“It was. None of those accountants and lawyers had a clue about what I was doing until you told them. Even worse, you figured out she was the weak link in my operation.” Charters sighed. “Unfortunately, she trusted you.”
Gage rose as the waitress approached. She appeared younger than she had five years earlier when she’d testified against Charters in his trial for offshore investment fraud.
“You look gorgeous, Linda,” Gage said.
Linda stood on her tiptoes to give Gage a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks.”
She reached into the front pocket of her black skirt and withdrew an order pad as Gage sat down.
“Crime was like a time machine turning me into an old lady at thirty-five. It’s a good thing you put Phil out of business. I couldn’t take the stress.” She looked down at Charters. “I don’t know how he handles it-”
“ Handled it. I’m retired.”
She smiled. “Actually I do know.” She poked Charters’s stomach. “He eats. If he wasn’t a criminal he’d weigh a hundred and twenty pounds, instead of three-twenty.”
Charters laughed. “I was born weighing more than that. A world record.”
She dipped her pen toward Gage. “I know what Phil wants. How about you?”
“Burger and fries.”
“One order, or two like him?”
“One, and coffee.”
Charters fiddled with his wedding ring as she walked away, then asked, “To what do I owe this unexpected visit?”
“You’re what I call uniquely situated.”
“Situated? I’m crammed in here like sausage in a bun.”
“Situated. Not seated.”
“Oh. How am I situated?”
“Between Marc Anston and the Cayman Exchange Bank.”
Charters shook his head. “If they got a connection, it ain’t through me.”
“Then how did you get hooked up with Anston after you got indicted?”
“Is this gonna get me into a jam?”
“I’ll keep you out of it.”
“I don’t know if I should say anything. I’m not really comfortable playing the role of the good citizen.”
“Linda seems to be playing the part well.”
“Maybe I’ll make her my role model.” He pointed at a waitress leaning over a table to set down lunch orders. “But I’m not sure they make those short skirts in my size.”
Linda walked up with a pot of coffee and filled their cups. She smiled at Gage and said, “Just like old times.”
“I hope not.”
She glanced at Charters. “Now that I think about it, me too.”
C harters stirred sugar into his cup, then raised it toward Gage.
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For stopping the government and the civil lawyers from grabbing the place I bought for my mother. It would’ve crushed her to lose her garden. She even knows the scientific names for all the plants, her little babies.”
“They all thought you were hundred percent a crook,” Gage said. “I convinced them you were only ninety, and the clean money was invested in her house.”
“Why’d they give in?”
“The paper trail you left behind was too complicated for them to figure out.”
Charters grinned. “Man, I was good back then.”
“No, you were mostly bad back then.”
“Well, thanks, anyway.” Charters took a sip. “Let’s see, where were we?”
“Anston.”
“Ah, yes. Anston. Genus: Legalis, species: Rodentia major. When you started hounding my accountant in the Caymans I knew right away it was just a matter of time before you knocked on my door. I flew down there to see the attorney who set up my companies. You remember him, Leonard Quinton. He and I needed to get together and… uh…”
“Coordinate your stories?”
Charters laughed. “Yeah, that’s a good way to put it. At my trial the U.S. Attorney tried to make it sound more like obstructing justice.”
“He succeeded. It was count four and you got convicted of it.”
“Hey, I won the appeal. That means I’m innocent.” Charters took another sip of coffee. “Anyway, while I was in Grand Cayman I asked Quinton who I should use when I got indicted. He told me to hire Anston.”
“Anston’s not a criminal lawyer.”
“But he’s a partner in one of the judge’s old law firms. Even though Brandon Meyer didn’t get assigned the case, I figured it couldn’t hurt. Who knows what goes on back in the judge’s chambers? Maybe Anston gets Meyer to put in a good word for me at sentencing time.”
“Did you get your money’s worth?”
“In the long run.” Charters smiled. “Well, the money made a long run.”
“You mean you paid Anston offshore.”
“Still at the top of your game, aren’t ya? But that’s his problem, not mine. It’s not my fault if he didn’t declare the income and give Uncle Sam his share.”
“You remember where you sent the fee?”
“I didn’t have to send it anywhere. The money just got transferred from one of my accounts at Cayman Exchange Bank to another one controlled by Anston. Quinton took care of it.”
“You remember the name of the account the money went into?”
Charters narrowed his eyes and bit his lower lip, then shook his head. “Quinton would know.”
“You ever hear of a company called Pegasus?”
Charters slapped the table. “That’s it. Pegasus.” He grinned like he’d been caught by his wife staring at a waitress’s breasts. “I thought about doing one of those myself.”
“Doing what?”
“A fake insurance scam.”
“How do you know it’s fake?”
Charters clucked. “I thought you were at the top of your game. You should’ve already…” Then he smiled.
“Let’s just say I thought it was some kind of tax gimmick,” Gage said, “but I hadn’t figured out the details. That’s why I’m here.”
That wasn’t the whole truth, but Gage didn’t want to risk scaring Charters off by telling him that money transferred into Pegasus might have been the reason for a burglary at Socorro’s and what had brought him to Las Vegas was fear for her and her children’s safety. The longer Charters believed Gage’s investigation only concerned tax evasion, the better.
“They did a riff on one of those old tax shelters,” Charters said. “First, the clients would wire fake insurance premiums to Pegasus, then it would wire the money back as loans to buy yachts or cars or vacation homes.” He hunched his shoulders, and reached out his hands. “Offshore captive insurance has been the best tax scam ever.” He pointed at Gage. “You ever deal with Stone amp; Whitman in New York?”
Gage shook his head.
“They set up the ones for TransCont Trucking and Universal Tractor and a bunch of other giants. But Anston’s genius was to make it available to the little guy.” Charters laughed. “You know, the one-billion-dollar company, not just the ten-billion-dollar company.”
“What was his gimmick?”
“Rent-a-captives, like Pegasus. Anybody could send premiums. Pegasus would bank the money, wait a couple
