Chapter Thirty-Five

 

The blinking cursor on the page didn’t tell Vasile anything that he wanted to know. A string of Romanian curse words went thru his mind, but he remained calm for his secretary’s benefit. As far as she knew the EETC was the real deal. It was. He just had some background activities.

She showed him a strange email. She usually took care of all the general website mail herself unless she had a question. This looked personal, so she’d shown him.

“Forward it to my email. I’ll take a closer look at it. Probably trying to get me to buy something.”

“That’s what I thought too. I almost deleted it.” She tapped a few buttons, and Vasile knew the odious document would be on his computer when he got there.

On closer examination, he saw that there was nothing incriminating in the background check on him. That was good to know. He felt proud he’d covered his tracks rather well, despite those few insufficient funds checks when he’d arrived to set up operations on the US side.

The problem came when he realized someone had done a background check on him. Someone in Florida. Someone named Binkley. Like the phone call. A burning started in his gut.

He smoked a cigar staring at the smoke as it drifted toward his office ceiling. Something he usually didn’t do when the staff was in the office. He stared out the window at traffic deciding what to do.

First he called the senator. The EETC title always got him put right through since they had international relations to keep strong.

“We may have a problem with that new set up.”

“It’s hardly off the ground. What could go wrong?”

Vasile could imagine the senator run a hand over his slicked hair and straighten his tie. The guy was consistent and greedy. “Do you know a woman named Blanche Binkley?”

“Doesn’t ring any bells. Should it?”

“She did a background check on me. She’s based in Florida, so I was concerned for our new venture. Perhaps your arrangements weren’t so satisfactory.”

A snort came down the phone line. “I’m giving you all the help you’re going to get and all that you need. If you’ve got problems, it’s not from my end. Keep sending the money and we won’t have any problems.”

 

Vasile was pleased with his restraint as he set the phone down in its cradle. He wanted to throw it through the plate glass of his office. Beyond a house for operational work and “parties” in Boca and a warehouse rental the senator had not been much help. True, he’d made the connection with the police for Vasile but had bowed out of the scene and just cashed the checks now. Politicians, pula mea, he wished he didn’t need them so much.

 

He called Sergiu from his cell phone.

“Beat the crap out of Alina and a couple of the girls and see if any of them know anyone in Florida. Someone’s checking up on me, and I have a feeling it comes from this new operation somewhere.”

“We’ve been watching them and got them started on the pills. I don’t think it’s coming from inside.”

“I don’t care. Beat them to make sure. If they’ve talked to anyone I want to know it.”