CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Jock and I were having lunch at the Seafood Shack when his cell phone rang. He excused himself and walked out to the marina dock next to the dining room. He was back in a few minutes.
“Matt, I hope you’re not going to be pissed at me, but I need to tell you something.”
I looked at him, puzzled. I made a come on gesture with my hand.
“I had Chaz Desmond checked out.”
“Why would I be pissed about that?”
“He saved your life.”
“I checked him out too, Jock. As best I could on Google.”
“Glad you’re okay with it, because we got some curious information when we ran him through the systems. Did you know that he was sending money every year to a man in Vietnam? A lot of money.”
“I didn’t know that. How much?”
“Two hundred grand.”
“That is a lot. Who’s the recipient?”
“A man named Tuan Nguyen.”
“Tuan Nguyen? That’s mighty close to John Nguyen, the guy from O’Reilly’s.”
“That’s what I thought,” said Jock.
“Chaz just writes him a check?”
“No. The scheme is a little more sophisticated than that. Chaz owns Desmond Engineering Consultants, Inc. Every year, according to the firm’s tax returns, a two-hundred-thousand-dollar donation is made to a charitable foundation named Evermore. Evermore has only one beneficiary, this guy Tuan Nguyen.”
“Is the foundation recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a charitable organization? Are the contributions deductable?”
“Yes on both counts. On the other hand, the IRS doesn’t check into these things very closely. Almost anybody can set up a foundation and get a tax-deductable certificate.”
“I’m guessing that you found the man behind the foundation.”
“Right. Charles Desmond.”
“So,” I said, “his firm contributes to a charitable foundation that he controls and the money always goes to the same person. How long has this been going on?”
“This is the fifth year.”
“Blackmail?” I asked.
“I don’t know. I suppose if somebody was blackmailing you and you wanted to save a little money, you could do it by making a tax-deductable donation to a charity and running the money that way.”
“How does the money get from the foundation to Nguyen?”
“Wire transfer,” said Jock. “To a bank in Ho Chi Minh City.”
“And from there?”
“We don’t know. I’ve got my computer geeks trying to break the encryption on that bank. They’ll be able to get in sooner or later, but you know we’re still a low priority.”
“Can Deb help us?”
“Something like this is way above her head. If she tried to get in, she could leave footprints that could be traced back to her. That might put her life in danger.”
“Then I guess we’ll just have to wait until your guys can help us out.”
“This case is getting stranger and stranger,” Jock said.
“Maybe the guy at the airport was Vietnamese.”
“But why would he be interested in killing you?” asked Jock. “You’re working for Desmond.”
“I don’t know, but I think I need to talk to Jimbo Merryman.
At eight that evening, Doremus called. Chick Mantella had moved out of Charlotte and was living in a condo in downtown Orlando.