“I’m sorry for all the treatment,” Dalton said. “But as long as you do what is asked of you, I give you my word that you will be released unharmed when it’s all over.”
Abbott was silent for a moment, unsure if he should say anything. But he wanted to know. “It’s been like a week since you guys took me. You still haven’t told me what you want with me.”
Dalton took a deep breath, wondering if she should reveal her plans yet. She decided it was time to let him know what she needed him for, since he had a part to play.
“I knew your brother.”
“Did you kill him?” Abbott asked.
Dalton hesitated before answering. “No. But Kenny did.”
“Why? What did he do to you?”
Dalton snickered. “Why is a very complicated issue. I didn’t want him dead.”
“So why’d you do it?”
“It was done without my consent. I never would’ve let that happen if I had known about his intentions.”
“That still doesn’t explain why. Why was he killed? What did he ever do to you?”
“How well did you know your brother?”
“Pretty well. He travelled a lot, so we didn’t see each other that much, but we talked on the phone, texted, emailed pretty regularly.”
“And did he ever mention me?”
“No.”
“There’s quite a bit that you don’t know about him.”
“Like what?”
“He was… being used by the CIA to help funnel information to them. He was also using his business as a salesman as a front.”
“How would you know any of that?”
“Because we were… involved,” Dalton said.
“What?”
“Your brother and I had a relationship that lasted over six months.”
“You and him? He never said anything.”
“I didn’t suppose he would.”
“But if you were… then why did…”
“I was once employed by MI6. I had an assignment here in Greece. That’s where I met Gary. I won’t bore you with the details about my mission, but it’s safe to say that I was very disillusioned with my job satisfaction at that point. I devised a plan to get away from it all. I needed money to make that happen. And I knew where I could get it.”
“Where does Gary fit in?”
“He wanted to help me. I told him how frustrated I’d become, what I wanted, and he offered to help me. And I let him. Because I loved him.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“There was an illegal drug trafficking ring being run out of Ukraine. That’s where I met those other guys. Anyway, without getting into a lot of those boring details, we basically took a bunch of money and merchandise from this group.”
“You mean you stole it?”
Dalton shrugged. “I guess you can call it whatever you like. We took what we wanted.”
“And Gary helped with all this?”
“He did. He did it for me. For us. Once I disappeared, he was going to come with me.”
“He never said a word.”
“He couldn’t. He was already involved with the CIA at that point. Anyway, we sold the drugs for cash, but we had to move quickly. The group we took everything from was onto us and closing in. We had to split up, stash the money, then go our separate ways for a while.”
“What does that mean?”
“We stashed the money in a local bank here,” Dalton replied. “Well, it’s not a real bank. It’s basically run by criminals for criminals. It’s almost like a safe house. It’s heavily guarded by armed men and you can’t get inside without a pass, which you receive when you drop money off.”
“What’s that got to do with me?”
“You may find this hard to believe with a place like that, but there are certain rules you must abide by to use their services. One, they take a cut of whatever money is deposited once it’s taken out. Two, whoever deposits the money must also be there to take it out. It’s a way to be sure there’s no double-crossing beforehand. Though I guess that doesn’t preclude anyone from killing the other when it’s removed. Anyway, Gary and I were both there. I needed him to withdraw the money.”
“So why have him killed?”
“I didn’t want him killed. I wanted him. I needed him. He’d been having second thoughts about everything. He didn’t want to come back over. He thought we could start a new life without it. I tried to explain that for someone like me to disappear, for us to disappear, we needed a lot of money to make that happen. There’s new identities, new passports, cars, houses, plus money to pick up and move if we were ever compromised. You can’t do that on a shoestring budget. You need millions to make sure you’re comfortable.”
“I don’t understand what’s going on. If you needed Gary to take the money out, what am I doing here?”
“You’re going to take his place.”
“What?”
“You look similar. They’ll require your signature, which you’ll have to match up with Gary’s.”
“We don’t sound alike.”
“It’s fine. Gary only said one word when we were there. They won’t remember.”
“I don’t know…”
“Chris, you have to do this. I loved Gary. He’d want you to do this for me.”
A look of confusion appeared in Abbott’s eyes. “But, I don’t…”
“Just help me get the money out, and I’ll make sure you get back home safely and with something extra in your pocket too.”
“Why did Kenny kill him?”
“As I said, Gary was having second thoughts about it. Kenny followed him back to New York. They apparently had some words, Gary said he was through, and Kenny killed him. It was all done without my knowledge. I wouldn’t have let that happen to Gary if I had known. You have to believe that.”
“But why wait so long? Gary died over a year ago.”
“One of the rules
