Alex slowly started to understand what was going on. She couldn’t help but admire whoever had come up with this simple yet ingenious system. Every time Alex told St. John about an imminent deal, he ordered the broker Jack Lang to buy stock of the company that was subject to a merger or acquisition for MPM. Once the stock price skyrocketed due to the public announcement of the deal, Lang sold the stock, and the proceeds of the sale were transported to Grand Cayman in cash, probably by St. John himself. With one of Vitali’s private jets, they could easily circumvent customs. This method of raising funds was highly illegal, but they were protected by high-ranking judges, US attorneys, SEC administrators, and NYSE board members on their bribery payroll. If there were transgressions, no one was interested in investigating any further.
Alex vividly remembered PBA Steel. No wonder Sergio didn’t worry about the SEC. The investigation had fizzled out after just two days, with no resolution. Sergio had bribed the most influential men of the city and state, his connections reaching as far as Washington DC. His “friends” were in Congress, the Senate, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury, and the Department of Defense. With these accounts, he had wonderful leverage against them. Passive corruption by itself was ruinous for a politician or public officer, but not paying taxes on this income was highly punishable as tax fraud.
“Some of them get ten grand a month.” Justin was amazed. “This one doesn’t seem to be as important. He only gets three.”
Alex’s eyes fell on the name, and she froze. Raymond Howard. Alex remembered the man with the thin blond hair whom she’d seen at the Plaza for the first time and then at Gracie Mansion last night. He was the man Nick Kostidis was looking for! Nick suspected that there was an informer on his staff, but he had no idea that it was one of his most trusted employees. And then she remembered where else she had seen him. He was with Zack at Luna Luna that evening when she’d celebrated the Maxxam deal with her staff. Raymond Howard knew Zack! Now that she was aware of it, she needed to tell Nick. She couldn’t possibly leave him in the dark any longer.
“What are you going to do now?” Justin asked as they left the Media Lab building feeling drained sixteen hours after their arrival. Outside it was dawn, and the birds chirped in the trees. Justin had printed the entire dossier, and Alex carried it in her briefcase. She felt like she had pure explosives under her arm.
“I don’t know,” she replied, “but I don’t feel like making myself a target. If Vitali finds out that I know about these secret accounts, he’ll kill me.”
Justin stared at her.
“You can’t be serious.”
“Absolutely,” Alex said, nodding, “this isn’t petty embezzlement. This is an elaborate web of bribes, and I’m in the middle of it. As of today, I can’t claim that I don’t know anything about this.”
They reached the nearly empty parking lot and squeezed into Justin’s dusty Nissan. Justin dropped them off at the airport a half hour later. Oliver and Alex thanked him for his incredibly helpful work and promised to keep him posted. Without saying a word, they entered the departure terminal and inquired about the next flight to New York. They reserved two seats for the 6:20 a.m. flight and then walked to the coffee shop, where only a few early travelers and the crew of a Far East airline were passing the time.
Alex realized that Oliver would have liked to talk about something entirely different, but she couldn’t get her thoughts off the findings of the past few hours. She no longer had a future in New York. They silently drank their coffee and chewed on doughnuts while Alex stared at the TV, which was tuned to CNN. Suddenly, she dropped her coffee cup. The blood drained from her face when she realized what the reporter was talking about. She jumped up and ran to the bar.
“Could you please turn it up a little?” she asked the waitress. The woman grabbed the remote control and turned up the volume. Aghast, Alex listened to the reporter.
“Initial investigations by the FBI’s explosives experts indicate that the bomb was placed under the hood of the mayor’s armored limousine. Kostidis’s wife Mary, his son Christopher, and his son’s fiancée Britney Edwards were killed in this attack. Another man who attempted to save the three individuals from the flames suffered severe burns and succumbed to his injuries one hour later at Columbia Presbyterian. Mayor Kostidis, the alleged target of this assassination attempt, was admitted to Mount Sinai Hospital. No details have yet been disclosed about his condition.”
“Oh my God!” Alex whispered. Her heart was pounding in her chest, and she felt sick. It couldn’t be true! She had just talked to Mary and Christopher Kostidis so recently. And now they were dead? Oliver stood up and put his arm around her shoulders.
“I was at Gracie Mansion on Saturday evening,” Alex said, her whole body shaking, “and now they’re dead! I can’t believe it!”
Oliver held her a little tighter in his arms. The television showed images from the lawn at Gracie Mansion, and Alex saw the smoldering remnants of the car. The power of the detonation had torn the heavy limousine into two pieces, making the lawn look like a battlefield.
“Excuse me.” Alex freed herself from Oliver’s arms and ran out to the restroom. Tears poured down her face as she sat sobbing on the floor of the closed bathroom stall. Nick Kostidis had publicly voiced dangerous allegations after Cesare’s death and the attempt on Sergio. She admired him for his courage, but now she realized that this had to be the reason for the attack. The mayor had come too close to the truth and become a risk for Sergio Vitali.
Alex pressed her face into her hands. This brutal man had proposed marriage to her just a few days ago! She wiped the tears from her cheeks. Nick Kostidis had asked for her help a number of times, but she’d refused because she was afraid of the consequences. She’d been too big a coward, and now Nick’s family had been cruelly annihilated. Alex closed her eyes. Wasn’t she also to blame? She had known since last summer that David Zuckerman had been killed on Sergio’s order. If she had told Nick at the time, everything might have turned out differently. Or not? She felt more miserable than she ever had in her life. She gradually realized the far-reaching consequences of her discovery, and she almost regretted her curiosity. This was no longer about lies and hurt pride. If she used her knowledge, undeniably triggering an enormous scandal, then more than just her job would be on the line. Sergio wouldn’t sit idly by while his empire wavered, and she knew exactly what he was capable of. She was scared, terribly scared. And there was no one who could help her.
The flight from Boston landed at eight thirty. Oliver and Alex took a cab together to Manhattan.
“What are you going to do now?” Oliver asked in concern.
“I can’t do anything,” Alex replied. Fear had overcome her. She made sure that the dividing glass to the driver was closed, but she still whispered.
“I know that Sergio had David Zuckerman killed last summer, and that he ordered the assassination attempt on Kostidis. If he finds out that I have the slightest idea, then I’m dead.”
Oliver gave her a perplexed stare.
“I have to keep playing along and try to maneuver myself out of this mess by making bad deals. And I’ve got another idea.”
“What are you going to do with these documents?”
“I’ll put them in a safety-deposit box at some bank.”
“Let me take care of that,” Oliver said, grabbing her hand.
“No.” She vehemently shook her head. “I don’t want anything else to happen to you. I have to fight this war by myself.”