“Didn’t you think that was a lot of money for simply shuffling paper around?”
“The wife sounds pretty fierce,” he said, with a slightly sheepish grin.
“That’s bull,” she said.
He averted his eyes.
“You knew what you were doing was probably highly illegal.”
“But I didn’t know for sure.”
“You’re no idiot. You could have guessed.”
Cousins tapped his fingers on the table, his attention wandering. “Wait here,” he said.
She watched him as he walked towards what she guessed was his bedroom. She wondered if the cooperative phase was over.
When he came back into the kitchen he was carrying a large brown envelope. “Let me finish the story, and then I’ll show you this,” he said.
“Go ahead.”
“Everything went smoothly for about five months, and then two weeks ago Philip called me in a fucking panic. He said his wife’s auditors were all over the deal and that it might be best for me to get out of Kelowna. I told him I wasn’t scared of his wife or her auditors, because as far as I was concerned I hadn’t done anything wrong. That’s when he told me that it was company money I’d been sending to Costa Rica.
“He told me he needed to go to Manila to sort things out, and that if I just laid low for a few weeks everything would be fine. He told me to take my money with me. I told him I still had an account with one of the big U.S. banks from my days working in Texas. He said that would be too easy to track, and gave me the name of the bank in Jersey.”
“Did he tell you to come to San Francisco as well?”
“Hell, no, that was my decision. I’m gay.” Her surprise must have registered on her face, because he asked, “Do you have a problem with that?”
“Hardly,” Ava said. “Let’s get back to Philip. How was his mood during this period?”
“Progressively wackier.”
“When was the last time you spoke to him?”
“I called him after I crossed the border.”
“And?”
“He told me not to worry.”
“Strange advice, given the circumstances.”
“I don’t see why,” he said.
She was impressed again by his calmness and then moved to roil it. “You know you’re going to have to give that money back, don’t you?”
His face was impassive. “I’m not giving anything back,” he said. “I earned it. I’m keeping it.”
“Philip Chew stole it.”
“Not that I knew.”
“You knew, but you just didn’t want to admit it. Why do you think the money was sent to all those individuals if he was investing in a business? What sense does that make?”
“He said that was the way they wanted it done.”
“And you actually believed that?”
Cousins looked away and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He had wanted to believe it, she thought, but he knew. He opened the envelope and took out a document. “Here, this is a contract I had a lawyer draw up with Philip,” he said, slipping it across the table to her. “I’m not a total fool. It outlines exactly what I was to do and why I was to do it. There’s an affidavit at the back signed by Philip that swears the money is his to do with as he wishes. He’s specific about investing money in Costa Rica. My lawyer put in a paragraph that absolves me of any responsibility for the project. I was simply an employee, performing a task based on Philip’s sworn and notarized statement that everything was completely legal and above board.”
She read the document, aghast at how dumb — or desperate — Philip Chew must have been to sign the contract. Jim Cousins’ lawyer had done a very good job.
“Can I keep this copy?” she asked.
“Sure, I have others.”
“What a mess this is,” she said to herself.
“Go and talk to Philip.”
“I’m not sure they’ll leave you alone, you know, the guys in Manila. They’re capable of deciding that, contract or no contract, you have their money. It could get ugly.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No, a friendly warning.”
“I’m not giving it back,” he said again.
She could tell he was uneasy, but the truth was she didn’t want to push too hard. The two million wasn’t going to make much difference to Ordonez, and Cousins had been cooperative. She could always explain to Manila about the contract and tell them she didn’t want to risk having Cousins go public.
“Fair enough,” Ava said. “Tell you what, we’ll leave it like that for now, under the condition that you don’t show that contract to anyone else. This is strictly between you and me.”
“Why would you do that?”
“You’ve been honest with me when you could have lied.”
He looked dubious.
“I’m not lying to you,” Ava said.
“And all I have to do is bury the contract?”
“Basically.”
He extended his hand across the table. “It’s a deal.”
(10)
Ava sat in the rented Audi outside Cousins’ apartment building, going through her options. About one thing she was certain: if she went to Chang Wang and Tommy Ordonez with the information she had, her involvement would be over. They would circle the wagons around the family and deal with Philip in their own way. She did not want that to happen. For one thing, she was curious, really curious, about the Costa Rica connection. Even if there wasn’t any money for her to reclaim in Central America, she wanted to understand the how and the why of what Philip had done. And then there was the money — maybe a lot of money — and she wanted her chance to go after it. The job still had the potential of being one of the biggest paydays she and Uncle had ever had.
It was just past one thirty in the afternoon, which meant that it was four thirty in the morning in Hong Kong. Still too early to call Uncle, but the perfect time to call Vancouver. She needed to confirm for whom the shares were being held in trust. She didn’t have much doubt that it was for Philip Chew, but it would be a way for her to start a conversation with Edward Ling, and he might help get her access to Chew.
The receptionist at McDougal, Fraser, and Ling informed her that Mr. Ling was not in the office and asked if she wanted to leave a message. “This is a matter of some urgency involving a member of his family,” Ava said. “I need to speak to his assistant.”
“To whom am I speaking?” Ling’s assistant asked.
“My name is Ava Lee. I need to speak directly to Mr. Ling.”
“What is this concerning?”
Ava knew she wasn’t going to get anywhere by being evasive. “I’m an accountant, a forensic accountant, and I’ve been engaged by a multinational corporation to investigate the improper transfer of a considerable amount of their money. I believe that your law firm has an involvement in this transaction. Specifically, I believe Mr. Ling has an involvement through a client of his.”
When the assistant didn’t respond, Ava made things clearer. “I need to talk to him to straighten this matter out, one way or another, before I submit my report and various authorities, legal and otherwise, get dragged into
