Ian Hamilton - The disciple of Las Vegas

“And they’ll stay quiet?”

“Yes, I think they will. Neither of them is stupid.”

The front door opened and Carlo and Andy emerged, each of them carrying his paper bag.

“You can open the trunk,” Ava said. “We should leave the same way we came in.”

They climbed back into the trunk in the same order. The smell of baby powder was gone, replaced by a faint odour of sweat.

They drove out of the complex without any complications, and two minutes later Martin pulled the car over to the side of the road. He popped the trunk, held out his hand to Ava, and pulled her out. She felt stiff, and the right side of her torso was throbbing. The boys climbed out after her.

“Wipe your prints off the cleaver and the gun and then toss them,” she said.

As she watched them walk out into the desert to get rid of the weapons, she muttered, “Ninety-five.”

“What?” Martin said.

“I’m ninety-five percent of the way to getting that money back.”

“That’s amazing.”

“No, unfortunately, it isn’t. Unless I can close, it doesn’t mean a thing,” Ava said. Half of her brain was making a list of all the things she had to do before she left Las Vegas; the other half was already in London.

Ava stripped as soon as she got to her hotel room. She could smell sweat, car trunk, and dog urine. She packed the clothes she had been wearing in a plastic laundry bag and tied it tight. Then she went into the bathroom and showered.

When she came out a half-hour later, she put on a clean black Giordano T-shirt and track pants, then packed the rest of her clothes for the trip. She buried the laundry bag in the bottom of her Louis Vuitton suitcase and put a powder-blue Brooks Brothers shirt and a clean pair of slacks in her “Double Happiness” bag. If she went directly from Gatwick to Lily Simmons’s office, she would need to change on the plane.

She sat down near the window with her Moleskine notebook in her lap and began to organize her thoughts. With the money she’d moved that day, her worst-case scenario was that they would recoup a bit more than six million dollars, and that factored in what she had promised to give back to Douglas and Ashton even if she failed with Simmons. It was lot of money — more than what they went after on many jobs. But compared to the sixty-five million that was sitting in Cyprus, it was insignificant. All she had to do to get that jackpot was convince Lily Simmons to sign a piece of paper.

Ava checked the time. It was almost five o’clock — eight o’clock in the morning in Hong Kong. She needed to call Uncle.

“ Wei.”

“We’re back and it went well.”

He listened without interruption as she described how the afternoon had gone. When she finished, his first question was, “How soon can you see this Simmons woman?”

“Late tomorrow. I’m flying to London tonight.”

“And the woman doesn’t know that Ashton and Douglas stole the money?”

“No.”

“Could that be a problem?”

“The opposite, I would think. It has a certain shock value that I can embellish. Although, you know, that doesn’t mean she’ll react the way we want.”

“If anyone can manage that, you can,” Uncle said. “Now I need to call Chang. It is as I thought. Now that Ordonez knows for sure his brother was swindled, he is becoming fanatical about getting the money back. Chang says he can barely get him to focus on anything else. This news might calm him, but I will tell him only about your success in Las Vegas. I will leave the rest of it as vaguely promising. We do not want to raise expectations that we cannot guarantee will be met.”

“Thank you.”

“Now, how about Carlo and Andy?”

“I’m sending them to Los Angeles tonight. They’ll be on a plane back to Hong Kong tomorrow.”

“Ava, do you want to keep them closer?”

“Jackie Leung?”

“Yes. He has not been cornered yet. We have found out that he was talking to Sammy Wing, and I have sent Sonny to see Sammy.”

“Wing is a friend.”

“Wing was a friend. He is in the process of becoming one again.”

“Uncle, I can’t take Carlo and Andy to England with me. I have enough on my mind as it is.”

“I am just being cautious.”

“I know, and I appreciate the offer, but they would just slow me down. Now, when will you call Manila?”

“Not for a while. Chang is as old as me but he still likes to sleep.”

“Good luck with him.”

“He is not the problem.”

“I know. Ordonez left a message on my phone last night. I didn’t call him back.”

“That is his nature: he feels compelled to manage everything. You would think that with an empire as big as his, he would have learned to let go. And this situation with his brother has probably only made things worse.”

“I’m not going to call him and I’m not going to take his calls.”

“I will handle it. Call me as soon as you have met that woman.”

Ava put down the phone. Let Uncle work his magic, she thought. I’ll look after London. Let him handle Hong Kong and Manila.

She turned on her computer and logged into her email account. She had received a new batch of messages, and almost without thinking she opened the most recent one from Mimi. Hey sister, Just wanted you to know that Derek’s moved out of your place and into mine for a while. God, girl, why did you keep him from me? He can’t stop playing with my tits, and I can’t stop playing with his cock. I thought you said Chinese guys had small dicks. Liar. Love, Mimi

Ava almost threw her computer against the wall. It took her five minutes to collect herself. I love them both, she thought. Maybe, just maybe, it will work. But why did Mimi have to share so freely about their sex life?

Dear Mimi, Ava wrote. I’m happy for you if it works out, but I’m nervous that it won’t. Either way, I don’t want to read or hear any more about your tits or his cock. Love, Ava.

She closed the computer and opened her Moleskine notebook. Across the top of a blank page she wrote Lily Simmons and started piecing together a strategy for dealing with her. All she had to do, she reminded herself, was get the woman to sign a single piece of paper. The fact that it was worth $65 million was only a detail.

Carlo and Andy were in the lobby when Ava came down with her bags at six thirty. Through the glass front door she saw Martin sitting outside in the Lincoln. “Let’s go,” she said to the boys. “I spoke with Uncle and he knows you’re heading back.”

They grinned, and she knew they’d had more than one beer in the hotel bar.

Martin opened the trunk of the car and helped Ava with her bags. “Thanks for doing this,” Ava said.

“No problem.”

The boys got into the back seat and Ava sat in the front beside Martin.

“I spoke to Chief Francis,” Martin said as they headed south on Tropicana. “He called to find out how things went. I gave him a general description.”

“Did you mention the gun, the shooting?”

“No, I thought it was best to leave that bit out.”

“I think that’s wise. There’s no sense in alarming him.”

“The fact that you have to go to London alarmed him enough.”

“Why?”

“I think he was hoping that Las Vegas would be the end of this affair. The longer it goes on, the more concerned he is that it will go public.”

“Douglas and Ashton won’t say anything.”

“He’s more worried about your side.”

“Martin, I gave him and you my word. I won’t go back on it.”

“How about the people you’re working for?”

“I speak for them,” she said, but his question touched a sore spot. Just how much control did she have over Tommy Ordonez? Only as much influence as Uncle and Chang can exert, she thought. The only way to make sure that never happened was to get the money — all of the money.