Michael Walters - The Shadow Walker

It was only when he finally entered the HQ building that Nergui realized how cold he was. Through the glass he could see Doripalam sitting in the rest room with Cholon, a large pile of official files behind them. Cholon had finally fallen asleep, curled awkwardly in one of the large armchairs.

Doripalam jumped up as he entered, one of the files in his hand.

Nergui smiled faintly. “I need some coffee before I can take anything in. I’m freezing.”

He filled the electric kettle that sat among the debris of used coffee mugs on the table at the end of the room and then turned back to Doripalam. “What is it?”

“A few things,” Doripalam said. “I was wondering about Delgerbayar and where he fitted into this.”

It was a good question. Cholon’s description had suggested that, at the very least, Delgerbayar had been involved in some business on the side. It was, of course, one of the first questions they had asked in the light of his brutal murder, but there had been no indication of any wrongdoing on Delgerbayar’s part.

“A thorough search was carried out of all Delgerbayar’s files and materials after his death,” Nergui said.

“I know that. It was all scrupulously clean. Maybe suspiciously so, knowing what we know now. But I had a look through the file again this morning, and something struck me. We’d asked for a copy of Doripalam’s recent bank statements to see if there was any evidence of unexplained payments.”

Nergui nodded. “As I understand it, there was no indication that he was on the take. The incomings and outgoings were pretty much what you’d expect for a man in his position.”

“They were. But I had a closer look at the statements. Most of the payments were what you’d expect, but there were a number of small transfers of cash in from another account. Always just small amounts as if he needed to tide himself over to his next salary or whatever.”

“Maybe he had another account,” Nergui said. “A savings account or something.”

“Well, yes, that’s what I assumed. But I thought I’d better check.”

Take nothing for granted. One of the first rules of investigation, Nergui thought, and precisely the one they’d been guilty of neglecting all the way through this case. “Not an ideal time of the day for checking bank details,” he said.

Doripalam smiled. “No. So I called the manager at home.”

“Bet he was pleased. What time was this?”

“About six. He was up already, at least. But he knew it was a murder inquiry and, well, I mentioned your name so he was happy to help.”

Nergui nodded. “There goes my chance of an overdraft. And he gave you the information without asking for authorization in triplicate?”

“He did once I’d mentioned your name. It turned out there is another account. It was opened by Delgerbayar’s father. The thing is, Delgerbayar’s father died five years ago, though the bank weren’t aware of that.”

“And what was in this account?”

“I didn’t push the manager to give me the exact amount, because he was beginning to feel a bit awkward about talking to me. But clearly a lot. The manager was told some story about the father being in some sort of export business. So most of the payments were in dollars. In cash, apparently.”

“And the bank never thought to question this?” Nergui said. It didn’t surprise him. The country had increasingly stringent regulations in place, having subscribed to international standards on money laundering. But they were frequently flouted. Nergui guessed that in this case a small proportion of the cash had also found its way into the manager’s pocket. Maybe that was one small fry to deal with later, if they ever managed to deal with the big fish in this case.

“I think by the time he realized what we were talking about, he wished he hadn’t been so helpful,” Doripalam said.

“So Delgerbayar was on the take, and in a fairly big way. And it obviously made him at least one serious enemy. We need to get someone over to the bank before the manager starts destroying any evidence.”

“I already thought of that,” Doripalam said. “I didn’t know who we could spare from the search for Badzar. I’d have gone myself but I wanted to stay to update you. In the end, Batzorig volunteered. He’s gone over to the bank and told the manager to meet him there. Batzorig’s going to go through all the papers with him and bring back anything he can find that looks remotely relevant.”

“Sounds sensible,” Nergui said, “though it may well be a waste of time. If the manager’s smart, he’ll have kept any written evidence of this to a minimum. And it was a clever move of Delgerbayar to use his father’s account-that way the setting up of the account would have predated the introduction of the money laundering checks. It’s quite possible that the manager can be faulted only in that he allowed substantial sums to be paid in without checking the source. And I bet that’s true of every bank manager in the country.”

“There are a couple of other things,” Doripalam went on. “I did a bit of digging in one or two other areas as well. I thought it was worth doing a bit of checking on the mining company that Delgerbayar seems to have been involved with. Turns out it’s a largely Russian owned company. Got some state investment from us. It’s part of the consortium involved in the Gobi project. In fact, the two biggest investors are the Russians and a US company.”

“Strange bedfellows,” Nergui commented. He looked at his watch. “How did you manage to find out all this in the space of about an hour?”

“Not difficult, actually. Did a bit of searching on the internet-got some basic information. Also got some data from government systems-not sure whether I was supposed to be on there officially, but I got one of the IT guys to do me a favor.”

“You’re making me feel old. This US company-wouldn’t have any links to Collins and Maxon, would it?”

“You’re not over the hill yet, clearly. Yes, part of the same group. Another operating company.”

“And what about the Russian company?”

“MN Mining. It’s based in St. Petersburg. They’re part of a wider group, but MN is exclusively focused on mining, primarily gold, in Mongolia. They’ve a major office in the city here. The Chief Exec is a Russian, Sergei Kartashkin, based here.”

“And where does the US investment come in?”

“Well, that’s where it gets interesting. To start with MN was established as a subsidiary here to carry out opencast mining in the north-the kind of stuff we saw yesterday. It looks as if they got some government funding from our end so it was essentially a joint venture. But then they began to chase some of the prospects in the south where more deep mining is needed. It’s a much more expensive process-even establishing where the reserves are costs a lot, so they had to look for more investment. MN eventually became part of the consortium with the US company, a company from the UK, and some South Korean interests.”

“All supposedly legitimate?”

“Difficult for me to tell. It’s more your area than mine,” Doripalam said.

Nergui nodded. All kinds of money was flooding into the country, some honest, some much more dubious. There was a lot of incentive for organized crime to use this isolated republic as a route for money laundering, particularly if they could realize a return on their investment in the process. This didn’t mean that the investment in this case was necessarily crooked, but a number of the Russian based companies were known to have criminal links. Nergui was also aware that there were growing links-as well as significant tensions-between organized crime in Russia and its counterpart in the States. It would not be a surprise to find some unsavory elements involved in this particular deal.