another opened doorway on the other side, Titus quickly caught glimpses of antique desks and bookcases, a sitting area with sofa and armchairs, a round library table stacked with books, some still open, a fountain pen cradled in the gutter of one. The only light in the room came in through the deep casements of the doors and windows.
As they went out the other door and onto another balcony, Titus realized that the simple blue wall that faced the street concealed a sizable compound. Here they looked down on a second garden courtyard twice as large as the first one and surrounded by several two-story casitas also connected by two levels of colonnades. Towering flamboyan trees cast a lacy veil of shade over everything.
Titus followed Burden into the first casita and through a time warp into the twenty-first century: a long narrow room chilly with air-conditioning, numerous computers and servers, a movie screen, a huge television screen, and videophones. Three women moved about the room, working at various tasks, ignoring Burden's arrival.
“Let's show him what we have, ”he said to no one in particular, and one of the women nearby turned around and sat at the computer. Titus was surprised to see that she was a Mayan Indian, her flattened features distinctive and unmistakable.
While she typed, Titus glanced at the other two women: an attractive Asian woman who appeared to be in her late forties, her hair worn in a precisely cut bob, dressed in a very smart, straight black skirt and dove gray blouse; and a busty woman of middle height and middle age, plain with Scotch-Irish coloring, roan hair, and a sweet, blue-eyed smile.
Burden stood with his arms crossed, staring over at the TV screen. When the first photo flashed up, he looked at Titus. Titus shook his head. Second photo. Burden looked at Titus. Again Titus shook his head.
“Oh? ”Burden seemed both surprised and eager. “Really? Well then, here's your man.”
Third photo. It was Alvaro in a grainy photograph blown up from a small surveillance negative, crossing a street-Titus thought it looked like Buenos Aires, maybe-a newspaper tucked under his arm as he glanced back in the direction of the photographer, though not at him.
“Yeah, ”Titus said, “that's him.”
“Cayetano Luquin Becerra. Mexican, ”Burden said.
Titus was both relieved and anxious, the way a man might feel when his doctor tells him that they've finally identified the mysterious disease that's been crippling him. He didn't know if this was good or bad.
“Let me see your laptop, ”Burden said, and when Titus gave it to him, he handed it on to the Asian woman. “We're going to tune it up a little, ”he explained. “When she's through, all communication from this man to you will automatically be forwarded to us. It's perfectly safe. He won't know. And we'll build very thorough firewalls for you so our own communications will be secure as well.”
He looked at Titus and jerked his head at the huge photograph on the screen.
“Good news and bad news, ”he said. “Come on, we'll talk about it.”
Chapter 11
As they walked into the study again, Titus expected Burden to turn on some lights, but instead he walked over to an area where there was a sofa and armchairs and gestured for Titus to take a seat anywhere. Both men sat down.
“No one-no one in my business-has set eyes on Tano Luquin in three and a half years, ”Burden said. “The guy who took that picture you just saw, he was the last man. He's dead now, the photographer. It's been more than fifteen years since Luquin was seen in the U.S. This is significant.”
“In what way?”
“Well, I'm not sure. Is he here purely because of the size of the ransom??Quien sabe? Could be. Maybe not.”
Titus was sitting on the sofa, facing the wall at one end of the room, the one opposite Burden's desk, which was behind him. As his eyes adjusted to the low light, he realized that a large portion of the wall was taken up with a black-and-white photograph about four feet high and easily twelve feet long, recessed in its own niche in a simple black frame and surrounded by bookcases. The image was of a reclining nude woman.
“Look, I don't feel like I've got a lot of time, ”Titus said, nervous at Burden's peaceful demeanor. “How do we get started here?”
“You'll get a complete dossier on Luquin, ”Burden said, “you'll know who you're dealing with. But, briefly, here are the high spots. Tano grew up in a well-to-do family in Mexico City, university education. He was never really interested in any legitimate business pursuits, and by the late seventies he was already gravitating to the drug trade. By the turn of the decade he was down in Colombia doing petty errands for people who were contracting their services to Pablo Escobar, who had already become a notorious legend. Tano had a feel for abduction, and was soon kidnapping for hire, again for people who were working for Escobar.
“His expertise in secuestro grew during the eighties as Escobar's need to discipline and persuade his competitors increased. But Tano, demonstrating a rare wisdom in that line of work, never worked directly for Pablo. He always made sure he was a couple of connections removed, letting others take the credit… and the heat if something went wrong.”
Titus only needed to move his eyes a flicker to shift them from Burden to the photograph, which was becoming a distraction as it continued to emerge from the surrounding shadows.
“So, when Escobar's empire began to rattle apart in the late eighties, ”Burden went on, “Tano could see the end coming and got out of Colombia. He spent the early nineties in Brazil and had been living in Rio de Janeiro for several years when Escobar was finally killed in Medellin in December of 1993.
“But Tano had been busy in Rio, honing his skills. According to the Ministerio da Justica, Tano's MO was all over four of the largest high-end kidnappings that occurred in Rio between 1991 and 1997. All of the targets were foreign executives, and these four incidents brought Tano a very nice income of nearly fifty-three million dollars in ransoms.”
“What were the size of the ransoms?”
Burden nodded. “Interesting. They increased steadily over the four events. Tano was beginning to study his targets with more deliberation, and what he learned about them shaped the way he handled their abductions and ransom demands. It determined the way he designed their ordeals.”
All of this was stated in a gentle way, as if Burden were a mild-mannered psychiatrist explaining the rationale for a therapy regimen. Occasionally he gestured gracefully with his hands, which Titus now noticed were unexpectedly elegant. Sometimes he would run his fingers through his hair to get a wavy lock of it away from his eyes.
“Tano's technique improved, too, ”Burden continued with a hint of pleasure in his eyes, as if he were relishing what he was about to reveal. “I'll run through the four cases for you. It's important that you understand what's about to happen to you.
“Number one. The target was a French executive with a multinational corporation. Corporation brings in their insurance company's recommended K and R team. Negotiations take three months. Kidnappers come down to one-half of their original demand. K and R people bungle the negotiations. Victim dies in the process, but Tano gets 5.3 million dollars.
“Number two. German CEO. Kidnappers contact the family this time, not the corporation. Kidnappers let the family apply the pressure to the corporation, while the kidnappers save themselves a lot of sweat. But the family consults with Rio's Policia Civil kidnap squad. Things slow down, victim's hand arrives special delivery. Family has a meltdown. Puts pressure on corporation, which eventually agrees to pay seventy percent of the original demand: 8.5 million dollars.
“Number three. Spanish executive. But this time the kidnappers know that the executive and his family are the major stockholders in the corporation. No K and R people allowed to participate. Victim will be killed if Policia Civil are brought in. Family agrees, but then they drive a hard bargain. So a brother-in-law, representing the company in Buenos Aires, is kidnapped also. Not for additional ransom, but to put pressure on the original negotiation. Pay up or he dies. The family continues to belabor the amount of the demand. Brother-in-law, hands and feet bound with wire, is set on fire in the long private drive that leads up to the family's estate. Family pays
