Heroine from Turkey moves through the old Eastern bloc â Bulgaria, Rumania, across into the Czech Republic. From there it goes into Switzerland, Germany, France, England. The money the drug dealers make in the West buys Russian arms, which are then used by so-called freedom fighters wherever in the world thereâs a so-called freedom fight going on. One crazy-paving, interconnecting patchwork quilt, thatâs the kind of thing youâre dealing with nowadays.â
Moretti watched Ross walk back from the window, crouch down, and pat both dogs. He was wearing a navy Guernsey, putty-coloured slacks, and brown suede desert boots, his usual uniform, over a body a much younger man might envy.
âThing is, Ludo, our dead manâs arms deals appear perfectly legit. His right-hand woman was quite open about it.â
âSheâs not going to talk about any deal he might have made with a proscribed government, is she? Someone killed him, which suggests thereâs something shady going on. We still come back to what he was doing here. It doesnât make any sense, not on a money-laundering, arms-dealing level. Thereâs no doubt that Guernsey is part of a chain where dirty money is moved through London from Moscow, for example, but he could set up all kinds of shell companies to do that. Hell, he could be operating from a bank existing in cyberspace, run from a computer somewhere in the United States. Are you sure thereâs no personal reason for his murder?â
âPersonal? As in a woman?â
âWho is this right-hand woman you mentioned?â
âAdèle Letourneau, also from Montreal. She describes herself as his ex-lover, now his housekeeper. His bodyguard â yes, bodyguard â says she was in on all business meetings. And she told me Masterson âloved his babes.â She even suggested he might have been done in by some dangerous island femme fatale.â
Ross gave a short bark of a laugh. âDamn few of those, but more likely to be a babe than an international arms dealer, or a babe set up by an international arms dealer. Wonât be the first time they got to someone through his loins. A spy has no friends, which should include lovers.â
There was an edge to Ludo Rossâs voice, which suggested the awakening of personal memories. Moretti knew nothing about Ludoâs private life, he had never mentioned a wife, or a family, or friends, and Moretti, who tended to be silent on the social context of his own life, was not about to ask.
âHow does the housekeeperâs alibi stand up?â
âDepends on whether you believe the night clerk at the Esplanade Hotel was doing his job.â
Ross laughed, and this time it was the full, generous laugh that warmed his pale eyes. âEnough said. There is another possibility among many possibilities, and theft is still on the cards. Whoever your murderer is may not have been interested in traceable Euros, or put much faith in banks operating in cyberspace, but he may have preferred something else Masterson had in his safe, or on his person. Diamonds, for instance. They are portable, easily hidden, decidedly valuable, and a useful form of payment for less than squeaky clean deals. Have you found the gun? And what about the bullet?â
âA hollow-point, according to Nichol Watt.â
âNichol? He has experience in America, hasnât he? I think he told me he worked there for a number of years. Iâve always wondered why he left.â
âIn Nicholâs case, probably to do with a babe. Like our victim, Nichol likes his babes.â Both men laughed. âThe bulletâs gone to Chepstow for further tests, and Iâll send divers down tomorrow if no gun turns up on the yacht. But I think whoever did this took the gun with him â or her. Why leave it around?â
âYouâre probably right. This kind of character often carries a gun himself. Did
Kat Richardson
Celine Conway
K. J. Parker
Leigh Redhead
Mia Sheridan
D Jordan Redhawk
Kelley Armstrong
Jim Eldridge
Robin Owens
Keith Ablow