Numbered Account (31 page)

Kaiser shook his hand, wincing as if to say “Spare me this garbage.” “This is a bank, Mr. Thorne. Normally we expect even our most valued clients to schedule appointments. We’re not a fast-food establishment where one can simply
drive through
.”

Thorne bowed in apology. “Sorry for not following your precious decorum. In America we are taught to take the bull by the horns, or as my daddy used to say, to grab the goat by the balls.”

“How charming. Please take a seat. Or would you prefer the floor?”

Thorne sat on the couch.

Kaiser took up position in a chair opposite. “Neumann, join us.”

“This is a private conversation,” objected Thorne. “I don’t know if you want one of your young pups to listen in.”

Nick stood and made it clear he was willing to leave the office. The less time spent in Thorne’s company, the better.

“It’s all right, Nicholas,” said Kaiser. “Sit down. I welcome the input of our younger executives, Mr. Thorne. They are the future of the bank.”

“Some future,” said Thorne, looking at Nick and shaking his head. He redirected his attention at the Chairman. “Mr. Kaiser, I believe we have a mutual acquaintance. Someone we’ve both known for a long while.”

“I find that extremely doubtful,” said Kaiser with a polite smile.

“It’s not doubtful. It’s a fact.” Thorne looked at Nick and then back at Kaiser. “Mr. Ali Mevlevi.”

Kaiser appeared unfazed. “Never heard of him.”

“I’ll repeat the name for you. I know some gentlemen begin losing their hearing at your age.” Thorne cleared his throat noisily. “Ali Mevlevi.”

“I am sorry, Mr. Thorne. The name means nothing to me. I hope you didn’t make such a dramatic entrance on behalf of this friend of yours.”

“Mevlevi is no friend of mine and you know it. I believe you folks call him the Pasha. Mr. Neumann sure as hell knows him. Isn’t that right, Captain America?”

“I never said any such thing,” Nick answered calmly. “I thought I made it clear that I’m not allowed to comment on the identity of any of our clients.”

“Let me help jog your memory. Account 549.617 RR. Makes transfers every Monday and Thursday. Oh, he’s a client of yours. Of that, if nothing else, I’m sure.”

Nick, the casual spectator, the man who knew nothing, kept his face a stony blank. He had less success governing his stomach, which like his conscience was growing queasy and increasingly anxious. “I’m sorry. Like I said, no comment.”

Thorne reddened. “This isn’t a press conference, Neumann. No comment, you say. You, too, Kaiser? Well, I have some comments for you.” He withdrew a sheaf of papers from his jacket pocket and unfolded it. “July 11, 1996. A transfer incoming for sixteen million dollars, departs same day to twenty-four numbered accounts. July 15, incoming for ten million, outgoing same day to fifteen banks. August 1, 1997. Incoming thirty-one million, outgoing same day twenty-seven banks. This list goes on and on, like a bad case of gonorrhea.”

Kaiser leaned forward, extending one hand. “Did you obtain this information from an official source?” he asked. “If so, may I see it?”

Thorne refolded the papers and jammed them into his jacket. “The source for this information is classified.”

Kaiser frowned. “Classified or created from thin air? Neither the name you mentioned nor the figures in which you obviously have so much faith mean anything to me.”

Thorne turned again to Nick. “Those figures ring a bell, Neumann? This is your account, is it not? I wouldn’t recommend lying to an officer of the United States government. Money laundering is a serious offense. Ask your buddies at the Gotthardo Bank.”

Kaiser placed an iron hand on Nick’s leg. “I must interrupt you, Mr. Thorne,” he said. “Your zeal is commendable. We, too, share your enthusiasm for putting an end to the illegal practices for which the banks in our country are often used. Really, though, this Alfie Merlani, was it? The name doesn’t sound familiar.”

“Mevlevi,”
said Thorne, who by now was growing agitated, shifting constantly in his chair. “Ali Mevlevi. Imports over a ton of refined heroin per month into Europe. Usually through Italy, then into Germany, France, Scandinavia. About a quarter of his stuff ends up right here in Zurich. Look, I’m trying to offer you a deal. A chance to make things right before we blow this case up in public.”

“I do not need a deal, Mr. Thorne. This bank has always prided itself on rigorously obeying the laws of this country. Our laws governing secrecy prevent me from disclosing any information about our clients. I am willing, however, to make an exception, just this once, so that we may demonstrate our goodwill. The account number you mentioned was in fact on our internal surveillance sheet last week. And, you are correct that the account was managed by Mr. Neumann, here. Nicholas, tell Mr. Thorne everything you know about this account. I’m absolving you of any responsibility you may have toward our bank under the Bank Secrecy Act of 1933. Go ahead, tell him.”

Nick stared into Kaiser’s eyes, all too mindful of the Chairman’s dissuasive clutch. Willful ignorance was one thing, premeditated obfuscation, quite another. But he was too far along his chosen path to change course now. “I recognize the number,” he said. “I remember seeing it on the surveillance list last Thursday. But I don’t recall any activity that day. I have no idea to whom it belongs.”

Thorne tossed his head back and gave an unpleasant laugh, a horse’s whinny. “Well, well. Who do we have here? Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. I am going to give you one more chance to make a deal with us and spare your company the indignity of seeing its Chairman implicated in the business affairs of one of the world’s largest distributors of heroin. I would’ve thought that a man who had suffered like you — I mean your family’s tragedy and all — would
be sensitive to the efforts of the authorities to nail a parasite like Mevlevi. He’s a big fish for us. We are not going to stop until we’ve landed him, dead or alive. In fact, I found a snapshot that I thought might inspire you to give us a hand.”

Thorne threw a five-by-seven color photograph onto the coffee table.

It landed facing Nick. He looked down at it and grimaced. The photograph showed the corpse of a nude man lying on a silver table. The table was an autopsy platform in a morgue. The man’s eyes were open, shaded a translucent blue. Blood ran from his nose. His mouth was open, caked with a milky froth.

“Stefan,” gasped Wolfgang Kaiser. “This is my son.”

“’Course it’s your son. Wiped out on heroin. Looks like he chased the dragon one too many a time. They found him here in Zurich, didn’t they? That means the poison in his veins came from Ali Mevlevi. The Pasha. The holder of account 549.617 RR.” Thorne pounded the coffee table. “Your client.”

Kaiser scooped the photo off the table and stared at it silently.

Thorne continued, clearly unburdened by any sympathy for Kaiser. “Help me nail Mevlevi. Freeze the Pasha’s accounts!” He looked to Nick for support. “Stop his cash and we can stop the drugs. Isn’t that a simple suggestion? It’s time we protect kids from the same stuff that killed your boy. How old was he anyway? Nineteen? Twenty?”

Wolfgang Kaiser stood as if in a daze. “Please leave, Mr. Thorne. We have no information for you today. We do not know any Mevlevi. We do not work with heroin smugglers. That you would stoop so low as to bring my boy into this is beyond my understanding.”

“Oh, I don’t think it is, Mr. Kaiser. Allow me to light the last couple of candles on this cake before I leave. I want to make sure you have plenty to think about over the next few days. I know about your time in Beirut. Four years over there, eh? Mevlevi was there, too. Seems he was setting up his operations around the time you arrived. He was a big shot around town, if I’m not mistaken. What I find curious is how you could have lived in the same town for three
years and never met the man. Not once, you say. Excuse me, Mr. Kaiser, but wasn’t it your job to beg for the scraps of the local gentry?”

Kaiser turned to Nick as if he hadn’t heard a word Thorne had said. “Please escort Mr. Thorne from the premises,” he said pleasantly. “I’m afraid we’ve run out of time.”

Nick admired Kaiser’s self-restraint. He placed a hand on Thorne’s back and said, “Let’s go.”

Thorne spun to knock the hand away. “I don’t need an escort, Neumann, thanks all the same.” He pointed his finger at Kaiser. “Don’t forget my offer. A little information on Mevlevi is all that’s required or else I’ll take your whole damned bank down with you standing at the wheel. Is that clear? We know all about you. Everything.”

He walked away from the Chairman, and as he passed Nick, he smiled and whispered, “I’m not through with you, young man. Check your mail.”

As soon as Thorne had gone, Rita Sutter swept into the office, her dignified bearing restored. “That man is a beast. Why, the nerve . . .”

“Everything is all right, Rita,” said Kaiser, who looked pale and shrunken. “Would you be so kind as to bring me a cup of coffee and a
Basel Leckerei
.”

Rita Sutter nodded in response to the command, but instead of leaving, came a step closer to the Chairman. She placed a hand on his shoulder and asked tenderly, “
Gehts
? Are you all right?”

Kaiser lifted his head and met her eyes. He shook his head slightly and he sighed. “Yes, yes, I’m fine. The man brought up Stefan.”

She scowled, patting Kaiser on the shoulder, then walked out of the room.

When she had left, Kaiser straightened his shoulders, regaining some of his martial bearing. “You mustn’t believe the lies Thorne is spreading,” he said to Nick. “He’s a desperate man. Clearly he’ll stop at nothing to capture this man, this Mevlevi. Is it our job to be a policeman? I hardly think so.”

Nick cringed at hearing Kaiser fall back to the Swiss banker’s standard defense. To his ears, it was a startling admission of the bank’s complicity with the heroin dealer, Ali Mevlevi.

“Thorne has nothing,” Kaiser was saying, his voice grown vigorous once again. “He’s flailing his sword in the wind, hoping to chop down anything he comes in contact with. The man is a menace to the civilized business world.”

Nick nodded his head in understanding, thinking how odd life’s random and symmetrical balance could be. He had lost his father. Kaiser had lost his only son. For a moment he wondered if Kaiser had desired his arrival in Zurich more than he himself had.

“I’m sorry about your son,” he said softly, before leaving the room.

Wolfgang Kaiser did not acknowledge the condolence.

Alone in the corridor, Nick breathed a sigh of relief. He began the short walk back to his office confused at what exactly he had just witnessed. He needed to decide who had been telling the truth and who had been lying. Most of what Thorne had said made perfect sense. If Ali Mevlevi had been a big shot in Beirut, Kaiser would at the least have known of him. More likely, he would have actively solicited his business. It was a branch manager’s job to circulate among the city’s better crowds, insinuate himself in its loftier circles, and at the appropriate time, normally, Nick imagined, after a second martini, suggest that they trust him with a good portion of their assets. Similarly, if Ali Mevlevi was the Pasha — which certainly seemed the case — then Kaiser would also know him. No man became chairman of a major bank by ignoring his most important clients. Certainly not Wolfgang Kaiser.

Hell, Nick thought, everything Thorne said made sense. The Pasha being Ali Mevlevi; his using numbered account 549.617 RR at the United Swiss Bank to launder his profits; that Kaiser must not only know him, but must know him pretty damn well. All of it.

Nick turned a corner and entered a smaller corridor. The ceiling was lower and the hall narrower. He had advanced a few steps when he heard the distinct thud and rattle of a drawer being violently shut. The sound came from an office ahead and to the right. Its door was slightly ajar, and a sliver of light curled from under it onto the carpeted floor. Coming closer, he saw that someone was inside the room searching through a raft of papers that lay on top of the desk. At the same instant, he realized he was peering into his own office.

“I thought you waited until after banking hours to root through an individual’s private affairs,” Nick said, slamming the door behind him.

Armin Schweitzer continued to rummage through the papers, unfazed. “Simply checking for the list of clients you’re to phone. The bank can ill afford for you to alienate its major shareholders.”

“I have that list right here.” Nick withdrew a folded sheet from his jacket pocket.

Schweitzer put forward his meaty hand. “If you please . . .”

Nick held the copy as if assaying its value, then slid it back into his pocket. “If you’d like a copy, see the Chairman.”

“A moment of the Chairman’s time would indeed be welcome; alas between you and your close friend Mr. Thorne, it seems that he hasn’t a moment to spare.” Schweitzer carelessly dropped the papers he held onto the desk. “Coincidental your arriving just when Thorne needs you. You and the American gestapo.”

“You think I’m working with the DEA? Is that why you’re here?” Nick laughed grimly at the suggestion. “If I were you, I’d spend more time looking after my own affairs. I understand you’re the man on the tightrope, not me.”

Schweitzer flinched as if he’d been slapped. “You understand
nothing
.” He rounded the desk, gathering steam like a runaway locomotive, stopping only when he came within an inch of Nick’s chest. “I walk no tightrope here, Mr. Neumann. My blood runs in this bank as deeply as the Chairman’s. Thirty-five years of my life, I’ve given it. Can you even begin to understand such a commitment? You, an American, who flits from one job to another, hoping only for a bigger paycheck and a fatter bonus. Herr Kaiser has never questioned my loyalty to him or my service to the bank. Never!”

Nick stared into Schweitzer’s bulging eyes. “Right now, I understand only one thing. This is my office and you should have at least asked my permission before coming in and messing up the place.”

“Your permission?” Schweitzer put his head back and laughed. “I’ll remind you, Neumann, it’s my job to ensure that the bank complies with all legal requirements and that our employees do the same. Anyone who I believe might have reason to do the bank harm warrants my total concern. And any actions I may wish to take are so justified. That includes having a look at your office and your papers whenever I please.”