“Mary, are you almost ready? We don’t want to be late.”
“Don’t worry, how can they start a victory party without you? You’re the star! Ten more minutes.”
Dave knew that ten minutes translated to 15 or 20, so he poured himself a glass of wine and started browsing through the unopened mail from the last two days. He stopped when he saw the letter-sized envelope with the hastily scrawled address. It was Ken’s handwriting with a Zurich postmark, dated the Friday Ken had left Switzerland. Bradford now knew how Buzz must have felt when he received his letter from Ken.
Bradford hesitated briefly before slitting open the envelope. Three pictures fell out, but no letter or message. The pictures told the whole story.
The phone rang. “Dave; it’s Leroy. I’m glad we caught you before you left. Hector Armas needs to talk with you; Hector.”
“Dave, sorry to call you at home but something has come up and I need to get your input. Leroy and I will be there in five minutes. Can you wait?”
“I’ll be here. Your timing is excellent - there is something I want to talk with you about too.”
Five minutes later they were all sitting around the kitchen table. Hector explained the problem.
“The money Romano deposited from the drug sale at the State Fairgrounds is the same money that the Swiss group used to purchase Mario’s share of the casino. The money was deposited into a West Indies bank and then transferred to another bank in the Caribbean. Both banks and account numbers were on Ken’s list.”
“Isn’t this what you expected?” Dave asked. “I don’t get the problem.”
“Yes, but now it gets interesting. Two hours later, after your golf match was finished, the money is transferred again, this time into the Sven’s Swiss bank account. An hour later, when the wager was settled, this same money was transferred again, back to the same account where it originated.”
“Wow, what a conundrum,” Dave mused. “Sven and Mario seem to be playing with the same money. It doesn’t make sense.”
“In a nutshell, Dave, this has us stumped. I thought you might have heard something that could help us. Did Sven ever mention a second set of accounts?”
Dave shook his head as he fought to remember, before realizing that the answer was right in front of him.
“No, but this came in the mail today, Hector, I think it might help.”
Hector and Leroy looked at pictures and saw the postmark on the envelope. Hector whistled. Leroy was still perplexed. “Okay, tell me what I’m missing here.”
They did. A half hour later they had a plan. Hector would join the group for what was promising to be an interesting dinner.
“I’m ready,” Mary said as she walked into the kitchen.
“You look beautiful, Mary, and certainly worth waiting for.” Bradford decided not to mention the pictures or tell her what they had discovered.”
Chapter 7
The Dinner Party