The Collectors

Chapter 24

Two days later Bagger was ahead by a total of $1.6 million since he’d run into Annabelle and Leo, never realizing, of course, that the money had come from the $3 million they’d accumulated from the two short cons. Tony had authorized transfer of these “interest” payments from their account into the one holding Bagger’s money. It was similar in concept to a Ponzi scheme, which almost always self-destructed. Annabelle did not intend to allow that result to happen this time.

Bagger’s happiness was palpable, particularly since he believed his dreaded antagonist, the government, was footing the bill. Sitting in her luxurious hotel room, upgraded to the presidential suite by Bagger himself after the latest payday, and awash in flowers sent by the casino king, Annabelle was scanning newspaper after newspaper for the kind of story she wanted, and finally found it. She and Leo could not speak frankly to each other anywhere in the casino. They had to assume that anything they said would be overheard either electronically or by one of Bagger’s spies. Their only form of real communication was subtle hand and eye signals that the two had developed over the years and would not be recognizable to anyone else.

Passing each other in the hallway, Annabelle said good morning and then gave Leo a signal by adjusting a ring on her right index finger. He said hello back and then touched his tie knot and wiped his nose, thereby acknowledging both the receipt of her message and the action he would take.

Before she stepped onto the elevator that would take her to Bagger’s office, Annabelle drew a deep breath. Contrary to what Leo had said, she did have nerves. This last step she was about to take was the whole ball game. If she didn’t pull this off perfectly, everything they’d done over the last several weeks would be for naught. She’d not only lose the money she’d paid Bagger, she wouldn’t live to enjoy her split of the remaining $1.4 million.

She arrived at his office and was quickly ushered in, the muscle having grown accustomed to seeing her around. Bagger greeted her with a hug that she allowed to drift down lower than it should have. His hand reached her bottom, gently squeezing before she removed it. Still, she’d let him go a little farther each time, which she knew was all he really required right now. Smiling, he stepped back and said, “What can I do for my magic money genie this morning?”

She frowned. “Bad news. I’ve been recalled to my field HQ, Jerry.”

“What? What the hell does that mean?”

“It means I’m being reassigned.”

“To where?” He looked at her face and said, “I know, you can’t tell me.”

She held up the section of the newspaper she’d brought with her. “This might give you a hint.”

He took the paper and glanced at the article she was pointing to. It detailed the breaking story of a government corruption scandal involving a foreign contractor in Russia.

Bagger looked up at her, stunned. “You go from casinos to dirty contractors in Moscow?”

She took the paper back. “Not just any foreign contractor.”

“You know them?”

“All I can say is it’s in the best interests of the United States that this case never gets to court. That’s where I come in.”

“How long will you be gone?”

“Hard to say. And after Russia it’ll be someplace else.” She rubbed at her temple. “You got some Advil?”

He opened a drawer of his desk and handed her a bottle. She swallowed three with a glass of water he poured for her.

He sat down. “You don’t look very good.”

She perched on the edge of his desk and said wearily, “Jerry, I’ve been to so many places in the last year I’ve lost count. If I used a real passport, I’d have gone through about twenty of them. It just gets to you sometimes. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

“Why don’t you get out, then?” he urged.

She laughed bitterly. “Get out? And what, screw my pension? I’ve put in too many years. Even civil servants have to eat.”

“Come and work for me, then. I’ll pay you more in one year than you’d make in twenty with those clowns.”

“Yeah, right.”

“I’m serious. I like you. You’re good.”

“You like the fact that I just made you over a million and a half bucks.”

“Okay, I won’t deny that. But I’ve got to know you. And I like what I see, Pam.”

“My name’s not even Pam. That’s how well you really know me.”

“That just adds to the fun. Think about it, willya?”

She hesitated and then said, “I have been thinking about my future lately. I’m not married; my life is my work and vice versa. And I’m not exactly a spring chicken anymore.”

He stood and put an arm around her shoulders. “Are you kidding me? You’re gorgeous. Any man would be lucky as hell to have you.”

She patted his arm. “You haven’t seen me in the morning before I’ve had my coffee and put on my face.”

“Oh, baby, just say the word and we’ll find out.” His hand fell to her lower back and stayed, gently rubbing. He reached over and hit a button on his desk console, and the automatic window blinds lowered.

“What’s that for?” she asked, her eyebrows hiked.

“I like my privacy.” His hand moved lower.

Her phone buzzed, right on cue. She looked down at the number. “Oh, hell.” She rose and moved away from him, staring at the screen.

“Who is it?” Bagger asked.

“My section chief. His number comes up all zeros.” She composed herself and answered the phone. “Yes, sir?”

She said nothing else for several minutes and then clicked off. “Son of a bitch, that asshole!” she yelled.

“What is it, baby?”

She paced in a tight circle and then stopped, obviously still seething. “My esteemed section chief has seen fit to change my field orders. Instead of a trip to Russia, I’m being reassigned to — get this — Portland, Oregon.”

“Oregon. They need spies in Oregon?”

“It’s the graveyard, Jerry. It’s where you get sent in my agency if people upstairs don’t like you.”

“How do you go from Russia to Oregon on the same morning?”

“The Russian gig came from my field supervisor. Oregon from my section chief, that’s the next level up. His assignment takes priority.”

“What’s your section chief got against you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I’m doing my job too well.” She started to say something else and then stopped.

Bagger quickly picked up on this. “Spill it. Come on, maybe I can help.”

She sighed. “Well, believe it or not, the man wants to sleep with me. Only he’s married, and I told him to back off.”

Bagger nodded his head. “The bastard! It’s always the same crap. The ladies don’t put out, they get pushed out.”

Annabelle was staring down at her hands. “This screws my career, Jerry. Portland! Damn it!” She hurled her phone against the wall, where it broke in half. Then she slumped in a chair. “Maybe I just should’ve slept with the guy.”

Bagger started rubbing her shoulders. “No way. Guys like that, you do it once they keep expecting it. Then they get tired of you, or get a new honey. Then zip, it’s Portland for your sweet ass anyway.”

“I just want to nail that little son of a bitch so bad.”

Bagger looked thoughtful. “Well, maybe that can be arranged.”

She looked up at him warily. “Jerry, you can’t put a hit on the guy, okay?”

“I’m not thinking about that, baby. You said he might be pissed because you’re doing your job too well. How’s that?”

“I bring in too much money, then all of a sudden people start looking at me to move up. I start moving up, then all of a sudden I’m a threat to his job. Believe it or not, Jerry, there aren’t a lot of women doing what I do. There are some who would love to see another female in a section chief slot. If I keep bringing in people like you and flood our overseas operations with ‘finessed’ cash, it hurts him and helps me.”

“Hell, only in the government sector do you get dinged for overproducing.” He thought for a moment. “Okay, I see how we can turn the tables on this bozo.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Our next run at El Banco.”

“Jerry, I’m being reassigned. My associate and I are on a plane tonight.”

“Okay, okay. But here’s the deal. Until you leave you can do one last run, right?”

Annabelle seemed to consider this. “Well, yeah, I mean, I have the authorizations. But even a million bucks in interest isn’t going to get me this guy’s corner office.”

“I’m not talking a measly million.” He looked at her. “What’s the largest single amount you’ve ‘finessed’?”

She thought for a moment. “Most of the wires are one to five million. But I did fifteen million in Vegas. And twenty mil from New York, but that was two years ago.”

“Chickenshit.”

“Chickenshit? Right!”

“Tell me, what would really hurt this guy?”

“Jerry, I don’t know. Thirty million.”

“Let’s make it forty million. And let’s make it four days instead of two.” He figured quickly in his head. “So that’s twenty percent interest instead of ten. And that comes to eight million to yours truly. A nice piece of finessing.”

“You’ve got forty million in cash?”

“Hey, who do you think you’re talking to? And we had two championship fights here in the last week. I’m flush with green.”

“But why are you doing this?”

“Eight mil in four days is nothing to sneeze at, even for a guy like me.” He gave her neck a rub. “Plus, like I said, you’re growing on me, lady.”

“But I’m still going to Oregon. I can’t disobey orders.”

“Okay, you go to Oregon. But then you think about getting out and coming back here. I’ll even give you ten percent of the eight and set you up nice.”

“I’m not looking to be your kept woman, Jerry. I’ve got a brain.”

“That you do, and I’ll put it to good use. Along with the rest of you.” He ran his hand down her back. “I’ll call down to the boys.”

“But like I said, I leave for Oregon tonight by private plane.”

“I understand that.”

“What I’m saying, Jerry, is there’s no way you’ll have your money back before I leave.”

He laughed. “Oh, the hostage thing? I think we’re past that, sweetie. You’ve made me one point six million and counting, so I think you’ve proved yourself.”

“Only if you’re sure. Forty mil is a lot of money.”

“Hey, the gig was my idea, not yours. I’ll handle it.”

She stood. “I’ve run a lot of these ops, Jerry, and to me it’s just a job.” She paused. “Everybody else they just wanted to know how much, how much. Greedy bastards all of them.” She paused again, seeming to search for the words, though she’d practiced them for a long time. “You’re the first one to ever do something for me. And I appreciate it. More than you’ll ever know.” This was probably the first true statement she’d uttered in Bagger’s presence.

They looked at each other, and then Annabelle slowly put her arms out and braced herself. He immediately crushed his body against hers. She almost gagged on his heavy cologne. His strong hands quickly found their way under her skirt, and she let them stay there, enduring his brutish groping in silence. She so wanted to slam a knee into his crotch. Hold on, Annabelle, you can do this. You have to do this.

“Oh, baby,” Bagger moaned into her ear. “Come on, let’s do it. One time before you hit the road. Right here on the couch. I’m dying here. Dying.”

“Trust me, I can feel it against my leg, Jerry,” she said as she managed finally to pry herself away from him. Annabelle adjusted her underwear and pulled her skirt back down. “Okay, stud, I can see I’m not going to be able to resist you much longer. Tell me, you ever been to Rome?”

He looked puzzled. “No. Why?”

“I rent a villa there every year when I go on my rare vacation time. I’ll call you with all the details. And two weeks from today I’ll meet you there.”

“Why two weeks, why not now?”

“That’ll give me time to report in to my new assignment, and maybe use the forty-mil run to leverage something better than Portland.”

“But my offer to come back stands. And I can be pretty damn persuasive.”

She ran a finger slowly over his mouth. “Show me how persuasive you are in Rome, baby.”

The $40-million wire left the Pompeii Casino two hours later. The e-mail that Tony had first sent to the Pompeii’s operations center had a special component to it: ultrasophisticated spyware that had allowed Tony, from a remote location, to take control of the Pompeii’s computer system. With that secret access he had written new code into their money-wiring program.

The three other wires had gone to El Banco, but when they’d sent the $40 million out, it had instead been automatically rerouted to another foreign bank and into an account controlled by Annabelle Conroy. While it would look to Bagger’s people that the money had reached El Banco — a phony electronic receipt would be automatically sent to the Pompeii — not a dime of it would ever come back to him. Annabelle’s scheme had been mainly for one purpose: to get the spyware on Bagger’s computer system. With that done, she was golden. And then she had played her part and let Bagger’s greed and lust bury the man, because the best way to con a mark was to let the mark suggest the con.

Four days from today to the minute, Bagger would grow a little nervous when his money didn’t show up. An hour later he would be getting a sick feeling in his gut. An hour after that he would become homicidal. And Annabelle and her crew would be long gone with over 41 million tax-free dollars to keep them company.

Annabelle Conroy could buy her boat and sail the rest of her life away, leaving the endless cons behind. Yet it was still not enough punishment, she thought as she left Bagger’s office to pack her suitcase. First, though, she was going to take a shower to get the man’s grime off her.

As Annabelle was bathing, she thought again that the money loss was clearly not enough pain for the man who’d murdered her mother over ten thousand bucks that Paddy Conroy had duped Bagger out of. There was never enough pain for that. Yet even Annabelle had to admit, $40 million was a nice start.