Майкл Ридпат - The Marketmaker

The kidnappers called at nine the next morning. Luís told them he couldn’t raise the cash that day, he would need more time. He also asked them to tell him the name of Isabel’s favourite teddy bear when she was a girl. I could hear the abusive threats down the phone at this.

Luís was white when he put the receiver down. ‘They said that if we don’t drop off the money at two o’clock tomorrow morning, Isabel will die. They won’t wait another day.’

I began to think that I had given him the wrong advice.

Only Nelson was unconcerned. ‘If they have her, we will hear back from them soon,’ he assured us.

‘But what about the two o’clock deadline?’

‘Ignore it. They can’t be serious.’

But we didn’t hear back from them all day.

I stayed the night again. Luís seemed to want me there with him when the deadline passed, and I was happy to oblige. We were both up and awake at two o’clock. Of course the phone didn’t ring. We exchanged grim glances as the kidnappers’ deadline ticked away.

The waiting was beginning to take its toll. Both Luís and I were suffering from lack of sleep, although by now I was so exhausted that at last I could begin to doze for short periods. Luís just walked around, looking gaunt. And it was only day three. Cordelia had gone home the day before, but insisted that we call her with any news. By Wednesday night we had still heard nothing. Nelson had returned to his own home that afternoon, with instructions to be contacted if anything happened.

Supper was an omelette and salad. Luís didn’t eat much of his. During the last few days he had managed to keep his outward composure, apart from the show of tension with Nelson just after the kidnappers had given their first demand. Then, suddenly, as the two of us sat in silence round the dinner table, his lip quivered, and he put his head in his hands. He began to sob.

I watched in silence. Tentatively I stretched out a hand and touched his sleeve.

‘She’s dead,’ he said.

‘No, she isn’t. Maybe they’ll call later.’

‘Why should they? It was a simple question. All they had to do was ask her and call me back. They said if I didn’t pay them by two last night she’d die. And she’s dead.’

‘Perhaps it’s a hoax. Maybe they aren’t the real kidnappers.’

‘How can that be? We’ve been through that. Nobody else knows.’

We had been through that. Then a thought struck me.

‘Why did they call me at the hotel?’

‘They followed you from there,’ Luís said. ‘They knew you were staying there.’

‘Yes, but they could have got your number from Isabel. Why didn’t they?’

Luís was silent for a moment. He brightened. And then his face clouded over. ‘Unless she’s dead. Then she couldn’t tell them.’

‘Luís, there’s no reason for them to kill her!’ My brain, which had been turning somersaults for the last three days, suddenly settled. ‘I know! It was the taxi driver. He saw the kidnap and drove off. He must have told some friends about it, and tried his luck at a ransom demand.’

Luís listened.

‘I’ll call Nelson and see what he thinks.’

But before I could reach the phone, it rang. I froze. Luís grabbed it.

I picked up the second earphone Nelson had attached. It was a different voice. Younger, calmer. Luís spoke for about two minutes. I couldn’t understand what was said, but Luís smiled as he put the phone down.

‘Well?’

‘It was another man. He said his name was Zico. He says he has Isabel. He wants a ransom. I asked the teddy bear question, and he didn’t seem concerned. He said he would call back with the answer.’

I felt a surge of relief. So the first voice had been a hoax. I much preferred Zico’s voice. He sounded calmer, more rational.

‘Zico? Isn’t that the name of a soccer player?’

‘Yes,’ Luís smiled grimly. ‘He was brilliant. He used to play for Flamengo. My club.’

‘How much does he want?’

Luís frowned. ‘Fifty million dollars.’

‘Fifty million! Christ! Have you got that much?’

‘Technically my stake in Horizonte may be worth that much, but there’s no way I could get at it without selling the bank, which would be difficult. No, impossible.’

‘Still, it’s a start,’ I said.

Luís smiled. ‘Yes. It’s a start.’

The next couple of days were a relief. Zico called back within half an hour with the correct answer to Luís’s question — Lulu. He made threats about how Isabel would die if fifty million dollars wasn’t paid by the end of the week, but Luís didn’t believe him and neither did I. We were just glad that the process had begun which would lead eventually to Isabel’s release.

We sat round the breakfast table with Nelson. Luís was almost smiling.

‘Now we have to discuss tactics,’ Nelson said. He was wearing a particularly bright purple shirt. Tufts of grey chest hair peeked through its open neck. He spoke carefully and rapidly, very much in control. He had proved himself to us with his suspicion of the hoax ransom demand; it was becoming easier to trust him.

‘OK,’ said Luís.

‘We must decide how much you are prepared to pay for Isabel.’

‘That’s ridiculous!’ Luís protested. ‘The answer is everything.’

‘No, that’s not the answer,’ said Nelson. ‘Remember, this is a commercial transaction. The answer is the lowest amount you can get away with. Look, the kidnappers can’t know exactly how much money you have. We will come to a point where we have to say this is our final offer. Then, provided the kidnappers believe us, they will hand over your daughter.’

Luís took a deep breath. ‘OK.’

‘Good. Now, how much do you think you could get your hands on? In cash.’

Suddenly I felt awkward. Here I was about to hear all about the personal business of a man I hardly knew, in fact the owner of a rival bank to my employer. I began to stand up. ‘Perhaps I should leave you to it...’

Luís held up his hand. ‘No. Stay. Please.’

I paused. He meant it. Nelson nodded. ‘OK,’ I said, and sat down.

‘I can probably raise up to five million dollars,’ said Luís. ‘Maybe a little more. But it will mean talking to some of my colleagues. I’ll have to borrow money.’

‘Good,’ said Nelson. ‘I’d hope to get away with a lot less than that.’ He pulled out his notebook and biro. ‘We should think about some numbers. The average settlement at the moment in Rio is about two hundred thousand dollars. But I think they know how wealthy you are, or at least they can make a good guess. The first demand was high.’

‘I can’t pay fifty million,’ said Luís.

‘Nor will they expect you to. Another rule of thumb is that the final settlement is about one tenth of the initial sum offered. In this case that’s five million dollars. But that’s still too high for the market in Rio right now.’

‘I could pay it if necessary. Somehow.’

Nelson held up his hand. ‘No. I think two million should be fine. You should be able to claim a million back from Dekker’s insurers anyway, although you will probably have to put up the cash to start with.’

‘Perhaps Dekker could provide it?’ I suggested.

Luís’s eyes narrowed for an instant. ‘No, thank you. I don’t want to borrow money from Ricardo Ross.’

The speed of his reaction surprised me, but in a way I was pleased to see that he could still think shrewdly.

Nelson and Luís argued back and forth on the target figure, and eventually settled for three million dollars.

‘OK. We have a number,’ said Nelson. ‘We can’t expect to come to an agreement of the price too quickly. We have to let the kidnappers string things out a bit, feel that they’ve had a proper negotiation. Otherwise they won’t believe three million is our final offer.’