Nele Neuhaus - Swimming with Sharks

“What about the arrest warrant?” Nick asked. He had hoped that they would repeal the warrant immediately.

“I’m not convinced of her innocence yet,” Jenkins replied curtly. “The arrest warrant won’t be repealed until we know for certain that she wasn’t involved in this man’s murder. If she should contact you, Mr. Kostidis, tell her that her presence is extremely important, and that we’ll take care of her protection.”

“She won’t return as long as she’s wanted for murder,” Nick replied.

“She’d better come back,” Jenkins said, looking at Nick coolly, “because I want to talk to her.”

Nick shrugged his shoulders. Then he threw a quick glance at his watch and stood up.

“If you’ll excuse me now,” he said, “I still have a few official events to attend.”

While Nick drove to Rockefeller Center, trying to hide his anxiety, Lloyd Connors headed to Greenwich, Connecticut, with the two US marshals, Spooner and Khazaeli. The three men walked through the accumulating snow toward the large, white house. The house, with its wraparound porch, was surrounded by magnificent old trees and had an extensive lawn. Connors briefly wondered why no one else had become suspicious long ago. There was no way that de Lancie could afford a house like this on his salary. John de Lancie opened the front door himself, and he turned pale when he saw Connors accompanied by two men.

“Hello, John,” Connors said in a calm voice, “these are Deputies Spooner and Khazaeli from the US Marshals Service. I apologize for disturbing you on a Sunday afternoon, but we’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“What is this about?” de Lancie asked curtly. “You’re coming here at a rather inopportune time. Can’t we discuss this tomorrow morning at my office?”

“I’m afraid not,” Deputy Spooner said, “unless you want everyone to hear about it.”

“Hear about what?”

Spooner and Connors exchanged a glance.

“May we come in, John?” Connors asked politely.

“First, I’d like to know what this is all about.”

“As you wish.” Spooner shrugged his shoulders. “We have a reasonable suspicion that you’ve accepted bribes on multiple occasions.”

All of the color disappeared from the US attorney’s face. De Lancie stood there as if paralyzed, silently staring at the three men.

“May we come in?” Connors repeated.

“Yes…yes, of course,” de Lancie whispered and took a step back. “Let’s go to my study.”

John de Lancie only tried to deny the allegations for a few minutes. When Connors presented him with a copy of the bank statement from Levy & Villiers, he collapsed. With tears in his eyes, he admitted that he’d accepted bribes from Sergio Vitali. As quid pro quo, he had agreed to do Vitali a favor every now and then.

Lloyd Connors felt a dizzying sensation of triumph. Until this moment he’d feared that the mere existence of the bank statements wouldn’t be enough to prove that Vitali was handing out bribes, but de Lancie’s confession established the connection. Now everything was clear. The testimony of just a single person in court would cause a lot of trouble for Vitali, and there were plenty of others on the list who had been bought too. It was simply incredible. This seemed to be the first time that the US Attorney’s Office really had an airtight case against Sergio Vitali. Connors thought about the mountains of evidence against this man and all of the witnesses who’d suddenly disappeared or lost their memory. He also remembered, with a quiet sense of guilt, that many people at the US Attorney’s Office—himself included—had sneered at Nick Kostidis’s futile efforts to prove Vitali’s crimes. But Nick had been right all along.

De Lancie confessed to everything in a whimpering voice. It almost seemed as if he were relieved to have freed himself from this burden that had weighed on him for so many months.

“What’s going to happen now?” he asked, trembling.

“That depends on you, John,” Connors said, shaking his head. “It’s your choice. If you resign from office and serve as a witness, then we could possibly refrain from charging you with corruption. Otherwise—”

“No, no,” de Lancie interrupted him quickly. “I’ll do it. I’ve made a mistake, a huge mistake. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into, but I don’t want my family to suffer from this.”

“Your name will be in the headlines,” Connors said. “You’ll have to live with it. However, you won’t be charged and sentenced. If you cooperate with us, then we might be able to prevent you from being disbarred.”

De Lancie’s face was as white as a sheet. Was he thinking that his ambitious plans for the future had been destroyed in a single blow? Connors knew that the job as US attorney for the Southern District was just a stepping-stone for big politics, but this dream seemed to be over now.

Connors opened his briefcase.

“Here’s a statement I’ve prepared for you. Read through it and sign if you agree with its content.”

De Lancie swallowed as he read the document.

“If I sign this, then I’m done,” he whispered. His hands were shaking.

“I can arrest you, John,” Connors said, “if you prefer. You have the right to remain silent. With a clever lawyer you might be able to squirm your way free from this mess, but it’ll take a long time and all the dirt will stick to you longer. You know what’s going to happen. Apart from the criminal proceedings, the IRS will knock on your door. And I’m pretty sure that it won’t be easy to explain to the IRS where you got the money to pay for this mansion and your children’s expensive schools.”

De Lancie broke into tears and covered his face with his hands. Without sympathy, the three men watched the US attorney sob like a little child.

“Will you sign it?”

“Yes… yes…” He slowly stood up and walked to his desk with wobbling steps. Without looking up, he signed the paper, admitting his guilt.

Connors waited for the ink to dry.

“You’ll call in sick tomorrow. Please don’t leave your house until further notice.”

“I’m under house arrest?”

“Yes,” Connors said as he stood up. “If Vitali contacts you, I advise you not to tell him anything about our conversation. We’re not after you, John, but a much bigger fish. We’ve tapped your telephone so that you won’t be tempted to stab us in the back.”

“I won’t do that,” de Lancie said, as he sat back down.

“I hope not. I don’t need to tell you what the consequences would be.”

De Lancie silently stared after the three men as tears ran down his cheeks. When his wife entered the study with a frightened expression, he made no effort to hide them.

John de Lancie was just the first on a long list of men who were paid unexpected visits on this Sunday afternoon. Tracy Taylor and Royce Shepard traveled all over the state of New York accompanied by US marshals, just like their boss. As Nick Kostidis had anticipated, all of the accused turned out to be cooperative. Sergio Vitali’s empire had started to shake, but he didn’t notice the tremors that were headed for him.

Alex woke up after ten hours of sleep feeling better rested than she had in days. She called Justin, and he confirmed that he had managed to block the secret files at Levy & Villiers. No one could delete them now, unless they were willing to destroy the entire computer system. Alex hung up and treated herself to some champagne with her room service breakfast. Her successful escape and the excitement of the last few days had put her into a state of manic euphoria, and she felt so safe that she would have loved to call Sergio to mock him. Instead, she called Nick Kostidis at home. It was the middle of the night in New York, but it was only a few seconds before he picked up.