Black Maps

Chapter Eleven

“ ‘Satan is my banker.’ It has a certain ring to it, don’t you think? Get you noticed at a party,” Mike said.

“Depends on the party,” I said.

I was sitting in Mike’s office at ten-thirty a.m. on the day before Thanksgiving, slouched in one of his sleek leather chairs, with my feet up on his sleek glass desk, drinking espresso from one of his demitasse cups. I’d just taken him through my meeting the night before with Burrows. Mike was cleaning off his desk, sifting through papers, tossing some, stacking the rest, and periodically calling his secretary, Fran, to carry off the stacks. She muttered darkly as she took them away. Like offices all over the city, Paley, Clay’s were quiet and thinly staffed today, and a relaxed, preholiday mood prevailed. Even Mike had bowed to the informality of the day, wearing not a suit, but natty olive slacks and a tweed jacket. I was more casual still, in jeans and a gray turtleneck.

“But that’s what Burrows was saying. That Nassouli was some sort of Mephistophelean mastermind sadist…,” Mike said.

“A record-keeping Mephistophelean mastermind sadist,” I reminded him.

“… a record-keeping Mephistophelean mastermind sadist,” Mike continued, “who corrupted unsuspecting innocents in the worlds of finance and fashion…”

“I don’t know how many actual innocents there were, at least among the financial types,” I interrupted again.

“We can debate the fine points later. According to Burrows, the guy was the devil. And you found him credible?” I nodded yes.

“Why?” Mike asked. I thought about that. I was getting good at it by now, having spent much of last night mulling over what I’d seen and heard.

“It’s a few things. First, I can’t see what lying to me buys him. If he had something to hide, about his own participation in Nassouli’s games, even-worst case-about involvement in squeezing Pierro, the simplest thing for him to do would be to brush me off. Just refuse to talk to me or, better still, talk to me but give me nothing. Bore me to death. But he didn’t do that. Instead, he talked to me about bad acts that occurred fifteen, twenty years ago, and he implicated himself in those acts-at least to the extent that he was one of Nassouli’s confidants. Unless he’s a serious crazy, looking for attention, I don’t see what he gets out of that.

“Second, he wanted to talk, he needed to. He gives off that vibe, like he’s carrying some sort of heavy load. I don’t know what it is-if it’s about what he did while he was with Nassouli, or what happened with his wife, or something else-but whatever, he’s working off a big karmic debt. Talking to me was part of that somehow.

“And there’s that picture. The face I saw in Helene’s photograph at MWB-that’s the Gerard Nassouli that Burrows was describing.”

Mike chewed on that for a while. “Any thoughts about the Pierros, in light of all of this?” he asked finally.

“No good ones,” I answered. “Burrows said it was theoretically possible for someone to have done legitimate business with Nassouli, so I guess Pierro could be as clean as he claims to be. But my faith is being tested, Mike.” He chuckled a little.

“As I’ve said, clients lie. Still, he is our client,” Mike said.

“Yes, he is,” I said. “And I need to talk to him again-to see if those names Burrows gave me ring any bells. I’d also like to know what he thinks about Burrows’s portrait of his pal Gerry. And I’ve got to have that talk with Helene, too. What Burrows said about Nassouli and his string of girlfriends makes me wonder all the more about her.” Mike nodded and added more papers to a growing stack.

“So now what?” he asked.

“Now I look for Trautmann, and for the four guys Burrows named. Shake the trees, see what falls out,” I said.

“Trautmann sounds promising,” Mike said. “Burrows said he was privy to Nassouli’s doings, especially the seamy stuff. And it doesn’t sound like blackmail would be an alien concept to him.” I nodded.

“Of course,” he continued, “the most promising person in all this might be Nassouli himself. Being on the run can get pretty expensive. And no one would know better how to use those files.”

“He’s hard to ignore,” I said. “But it would be awfully risky, running a blackmail business while you’re hiding out from the feds. And there’s a local aspect to this thing that doesn’t quite fit with that scenario. Pierro’s fax was sent from Ninety-eighth Street, not Brazil. Somehow, I don’t think of Gerard Nassouli as hiding out in the Bronx for the last three years.”

“Maybe he has local help,” Mike said. I shrugged.

“A partner can be a dangerous thing for a guy on the run,” I said. “Anyway, the feds haven’t found him in three years of looking. How much better am I going to do in four weeks?”

“That’s a different issue. How about Trautmann as his local partner?” Mike asked, and dumped a pile of journals in the trash.

“Maybe. Could be Nassouli, Trautmann, Alger Hiss, and Gordon Liddy, all in it together,” I observed.

“You know, I always thought that Tim Russert was a shifty-looking bastard too. Let’s not forget about him,” Mike said, smiling. He turned his attention to another pile of paper.

“What about Brill and Parsons-have you given up on the idea that this could be an inside job?” he asked. I shook my head.

“No, but without help from Neary, I can’t go anyplace with it. And Neary’s got no reason to do more than he already has, not unless I can convince him that something’s going on in his shop. So far, I’ve got nothing to convince him with.”

“You talk to him about Burrows?” he asked.

“Not yet. I called him this morning and offered to buy him lunch. Asked him for anything he had on Trautmann, too.” I downed the last of my coffee and stood. Mike looked up from a pile of junk mail.

“Let me know how it goes,” he said. “And, happy turkey.”

It was a crisp day, in the middle forties. A few chunky white clouds slid across the dark blue sky and threw small, fast-moving shadows on the buildings and the quiet streets. I caught a cab in front of Lever House and headed downtown.

Another Green World is a high-end Chinese vegetarian place. It’s all pale blues and greens and frosted glass and brushed steel-the trendiest thing on Mott Street. Downtown was even quieter than midtown had been, and Neary was one of only a handful of patrons.

“This is right up your alley,” he said, and handed me a menu. “It’s got about ten thousand kinds of tofu.” We looked over the choices and agreed on dishes to share-noodles, dumplings, spring rolls, various veggies, and lots of tofu. After the waitress had come and gone, I took Neary through the highlights of my meeting the night before, omitting Burrows’s name.

He listened in silence, and when I was finished he ran a hand through his short, wavy hair and was silent some more. Finally he spoke. “Nassouli was seriously bad. Okay. I’ve heard that before. He’s a wanted man, after all. We knew about his conference room being wired for sound-almost all of them were at MWB. And we knew about the apartment playpen, too, though we hadn’t come across any tapes.”

“He was seriously bad, and he kept detailed records, ” I emphasized.

“Yeah, okay, he kept records. And from what your source had to say, it sounds like he’d have every reason to destroy those records before he split, either that or take them along,” Neary said.

“And if he didn’t do either?”

“Then that would be bad. And if I won the lottery, that would be good. But they’re both big fucking ‘ifs,’ and right now I have no reason to believe in either one.” Neary drank some tea and continued. “If I were you, I’d be looking to establish a pattern among Nassouli’s other victims, and I’d be all over Trautmann.”

“Gee, thanks for the pointers, Mr. Neary,” I said testily.

“Hey-remember who’s asking for the favors around here, and who’s doing them, and don’t get your drawers in a knot. I’m just saying, maybe you’ve got hold of something, maybe not. But even if you do, I haven’t seen anything yet that connects it to my people. Show me that, and you’ll have my undivided attention, believe me.” Neary gestured toward the platters that had come. “Don’t let this get cold.” I started with noodles, Neary with spring rolls.

“I got some stuff on Trautmann for you,” he said, after he’d had a couple rolls. “It came out of the file my predecessor put together when Brill took over security on MWB. There may be more, but it’ll have to wait till Monday.” He took a thick yellow envelope from his jacket pocket and handed it to me.

“This guy sounds like a real piece of work. He used to be on the job. Worked plainclothes, narcotics and vice, up in the Bronx, and he was a real comer for a couple of years. Lots of arrests, a bunch of commendations, everybody expected great things. But then he flamed out. A pimp and two of his girls got themselves beat nearly to death, and there was a big excessive-force complaint against Trautmann. And on the heels of it, a bunch of questions about some of his earlier cases. Allegations of coercion, evidence tampering, talk about protection payments. Ultimately, no charges were pressed-no one willing to testify, apparently-and Trautmann ended up resigning. That was twenty-five years ago.

“A couple of months after he leaves the force, he gets himself a PI license, starts working security at some clubs in Manhattan, basically a well-heeled bouncer. Then he opens a rent-a-cop outfit, Trident Security Consulting, doing more of the same-clubs, crowd control, that kind of stuff. After a while he moves up-market, starts specializing in security services for banks-specifically small branches of foreign banks. He got himself a handful of banks for clients, including MWB. As MWB New York grew, so did Trautmann’s business with them. Eventually, he gave up the rest of his clients and worked exclusively for them.”

“What’s he been up to since they folded?” I asked.

“Trident Security is still around, but very small time. Back to the uniformed rent-a-cop business-a couple of fat old drunks, a couple of skinny kids-working mall security out in Queens and on the Island,” Neary said.

“Feds didn’t like him for anything in connection with MWB?”

“They took a long look, but ultimately, no. His story was that he was just a contractor, had nothing to do with the business, and I guess he sold them on it.” Neary crunched some broccoli. “The guy must be fiftysomething by now, but he’s a serious hard case. Since he left the force, he’s had ten complaints filed against him-assault, harassment, one rape, one attempted murder. The last one just four years ago. But the complainants always seem to change their minds or lose their memories, so nothing sticks.” Neary paused to eat some fried tofu. “You look out for this guy.”

I nodded. “You’re not the first person to tell me that,” I said. We ate in silence for a while, and I thought about Trautmann. “So.. an ex-cop, around fifty years old, hard case-where have I heard a description like that before?” I asked innocently. “Oh, yeah, it was from Faith Herman, my fax-sending bag lady, whose testimony you dismissed with such contempt.” Neary was wrestling a knot of cold noodles with his chopsticks, but he flipped me the bird with his free hand. He finished his noodles and closed in on the dumplings.

“What’s up with the feds and Nassouli?” I asked. Neary shrugged and dipped a dumpling in soy sauce.

“You asked me that two days ago. Like I said, he used to be an obsession with them. Then five, six months ago it stops.”

“Any theories?”

“There aren’t too many possibilities. One: they’ve stopped looking ’cause they found him or they’re damn sure they know where to find him. Two: they’ve stopped looking ’cause they’ve run out of places to look. Three: they haven’t stopped looking, but they want to give the impression that they have. Don’t ask me why they would do that.”

I thought about that a little. “I agree. Three doesn’t make sense to me, and I’m not sure two does either. If they really felt they’d crapped out on the search, I don’t see them advertising it.” Neary nodded agreement. “One is my favorite, then. I can see them being quiet if they’d found him but couldn’t get at him.” Neary nodded again. “But do you see them keeping quiet if they’d got him? That doesn’t fit.” Neary had another dumpling.

“Could be they’re trying to work a deal,” he said between chews. “Be pretty good for Shelly to have a guy like that as a cooperating witness, don’t you think? And if they’re still making the deal, or if they made it and have him on ice somewhere, I could see them being pretty fucking quiet about it.”

“Anybody over there willing to whisper in your ear?”

Neary frowned. “Jesus, March. How much mileage do you think you get out of some free meals, anyway?”

“It’s not like I’m asking for the keys to the Hoover Building or anything,” I said. Neary’s frown deepened, and he shook his head.

“Has it ever occurred to you that I actually need this job? This is not some little favor, you know? They take this shit pretty seriously.” He pushed a big hand through his hair and was quiet for a while. “I can ask one or two questions-very carefully. And if I get any push back at all- that’s it,” he said finally.

“Thanks, Tom, I appreciate it,” I said. Neary grunted and took the last two dumplings.

We walked over to Broadway and said our good-byes. Neary went south, and I headed north, toward home. I walked the whole way, stopping only at a toy store in Union Square to pick up some things for my nephews.

My building was still and empty-feeling. No neighbors to be seen or heard, all gone for the holiday, no doubt. I fired up my laptop and went online, to three of my preferred search services. I submitted to each of them the four names Burrows had given me-Kenneth Whelan, Michael Lenzi, Nicholas Welch, and Steven Bregman-and limited my initial searches to New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. I logged off; the services would send me their results via e-mail.

I changed into running tights and a sweatshirt and went out. Being still full of tofu, and not wanting to puke all over my shoes, I set an easy pace-nine-minute miles-and wound my way through Washington Square, the Village, and SoHo for forty minutes. Afterward, I showered and changed and opened a can of tuna. Then I put on WFUV and read from a book of Carver stories until I fell asleep.