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Authors: Ian Hamilton

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BOOK: The Disciple of Las Vegas
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( 5 )

Her phone rang at seven in the evening. It was the wake-up call she had booked after leaving Ordonez's offices and before crawling into bed with a glass of Pinot Grigio. Ava showered herself into relative consciousness before calling Uncle, who had left a note for her at the front desk, asking her to call him when she checked in.


Wei
,” he said.

“Uncle, it's Ava.”

“I'm in suite 1040. Come and see me.”

His door was open when she arrived. The room was beautiful, with gleaming teak floors, elegant bamboo furniture of a quality she knew you couldn't buy anymore, and a king-size four-poster bed with a snow-white down comforter. Uncle was sitting on a bamboo chair, his feet barely touching the ground, a bottle of Tsing Tao beer in his hand. “I have some white wine on ice for you,” he said, pointing to a credenza.

“You're spoiling me,” she said.

“It is by way of an apology.”

“I'm sorry, Uncle, I don't understand.” Ava couldn't think of anything he'd done that required an apology. Even if there had been a slight, their relationship was such that he would have made amends in a more subtle and less direct way.

He waited until she had poured herself a glass and seated herself next to him before leaning towards her. He caught her eye, and she flinched when she saw the anger in his face. “I was very unhappy with the manner in which Chang Wang and Tommy Ordonez treated you today,” Uncle said. “I had words with Chang after you left the room. I told him I was not certain we wanted to take the job and that I would leave it up to you.”

Ava was surprised by his reaction. She hadn't found Ordonez and Chang more offensive than some of their other rich Chinese clients.
There's something else at play here
, she thought. “Is there a problem with our fee?”

He smiled. “You are so practical.”

“Is there?”

“No, just the opposite. After the way they behaved, I insisted on our usual rate. They agreed.”

“So what's the issue?”

“Their behaviour,” he said. “Chang Wang is waiting downstairs to have dinner with us. I told him that if we are not there by eight o'clock it means we are going back to Hong Kong tomorrow.”

“You and Chang Wang — how far back do you go?” she asked, realizing that this had nothing to do with her.

“We are both from Wuhan, and we grew up together as boys in the same village.”

“And you've kept in touch all these years?”

Uncle stalled by taking a sip of beer. “We have done favours for each other,” he said slowly. “Chang helped me get to Hong Kong. After I was established, I helped him get to the Philippines, where he had a brother. From time to time our businesses — my old one — needed help, and we were there for each other. In China today, Tommy Ordonez would be nothing but an ink blot if it were not for my connections. And Chang helped me make a lot of money in these islands.”

“Such old friends, and close friends. There can't be too many men from that village who made it out, let alone became so successful.”

“Only a few of us, and that makes it worse.”

Now she understood. By being rude to her, Uncle thought they had been disrespectful to him. He was at times overly sensitive to slights, and as he got older she noticed he was more easily irked. She also knew he didn't care about Ordonez's behaviour; it was Chang's attitude that bothered him. “Uncle, Chang Wang was in a difficult position today. Tommy Ordonez is obviously in a rage over this Canadian business. His own brother, whom he obviously trusted, has failed him. You wouldn't expect Chang to openly chastise or oppose Ordonez. Maybe by being a little rude to me himself, he managed to moderate Ordonez. I'm sure that his actions towards me meant no disrespect to you.”

Uncle leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. “Ava, if you want to go back to Hong Kong we will leave Ordonez to sort out his own mess,” he said quietly.

“Uncle, that would be the wrong reason to go back to Hong Kong.”

“What do you mean?”

“From what I've read and heard, Philip Chew is up to his neck in this thing. That's obvious to me, to you, and I'm sure to them. So why do they want to use us at all?”

He took another sip of beer. “You are probably right, of course. They do suspect Philip, Chang more than Ordonez. Ordonez is still willing to give his younger brother the benefit of the doubt. They want us to eradicate that doubt.”

“And then what, push us aside?”

“No, I was firm about that and they agree. Even if we discover that Philip was responsible for the loss, there is the matter of determining what he did and why he did it. And then there is still fifty million dollars — or part of fifty million dollars — that we need to find and recover.”

“Why hasn't Ordonez confronted his brother?”

“He wants to be one hundred percent sure of the facts.”

“I'm not sure I believe that,” she said.

“Neither do I, but Chang did say that when they sent their CFO in Manila to Vancouver, Philip Chew would not meet with him or talk to him on the phone. The CFO even went to his house but was not allowed through the front door. Chew seems to have barricaded himself inside. So maybe Ordonez has not talked to him because he cannot,” Uncle said. He paused and looked down at his beer. “Ava, Ordonez is a very proud man, and I know that is another reason why we are involved. He wants to keep this whole affair as private as possible. Inside the company they are blaming this Jim Cousins for concocting the scheme and they are saying that Louis Marx did not do his job properly. That is the official line, and I am not sure anything we find will change that, internally at least. You need to understand that, in Manila, Ordonez is a superstar in the business community. He has hardly put a wrong foot forward. If it comes out that he was swindled by his own brother, he will become a cheap headline in the
Manila Star
and every other newspaper in the country. And in the Philippines image is important. The idea of people laughing behind his back makes Ordonez crazy.”

“Chang told you all this?”

“Most of it.”

She sat quietly for a moment, calculating costs. “Uncle, what if we prove Chew's culpability? What if I find out where the money went and there is no money to be retrieved?”

“We have a standby fee of one million dollars.”

“How much time do they expect us to devote to this?”

“I told them that if we could not find answers within a week, then we would part ways.”

“There isn't much downside to that,” she said.

“I think not.”

“Then let's take the job.”

He smiled. “As I said, a practical girl.”

“And a greedy one. I want that fee.”

She started to rise, assuming their conversation was over, but Uncle remained in his chair. “There's something else I don't know?” she asked.

Uncle sipped his beer. “The fat man you saw me with at the airport in Hong Kong.”

“Yes?”

“His name is Lop Liu.”

“You implied he ran the Triad in Mong Kok.”

“He does.”

“What does that have to do with me?”

“Do you remember Jackie Leung?”

“The toy manufacturer just outside Guangzhou? The one who tried to move the business to Vietnam without telling his partner? I caught up with him in Ho Chi Minh City.”

“You beat him, yes?”

“He came at me with a crowbar.”

“All he remembers is that you beat him and took his money. Lop told me that Jackie has become very successful, and he has
guanxi
— connections and influence — with some of my old adversaries. The fat man told me that Jackie wants repayment for the misery we put him through.”

Ava was accustomed to threats and wondered why Uncle was taking this one to heart. “You're not nervous, are you?”

He waved his hand. “Me, they would never think about harming. It is you that pig Leung has targeted.”

“Uncle, why are you telling me this?” she asked.

“I want you to be careful.”

“I always am.”

“Ava, these are serious and competent people who have been well paid, with promises of more if they can kill you. You need to be alert until I can resolve this.”

“And how will you do that?”

“I am going to have Leung taken care of.”

“Then what do I have to worry about?”

“I have to find him first.”

( 6 )

Bald-headed Chang Wang sat like a small Buddha in the hotel lobby, where he was being fussed over by female staff. When he saw Uncle and Ava, he pushed himself to his feet. “I made a reservation for us in the Old Manila restaurant here in the hotel,” he said without a flicker of emotion. “They have excellent filet mignon. You do eat red meat, I hope, Ava.”

“I'm Chinese, Uncle Chang. I eat everything,” she said.

He noted her show of respect with a slight smile. “It has been a difficult day for all of us,” he said. “I appreciate your patience.”

They all ordered Caesar salad and the filet mignon. The two men drank beer with dinner; Ava had white burgundy from the bottle Chang insisted on ordering for her. He waited until they had finished eating and were contemplating cognac before turning to business. “How was your time with Louis Marx?” he asked.

“I found him entirely believable,” she said.

“What do you mean?”

“Being a comptroller has to be one of the most thankless jobs in the world. It's a constant juggling act. On the one hand you have a set of professional guidelines and a code of ethics that you try to adhere to, and on the other you have a boss who is constantly pressuring you to cut corners. Then if that weren't enough, there's outside scrutiny from companies like Deloitte, ready to point fingers at the slightest misstep. And when they do, of course, your boss forgets that he pushed you to compromise the law and lets you take all the blame. I think Louis Marx did what Philip Chew wanted him to do. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“So you think the fault for this loss lies with Philip Chew?”

“Of course, and so do you,” she said to Chang.

Uncle interrupted. “I spoke frankly to Ava.”

Chang didn't seem surprised. “But what about this Cousins — what do you think about him?”

“He's an important part of this,” Ava said. “If we're lucky he'll turn out to be the villain. In any event, I need to track him down. As a starting point I want to see the reports from the detectives you hired. They weren't in the files I saw today.”

“I'll have them for you in the morning.”

“I also couldn't find any record of incorporation for Kelowna Valley Developments. Didn't anyone check to see who actually owned it?”

“We did,” Chang said. “It's owned by a numbered company, also incorporated in British Columbia. But when we traced it, we found that the shares are being held in trust by a Vancouver lawyer.”

“In trust for whom?”

“We don't know and he wouldn't tell us. We assumed it was Cousins.”

“I'll need the name of the lawyer.”

“Of course.”

“And there were no banking records for KVD?”

“We don't have any. The account was opened by Cousins and he had sole signing authority. We've requested information, but the bank is not forthcoming.”

“Which bank?”

“Toronto Commonwealth.”

Well, that's a break
, she thought.

The two men ordered cognac. Ava was only halfway through the bottle of wine and wasn't about to finish it. She waited until the snifters arrived before saying, “Uncle Chang, Louis Marx told me you made him sign a non-disclosure agreement. Do you need me to do the same?”

“Of course not. You work with Uncle and you have his absolute confidence. And now you have mine. No one doubts your discretion.”

“And discretion seems to be very important to you and Mr. Ordonez.”

Chang held the snifter to his nose. “Tommy Ordonez is a Chinoy. Do you know what that is?”

“Yes,” Ava said.

“The fact that he is the richest man in the Philippines doesn't change that. He has never been and never will be accepted by the six or seven old Spanish families who have run this country for centuries, families whose members take turns being president. They respect him to his face, of course, and they're afraid of the power he can exert. But they will never accept him and they would like nothing more than to see him shamed. You noticed, I assume, that Tommy has a very unusual voice?”

“Of course.”

“He had a throat ailment when he was a boy, and it was badly treated. No more damage can be done and it doesn't affect his health in any way, but he knows that in private they mimic and mock him. The condition is something he can't change and their ignorance doesn't affect him, but the way they perceive him as a businessman and as the head of his family does matter to him. He's viewed as a man who never puts a wrong foot forward. That's not true, of course, but that's his image, and there is a lot to be gained from maintaining that image. And it's a great source of pride to him as well as being a matter of practicality. Public knowledge of discord in the family, let alone that a younger brother might have cheated him, would cause Tommy almost unbearable humiliation.”

“Assuming there was cheating.”

“I'm not a man who puts his head in the sand,” Chang said. “Fifty million dollars or more is missing from our company's coffers, and Philip's signature is on every agreement.” He knocked back his cognac in one shot and looked at Ava. “Find out what happened, find out why it happened, and find as much of the money as you can.”

( 7 )

It was just past nine thirty in Manila, which meant that offices in Toronto were open for business. Ava turned on her laptop and went into her phonebook. She hadn't spoken to Johnny Yan in three months but she hadn't heard of any change in his employment status at Toronto Commonwealth Bank through their mutual friends from York University.

When Ava attended York, almost a third of her class were of Chinese origin. Some of them had naturally gravitated towards one another, and bonds were formed. By the time she graduated her group was down to ten close friends, all of them committed to succeeding and all of them committed to helping each other. It was the Chinese way — not much different from the ties that Uncle had forged over the years, although the scale was obviously much smaller.

She called Johnny on the hotel line and he answered on the second ring. “This is Ava,” she said.

“Where are you? I don't recognize that country code.”

“Manila.”

“Lucky you. It's snowing like hell here.”

“Johnny, I need a favour. Can you talk?”

Johnny knew what Ava did for a living, so nothing she asked for surprised him. “Shoot,” he said.

“The company is called Kelowna Valley Developments and it had an account at one of your branches. The sole signee was a guy named Jim Cousins. The account would have been opened about six months ago, and over those six months around fifty million dollars was deposited and withdrawn. I need to know where the money went.”

“Do you have an account number?”

“No.”

“God, you always make me do extra work.”

She laughed. “Johnny, one more thing. I think Cousins had a personal account there as well, and I'd like to know how active it was. You may have to go back further. In fact, it would be helpful if you could go back as far as you can.”

“Two years is about the maximum the system will allow.”

“That's fine.”

“How quickly do you need this?”

“Now.”

“Of course,” he said, laughing. “I have a meeting starting in ten minutes and I'll be tied up most of the morning. I won't be able to get to it until lunch time.”

“I'll wait up.”

Ava hung up and signed into her email. There was a note from Derek saying he had moved into her condo for a few days and that he intended to contact Mimi.
And by the way
,
he wrote,
is she the short, chunky brunette or the tall blonde with large breasts?

Before leaving Toronto, Ava had barely had enough time to get things sorted. She had been reduced to firing off last-minute emails to her sister, Marian; her mother, Jennie; and her best friend, Mimi. However, she did have time to talk to one of her closest male friends, Derek Liang. Derek was the only other person she knew who practised bak mei, one of the oldest and deadliest martial arts, and she employed him from time to time in her work. He lived in Richmond Hill, a northern suburb of Toronto that was predominantly Chinese, and had expressed interest in moving downtown. What he really wanted was to meet some women who weren't the usual Chinese princesses he dated. She had left a key to her condo for him with the building manager and told him she would let her friend Mimi know he was moving in. The moment she had said it, she felt a flutter of regret.

Ava deleted Derek's message and opened an email from Mimi. The subject line read
MARIA
.

Ava,

I gave your name and email address to a woman last night. Her name is Maria Gonzalez and she's an assistant trade commissioner at the Colombian consulate. I met her at a business function and we chatted. She flirted with me in a nice, shy kind of way. I asked her if she was gay. She is. So I talked about you and told her she should contact you. I know how private you are and I'm sorry if you think I was being indiscreet, but Ava, this is a wonderful young woman. She's beautiful, tall, graceful, and smart. Don't be surprised
if she contacts you.
And don't worry, I'll take care of Derek.Love,Mimi

Ava sighed. The last thing she needed was for her personal life to get in the way of business. She lay on the bed and tried to nap, but her mind was racing. Uncle's information about Jackie Leung had caught her off guard, and now as she digested it she felt surprise and a touch of alarm. She had been threatened before by people she had rousted, but it had always amounted to nothing. She wondered if this could be different.

Leung's case had been a nothing job, a simple matter of the active partner in a business trying to move the company's assets before the passive partner, the investor, caught on. She had cornered Leung in Ho Chi Minh and forced him to give everything back. That had meant keeping him locked in a hotel room for most of a day and dunking his head in the toilet every hour or so. She was new at the game then, less sure of herself and less sure about what tactics would work. When he finally capitulated, they drove in his car to the bank to make the money transfer. Just outside the bank he said he needed to get some papers from the trunk, and then he charged at her with a crowbar.

Ava had broken his arm and his nose. She took him to a hospital to get patched up and then drove back to the bank to conclude the business. When they returned to his car, she locked him in the trunk. She had no idea how long it took for someone to find him.

She thought she had handled Leung with only as much force as was needed. If he hadn't attacked her he wouldn't have been hurt at all, except for his ego and his wallet. Just as she was wondering what part of the ordeal had made him angry enough to pay people to come after her, her phone rang.

“This is an interesting account,” Johnny said.

She noticed he was using his cellphone. “What did you find?”

“It looks like it was used as a transit account — money in and then, just as quickly, money out.”

“Can you give me the amounts and dates?”

“Do you have a notepad? There's quite a bit of detail here.”

“In front of me.”

“I'll give you the deposits first.”

“Go ahead.”

There were fifteen deposits, all of them less than $5 million, just as Louis Marx had described. The dates were random. In one week three deposits had been made and there was a gap of close to three weeks between two others. The very first deposit was for $4 million, Ava saw. Marx had said that Cousins fronted $2 million. That meant that the $2 million Cousins was supposed to have put in the account was never deposited. As Johnny gave her the deposit amounts, Ava kept a running tally. They totalled $58 million, a bit more than Chang had said.

“What a strange pattern,” Ava said.

“The withdrawals are even weirder,” Johnny said.

“How so?”

“The day after each of these cheques was cleared, a wire was sent to Costa Rica for almost that exact same amount.”

“Costa Rica? That's hardly an offshore haven.”

“I know, and what's stranger still is that the money was sent to six different banks and to fifteen different individuals. Crazy, huh?”

“Give me the details,” she said.

As she copied the names and the amounts withdrawn, a pattern began to emerge. “Johnny, those wires weren't the only withdrawals, right?”

“No. Every time a wire was sent, money was transferred on the same day to another Toronto Commonwealth account.”

“Jim Cousins' personal account?”

“Yep.”

“And if I'm doing my numbers correctly, it looks like it was for three percent of every deposit.”

“More like three and a half.”

“A commission?”

“Why not?”

“For laundering money?”

“That's a logical conclusion.”

“So, Johnny, why didn't alarms go off at the bank?”

“Read the list I just gave you. Six banks. Fifteen people. Costa Rica. How does that fit any money-laundering profile you've ever encountered?”

She read the names Johnny had given her. Wilma Castro Hernandez. Maria Rodriguez. Jose Villanueva. And so on. “It doesn't.”

“Exactly. So the bank wouldn't have picked up on anything.”

“So we're either dealing with a very sophisticated money-laundering operation or something entirely different. How about Cousins' account?”

“Closed about two weeks ago.”

“How long was it open?”

“About six months.”

“Was there ever two million in it?”

“Not until these transfers started, and it didn't get to two million until they came to an end. And then, of course, the account was closed and the money was moved out.”

“Where did Cousins send it?”

“Jersey.”

“New Jersey?”

“You should be so lucky. Jersey in the Channel Islands. Although . . .”

“Did you find something?” she urged.

“There are some attachments to the Jersey wire transfer file. Give me a minute.”

Please be good to me
, she thought.

“If this guy Cousins is trying to hide money he must be an amateur,” Johnny said when he came back on the line. “Two days after his money went to Jersey he must have tried to do something with the account there, because we got a request from the bank to reconfirm the account holder's status with us.”

“And?”

“They provided us with a copy of his passport and, believe it or not, his Kelowna address and a forwarding address in the U.S.”

“I love you, Johnny Yan,” she said.

“And so you should. This is going to cost you a dinner,” he said, and then gave her Cousins' San Francisco address.

Ava hung up, hardly believing her luck.

She went online and found the building, an apartment/hotel with units available for rent by the week and month. She checked the time. It was mid-morning on the U.S. west coast. She dialled the number on the website. A pleasant, young-sounding woman confirmed that there were vacant apartments. Ava gave the woman her name and asked if she could stop by to see them the following day. That wouldn't be a problem, she was told.

“And by the way,” Ava said, “I have a work colleague named Jim Cousins who said he was moving into the building. Is he in residence yet?”

“He is, indeed,” the woman said.

Ava emailed her travel agent and asked her to book a seat on the first flight out of Manila to San Francisco. She would call Uncle in the morning. She just wasn't sure how much she was going to tell him.

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