“Yeah. Jack’s back.”
CHAPTER 32
T hey only had eyes for each other,” Mickey told Gage when he slid into the Volvo outside Heathrow Airport after his Swiss Air flight from Geneva. “Two could’ve followed them right into their Guernsey hotel room and they wouldn’t have seen her.”
“How’d they spend the day?”
“They got themselves a room at the Old Government House Hotel in St. Peter Port,” Mickey said, “then met with a lawyer at LaFleur amp; Sedgwick. They finished the day with a late dinner on the waterfront. Two said the owner greeted Matson like a regular and kissed the lovely Alla like she was his own daughter.”
“Trust me. He doesn’t want a daughter like her.”
“Oh no.” Mickey’s head swung toward Gage. “Don’t ruin an old man’s fantasy.”
“Her pop is a crime boss working out of Budapest. She may have fingered my friend and the Fitzhughs.”
Mickey sighed. “So the beauty is a beast.”
“That’s all the more reason Two has to stick with them.”
“She’s gotten the best training the British Army can provide. She’s like a chameleon. If she can’t, no one can.”
Gage spent the next morning in his hotel room reading and responding to e-mail updates from investigators in his office, all the while grateful that he’d been able to recruit men and women with the judgment both to manage their own investigations and to understand how much Gage needed to know in order to manage the firm.
When Mickey arrived for lunch, he reported that Two had followed Matson and Alla from Guernsey to Lugano.
“And get this,” Mickey said, as he held up his forkful of Mediterranean chicken in the Park Lane Brasserie. “Alla was using a Panamanian passport. Two saw it, but couldn’t see the name.”
“Which means she could evaporate any time.”
Mickey nodded, then washed the chicken down with a sip of beer. “What do you want to do this afternoon?”
“Research two UK companies. Why don’t you finish up here and I’ll get the information my office sent.”
Mickey grinned. “And the papers you stole from Fitzhugh’s house?”
Gage looked over and winked. “Those, too.”
By 4:40 P. M. the Companies House clerk was alternately glancing at the clock and at Gage. A few more minutes and she wouldn’t have to accept any more file requests, and could gather up her coat and purse in preparation for her escape from the fortresslike repository of the histories of the two million companies registered in the UK.
Preoccupied with the clock, she didn’t see Mickey sliding in just under the wire. “Thanks, darling,” he said, after she accepted the file request. He could see in her smile that she found him too cute to get annoyed at.
Mickey’s cell phone rang. He answered it, then walked over to where Gage sat before a monitor examining scanned corporate filings and financial statements. “Two has an update.”
Gage took the phone and stepped outside the building.
“I think I better break it off,” Two said. “I’ve been around them too long.”
“Where’d they go today?”
“They spent about a half hour at Banca Rober and about an hour at Barclays. Now it looks like they’re on the way to the airport. I’ll probably get burned if I follow them in. They had ‘good job, well done’ looks on their faces when they left the last meeting so they may be on their way back to London.”
At 8:30 P. M., Gage received a call from Hixon One at Gatwick. “The lovebirds have landed.”
CHAPTER 33
F aith was waiting curbside when Gage walked out of the international terminal at San Francisco Airport the next afternoon, a few hours after Matson’s flight had landed. Gage gave her a kiss, then climbed in.
“How’s Jack?” Gage asked as they drove away.
Faith’s quick smile gave him most of the answer.
“The tube is out of his throat,” she said. “He’s alert but has a hard time talking. They moved him from SF Medical to UCSF this morning. He really wants to see you. Courtney was hoping you wouldn’t be too jet- lagged.”
“It’s not too bad. Knowing Jack came out of the coma made it easier to sleep on the plane.” Gage glanced at the dashboard clock. “Let’s stop by the office on the way.”
“That reminds me. Alex Z asked me to pass on a message. He said you’d be annoyed when you got it. A U.S. Attorney named Peterson called about Jack.”
Gage felt his fists clench. Burch was barely out of a coma and Peterson was already pouncing.
“Alex Z was right.”
“Who’s Peterson?”
“The guy who wants to put Jack in jail.”
“Jack ’n Jail.” She glanced over at Gage. “Is that a new game in the U.S. Attorney’s office?”
“Apparently.”
Faith handed over the number and Gage punched it into his cell phone as she eased her way around the cars stacked up along the curbs in front of the domestic airlines.
“This is Gage.”
“Graham.” Peterson’s tone was jocular. “I heard you’ve been in London.”
Gage didn’t rise to it. “Nothing new in that.”
“How about a little sit-down?”
“Depends on how you found out.”
“From Devlin in the Serious Fraud Office.”
“If you agree not to tell Matson, then we can meet.”
“No problem. How about my office at 10 A. M. tomorrow?”
“How about mine? I don’t want anyone over there putting the same two-and-two together like I did.”
Gage disconnected.
“How come you didn’t ask him what he wanted to talk about?” Faith asked.
“Because I already know-and because he might’ve told me, and canceled the meeting. I want to see his face when he tries to scare me off. I need to figure out whether he has Matson in his pocket, or it’s the other way around.”
Faith merged into the freeway traffic heading north toward San Francisco.
“Sounds like you and Peterson know each other.”
“We do. He’s okay, just too ambitious for his own good. Always thinking about how cases will play in the media. And this one would be big. Jack goes from road-rage victim to international crook. I can already hear the six o’clock lead: In a stunning turn of events… ”
“You think you can get Jack out of this?”
“I don’t know. I’m still at the edges. The only thing that’s clear at the moment is that all the cops and crooks in the case have an interest in making Jack look guilty.”
“Can I see some ID?” the officer on duty asked Gage an hour later as he and Faith approached Burch’s room in the critical care unit at the University of California Hospital.
Gage extended his folding ID case.
“Graham Gage?” The officer smiled. “Spike’s friend?”
Gage nodded.
