I will be there, as you know. How do you suggest we stay in touch so I’m not there when you get there? Also I will need to let you know when he gets the news about his sons and what he is doing then.
My husband has a bad heart—maybe when he gets the news about his sons you won’t need to do anything at all (except get your money!) But I feel I should point out all the pit falls to you beforehand. Another complication could be his friends—they might come back to the apartment with us to sympathise with him. The Irish are like that! And there are lots of Irish friends of his out there.
In your experience, when you show up to ‘take care of’ someone, do they ask you who sent you? Do they offer to pay you to kill that person instead of them? Just wondering.
S.’
‘Luciano’ had thought of something else, an answer to an earlier question.
‘About the computer. Don’t ever use the work computer. You have to delete every thing. Thanks.’
Collins had already thought of this. She was now using the laptop Howard had bought to do the accounts, when Downes & Howard didn’t have a proper base. He’d forgotten it was in the house since her son Gary had taken it away to college with him. It had been knocking around for some time though.
‘Yeah I’m worried about that. I was told by a guy in the computer company that services our computers that even if you delete stuff, it can be still accessed …
I’d have to take the computer from the office before I go. I better think of an excuse to do that.
I’m just wondering now if it might not be easier to wait until we return from Spain to do my husband. After all, you plan to do his sons on Sat 19th. Right? He’ll get a call about it immediately and go home as soon as he gets a flight. Even if you hit him on Mon 21st I still have time to pay you don’t I?
It’s just an idea. The only thing is, one of my sons lives here with us and will be here, as will I. Not sure how that would work. Again Tony, it must look like suicide for him. Or natural causes. This is vital. And the body can’t disappear. It must be there.
S.’
Then she was back.
‘OK, so do you intend for us to talk on the phone in Spain or to meet face to face? The money; am I to give it to you in cash? It’s all going to happen within a few hours right? As far as I know, my husband has enough cash there for me to give you the equivalent of $30,000 in Euro. I’ll be able to check how much cash he has when I get there on Wed and let you know. I won’t be able to take it while he is there, but if you are going to be in the apartment, I can give you the combination to the safe and you can help yourself. Is that OK? He always likes to have a lot of cash with him, so I’m not sure if he would take the cash from the apartment while we are gone and you can check the money to satisfy yourself that it is there. But I would ask you not to touch it until he is gone. We can talk about it anyway. With everything going on he will be upset, therefore, I don’t see a problem. I could FedEx the keys of the apartment with $15,000 on Monday.
Do you have any idea how long it would take for the authorities to release his body from Spain? I’ll need to get home ASAP after you’ve done your bit to send the rest of the money to you. Will I have to stay there until they release the body or do you think I could leave, without causing too much suspicion and let them forward the body to Ireland afterwards? Perhaps you would know how this works?
Photos, I don’t have a scanner here to send the photos. I’ll have to source one tomorrow and send them to you then.
My name. Tony, if you knew me—I wouldn’t harm a fly—seriously. I’ve just been put in such an impossible situation that I feel I really have to take drastic action. There’s no point in going into the details of it with you, unless you need to know. Anyway, I want to sleep on it tonight and decide once and for all if I will be able to live with myself afterwards. I’m a real softy and there was a time when I really loved my husband, but he has truly killed that. But even though I can’t stand him now and have been wishing him dead for a long, long time, I found it really upsetting when I read your emails and saw it there in black and white. The reality is fairly startling, especially for an un-violent person like me. I know he has asked for it and would do the same himself if he was in my position, but that doesn’t make it easy for me.
I will let you know tomorrow for sure and will give you my name then—if I must! My son is around at the moment so I won’t be able to talk on the phone tonight as I had hoped—but we will have to talk tomorrow. Is that OK?’
‘Luciano’ was now playing along as much as she was. He was close to earning a substantial sum of money. More than anything, he needed the deposit to be sent if the plan was to progress any further.
‘Hello.
I want tell you that we are professional people here. We don’t give a chance to anyone to make a deal with us, especially the target. Even if they offer us 10 mill euro we honor our contract. So don’t ever worry about that.
So I want you [on] Monday [to] send the key, the pic and the money plus the combination of the safe and the address for all of them. If you have the address for the two guys which is the party, add that [it would] be great. Also I want to ask you if your husband have [sic] a gun or maybe we can use to kill himself or if not we let him jump from the 14th floor. I want you to stay with him till you leave Spain with his body. Don’t leave him—it will be suspicious. That we recommend.
I need your phone number in Spain too. We can contact you there after we done in Ireland. We don’t call each other by phone maybe is dangerous. Just email us and we reply fast.
Thanks.
Tony Luciano.’
Collins replied during lunch time on Sunday. The plan seemed to be coming together.
‘To: Tony Luciano
Yes I can send you everything including the addresses.
My husband does not have a gun in Spain, so jumping seems like the only option. I’m wondering how you’d make him jump. By the way, it’s a hotel / apartment complex. A lot of other apartments and hotel rooms have a view of it. There’s a swimming pool on a roof of a six or seven storey building in the complex just below our apartment block. There are always lots of people sunbathing beside that pool. Thought you should know. When I talk to you I’ll explain more.
About staying in Spain with my husband’s body. Yes I agree that it would be the right thing to do. But in that case will you understand that I may not be back in Ireland within the 72 hour deadline to send you the rest of the money. That money will be in Ireland and I won’t be able to touch it until I get back. As soon as I am there I’ll send it to you.
Contacting each other while in Spain; I won’t have access to internet while on the boat. How would I let you know when he’s heard the news about the son?
Poisoning the sons—you still haven’t explained. Perhaps you want to talk on the phone about it instead.
Tony, I still haven’t made up my mind that I’m ready to go ahead with this just now. As I’ve told you—there’s no doubt that we will be doing business, but not sure it will be this week.
One more thing, I have to be honest, part of me feels that this is a scam and that I will send the 15k euro and that will be the end of it or, even worse, that information will be given to the cops and I’ll find myself behind bars.
As I said, I hope to talk to you today. I will email you when I’m on my own later or maybe you could email a number where I can reach you when I can. That would suit me better, if you don’t mind. I have visitors today—which isn’t ideal. It’s not giving me much time to think.
S.C.’
So Collins was finally showing some sense and developing a sneaking suspicion that receiving badly written emails from a total stranger who contacts you from a website might not be 100% trustworthy. But her new found good sense didn’t last long and she was soon back with more questions.
‘The telephone number is the one I gave before. I’ll email you when I can talk. Is that OK?
I’ve been trying to think of an excuse
for removing the computer from the office. It’s my husband’s business and his sons work there too. I think it would be a good idea not to leave it there in case anyone decides to check it out.
I also have been thinking about getting the cashiers cheque. Here in Ireland, any time you buy a bank draft or cashier’s cheque, the bank keeps a record of who you are and you have to do it at your own bank. It’s regulation. Anyway, if there is any question of it at a later date I can say that I got it from my husband—that he told me to. And if I’m asked what he wanted it for, I can say he didn’t appreciate being asked questions. He always told me not to question him, just do what I was told (which is true, actually).
In addition, if there’s a FedEx record of the envelope—again I will say that I was asked at work to send it. I don’t know what it was. What do you think?
Might never come to that anyway. Hopefully not anyway.’
Collins’s concerns were of no interest to ‘Luciano’. He wanted his money. Several hours later he started pushing for a phone call.
‘Let me know when we can talk. We have no time. It will happen this weekend which is six days left. Just send FedEx through your company like you said and the cashier check. Don’t write any name, we will do that in our secret account. But we will give the address that you can FedEx it to. You have to … I mean you have to trust us and the job will be done. Don’t worry or panic and act normal—like nothing happen.
Thanks.
Tony.’
Collins got straight back to him. She began a rapid back and forth of emails as they discussed how to find the time to talk.
‘OK then, I’m 90% decided to go ahead with it. I know you want me to leave it to you and not question you but I can’t help it.’
‘No that’s the best way we can do it. We used our own staff to do it so. There push him out one time so there is no fingerprint or any evidences.’
‘I’m still caught here with my sister and her husband. I was hoping that you could ring me tonight but I don’t want them to see me checking emails and I don’t want to seem impatient with them. As you said, I want to act normal. Can you email me your telephone number and I will ring you when I can?’
It was some time before ‘Luciano’ replied, for the first time allowing domesticity to intrude on the mafia persona.
‘Sorry, I had something to do with my daughter. Just get back. My phone is 5868830198. You can call me any time Sharon.’
Collins replied later on the Sunday evening with yet more details.
‘If you’re going to Spain, you will have to fly to Malaga. I forgot to tell you that. Anyway I was just talking to my husband. The couple with the apartment next door to ours will not be in their apartment. They will either be on their own boat or gone home to Ireland. I’ll know when I get there on Wed night.
My husband plans for us to take a boat trip to Puerto Banus on Friday and stay there until Sunday or Monday. In any case he will surely have to return to his apartment after he gets the “sad” news of his sons!
I will be able to give you my Spanish mobile number and if you get yourself a Spanish phone when you get there you will be able to text me and then I’d be able to tell you what we are doing. I probably wouldn’t have access to internet most of the time.’
It appears that Collins wanted to call but just couldn’t get away so she emailed ‘Luciano’ again.
‘I’m still not in a position to talk on the phone but hopefully in a while. I have visitors staying in the house and I need total privacy to talk.
I’m assuming your people will put that substance in the guys’ drink, is that it? Tony, as I said before, nearly every weekend those guys go to Kilkee, on the west coast of County Clare. They spend a lot of time in a bar there and they also go boating. But there is absolutely no guarantee that they will be there next weekend. Occasionally they go to visit cousins of theirs at the other side of the country. I can’t think of the name of the place right now but it’ll come to me. The country is small, so no matter where they are, it’s only a few hours away. I assume this will not be a problem? I will do my best this week to find out what they intend doing and will email you as soon as I can so your people can make alternative hotel reservations.
Do you still intend travelling to Spain yourself? It’s quite a distance for you to have to travel. I don’t think there are any direct flights between the US and Malaga.’
At this stage she was discussing details as if planning to hook up with a couple of friends. She kept forgetting what was at stake but ‘Luciano’ kept reeling her in … the deal would have to be closed fast.
‘I was in Malaga before and I know how to get there. From Madrid or Barcelona I’m planning on it so don’t worry about that for now. I’m so excited to talk to you on the phone.
Tony Luciano.’
As Collins played the perfect hostess ‘Luciano’ began to get impatient. He tried to phone her. No reply. It was Monday in Las Vegas now. ‘Luciano’ emailed again.
‘I’m sorry to call you wrong time but time is running out. We have to know where we at. So I’m going to do some business and I will be back.
Waiting for your call …
Thanks. Tony.’
Collins finally got a bit of privacy and they were able to talk. After the call ‘Luciano’ sent another email … just to make absolutely sure he had made his point clear.
‘If you can’t send the money today forget about it. It will be too late. My people not wait. Plus I will pay them the rest from my pocket till you pay me after the job done. Now it’s up to you. Sorry but I have to give them the green light and I can’t if no money. Sorry the pressure on me. By the way you have nice voice. Sorry to say that.’
Once 14 August dawned in Ireland Collins was back at her desk in Downes & Howard. She had made up her mind. Secure in the supposed knowledge that she was using an anonymous email she was all business that summer morning.
‘I will be sending the money later today. It’s 11 a.m. here now so once I get the envelope to FedEx by 5 p.m. today we’re OK. Will you email the address for delivery? I’m at work right now—have to behave as normal and when I’m sent to the bank later I will sort out the money. Don’t worry, I’m going to do it, I’ve decided.
I also need to spend some time here with one of the sons to find out what he will be doing next weekend. Will let you know as soon as I do.
Thanks for your phone number—will you email me the correct prefix.
Talk later, Sharon’
The address was quickly forthcoming. The Camden Cove Street conmen lost no time sending Teresa Engle’s name with the address in North Las Vegas. The bank details given were with the local branch of the Bank of America and in the name of Essam Eid.
‘Just let me know either way so I want know what we are looking for. I will talk to you later, Sweetie.’
Collins had come to a decision.
‘I’ve decided to parcel up the money and send it that way. I will probably put something else in with it to make it look like a present. I’ll also put in the photos and the keys. I’ll email you the address, combination and directions etc.
Just busy at work right now and under pressure to get everything done so I can get away early to send off the parcel.
Will email you later and let you know tracking number etc.’
Finally! ‘Luciano’ was delighted.
‘OK. Just be careful. Talk to you later then.’
CHAPTER 8:
TONY AND SHARON
That afternoon Collins went to her local bank and withdrew €13,000. She made up the balance with her credit card. She was ready to go. But she would not have the chance to send the money until the following day. And she had to select something suitable to put in the package. Later that evening she emailed [email protected]. While gardaí would eventually find she had talked to phones registered to Essam Eid over 70 times, during these few days in mid August it was proving very difficult for her to organise the murders.
‘Tony,
I told you that you could ring me but my son came home unexpectedly—wants to spend some quality time with me this evening as I’m going away on Wednesday so I put the cell phone away and put it on silent.
When he goes to bed later tonight, I’ll let you know.
Sharon.’
Later that night she found time to talk. Collins may have been in work that day but over her lunch hour and again after work she called ‘Luciano’ from her desk. After the call ‘Luciano’ was feeling decidedly flirtatious. Whether this was just him showing his way with the ladies or because Collins had turned on the charm again; Eid was flirting openly with her, albeit by email.
‘I guess from your voice no one can touch you and I guess you are beautiful too. Sorry to say that. There is no way to me or any one killing you. I hope we received by Thursday and go there. I will call the guys even if I pay them from my pocket. We are still on. Just act normal we gonna be OK. I’m leaving Friday from here to be in Spain by Saturday afternoon. I will text msg you and let you know that I’m there. I will try to email you my pic too but don’t make fun of me … lol.’
The Devil in the Red Dress Page 9
