“Go ahead. I’m a licensed financial adviser working in conjunction with an FDIC-insured banking institution behind me. I can call myself whatever I want. I filled out the Suspicious Activity Report because I am law-abiding and had concerns, but I’m not about to betray my clients or their financial confidences blindly.”
“What kind of concerns?”
“I’m sorry, Detective Donovan. I need to know what you’re after here, or I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
Kat debated how to play it, but a grown man named Chewie had given her little choice. “I’m investigating another case where someone deposited a large sum of money in a numbered Swiss bank account.”
“And it was the same account I reported?” Chuback asked.
“Yes.”
He sat back down and drummed his fingers over the multicolored Captain Kirk lights. “Hmm.”
“Look, as you pointed out, I’m not with the Department of Treasury. If your client is money laundering or evading taxes, I don’t care.”
“What are you investigating exactly?”
Kat decided to go for it. Maybe it would shock him into some kind of admission. “A missing woman.”
Chuback went slack-jawed. “Are you serious?”
“I am.”
“And you think my client is somehow involved?”
“I don’t have a clue, quite frankly. But that’s what I’m after. I don’t care about financial improprieties. If you’re willing to protect a client who may be involved in some kind of kidnapping—”
“Kidnapping?”
“—or abduction, I don’t know—”
“I’m not, no. Are you serious?”
Kat leaned forward. “Please tell me what you know.”
“This whole thing,” Chuback said. “None of it adds up.” He pointed to the ceiling. “I have security cameras everywhere in this room. They’re recording everything we say. I want your word—and I realize that your power is limited—that you’ll help my client rather than aggressively prosecute him.”
Him. So at least she knew the gender now. She didn’t bother hemming and hawing. The recording would be meaningless in a court of law anyway. “You have it.”
“My client’s name is Gerard Remington.”
She scoured her memory banks, but the name meant nothing to her. “Who is he?”
“A pharmaceutical chemist.”
Still nothing. “So what happened exactly?”
“Mr. Remington instructed me to transfer the bulk of his account to that Swiss bank account. That’s not illegal, by the way.”
Again with the illegal. “So why did you report it?”
“Because the activity could indeed be considered suspicious. Look, Gerard isn’t just a client. He’s also my cousin. His mom and my mom—that’s the lady who showed you in—were sisters. His mom died a long time ago, so we’re pretty much all the family he has. Gerard is a bit, well, he’s on the spectrum, as they say. If he were younger, someone would have categorized him as autistic or having Asperger’s or something like that. He’s a genius in many ways—he’s a helluva scientist—but socially he is inept.” Chuback spread his arms and smiled. “And yes, I realize how strange that sounds coming from a grown man who lives with his mother and sits in Star Trek chairs.”
“So what happened?”
“Gerard called me and asked me to wire money into this Swiss bank account.”
“Did he say why?”
“No.”
“What did he say exactly?”
“Gerard said that it was his money and that he didn’t have to give me a reason. I pressed a little more. He said he was starting a new life.”
A cold blast ran down her neck. “What did you make of that?”
Chuback rubbed his chin some more. “I thought it was bizarre, but when it comes to people’s money, well, bizarre is almost the norm. I also have a fiduciary responsibility to him. If he asks for confidentiality, I have to honor it.”
“But you didn’t like it,” Kat said.
“No, I didn’t. It was out of character for him. But there wasn’t much I could do.”
Kat saw where this was heading. “Of course, you also have a fiduciary responsibility to the law.”
“Exactly.”
“So you filled out the SAR, half hoping someone might investigate.”
He shrugged, but Kat could see that she had hit bone. “And here you are.”
“So where is Gerard Remington now?”
“I don’t know. Overseas somewhere.”
Kat felt another frosty skin prick. Overseas. Like Dana Phelps. “By himself?”
Chuback shook his head, turned around, and hit his keyboard. The screens all came to life, showing what Kat assumed was his screen saver: a curvaceous woman who looked as though she’d just stepped out of the pornographic dream of a fifteen-year-old boy—or to say the same thing in a slightly different way, the sort of evocative image you see almost every time you go on the Internet. The woman’s smile was come-hither. Her lips were full. Her bosom was large enough to qualify for financial aid.
Kat waited for him to press another button, so the screen-saving bimbo would disappear. But he didn’t. Kat looked at Chuback. Chuback nodded.
“Wait, are you saying your cousin went away with her?”
“That’s what he told my mother.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“That’s what I said. I mean, Gerard’s a nice guy and all, but a chick who looks like this? Way out of his league. See, my cousin can be rather na?ve. I was concerned.”
“Concerned in what way?”
“At first, I thought that maybe he was being conned. I’d read about guys who meet girls online who get them to carry drugs to South America or do something stupid. Gerard would be the perfect mark.”
“And you don’t think that anymore?”
“I don’t know what to think,” Chuback said. “But when he made the transfer, he told me that he’s very much in love. He wants to start a new life with her.”
“And that didn’t sound like a con to you?”
“Of course it did, but what could I do about it?”
“Report it to the police.”
“And say what? My weird client wants me to transfer his money to a Swiss bank account? Come on. Plus, there was still financial confidentiality.”
“He swore you to secrecy,” Kat said.
“Right, and in my business, that’s like confessing to a priest.”
Kat shook her head. “So you did nothing.”
“Not nothing,” he said. “I filled out an SAR. And now here you are.”
“Do you know the woman’s name?”
“Vanessa something.”
“Where does your cousin live?”
“It’s about a ten-minute drive.”
“Do you have a key?”
“My mom does.”
“Then let’s go.”
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