The Scottish Banker of Surabaya

( 26 )

Ava took the information that Indra had given her and put it in her bag with her notebook. She had thought about downloading and printing a map of Citraland and the area around the Paradise Run Golf Club, but given that Waru was a policeman she didn’t think it was necessary.

It was a ten-minute walk to the plaza from her hotel, and then another ten minutes to find her way to the Sheraton. As she walked, she thought about what she would be asking them to do and knew there would be questions in their minds about the why of it. But if they were anything like the men she usually worked with, no one would actually ask. Still, it would never hurt for them to think they were on the side of the good guys, and Ava didn’t want any personal motives clouding the action.

Perkasa stood waiting for her by the front desk. “They’re over there,” he said, pointing towards a nest of alcoves at the far end of the lobby.

“Are they curious about the nature of this job? Have they asked any questions?” she asked.

“No. We’re paying them enough that it doesn’t matter.”

“You should know anyway, and if you want to tell them it’s okay by me. The banker I’m after ripped off thirty or forty Canadian investors for more than thirty million U.S. dollars. Two men who knew how it was done were murdered. A lot of lives have been damaged in one way or another. We need to do what we can to mend them.”

Perkasa shrugged. “If it comes up, I’ll tell them. Otherwise they don’t need to know.”

“Then let’s go talk to them,” she said.

The brothers were of medium height and muscular and had round faces, small noses, and broad, bony chins. They stood up as Perkasa introduced Ava in Indonesian. Waru, the more confident of the two, held out his hand, while his younger brother held back. “His name is Prayogo,” Perkasa said.

The alcove held two sofas separated by a coffee table. Ava sat next to Perkasa, opened her bag, and extracted a piece of paper. “Do you want me to go through this bit by bit, or would you prefer for me to explain the whole thing and then you can translate it as you see fit?” she asked.

“Give me the big picture,” Perkasa said.

“Well, his name is Andy Cameron and he lives in Citraland, at this address,” she began, passing the information to Perkasa. “It seems to be part of a substantial urban development, so I’m sure he has neighbours. He also has live-in domestic staff. So for starters, unless you and the guys think otherwise, I don’t think trying to grab him at the house makes much sense unless we want to draw a lot of attention to ourselves — and I can’t think of anything positive coming from that,” she said. “Now, he’s playing golf today and tomorrow at his club, Paradise Run, but there’s security there, so I’ve eliminated that location as well. His office is about two hundred metres from this plaza, which also makes it a non-starter . . . So that pretty well leaves us with the job of plucking him out of his car.”

“Without attracting attention?” Perkasa asked.

Ava heard the doubt in his voice. “Well, with as little attention as possible. Waru should be able to help us figure out if that’s at all doable. I figured if we do it tomorrow then we don’t have to worry about him not showing up for work at the bank. And if we do it in the morning we can have access to him for the day, and I don’t think we’ll need more time than that.”

“You’re sure about his being accessible in the morning?”

“As I said, he’s scheduled to play golf. When do most people play in this climate?”

“The morning.”

“Exactly. Getting him on Sunday at any time is more important to me than waiting for Monday.”

Perkasa said, “Let’s make sure about the time if we can. I’ll phone the club on some pretext and try to confirm that Cameron is playing and when he’s supposed to tee off.”

“Good idea,” Ava said, realizing she’d been making a lot of assumptions.

“Regardless of when he’s scheduled to play, you want to grab him somewhere between his house and the club?”

“That’s my idea, but I don’t know how far one is from the other and I don’t have a clue about the roads in between. I’m thinking that early on Sunday morning they won’t be that busy, but we need Waru to check all that out.”

“Won’t Cameron be expected at the golf club?”

“You or Waru can call and tell them he’s had to cancel.”

“What was the name of the course again?”

“Paradise Run.”

He picked up the paper with Cameron’s address on it. “Excuse me for a minute while I talk to the guys,” he said.

Ava watched the brothers as Perkasa spoke, his tone completely matter-of-fact. Their facial reactions were equally neutral. The minute turned into something approaching five; then Waru interrupted and Perkasa passed the piece of paper to him. He and his brother looked at it together and then had their own quiet discussion. Waru finally handed it back with his own monologue and what sounded like a question.

“They want to know if the banker has a driver or not. It isn’t unusual for that to be the case, and if he does, then in all likelihood the driver will be doubling as a bodyguard and could be armed.”

“I don’t know anything about a driver. All I know is that he drives a Porsche 911 Targa.”

Perkasa smiled and spoke to Waru, who smiled back. “There’s no chance he has a driver for that car,” Perkasa said to Ava.

“I didn’t think so. Now, how about the house? Do they know where it is?”

“Yeah, Waru used to patrol the area. The house and the golf course are both in west Surabaya, about twelve kilometres apart. Waru says the banker has about a two-kilometre drive from his house, through a residential community, to the highway, and then about an eight-kilometre drive on the highway to the cut-off for the golf course. The road going to the course is only two lanes, and very winding. He says it isn’t developed around there. The course is quite isolated.”

“That sounds like the ideal spot, doesn’t it.”

“That’s what Waru said.”

“Then that’s the plan. How do you want to coordinate it?”

“Let me call the golf club first,” Perkasa said.

He walked over to the hotel desk and started a conversation with the concierge. She punched some information into her computer and then turned the screen for Perkasa to look at it. He spoke to her again and she reached for a phone and made a call while he watched. When she was done, Ava saw him slip a banknote across the desk to her.

“He’s playing tomorrow and he’s supposed to tee off at seven thirty,” Perkasa said when he returned.

“What did she tell them?” Ava asked.

“She said she was calling for a hotel guest who has some paperwork he needs to get to Cameron first thing in the morning. She said the guest wanted to meet up with him before he started to play.”

Ava looked at Waru. “Is he willing to wear his police uniform tomorrow?” she asked.

Perkasa repeated the question in Indonesian. Waru nodded.

“Great,” Ava said. “Then I suggest that we position one of our vehicles — you and I should be in it — near the banker’s house very early tomorrow morning. The other one, with the brothers, should be on the golf course road; we can leave the exact location to Waru. You and I can tail the Porsche after it leaves the house. We’ll need to be in phone contact with the other car so they’ll know when he’s left and just in case he changes his route. When the banker exits the highway, he’ll be only a minute or so from our second car. Waru can block the road then. If he’s wearing his uniform, he should be able to get the Porsche to stop without any fuss.”

Perkasa looked at the diagram she was drawing in her notebook as she talked. “And we’ll come from behind and seal off any chance of him reversing,” he said.

“Exactly. Then, one way or another, we get him out of the car. Hopefully Waru can talk him into doing it peacefully. If not, then we’ll do it forcefully,” Ava said. “Now, I want his wrists, eyes, and mouth taped as quickly as possible. There isn’t any point in giving him time to memorize faces or licence plate numbers.”

“Okay.”

“Then we bundle him into the trunk of Waru’s Pathfinder and off we go.”

“What about the Porsche?”

“Obviously we’re not leaving it there. One of us has to drive it back to Waru’s.”

“Let me explain all of this to them and then we’ll figure out who drives what,” said Perkasa.

“While you’re doing that, I need to use the washroom,” Ava said.

She scrubbed her hands with soap and then splashed cold water on her face. These are good men, she thought as she looked in the mirror. Not too many questions, not at all concerned about the why of it all. It was just a job, a well-paid job, that needed to get done. She’d been lucky with Uncle’s men over the years, and it felt to her that she’d drawn well again.

Her opinion didn’t change when she returned to the lobby. The three men had moved to one sofa, her notebook in front of them, their faces calm, focused. Perkasa looked up. “They like this plan, and the early morning timing is good.”

“Who’ll drive the Porsche?”

He smiled. “We all want to, but given that Waru is going to be in uniform and I think I should stay with you, Prayogo is the choice.”

“That’s fine with me. How about any questions they have?”

“Waru did ask how long you think you’ll have to hold the banker at his house.”

“Not past Sunday, I hope.”

“And they suggested that we drive the routes tonight, the one from the house to the cut-off and the road to the golf course. It will give us a better sense of the time involved, and Waru would like to pick out in advance the best place to intercept the banker.”

“Of course,” Ava said. She had taken that for granted but was pleased to agree to it as their idea.

“Well, then, we should get going,” Perkasa said. “It will be dark soon enough.”