Three Classic Thrillers

by John Grisham

  “Where are the files?”

  “In a mini-storage in Memphis. There are fifty-one files in all, all boxed up real neat and proper like. You’ll be impressed. We do good work.”

  “We? Have you seen the files?”

  “Of course. Helped box them up. There are these surprises in box number eight.”

  “Okay. What?”

  “Mitch was able to copy three of Avery Tolar’s files, and they appear to be questionable. Two deal with a company called Dunn Lane, Ltd., which we know to be a Mafia-controlled corporation chartered in the Caymans. It was established with ten million laundered dollars in 1986. The files deal with two construction projects financed by the corporation. You’ll find it fascinating reading.”

  “How do you know it was chartered in the Caymans? And how do you know about the ten million? Surely that’s not in the files.”

  “No, it’s not. We have other records.”

  Tarrance thought about the other records for six miles. It was obvious he wouldn’t see them until the McDeeres had the first million. He let it pass.

  “I’m not sure we can wire the money as you wish without first getting the files.” It was a rather weak bluff. She read it perfectly and smiled.

  “Do we have to play games, Mr. Tarrance? Why don’t you just give us the money and quit sparring.”

  A foreign student of some sort, probably an Arab, sauntered down the aisle and into the rest room. Tarrance froze and stared at the window. Abby patted his arm like a real girlfriend. The flushing sounded like a short waterfall.

  “How soon can this happen?” Tarrance asked. She was not touching him anymore.

  “The files are ready. How soon can you round up a million bucks?”

  “Tomorrow.”

  Abby looked out the window and talked from the left corner of her mouth. “Today’s Friday. Next Tuesday, at ten a.m. Eastern time, Bahamas time, you transfer by wire the million dollars from your account at the Chemical Bank in Manhattan to a numbered account at the Ontario Bank in Freeport. It’s a clean, legitimate wire transfer—take about fifteen seconds.”

  Tarrance frowned and listened hard. “What if we don’t have an account at the Chemical Bank in Manhattan?”

  “You don’t now, but you will Monday. I’m sure you’ve got someone in Washington who can handle a simple wire transfer.”

  “I’m sure we do.”

  “Good.”

  “But why the Chemical Bank?”

  “Mitch’s orders, Mr. Tarrance. Trust him, he knows what he’s doing.”

  “I see he’s done his homework.”

  “He always does his homework. And there’s something you need to always remember. He’s much smarter than you are.”

  Tarrance snorted and faked a light chuckle. They rode in silence for a mile or two, each thinking of the next question and answer.

  “Okay,” Tarrance said, almost to himself. “And when do we get the files?”

  “When the money’s safe in Freeport, we’ll be notified. Wednesday morning before ten-thirty, you’ll receive at your Memphis office a Federal Express package with a note and the key to the mini-storage.”

  “So I can tell Mr. Voyles we’ll have the files by Wednesday afternoon?”

  She shrugged and said nothing. Tarrance felt stupid for asking the question. Quickly, he thought of a good one.

  “We’ll need the account number in Freeport.”

  “It’s written down. I’ll give it to you when the bus stops.”

  The particulars were now complete. He reached under the seat and retrieved his book. He flipped pages and pretended to read. “Just sit here a minute,” he said.

  “Any questions?” she asked.

  “Yeah. Can we talk about these other records you mentioned?”

  “Sure.”

  “Where are they?”

  “Good question. The way the deal was explained to me, we would first get the next installment, a half million, I believe, in return for enough evidence to allow you to obtain the indictments. These other records are part of the next installment.”

  Tarrance flipped a page. “You mean you’ve already obtained the, uh, dirty files?”

  “We have most of what we need. Yes, we have a bunch of dirty files.”

  “Where are they?”

  She smiled softly and patted his arm. “I assure you they’re not in the mini-storage with the clean files.”

  “But you have possession of them?”

  “Sort of. Would you like to see a couple?”

  He closed the book and breathed deeply. He looked at her. “Certainly.”

  “I thought so. Mitch says we’ll give you ten inches of documents on Dunn Lane, Ltd.—copies of bank records, corporate charters, minutes, bylaws, officers, stockholders, wire-transfer records, letters from Nathan Locke to Joey Morolto, working papers, a hundred other juicy morsels that’ll make you lose sleep. Wonderful stuff. Mitch says you can probably get thirty indictments just from the Dunn Lane records.”

  Tarrance hung on every word, and believed her. “When can I see it?” he asked quietly but so eagerly.

  “When Ray is out of prison. It’s part of the deal, remember?”

  “Aw yes. Ray.”

  “Aw yes. He goes over the wall, Mr. Tarrance, or you can forget the Bendini firm. Mitch and I will take our paltry million and disappear into the night.”

  “I’m working on it.”

  “Better work hard.” It was more than a threat, and he knew it. He opened the book again and stared at it.

  Abby pulled a Bendini, Lambert & Locke business card from her pocket and dropped it on the book. On the back she had written the account number: 477DL-19584, Ontario Bank, Freeport.

  “I’m going back to my seat near the front, away from the engine. Are we clear about next Tuesday?”

  “No problems, mon. Are you getting off in Indianapolis?”

  “Yes.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “To my parents’ home in Kentucky. Mitch and I are separated.”

  She was gone.

  _____________

  Tammy stood in one of a dozen long, hot lines at Miami customs. She wore shorts, sandals, halter top, sunglasses and a straw hat and looked just like the other thousand weary tourists returning from the sundrenched beaches of the Caribbean. In front of her were two ill-tempered newlyweds carrying bags of duty-free liquor and perfume and obviously in the middle of a serious disagreement. Behind her were two brand-new Hartman leather suitcases filled with enough documents and records to indict forty lawyers. Her employer, also a lawyer, had suggested she purchase luggage with little wheels on the bottom so they could be pulled through the Miami International Airport. She also had a small overnight bag with a few clothes and a toothbrush, to look legitimate.

  About every ten minutes, the young couple moved forward six inches, and Tammy followed with her baggage. An hour after she entered the line, she made it to the checkpoint.

  “No declarations!” the agent snapped in broken English.

  “No!” she snapped back.

  He nodded at the big leather bags. “What’s in there?”

  “Papers.”

  “Papers?”

  “Papers.”

  “What kind of papers?”

  Toilet paper, she thought. I spend my vacations traveling the Caribbean collecting toilet paper. “Legal documents, crap like that. I’m a lawyer.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” He unzipped the overnight bag and glanced in. “Okay. Next!”

  She carefully pulled the bags, just so. They were inclined to tip over. A bellboy grabbed them and loaded all three pieces onto a two-wheeler. “Delta Flight 282, to Nashville. Gate 44, Concourse B,” she said as she handed him a five-dollar bill.

  Tammy and all three bags arrived in Nashville at midnight Saturday. She loaded them into her Rabbit and left the airport. In the suburb of Brentwood, she parked in her designated parking place and, one at a time, pulled the Hartmans into a one-bedroom ap
artment.

  Except for a rented foldaway sofa, there was no furniture. She unpacked the suitcases in the bedroom and began the tedious process of arranging the evidence. Mitch wanted a list of each document, each bank record, each corporation. He wanted it just so. He said one day he would pass through in a great hurry, and he wanted it all organized.

  For two hours she took inventory. She sat on the floor and made careful notes. After three one-day trips to Grand Cayman, the room was beginning to fill. Monday she would leave again.

  She felt like she’d slept three hours in the past two weeks. But it was urgent, he said. A matter of life and death.

  Tarry Ross, alias Alfred, sat in the darkest corner of the lounge of the Washington Phoenix Park Hotel. The meeting would be terribly brief. He drank coffee and waited on his guest.

  He waited and vowed to wait only five more minutes. The cup shook when he tried to sip it. Coffee splashed on the table. He looked at the table and tried desperately not to look around. He waited.

  His guest arrived from nowhere and sat with his back to the wall. His name was Vinnie Cozzo, a thug from New York. From the Palumbo family.

  Vinnie noticed the shaking cup and the spilled coffee. “Relax, Alfred. This place is dark enough.”

  “What do you want?” Alfred hissed.

  “I wanna drink.”

  “No time for drinks. I’m leaving.”

  “Settle down, Alfred. Relax, pal. There ain’t three people in here.”

  “What do you want?” he hissed again.

  “Just a little information.”

  “It’ll cost you.”

  “It always does.” A waiter ventured by, and Vinnie ordered Chivas and water.

  “How’s my pal Denton Voyles?” Vinnie asked.

  “Kiss my ass, Cozzo. I’m leaving. I’m walking outta here.”

  “Okay, pal. Relax. I just need some info.”

  “Make it quick.” Alfred scanned the lounge. His cup was empty, most of it on the table.

  The Chivas arrived, and Vinnie took a good drink. “Gotta little situation down in Memphis. Some of the boys’re sorta worried about it. Ever hear of the Bendini firm?”

  Instinctively, Alfred shook his head in the negative. Always say no, at first. Then, after careful digging, return with a nice little report and say yes. Yes, he’d heard of the Bendini firm and their prized client. Operation Laundromat. Voyles himself had named it and was so proud of his creativity.

  Vinnie took another good drink. “Well, there’s a guy down there named McDeere, Mitchell McDeere, who works for this Bendini firm, and we suspect he’s also playing grab-ass with your people. Know what I mean? We think he’s selling info on Bendini to the feds. Just need to know if it’s true. That’s all.”

  Alfred listened with a straight face, although it was not easy. He knew McDeere’s blood type and his favorite restaurant in Memphis. He knew that McDeere had talked to Tarrance half a dozen times now and that tomorrow, Tuesday, McDeere would become a millionaire. Piece of cake.

  “I’ll see what I can do. Let’s talk money.”

  Vinnie lit a Salem Light. “Well, Alfred, it’s a serious matter. I ain’t gonna lie. Two hundred thousand cash.”

  Alfred dropped the cup. He pulled a handkerchief from his rear pocket and furiously rubbed his glasses. “Two hundred? Cash?”

  “That’s what I said. What’d we pay you last time?”

  “Seventy-five.”

  “See what I mean? It’s pretty damned serious, Alfred. Can you do it?”

  “Yes.”

  “When?”

  “Give me two weeks.”

  29

  A week before April 15, the workaholics at Bendini, Lambert & Locke reached maximum stress and ran at full throttle on nothing but adrenaline. And fear. Fear of missing a deduction or a write-off or some extra depreciation that would cost a rich client an extra million or so. Fear of picking up the phone and calling the client and informing him that the return was now finished and, sorry to say, an extra eight hundred thousand was due. Fear of not finishing by the fifteenth and being forced to file extensions and incurring penalties and interest. The parking lot was full by 6 a.m. The secretaries worked twelve hours a day. Tempers were short. Talk was scarce and hurried.

  With no wife to go home to, Mitch worked around the clock. Sonny Capps had cursed and berated Avery because he owed $450,000. On earned income of six million. Avery had cursed Mitch, and together they plowed through the Capps files again, digging and cursing. Mitch created two very questionable write-offs that lowered it to $320,000. Capps said he was considering a new tax firm. One in Washington.

  With six days to go, Capps demanded a meeting with Avery in Houston. The Lear was available, and Avery left at midnight. Mitch drove him to the airport, receiving instructions along the way.

  Shortly after 1:30 a.m., he returned to the office. Three Mercedeses, a BMW and a Jaguar were scattered through the parking lot. The security guard opened the rear door, and Mitch rode the elevator to the fourth floor. As usual, Avery locked his office door. The partners’ doors were always locked. At the end of the hall, a voice could be heard. Victor Milligan, head of tax, sat at his desk and said ugly things to his computer. The other offices were dark and locked.

  Mitch held his breath and stuck a key into Avery’s door. The knob turned, and he was inside. He switched on all the lights and went to the small conference table where he and his partner had spent the day and most of the night. Files were stacked like bricks around the chairs. Papers thrown here and there. IRS Reg. books were piled on top of each other.

  Mitch sat at the table and continued his research for Capps. According to the FBI notebook, Capps was a legitimate businessman who had used the firm for at least eight years. The Fibbies weren’t interested in Sonny Capps.

  After an hour, the talking stopped and Milligan closed and locked the door. He took the stairs without saying good night. Mitch quickly checked each office on the fourth floor, then the third. All empty. It was almost 3 a.m.

  Next to the bookshelves on one wall of Avery’s office, four solid-oak file cabinets sat undisturbed. Mitch had noticed them for months but had never seen them used. The active files were kept in three metal cabinets next to the window. Secretaries dug through these, usually while Avery yelled at them. He locked the door behind him and walked to the oak cabinets. Locked, of course. He had narrowed it down to two small keys, each less than an inch long. The first one fit the first cabinet, and he opened it.

  From Tammy’s inventory of the contraband in Nashville, he had memorized many of the names of the Cayman companies operating with dirty money that was now clean. He thumbed through the files in the top drawer, and the names jumped at him. Dunn Lane, Ltd., Eastpointe, Ltd., Virgin Bay, Ltd., Inland Contractors, Ltd., Gulf-South, Ltd. He found more familiar names in the second and third drawers. The files were filled with loan documents from Cayman banks, wire-transfer records, warranty deeds, leases, mortgage deeds and a thousand other papers. He was particularly interested in Dunn Lane and Gulf-South. Tammy had recorded a significant number of documents for these two companies.

  He picked out a Gulf-South file full of wiretransfer records and loan documents from the Royal Bank of Montreal. He walked to a copier in the center of the fourth floor and turned it on. While it warmed, he casually glanced around. The place was dead. He looked along the ceilings. No cameras. He had checked it many times before. The ACCESS NUMBER light flashed, and he punched in the file number for Mrs. Lettie Plunk. Her tax return was sitting on his desk on the second floor, and it could spare a few copies. He laid the contents on the automatic feed, and three minutes later the file was copied. One hundred twenty-eight copies, charged to Lettie Plunk. Back to the file cabinet. Back to the copier with another stack of Gulf-South evidence. He punched in the access number for the file of Greenmark Partners, a real estate development company in Bartlett, Tennessee. Legitimate folks. The tax return was sitting on his desk and could spare a few copies.
Ninety-one, to be exact.

  Mitch had eighteen tax returns sitting in his office waiting to be signed and filed. With six days to go, he had finished his deadline work. All eighteen received automatic billings for copies of Gulf-South and Dunn Lane evidence. He had scribbled their access numbers on a sheet of notepaper, and it sat on the table next to the copier. After using the eighteen numbers, he accessed with three numbers borrowed from Lamar’s files and three numbers borrowed from the Capps files.

  A wire ran from the copier through a hole in the wall and down the inside of a closet, where it connected with wires from three other copiers on the fourth floor. The wire, larger now, ran down through the ceiling and along a baseboard to the billing room on the third floor, where a computer recorded and billed every copy made within the firm. An innocuous-looking little gray wire ran from the computer up a wall and through the ceiling to the fourth floor, and then up to the fifth, where another computer recorded the access code, the number of copies and the location of the machine making each copy.

  At 5 p.m., April 15, Bendini, Lambert & Locke shut down. By six, the parking lot was empty, and the expensive automobiles reassembled two miles away behind a venerable seafood establishment called Anderton’s. A small banquet room was reserved for the annual April 15 blowout. Every associate and active partner was present, along with eleven retired partners. The retirees were tanned and well rested; the actives were haggard and frayed. But they were all in a festive spirit, ready to get plastered. The stringent rules of clean living and moderation would be forgotten this night. Another firm rule prohibited any lawyer or secretary from working on April 16.

  Platters of cold boiled shrimp and raw oysters sat on tables along the walls. A huge wooden barrel filled with ice and cold Moosehead greeted them. Ten cases stood behind the barrel. Roosevelt popped tops as quickly as possible. Late in the night, he would get drunk with the rest of them, and Oliver Lambert would call a taxi to haul him home to Jessie Frances. It was a ritual.

  Roosevelt’s cousin, Little Bobby Blue Baker, sat at a baby grand and sang sadly as the lawyers filed in. For now, he was the entertainment. Later, he would not be needed.