Ava stripped as soon as she got to her hotel room. She could smell sweat, car trunk, and dog urine. She packed the clothes she had been wearing in a plastic laundry bag and tied it tight. Then she went into the bathroom and showered.
When she came out a half-hour later, she put on a clean black Giordano T-shirt and track pants, then packed the rest of her clothes for the trip. She buried the laundry bag in the bottom of her Louis Vuitton suitcase and put a powder-blue Brooks Brothers shirt and a clean pair of slacks in her “Double Happiness” bag. If she went directly from Gatwick to Lily Simmons’s office, she would need to change on the plane.
She sat down near the window with her Moleskine notebook in her lap and began to organize her thoughts. With the money she’d moved that day, her worst-case scenario was that they would recoup a bit more than six million dollars, and that factored in what she had promised to give back to Douglas and Ashton even if she failed with Simmons. It was lot of money — more than what they went after on many jobs. But compared to the sixty-five million that was sitting in Cyprus, it was insignificant. All she had to do to get that jackpot was convince Lily Simmons to sign a piece of paper.
Ava checked the time. It was almost five o’clock — eight o’clock in the morning in Hong Kong. She needed to call Uncle.
“ Wei.”
“We’re back and it went well.”
He listened without interruption as she described how the afternoon had gone. When she finished, his first question was, “How soon can you see this Simmons woman?”
“Late tomorrow. I’m flying to London tonight.”
“And the woman doesn’t know that Ashton and Douglas stole the money?”
“No.”
“Could that be a problem?”
“The opposite, I would think. It has a certain shock value that I can embellish. Although, you know, that doesn’t mean she’ll react the way we want.”
“If anyone can manage that, you can,” Uncle said. “Now I need to call Chang. It is as I thought. Now that Ordonez knows for sure his brother was swindled, he is becoming fanatical about getting the money back. Chang says he can barely get him to focus on anything else. This news might calm him, but I will tell him only about your success in Las Vegas. I will leave the rest of it as vaguely promising. We do not want to raise expectations that we cannot guarantee will be met.”
“Thank you.”
“Now, how about Carlo and Andy?”
“I’m sending them to Los Angeles tonight. They’ll be on a plane back to Hong Kong tomorrow.”
“Ava, do you want to keep them closer?”
“Jackie Leung?”
“Yes. He has not been cornered yet. We have found out that he was talking to Sammy Wing, and I have sent Sonny to see Sammy.”
“Wing is a friend.”
“Wing was a friend. He is in the process of becoming one again.”
“Uncle, I can’t take Carlo and Andy to England with me. I have enough on my mind as it is.”
“I am just being cautious.”
“I know, and I appreciate the offer, but they would just slow me down. Now, when will you call Manila?”
“Not for a while. Chang is as old as me but he still likes to sleep.”
“Good luck with him.”
“He is not the problem.”
“I know. Ordonez left a message on my phone last night. I didn’t call him back.”
“That is his nature: he feels compelled to manage everything. You would think that with an empire as big as his, he would have learned to let go. And this situation with his brother has probably only made things worse.”
“I’m not going to call him and I’m not going to take his calls.”
“I will handle it. Call me as soon as you have met that woman.”
Ava put down the phone. Let Uncle work his magic, she thought. I’ll look after London. Let him handle Hong Kong and Manila.
She turned on her computer and logged into her email account. She had received a new batch of messages, and almost without thinking she opened the most recent one from Mimi. Hey sister, Just wanted you to know that Derek’s moved out of your place and into mine for a while. God, girl, why did you keep him from me? He can’t stop playing with my tits, and I can’t stop playing with his cock. I thought you said Chinese guys had small dicks. Liar. Love, Mimi
Ava almost threw her computer against the wall. It took her five minutes to collect herself. I love them both, she thought. Maybe, just maybe, it will work. But why did Mimi have to share so freely about their sex life?
Dear Mimi, Ava wrote. I’m happy for you if it works out, but I’m nervous that it won’t. Either way, I don’t want to read or hear any more about your tits or his cock. Love, Ava.
She closed the computer and opened her Moleskine notebook. Across the top of a blank page she wrote Lily Simmons and started piecing together a strategy for dealing with her. All she had to do, she reminded herself, was get the woman to sign a single piece of paper. The fact that it was worth $65 million was only a detail.