lambert marched into his office with a bank draft for that amount.”
McDowell smirked. “You think King kept any for himself?”
“Wouldn’t blame him if he did?”
“Nor would I… Goodnight, John.”
“Goodnight, Alex.”
CHAPTER 103
Millhaven, Ontario. January 31. 11:55 A.M.
The air was bitter cold. Nearly a foot of snow had blanketed the ground and fierce north west winds howled across the ice encrusted shores of Lake Ontario. Parked near the imposing gates to Millhaven minimum security prison was Dan Turner’s jet black Mercedes 300SE. He had kept the motor running to preserve heat. Karen sat beside Turner in the front seat, Kerri huddled under a blanket in the back. All three strained to focus on the gate.
Sharp at noon, the massive chain link gate began to move. Seconds later, a man wearing jeans, a brown leather jacket and a black baseball cap appeared in the opening. He hung his head to allow the rim of his cap to shield his face from the driving snow, then trudged toward Turner’s car.
Kerri tapped Karen’s shoulder. “You go.”
Karen bolted from car and ran to Mike. She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. “I missed you, King,” she cried, tears flowing from her eyes and nearly freezing on her cheeks.
Mike dropped the small black canvas bag he was carrying and hugged Karen, thrilled to see her and grateful to be free. “I missed you too, Babe, more than you’ll ever know.”
She smiled. “There’s someone in the car who’s pretty anxious to see you.”
Kingston, Ontario. Thirty minutes later.
The four occupied a small circular table in The Loyalist, a small cozy restaurant near the shore the frozen Lake Ontario.
Mike placed his right arm around Kerri’s shoulders. “I can’t believe it. How did you do it?”
“Miles did most of it. I just told him to make it grow. He did the rest.”
“How?”
“You’ll laugh at the irony, dad. He shorted crude oil at forty dollars a barrel in early October. He was within a hair of the top of the market.”
Mike smiled, closed his eyes and shook his head.
Turner lifted a champagne bottle and topped up everyone’s glass. “So, what are the unpredictable King’s going to do with all this money?”
“What money?” Mike asked. “I thought we gave it all to the Feds.”
“We sold Visconti’s house, his apartment and his portfolio for a little over fifty million,” Kerri said, then poked Karen’s arm with her finger.
Karen reached for into her purse and removed a check. “You’ll love this,” she said, then handed it to Mike. “It’s a cashier’s check for five million dollars, made out to the estate of James Servito. It arrived in the mail in early October with no note or return address. Dan suggested we keep it until you got out of prison.”
Mike stared at the check with a puzzled expression, then his quizzical frown transformed into a knowing smile. “Schnieder! The old fox kited five million from the trust!”
“What would you like to do with the shares of Forta Equitas, dad?” Kerri asked, barely able to conceal her excitement.
Mike laughed at the apparent sarcasm of her question. “Put them in an envelope and send them to Mara, Griesdorf and Visconti. Tell them to paper the walls of Visconti’s office with them.”
“You might not want to do that,” Kerri warned.
“Why?”
“I did some horse trading with the Feds,” Turner said. “I told them I would arrange an anonymous deposit of five hundred million dollars to credit their account, if they would drop the charges against your father, close the file, and put it in writing. They agreed and that’s exactly what we gave them… Miles had a hundred and eighty-six million left over when he covered the short.”
Mike rolled his eyes and raised his hands above his shoulders in a gesture of total surrender. “I don’t want to know about it and I never want to hear about that money again.” He stood and kissed Kerri’s forehead. “You keep it,” he whispered. “You earned every dime.”
Turner refilled all four glasses, then raised his glass to eye level. “To the King family… Survivors, one and all,” he declared.
With smiles and loud clinks, all four brought their glasses together. “To the King family,” they repeated in unison.
THE END
Be sure to read
KERRI’S WAR
VOLUME THREE OF THE KING TRILOGY
Table of Contents
Copyright
THE TAINTED TRUST
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
CHAPTER 33
CHAPTER 34
CHAPTER 35
CHAPTER 36
CHAPTER 37
CHAPTER 38
CHAPTER 39
CHAPTER 40
CHAPTER 41
CHAPTER 42
CHAPTER 43
CHAPTER 44
CHAPTER 45
CHAPTER 46
CHAPTER 47
CHAPTER 48
CHAPTER 49
CHAPTER 50
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 52
CHAPTER 53
CHAPTER 54
CHAPTER 55
CHAPTER 57
CHAPTER 58
CHAPTER 59
CHAPTER 60
CHAPTER 61
CHAPTER 62
CHAPTER 63
CHAPTER 64
CHAPTER 65
CHAPTER 66
CHAPTER 67
CHAPTER 68
CHAPTER 69
CHAPTER 70
CHAPTER 71
CHAPTER 72
CHAPTER 73
CHAPTER 74
CHAPTER 75
CHAPTER 76
CHAPTER 77
CHAPTER 78
CHAPTER 79
CHAPTER 80
CHAPTER 81
CHAPTER 82
CHAPTER 83
CHAPTER 84
CHAPTER 85
CHAPTER 86
CHAPTER 87
CHAPTER 88
CHAPTER 89
CHAPTER 90
CHAPTER 91
CHAPTER 92
CHAPTER 93
CHAPTER 94
CHAPTER 95
CHAPTER 96
CHAPTER 97
CHAPTER 98
CHAPTER 99
CHAPTER 100
CHAPTER 101
CHAPTER 102
CHAPTER 103
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