“Maybe he just lies to the IRS about how much his legit company makes,” Kepler suggested.
“Not about his cover business. Why would he do that? Who’d do that? It’s suicide. He’s not stupid, Brad.”
Ouch.
Surani asked, “And the partners? Andrew and Sam? They’re connected to The Norwalk Fund?”
“I checked out the company, of course, trying to find their full names. And, no, they’re not.”
Of course...
“So whatta you want to have happen out of this?” Barkley asked. He was known for his love of the big picture.
“I’ll get close to Reardon, then lay out some bait, give him and Andrew and Sam the chance to hook up with my informant in something big. I’ll be an innocent, so they’ll have to take me out.”
“Nail them on criminal conspiracy,” Barkley said.
“Exactly. My CI, his name’s Joseph, will be wired. As soon as they meet with him and mention the kill word, we can move in. And get warrants for their offices and houses. If we’re lucky we can find something linking him to the earlier hits — weapons, records, cash transfers.”
“Seems like you’ve thought this through — like you always do, Detective. Tell me how you want to run it.”
She explained, “My cover for the set will be Gabriela McKenzie, manager for the phony business I mentioned. I’m calling it Prescott Investments. It’ll look like my boss — Charles Prescott — has been doing some kind of illegal stock trades. And you two have been investigating him for that. It’s time for the bust, but he’s disappeared. You come up to Reardon and me on the street. You break the news about Prescott. That’ll get Reardon’s attention. Then, after you leave, my Joseph comes up too. He’ll tell me that he was doing some illegal deals with Prescott and he’s pissed he skipped town. He’ll ask me to hand over this mysterious list that’s worth millions.”
Barkley asked. “What’s in the list?”
A good question, Kepler reflected.
“Doesn’t matter,” she said dismissingly.
Or maybe not.
“It’s a MacGuffin,” Gabby continued. “Could be anything. But I’ve decided to make it seem to Reardon like it’s a list of underworld kingpins involved in a plot to take down the stock exchange for a day or two and clean up in a big way. I’ll drop some clues for him to figure out. Like, one of Prescott’s clients is a German terrorist and arms dealer. I’m calling him Gunther. The others are brokers or traders, mostly overseas. And I’m working on a lease that has to be signed up in the next few weeks — for that property on Bankers’ Square in Manhattan, where the stock exchange is putting in a new communications system. Reardon may figure it out from that, but to be on the safe side I’m going to hide this memo in some files that I give him to examine, like I didn’t know it was there.”
She slapped another document on the table.
From: Charles Prescott
To: Investment Syndicate
Re: Updated Timetable
2nd of the month: New York Stock Exchange Technology Center on Bankers’ Square in lower Manhattan opens.
4th of the month: The lease for warehouse at 7 Bankers’ Square is effective. Our “engineers” arrive, with appropriate equipment to disable Technology Center’s fiber-optic system, directly below warehouse.
6th of the month: U.S.-based investors exit jurisdiction to safe havens. Recommended: Switzerland, Cayman, St. Kitts, St. Thomas.
8th of the month, 11 a.m.: The event occurs at warehouse. NYSE suspends trading.
8th–9th: Completion of short sales transactions made throughout the year, distribution of profits to investors.
“The target date’s around Columbus Day, so I’m calling it the October List — the people in the syndicate Prescott put together.”
“Love it,” Kepler said. He was truly impressed. If he played for the other team, he could easily fall in love with Gabriela.
She continued, “Joseph’s also going to demand back the deposit he paid Prescott. Four hundred thousand dollars, something like that.”
“Whoa, hold on — I can’t come up with buy money like that,” the captain said quickly.
“No. I won’t need actual cash. It’s enough for Reardon to know the stakes are high. If the deposit’s four hundred K, then the operation’s dealing with serious cash. It’ll seal the deal.”
Barkley asked, “Why use your CI for the part? Why not an undercover detective?”
“Credibility. If Reardon checks around, he’ll find Joseph’s connected with the Seduttos. But, like I said, I will need at least a couple other officers, in addition to Brad and Naresh. I want Elena Rodriguez from Narcotics.”
“I’ll try to swing it,” Barkley said.
Gabby said firmly, “Make it work out. I need her. She’s good.”
“What’s her role in the set?” Barkley asked.
“She’ll be a fellow employee of mine at Prescott.”
Surani: “You said threaten you. How’s Joseph going to pressure you into giving him the list?”
“He’ll kidnap my daughter.”
Kepler blinked at this, surprised. She has a daughter? Gabby was the least maternal person he could think of.
She continued, “Reardon’ll stay close to me while I run around town trying to find the October List and the four hundred K. I’m sure he’ll call in Andrew and Sam — they’ll pretend they’re helping me get my girl back. But what they’ll really do is cut a deal with Joseph to sell him the list or go into business with him.”
“What if Reardon doesn’t bite?” Kepler asked.
“Then you’ve wasted a day or two when you could be playing golf.”
“He doesn’t play golf,” Surani said. “He watches golf.”
Kepler gave him the finger. Subtly. And an affectionate glance.
“And I’m out two grand for the set,” Barkley grumbled.
She looked at him as if he were a husband making an extremely petty remark about starch in his shirts.
Only Gabby McNamara, of the thirty thousand cops in the NYPD, could nail brass with a look like that.
“So, Paul, can we go forward?”
Or use their first names.
He debated a moment. “You got three days tops. We roll it up on Monday, whatever you find, or don’t find.”
“Deal. Thanks.” Her gratitude extinguished fast. “Now, a lot of the work’s going to be convincing Reardon this’s legitimate.” As if she were mentioning she had to drop her laundry off, Gabby said, “I need to shoot a cop.”
Did she glance my way when she said that? Kepler wondered.
Barkley said firmly, “No weapons discharges on the set. Can’t happen.”
“I need to,” she said, and the words were all the more forceful because she was so blasé. “If Reardon has any doubts, that’ll put them to rest. We’ll rig a gun with blanks or training rounds.” She steamrolled ahead. “We’ll get some youngster from Patrol. He’ll be jazzed.”
Kepler said, “No.”
Everyone turned to him, Gabby most piercingly. He said, “You can’t have Reardon next to you. The patrolman or witnesses would see him and he’d become a suspect. He’d go to ground or back off.”
“Good point. I hadn’t thought of that. I’ll make sure he’s at a distance.”
Barkley pointed out, “The press, the public, everybody’ll go ape shit, a cop gets shot. Suddenly it’s front-page New York Post. People’re going to ask questions about him.”
She said, “It’ll happen on a deserted street. Minimize witnesses. We’ll use a fake name. I’ve checked and there’s nobody on the force named Fred Stanford Chapman. My date to the high school prom. We’ll get a fake name tag and have a phony press release ready. Tell the head of the patrolmen’s union it’s part of a set.”