there was only fifteen minutes before departure, so she went directly to her gate. She turned on her cellphone to call Uncle and saw that he had left two messages. She chastised herself for not calling him earlier.
âUncle, Iâm sorry,â she said when he answered his phone. âI left the hotel early this morning and I didnât want to wake you.â
âYou worried me,â he said softly. âWhere are you?â
âAt the airport. Iâve located Jim Cousins. Iâm on my way to talk to him.â
Even over the phone she could hear his breathing change, his spirits rise. âGood God, so soon. Even for you, Ava, this is fast.â
âI was lucky, and if my luck holds heâll be exactly where I think he is.â
âWhere?â
âIn an apartment in San Francisco.â
âHow did you do it?â
âThat doesnât matter. You can tell Chang if you want, but it might be wise to wait until I actually get there and confront him.â
âI think he should know.â
âNo promises, though.â
âWhat do you mean?â
âJust because Iâve located Cousins doesnât mean heâll be there. And even if he is, it doesnât mean weâre any closer to recovering the money. So be careful about what you say. Donât let them draw the wrong conclusion.â
âWhere is the money?â
âI have no idea,â she half-lied.
She could sense his doubt â he knew she wasnât telling him everything. âWhen you find out, call me in Hong Kong. I am going to fly back today after meeting with Chang and Ordonez,â he said.
âI will,â she promised. The call for first-class passengers to board the plane came over the PA. Ava was guided to her seat by a series of flight attendants. When she had settled in with a cup of coffee in hand, she reviewed her notes, trying to make sense of the information Johnny Yan had given her. Aside from the fact that all the money had gone to Costa Rica, the amounts and the recipients and the banks seemed to be almost completely random. The same wasnât true for the three and a half percent that had found its way into Jim Cousinsâ bank account. It was obviously for services rendered, but what services?
She sat up straight and gingerly stretched her arms. Her shoulder still ached, and a combination of wine, Tylenol, and the comfort of the Peninsulaâs bed hadnât blunted the pain. She tried to distract herself by focusing on the documents Chang had sent early that morning. The detectivesâ report was long on verbiage and short on substance. Maybe theyâre getting paid by the word , she thought. Most of it focused on Cousins. They had come up dry at the bank and had run into a brick wall with the lawyer, who wouldnât breach his trust.
She shorthanded the information on Cousins into her notebook. Calgary born, educated at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. Worked in the Alberta oil fields, Saskatchewan oil fields, Texas oil fields, and Indonesian oil fields, then back to the northern Alberta tar sands. No wife. No kids. No mention of Kelowna until just over six months ago. He had arrived there out of nowhere, and then he was gone.
The people in Kelowna who met him had thought he was a cowboy and a gentleman. Cousins didnât seem to have a job but he paid his rent on time, and most nights he dropped a couple of hundred dollars at the local casino without getting bent out of shape. He didnât drink, do drugs, or do women. He paid his taxes and had no criminal record. He also had no credit cards, which must have complicated the detectivesâ work no end, since credit card usage was their favourite trail. They had included a copy of his passport and several photos with the report. She took them out and slipped them into the back of her notebook. The rest of their work went into the garbage.
Ava turned to the file on Kelowna Valley
Lani Lynn Vale
Adrian Goldsworthy
Sarah M. Anderson
Amanda Cabot
Booth Tarkington
Sophie McKenzie
Neal Martin
Sophie Kinsella
Penelope Rivers
John Clanchy