The Disciple of Las Vegas by Ian Hamilton

same amount.”
    â€œCosta Rica? That’s hardly an offshore haven.”
    â€œI know, and what’s stranger still is that the money was sent to six different banks and to fifteen different individuals. Crazy, huh?”
    â€œGive me the details,” she said.
    As she copied the names and the amounts withdrawn, a pattern began to emerge. “Johnny, those wires weren’t the only withdrawals, right?”
    â€œNo. Every time a wire was sent, money was transferred on the same day to another Toronto Commonwealth account.”
    â€œJim Cousins’ personal account?”
    â€œYep.”
    â€œAnd if I’m doing my numbers correctly, it looks like it was for three percent of every deposit.”
    â€œMore like three and a half.”
    â€œA commission?”
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œFor laundering money?”
    â€œThat’s a logical conclusion.”
    â€œSo, Johnny, why didn’t alarms go off at the bank?”
    â€œRead the list I just gave you. Six banks. Fifteen people. Costa Rica. How does that fit any money-laundering profile you’ve ever encountered?”
    She read the names Johnny had given her. Wilma Castro Hernandez. Maria Rodriguez. Jose Villanueva. And so on. “It doesn’t.”
    â€œExactly. So the bank wouldn’t have picked up on anything.”
    â€œSo we’re either dealing with a very sophisticated money-laundering operation or something entirely different. How about Cousins’ account?”
    â€œClosed about two weeks ago.”
    â€œHow long was it open?”
    â€œAbout six months.”
    â€œWas there ever two million in it?”
    â€œNot until these transfers started, and it didn’t get to two million until they came to an end. And then, of course, the account was closed and the money was moved out.”
    â€œWhere did Cousins send it?”
    â€œJersey.”
    â€œNew Jersey?”
    â€œYou should be so lucky. Jersey in the Channel Islands. Although . . .”
    â€œDid you find something?” she urged.
    â€œThere are some attachments to the Jersey wire transfer file. Give me a minute.”
    Please be good to me , she thought.
    â€œIf this guy Cousins is trying to hide money he must be an amateur,” Johnny said when he came back on the line. “Two days after his money went to Jersey he must have tried to do something with the account there, because we got a request from the bank to reconfirm the account holder’s status with us.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œThey provided us with a copy of his passport and, believe it or not, his Kelowna address and a forwarding address in the U.S.”
    â€œI love you, Johnny Yan,” she said.
    â€œAnd so you should. This is going to cost you a dinner,” he said, and then gave her Cousins’ San Francisco address.
    Ava hung up, hardly believing her luck.
    She went online and found the building, an apartment/hotel with units available for rent by the week and month. She checked the time. It was mid-morning on the U.S. west coast. She dialled the number on the website. A pleasant, young-sounding woman confirmed that there were vacant apartments. Ava gave the woman her name and asked if she could stop by to see them the following day. That wouldn’t be a problem, she was told.
    â€œAnd by the way,” Ava said, “I have a work colleague named Jim Cousins who said he was moving into the building. Is he in residence yet?”
    â€œHe is, indeed,” the woman said.
    Ava emailed her travel agent and asked her to book a seat on the first flight out of Manila to San Francisco. She would call Uncle in the morning. She just wasn’t sure how much she was going to tell him.

( 8 )
    It was almost 9 a.m. by the time Ava got to the airport and began the slow, torturous process of getting to the boarding gate. She had planned to go to the first-class lounge before her flight, but by the time she got through security