They sat in the car as Curtis pulled out the papers Pepe had given him at the hotel. Alyssia fiddled with her phone, Curtis presuming she was trying to figure out what to do with the pictures she’d taken. Perhaps Danny would be able to help with identifying the woman who’d come asking for Finn’s belongings.
He parked the thought as he delved into his brother’s notes.
‘Get a load of this,’ Curtis said, pointing to the scrawl on the first page.
‘What is it?’
‘Finn’s thoughts on the restructuring deal. To-do lists, comments on each bank. Or, more specifically, the bankers he was dealing with.’
‘Any mention of Travers on there? Senator Charlton?’
Curtis flicked through quickly. ‘Not that I can see, but there is this.’
He pulled the page out and put it on the center console.
‘Henning’s son is the way in,’ Alyssia said, reading out the circled words.
‘And this one,’ he said, placing the next page on top.
‘ABC Partners. Helda Venture Capital. The sticking blocks. Again. Still need answers. Finn needed answers?’
‘Sounds like it. Any idea what those two names are? Companies, I presume.’
‘I haven’t a clue.’
Curtis stopped and thought for a moment, his eyes lazily scrolling across the words on the pages, mostly consisting of broken sentences, meaningless except in the mind of the writer.
But then he stopped on something else. He reread the short sentences several times, each occasion seeing it all from a slightly different slant.
‘If it all goes wrong, expose cash trails. Final funds first. What the hell does that mean?’
‘Let me see,’ Alyssia said. Curtis handed her the page. She held it up, scrutinizing it ‘Expose cash trails?’
‘But if what goes wrong?’ Curtis asked. ‘The bank deal, or something else?’
She sighed and put the paper back down onto her lap. ‘I don’t know, but… there’s one person who definitely might.’
‘Gert Henning?’
‘Exactly.’
* * *
They didn’t head straight to the banker’s home. No point, as they expected he’d only return there after work, and they’d decided not to attempt to break in. Instead they remained in the city for a few hours, tying up any loose ends they could – or at least trying to – before they headed south.
Curtis had never been to the small Kentish town of Sevenoaks, a few miles south of Central London, just far enough removed to feel rural. He pulled the car over to the side of the road outside Henning’s home. A nice place on a leafy, tree-lined street. Not overly extravagant, but probably hellishly expensive given the proximity to the capital. Detached, redbrick, the house sat behind a perimeter wall, and two tall wrought-iron gates. But they weren’t security gates, Curtis didn’t think. No sign of an intercom or anything like that.
‘Do you think he’ll be home yet?’ Curtis asked, as Alyssia typed away on her phone, carrying on the research that they’d both delved into since leaving Souce Bank a few hours ago.
‘6 p.m.? Possibly not.’
‘Shall we go and find out?’
‘Just give me a—’ She put the phone to her ear. ‘Yes, Mrs Morton? I sent you a message earlier, about Finn Delaney, I… Yes… No, but… OK, but… Can you at least tell me who appointed… No, but…’ She looked over to Curtis and shook her head as though exasperated. She tried a couple more times to get a word in. ‘Is your client Victor Travers?’ she asked, voice direct, almost stern. Then she thumped the dashboard. ‘She hung up on me!’
‘Bad news?’
‘No news, really.’
‘Let me guess, she claimed some sort of privilege?’
‘Of course. Don’t lawyers always default to that?’ She gave him a scathing look although he said nothing in his defense.
‘So what do we know now?’ he asked.
‘That your brother was arrested at the hotel. That the police won’t tell us anything about what he was arrested for, or how he got out of jail. They won’t even tell us if the charges were dropped or are still pending.’
‘And Helen Morton, the lawyer?’ Danny had somehow managed to get them an ID for from the pictures Alyssia had taken.
‘She’s American, she works in London for a large multinational firm, which as far as I can find has no direct ties to Victor Travers or his businesses.’
‘But he could still be a client,’ Curtis said.
‘I still think he probably is. She told me nothing, but… she must work for Travers. Don’t you think?’
‘We could go and find her and ask her a little more… directly?’
‘No. Not yet,’ Alyssia said. ‘Let’s stick with Henning. We’re here, after all.’
‘Sure. So what’s the plan?’
‘You mean, like good cop, bad cop?’
He shrugged.
‘Which one would you be?’ she asked.
‘I’m not sure yet.’
‘Then let’s find out,’ she said, stepping out of the car.
‘We’re ready already?’ Curtis said, rushing to follow.
‘Why not?’
‘And if he’s not in?’
‘Let’s see first.’
Curtis’s hunch on the gates was right. Unlocked. They walked cautiously along the twisting drive. A double garage sat to the left of the house, a sleek Mercedes parked outside it.
‘Someone’s home,’ Alyssia said. She nodded to the house where lights were on beyond several of the windows.
‘Or he just doesn’t care about his electricity bill.’
They reached the front door and paused. Despite her eagerness moments before, Curtis sensed Alyssia’s nerves rising now, her manner more fidgety as she looked over her shoulder once more.
‘You OK?’ Curtis asked her.
‘I don’t know.’
Not the answer he’d expected. Something had spooked her.
But a moment later she reached forward and rang the bell regardless.
Curtis heard footsteps beyond and braced himself. The door opened. Gert Henning. He locked eyes with Curtis. A moment of recognition? There was a flash of emotion on the man’s face. Anger, fear.
‘Mr—’
Curtis didn’t get any further than that before Alyssia burst forward and swiped at one of Henning’s legs to unbalance him, before grabbing his arm and swiveling him around. She pushed his hand up into his shoulder blade and he squirmed and cried out in shock and pain.
‘Move, now,’ she said, pushing Henning forward.
Curtis pushed aside his own shock and jumped in behind them, slamming the door shut.
‘In here,’ Alyssia said, pushing Henning further forward into the lounge. A large, tasteful lounge – not that Curtis dwelled on the decor.
Alyssia let go of Henning’s arm and shoved him forward. He twisted around to face them as he fell and bounced on the leather sofa. German expletives – at least, Curtis assumed they were expletives – rolled off his tongue as his face twisted in anger and pain.
‘Do anything stupid and next time I break it,’ Alyssia said, her own face creased with anger too.
Good cop, bad cop? It looked like she’d made her choice.
‘We’re here to talk about my brother,’ Curtis said, his words sounding weakly placid in comparison to Alyssia. Henning set his beady eyes on him.
‘I know who you are,’ he said. ‘You have the same look about you.’
‘I guess that helps. Tell me what happened with Finn.’
Henning pursed his lips.
Alyssia made to move towards him and Henning squirmed a little in his seat.
‘Finn was here in London to negotiate a finance deal for Travers International,’ Curtis said. ‘With you.’
Still nothing, but Alyssia’s step forward caused Henning to cower back and finally open his mouth.
‘Negotiate? There was no negotiation, only demands. Your brother is scum. Like his boss.’
‘They blackmailed you,’ Alyssia said, referring to Finn’s note about Henning’s son. It hadn’t taken them long to find the news reports of the kid’s problems at university in the US.
‘They? There was no “they”. It was all your brother’s dirty work.’
‘Victor Travers—’
‘Is a piece of shit, and one day he’ll get what’s coming to him.’
‘Fair enough,’ Curtis said. ‘Just tell me about my brother.’
Henning shook his head in despair, as though he thought Curtis was a simpleton. ‘Tell you what?’
‘Why did he blackmail you?’
Henning paused, as though he was deliberating whether or not he should say anything more, whether doing so would implicate him in anything.
‘We’re not going to hurt you.’
‘Unless you make us,’ Alyssia said. Curtis put a hand up to halt her. She didn’t look impressed.
‘I just want to know what happened with my brother. Because I think he’s in a lot of trouble, and I think it has something to do with what happened here.’
‘Trouble? I didn’t cause any trouble for your brother! It was only the other way around.’
‘Finn was arrested in London,’ Alyssia said. ‘Did you know that?’
‘I did, but it was not because of me! And I have no idea why that happened.’
‘But you do know about it,’ Curtis said. ‘How?’
‘Because… why wouldn’t I? Your brother tricked me. I…’
‘Wanted revenge?’
‘Yes, but I didn’t have him arrested! Why would I have done that? I would only have—’
Henning stopped and slumped.
‘Only have what?’ Alyssia said.
‘Implicated yourself?’ Curtis asked. Henning didn’t respond. ‘Implicated in what?’
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘When was the last time you saw Finn?’ Alyssia asked.
‘The day I signed the papers for the transaction.’
‘You’re sure about that?’ Curtis asked.
‘Yes!’
‘You never saw Finn after he got out of jail?’
‘No!’
‘Finn forced you to sign the deal,’ Curtis said. ‘Why?’
‘Because I would never have signed otherwise.’
‘Why not?’ Alyssia said.
Henning looked over them both once more. No doubt another decision looming in his head as to whether he should talk.
‘Because it was obvious to me that the deal was a scam. Money for nothing. Men like Travers never risk their own money, only other people’s.’
‘I don’t—’
‘I believed the plan all along was to allow Travers to funnel significant funds to himself and his investors. Silent partners. Secret partners.’
‘And they are—’ Alyssia started, but Curtis answered for her.
‘ABC Partners. Helda Venture Capital.’
Henning renewed his glare Curtis’s way – a sufficient response to answer the question.
‘What about those companies?’ Alyssia asked. ‘Who’s behind them?’
‘And there’s the problem,’ Henning said. ‘I couldn’t find out a thing.’
‘You sure about that?’ Curtis said, and Alyssia edged forward again – she was pretty much on top of Henning now.
‘I’m sure!’ Henning shouted, holding his hands up in defense, but then he took on a steelier resolve as he glared at Alyssia. Was there any fight in him? ‘Beat me up if you want. I’ve got nothing else to give you. But I’ll say the same thing to you two as I said to your brother – you might think I’m soft, but…’
‘But what?’ Alyssia said, egging him on.
‘I know people.’
‘People?’ Curtis said. Where was this going? ‘Like, what? Mafia?’
‘Mafia, what the hell are you talking about! No, I know influential people. People in business. You only get to screw me over once. I’ll make sure Travers International never gets a penny out of any bank on this continent ever again!’
Alyssia cackled. ‘Please? Will you do that?’ she said, goading him.
Henning looked confused, but then anger took over as his cheeks reddened. For a second Curtis thought he was about to jump up to go for Alyssia, but then he thought better of it.
‘Expose cash trails,’ Curtis said, quoting from Finn’s notes. ‘Final funds first. Does that mean anything to you?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Are you the final fund? Souce Bank.’
‘You’ve lost me,’ Henning said. Then he shuffled in the seat, sitting up a little, eagerness taking over.
Curtis knew why. He heard a car outside.
‘If you’ve held back on us,’ Alyssia said, but the banker said nothing, the confidence in his demeanor continuing to rise.
‘Whoever that is,’ Curtis said to Henning. ‘You stay calm. Don’t do anything stupid.’
‘Come on,’ Alyssia said, moving toward the door. ‘We should go.’
They were halfway across the hall when the front door opened and a smartly dressed man took a step inside before he recoiled in shock.
‘What—’
‘It’s OK, Peter,’ Henning said, coming up behind Curtis and Alyssia, doing a good job of appearing calm and in control as he went up to the man – his partner? – and took his hand. ‘They just came over from the office.’
‘Oh, OK, so…’
‘Thanks for your help. We appreciate it,’ Curtis said, with a nod and a smile to the two men before he rushed out.
Alyssia followed and a moment later the door banged shut behind them. He didn’t look to her at all until they were nearly at the gates. When he did, he could tell she was trying not to smirk.
‘What?’ he said.
‘Nothing, just sometimes you’re a bit… klutzy. It’s cute.’
Cute? That wasn’t really his intention.
They reached the car and resumed their earlier positions.
‘Would you really have done it?’ Curtis asked.
‘What?’
‘Broken his arm. If he hadn’t talked to us?’
She didn’t answer.
He’d certainly never seen the fighting side of her like that before and he wondered if she was more capable – more trained – than she’d let on.
‘So he claimed he had nothing to do with Finn’s arrest,’ Curtis said.
‘He did. And the more I think about that, the more I think his arrest is probably a red herring.’
‘It is?’
‘Whatever he was arrested for, we know he got out, otherwise how’d he end up in D.C. last week? So the arrest here doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with the bigger picture.’
‘What do we know then?’ Curtis asked.
‘Finn was blackmailing Henning to sign that finance deal.’
‘Yeah. Which he needed to do because of Henning’s concern over who the money was going to.’
‘Henning suggested some of the funds would be funneled directly to Travers, that the whole thing was a fraud. Maybe other people benefitted too. Secret partners, as Henning put it.’
‘Senator Charlton?’ Curtis proposed, and kind of wished he’d asked that question to Henning moments earlier.
‘It would certainly fit with a lot of what we know.’
‘So Charlton and Travers are both fraudsters and Finn’s – what? Part of it? Working against them? Is that why he had those notes about if it all goes wrong?’
Both of them stopped talking. Curtis’s mind continued to churn over and over at speed.
‘You know one person who can answer virtually every question we have, right?’ Alyssia said.
‘Other than my brother?’
‘The big man himself.’
‘Victor.’
‘If only we knew where he is.’
Curtis didn’t say anything, he merely smiled and eventually he had Alyssia’s attention.
‘What?’ she said.
‘I think you’re about to be impressed by my skills again.’
‘I am?’
‘I have an idea.’
He dug out his phone.