‘It’s not a test, I’m trying to help you. If you can tell me who you are and what they have you doing… ’
‘I’m not confessing anything. Oh my God, oh my God. You tell me who you are, where you are. Give me a reason to trust you.’ The Watcher made his voice a slice of panic.
‘I am going to give this information to the authorities,’ Jack said. ‘The whole book. Now. If you want these people broken and off your back, I can make that happen. I can tear off your phone number from the book before I give it to the authorities. That way, you are never exposed.’
You devious little bastard, the Watcher thought. I want to kill you all myself.
‘And then you’re never in trouble. I’ll do that for you, I’ll pull this page from the book, if you’ll tell me what they have you doing.’
‘I have to think for a minute,’ the Watcher said. Delaying.
‘Well, one minute is what you have,’ Jack Ming said, trying to sound tough.
‘Don’t threaten me, I’ll hang up.’
‘And then when the police show up at your work, or at your door, wanting to know why you cooperated with a criminal ring… ’
‘I’m not going to talk to you on the phone,’ the Watcher said. ‘Could we meet face to face?’
‘This is a Paris number and I’m not in Paris.’
‘I’m not either, I’m in New York.’
It was a gamble to admit this, that he was in the same city as Jack Ming. Jack was silent.
‘I’m here for them, they’ve made me come here.’ The Watcher said this as though tearing the words out of his own chest.
‘Your minute is about up,’ Jack said.
So the Watcher decided: ‘I work for a major financial services firm. I give them data from my company. I deliver it once a month. Financial particulars, insider information, plans for investment. Confidential knowledge that they can use to profit on the stock markets in France, the US, Hong Kong.’
‘What did they have on you?’
The Watcher thought. He had to sell this. ‘I engaged in some insider trading. They found out about it. They said they would expose me if I didn’t help them. I don’t trade any more, I just feed them the information. If I disobey them they’ll expose me and if I talk about them, they’ll kill my entire family. So please don’t tell any one. Please.’
‘Why are you in New York for them?’
‘They wanted me to get some information on a stock deal.’
‘Whose deal?’
‘I won’t say. If it leaks then they’ll know I leaked it.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Jack said. ‘Thank you. I’ll tear your number from the book.’
‘You can’t give that book to anyone,’ the Watcher said. He had to try. ‘You can’t. You’ll destroy dozens of lives.’
Silence. ‘How did you know they’re blackmailing dozens of people?’
‘Stands to reason if it’s enough to fill a book.’
The ten longest seconds – at least since he’d encountered Mila – of the Watcher’s life ticked past.
‘You’re not being blackmailed at all,’ Jack Ming said. ‘You’re one of them, aren’t you?’
‘No.’
‘I think a person being blackmailed would probably disconnect the phone immediately and not say a word. How do you know I’m not the police?’
‘The police would show up. They can’t trick a confession from you, not this way.’
‘They could if they had a bug on your phone,’ Jack said.
‘You cannot give them that book. Please.’
‘Your number won’t be in it now, so why worry? So concerned for your fellow victims?’
‘I just don’t want innocent people hurt.’ The night breeze, the smell of jet fuel in the airport wind, blew over him. He had to stop this little lunatic, somehow.
‘Very considerate of you. This has been so illuminating,’ Jack Ming said. ‘Thank you… ’
Time for Plan B. ‘They know who you are, Jack,’ the Watcher said. ‘Which means they know who Ricki is, and who your mother is. They will find everyone you’ve ever cared about and they will burn them and everything you love to the ground. Oh, yes. You know why I’m really here? I’m going to destroy you financially, your family, everything you hold dear. Your mother will be selling herself in alleyways after I’m done.’
Stunned silence on the other end. ‘What?’ Jack said finally.
‘There is another option for you. I’ll buy the notebook. I’ll buy your silence.’
‘I don’t believe you.’
‘Ten million. It’s a nice round number and you can easily live off that for the rest of your life.’
‘Unworkable,’ Jack said. ‘Ask the dead dude in the Amsterdam hospital if you think I’m going to meet you face to face.’
‘That was done without my approval, in panic, by a fool. Let’s deal like adults. I’ll put half the money in an account for you. You mail me the notebook and I’ll pay you the other half.’
‘And when I show up at your bank or move the money, you find me and kill me. No thank you. Plus, you can’t trust I haven’t copied the notebook.’
‘Let me propose this. A cash drop. We agree on a place for you to leave the notebook. And a place for me to leave you cash.’
‘Ten million in small bills is not exactly transportable by one guy in a hurry,’ Jack said. ‘I don’t trust you.’
‘I can give you a better deal than the CIA can. Twice the money.’
‘And dead twice as fast.’
‘Jack. Play nice, or I will burn you down.’
‘You’re just trying to lure me in. No. You know who I am. I know what you are. And when I’m done with you, you son of a bitch, there is no hiding place for you.’
This little nobody, threatening him. The Watcher heard the snap in his own voice. ‘You are nothing but a contemptible punk. When you die, and you will, I’ll throw a party. I’ll have people over for drinks and we’ll watch you being slowly tortured to death. I’ll have it catered. It won’t happen in some dark warehouse or basement. It will happen, with people standing around having drinks, laughing while they watch your skin pulled off, your eyes gouged, your ears burned to a crisp.’
‘Someone’s going to burn,’ Jack said, ‘but it’s not me.’ Then he hung up.
The Watcher stood there, the red rage slowly building in his eyes. He closed the phone and walked forward slowly to join the line of travelers awaiting a taxi.
38
Hotel Esper, Williamsburg
‘I want to know who owns that property in New Jersey,’ I said. We were in the hotel room; Leonie sitting at the table, me standing at the window, looking down toward the Ming building’s boarded windows.
She opened her laptop. ‘It would help if we had an address. It’s out in the middle of nowhere.’
‘It was marked as River Run Road. See you if you can find a county property map. Or find it on Google Maps.’
She tapped, and hummed under her breath. Leonie on a computer reminded me of my wife Lucy. My ex-wife. Lucy was very clever with computers, too. I stared out at the night and let her work. She tapped, found maps, compared them with the route we’d driven.
‘The property is owned by Associated Languages School.’
‘A language school?’ No wonder it was derelict. Didn’t most people learn foreign languages these days through software programs? And it was out in the boonies. ‘Maybe it’s supposed to be an immersion program?’
I watched her fingers fly across the keyboard; she nibbled her lip in thought. ‘They have a very basic website.’
‘Where are they headquartered?’
‘New York. They have immersion programs in rural New York, Florida and Oregon that they offer. But it says their next three sessions are full.’
‘Maybe the driver knew that the house was unoccupied.’
‘Yes. Maybe he drove students out there before and knew it was shuttered now.’
But it didn’t quite ring true. ‘Would it be shuttered if business was booming?’
I picked up my phone, sat down on the bed and called them. ‘You have reached the offices of Associated Languages School. We offer instruction and translation services in’ – and then the recording went into a tiresome listing of every major language spoken on four continents. I considered hanging up the phone. Maybe that’s what they wanted me to do. Finally, I was invited to leave a message. I hung up.