The Financial Terrorist Page 11

  “What are you doing in there? We need to go,” the other voice said. It was a whining and annoying sound. It was like the noise of an injured animal rather than a person. And at that moment Claire stepped into the bedroom, her gun pointed at the woman, who was sitting on the ground holding her shoulder. Juliet was well away, behind them on the sofa, immobilised and bound up in a shawl. She was out of the line of fire and too far away for the other woman to grab.

  Claire covered the woman with her gun. “Jacqui,” she called. The door lock clicked and Jacqui came in. She had bent down to a crouch and scoured the room with her gun leading the way. She quickly took in the scene. She started when she saw Juliet on the sofa and Charles lying immobile on the floor, but she knew that she must ignore them for the moment. The first job was to secure the place. The wounded woman moved forward just as Claire swung round her gun and crashed it into the side of her skull. The blow she had delivered to the woman in the sitting room was gentle in comparison. There she had been limited by space. Here she was able to use her full strength and take advantage of the space to add momentum to the force of the gun. The woman moaned and collapsed in a heap on the floor.

  Claire signalled to the nanny’s room. Jacqui went through the door and checked it out. She came back; all was clear. Claire went to the bathroom and came back with a small hand towel. Grabbing the smaller woman, she tied it round her mouth, pulling the mouth open and brutally fastening the ends as tightly as possible.

  Jacqui, meanwhile, locked the connecting door to Claire’s room before doing the same with that between the suite and the nanny’s room. She then went to Juliet and untied her. The little girl fell into her mother’s arms crying bitterly. “The nasty lady hurt me. Daddy shot her. Where’s Daddy?”

  Claire had moved over to Charles. She had taken in the syringe and noted he was breathing. His breaths were deep but regular.

  She walked over to the smaller woman and took off the gag, “What was in the syringe?”

  “It was nothing much. It’s just a knock out drug. It’ll wear off in an hour or so. Maybe less as he did not take a full dose.”

  “Good, let’s hope you’re right. In the meantime, as there’s some stuff left in the syringe, we’ll give your friend some. If she dies, you will too.”

  “I swear it won’t harm him. It’s just a drug.”

  “Daddy’s having a sleep darling,” Jacqui explained to Juliet. As Claire injected the unconscious woman on the floor, she said to Jacqui, “Why don’t you go to the bedroom? I’ll question this cow.”

  Juliet was asking, “What cow?” as Jacqui took her through to the bedroom. Moments later the television was on. The cartoon channel was again being used to distract.

  Claire got to work on the frightened woman. She was dressed in a black skirt and blouse. They were professionals. Although she suspected she knew the answer, Claire wanted to hear for whom they worked. She looked at the woman and started to speak in a voice that would have made anyone shudder.

  “There are three stages to what I can do to you. Stage one will begin now. I’ll put the gag back on and then beat you over the head and then downwards. It’ll be systematic and painful. I’ll break some bones, the odd rib or too. I’ll then take off the gag and give you a chance to talk.

  If you won’t, I put the gag back on and shoot you in the stomach. That’s painful but it usually works. If it doesn’t I wait till he comes round, take you up to the roof and give you one last chance.

  If that doesn’t work, you take a dive. It’s your choice.”

  “What do you want?” said the woman.

  “You’re a professional. You know exactly what I want. I want information about your employer and your objective. You didn’t shoot him. You could have. It would have been easier and safer. So why didn’t you?”

  “We were told to make sure he was left alive. We just had to get away with the kid.”

  “Carry on.”

  “We were to deliver her to two men who would be waiting for us outside the hotel. They would recognise us and use a password to identify themselves. We don’t know who employed us. They were going to pay us well.”

  “That’s crap. You know who they are. Tell us.”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Then you’re no use to us. And as you’ve annoyed us, we’ll kill you.”

  This was delivered in the coldest of tones. At the same time, Claire raised her gun till it pointed directly at the woman’s chest. The eyes widened in fear. They tried to meet Claire’s and failed. Claire’s finger moved slowly on the trigger.

  “All right, all right,” shouted the woman, her Slavonic accent becoming noticeable as fear took over. “I’ll tell you. The man who employed us is called Rastinov. He’s Russian Mafia.”

  “We know that much. But what is the reason? This is the fourth attempt in two days. You’re trying to scare, not kill. It makes no sense.”

  “Di Maglio is rumoured to be selling out. We want his business and we want it at our price.”

  “What is your price?”

  “We offer his family’s safety. We want to show that they are not safe unless we let them be. That’s why there was the attempt in New York. Also the two attempts this morning. We were not to harm the child and we would have kept her in hiding until Rastinov got the goods. Di Maglio dotes on his daughter and the kid. He would have crumbled.”

  “What are your links with Rastinov?”

  “We work for him.”

  “What’ll happen if you’ve failed?”

  “He’s not going to be pleased. He’ll be really upset with Magya.” She indicated the tall woman. “She’s failed before.”

  “Won’t he kill you?”

  The woman looked surprised. “No, we knew the attempt was high risk. And Rossi responded quicker than we thought. We tried a decoy but it didn’t really work.”

  “Di Maglio would be less gentle with failure,” commented Claire. “And he taught me. So where’s Rastinov?”

  “I don’t know. He moves around.”

  Claire looked carefully at the woman, then grabbed the towel and gagged her again. She pushed her to the floor and snarled, “Wait there till the banker comes round. Then we might let you go or we might kill you.”

  She then moved over to Charles and pulled him over to the sofa. He was not light but she managed to raise him. He looked as if he were asleep. She frisked him gently for any other weapons. She knew he would be groggy when he came to, and she didn’t want him to start shooting by accident in that state.

  The tall woman was still unconscious on the floor. Claire walked over and frisked her again. She already knew she didn’t have a gun. She checked for handbags, but there were none. That was strange. She looked around for something with which to tie up the tall woman. She picked up a lamp and used the flex.

  She opened the door into the nanny’s room again. She put on the light. The place looked OK. Nevertheless, she moved carefully and checked cupboards and bathroom before double locking the door into the corridor. She had noticed the two shoulder bags on the floor. They must belong to the women, she did not recognise them.

  She checked out the nanny. She realised she had been injected with some drug, simply from the fact that the bedclothes were pulled back. She picked up the bags and returned to the suite, pulling and locking the door behind her again. She hoped the nanny would not overdose between the two sets of drugs, but she had other priorities for the moment.

  She went through the bags. There was another gun in one of them and nothing else of interest other than driving licences and credit cards. The names were identical on them all and Claire put them aside. They would help confirm the identities. She went over to the phone and dialled a number.

  “Hi Roberto,” she said. “It’s Claire here. I need a clean up squad at Shutters in Santa Monica. There are two women. One shot in the shoulder. Both have headaches. We had a kidnap attempt. The nanny may have a drug overdose. I
nclude a doctor in the team. Jacqui and Juliet are fine, Charles took a knock but will be all right. Otherwise, all’s OK. We need extra security immediately. We can’t wait till tomorrow. Pass the message on to Di Maglio now.”

  And with that, she put down the phone and turned to Charles. He was groaning slightly and seemed to be coming round. She put a hand on his forehead. It was quite cool. His eyes flickered open and she bent down and whispered, “Just relax. Everything’s all right. Jacqui and Juliet are here.” He seemed to register and lay there but his eyes were open. He was recovering.

  She checked the corridor outside. Nobody was in sight. She still had her gun in her hand as a precaution. She opened the door and pulled the shopping bags they had left in the corridor inside the room. She carefully shut it behind her. Then, gingerly, she opened and examined each of them. There were clothes and a pair of shoes in them. She took out one after another. All was fine. Nobody had placed anything strange in them. The last bag held two boxes. She checked them out. One was a doll for Juliet, the other was a wardrobe for the doll. She placed them back in the bag. The pile of shopping was placed on the table. She screwed up the bags and threw them away.

  The noise appeared to rouse Charles. He sat up slowly with a groan. Then, a bit unsteadily, he got to his feet.

  “How do you feel?”

  “I’m a bit groggy. Where’s my gun?”

  She handed it to him and he put it back in his leg holster. “Is Juliet all right? They were rough with her.”

  “She’s next door with Jacqui. We should leave her there. I’ve sent for the clean up squad. They’ll be here in about half an hour. They’ll get rid of the women and clean up the bloodstains over there. The nanny needs checking out. I fed her tablets and these women stabbed a needle in her bum.”

  “Have you questioned them?”

  “Yes. But they did not add much. It’s Rastinov. And he wants the Di Maglio business. The price is your safety.”

  “Di Maglio won’t accept that.”

  She nodded, “He can’t. Those scum would just increase the price.”

  He lowered his voice, “How will they leave? Should it be by the window or the door?”

  “I guess by the door. They’re pretty low grade. I suspect that they were not expected to succeed. They’re not worth a possible murder rap.”

  “They almost succeeded though. I screwed up.”

  “You’re out of practice. But I goofed as well. We should have secured the doors. One person can’t monitor a suite and two adjoining rooms. There were four doors to the corridor. That was too much. Sorry.”

  He smiled and moved towards her. He bent down and kissed her on the lips. “Don’t worry. It’s the outcome that counts. We’re all right. We’ll just have to increase security.”

  “I have that in hand already.”

  “Excellent.” Charles now felt he was back in control. His head had cleared and, although shaky, he was thinking clearly. The drugs did not appear to have been too strong. He thought back to earlier. He remembered Juliet’s words about her mother’s crying. He had to find out about that. But first they had to move the women out.

  He went into the room to check out Jacqui and Juliet. Amazingly, Juliet was asleep in the bed. She was still dressed. Jacqui was sitting by her side. She went over to him and put her arms around him. She rested her head on his shoulder.

  “Are you all right?” she whispered. Her voice was soft and gentle.

  “Yes, they stuck a needle into me, that’s all. I’ll need a blood test. But they can perhaps check out the syringe first.”

  She shuddered, “Don’t even joke like that. Please.”

  They sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at Juliet. “We’ve got to make sure that she’s well protected. We need to end this.” Charles explained to Jacqui what Claire had told him.

  He then took hold of her hands and looked into her eyes. Those big dark soulful eyes looked into his. “Jacqui, why do you cry when your father calls? It came up when I was playing with Juliet.”

  She looked sad, “He still wants us to be part of his Empire. He believes that you are the barrier. So he tries to turn me against you. He tells me that you play around with other women. He says he thinks you’ll come over to his business once you tire of the world of finance. He thinks you’ll work for him in any event.”

  “But how will that happen?”

  “You’ll be bored by finance and you’ll need the excitement of his world. He also thinks you’ll want the girls.” Her lips were trembling. Her eyes were full of tears.

  “But Jacqui, that’s rubbish. I want you and I want Juliet. I want us to be super rich. And then we’ll find our Shangri La.”

  She smiled through her tears. They had talked of finding an island, or at least a lonely beach before. They had talked of living quietly in mountain villages. But they never thought they really could.

  “Look, when we talked about it before, we were not rich. If this all works we will have over ten billion dollars to our name. We can make money still but we can chose where we base ourselves. That doesn’t mean we can’t leave our island or mountain or whatever it is. We’ll be able to do what we chose. We need a break. We’ll have a break. And we should make a few more babies. Juliet needs brothers and sisters.”

  She smiled through her tears, “He taunts me about you. He says you’ll tire of me. He says I’ll always have to work for you.”

  “That’s rubbish. We work together because you have a role in the business. We’re partners. But above all, we’re married and we’re Juliet’s parents. I can’t ban your father. We’ve involved him in this deal. But if he tries to tie in the rest of his seedy business the deal will be off. We can find another target; PAF is just the easiest to arrange and has the advantage of being Mafia managed.

  But please no tears. And while we’re doing this deal, let’s look for our island. Or would you prefer a mountain?”

  “I want my beach. I want it on an island. Let’s find somewhere in the West Indies. The islands are full of coves where we can be alone and away from him and his evil cronies.” She smiled, “We’ll find it.”

  There was a tap on the door. Jacqui jumped up and went to the bathroom. Charles opened the door to Claire.

  “I have the squad here. They are cleaning the place. The doctor is with the nanny. She’ll be OK, but she’s going to have the king of headaches. He’ll have her moved to the local hospital, so she’ll be out of the way.”

  Jacqui came in and Claire continued, “He’s also checked the syringe. It is clean. He has run a test on the stuff they injected into you. It was some sort of fast working anaesthetic. He wants just to take a blood test as a precaution. Then he’ll patch up those scummy women and the others will dump them well away from here.”

  “What about security?”

  “They are here. We have three guards night and day. They are professionals. They’ll be good. Nobody will get past them. They’ll operate in the corridor. They’ll also put two guards downstairs in the lobby to watch people. And tomorrow we’ll have a special nanny for Juliet. Tonight I’ll guard her and sleep in her room.”

  Jacqui said, “She’ll sleep in our bed tonight. I think she may have nightmares. She doesn’t know you well enough, Claire. She’d be frightened if she woke up.”

  The cleaners were hard at work. They were all dressed in dark suits with white shirts and dark ties. Was black the standard colour of the shadowy world of crime? Everyone was in black. It was like a funeral although, for once in the shadowy world of Di Maglio, there was no corpse.

  The doctor took a blood test from Charles. He ran some quick tests on it.

  “Negative,” he said. “You seem OK. The syringe was one of those disposable ones. It looks as if it was filled in the next room from a fresh bottle. There was one under the bed, together with another syringe. The blood on that is the same as the nanny’s. In fact the only crossed blood I have found is yours on the woman
over there.”

  “That tallies. I stuck the same syringe into her as they stuck in him,” said Claire.

  The women were standing there looking sullen. She turned to them, “Well ladies, prepare to meet your fate. I’m not telling you what’ll happen to you but I can assure you that you’re not going to have a fun weekend. As we know, you’ve friends waiting for you outside. So we won’t harm you. But we are going to hand you over to the police. And they are going to charge you with breaking and entering, attempted kidnapping, assault and murder.”

  “We haven’t killed anyone,” wailed the smaller one.

  “You killed the girl in the bed. She was given a massive overdose. Four syringes of anaesthetic.”

  That was untrue. The two women were now in a cold sweat. They thought they had been set up, that they were going to prison. They weren’t. But it would be some time before they realised otherwise.

  The woman protested, “We only gave her one. That just ensured she didn’t wake up while we were there.”

  “Who’s going to believe that? Take them away. Bye girls. Have a happy life.”

  When they’d left, Charles asked what was going to happen to them.

  “We’ve a mock police truck outside. We’ll put them in there and then find a place where they can escape. That way they’ll be on the run for quite a while before they realise that they’re not being sought. They’ll be miserable and, in any event, they’ve bad headaches. Moreover, they have no money and no cards, as I’ve kept them. And I can’t believe that Rastinov will be pleased. Who knows what he will do to them?”

  The room had emptied. Claire and Jacqui unpacked their new clothes. “What do we do tonight?” asked Claire.

  “We have to act as normal as possible for Juliet. We’ll use the coffee shop and take her for a meal.” He turned to Jacqui, “When do you think she’ll wake?”