‘How so?’
Dial explained. ‘Do you know how he got the name Frankie Death? Every time he was arrested — and it happened a lot when he was younger — everyone involved with the case ended up dead. I’m talking witnesses, cops, their families, everyone. He even took out a few reporters who had covered his story. After a while, people stopped messing with him.’
Jones shook his head in disgust. ‘I can’t believe what I’m hearing. You’re scared of the guy. Too scared to arrest his ass.’
Dial was offended by the insinuation. ‘Fuck that, and fuck you! You should know me better than that. I’m not scared of the prick! I’d fucking arrest Hitler if the bastard was still alive!’
‘Then what are you saying?’
Dial lowered his voice. ‘Do I have to spell it out for you?’
‘I guess so, because I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.’
Dial growled in frustration, not wanting to say anything illegal. ‘Arresting him won’t save your ass. In fact, it’ll do the opposite. If you think he’s coming after you now, you just wait. He’ll put a bounty on your head so large every thug in Europe will fly to Pittsburgh to take you out. And if you’re not there when they arrive, they’ll burn down your building for bonus points before they slaughter everyone you know. And I mean everyone. Frankie Death even kills pets.’
Jones grunted in understanding.
Once they were done in Switzerland, they’d be forced to visit Bruges.
Payne talked to the first officers on the scene. He explained who he was and whom he was with. As soon as he mentioned Petr Ulster, the Swiss police treated Payne like he was one of their own. In Switzerland, few surnames were held in higher esteem than Ulster’s. Over the years, his family had donated millions of dollars to local charities, and the incredible work they did at the Archives was a source of national pride — even to those who knew nothing about history.
‘Where is Monsieur Ulster?’ asked the ranking officer.
‘I secured him in the vault at Sotheby’s.’
‘Good thinking,’ he said and he grabbed Payne’s arm and pulled him towards the section of the hotel where the vault was located. ‘He is a treasure to my country.’
A few minutes later, the door to the massive vault swung open, and several people came streaming out. One of the first was Megan, who ran over to Payne and gave him a big hug.
‘Are you okay?’ she demanded. ‘We heard the explosion and assumed the worst.’
‘We’re fine. Both of us are fine.’
‘No, you’re not,’ she said as she pulled out a tissue from her pocket. Then, ever so carefully, she dabbed the cut on his cheek. ‘What happened here?’
He shrugged, not really sure. ‘Bullet, shrapnel, who knows? It doesn’t hurt.’
She lowered her voice. ‘Then why are you sweating like a pig?’
He laughed. ‘It’s not sweat. It’s water. I was forced to take a dip.’ He was about to explain what happened when he saw Ulster out of the corner of his eye. For some reason, he was standing off to the side with a remorseful look on his face. ‘Petr, are you all right?’
Ulster trudged forward like a schoolboy heading to the principal’s office. ‘Jonathon, I am so sorry for disobeying your instructions. If you had been hurt or killed, I don’t know what—’
‘Relax. I’m fine, and I’m no longer mad at you. In fact, your mistake turned out to be a blessing. We got the name of the guy who’s been coming after us.’
‘That’s wonderful,’ Ulster said, breathing a sigh of relief. Then, as if he was afraid the whole room was filled with spies, he crept closer to Payne and Megan. ‘Guess what?’
Payne studied the cryptic look on his face. ‘What?’
Ulster leaned in and whispered. ‘You aren’t the only one who got a name. Capital Savings was very cooperative.’
59
It took a few hours to work through the political mess at the Beau-Rivage. Payne and Jones had entered Switzerland illegally and had just gunned down eleven people, but they had saved many more with their heroism — including Petr Ulster, a personal friend of Geneva’s mayor.
A phone call from Nick Dial helped strengthen their case. He explained that Payne and Jones had been attacked in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and the only reason they had entered Switzerland was to work out who was trying to kill them. He assured the police that Payne and Jones had worked closely with his office in the past, and Interpol would soon be involved in the investigation due to the international nature of the shootings. In addition, he also told the Geneva police they should announce the death of twelve criminals, not eleven, in order to protect a valuable snitch in a very important case.
Once the duo was finally allowed to leave the scene, Jones retrieved their SUV near the waterfront. Somehow they had been spotted in Geneva, so they would take extra precautions until they were safely away from the city. Jones pulled onto the sidewalk next to Rue du Fossé Vert, a tiny road behind the hotel, and scanned the nearby buildings before he signalled for his friends to come out of a back exit. The three of them climbed into the vehicle and quickly closed their doors.
During the next forty minutes, Jones used every driving tactic he could think of to ensure they weren’t being followed. He crossed several lanes of traffic to leave the highway at the last possible second. He ran red lights and made illegal U-turns. He even drove down a one-way street in the wrong direction. The entire time Payne was focused on their surroundings, memorizing cars and faces, even searching the skies for aerial pursuit. At one point, they pulled into a parking garage where they searched the SUV for listening devices and tracking beacons.
In the end, they were confident they were clean.
‘According to Capital Savings,’ Ulster explained, ‘box number 1566 was closed on December the first by a man named Louis Keller. That was the main reason they were willing to give me his personal information. He is no longer one of their customers.’
Jones read between the lines. ‘What was the other reason they helped?’
Ulster grinned. ‘I threatened to pull my family fortune from their bank.’
‘Well played!’ Megan said, laughing.
‘What do we know about Keller?’ Payne wondered.
‘He is fifty-two, never married, and lives in Lausanne. It is a French-speaking city on the shores of Lake Geneva, roughly thirty miles north-east.’
Jones frowned. ‘I’ve heard of Lausanne, but I’m not sure why. Does it have anything to do with Nostradamus?’
‘Not that I’m aware of,’ Ulster admitted. ‘Lausanne is in the Swiss wine region. We refer to it as Capitale Olympique because the International Olympic Committee is located there.’
‘That’s why I’ve heard of it. Every time an Olympic athlete gets busted or a new host city gets announced, the IOC issues a statement from Lausanne.’
Payne barely heard Jones’s comment because he was focused on something far more important. ‘How far did you say it was from Geneva?’
Ulster answered. ‘Thirty, maybe forty miles. Thankfully, we can take the A1 motorway all the way there. It’s part of the Swiss autobahn.’
‘How big is Lausanne? A hundred thousand people?’
‘Larger than that. I’d say, closer to three. Why do you ask?’
Payne ignored the question. ‘In other words, it has dozens of banks.’
Jones glanced at him. ‘What are you getting at?’
‘Why would a man from Lausanne have a safe-deposit box in Geneva?’
‘He wouldn’t,’ Jones joked. ‘That’s why he closed it on the first.’
‘I’m serious.’ Payne turned in his seat and spoke to Ulster. ‘When you were at Capital Savings, did you read Keller’s file? Or did they just write down his contact info?’