The Accident Man (25 page)

He gazed across the square. He didn’t see the man with the shaven head, holding a metal briefcase, walk out of the cathedral’s main door and head down toward him. He didn’t know the man was there until he felt the crushing weight of a hand on his shoulder and heard a voice behind him growl, “Charlie sends regards,” in a Russian accent that made it sound like, “
Chully syends rigards
.”

Papin gave a twitch of surprise and turned around to face his contact. He had been expecting an Englishman, or perhaps a Swiss, at any rate someone with whom he could conduct business in a civilized fashion. But this Russian just stood there, massive and brutish, gazing at Papin with blank implacability.

A few seconds passed in silence, then the Russian said, “Okay, wrong man,” and took a step back up the steps.

“No! No! Right man!” Papin exclaimed, suddenly panicked. “I hope Charlie is well!”

Grigori Kursk looked at him, shook his head, spat on the ground, then grunted, “Yeah, is better now.”

Papin glanced down at the case. “Do you have the money?”

Kursk gave a single nod.

“Give me the first installment.”

“Don’t understand.”

“The money, two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Give it to me.”

“Not here. Everyone see. In car. We go to car.”

Kursk walked away. Papin waited a couple of seconds, then followed him over to a black BMW parked on the uphill side of the square. There were three men inside, crammed into the backseat.

“I said no backup. Just me and you. No one else,” Papin insisted.

Kursk opened the passenger door. “In!” he commanded.

The Frenchman knew that it had all gone wrong. There would be no money in the case. The only issue now was his own survival. If he tried to run, he had no doubt the Russian would follow him and kill him. But he still had the information they needed. As long as he could keep it from them, that would be his edge.

Kursk glared at him. “Okay. Now where to go?”

Papin said nothing.

Kursk kept his left hand draped on the wheel. But the right reached out, gripped Papin around the neck, and started squeezing. Papin writhed in his seat, trying to escape the Russian’s grasp. But it made no difference. He could not break free and the effort just made him suffocate even faster. Surely the man had to stop. Surely he wouldn’t kill him now. Papin was desperate for breath, the blood pounding in his ears, his eyes popping, vision blurring. Still the fist closed around his neck. He could feel his vocal cards being crushed by the pressure. When his resistance finally gave way, he could only croak, “Okay… okay… I’ll tell you.”

At last the hand relaxed. Papin’s chest heaved as he dragged air into his lungs, each breath burning like poison gas as it passed through his ravaged throat. “Go to the end of the road, turn right.” He gestured feebly to show what he meant. Kursk started the car and began to drive.

They turned right across a small square and weaved their way along a series of narrow, intersecting cobblestoned streets. Finally, Papin pointed to the side of the road. There was a parking space. “Pull up behind that red car,” he said. The BMW came to a halt alongside the curb.

Papin turned his head toward Kursk. The Russian regarded him with the cloudy, dead-fish stare of a man incapable of remorse.

“Across the road,” Papin said. “You see the alley? It’s through there. He has the top apartment.”

“Are they in apartment?”

“No.”

“They come back?”

“Yes, I think so. Tonight, maybe.”

“Is only one way in?”

“I think so.”

Papin slumped back in his seat. The exhaustion that had weighed on him all day seemed to be dragging him down, robbing him of any energy or will. When Kursk reached out again, both hands this time, Pierre Papin hardly moved a muscle as his life ebbed away.

When it was over, Kursk got out of the car. He stood on the cobblestones, leaning on the BMW as he lit a cigarette and looked up and down the street. It was deserted. He gazed up at the buildings around him. There were no faces at any windows, no sign that he was being observed, just some kids playing in front of a café down the street.

He knocked on the rear window and waited as it rolled down.

“Okay,” he said to the men in the backseat. “Time you did some work.”

In the passenger seat of a car parked at the end of the little side street, a man was looking through the hefty telephoto lens of a high-res digital camera. His finger was pressed to the shutter. The camera was on a sports setting, the shutter whirring, firing off several shots a second. Next to him a woman spoke into a mobile phone. “Two of them have crossed the street. They’re going up to an apartment building. I think they just forced the front door. I can see the Frenchman in the front seat of the car, but he’s not moving. I’m pretty sure they’ve killed him.”

Grantham sighed. “That stupid, greedy bastard. Well, he can’t say he wasn’t told.”

“What do you want us to do, sir?”

“Nothing. Just keep watching. We offered Papin our help, and he wouldn’t take it. That’s his problem. Our priority remains what it always was. We keep watching.”

“Yes, sir. I understand.”

“Good. Keep me informed of any further developments.”

“Absolutely.”

Jennifer Stock hung up and put the phone back in her handbag.

“Just spoken to the boss,” she said to the photographer. “He says forget the Frenchman. Get those shots through to London. Then carry on as you were. Wait and watch.”

Stock wriggled in discomfort. It was hot inside the car. Her blouse and skirt were getting creased against the seat. She cursed under her breath. If she’d known she was going to spend half the day on a stakeout, she’d have worn a T-shirt and trousers.

Magnus Leclerc did check on the Panamanian Mercantile Registry, on which all offshore companies had to be registered. Sure enough, Topograficas SA was there, as were three nominated directors, none of whom was Mr. Vandervart. That was no surprise: Why have a Panamanian company at all if not to be invisible? Nor were there any published accounts. There wouldn’t be: The lack of any requirement to keep books or records of any kind was another advantage of Panamanian corporate law. So he knew no more than he had known before, but then, he hadn’t expected to. It was hardly unusual for his clients to wish to cover their tracks, and the possibility of wasting an hour in a bar seemed a small price to pay for the chance of landing a nine-figure account.

He arrived at the Hotel Beau-Rivage shortly after six, asked for Vandervart at the reception desk, and was informed by the receptionist that his host apologized profusely but he was tied up in a meeting and would be a few minutes late. In the meantime, if monsieur would care to make his way just across the atrium to the bar, M. Vandervart would join him there soon.

It was a perfect example of an upmarket European watering hole: ornate plasterwork on the walls, gathered green silk blinds over the windows, reproduction antique chairs grouped around white-clothed tables. Leclerc walked to the bar and ordered a vodka martini from the gray-haired man behind the counter. He collected his drink and walked across to a corner table. The only other customers were an elderly American couple. The man was already ordering his second bourbon: His wife was pursing her lips. It looked like the start of a long night of marital hell.

He knew all about that. Leclerc took a sip of his martini and contemplated the ritual display of martyrdom and resentment that awaited him when he got home. Marthe would depict herself as shattered after her long day of doing precisely nothing apart from playing tennis, spending his money, and undertaking the minimal amount of child care required by two independent-minded teenagers. He had warned her he might be home late and told her not to worry about his supper, but that wouldn’t count for much. She’d make a point of wearing the most shapeless, unappealing tracksuit she could find. She’d sigh theatrically, roll her eyes, and tell him the food was ruined. She’d…

Mon Dieu!

A woman had just walked into the bar. She was tall with a beautiful face framed in a brunette bob. She was wearing a softly cut white blouse over a tight dark blue skirt. Her long legs were tanned. Her high heels exactly matched her skirt, as did her elegant little shoulderbag. She looked absolutely respectable yet totally desirable. Leclerc spotted the ancient American ogling the girl as she cast her eyes around the bar, evidently looking for someone. The American’s wife hissed and slapped the back of a mottled, ring-burdened hand across the sleeve of his jacket, redirecting his attention back to her.

Leclerc winced in sympathy at the old boy’s suffering, and it was then that the brunette caught his eye. Her face suddenly lit up with a smile, letting him know she’d recognized him and that nothing at all could have made her happier. She walked across to him and stopped beside his table.

“Monsieur Leclerc?” She held out elegant fingers whose smooth, unblemished skin was a delightful contrast to the gnarled claw of the old harridan, who was now casting poisonous looks in their direction. “I’m Natasha St. Clair, Mr. Vandervart’s assistant. He’s still tied up, I’m afraid.”

“
Enchanté
, mademoiselle,” replied Leclerc. “I am Magnus Leclerc. But please, Natasha, call me Magnus. Can I persuade you to join me, while we wait for monsieur Vandervart?”

“Are you sure? I mean, if you think it’s all right….”

“But of course, I insist.”

“Thank you, that would be very nice. I just hope I haven’t intruded on you.”

She blushed a little as she sat down opposite him, smoothing her skirt over her perfect thighs. She then gave a regretful little shake of her head and a frown of concern.

“You know, Mr. Vandervart is a wonderful man, but I really think he should take it easier. It’s not my place to say anything, of course, but men like him work too hard. Of course, they want to do the best for their families, but sometimes they should think more about themselves. Don’t you agree?”

Magnus Leclerc would happily have agreed with any proposal the girl cared to put to him. “Absolutely,” he said, with an enthusiastic nod.

The girl smiled, as if grateful for his approval. She placed her elbows on the table and leaned forward slightly, letting her scent waft across the table and accidentally giving Leclerc the tiniest glimpse of cleavage as her breasts were squeezed between her upper arms.

“Mmm,” she purred, “that martini looks so tempting. It’s very naughty of me to have a drink while I’m still supposed to be working, but could you get one for me too? Is that all right?”

“But of course, I’d be delighted,” said the banker.

As he got up from the table and walked toward the bar, he realized that his pulse was racing. He ordered a drink and adjusted his tie in the mirror behind the bar. When the martini was ready, the barman raised an eyebrow in a gesture of wry acknowledgment, one man to another. Leclerc smiled back, gave the barman a friendly slap on the arm, and left him a ten franc tip. Then he turned around and carried the drink back to the girl.

She didn’t like to admit it, but Alix was enjoying herself. She’d felt the eyes following her as she crossed the foyer — the lust of the bellhop and the concierge; the envy of the plain receptionist; the considered, competitive assessment of the pretty one. When she walked into the bar, she’d had to suppress a smile at the comic spat between the old man and his wife. Then she’d watched the banker trying not to gawk at her like a goggle-eyed sixteen-year-old virgin, and she’d known this was going to be easy.

From then on, she’d worked by the manual: the smile, the eye contact, the gestures that would both arouse a man’s interest and signal her availability, the conversational gambits that ended in a question, inviting the man to agree. Ask any top-class pickup artist: If you start the other person saying yes, they don’t stop, all the way to the bedroom.

She’d been tempted to see if she could work her magic without any chemical assistance, but seducing Leclerc was just a means to an end. They had to get him talking as well. So when he went up to the bar, she’d reached into her bag and taken out her cigarettes and lighter. Anyone watching would have seen that. They wouldn’t have noticed the little capsule she palmed, nor seen her snap it in two and deposit its contents into Leclerc’s glass as she reached across and idly toyed with the olive on its black plastic stick.

The powder settled on the surface of the martini, but disappeared with a couple of stirs of the stick. Leclerc returned to the table to find Alix looking up at him with a guilty look on her face, saying, “Oops! You caught me! I was just about to steal your olive. I’m sorry. I can’t resist them!”

He tried to give her his smoothest smile. “Well, here’s one of your very own.”

Alix took the olive from the glass Leclerc had placed in front of her and slipped it into her mouth, between her glossy red lips. “Mmm, delicious!” she said, then playfully ran her tongue along her upper lip. She told herself to stop fooling around. If she were too obvious, too easy, Leclerc might get suspicious. Time to be a bit more respectable.

She looked at him slightly wide-eyed, like an eager, respectful pupil sitting at her favorite professor’s feet. “I’ve always been fascinated by Swiss banks. They sound so powerful and mysterious. You must tell me all about your work. I’d really like to know.”

The bartender’s name was Marcel. He’d spent more than thirty years serving drinks, watching the games that play out when men, women, and alcohol collide. He thought of himself as a connoisseur of the art of seduction. So the moment the girl stepped into his domain, then shone her smile at the man in the corner, Marcel’s interest was piqued.

He was reasonably certain that this was some kind of con. The man was a mark and she was playing him. After the second martini, she’d discreetly switched to sparkling water, but the man had stayed with his liquor. Marcel chuckled to himself and looked forward to the evening’s entertainment.