by Jake Needham
“What did you mean inside when you said people were willing to kill you to keep you from going back to Thailand?” he asked.
Charlie glanced over Shepherd’s shoulder at the two rubber boats full of UAE commandos.
“This is neither the time nor the place to talk about that,” he said.
“Are you going back into politics?”
“This is neither the time nor the place to talk about that.”
“I don’t do politics.”
“I’m not asking you to.”
“I’m a lawyer. I shuffle papers. I organize corporations. I argue with banks. That’s all I do.”
“I understand that.”
Shepherd could feel in his bones that something was about to happen here that he wasn’t going to like. He thought about telling Charlie right then he didn’t want any part of whatever it was. He thought about it, but he didn’t tell Charlie that. Later, looking back, he would always wonder how differently things might have turned out if he had.
Charlie stood up and moved to a different chair, one that put his back to the watching commandos. He swung his feet up onto the glass and iron table and took off his sunglasses.
“Sit down, Jack. There’s something we need to talk about.”
Charlie pointed to a chair that would put Shepherd’s back to the commandos as well and Shepherd walked over and sat down.
“Some guys are trying to fuck me,” Charlie said.
“Some guys are trying to kill you,” Shepherd said. “In my book, that’s a lot worse than fucking you.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” Charlie said, waving away Shepherd’s wisecrack. “I mean those pricks at the Ministry of Finance in Thailand. They’re trying to grab my money.”
“I didn’t know you had any money in Thailand.”
“It goes back to before we started working together. There are some accounts at Bangkok Bank and some more at SCB. I need for you to sort them out for me.”
Bangkok Bank was Thailand’s largest bank and SCB was Siam Commercial Bank, the second or third largest. They were both good places to have money in Thailand, if you had to have money in Thailand at all.
“Sort it out how?” Shepherd asked.
“Get it out of the country. All of it.”
“How much are we talking about?”
“Maybe in all, say, five or six hundred million.”
Six hundred million Thai baht was a little less than twenty million US dollars. Not an insignificant sum, of course, but less than Shepherd was often called on to handle for Charlie.
“Five or six hundred million baht shouldn’t be any problem,” Shepherd said.
Then he noticed that Charlie was looking at him like he had suddenly begun speaking in tongues.
“Not baht, Jack. I wouldn’t care if it was just baht. Dollars. US dollars. Five or six hundred million US dollars.”
Oh, right, US dollars. Five or six hundred million US dollars. Of course.
“I want you to get your ass to Bangkok. I’ll get everything gathered up in Bangkok Bank for you. I’ve got a contact there. You talk to him and get everything shifted to Hong Kong, then you can bury it in some nominee companies.”
“Look, Charlie, I don’t—”
“Leave tonight. Those pricks are really trying to fuck me.”
“I don’t want to go to Thailand.”
“I know you don’t.”
“I told you I wasn’t going back there again.”
“I wouldn’t ask you to go if it weren’t important. You’re the only person I can trust with something like this.”
“Look, Charlie, even if I went to Thailand, I’m not sure how much good I could do you.”
“You know more about moving money than anyone I ever met, Jack. You’re a goddamned wizard when it comes to stuff like that.”
“I appreciate your confidence, Charlie, but—”
“But nothing. When the Asian Bank of Commerce collapsed, how much was in the wind? Five hundred million? And it was all CIA black money, wasn’t it?”
Shepherd said nothing.
“Your old pals back in Washington were running around shrieking like a bunch of little girls. Somebody had fucked them, too.”
Shepherd said nothing.
“But you worked out the scam, didn’t you? Then you tracked down the money all by yourself and you got it back. And I’ll bet to this day there’re not more than five people in the whole world who even know it was you who figured the whole thing out.”
“Is that the way you think it happened?”
“That’s the way it did happen.”
Shepherd shrugged. “A penny saved is a penny earned.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“I’m a big fan of clichés. They say so much and require so little effort.”
Nothing useful could come of telling Charlie what really happened to the money from the Asian Bank of Commerce. A lot of people had died trying to grab that money. Some of them were good people and some of them were not so good. But in the end everything had turned to crap and the good and the bad alike had both shared exactly the same fate. They had all ended up losers. Shepherd didn’t want to talk about it. He wasn’t going to talk about it.
So Shepherd cleared his throat and changed the subject back to the money Charlie wanted to get out of Thailand.
“You know as well as I do that we would have to get permission from the Bank of Thailand to move that much money out of the country.”
“I know.”
“And I really don’t think—”
“When you get there, go to Bangkok Bank. See a guy named Tanit Chaiya who’s an Executive Vice President in the head office on Silom Road.”
“I didn’t say I’d go, Charlie.”
“All Tanit needs from you is a structure he can use to make it all look okay. Some kind of overseas corporate acquisition will do it. Tell him we’re buying the Eiffel Tower or some goddamn sports team in the United States. Just make it look good.”
“If that’s all there is to it, why can’t I just draft something after I get back to Hong Kong and email it to this guy?”
“Because the Bank of Thailand wouldn’t approve the transfer if that was all you did. They’re not going to approve it at all without a little persuasion.”
Shepherd nodded, but he didn’t say anything. He could see now where this was going.
“You with me here?” Charlie asked.
“How much persuasion?”
“I’d say a couple of million would probably get the job done. Maybe a little less or a little more. Use your own judgment. I don’t know exactly how they’re going to play it when we try to move the money, but I know what the bottom line is going to be. That’s why I need somebody there to look them in the eye and make sure this gets done. Buying people is easy. Making sure they stay bought is a lot harder.”
“You’re making me uncomfortable here, Charlie.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“I’m not going to get involved in bribing the Bank of Thailand. The US government takes a dim view of that sort of thing. Americans go to jail for bribery.”
“This isn’t a bribe.”
“Then what would you call it?”
“It’s like ransoming a kidnapped child. Americans don’t put people in jail for paying ransoms, do they?”
“I doubt the Department of Justice would look at this quite that way.”
“I’m not going to sit here and let them steal my money, Jack. That’s not right.”
“No, it isn’t,” Shepherd admitted.
“I’ve got to pay a few people if I want my money back. That’s the way business works in Thailand. You know that.”
“Yes, I know that, but still—”
“So I’m asking you to take care of this for me, Jack. If I can’t do something myself, you’re my guy.”
“I’m flattered.”
“I’m just looking after my own interests here. You’re the best. You
know everything there is to know about international corporate structures and banking operations. You’re Mozart with money. You can make chicken salad out of chicken shit.”
“Far be it from me to sound modest, but—”
“And I trust you,” Charlie interrupted. “You’re smart, you’re tough, you’re connected. And you’re an honest man. That’s why I hired you.”
A silence fell and they both sat back for a while and just watched those black rubber boats drifting on the Persian Gulf. It was a companionable silence. Shepherd liked Charlie no matter what some people said about him. He even liked all the outrageous bullshit Charlie got involved in. Charlie was good for more outrageous bullshit in a day than most men were in their entire lifetimes.
The truth of the matter, Shepherd knew full well, was that managing outrageous bullshit was what he was good at. Managing outrageous bullshit was what he did for a living. Sometimes he even wondered if he could do anything else.
After a moment Charlie started talking again. “I’ve asked Adnan to pull together the documentation on the Thai accounts for you. You can start with that. If you need anything else, just ask him and he’ll get it for you.”
“Is Adnan here?” Shepherd asked.
“He’s over in the office,” Charlie said, gesturing vaguely in the direction of the other house across the compound.
Adnan was Charlie’s personal assistant. He was in his forties, slight with slicked-back hair and pale skin, and he claimed to be Lebanese. Shepherd didn’t think Adnan really was Lebanese, but he had never challenged him on the point. After Charlie fled Thailand two steps in front of a flood of corruption charges and settled in Dubai, Adnan had taken on the vague title of personal assistant. Shepherd didn’t know for certain what Adnan actually did for Charlie, but what he did know for certain was that he really didn’t like Adnan. Adnan clearly didn’t like him either, so Shepherd figured they were square all around.
“What’s really going on here, Charlie? I need to know.”
“I thought you didn’t do politics, Jack.”
“Assassination attempts and bribing central banks isn’t politics.”
“It is in Thailand.”
Shepherd said nothing. Charlie did have a point there.
“You can’t have it both ways, Jack.” Charlie leaned forward and rested his forearms on his knees. “Either you’re part of everything here or you’re a lawyer who just looks after financial matters for me. We can do this either way, but you need to decide which way it’s going to be.”
Shepherd didn’t say anything for a moment. He just sat and looked at Charlie, and Charlie just sat and looked back.
“I don’t do politics,” Shepherd repeated after a minute or two had passed like that.
“Fine.” Charlie stood up and rubbed his hands together. “So you’re my lawyer and you look after financial matters. Then go to Bangkok and rescue my money. Go right now. You want to take one of the planes? Use the G-4.”
“No thanks,” Shepherd said. “I like flying commercial.”
Charlie chuckled and shook his head. “You’re really a piece of work, Jack. Here I put a thirty million dollar jet at your disposal and you tell me you’d rather drag your ass out to the airport, stand in the security line, and take a commercial flight. What the hell am I going to do with you?”
What was Charlie going to do with him? It was a question Shepherd had asked himself from time to time, although he suspected in a somewhat different context. He had never come up with a particularly satisfactory answer either.
“So are you going to do this for me, Jack?” Charlie asked. “There’s no one else I trust.”
“It’s only money, Charlie.”
“Yeah, but it’s a lot of money.”
Shepherd sighed and pulled a small notebook and a pen out of his pocket.
“What was the name of that guy at Bangkok Bank again?”
Buy A WORLD OF TROUBLE, Jack Shepherd #3
Amazon US, Amazon UK
The Jake Needham Library
The Inspector Tay Novels
THE AMBASSADOR’S WIFE
Inspector Tay #1
Amazon US | Amazon UK
THE UMBRELLA MAN
Inspector Tay #2
Amazon US | Amazon UK
THE DEAD AMERICAN
Inspector Tay #3
Amazon US | Amazon UK
THE GIRL IN THE WINDOW
Inspector Tay #4
Amazon US | Amazon UK
The Jack Shepherd Novels
LAUNDRY MAN
Jack Shepherd #1
Amazon US | Amazon UK
KILLING PLATO
Jack Shepherd #2
Amazon US | Amazon UK
A WORLD OF TROUBLE
Jack Shepherd #3
Amazon US | Amazon UK
THE KING OF MACAU
Jack Shepherd #4
Amazon US | Amazon UK
DON’T GET CAUGHT
Jack Shepherd #5
Amazon US | Amazon UK
The Other Novels
THE BIG MANGO
Amazon US | Amazon UK
Meet Jake Needham
Jake Needham is an American screen and television writer who began writing crime novels when he realized he didn’t really like movies and television very much. Mr. Needham has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand for nearly thirty years. He is a lawyer by education and has held a number of significant positions in both the public and private sectors where he took part in a lengthy list of international operations he has no intention of telling you about. He, his wife, and their two sons now divide their time between homes in Thailand and the United States.
Learn more about Jake's other books at www.JakeNeedhamNovels.com.
Want to add your name to the list of readers who receive Jake's occasional emails about living in Asia? You can do that at this link.
Want to ask Jake a question or contact him about something else? You can do that right here.
Contents
COVER PAGE
TITLE PAGE
DEDICATION
CHAPTERS
THE BEGINNING
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10
11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15
THE MIDDLE
16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20
21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25
26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30
31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35
THE END
36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42
43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48
FIVE MONTHS LATER
49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53
Bonus Preview of A WORLD OF TROUBLE
MEET JAKE NEEDHAM
COPYRIGHT
KILLING PLATO, © 2011, 2016 by Jake Raymond Needham
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the author at the following email address: [email protected].
Excerpt from A WORLD OF TROUBLE, © 2012, 2016 by Jake Raymond Needham
Cover © 2016 Jake Raymond Needham
Ebook edition ISBN 978-616-7611-10-5
Trade paper edition ISBN 978-616-7611-35-8
