BACK AT THE POLICE STATION for a third time, Daniel felt more comfortable now that he knew he was no longer a suspect. However, he was surprised as he was led once again into an interview room. He leaned back in his chair, tilting his head back. Two rows of fluorescent light bars buzzed on the ceiling.
“Dr. Ritter, what offshore financial accounts do you have?” MacKinnon began.
Daniel felt his mouth open wide in surprise.
Touesnard continued, “We found an account linked to you.”
MacKinnon crossed his arms. “In the Cayman Islands.” They were tag-teaming, like Abbott and Costello. But with guns in their holsters.
“With your name on it.”
“And a recent deposit of ten thousand dollars.” Touesnard dropped a thin folder on the table.
“Can you help us understand what this all means?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Daniel opened the folder and saw a deposit receipt in his name. MacKinnon and Touesnard stood near the door, arms crossed. Daniel knew he would not be allowed to leave the room without a satisfactory answer.
“Tell us about your finances, professor.”
“There’s not much to tell.”
“Apparently there is,” Touesnard said.
“I’ve got a chequing account at Scotiabank. Probably have about two paycheques’ worth in it at any time.”
“How much?” MacKinnon consulted his notepad.
“About five thousand. Unless the rent has gone through. Then it’s fifteen hundred less.”
“Anything else? Anything offshore?”
“GICs and some mutual funds all locked in. My pension. About four million. The accounts are all in Hong Kong.”
MacKinnon nodded. “So your answer is yes, you do have offshore accounts.”
“That’s where my bank account was when I lived and worked in China.”
“Why there?”
“There were tax reasons, of course. But more importantly, there were political reasons.”
“Political reasons?” said MacKinnon.
“The Communist government’s policies changed unpredictably. It depended on which faction in the government was in power. One minute you were fine; the next, your money could be seized, or you could be arrested, facing a life sentence for moral corruption. It happened to two people I knew over there. The police just took them away, sending a clear message, in a very public way, to everybody. After that, it was company policy to use non-Chinese banks for business transactions and for their employees.”
“You had an exceedingly well-paying job there. Followed by no income at all for seven years.”
“I lived on my savings when I went back to school. I told you, it was China. Back then, there was so much money and very few controls on what you could do. It was the Wild West.”
“With so few rules, was that when you set up the account in the Cayman Islands?”
Daniel smiled. “Nice try. I don’t have an account there. Only in Hong Kong. You can check with the company.”
“We will.”
Touesnard smiled back. “So tell us again, how did you get the one in the Caymans?”
Won’t anyone believe me?