The Diamond Queen of Singapore

by Ian Hamilton

  “Jesus, Eddie,” said Howell.

  “It doesn’t matter when he found out, as long as we finally know it,” Ava said as she drew a line between Cunningham and Muir. “Now everyone connects.”

  The room fell silent as the group contemplated the board. Ava was the first to speak. “Derek, would you please take a picture of the board,” she said as she moved over to another one. She wrote Money Trail across its top and Harvest Investment Fund underneath, then began to connect Amsterdam, Antwerp, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Toronto, and Vanuatu.

  “They used the money that originated with the fund to buy diamonds in Antwerp through Jasmine Yip. Jasmine then sold them in Guangzhou and that money went into the Mercantile Bank of Chengdu, where it was used to purchase drugs through an account in the name of Jewellery Circle,” she said. “Eventually they finished recycling the fund money; there was no more need to buy diamonds and no need to keep anything but a minimum balance in the Mercantile Bank account. From then on they funded the drug buys on an order-by-order basis, using money wired from the Evans Trust Company account in Vanuatu to Mercantile. That money, as we now know — thanks to Mark — was directed to Evans Trust from online sales through LockBox. The money is clean. It took five years to get it to that point, but they were building a business that is now self-sustaining.”

  “How did you manage to discover all this?” Eddie Ng asked.

  “The key piece of information was provided by Todd. Once I knew the fund money had been sent to a bank in Amsterdam, the rest of it fell into place,” Ava said. She turned to Derek again. “Take a picture of this too, please. Todd, why don’t you and Eddie read what’s in the envelopes.”

  Howell and Ng had been so caught up in Ava’s whiteboard scrawls that they hadn’t read anything. “What’s in them?” Howell asked.

  “Proof of everything I’ve put on this board,” she said, pointing to the one headed Money Trail. “We have bank statements, copies of wire transfers, purchase orders for diamonds and drugs, emails from Muir detailing the online orders for the distributor in Chengdu, and so on.”

  “A moment ago you mentioned something about photos,” Howell said.

  “Yes,” Ava said, returning to the table. She took her phone from her bag and handed it to Howell. “Patrick Cunningham and Muir at the drug distribution centre in Chengdu. You can see the ladies behind them putting pills into envelopes. This was taken during their first trip there, before they got into the business.”

  “How did they know where to go?” Eddie Ng asked.

  “Rogers is close to the Simmons Christian Ministry in the U.S. He worked for them before he came north to start his own church. I’m told he and Randy Simmons are especially close. It was the Simmons family that started this business. In fact, the distribution centre in Chengdu operates as a Simmons Christian Mission.”

  “You’re joking, right?” Howell said.

  “I wish I were, but it’s true. I think Randy Simmons convinced his friend Rogers that this was a good way to make money and they had a blueprint that worked. Rogers copied it in almost every detail. We know Harvest Table had a heavy debt load at the time, so it’s safe to assume they lacked the working capital to make it happen. The fund provided that capital and more.”

  Howell passed the phone back to Ava and said, “I’m very sure you’ve got it well papered, so I don’t have to read these documents. What I don’t know is what we should do with all this.”

  “We have more than thirty million dollars to recover,” Ava said.

  “How do you think we’ll accomplish that?”

  Ava pointed to the whiteboards. “We have to use this information to leverage the chapel. One way or another they’re going to give us back the money.”

  “I understand that’s our goal. What I don’t know is how you plan to achieve it,” said Howell.

  “We need to get in front of Rogers, Cunningham, and Muir so we can persuade them that co-operating with us is their only available option. I want a meeting with them, and I want it by tomorrow. I don’t care where it’s held, as long as Rogers, Cunningham, and Muir all attend.”

  “What are you going to say to them?”

  “I’m still working on that,” she said. “Now, who do you think you should call to set up the meeting?”

  “I doubt that Muir would talk to me, and I hardly know Rogers. That leaves Cunningham.”

  “Then please call him now. You can do it from your office if you don’t want an audience.”

  “He’ll ask me why we want to meet.”

  “Tell him you’ve come into possession of some information concerning the chapel that is, on the surface, alarming. Tell him you’ve considered going directly to the police, but, to be fair, you think the chapel should have an opportunity to explain first. Emphasize that there’s an urgency involved,” Ava said. “And Todd, keep me, Derek, and Eddie out of the conversation. Let him think you’ll be going alone. We’ll be a pleasant surprise.”

  “He’ll want to know what I have.”

  “Of course he will. And you’ll tell him it’s something you won’t discuss over the phone.”

  Howell nodded. “Okay, I’ll go call him now.”

  Eddie Ng stood up as Howell left. He walked over to the whiteboards. “I can’t tell you how impressed I am with this.”

  “It’s what I was trained to do,” Ava said.

  Derek pushed back his chair and put his hands behind his head. “There’s something that’s bothering me,” he said.

  “What’s that?”

  “I can’t help wondering why they completely emptied the fund. They were making good money selling drugs. Why didn’t they put some of it back?”

  “I’ve asked myself the same question,” Ava said. “They’ve paid down the mortgage on the chapel and the land by more than sixty million dollars in the past few years. That could have been their priority, and maybe they were initially planning to replenish the fund when the mortgage was totally paid off. But something happens to people’s good intentions when money enters the mix. Uncle and I saw it many times. Once they’ve stolen ten dollars and not gotten caught, the temptation to steal again, and more, is hard to resist. Maybe they tell themselves they’re only borrowing it and will pay it back, but after a while they start to believe the money is actually theirs . . . But that’s a long answer without much substance, because the truth is, I really don’t know. Maybe we’ll find out when we meet with them tomorrow, although I’m not interested enough to ask. All I care about is getting the money back.”

  “He wouldn’t take my call,” Howell said as he entered the boardroom.

  Ava turned towards him. “He wouldn’t or couldn’t?”

  “I don’t know. I told the receptionist I was phoning for Mr. Cunningham. She asked me who was calling. I told her, and she put me on hold for about a minute. When she came back on, she said he was unavailable and asked if I wished to leave a message. I told her it was a very urgent matter and I needed him to call me back today.”

  “Wait fifteen minutes and call again.”

  “That’s fine. If I can’t get through, I’ll try Rogers,” Howell said. “Is it possible that someone has warned them that you’ve been on their trail?”

  “It’s possible, but I think it’s highly unlikely,” Ava said. “While we wait, could you give me your firm’s banking information?”

  “Are you that optimistic?”

  “This has nothing to do with optimism. I’m considering transferring three million dollars into your account later today, from the chapel’s account at the Mercantile Bank in Chengdu. You should let whoever handles your banking internally know it might be coming,” Ava said. “That money is my contingency plan for the Gregory family. If everything else fails, I’ll have recovered that much for them at least.”

  “Is there any point in my asking how you’ll be able to transfer three mi
llion dollars from their account?” Howell asked.

  “No.”

  (39)

  At three-thirty Ava and the three men were still sitting in the boardroom at Howell, Barker, and Mason. There had been two more futile attempts by Howell to connect with Cunningham.

  “He’s deliberately avoiding me,” Howell said.

  “I agree.”

  “He must have been warned,” Howell suggested again.

  “Not necessarily. The fact that you represent members of the congregation is reason enough for him to be cautious. Perhaps he wants to talk with his lawyer before speaking to you,” Ava said. “By the way, who does represent them?”

  “When this first began, they were using a small local firm in Aurora, but when I met with Cunningham he had Hugh Campbell with him. Campbell is a founding partner of one of the big King Street firms.”

  “Is he good?”

  “Very good. We’re small potatoes compared to them,” Howell said.

  “What are we going to do if Cunningham keeps refusing to talk to Todd?” Derek asked.

  “I have a backup plan. I didn’t want to have to use it, but if it comes down to it, I will.”

  “Can you share the details?” Howell asked.

  “No, it’s too soon for that,” Ava said as she stood up. “I think we’ll head out now, but I would appreciate if you could keep calling. Make a nuisance of yourself. Maybe Cunningham will finally talk to you in order to get some peace. If he does, let me know right away. If I don’t hear from you tonight, I’ll reconnect with you in the morning and we’ll figure out how to take it from there. The one thing we can’t do is let them drag this thing out.”

  Ava and Derek left the office and retraced their steps to the car. Derek was quiet until they were inching around Queen’s Park Circle. “Were you serious about transferring three million dollars from the chapel’s bank account?” he asked.

  “Technically the account is Jasmine Yip’s, but Muir controls what goes in and out of it. Deciding to transfer the money is a balancing act, a judgement call.”

  “Why is it a judgment call?”

  “You’ve heard the old saying that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush?”

  “Of course.”

  “The bird in hand is the three million in the Chengdu account. I have the password for the account and can trigger the transfer any time. The problem is that the money has been put there for a drug buy. Muir usually instructs Jasmine Yip to pay the money to Golden Emperor MicroLab a day or two after it hits the account. If she doesn’t do it, he’ll figure something odd is going on and he’ll react,” Ava said. “I have no idea what he’ll do — which is a problem — but he’ll do something. Jasmine made it clear that he’s perpetually suspicious and distrustful.

  “The two birds in the bush is the thirty-plus million that could be sitting in the Evans Trust account in Vanuatu or is now part of the equity the chapel accrued by paying down its mortgage. Getting our hands on that is the priority, but what if we can’t? I got involved in this to help Mimi and her mother, and the three million will set things right for them, but I can’t ignore the fact that other people were also hurt. The problem is timing. If Jasmine pays Golden Emperor, that buys us more time to go after the big money. But there’s no guarantee we’ll be successful, and the three million will be lost. If I tell her not to pay and I transfer the money to Canada, then we could be putting the bigger play at risk.”

  “Do you really believe there’s that much risk of failure?”

  “I don’t know these people,” she said. “Uncle taught me not to make assumptions and to never underplay how difficult it is to separate thieves from the money they’ve stolen. These are smart people and they have the advantage, since most of the money is in a secure place.”

  “When do you have to make a decision about the three million?”

  “I’m going to call Jasmine in a couple of hours to see if she’s heard from Muir. If she hasn’t, then I’d guess we have about twenty-four hours to get something done. If she has, we only have until the close of banking hours in Chengdu, which would be four o’clock tomorrow morning here.”

  “Either way it’s very tight.”

  “I know,” Ava said with resignation in her voice.

  The car came to a stop in heavy traffic well short of Bloor Street. Derek tapped his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel and glanced several times at Ava. “Can I ask you a question you might find misplaced?” he said finally.

  “Sure.”

  “Were you asking what I thought you should do — about the birds in the hand and the bush?”

  “In a roundabout way I suppose I was.”

  “And that question is, do we grab the sure thing, the three million, or do we gamble that you’ll be able to leverage the thirty million out of the chapel?”

  “That’s correct. Although, to be clear, I told Howell at the outset that the first three million of anything we get goes to Mrs. Gregory.”

  “That’s only fair, considering she’s the reason why you’re doing all this work.”

  “One more thing — which you may not think is fair — is that I also negotiated my usual collection fee. I’m not taking it for the money I get for Mrs. Gregory, but I will for the balance. I have a reason for doing that, which I still think is valid.”

  “I’m sure it is, and I don’t need to know what it is,” Derek said. He paused briefly. “Look, I believe I’m speaking for Mimi when I say that we’ll support whatever decision you make. The money is important to Mrs. Gregory, but she can survive without three million dollars. And personally, I’d hate to see all the work you’ve done to expose these creeps go to waste.”

  “Me neither, but I can’t stop being practical, and I know the three million is a sure thing,” she said. “Still, we have all of tonight ahead of us. Maybe Howell will get through to Cunningham. Maybe Muir will hold off telling Jasmine to pay Golden Emperor. All we need is one break.”

  Derek finally reached Bloor and came to a stop at a red light.

  “Just go straight and let me off at Yorkville Avenue,” Ava said.

  “Okay.”

  “And thank you for this conversation. When Uncle was alive, he was my touchstone. I could tell him anything without worrying about how he’d react, because his reaction was always constant support. I’ll never replace him, but I’m blessed to have friends like Mimi and you.”

  The light changed, and Derek drove through the intersection, stopping just short of Yorkville Avenue. Ava opened the door and leapt out.

  “Call me if you hear anything tonight,” Derek said.

  “Count on it,” she said.

  (40)

  Ava’s body clock was still on Chengdu time, and as she walked into the condo she felt a sudden urge to sleep. She knew she couldn’t, for fear of throwing off her sleep pattern, so she needed to do something that would re-energize her. Going for a run was more demanding than she might be able to handle, but a long, brisk walk would fit the bill. She went into the bedroom and changed back into her travel clothes.

  As she was about to leave the apartment, Jasmine Yip came to mind. It was still the middle of the night in Chengdu and under normal circumstances far too early to call someone, but there was nothing normal about this situation. She found Jasmine’s cell number and hit it. The phone rang three times before she heard a sleepy voice say, “Wei.”

  “Jasmine, this is Ava. I apologize for calling so early. I’ve just returned to Canada and want to know if you’ve heard from Muir.”

  “He called me three hours ago,” Jasmine said. “I was going to email you when I got out of bed.”

  “Did he instruct you to pay Golden Emperor?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can you delay doing it?”

  “Not for very long. He’ll expect me to do it as soon as I’m up,” she said.<
br />
  “So that means I have only three or four hours.”

  “Three or four hours to do what?”

  “Nothing. I was just talking to myself,” Ava said.

  Jasmine hesitated and then said. “Ava, I know you wanted me to stall Muir, but he’s very domineering and I find it hard to say no to him.”

  “I know you’re in a difficult situation. Just don’t forget that you and I have an understanding that can’t be broken, or there will be consequences.”

  “You didn’t have to say that.”

  “Sorry. I felt a need to counterbalance the fear Muir seems to generate in you.”

  “Consider that done,” Jasmine said.

  “Okay, just hold on as long as you can, and call me before you actually send money to Golden Emperor.”

  “I will.”

  Ava put down the phone. It was time for that walk.

  It was still rush hour in Toronto, which meant Avenue Road and Bloor Street were basically parking lots. Ava didn’t drive much when she was at home, so she hadn’t often suffered the stress of driving in what was becoming one of the worst cities in North America for commuting. She stood at the corner of Yorkville and Avenue Road and debated going north or south. North was a better walking route because it was a straight line with fewer stoplights. South was more scenic and more stop-and-go.

  She went south, past the Royal Ontario Museum and its former planetarium. The Ontario Legislature sat in the middle of Queen’s Park Circle, surrounded by the expansive campus of the University of Toronto. Ava had explored parts of the campus but not all of it, and when she reached Wellesley Street she decided to take a right. Walking past unfamiliar buildings, she reached Hart House Circle. She knew of Hart House. It had an indoor running track that a former girlfriend had used and had promised to take Ava to. The relationship had ended before she could. Let’s have a look, Ava thought.

  The two-storey stone university buildings on Hart House Circle were built in the Gothic Revival style. Ava was admiring them when she noticed a large metal relief sculpture on a wall that was almost entirely covered by some sort of ivy. She might have missed it if it hadn’t looked so out of place and been so distinctive. She stood transfixed. The sculpture depicted a bicycle that was bent and twisted, and near the bike were several loose shoes. Running across the bicycle were tread marks like those made by a tank. Beneath the relief was a plaque on a stone cairn that read: in memory of those who gave their lives for democracy on june 4, 1989, tiananmen square, beijing. a gift from the students of the university of toronto to the students and citizens of china Below that were the same sentiments in Chinese.