Read Online Green-Eyed Monster by Gill McKnight - Free Book Online Page B

to give you a second chance. I mean, out of the two of us you’re the Little Buddha, Mickey. What do you think? What’s it to be, cops or robbers?”
    The dry swallow working along Mickey’s throat told her she’d hit a nerve. But she also knew Mickey would be calculating the odds of squeezing more out of her.
    “I’m not a Buddhist. Meditating to pan pipes doesn’t make you a Buddhist.” Mickey tried to deflect. Victoria’s eyes hardened to flint at the delaying strategy. There was no time to spare.
    “In or out? If you can’t cope, get off the boat, Mickey.” The little dig broke the impasse. It earned Victoria a hot glare and a sullen pout that made the dimple pop. Victoria felt a strange corresponding pop in her heart. She’s doing it again. She’s doing that crack candy thing again. She is such a manipulator and she isn’t even aware of it.
    “In.” Mickey had no other option. It was a fair but totally ruthless offer, considering her alternative was to lie tied to a bed waiting for cowbells to eventually change to police sirens.
    ❖

    A few hours later Mickey had finally pinpointed Ginette’s e-signature. It traced across several dubious offshore companies Victoria had highlighted as her own creations, to a bank in Monaco. This particular financial house dealt primarily in currency exchange in a country with extremely high financial caps and soft tax legislation. It was an ideal resting place after the complex network of layering accounts Ginette had been moving the stolen money through.
    “My God,” Victoria said as she leaned over Mickey’s shoulder and glared at the myriad of pages she was pulling up to mark the transfers. “I’d never have believed she had it in her. I knew she was cooking the books, but I never suspected she could manage finance at this level. Boy, was I ever wrong.”
    “She can’t be that dumb. She works for you.” Mickey’s comment was heavily loaded. She removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes. Victoria shot her a sharp glance.
    “How did you know that?”
    “I worked for you, too, remember? It was open gossip your lesbian lover was an employee.”
    “She had a good job in a trusted position, but as we were breaking up she started lining her nest.” Victoria grudgingly revealed a personal problem. “Just a few grand here and there out of our private accounts. Nothing corporate.” She shrugged awkwardly. “I suppose she was anxious at not managing without me, and by ‘me’ I mean my money. Ginette always did love the good life. But I never expected this. God, such opportunism. You gotta admire it.”
    “Well, admire away. There’s your money either sitting in or well on its way to Monte Carlo.” Mickey casually waved a hand at the screen. “Her entry point was easy since you’d already set up bogus shell companies in several tax havens. You had so many laundering networks it was simple for her to move large amounts of new money through. When it reached the outer edge, it simply dropped off into her own newly created accounts. It’s like a game, sort of like Shove Penny at the fairground. Lucky for you, her accounts are all with the same bank. She’s basically slowly smurfing all your dollars through your own illegal company accounts, scooping up more and more of your assets on the way.”
    “Smurfing?”
    “Transferring it in small parcels, say several hundred thou at a time, so as not to tip off her host country’s financial authorities that something stinks. She’s opened several false accounts I can identify, but all the funds aren’t there yet. There are still large amounts to be siphoned off from most of your major offshore facilities, but basically, she’s sliding through your own laundering services like an oily snake.”
    Victoria scanned the details Mickey pulled up on the screen.
    “Yes, you’re right. I recognize these. They’re my…bonus accounts sitting in my…mmm, hobby companies.” Mickey snorted. “Hobbies.”
    “Hey. Luxury