Chapter 63

 

 

Early Thursday morning Mickey gets a call from Richard Morris. He’s got more good news. “Lieutenant, the Swiss National Bank, the central bank of Switzerland, just called and informed me that Credit Suisse has located the accounts you are looking to freeze. The accounts are held in their main office in Zurich. It was rather simple for them to locate them as the account holders made no attempt to hide their true identities. Even though they have numbered accounts the documentation required to open one is quite revealing. At our request, an indefinite freeze has been issued and the account holders will have no access to the any of the funds held in the accounts. By the way, the balances in these accounts are in the tens of millions of dollars.”

 

“You’ve made my day, Mr. Morris. They must have access to some funds here in the States, but I’ve been unable to zero in on them through inquiries I’ve made of the major banks in the city. They must have at least a business account for the Paragon, their jewelry store business here in Manhattan, somewhere close by the store, but I haven’t been able to even find that. I don’t think they keep more than operating capital in such an account, but I could be wrong. They might have personal accounts as well, but again I think the balances in those accounts would be anemic compared to those kept in the Swiss accounts.”

 

“Well, not all financial institutions are members of the Federal Reserve System and if these people have accounts at one of these institutions it’s going to be difficult to bring them to light.”

 

“Well, thanks for your help, Mr. Morris. Even without the knowledge of the whereabouts of their money in the U. S., we’ve just made it extremely difficult for them to continue to avoid capture on a long term basis by running off to different places to hide. It takes a lot of money to do that and a major part of their financial resources has just dried up.”

 

“You’re welcome, Lieutenant. Good luck with your manhunt.”

 

Mickey immediately calls Chuck and tells him the news and concludes with, “I’m thinking of asking the media to include this latest development in their stories. It might take all of the fight our of them and be the shove they need to turn themselves in. What do you think?”

 

“I think that would be a very dangerous gamble to take, Mickey. These people are killers. Killing seems to be the preferred method to employ to avoid capture. I don’t think surrendering would even enter their minds. You’ve already got them pissed with your birddogging and determination to put them in jail. They’ve already tried to kill you because of that. This manhunt has got to be pissing them off even more. If you dump more frustration on them, I’m afraid they’ll be so pissed they’ll do just about anything to make you pay for their torment, including killing innocent people wherever they find them.”

 

“Damn, I never thought of that possibility. Okay, I’ll let them find out about the freeze on their Swiss accounts on their own. Hopefully, they’ll want to avoid any interaction with the Swiss to find out why for fear of exposing themselves to arrest from that quarter and they’ll be forced to speculate as to the reason why and maybe that will delay any killing spree reaction long enough for us to take them out of circulation.”

 

“I think that’s the best way to go. Let’s wait and see what the manhunt blitz produces. I think it will be enough to get them cornered and out of everyone’s hair for good. They’ve got to be feeling the pressure of discovery and are probably running for the hills somewhere right now as we speak, but they’re not going to find any holes to hide in. They’re going to have to become creative on the run and that’s when they’ll make their big mistake because they won’t have the time to weigh the pros and cons.”

 

“Okay, Chuck, you’re making a lot of sense. I’ll scrap the idea, at least for now.”