pinned it on them, but we were never sure that was true of all the supernotes. Other makes, we thought.’
‘What do you think now? Where was the city of origin?’
‘I won’t say, but I will say we thought the work was too sophisticated for the North Koreans, yet the only people who could have helped them would have been Yanks.’
‘The North Koreans have built nuclear weapons and missiles. Why would money be hard?’
‘Look at the quality of their money, but there were other reasons. You asked and what I think is someone sold the right printing equipment and taught them how to use it. In other words I think your Secret Service was set-up by another agency in your government who wanted the Koreans for cover. Korean diplomats went out across the world with the counterfeit bills and muddied things up. That allowed those who thought up the scheme to start printing their own money. That money didn’t come from any Congressional appropriation. It didn’t have any oversight. It was money they could do anything they wanted with.’
Benhaime’s eggs arrived and he took time to pepper them before continuing.
‘Krueger wasn’t direct with your service any more. He was what gets called now non operational cover. He was in-between, feeding information home while making deals with the counterfeiters to get bills out and tested. Dangerous work. They were the very first of a run of extraordinary notes. Krueger was selling for them bills at a strong discount and taking some money and paying the counterfeiter, but we thought he was pocketing some too. He was dealing with criminal elements in Vancouver. We thought he got hit because they figured out he was stepping on the price and ripping them off. Are you with me?’
‘What were you going to pay for the counterfeit bills?’
‘We were hagglers. Thirty-five cents on the dollar, forty if we had to.’
Raveneau returned to his earlier question. It was a true test since the Secret Service wasn’t contacted at the time.
‘How many bills were you going to buy in the meeting with Krueger that afternoon?’
‘When he called he said he had sixty-one, but was going to keep a bill, so sixty. Sixty bills for twenty-two hundred dollars, but we had planned to knock him down to a straight two thousand when we showed him our cash.’
Raveneau nodded. He didn’t reveal it was exactly the right amount. But unless the Secret Service told Benhaime, how would he know? Goya and Govich said they never talked about the money with the Canadians, and Raveneau knew Benhaime’s credentials were going to check out.
‘Now Barbara wants it all to go away,’ Benhaime said, ‘and I’m with her. Enough time has passed. She was quite upset when you came back with more questions after all these years. Didn’t expect that.’
‘There’s a reason.’
‘Figured as much.’ He picked up his toast. ‘It’s why we’re having breakfast.’
‘How much of a look did you get of the man Krueger walked off with?’
‘Not much. He was at quite a distance.’
‘Have you got a laptop in that briefcase that will play a CD?’
‘It will, yes.’
Raveneau pulled the CD from his pocket.
‘Change chairs with me so your back is to the wall and no one else will see it.’
‘Can I take my eggs?’
‘Sure, but it’s not very long.’
‘I don’t want them to get cold.’
It took a minute to change chairs and for Benhaime’s laptop to boot up, and to reassure the waiter who came rushing over that nothing was wrong with their seating.
‘Just some porn to watch,’ Benhaime said, and showed the waiter the CD. He slid it in and the waiter lingered. Benhaime waited for him to leave then started it.
‘Tell me when you recognize Krueger.’
‘Ah, we’re there again. Was this filmed by your Secret Service?’
‘I don’t know who filmed it. Did they know you were meeting Krueger?’
‘They knew we were in San Francisco. They knew we were trying to set up a meeting with Krueger, but Barb and I didn’t tell them we had one arranged.’ He pointed at the screen. ‘There he is. Yes, that’s him.’
‘Who’s with him?’
‘I think it’s the man who intercepted him, can’t be positive but I think it is.’ Benhaime leaned over the computer. ‘You’ve got the whole thing.’ He watched the rest in silence and when he looked up he looked shocked. ‘He was actually quite likeable, even double-dealing. My God, this is hard to watch.’
Raveneau reached over to Benhaime’s keyboard. He froze the frame.
‘Look at the face of the shooter. Is that who intercepted Krueger?’
‘I don’t know.’
When Raveneau turned they were eye to eye and not that far apart.
‘OK, you don’t know, so let me ask you about something you do know. Why did you strip his wallet?’
FORTY-EIGHT
Raveneau left Benhaime in the lobby of the Four Seasons and called Barbara Haney from his cell in his car. He wanted to reach her before Benhaime did.
‘That beep is him trying to get through,’ she said, and paused, possibly debating asking him to hold then deciding against it.
‘You had more communication with him than you told me.’
‘Did he tell you that?’ She didn’t wait for him to answer. ‘Yes, I’ve wanted to end this. He must have told you that I pushed for that. I’ve wanted that for a long time. Didn’t he say that?’
‘He did.’
‘But yes, Inspector, I did lie. I know that’s what you’re driving at. But I’m also the one trying to undo this whole thing. You understand that, right?’
‘Keep going, Barbara.’
‘But I need to know that you believe that.’
‘I do believe it.’
‘That matters. It’s really very, very important.’ He got it. He understood she wanted to undo some of what had already happened. ‘I’ve carried this. I’ve carried this like a weight for more than twenty years.’
Without a pause she said, ‘We were waiting for him along the wharf between the Ferry Building and the pier just northwest of it.’
‘Alan Krueger?’
‘Yes, and he was with another man or he was intercepted by another man, I couldn’t tell. But he seemed to know him. I tried to tell who the other man was but they were far enough away and there was glare. I remember the sun off the glass on the building behind us. We didn’t really know what to do. In my purse was a small set of binoculars but it was awkward and there wasn’t much time to decide what we were going to do. Larry was adamant we meet him alone. We were dealing with Krueger only, so we backed up, we moved away, but it didn’t matter. Alan didn’t give any sign he was meeting with anyone.’
‘Where did you move?’
‘We continued down the waterfront in the direction of the bridge and they were coming toward us and then crossed and went among the cars parked under the freeway. There was a lot there. Well, you know that of course. We assumed the man either arrived unanticipated and Krueger continued with him toward our meeting place so we would see he wasn’t alone. Or he planned all along to introduce us to him. But our instructions were to meet Krueger alone, so for us the meeting ended when this other man showed up.’
She drew a deep breath. Raveneau heard it. What was coming was still emotional for her.
‘So we followed. Larry wanted to know who the other man was but it was more difficult now because their backs were to us as they moved through the cars into more shadowy light. It was a winter afternoon.’
‘But it was sunny.’
