Hard Risk by Sidney Bristol
Chapter Eight
Orleans, LA.
This was the day that would never end.
Daar positioned both desk chairs behind the main desk then gestured for Robin to take the more comfortable one. It was time to really look at things.
“Thank you,” she said softly and perched on the edge of the seat.
He’d been dreading this task.
Cassim had no head for numbers and no trust for anyone not family, which had created this nightmare, to begin with.
Daar reached over and patted Robin’s arm. “Just walk me through what you’ve organized so far. I know none of this is your fault. You’ve done a wonderful job fixing it.”
Robin glanced at him. Her brows were drawn down and her mouth screwed into a small, tight frown. She didn’t believe him, or the news was that bad.
Whatever it was, he just wanted to get through this.
“Okay…” She pressed her hands to the arm rests. “Do you want to start with the worst news, the bad news, or the good news?”
Daar muttered curses under his breath. “Tell me the worst news?”
Robin winced, then nodded and reached for the mouse. She gave it a little shake, and the monitor flickered to life.
“The worst news is wrapped up in the house accounts and the petty cash account.” She clicked around, bringing up a screenshot of several bank statements in one image next to a comprehensive spreadsheet. “The bad news is that around two hundred thousand dollars has been embezzled, borrowed, or stolen from the family by employees over the last… Let’s say five years?”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “Do we know who?”
“Not for certain. I can make educated guesses, but at this point, I’m not sure what our options are in terms of recovering that money or if it’s worth it.”
She had a point there. Cassim was well off to the point that two hundred grand wasn’t going to be missed. For Daar, it was the principal of the matter.
“The personal accounts?”
Robin sat up a little straighter. “That’s actually the good news. Apart from dog expenses, Saaina hardly touches the money. Dad is, well, Dad. But even then it’s better than I thought. Here, see for yourself?”
She brought up another screen of images and a different spreadsheet. “Here’s the yearly balance, so you can see that from year to year, it’s actually growing once payments are made.”
“You mean to tell me your father doesn’t spend every penny he makes in a year?” That was shocking news to Daar. The way Cassim spoke, Daar had been half-prepared to find out his brother was penniless.
Maybe this wasn’t going to be as bad a reckoning as he thought?
“No. I mean, he makes big, flashy purchases, but other than that it’s all maintaining expenses like dry cleaning, upkeep on cars or the house. Despite how he talks, he’s really not spending as much as I feared.”
“And the bad news?” he asked. “Is it really all that bad?”
Robin scrunched her nose up. Her mother had done the same thing during unguarded moments. The resemblance could be uncanny.
“I mean, it’s all a mess. Once we get away from the accounts tied to the house or the personal stuff, there’s literally no rhyme or reason why some things come out of one account and not another. Like, it would make sense if all the stock yield payments went to one account, right? Instead, it’s divided between three. Two of those also get deposits from other sources. Like Dad’s salary for the hotels. But the third is constantly on over-draft.”
“What I’m hearing is that analyzing all of the accounts is only the first step in the job. What really needs to happen is a complete restructuring of all your father’s accounts and retraining him to use only one card.”
She rubbed the side of her face. “It’s not that easy though. Some of these are legacy accounts Mom’s family had set-up.”
Daar didn’t know what impact that might have and he wasn’t certain he cared. There were times when the only right answer was to burn it all down and start over.
“Have you begun compiling a list of reoccurring charges and deposits?” he asked.
She nodded. “Yes.”
Relief coursed through him. He reached over and patted her arm. “You are divine.”
Robin flushed and shifted in her seat. “I’m just doing my job.”
“It isn’t an easy one. I’m glad Cassim came around to you doing this. I don’t think anyone else could have.” Daar sighed and leaned on the arm rest. “It’s a pity you weren’t born a boy.”
“Really? Sometimes I wonder if you would have rather I weren’t born at all.”
“That’s not an insult. It’s a fact. There are things in this world women cannot do. There’s only so far that brilliant brain of yours can get you.”
Robin stared at him. He could practically hear her modern, feminist arguments. He’d heard enough of them during his time, but the facts were facts. A woman could not survive in his world the same way a man could.
“Has your father begun to talk marriage to you?” Daar turned his attention from the screen to Robin. She would no doubt iron out all of Cassim’s problems in time. “It might be a good idea to find a husband sooner rather than later. A husband could temper you some. You’re brilliant, but there are times when I see your mother in you.”
She didn’t reply, which shouldn’t surprise him.
Robin had been allowed too many freedoms. Cassim had never been strict enough with her, and now they could very well pay the price with an unfavorable match for her.
“Harper isn’t a bad man, but I’m not certain he’s right for you,” Daar said, thinking out loud. “I know a few men, slightly older than you, who could make you wonderful husbands and very rich.”
She suddenly turned toward him. “How can you say that in a modern culture? I get arranging a marriage so that you are with someone you share values with. But how is it my education and what I want come second to marrying someone? Why is it I have to be attached to a man to be valuable?”
So they were going to do this again. He’d had some variation of this conversation with her since she was young. Eventually he’d get through to her. She really should have been a boy.
“Why is it about you? Why isn’t it about what’s best for the family?” he countered.
Her eyes widened. “When is it not about the family? Why can’t it be about me for once? When do I get to matter?”
He paced his words, ensuring that he spoke calmly compared to her heated questions. “When you do something for this family.”
She gestured at the computer. “What am I doing now?”
Daar shook his head and sighed. The younger generations were losing sight of what family really meant. How could he make her understand when Cassim had never properly shown her? “This is why I said you should have gone to study abroad instead of here. Americans have ruined your head. You don’t even know what family duty is.”
Robin stood abruptly. “I’m sorry I’m such a disappointment.”
Great.
“Robin?”
She turned and stalked around the desk.
“Robin, don’t twist my words like that,” he called out.
But she was gone.
Wonderful.
Just what he needed.
This was going to be the longest month of his life.
There was still no word on Skilton or where he might be. The chancellor was riding Daar’s ass about uncovering more information. He’d already received a few messages from other council members, no doubt feeling out where Daar’s allegiances lay. He did not need Robin to make things any more difficult than they already were.
He leaned back in the chair and stared at the screen.
What to do?
A thought occurred to Daar.
This was the first time he’d been alone in the office.
Was the laptop perhaps here?
He listened for several moments before daring to open drawers and peer inside. He didn’t actually expect to find it just sitting around. If that were the case, Robin would have remembered. But there could always be a clue. Cassim had always lived a coddled life. That was Daar’s doing. He’d been too young to know better.
Friday. Harper’s Safe House, New Orleans, LA.
Harper threw the headphones down on the table.
“I cannot fucking believe that guy,” he growled.
Samuel held up a hand. “Easy.”
Harper couldn’t take it easy. He couldn’t let it go. He pushed to his feet and stalked across the apartment while Samuel remained at the laptop.
The surveillance van was parked down the street in a lot with a For Sale sign on it. The signal from the bugs transmitted to the receiver in the van. This way Samuel or Harper could keep tabs on the house at all hours of the day or night from wherever they were.
“You need to calm down,” Samuel said again. “You don’t know this conversation happened.”
“The hell I don’t.” Harper paced to the door then back to the dining table. “Where does he get off saying she should have been born a boy?”
Samuel glanced at him. “It’s Daar’s opinion. Doesn’t make it wrong or right.”
“I’ve never met anyone like him,” Harper muttered.
He’d spent lots of time building relationships with families and people in war-torn areas. The weight of convincing people out of their homes for their own safety had often been on his shoulders. Unlike some of the people he’d served with, his ability to communicate with people had deepened his military experience. It was a big reason why he’d retired when the door had still been open for him to remain.
Over the years, he’d seen a preference for male children, but never like this. The way Daar spoke to and about Robin, it was like some unfortunate family event that she’d been born female. Why? To what purpose? Were they simply that backwards? Or was there another reason?
Harper slowed his pacing.
There was a reason here.
Where was his phone?
Harper scanned the apartment until he spied his cell on the kitchen counter. He crossed the room picked it up and dialed Zora without hesitating.
“What are you doing?” Samuel asked slowly.
Harper held up a hand. “Hold that thought.”
“Wright,” a gruff voice that wasn’t Zora’s said through the phone.
Harper had to pause. He’d been called Gonzalez enough the last two weeks it took him a moment to remember his last name was actually Wright.
“Tucker? What are you doing answering Zora’s phone?” he asked slowly.
“What?” Samuel muttered and stared at Harper.
Yeah, he was probably stepping on toes by going to Zora directly, but he had a hunch.
“She couldn’t answer and gave me her phone,” Tucker said with little to no inflection.
“Everything okay there?”
“Yeah, just a call from the director.”
Harper snorted. “The Task Force director? That guy we never see?”
“Yeah, well, he’s her boss, so…”
“I see. Well, how are things?”
“Here she is,” Tucker said.
“Great talk,” Harper said under his breath. Maybe he’d reach out to Tucker later, get an update on the guys and make a plan for what to say to them.
“Is the world burning down?” Zora asked in that weary tone of hers.
“The list that Nadine gave you, can you tell me how many were women?”
“Why?”
He bounced on the balls of his feet. “I’ve got a hunch. Please? You don’t have to tell me numbers, be vague if you have to.”
“I think you’re going to need to be more specific. There are women on the list, yes, but is that really what you want to know?”
“Fine. How many on the list are both women and suspected of being in a position of power within Skilton’s organization.”
“None,” Zora said without hesitation. “Why?”
“It’s a hunch…”
“Tell me.”
“I think in an ideal world, Daar would recruit Robin to work for him. But because she’s a woman, he can’t. He practically just said so to her and based on things Robin has told me, there’s some serious gender bias going on that isn’t necessarily cultural. Not to this degree, at least. So where is it coming from?”
“Hm. And what does this information do for us?”
“Nothing. No idea. Sorry, maybe this should have been an email?”
“No.” Zora sighed. “You’re fine. I take it things are going well?”
“Depends how you define well. I’d say I’ve got my foot firmly in the door, but I don’t know what that does for us. Both Cassim and Daar are friendly with me to a point. The problem I see is that women aren’t equals to them. I worry that in the terms of the assignment, that means I will have very little access to Daar.”
“Work on that. Do you know how long he’s staying?”
“Nothing certain, but I think he’s staying for a while.” Harper rubbed the back of his neck. “From the sound of it, Robin is redoing the family’s financials and Daar is supervising. My take is that Daar is still taking care of Cassim.”
Samuel frowned so hard his face creased.
“What is it?” Harper asked.
“What?”
“Not you, Zora. Sorry,” he said quickly.
“It sounds like Daar is searching the office,” Samuel said slowly.
“Daar is searching Cassim’s office for something,” Harper repeated.
“You have the house bugged?” Zora asked.
“Not all of it. Most of the downstairs, the upstairs landing and the media room.” Though he had second guessed himself on that one. “The family is going on vacation soon. Robin has mentioned not wanting to go on it. And before you ask, yes, I’ve hinted that she should bring me along. I don’t think she took me seriously though.”
His phone vibrated in his hand. He glanced at the screen and found two texts from Robin waiting for him.
“Hey, Zora? Let me let you go. Robin is texting me,” he said.
“Make yourself her knight in shining armor,” Zora said.
He grimaced and hung up the phone.
“Did Zora say anything I need to know?” Samuel asked.
“My theory might be right. Daar might be making those comments about Robin being a woman because in his circle, it’s all men.”
He shook his head. “Why? Why limit yourself that way? Just goes to show how lacking these people are.”
Harper nodded and tapped the texts.
“What does Robin say?”
He bit the inside of his mouth to keep the smart remark to himself. Robin did not belong to Harper. Not really. She was part of this case.
“She’s just asking what I’m doing and if my work emergency is handed,” he muttered.
Samuel held up a hand while the other pressed to the earbud in his ear.
Harper watched Samuel, the phone forgotten for the moment.
He pointed at the other headphones Harper had abandoned. “Get on. Now.”
He grabbed the earbuds and shoved them in.
Daar was speaking Arabic in a low voice. Harper reached for Samuel’s pen and paper.
“It’s not here,” Harper mumbled as he wrote. “I’ve looked all over this damn office. Cassim must have it somewhere else.”
The audio shifted, becoming fainter. Samuel scrambled to change the input, feeding Harper a better quality audio from the hall, but even that wasn’t enough.
“Shit,” Harper muttered. “He must be in one of the front rooms no one ever goes into. That’s where I’d have a phone conversation I didn’t want Cassim to hear.”
“What is Cassim hiding from his brother? And why does Daar want it so bad?” Samuel asked out loud.
Harper grimaced and sat back in his chair. He hated knowing Robin was living under the same roof as these people. She was in danger and didn’t know it.
He glanced at his phone sitting there with Robin’s sweet message of concern. There was only so much he could take. After what he’d heard Daar say to her, Harper couldn’t make this about the job. He needed to be a decent human for a second.
Normally, in a situation like this he’d just pick up the phone and call her. But enough of Robin’s life was being recorded for the sake of the case. This he could keep private. He tapped out a brief message assuring her all was well then hit send. Yes, there was a good chance Zora would retain copies of these messages, but it was all he could do to protect Robin from what was coming.
It was just a matter of time.
Friday. Undisclosed.
Hugo strode through the doorway into the heart of the flat and stopped. He turned in a circle, letting his eyes rove over the space.
It was plain, without many decorations beyond a few art prints. Though knowing Skilton those were originals. He always had believed investing in art paid off.
Where are you now, Skilton?
Hugo crossed to the opening leading into the kitchen. Someone was picking up the mail and delivering it inside the flat.
“Who is looking after this place?” he asked.
The two guards following him looked at each other.
“A neighbor,” a voice from the bedroom replied.
Hugo leaned to his left, bringing the young man into sight. He was perhaps all of twenty-five. If that. His facial hair still had that fuzzy quality of a young man not yet in his prime. The rest of him was built like a prize fighter.
“Have we spoken to the neighbor?” Hugo asked.
The young man inclined his head. “Yes, sir. But only to say that we were family and worried about our uncle.”
Hugo nodded. “Good. And? What’s your name, boy?”
“Brian, sir.”
Hugo nodded. Brian. He’d remember that name.
In the last two months Hugo had learned more about Skilton’s personal life than ever before. On the surface, he’d been dedicated to the job. Just as Hugo had perceived him to be. But dig deeper and there were signs that Skilton’s allegiances might not have been as steadfast as Hugo would have liked. It was one thing to have a safety net in the event of a catastrophe. They all had that. But Skilton’s private holdings were far more substantial than Hugo would have imagined.
He passed through the large flat, not touching anything. Yet.
Tomorrow a crew would come in and begin their investigation. If he didn’t uncover answers soon, he wasn’t sure what the rest of the council would do. The way he figured it, half were on the verge of leaving. If half pulled out, things would begin to collapse. Each council member played an integral part in supplying resources and connections that allowed them to do business on a global scale. If he lost half of them, it might very well spell the end.
He needed to get control of the situation. The masses needed to be appeased. If he could prove that Skilton merely absconded in a fit of greed it would go a long way in explaining the situation. But if Skilton was captured? Or worse, had given himself up? That might be the nail in the coffin. Hugo didn’t know if he could come back from that.
Which was why tonight he would wait.
His most loyal people would be here tomorrow.
Once he could control the story, he could dictate where things went and who knew what.
It was a long shot, but he’d controlled trickier situations than this.
His phone began to chime amidst the silence. He pulled it out and saw Daar’s handle on the screen. He was about as close to a friend as Hugo could have in this world. But sometimes friends could be enemies. Could he trust Daar still?
He tapped the answer button and turned toward the windows.
“Are you sick of family yet?”
Daar chuckled. “You could say that.”
“What have you found?” Hugo couldn’t afford to beat around the bush. Time was not on their side.
“I’m afraid I don’t have anything to report. My contacts scoured the area around where Skilton stayed when he was here. They’ve checked out the companies he used. I think the muscle he hired was a front. The company is completely gone. Like they were never there. It’s not looking good.”
“Hm. I see.”
Hugo wandered around the room a second time.
Skilton must have been captured.
It was what made the most sense. It was what Hugo’s gut screamed. But the doubt was still there, and it was that doubt that might very well get him killed.
“And what of your brother?” Hugo asked.
“Still an idiot, unfortunately.”
They traded more small talk before Daar was called away, likely by his brother.
Hugo stared out of a window that looked out over a quiet side street.
Daar had been faithful. Possibly one of the only men who’d never wavered. Why? What about the council inspired that much faith in him?
Hugo scrolled his contacts until he found the correct coded handle then hit dial.
How long had it been? Seven years?
“Yes, sir?” a gruff male voice answered in English.
“Peter. Are you doing well?”
There was a moment of silence. “Yes. Well enough, sir. Do you have something for me?”
Hugo smiled. Back when Cassim’s first wife was pointing questions at Daar, Hugo had connected Peter and Daar. It was a calculated move. Insurance, so to speak.
“I just wanted to confirm that you’re getting your regular payments.” Hugo began to pace the room, plans coalescing in his mind.
“Yes. You’ve been more than generous, sir. Is there something I can do for you?”
“I’d like you to report back to be about Daar. Keep me updated on what he’s doing, his plans and so forth. Think you can do that?”
“Of course. Isn’t that why you connected us in the first place?”
Smart man. He at least knew who was in power.
This would go a long ways to putting Hugo’s mind at ease.