Peter James - Dead at First Sight

‘Glad to hear it,’ Sorokin said. He was conscious of the occasional glances from other diners — whether it was curiosity at Barrey’s disfigurement or the man’s local reputation as a crime overlord, he didn’t know.

Barrey was struggling against the glare, despite his dark glasses. ‘Great view, isn’t it?’ Sorokin said. And it was a very fine view down across the yacht basin and the ocean beyond. The Quayside was a smart restaurant, too, all glass and modern furniture, elegant staff. Situated close to the banking and financial services district of the island’s capital, St Helier, the busy lunchtime crowd were well dressed, talking quietly and earnestly. ‘I thought I’d let you have the view.’

‘You’re the visitor,’ Barrey said. ‘You should have the view.’ He shook his head. ‘You didn’t tell them it was me coming when you booked, like I told you to — they know me here, they always put me in a corner table at the back where we can’t be overheard.’ He looked around him and signalled to a waitress. ‘Drop that blind, would you?’

As she moved towards it, Sorokin put up an arm, halting her. ‘I’m enjoying the sun on my back, leave it, it’s fine.’

Barrey bristled, but said nothing. From what this guy had told him over the phone, with his background in the Mafia-busting team of the NYPD, his organized crime connections in the US could be of real value to him, both for money laundering and for expanding his internet romance fraud business into that country. Yet there was something about Sorokin that didn’t sit quite right. The guy was cocky and arrogant, as if he knew he held a full hand of the cards he wanted.

A waiter appeared with menus. ‘Will you be having wine, gentlemen?’ he asked.

Sorokin gestured to his guest. ‘A glass of wine?’

‘I think we should have a bottle of champagne to celebrate — on me,’ Barrey said expansively. ‘Bottle of Bolly,’ he instructed the waiter, but signalled him not to go away. He turned back to Sorokin. ‘You like oysters?’

‘Uh-huh.’

‘Bring us a dozen each, grilled,’ he said to the waiter. ‘Then we’ll look at the menu.’

As the waiter went off, Barrey said, ‘Their grilled oysters are to die for.’

‘OK.’

Barrey glanced around, as if desperately seeking another table, out of the sun, more out of earshot, but the place was full. He checked out the diners on either side. On the left was a table for two, with a couple of lovers canoodling over lobster thermidors. On the right were four businessmen having a lunch meeting. He leaned forward and lowered his voice. ‘So, OK, you have a proposition for me, I’m all ears. What’s left of them anyway,’ he added with a strange little laugh.

‘I kind of left it a little late in life to go into business but I thought, you know, hey, too late is when you’re dead! Maybe I still have time to cash in on my experiences — and in particular the contacts that I’ve made over my years in law enforcement.’

‘As you told me over the phone. And you know, don’t you, that Colonel Sanders didn’t start his fried chicken business until he was in his seventies. You look like you’ve got a few years on him, yet.’

‘Know that old gardening joke?’ Sorokin replied. ‘A guy asks a landscaping expert when’s the best time to plant a tree. The expert replies, “Twenty years ago.”’

Barrey gave him a meagre apology for a smile, shelling it out like he was dropping a coin into a homeless person’s cap. They were distracted as the champagne arrived and they waited until it was poured before resuming. This time Sorokin’s voice was quieter.

‘A former golfing buddy in the US got badly rinsed by a lady he met on an internet dating agency. Six hundred and fifty thousand bucks.’ He watched Barrey’s face but it was impossible, with his eyes behind the dark lenses, to read it. ‘He asked me to use my police connections to look into the world of internet romance scammers and I found they’re mostly out of Ghana and Eastern Europe. To my surprise, I found there are few real players in the US. That’s when the idea first popped for me. I realized with all the organized crime connections I’d made over the years that there was a real business opportunity, both to set up a scamming business myself and, hand in hand with it, a money-laundering channel.’

He could still read nothing in Barrey’s face.

‘Then your name came up on an FBI list of persons of interest in the cybercrime fraud world.’

Barrey still gave no visible reaction at all.

‘So, I’m here to offer you the opportunity to expand your empire into the United States, if that’s of interest?’

‘How do I know I can trust you?’

‘I guess I should ask you the same question, Mr Barrey.’

‘The future in internet romance is vast, Mr Sorokin. There’s a limitless supply of mostly older people desperate for love. We’re talking a market worth billions. If you opened up the US for me, we could be making more money than either of us could ever spend.’

‘And how do we stay out of jail?’

‘By being untraceable of course — as I am.’

‘Really? If you are so untraceable, how come I found you so easily?’

‘You might have found me, Mr Sorokin, but have you found any evidence that I’ve committed any crime?’ Barrey looked at him intently and triumphantly. ‘Well?’

‘Clearly you’ve hidden your activities very cleverly.’

Two large dishes with hot oysters grilled in their shells in a cream sauce arrived. Barrey tucked his napkin into the top of his shirt, all focus, momentarily, on his food. ‘You like turbot?’ he asked Sorokin.

‘Sure.’

He told the waiter to bring them both turbot and a bowl of Jersey Royal potatoes. As the waiter moved away, he addressed Sorokin again.

‘As you know, I operate through a network of nominee companies around the world, all springing from my bases in Ghana and Nigeria. The internet fraud and the money laundering run in parallel. I’ve a string of legitimate financial services companies that everything’s fronted through.’

‘So is PerfectPartners.net one of your targets?’

After a moment’s hesitation, Barrey said, ‘One of. Why do you ask about that one in particular — is that the one that your buddy got caught on? Maybe if we do business, I can find a way to get your buddy paid back — how much was it?’

‘Six hundred and fifty thousand bucks, give or take.’

‘No big deal.’

‘It is to him. It’s everything he has — or had — in the world.’

Barrey’s phone made a soft, staccato noise. Raising an apologetic hand, he answered the call. ‘Yeah? What? That’s... that’s... is he just having a laugh on me?’ His voice was becoming increasingly loud. ‘Jesus H — Christ, I don’t believe this. Sort it!’ He killed the call, shoving his phone back in his pocket, looking furious.

‘Bad news?’ Sorokin asked.

‘What’s that got to do with you?’

‘Quite a lot, actually.’

Barrey stared at him. ‘Huh?’

‘You see, Mr Barrey, it wasn’t just my pal who got screwed out of money on your website scam, it was me, also.’ Sorokin looked at him levelly. ‘Ninety-seven thousand and sixty-three bucks and forty-two cents, to be precise. Are you going to give that back to me, too?’

Barrey’s whole demeanour suddenly changed, his lips forming an ugly snarl. His body shifted and Sorokin saw his arm, with his hand concealed by his napkin, drop below the table. ‘Just what is your game, Mr Sorokin?’

‘I’ve come here to get even with you, you fat bastard. To level the score.’

‘Is that so?’

‘Yep, that’s about the size of it.’

For an instant, Barrey’s confidence evaporated and he looked wracked with uncertainty. ‘You’ve not invited me here to discuss a business deal at all, have you?’