Bannerman's Law (67 page)

Roger Clew sat making two lists.

The first was a set of conditions. Or terms. Whatever. They
were the promises he intended to extract from Ba
nn
e
r
ma
n
.

Foremost among them was that Bannerman fully explain
his intentions regarding Su
r
La Mer, and then promise to
abandon them. The next was that he and all his people move
out of Westpo
r
t. Return to Europe. Go back to work. The
alternative was criminal prosecution of Ca
rl
a, Susan Lesko, Molly Fa
rr
ell, Bannerman himself under the N
I
CO statute if
nothing else, and possibly Lesko if a drug dealer named
Chu
l
o is able to pick him out of a lineup. Also the indefinite
deta
in
ment of Leo Belk
in
, Yuri Rykov, and Elena Brugg.

The second list was mor
e
of a timetable. It defied belief
but there it was. Bannerman had been in California for less than a day. In that time he managed to join forces with the
KGB, hook up with Axel St
r
eicher, have at least five known
thugs killed or crippled, and still have the leisure to track
down and dispatch a serial killer who'd been hunted for almost two years by a force of two hundred men. Using
Susan as a decoy. Susan, Clew would let off the hook.

Good that they all kept busy. Another twelve hours at
this rate and Sur La Mer might be a pile of rocks.

He would rather not have it this way, getting Mama's
Boy back into the fold. But the opportunity, once pre
sented, could not be passed up. Above all, whatever Ban-
ne
rm
an had learned about Sur La Mer, whatever his
intention, he had to be stopped. Too much harm could be done, valuable assets lost. Or subverted through blackmail.

The phone rang. The receptionist. May she bring Mr.
Ba
nn
e
r
man and Mr. Lesko in?

Lesko?

Why not?

We'll put him to work as well. And throw in th
e
B
r
uggs of Z
u
rich.

“
Colonel Belk
i
n
?”

“
Yes, Lieutenant
.”

“
Do you did you know what is here at the Marek house
?”

”
I suspected
.”

“
We will need a truck. A big one. Also packing materi
als, padding. Also we should have a restoration expert so
that we can remove the panels without damage
.”

“
The panels
?”

“
They are solid amber. He has a book of photographs
here, all about Catherine's Palace in Pushkin as it was before
the war. The panels are the same as those in the book
.”

“
Ah, yes
.”
My God.

“
Who is this Ma
r
ek, Colonel
?”

“
We are wasting time, Lieutenant
.”

“
Of course, yes
.”

”
I will send the truck. Do your best without the expert
.”

“
Colonel Belkin
?”

“
Yes
?”

“
They will name streets after you for this
.”

Bannerman was cool. Clew had to admire it.

He had laid out his conditions. And the alternatives. Bannerman never batted an eye although twice he had to
restrain himself from reaching over the table.

“
Well
?”
Clew sat back. He looked at his watch.
“
Do
you need time to think it over
?”

Ba
nn
e
rm
a
n
shook his head.
“
But you might, Roger
.”

Crew smiled.
“
Tell me why
.”

“
Ma
r
ek's dead, for openers
.”

Clew looked at him blankly.
“
You mean the man
whose wall Ca
rl
a caved in? That Ma
r
ek
?”

Bannerman nodded.

“
So what
?”
The name meant nothing to him.

Bannerman shrugged.
“
Okay. Let's try the
Dunvilles.”

Clew kept his expression bland.
“
What about them
?”

“
They're dead, too. You'll find two of them at Sur La
Mer. You won't find the third
.”

A long silence.
“
You hit them
?”

Bannerman shook his head.
“
I'm just her
e
for a fu
neral, Roger
.”

Clew stood up, pacing. He kicked a chair.
“
You just killed yourself, Bannerman. Nobody will help you now
.”

“
Roger, I have the files
.”

Clew stared.
“
What files
?”

“
All of them. Over two hundred. Going back to 1932
.”

Clew blinked rapidly.
“
Two hundred what? People
?”

“
Over two hundred
.”

”
I don't believe you
.”

“
Molly's on her way over with a sample. Could we
get some coffee in the meantime
?”

Clew hesitated, then buzzed the receptionist
,
largely to give himself time to think. He ordered a pot and three cups.

“
What do you want for them
?”
he asked.

“
They're not for sale
.”

“
Okay, you're going to make me ask. What do you
want not to use those files? That's assuming they exist
.”

“
Not much. Tear up your list. Clean u
p
this mess.
Leave us alone
.”

“
Or else what
?”

”
I use them, Roger
.”

“
Bannerman
.
.
.”
Lesko opened the taps of all three
wash basins in the lavatory.
“
What the hell was all that
?”

Ba
nn
e
rm
a
n
weighed the wisdom of telling him. But Lesko had a
ri
ght
. H
is neck was out as far as anyone's.
‘“
I should have briefed you. Thanks for going with it
.”

“
Going with what? What files
?”

Bannerman shushed him.
”
I have no idea. But Roger
sure does
.”

“
How did you know Ma
r
ek is dead
?”

“
Streicher told Molly. He didn't elaborate
.”

“
You got no files
?”

“
Just a sample
.”

“
And that's enough to make Clew roll over
?”

“
It looks that way
.”

Lesko splashed water onto his face.
“
All that other stuff he thinks you did? You didn't do shit
.”

“
Should we go back and tell him that
?”

“
No, but it's the principle. This whole thing, you
hardly ever got off your ass except to make phone calls
an
d
now there's Clew thinking you're this fucking
mastermind
.”

Bannerman winced at the language.

“
You know who did more than you? That DiDi Fene
r
ty
did more than you
.”

Bannerman
’
s eyes became hooded. ”I still have time
to go beat up on Roger. Would that make you happy
?”

“
It would be a start
.”

“
Have you done everything people think you've
done
?”

“
No, but…”

“
But you use it. So do I. Count your blessings, Lesko
.”

Bannerman heard a knock at the lavatory door.

“
Mr. Bannerman
?”

The receptionist.
“
Yes
?”

“
There's a Miss Fa
rr
ell to see you
.”

“
Be right out. Thank you
.”

“
Sir, there's also a call from a Leo Belk
i
n. He's
holding
.”

₅₆

The sample file Molly brought was a before and after on
Theodore Ma
r
ek,
née
Tadeusz Ordynsky. Ba
nn
e
rm
an ha
d
it in hand when he took
Belkin's
call.

The call from an enraptured Leo Belk
i
n was to tell him that the use of the safe house, now apparently not needed,
had been repayed a thousandfold.

It was also to ask how Bannerman knew about the
contents of
Marek's
vault, and about the panels
.
How, for
that matter, had he known that Sur La Mer had been aban
doned and that the men at
Marek'
s house would flee as
well.

Bannerman listened through several minutes of gushing
before it became clear that Belkin was talking about stolen
Russian art. He didn
'
t know what he meant by
panels
and
he didn't ask.

In fact, he'd had no idea that there even was a vault.
There was only the chance, based on Anton
Zivic's
briefing, that Marek had perhaps kept an icon or two for
himself. Apparently, he'd kept a great deal of it. Ban
ne
r
ma
n
read to
Belki
n
from the file. Belk
i
n was
dumbstruck.

“
How is Yuri, by the way
?”

“
Out of danger, Paul. I can't wait to tell him. This
is so..
.
”

“
Actually, it was sort of his idea
.”

”
I beg your pardon
?”

“
He probably won't remember, with the head in
jury and all, but somehow be found out that Ma
r
ek was
Ordynsky. Ca
rl
a told me. I did some checking with
Anton
.”

“
Yuri, you say
.”

”
Yup
.”

”
I am to believe this? Even if Yuri denies it
?”

“
As I said
...
the head injury
.
.
.”

“
Quite so
.”

“
I would think there might be a commendation in it for him.”

“
At the very least. Paul? Thank you
.”

The next phone call, actually to Lesko, was from
Ir
win
Kaplan, whom Banne
rm
a
n
liked and trusted, but who didn't like him very much.

Irwin knew nothing whatever about Sur La Mer nor
did he wish to. The real purpose of his call was to ask
whether Bannerman would take a call from Barton Fuller,
Clew's boss, and, if so, would Bannerman level with him?

This indirect approach did not seem to promise much in the way of leveling but Bannerman said he would talk
to Fuller, whom he generally respected and trusted within
limits. They talked for more than an hour.

The problem with leveling was Fuller's opening premise. Fuller assumed that Bannerman had mounted a long-
planned, brilliantly coordinated assault on Sur La Mer with
the intention of tracking down and/or compromising certain of the Sur La Mer alumni. Bannerman chose not to
correct him but he gave Fuller two assurances.

The first was that the KGB had not had, nor would it
ever have, access to the files. The second was that he,
Banne
rm
an, would not use them unless provoked.

“
You say there are
hundreds
of those files, Paul
?”

“
Over two hundred. Since 1932
.”

“
What sort of people? I mean, would I know the
names? Are they in sensitive positions?
”

“
All sorts, Mr. Fuller. And, yes, I imagine you'd know
some of the names
.”

It certainly wasn't a lie. It wasn't leveling either but it was the best Bannerman could do in his near total igno
rance of the contents of those files.

The most intriguing revelations from Fuller, which explained a great deal, were these. Certain people in govern
ment had become aware only five years ago, not fifty or sixty, that one individual had been completely made over at a place called Sur La Mer. Fuller didn't ask how they
found that out. Possibly, an FBI background check blun
dered into it. Perhaps someone made a deathbed confes
sion. Whatever.

But this one individual named several more alumni.
They, in turn, were quietly investigated and some were confronted. They named others. Fuller acknowledged that
there might have been a dozen in all. Not two hundred.

Certain of these had since had children and even grand
children who were, themselves, blameless, and who had
made lives of their own. One turned out to be a con
gressman.

It was decided that to expose these people would do
more harm than good. The investigation was quashed but the alumni were monitored foreve
r
more.

Bannerman asked why the government did not simply
close Sur La Mer down.

“
That would have broadened the investigation.
Arrests would mean trials, publicity, scandal. It could not
have been done quietly
.”

“
On the contrary, I think it just has
.”

“
W
e operate under certain constraints, Paul, which
do not burden you. We would not, for example, have wiped
out the Du
nvi
lle family
.”

“
So you protected them instead
.”

”
I wouldn't say that
.
.
.
exactly
.”

Ba
n
ne
r
man smiled.
“
You used them, didn't you, Mr. Fuller. You put people of your own through Sur La Mer
.”

“
You're playing with fire, Paul
.”

”
I thought we were leveling
.”

“
If we did put people through, they would have been
people to whom this country owed a debt. You would not
have disapproved. And we would have been assured that
no records had been kept by the damned Du
nv
illes
.”

And that was that.

There was one more plea, of course, that Bannerman
surrender the files. He declined with regrets. And repeated
assurances. If left alone.

The remaining problem was St
r
eicher.

If Streicher decided to compromise any of the people
Fuller knew about, Fuller would conclude that Paul Bannerman had broken his word. On the other hand, Streicher had as much as promised Molly that he would protect the
innocent. He had even predicted, unlikely as it sounded at the time, that protection of the innocent might be in Rog
er's interest as well.

Still, Bannerman would have to try to find him.

Later.

Right now, his first concern was Susan. And then Ca
rl
a.

“
Lesko
?”

Katz. Dumb shit. ”
Don
't
talk to me
.''

“
What do you mean
?”

“
That pizza kid. Dom
m
erich. I knew he was the one
and you talked me out of it
.''

“
All you had was this paranoid hunch. I gave you
logic
.
Anyway, since when do you listen to me
?”

“
Yeah, well, if you kept your mouth shut I would have
stayed there with Susan. I would have recognized him when he showed up with the pizza
.''

“
Well, at least I was right about Scholl
.''

“
When
?”

“
When they stopped your car. I knew he was the guy
.''