by Andrew Gross
The logo of her brother’s unit—the Special Forces Airborne.
Music theory… Hauck laughed to himself. No telling how tough this gal is.
“C’mon, have something to eat,” he said, prodding her. “It’s going to be a long day. My tab.”
“Accepted.” Naomi smiled. She dropped an orange file on the tablecloth.
A waitress came up and Naomi ordered a yogurt and some cereal. “I printed out some e-mails I received during the night. You want to hear?”
Hauck nodded. “Of course.”
“I have people trying to trace the history of the money going in and out of Thibault’s bank accounts. The payments to James Donovan’s Cayman Islands account came from something called the VRV Development Trust. It was a payment for a real estate sale on a property Donovan had bought just thirty days before on the island of Antigua. Three weeks later he flipped it—to VRV—for five times the price.”
“Not a bad rate of return,” Hauck mused cynically.
“I guess. VRV turns out to be a shell company based out of the Bahamas. It was set up about a year ago. The principals are all a bunch of local functionaries, lawyers, local officials, designed to shield what it does. Block anyone checking into who controls the funds.”
Hauck had had some experience with this kind of hocus-pocus while trying to track money flows in the Grand Central bombing case.
“But the Antiguan government is cooperating. There’s a new banking transparency around the world.” She pulled another page out. A corporate document. VRV letterhead. “This is one of the articles of incorporation. It’s a power of attorney. Granted to an Edwin Cahill, Esq., a lawyer there. Check out the grantee…”
Hauck took the document. The signature was scratchy at the bottom. But it clearly read Dieter Thibault. “So that’s how he paid him. Donovan.”
Naomi’s eyes shone in confirmation. “I suspect we’ll find a similar pattern when we dig into the affairs of Marc Glassman. But right now we don’t have the time.”
“So how do we find out where the eight mil originated from?”
“Here’s a start.” She placed another photocopy out on the tablecloth. “According to the Caribe Sun Trust, it came by way of wire from the Bank of Nova Scotia in Canada. A firm named Crescent Bay Partners. Crescent Bay is a real estate holding company, investing in plush resort properties—you know, these partial-ownership franchises. It has properties in Mexico, Costa Rica, all throughout the Caribbean. Legitimate properties. Just the kind of thing Dani Thibault looked to put together.
“On the surface, it looks like a standard real estate investment—except at five times the price. Its financing is pretty murky. It seems to come from a variety of sources, some rich Europeans, also some investment funds out of the Middle East. The funds in question seem to have been filtered through the KronenBank in Lichtenstein.”
Hauck raised his eyes. “KronenBank. Didn’t Thibault work there for a stint?”
“He did,” Naomi said, nodding, “and this is where it starts to get good. You remember I told you about the Bahraini businessman that investment manager in London was overheard talking to? Hassani?”
Hauck nodded. “Yeah.”
“Well, he has his own investment portfolio as well. A private partnership out of Dubai. It’s a large source of funding to private equity groups—here in the U.S. and in London. Ascot Capital.”
Naomi slid a fastened document across the table to Hauck. He put down his coffee. It was photocopies of a marketing brochure for Ascot. The first pages listed Hassan ibn Hassani among the many company directors. Others were recognizable names from finance and business, even an ex–U.S. president.
On a separate page, listed among the many companies Ascot maintained investments in, was Crescent Bay Partners.
Naomi’s face seemed to glow with pride. “I can’t quite prove Donovan’s specific eight million came from there, but it ties Thibault to Hassani and thereby to al-Bashir in London. We’re onto something here, Ty…” She tapped her finger on the pamphlet. “We tie what went in to what went out, we have a plot that leads straight to a conspiracy. One way is to pierce this transfer of funds all the way back through Lichtenstein.”
Hauck let out a breath. “Which would take time.”
“And having to show cause,” she added skeptically, “when we don’t know anything right now. And that gets the rest of the whole frigging world involved. Not to mention the bankers in Dubai and Lichtenstein would just say our issue is with those back in Canada or the U.S., not them.
“The other option…” She met Hauck’s gaze. “The other option is to see what we find with Thibault. He knows where the money came from. Who orchestrated the funds. You ready?” Naomi’s eyes gleamed in anticipation.
Hauck got up. “Let’s just hope he’s here.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
They decided the best approach was to stake out the address they had for the only person in Novi Pazar with a name that matched that of the AstraBanca account holder.
An “M. Radisovic” was located on Zinak Street, a winding road on the outskirts of town. The embassy in Belgrade had cooperated without Naomi’s divulging too much and found that the address matched the one on record with the bank. They didn’t have a clue what Maria Radisovic looked like. They didn’t even know for sure if she was, in fact, related to Thibault. Had her husband died and she reverted back to her family name? Had she re-married?
The location was a drab five-story apartment building with an interior courtyard centered around a nonworking stone fountain. An iron front gate was open. Novi Pazar was a small town and security didn’t seem the main concern. It was a damp May morning. People rode by on bikes on their way to work; old men in drab clothes and tweed caps gabbed on the street; teenage boys went by in Nikes and American sports jerseys. Teenage girls were going to school in jeans and sweatshirts like girls in any American town.
Hauck and Naomi went up and looked at the tenant board. A buzzer with a handwritten card next to it had an “M. Radisovic” on the fourth floor.
“Ready?” Hauck asked with a wink of support.
Naomi nodded back. “Let’s go.”
They went inside and climbed the wide staircase to the fourth floor. The paint was chipped, the stairs asphalt and worn. There was a tiny elevator. They found Maria Radisovic’s apartment near the staircase at the end of the hall. They heard a dog barking.
A noise came from above them. Two people, a man talking loudly in Serbian, his teenage daughter chattering right back at him. They came down the stairs and passed Hauck and Naomi on the staircase, greeting them with a quick “Dobro jutro” as they passed. Good morning. Naomi waved back politely.
They agreed Naomi would take the first shift. A woman there would attract less attention. She took a seat on the stairs, hidden from view but still in sight of Maria Radisovic’s apartment. It was just after eight A.M. They had each other’s cell numbers already programmed into their phones.
“I’ll be right outside,” Hauck said. “Call at the first sign.”
“Talk soon.” Naomi winked. She took out a tourist guidebook to act as cover. “At least I hope so.”
Hauck headed back down the stairs and perched himself near a tobacconist’s shop across the street. He called back upstairs to check the connection. It was fine. He settled in. No telling how long it would take. While the high-tech wheels churned ceaselessly back home, all there was to do here was wait.
An hour passed. No one came out. Who knew if M. Radisovic was even related to Thibault? If Thibault was even there? He found a USA Today at a newsstand and read through. Twice. Around 9:20, he called upstairs. “Anything happening?”
“Nothing,” Naomi replied, disappointed. “Just people coming down the stairs, staring at me. I think I’m starting to look suspicious. Wait a minute,” she suddenly said in a hushed whisper. “The door just opened…”
Hauck held on—Naomi covering the phone—as maybe thirty seconds passed. Finally she
came back on. “A woman just left. Definitely not Thibault’s mother. Too young. Around forty. She has dark hair. She’s wearing a red nylon parka and a white beret. She should be coming out any second…”
Hauck stepped around the corner, hiding himself from view. He saw the woman come through the gate, start to walk along the sidewalk. “I have her.”
“Wait for me,” Naomi said, excited. “I’ll come down.”
“No, you stay there,” Hauck said. “There might be someone else inside. I’ll stay with her. I’ll let you know if it leads anywhere.”
“Whatever you do, don’t make contact with anyone if I’m not there,” Naomi warned him with an edge of concern.
“Don’t worry. Bye.”
The woman in the red jacket headed down the street. Hauck rolled up the newspaper and followed from the other side. At the corner she turned and headed toward the city center. It led down a hill and onto a commercial boulevard. Pilic Street. Hauck stayed about twenty yards behind.
The woman stopped at a corner where a small queue of pedestrians was huddled up and checked her cell phone. After a minute or two a streetcar came, the old electric kind, wide doors in both the front and rear. The woman climbed on in front. She put out some kind of a card. The driver clipped it. A few others boarded through the rear door. Hauck stepped on with them.
An old conductor, with white hair and a rumpled navy-blue uniform, made his way back, people flashing their transit cards. Hauck didn’t have one and didn’t want to attract any attention. He squeezed through a couple of commuters and opened his paper. He caught the eye of a young boy, maybe eight, who seemed to have noticed. Most everyone else was in the standard early-morning commuter daze. He kept sight of the woman, who had taken a seat up front. He settled back and glanced at his paper. The bus wound its way through town. People got on and off, and at some point the boy and his mother got up, and the kid cast a knowing grin at him.
Hauck winked back at him, as if this would be their buried secret forever.
It took around ten minutes for the bus to weave its way to the other end of town. It was a more upscale neighborhood. It reminded Hauck of where they had come off the main road. Finally he saw the woman in red stand up to get off. The bus stopped. At the back of the bus Hauck stepped off onto the street. The woman jumped off at the front and started to walk.
Hauck fell into step behind her.
A short way ahead she crossed the street and Hauck watched her go into a small shop. A cosmetics store. He came up and saw her wave hello and chat with one or two of the people in there. Not customers, but salespeople. She took off her jacket and placed her bag on a shelf underneath a counter.
It was clear the woman worked there. She wasn’t leading him to anyone now. Damn.
That was when his cell phone sounded. Naomi. “Any luck?” she asked.
“No.” He sighed, dejected. “I got dragged clear across the city on a dead end.”
“Well, things are better back here.” Her voice held excitement in it. “Get back! I think we’ve got her, Ty!”
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
A woman whom Naomi pegged as around seventy, in a gray skirt and blue Shetland sweater, had come out of the apartment just before ten, locking the front door behind her.
Maria Radisovic.
Naomi followed her down the stairs and onto the street. Her first stop was a butcher store down the block, where she spent several minutes. Then a liquor store across the street, where she came out with a package. Then she picked up two newspapers from a stand. One a USA Today. Bundles in hand, she headed back up the block and stopped at the tobacconist.
By that time Hauck had flagged a taxi and in minutes made it back across the street from the apartment house. As he jumped out, Naomi waved him over.
“I think it’s her,” she said, pointing to the gray-haired woman visible through the tobacco shop window. “She picked up some meat at the butcher, some booze, and now she’s in the tobacco shop. She’s shopping for something…”
“Let’s hope it’s not just Sunday dinner,” Hauck said.
They remained across the street and watched. Four or five minutes later, they spotted the woman emerging. Naomi tapped Hauck on the elbow. “That’s her.”
Hauck could see she did have a possible resemblance to Thibault. She had the same dark features, the heavy jaw; her hair still was thick and probably once black. But a lot of people bore those features here.
Clutching her packages, the woman headed back up the block toward her building. A wave of disappointment traveled through Hauck. She seemed to be going back in. In itself, that didn’t mean much, other than now they’d have to wait all day, maybe into the night, maybe even until tomorrow, to see if Thibault happened to show up.
But to his excitement, she continued past the front gate.
The woman glanced around once, then turned into a narrow alley behind the building with her supplies.
Hauck said, “Stay here.” He waited for a car to pass. “I’ll go see.”
He crossed after her, following her down the narrow alleyway. Around the back of the building, the small road opened up.
A car parking lot.
Maria Radisovic was depositing her parcels into the rear of a small blue Opel. Then, taking a last look around, as if she felt Hauck watching, she got in.
The instincts that had guided Hauck all these years suddenly kicked in. Blood pumping, he ran back out of the alley and signaled Naomi over to their Ford, parked on the side of the street.
“Get in!” he shouted, throwing the driver’s door open.
Naomi hopped in beside him as he turned on the engine. “What?”
“We’re in business!”
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Maria Radisovic’s blue Opel pulled out of the small alleyway and turned left on Zinak Street, heading out of town.
Hauck waited until the car disappeared around a bend, then pulled out after her. He felt confident that the woman, supplies in tow, was leading them somewhere promising.
About a mile ahead, tracking the river, the road widened and the commercial shops and apartment dwellings gave way to warehouses, gas stations, even a local power facility. Hauck followed, keeping a couple of hundred yards behind.
A road sign read SEBECEVO, 8 KM.
A couple of miles beyond town, the road they were on started to wind and climb. It narrowed, cutting through the dark hills surrounding the valley Novi Pazar was situated in. Traffic was sparse. Radisovic chugged along at a modest pace. Hauck had to work at it to remain so far behind. Every once in a while a commercial truck zoomed past them.
Neither he nor Naomi had much to say. They both seemed to feel the same anticipation that Maria was going to lead them to something. As the road climbed, the little Opel slowed and Hauck had to keep his diesel in second gear to remain an appropriate distance behind.
SEBECEVO, 3 KM.
As the road crested and started to descend into a wide valley, the Opel’s turn signal began to flash. It was remote terrain. Hauck glanced at Naomi.
They had arrived somewhere.
An unpaved road came into view, marked only by a telephone pole with a sign, SISTENA R, the river. The car ahead made a right turn. It slowed and chugged along the dirt road, and coming upon it, Hauck drove by, glancing at Maria Radisovic bouncing along the rutted terrain. “I don’t want her to spot us turning.”
About a quarter of a mile down the main road he turned onto the shoulder. He spun back around and stopped before the turnoff. They could no longer see Maria Radisovic’s car.
“This is it.” He eyed Naomi expectantly. “Last chance to pull out.”
She shook her head. Anticipation shone in her eyes. “Let’s see what she’s up to.”
They turned down the gravelly road. It cut through a fallow field and wound through a dense thatch of woods, steadily rising. Hauck’s pulse seemed to bump along in the same rhythm as the car.
They passed a tree-shaded cottage, barely more th
an a hut, with a few farm animals in pens. A dog ran out at them, barking.
No sign of Maria’s Opel.
Around a bend, the road cleared the woods and led them into a wide valley. Hills rose up in front of them. Hauck could see a couple of houses dotting the hillside ahead.
“I’m pulling off for a second,” he said. “I can’t take the chance she’ll spot us following her.”
He slowed onto the side of the dirt road and threw the car into park. Hauck reached into the back and took out a pair of binoculars from his canvas bag. Focusing, he made a wide sweep of the hills. About a mile ahead, he spotted the Opel climbing a steep ridge and, following its path and the valley beyond, came upon the outline of a dwelling, the brightness of a red tiled roof.
Naomi asked, “What do you see?”
The Opel drove down the road and came to a stop in front of the white, red-roofed farmhouse.
“I think I see pay dirt,” Hauck replied.
They drove past the ridge and left the car hidden behind a cluster of trees where it wouldn’t be spotted. Hauck grabbed the bag and took the binocs, some bottled water, a Nikon camera, and his Sig 9 mm, just in case.
“You’re sure you’re up for this?” he asked Naomi one last time, a little playfulness behind it. “Desk detail is over.”
She tied her hair in a ponytail and zipped her Windbreaker. “Let me know if I go too fast for you,” she answered.
They decided to climb the adjoining ridge and look over the house Maria Radisovic had driven up to. Naomi strapped on her government-issue Colt.
“You even recall how to use that thing?” Hauck asked with a teasing grin.
“I think I can still conjure up the image,” Naomi said, locking in the magazine and brushing past him.
The terrain up the hill was steep, with tall grasses that led to a drier brush as they climbed above the trees. The sun had come out and made the climb hot. And steep. Hauck felt a little out of breath. His leg throbbed a bit, still stiff from the bullet in the thigh he’d taken eighteen months ago.
