Saving Sophie: A Novel (36 page)

“It’s obvious to me that Harrington wants to run some kind of scheme on Kelsen, and I’m also certain there’s no way this middle-aged accountant can help me do anything to get Sophie out of Hebron. I tell him his problems with Kelsen are his business and I don’t see that he’s in any position to help me. He looks at his watch and says, ‘Not so fast. You want your daughter, don’t you? I know a guy. He’s real important. He can make things happen. He’s the kind of guy who can get Sophie back for you.’

“‘I’m listening,’ I said.

“‘Give me a few minutes,’ he says, and he gets up to make a phone call.

“Ten minutes later, a man walks into the bar. My first impression is, this guy is made of money. He’s dressed in a camel cashmere coat, white silk scarf. He smiles, hands his coat to his driver, and slides into our booth. He’s got a diamond ring on his little finger, a Patek Philippe watch, a tailored suit with a silk pocket square, and a thick Russian accent. We’re in a neighborhood bar and he looks like he’s sitting down for a five-hundred-dollar dinner on Michigan Avenue. He sits right next to me and orders a vodka martini, straight up.

“‘I’m very sorry to hear this thing about your daughter,’ he says. ‘I myself have a child and I don’t know what I’d do if someone tried to take him from me.’ I say, ‘Thank you for your concern.’”

“Did this man give you his name?” Liam asked.

“He did not, but when he left, I heard his driver call him Dmitri.”

Liam turned to Kayla. “Does that mean anything to you?”

Kayla shook her head. “No.”

“What else did Dmitri say to you?” asked Liam.

“Nothing to begin with. He just drank his vodka and made small talk. Then he moved the conversation to the Middle East. He told me he had just returned from Dubai. He had business interests all throughout the Middle East: Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar.

“He told me it was important for his business to have discreet relationships with highly placed officials throughout the Middle East. As a result, he could get things done in Arab countries. ‘Especially,’ he says, ‘in the lands of the Palestinians. Dennis has told me of your sad story, and I can help you. I can get your daughter back for you.’

“I said, ‘How are you going to do that?’

“He smiled. He smugly tipped his head from side to side. ‘It can be done.’

“‘What do you want from me?’ I said.

“He didn’t answer directly, but he said, ‘Getting your little Sophie back will be no problem for me.’ He shrugged, like it was as simple as ordering a pizza. ‘I can be a very good friend to you. I will talk to this al-Zahani and he will make agreement. That is what I do. I make agreements. I’m a fair man. When I propose a business transaction, it’s fair. People never turn me down. Especially not some pip-squeak like this Palestinian doctor.’ Then he breaks into this sardonic laugh.
‘Ha. Ha. Ha.’
But it isn’t a laugh, it’s a warning. ‘And even if this al-Zahani is foolish enough to turn me down, I am certain the Palestine authorities will help me. I’m big supporter.’

“I say, ‘That is very good of you. I don’t know why you would offer to do this. What can I do in return?’

“He smiled and said, ‘I do this partly because it is wrong to kidnap a man’s child and partly because I myself need a favor.’ Now the sweat starts running off my brow. I don’t know what he’s going to ask me to do, but I’ve already crossed the line. Short of murdering someone, there isn’t much I wouldn’t do to get Sophie back.

“‘All you have to do is sign a paper,’ he says. ‘Nothing more.’”

“And the paper is the escrow instruction for wiring the eighty-eight million dollars?” Liam said.

“Correct.”

“So, now you’re in a fix,” Liam said. “You do what he asks and maybe you get Sophie in return, or you refuse…”

“No. You can’t refuse, that’s not an option. Remember, no one turns him down, ha ha ha. At that point I had no choice. But, truth be told, I’d have agreed anyway if there was even a spark of hope to get Sophie. He said that Harrington would get in touch with me in a day or two with the details of the plan. With that, he raised his hand and his driver came over with his coat and the two left the bar.”

“One question,” Liam said. “How did you know the other man was his driver?”

“He had keys in his hand. I just assumed.”

Liam nodded. “What happened next?”

“The next day, I got a call from Harrington and we set a meeting for my office. It was natural because we were busy working on the sale of his company and he was in our office a lot. It was on a Thursday. He laid out the plan to divert the Exchange loan payoff to Panama, but he said that Dmitri wanted me to go to Panama and set up the account.

“‘Me? Why me?’ I said.

“‘Because Dmitri thinks it will be better,’ said Harrington. ‘He thinks Kelsen will notice if I am gone for two days.’ With that, he hands me a round-trip ticket to Panama City. I set up the account at the First Republic Bank in the name of Capital Investment Funds, Inc., spent the night at the Hilton, and came back the next day.

“I knew that I couldn’t stay in Chicago after we diverted the funds, and my plans started taking shape on that long flight from Panama. If I had any chance of not getting caught right away, I would have to leave before the escrow was scheduled to pay out and the theft was discovered. I knew I’d have to move far away and tell no one where I was going, not even my sister. The funny thing is, I trusted Dmitri. I didn’t fear him because I wasn’t going to double-cross him. In retrospect, I was a fool, but I really believed that Dmitri would honor his promise. You know, honor among thieves.

“The farthest place I knew where I could go without using a passport was Hawaii. I’d been here three times with Alina. So I start to formulate a plan to move Sophie out to the islands. Deb would find a way to bring her out. We could stay together for a little while until I was sure Sophie was emotionally strong enough for me to leave. If I got caught, Deb would raise her. I cashed in my retirement, set up my own separate Panama accounts, and did everything so I could leave Chicago as soon as the money was wired. I thought there was a good chance for us to hide out as long as we needed to. Stupid, huh?”

Liam shrugged and nodded. “Yeah.”

Jack continued. “I wanted to meet with Dmitri again, but he insisted we communicate only through Harrington. In fact, I never saw Dmitri again. I told Harrington that I needed a way to communicate with Dmitri, and we set up this private e-mail account. We’d leave messages for each other in the draft message folder. Dmitri said it might take him a month or two to get Sophie, but there would be no problem, and he’d give me updates by e-mail. The deal was closed, the money was wired to the phony account, and I left town.

“Now we know he never intended to do anything, just to trick me into stealing the money.” Jack pursed his lips. “He couldn’t do the heist without me, and Sophie’s kidnapping provided the perfect opportunity. Guys like this rich Russian, they just seem to stumble onto dumb-ass luck. He just happened to find Jack Sommers, a guy whose daughter had been kidnapped, who was so desperate he’d do anything. And who just happened to be in control of eighty-eight million dollars.”

Liam and Kayla looked at each other and nodded. “It might not have been dumb-ass luck,” Liam said.

“You mean Dmitri set up the kidnapping?” Marcy said. “He’s the kidnapper?”

Liam shook his head. “Al-Zahani is the kidnapper. But I think you’re right, Dmitri was the guy who set it up.”

“What an evil son of a bitch,” Marcy snapped. “Kidnap a man’s daughter to force him to steal money.”

“I didn’t have to do it, Marcy,” Sommers said quietly. “I knew right from wrong. I jumped right into his scheme and then set up my escape. There was no reason on earth to trust this guy, but he said what I wanted to hear. And I wanted to believe him. And he knew it.”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Liam said, “I’d have done the same thing.”

“Seriously?”

Liam nodded. “If it was my kid? Yeah.”

“Thanks for that,” Jack said, “but in the end, I was a fool. I still don’t have Sophie. I lost everything I had in Chicago—my career, my reputation, my honor—and now I’m probably going to spend the next twenty years in prison. The only good that came out of any of this was reconnecting with Marcy.”

Marcy walked over, put her arm around Jack, and kissed him on the cheek.

“Still, the two of you came all the way out here for nothing,” Jack added, “because I don’t have the money.”

“Al-Zahani doesn’t know that,” Kayla said.

Liam smiled. “You are so right.”

Sommers furrowed his brow. “I don’t get it.”

“Jesus, Jack, even I get it, and I’m not a spy,” said Marcy. “He might be willing to return her for the money he thinks we have, am I right?”

“He’s already offered. Five million dollars,” Kayla said.

“And he believes I have that money?” Sommers said.

“We’ve told him that you do.”

“All right, I’m dense,” Sommers said. “A few minutes ago, you said the US cannot allow money to be paid to terrorists.”

“Right,” Liam said.

“But you want to make a deal to pay him five million dollars out of the money that we don’t have.”

“Right again,” Kayla said.

“Look, I don’t care how you do it, I just want Sophie out of that man’s house. My sister has agreed to raise her. She’s a good woman.”

“There’s no doubt of that,” Liam said. “I met her. But I also mentioned to you earlier that there may be a play here for you. Al-Zahani has not only demanded five million dollars, he’s insisting that he will only make the exchange with you. In person. In Hebron. We need this charade to go down.”

“I’ll do whatever you ask.”

“We have to be honest with you,” Kayla said. “The operation will be dangerous. Al-Zahani is part of a terrorist ring. I know for a fact that they have planned and carried out assassinations in the past. There is no reason to believe that al-Zahani intends to play this straight, and there is every reason to believe that he intends to keep Sophie and the money.”

“And kill me, I understand.”

“Wait, Jack,” Marcy said. “You need to think about this.” She squeezed his arm. “You’re not an intelligence agent. You’re not a soldier. You’re a lawyer. You could easily wind up dead. Let
them
do this deal. Let Liam go into Hebron disguised as Jack Sommers.”

Jack shook his head. “Arif knows me. It wouldn’t work. I’ve got to do it myself.”

Marcy got up and walked quickly over to Liam. Her hands were on her hips. “You said there’s a ‘play here.’ Those were your words. What’s the play? What can you do for Jack if he risks his life to catch this terrorist? What’s in it for him?”

“Sophie’s in it, Marcy,” Jack said. “It’s all about Sophie.”

“Don’t kid yourself,” she said, focusing on Liam. “What’s in it for Jack?”

Liam smiled. “I do like this girl, Jack. You’ve got a winner here.” He turned to Kayla. “We can pitch the prosecutor, can’t we? I’m sure there’s a deal to be made. You can do that, right, Kayla?”

Kayla nodded. “I’ll make the calls and see what can be done. I can’t promise anything, but there’s a good chance we can do something for you.”

Marcy stood behind Sommers and held on to his shoulders. “I want Jack exonerated. Jack, don’t agree to do anything until they promise to give you immunity. They need you.”

Sommers patted her hand. “I can’t do that, Marcy.” He stood. “I’m in. Whatever you need. I’ll go to Hebron, with or without a deal.”

Just then, red, white, and blue lights strobed through the windows and bounced off the walls. There was a hard knock on the door. “Police. Open the door.”

Liam held his hand out like a stop sign. “I’ll handle this. Stay back.” He opened the door for two uniformed HPD officers. They had their badges in their hands and walked into the room.

“I’m Sergeant Hanley. We’re looking for Eugene Wilson. Are you Wilson?”

“No,” Liam said. “What’s the charge?”

“Where’s Wilson? I need to see all of your IDs,” Hanley said.

“I’m Wilson,” Jack said, walking forward.

“You need to come with us, sir.”

Kayla stepped forward and took out her wallet. “Hold on, Officer. He’s in federal custody.”

Hanley examined her State Department ID. “You’re not a federal marshal. Do you have anything else? An arrest warrant, something showing that you have the present right to take him into custody?”

“Nothing written,” she said. “We can make a call, but it’s the middle of the night back in Washington.”

Hanley looked at his partner and shrugged. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but unless you have something to show that you’re federal law enforcement and have a right to take custody of this man, I got my orders to take him downtown for questioning in the death of Glenn Hawkins.”

“He’s dead?” Sommers’s jaw dropped.

“Shot through the heart.”

“This man is a central figure in a federal operation, Sergeant,” Kayla said sternly. “I need to take him back to Chicago.”

Hanley finished cuffing Jack and turned to lead him out the door. “You can pick him up later, if he’s not charged.”

“Are you taking him to Wahiawa?” Marcy asked.

“No, ma’am, he’s going downtown. Pick him up at 801 Beretania.”

Liam, Marcy, and Kayla walked outside and watched as Sommers was placed in the backseat of the HPD cruiser. A steady rain began to fall. A few houses down, a black Cadillac was parked along the curb. Its lights were off. As the cruiser pulled away from Marcy’s home, the Cadillac started up and followed behind.

“Did you see that?” Liam said.

“See what?” Kayla said.

“The Cadillac. It’s trailing the cruiser. Two guys in the front seat.”

“Shit. We need to get downtown.”

“I’m coming with you,” Marcy said.

“No. You better stay here,” Kayla said. “We’ll call you when he’s out.”

“You can’t stop me from going. I have my own car. The police department is open to the public and I’m the public. I’m going whether you like it or not.”

Kayla looked at Liam and shrugged. “Okay. Let’s go.”

F
IFTY
-N
INE

A
N AMBULANCE PICKED DANI
up at 11:00
A.M.
He was placed on a stretcher and taken directly to the clinic. His condition had worsened significantly overnight and he was laid on the hospital bed, unconscious. Al-Zahani arrived shortly after noon. He checked Dani’s vitals, said a short prayer, and administered a lethal dose of morphine. The official cause of death was listed as influenza.