fuck off. There’s no other option. I’ve lost my patience with you, and on top of that, I don’t like you. Whatever hurt you decide to bring upon yourself by being less than totally obedient is of absolutely no worry to me, because in the end you will do what I want anyway.”
His eyelids were flickering wildly, but Ava held his attention. “Say ‘Yes, Ms. Lee, I understand.’”
“Yes, I understand,” he said.
Ava turned away from him. “Where do you bank in Las Vegas?” she asked Douglas.
“Tri-State.”
“Can you bank online?”
“Yeah.”
“Is there a file in your office with an account number?”
“Yeah.”
“What password do you use?”
“Disciple.”
“Do you need any special codes? Do both of you have to sign on?”
“No.”
“Great. Now how about your personal bank and investment accounts?”
“Do you really have to — ”
“Yes, I do.”
Douglas looked nervously at Carlo and Andy, who were edging towards him. “The information is in the bottom left desk drawer. The password is the same for everything.”
Ava looked at Ashton, whose eyes were closed. “Carlo, take his wallet out of his jeans,” she said.
Ashton jumped at Carlo’s touch and looked at Douglas in alarm. Carlo went through Ashton’s pockets and passed the wallet to Ava, who took out three bank cards. One was for Tri-State. She held the other two in front of his face. “Can you bank online with these cards?”
He closed his eyes and lowered his chin to his chest.
“Is that a yes?” Ava demanded.
He was silent, and Ava wondered if his meds had indeed worn off. “Yes,” he finally said.
“Password?”
“Sheffield.”
Ava stood. “I’m going to be gone for a while. Before I leave I’ll ask the boys to see if they can do something about your thumb, Mr. Douglas. Maybe they can find ointment and some bandages. They can get both of you some water as well.”
Douglas nodded. Ashton didn’t acknowledge that she had spoken.
Ava explained to Carlo and Andy what she wanted them to do. She had started walking towards the door to the office when she remembered Martin.
He was still in the car, his eyes closed and his head resting against the back of the seat. When she knocked on the glass, he jumped, then lowered the window.
“Things have gone very well,” Ava said, “but I still have at least an hour’s worth of work, maybe more.”
“I’m sorry if I was a bit difficult earlier,” he said.
“No reason to be; it was more my fault than yours. I should have explained things more clearly so you knew what to expect.”
“Ava, I’ve been thinking,” he said carefully. “When we leave here, what’s going to happen? I mean, what if they call in the police? They know who we are.”
“They won’t,” Ava said.
“How can you be so sure?”
“Trust me.”
(32)
Ava was sitting at Douglas’s computer, looking through his bank and investment accounts, and for once she was pleasantly surprised. There was almost five million dollars in The River’s Las Vegas bank account. She transferred four and a half million to Hong Kong.
In Douglas’s drawer she found records from three banks and a brokerage firm. The bank accounts held collectively more than two million dollars. She left a thousand in each account. His stock portfolio’s most recent valuation pegged it at a million and a half. She put in sell orders for everything. When the stock was turned into cash, she’d move it to Hong Kong as well. Ashton wasn’t as flush as his partner, but she still found just under a million dollars in his two accounts. Again she left a thousand in each.
Of all the things that had made her job easier, nothing came close to the advent of electronic banking. It’s too bad Cyprus wasn’t set up that way, she thought. It’s too bad I probably have to go to London.
She listed all the account numbers and transaction records in her notebook, then searched for flights to London. There was a Virgin Airlines direct flight from McCarran to Gatwick leaving at nine that evening. It would land in London at three thirty. Ava booked a business-class seat.
When she returned to the living room, Carlo was watching Douglas and Ashton. Andy was at the window, looking out at the two men in the dog cages.
Douglas was slumped in his chair. The stub of his thumb had been taped, but Ava knew the pain wouldn’t have eased and that it would keep draining him of energy. Ashton was alert, and he flinched when she came towards them. His eyelids were still twitching, and Ava hoped it was from nervousness and not from lack of medication. She needed him to act as normal as possible when talking to Lily Simmons.
“We’re just about finished,” she said to Carlo. “Once we get this group sorted we can get out of here. I’m going to leave them tied up. Hopefully no one will discover they’re missing or come looking for them until we’re out of town.”
“What do you want to do with the guys in the dog cages?”
“We should bring them in,” Ava said. “Noise carries at night, and we don’t want either them or the dogs attracting attention.”
“Then we need to feed the dogs.”
“Bring the two guys in first. Put them in separate rooms and leave them on the floor. Tape their wrists and ankles again — make sure they can’t get out of it — and I’d tape their mouths too.”
“Okay, boss.”
“When I’m finished talking to these two,” she said, motioning to Douglas and Ashton, “we’ll take them off the chairs, tape them again, and leave them on the floor as well. Put one in the kitchen and the other one can stay here.”
She heard a groan. Douglas was awake, watching their conversation. She smiled at him. “Mr. Douglas, I just told Carlo to bring your men inside in a little while. There’s no point in scaring the dogs anymore.”
He grimaced. “Did you get what you wanted? Did you do what you said you had to do?”
“Yes. I emptied your personal bank accounts and moved most of the money from The River’s account overseas.”
“Shit,” Ashton said.
“So now you’ll leave?” Douglas asked.
“Soon enough. First I need to get your signatures on this transfer request and this admission of guilt,” she said, placing three copies of each of the documents she’d prepared on the table. “The transfer is for $65 million. That’s what I’ve been told you stole from the three players I mentioned earlier.”
She placed the paperwork on the coffee table and slid the table close to their chairs. “Are you right- or left- handed?” she asked Ashton.
“Right.”
“Carlo, untape both their right hands.”
As he did, she held out the pen to Douglas. “Sign these,” she said.
He hesitated, and she saw that he was trying to read the confession. “These are for signing, not reading,”
