Twelve days. That’s how long had passed since Finn had first met the Mexican government minister, Andre Gonzalez. In two more days he would be on a flight back to Mexico City for the foreseeable future. Finn had to act before then.
‘Penny for your thoughts,’ Mariana said, looking across the desk at him.
He didn’t say anything but held his focus on her a few moments. As ever, she looked mesmerizing. Over the last couple of weeks they had grown closer and closer to each other, spending most nights together. They hadn’t officially told anyone at work yet, though the looks they received – particularly the suspicious ones from Victor – suggested others had taken notice and were potentially gossiping behind their backs. They’d made the joint decision to keep quiet for now, but not lie and deny if either were directly challenged.
‘Yeah, you, dipshit. I’m talking to you.’
‘Sorry,’ Finn said. ‘I was…’
‘Still chewing on the license issue?’
‘Yeah.’
‘You’ve only been here a few weeks. Victor and Ed and a whole bunch of others have been trying to get those licenses over the line for months.’
‘And there’s only one thing stopping it.’
‘The partnership companies?’
Gonzalez, had been Finn’s thought. He was the blocker. But yeah, the politician’s issue was apparently the ownership structure.
What the hell did that even matter to him?
‘Do you know who sits behind it all?’ Finn asked. ‘ABC, Helda. There’re other entities too above those, offshore shells spread all over.’
Mariana looked confused at that, or perhaps just surprised that he knew so much. But he’d been doing his homework. Or trying to, at least.
‘I don’t know all the details but I’m sure it’s just like that for tax purposes,’ she said. ‘Victor is the owner. Everyone knows that.’
‘Is he though?’ Finn asked. ‘There’s no one else?’
‘What are you even suggesting?’ she replied. ‘Mafia? A foreign government?’
She said it as though the ideas were outlandish, and perhaps they were, but something had made Gonzalez suspicious.
‘The two main entities are both in the Dominican Republic,’ she added. ‘Tax free.’
‘Yeah. Also very handy for hiding who owns the entities, given there’s no public access to shareholder information there.’
‘I don’t know what you think anyone is hiding, or why.’
‘Someone must have the answers.’
‘Not me,’ Mariana said. ‘Have you asked Victor?’
‘Of course I have.’
‘And what did he say?’
‘Initially? To ask you.’
She looked a little taken aback. ‘Not my department at all.’
‘Maybe not. But he also said to ask Ed. Dez. Caitlyn. Everyone I go to claims ignorance and sends me to someone else.’
‘You’ve been talking to a lot of people.’
‘And I’ve been given no real answers. Just the runaround.’
And it felt like without some covert digging, he wouldn’t find anything more. Honestly it didn’t even matter to him if something dodgy was happening, he just wanted to be in the know. How was he supposed to operate effectively?
‘Does it even matter to you?’ Mariana said. ‘If we keep the dialogue open with Gonzalez and his department and keep expressing the benefits of this project to ordinary Mexicans, and the economy here, I’m sure we’ll get there in the end. They’d be crazy to keep refusing us and risk losing this business to somewhere else.’
But did she really believe they could get there now by legitimate means?
Finn still believed there was another way. A quicker way. He’d even met up with the minister again, a couple of days ago, this time with Victor too. A round of golf followed by a hundred-thousand-peso dinner. About five thousand US dollars, mostly on champagne and cognac. Pocket change for Victor, but no point in going over the top for nothing. And Gonzalez had seemed impressed and had been perfectly friendly and amenable over the day, but had bluntly refuted any attempt at the offer of further ‘benefits’, ‘favors’ or ‘private arrangements’ and the like.
So Finn had been left to think more widely about further steps.
‘We should go get some dinner,’ Mariana suggested. ‘I think some of the others were going to—’
‘It’s fine,’ Finn said. ‘You go without me.’
Her face soured. Perhaps he’d spoken too bluntly. Or perhaps she didn’t like that he was bailing on her.
‘I told you my sister is coming to town too. She lands at eight and she’s only in Cancun two nights. I really want you to meet her.’
And he was really flattered about that too.
‘I know.’ He tried to sound more relaxed and friendly. ‘Which is why I want to stay here now. A couple more hours then I’ll be ready. Yeah?’
She didn’t look convinced.
‘I will see you later,’ she said. ‘Oasis bar. I’ll let you know when we’re on our way.’ She gave him a peck on the cheek before leaving the room.
She was angry with him, and he hadn’t been wholly truthful with her, but he would be there later. He had somewhere else to be first, though.
Finn reread the messages on his phone from earlier, the address he’d been given. Only a short drive away. He packed up and headed out. Half an hour later he parked on the darkened residential street and checked his watch.
He looked along the road ahead. Mostly residential apartment blocks, each small, only three or four stories. Not a poor street by any stretch, but also a world away from the multi-million-dollar apartments crammed along the coast, and the twisting, serene private roads housing the even more expensive villas of the super-rich – Victor among them.
A car came towards Finn and he slid down in his seat a little so his head only just poked up over the dashboard. The headlights blinded him for a few seconds before the car moved on and out of sight. As his eyesight returned he spotted movement outside his window. He slumped a little further in his seat, pulling his phone out just in case.
Two people. A man and a woman, who’d come out of the apartment building directly across the road.
Not who he was looking for.
Half an hour passed. An hour. Two. He checked his phone over and over. Nothing from Mariana. Should he reach out to her? He wondered where she was. Hadn’t her sister landed already? Perhaps she’d given up on him and just taken Alyssia out with their work colleagues.
With Victor too?
He slapped his forehead to remove the images of the two of them together.
He reread the messages from his ‘contact’ again, becoming more and more frustrated as time passed. But he had no reason to doubt the intel, which had already turned up trumps over the last few days. Tonight was simply the nail in the coffin, so to speak.
He just needed patience.
Movement. Finn tensed as he looked across the road. Two men. One considerably shorter and older than the other. Distinctive looking, even in the dark. In fact, the orange streetlight from above made his face appear even more angular than usual.
‘Good evening, Minister,’ Finn murmured.
He pulled his phone up to the window. Started clicking away, taking photos.
‘Turn this way,’ Finn said, as though the minister could hear him and would respond. He needed a better angle to get a good shot for his growing collection.
‘There you go.’
The men gazed at each other. The younger took Gonzalez’s hand and reached down for a kiss. When they separated he pulled away and walked off down the street.
Gonzalez looked as if he was about to head off in the other direction, but then he paused and stared directly across the road to Finn’s car.
‘Shit.’
Finn slid further down in his seat.
Had he been spotted?
He had to risk a peek.
Gonzalez had stepped into the road. He was coming towards the car.
Finn only had a moment to make a decision. Heart thudding, he whipped his arm up to shield his face. He started the engine.
‘Hey,’ Gonzalez shouted, followed by a few angry words in Spanish.
Finn floored it. He raced off down the street, his eyes focused more on the shrinking figure in his rearview mirror than on the road ahead.
He made a right turn and slowed.
A close call. But even if Gonzalez had confronted him, perhaps it wouldn’t have mattered. Finn had what he needed.
‘Time to get things moving,’ he said to himself with a smile.
* * *
‘You two look so great together!’ Alyssia said with a kind of squeal, as she clasped her hands in delight. Finn pulled Mariana a little more closely to him. She looked into his eyes and he felt a flutter in his heart.
Shit, when had this got so real?
‘But… you haven’t even told anyone else yet?’ Alyssia asked.
‘It’s only been a couple of weeks,’ Mariana said. ‘We’re taking it slow.’
‘Yeah,’ Alyssia replied, with a slightly snide smile. ‘Real slow.’
Mariana giggled in response but then pulled away from Finn’s grasp – was she embarrassed? He picked up his beer and took a long drag.
‘Cool place,’ Alyssia said, looking around the bar. Oasis, of course. ‘I see now why you’ve been raving about it.’
‘I know, right?’ Mariana said. ‘The whole hotel is just awesome. Even better than we’d hoped.’
‘Well done you, Mrs Project Manager.’
Finn raised an eyebrow as he glanced at Mariana. Project manager for the hotel build? Was that right? He hadn’t realized, and she’d never said. Perhaps she’d over-egged her involvement to try and impress her sister.
‘So, Alyssia, you’re only in town a couple of days?’ Finn asked.
‘Wow. Trying to get rid of me already?’
Mariana hit his arm playfully. At least, he thought it was playful.
‘I’m meeting some friends in Cabo, but it’s been a few months since I saw my sis so… you know.’
‘Nice,’ Finn said, not really knowing where else to take the conversation. He held Alyssia’s eye a moment. When he’d first spotted her waiting for them at the bar he couldn’t believe quite how alike she was to Mariana. Honestly, they could have been twins. And even in the ten minutes they’d been sitting together he sensed she had the same sharp edge to her as Mariana did. Except… different. In Mariana that sharp edge had been one of the things that attracted him so much. In Alyssia… he felt on trial almost. But then, isn’t that what sisters did when meeting a new boyfriend? Although he and Mariana hadn’t even mentioned the ‘g’ and ‘b’ words to each other yet.
‘What about you, Finn? Tell me about yourself. How’d you wind up working for the wonderful Victor Travers?’
‘A chance encounter, would you believe?’ he said.
‘Remember the mugging in Dubai?’ Mariana added. ‘That was Finn!’
‘Wait – you’re a mugger?’
Mariana laughed, a little too heartily. She was drunk. She’d already had several drinks with the work crowd before coming here, and was probably overexcited about seeing her sister. Finn was on his first drink. He wanted more. He downed the rest of his beer.
‘No, silly,’ Mariana said. ‘Finn was the guy who fought them off. He’s a hero.’
She leaned over and pecked his cheek. Alyssia laughed, although it felt a little scathing to Finn.
‘But seriously, what do you actually do?’ Alyssia asked him.
‘You want me to walk you through my whole career?’ Finn responded, and realized he’d spoken a little too coldly by the hardened look on Alyssia’s face.
‘Sure,’ she said. ‘Why not.’
He took a moment to try and figure out if she was being serious or not.
‘I majored in business management at Clemson,’ he said. ‘Got on a graduate program at a big accounting firm after that. Got my CPA a few years later. Stayed there for nearly ten years in total.’
‘Ah, corporate boy. I know the type. But you never made partner?’
‘No. I didn’t.’
‘Why not? What was wrong with you?’
Mariana stifled a laugh. ‘I’ll get some more drinks,’ she said, and headed to the bar.
‘Nothing was wrong with me.’
‘I didn’t mean to offend you.’
‘You haven’t. Sounds like you’re familiar with that world though?’
She shrugged. ‘Kind of.’
‘The thing I realized about it all? The ones who get ahead usually aren’t those with the most talent.’
‘That goes for virtually any walk of life.’
‘Maybe it does. But I got sick of someone less able than me getting ahead, time after time. I guess… I didn’t take enough shit from my superiors. Didn’t stick my head far enough up the asses of the senior partners.’
‘Ah, so you have a problem with authority.’
‘No. I have a problem with talentless schmucks hitting the big time. Whether it be in an accounting firm or the oil sheikhs born into riches or the billionaire businessmen who think it was their hard work that got them where they are, and not simply a slice of luck even greater than winning the lottery jackpot.’
Mariana nodded now, as though he’d finally said something that she could in some way understand or agree with.
‘So you set up on your own to get back at the system? How’s that working for you?’
‘No. Not to get back at the system. Just to get what I deserved.’
‘If you can’t beat them, join them?’
‘Something like that.’
Mariana came back over with the drinks. She was sat down for all of twenty seconds before her phone rang.
‘Shit,’ she said, flicking her hair back as though to prepare herself. ‘Hey, Victor.’
She mouthed an apology then got up and headed for the exit, phone pressed to her ear.
‘When Victor calls…’ Alyssia said, not hiding her disdain.
‘You don’t like him?’
‘I only know him through my sister. And what I know of him? No, I don’t like him at all.’
‘And why’s that?’
‘You’re her boyfriend, I thought maybe you’d know.’
‘Know what?’
‘Have you told him yet?’
‘About me and Mariana? Not yet.’
‘Good luck with that.’
‘What are you getting at exactly?’ he asked, sounding as pissed off as he now felt.
‘It’s not my place to say.’
‘Are they… Did they…’
Alyssia scoffed. ‘Victor Travers is one of the richest men in the world. Men like that… they get what they want. That’s all I’m saying. And I’m not just talking about in a sexual sense.’
Finn tried his best to erase the horrible images trying to plant themselves at the front of his mind.
‘Clearly Mariana confides in you. A lot,’ he said.
‘Always.’
‘So come on then,’ Finn continued. ‘Give me some dirt on the big man.’
Alyssia’s eyes narrowed, as though she couldn’t read his intentions. She’d been trying to rile him, he thought, but actually, maybe this conversation could take a different turn. A more beneficial turn, for him.
‘I don’t need to give you any dirt. You seem intelligent enough. Five minutes’ searching on the internet tells you everything you need to know about someone like Victor Travers. Problems follow him around like flies on shit – except he’s got enough money to make sure those flies never land.’
What the hell was she even talking about? Apparently she realized she’d been a bit too cryptic because a moment later she sighed and added, ‘Guadalajara.’
‘The factory disaster?’
‘Mariana didn’t talk to you about that?’ She paused. ‘OK, obviously not. But she had to deal with the fallout of that. And it tore her up. Families devastated by losing loved ones, who were then screwed over further, bullied into silence, because Travers…’
‘Travers what?’ Finn prompted at her hesitation.
‘Yeah, Travers what?’ Mariana asked from the edge of the table, and Finn realized why Alyssia had trailed off.
‘Travers should learn to give you a night off every now and then,’ Alyssia said unconvincingly, but Mariana didn’t push her and retook her seat.
‘Everything OK?’ Finn asked.
‘Yeah,’ Mariana said. ‘Yeah. Of course. Why wouldn’t it be?’ Except she sounded far from OK.
Yet Finn said nothing more about it. Alyssia didn’t either. The look in her eyes, though, as she held Finn’s gaze… It told him so much.
She didn’t just dislike Victor Travers, she detested him. And the only reason for that was because of Mariana.
Which made Finn absolutely determined to find out more.