Need You Now

account to assist in the commission of a crime, the bank itself violates the law by revealing any information about the account. Bankers in Singapore actually face more jail time than bankers in Switzerland for violations of bank secrecy. As far as BOS is concerned, their client isn’t a criminal. He’s a victim of Cushman’s fraud.”

“I’m guessing that’s how you got yourself fired-trying to attach a name to the numbered account?”

“I was desperate. With the threats I was getting, I wanted to know who I was up against.”

I looked down into my empty shot glass, thinking. “What if we went up to the BOS executive suite right now and told the general counsel that we’ve both been threatened?”

“First of all, we can’t prove that it’s a BOS client who is threatening us.”

“Who else would it be? It’s either him or someone working for him.”

“It’s him,” she said. “I heard his voice every day on the phone. There’s no doubt in my mind that I heard the same voice when he had the gun to my head, and when he called to tell me you were in the back of that SUV.”

“Then we have to go to the bank,” I said.

“Forget it. I’ve already taken it all the way to the Zurich headquarters. I flew six thousand miles from Singapore to meet with two stuffed shirts in Finanz Kundenbetreuung Abteilung,” she said, mangling her pronunciation of the German equivalent of Financial Client Management. “It was like talking to the wall. Trust me, Patrick: the bank is never going to help on this.”

“Maybe you just didn’t find the right set of ears.”

“Listen to what I’m saying. Eight figures a day moved into that secret account in Singapore. It was my job to execute the transfer orders going out, but I never knew who put the money there in the first place, or where it came from. It’s clear to me that if we go through the proper institutional channels,” she said, using her fingers to put proper in quotation marks, “the bank will do everything in its power to make sure that no one ever finds out.”

I rested on my elbows, running my fingers through my hair. “How did you allow yourself to be put in this position?”

“What was I supposed to do-forget where I worked and become one of those people who automatically assumes that anyone who’s rich and has a Swiss bank account is a criminal? I respected the lines of authority at the bank. You would have done the same thing, and you know it.”

She was right. I would have-with the exception of sleeping with Gerry Collins, of course. “Have you…”

I stopped without even realizing I was in midsentence. That guy at the bar was pretending not to notice me again, but this time I hadn’t choked on my tequila or done anything else to draw his attention. What’s so damn interesting over here, buddy?

“Have I what?” asked Lilly.

I regained my train of thought. “Have you tried going to the authorities? The FBI, Interpol, whoever?”

“Patrick, has one shot of tequila gone straight to your head?” she said as she took my empty shot glass away from me and put it aside. “The message to me was crystal clear: call the cops, die an instant and unpleasant death.”

Like a reflex, I rubbed my neck. “Ditto. But let’s not rule it out.”

“It’s not an option. Law enforcement won’t help.”

“How can you say that?”

“This arrangement with Collins has put me dead center in the hunt for the Cushman money. Treasury thinks I’m hiding the money, the same way these thugs think I’m hiding the money.”

“You can’t assume that.”

“I’m not just assuming. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

“Seen what?”

She paused, and her voice lowered a notch, as if we were moving into an area of heightened sensitivity. “I’ve seen an internal memo written by someone high up at Treasury.”

“How’d you get that?”

“I don’t actually have it. I said I’d seen it. The guy who attacked me in Singapore showed it to me.”

“How did he get it?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why did he let you see it?”

“After about the tenth time I told him I knew nothing about the Cushman money, he got fed up, said he knew I was lying. He stuck the memo right under my nose. It says it in black and white: Treasury’s most promising lead as to concealment of proceeds from the Cushman fraud remains Gerry Collins’ banking activities at BOS/Singapore. And the memo identifies me by name as the point person for those activities.”

“But you were feeding money into the Cushman Fund, not taking it out.”

“To them, it must be like the law of gravity: what goes up, must come down; what goes in, must come out. My point is that if I go to law enforcement, you can bet they’ll be happy to protect me, but only if I give them information I don’t have: what happened to the money I funneled to Cushman.”

She was definitely in a box, but my focus had drifted again to the guy at the bar. Even though he was on his cell phone, I was still feeling watched.

“Lilly, don’t be obvious about it, but when you get a chance, glance toward the bar and tell me if that guy looks familiar to you.”

“What?”

“Just take a look,” I said as I brushed her napkin off the table. She took my cue, picked up the napkin, and stole a glance in the process.

“Not anyone I know,” she said. “I think I’m making you paranoid.”

I wasn’t so sure.

“Stay with me on this,” said Lilly.

“Sorry. You were saying?”

“I was going to say that calling the FBI or whatever agency is not only dangerous, but pointless. Even if they wanted to help, the simple fact is that the bank isn’t willing to give up any information about the account holder. They fired me for trying to get it. How quickly do you think government lawyers can get into court and force the Singapore arm of the biggest bank in Switzerland to give up the name on a numbered account? These thugs gave me two weeks to come up with the money. Two weeks. ”

“That’s a short fuse.”

“And it’s even shorter now.”

“Why?”

“Because…”

“Because why , Lilly?”

“I didn’t want to say this before. I’m not the kind of person who gets people in trouble and then looks for a pat on the back for getting them out of it. But that’s the deal I struck when I was freaking out on the phone, listening to what they were doing to you in the back of the SUV in Times Square. I promised to deliver their money in one week, instead of two, if they didn’t hurt you.”

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

“It’s done. So if the bank won’t help us, we have to find someone inside the bank who will. Someone who can work around the regular institutional channels and tell us what we need to know about numbered account 507.625 RR.”

“Why would anyone stick his neck out like that?”

“Because not everyone who works for BOS is interested in protecting organized crime. You just have to find him.”

“Me? ”

“I don’t work for BOS anymore, remember?”