“That’s big of you, considering how far I’ve gone already.”
“Calm down. It makes sense, though, doesn’t it? We need our buyer to put himself on the line with us. If he wants the Koh-i-noor, we want a cash incentive from him to know he’s trustworthy.”
“We can trust him. He’s worth billions, and I’m vouching for him, for Chrissakes.”
“Not good enough. We want a million per carat, and we want a million in cash up front as a down payment or we might sell to someone else.”
“He’s not gonna go for it.” Dulay drained his glass.
“If he wants it, he’s rich enough to make sure he gets it.”
Dulay was pulling at his thinning hair. “Okay, I’ll put it to him, but you can’t mess him around. Like I told you before, I don’t wanna turn up as chopped liver.”
“Put it to him, or if you don’t want to, I will.”
Dulay hesitated. “Okay, let’s see what he says.”
“Is he still in Paris?”
“Yes. I’ll fly out this afternoon.”
As soon as Dulay was in his car, de Jersey called Wilcox. He wanted to check out Dulay and, more important, his buyer, so he needed Wilcox to tail him from the London hotel to Paris.
“You’ve never met Dulay, have you?”
“Tony did once, but I never have. What time have I got to be there?”
“Go straight to the airport and wait.”
Wilcox sighed. “I’ve only just got in from Leicester, Eddy.”
“So, make a trip of it. Take your woman.”
De Jersey took the warehouse for a year and paid six months’ rent in advance in the name of Philip Simmons. Also through the agents, he gained, with some financial persuasion, access to the drawings of the D’Ancona building. For security reasons, no single party ever held a complete layout of a safe house, so all he found out was the size of the building, the rear door area, and small backyard. The drawings showed that the building had four floors and a basement. He could not discover anything about the work inside, though four years previously the owners had been granted planning permission by the council for the installation of undisclosed security measures. D’Ancona had covered their tracks; any attempt to find out details of these “undisclosed security measures” would alert the company to a possible problem. De Jersey had to find another way of gaining an interior plan of the safe house.
Driving through Aldgate into the East End, he called Driscoll and told him to monitor the D’Ancona safe house. He had spied the perfect observation post. The warehouse had a flat roof, and from there Driscoll could watch the safe house without being seen.
“I got a lot going on right now,” Driscoll said, sounding tired.
“And I haven’t?” snapped de Jersey.
“Why can’t Jimmy do it?”
“He’s tailing Dulay, who’s meeting up with our buyer. I just want to make sure he’s on the level.”
“The buyer or Dulay?”
“Both.”
“So I got to schlep over to this warehouse now? The wife is gonna have a fit.”
De Jersey was impatient to get on. He told Driscoll where he would find the keys to the warehouse and hung up.
When he got home de Jersey was unprepared for Christina’s concern. She had contacted the horse breeders in Ireland, only to hear they were not expecting him. Her concern quickly turned to anger, though. Every time she had tried his cell phone, it was turned off. It was irresponsible to go off without leaving a contact number. She told him that her mother was ill and she had to leave for Sweden.
“You should have just gone, darling,” he said.
“You should have called home.”
“I didn’t think.”
“No, you didn’t. I want to know why you lied about going to Dublin.”
“I didn’t.”
“Freddy said you weren’t even expected.”
“I wasn’t with him.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I don’t buy all my horses from Freddy. Sometimes I want it kept under wraps exactly what I’m thinking of buying. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
“You’ve always got such good excuses for disappearing.” She sighed. “I’ve been so worried about my mother. You’ve not been fair.” Christina hesitated to voice her suspicions, but she couldn’t help blurting out, “Are you seeing someone?”
De Jersey was genuinely shocked that she could even consider it a possibility. “Of course not! No woman could ever-”
“Well, why have you been taking so many clothes from your wardrobe then? You take them each trip and they never come back. I checked because I wondered if anything needed to go to the cleaners. Two suits are missing and several shirts.” She folded her arms.
De Jersey had left the clothes at his Kilburn flat but came up with an excuse fast. “I gave them to a couple of the trainers. Ask them if you want proof, but this is so unlike you, Christina. I’ve never given you any reason to think I might be having an affair.”
She burst into tears. He held her close. “Get your things packed. We’ll put you on the first plane out to see your family. There’s not another woman in the world I would so much as look at.”
He arranged for his pilot to fly her to the airport. He knew he must take greater precautions from now on, especially since he would need to spend more time away from the estate. It was already early February, and if they were to go ahead on the second of May, they had to work fast.
Wilcox called from Paris just after four o’clock. He and Rika had caught the same plane as Dulay and had followed him to the Ritz.
“I had to book in, Eddy, just for a night. Anyway, it got Rika out of my hair. Dulay didn’t check in. He went straight to the desk. They handed him the house phone, he spoke briefly, then went into the coffee bar. About ten minutes later this huge guy appeared. Looked like Odd Job man in the James Bond movie. He had a few words with Dulay, then they went out to the foyer.” Wilcox explained how he had followed Dulay out of the hotel, where he had had a conversation inside a parked Mercedes with another man, presumably their buyer.
“He’s tall for a Jap,” Wilcox said. “’Bout five eleven, well built, snappy dresser. Odd Job was hovering around, so he’s got to be the bodyguard.”
“Jimmy, did you get his address? Who the fuck is this guy?”
“I got it from the porter. He’s a regular guest. Comes over five or six times a year. He’s a computer giant. His company’s worth billions, and he’s based in Tokyo. His name is Mr. Kitamo-”
“That’s all I need to know right now.”
“That’s what we should have put our money into, computer software.”
“Well, we didn’t! Talk to you later-”
“He’ll probably have a Web site-”
“Jimmy, get off the phone.”
“Try searching the Web for Kitamo triple K computer software and-”
“Jimmy, go screw your girlfriend!” de Jersey snapped, ending the call.
De Jersey spent the rest of the day with his jockeys, trainers, and managers. The cost of the heist so far was straining his resources. It would be paid back by the Moreno sale, but that was still not liquid. He gave instructions for two more horses to be sold, which hurt him and perplexed the managers and trainers. Looking over the accounts later, he saw that even with the sale of another eight racehorses and two brood mares, he could not keep the estate going for more than four months. It was imperative that he pull off the heist.
That afternoon Fleming took Royal Flush out on the gallops for de Jersey to watch. He was in stunning form. However, that night de Jersey couldn’t sleep. He was overtired, with a head full of plans. He went to his study for some brandy. Eventually he walked outside.
It was a clear, cold night, and his breath steamed. He was jolted out of his dark reverie by Fleming, who was hunched in his overcoat.