“We don't know exactly,” said Eric, “but we think that DeLouise told them to forget the whole thing if they wanted to become so personal with him. Apparently he managed to persuade them to lower their level of suspicion.”
“How?” I asked.
“I don't know,” conceded Benny. “We know that he suggested that the delivery of whatever he could arrange be made to a country friendly to Iran. That was one way of insulating the Iranians from the transactions. I'm sure there were other guarantees.”
“Did they agree?” I asked, finding it hard to believe that they were so unsophisticated.
“I guess so,” said Benny, “since apparently there was some sort of an agreement. DeLouise received a list of materials and equipment the Iranians needed, and an advance of two million dollars.”
“Without collateral?” I asked.
“No,” added Eric. “Guttmacher's bank guaranteed the advance to the Iranians, and in return DeLouise gave Guttmacher a letter of assignment, through two correspondent banks acting as intermediaries, for a deposit of $2,050,000 that a company named Triple Technologies and Investments Ltd. had in a Swiss bank. I guess Guttmacher was satisfied with that guarantee.”
I felt like I'd been hit by lightning. I tried to hold my composure.
“Do you have further details about this company, the deposit, or the bank's name?”
“I guess we might have it somewhere,” said Eric, indifferently.
Was he a complete idiot, or was he so self-centered that he didn't see the obvious even when it was right under his nose? I needed that information. Triple Technologies and Investments was the name of the company on DeLouise's American Express card.
I said, “It might tell us where the DeLouise money is hidden.” I wrote the details on my pad and asked, “How long have you known about this?”
“About what?” asked Eric.
“About the bank account.”
“I don't know. We developed the information the Mossad gave us, and the results are somewhere in the file,” said Eric, tossing it off. “I wasn't really interested in the financial details.”
I looked at Eric, trying to decide if he was pretending, or if he was indeed the dumbest CIA agent I'd ever met. “I repeat,” I said at a snail's pace. “I'm here to find DeLouise's stolen assets. The U.S. government took over his collapsing bank and paid the depositors. The government sent me to recover that money. What you've just told me indicates that DeLouise had control over a company called Triple Technologies and Investments Ltd. that had at least two million dollars in its bank account. Do you get it?”
I took a gulp of beer because my throat was dry, but it didn't calm me down.
Eric still didn't seem to grasp the significance of what he'd just told me. I continued, “You know everything but understand nothing. Guttmacher is not a fool; he wouldn't have given the Iranians his bank's written guarantee unless he was sure that the letter of assignment DeLouise gave him was valid. That means he checked the Swiss account first. Banks do that, you know. He must have received the Swiss bank's written consent for the assignment of the deposit. So that brings the level of certainty concerning this information to a new high. Pay attention also to the fact that there were two intermediary banks. That shows that DeLouise must have insisted on using them as a buffer between the Swiss bank and Guttmacher's bank to avoid detection of the ultimate beneficiary.”
Eric finally realized what was going on. “We've only had the information for a few days now,” he said with some mild embarrassment.
“I'd like to see the actual copies of the documents.”
“Tom will get them for you; they're in our office.”
“Any other revelations that you've forgotten to give me?” I asked. Eric didn't answer.
“There is one final thing,” said Benny. “DeLouise knew that the only way to show he was working on the deal was for him to travel to the Soviet Union. But he was reluctant to use his U.S. passport, because he figured that there must be an INTERPOL lookout for him and border officials generally check these. He couldn't use his Israeli passport under the name Dov Peled either. Israeli citizens need a visa to visit the Soviet Union. He couldn't ask for a visa without attracting law-enforcement attention, uniformed or plainclothes. He also knew the Iranians would be watching him to make sure he didn't betray them. Therefore, the likelihood of their finding out that he traveled with an Israeli passport was too much of a risk. DeLouise knew what happened to those who betrayed the Iranians.”
“So he needed a third passport,” I said ironically.
“Exactly,” said Benny, ignoring the fact that I already knew about this part. “DeLouise aka Peled was also known as Bruno Popescu; that's his birth name. So he travels to Bonn, goes to the Romanian embassy, and asks for a Romanian passport under the name of Bruno Popescu. Traveling to the Soviet Union with a Romanian passport has another advantage: he doesn't need a visa, a privilege left over from the time Romania belonged to the Eastern Bloc countries.”
“Did the Romanians give him a passport?” I asked, tacitly agreeing to play Benny's game of hiding from Eric that he'd already shared some of these details with me.
“Yes, although I think DeLouise helped the consul's personal fund for needy families, meaning his own, with a few hundred dollar bills. In spite of the extremely slow bureaucratic process, a passport was issued to him within forty-eight hours. DeLouise-Peled-Popescu returns to Munich, buys a ticket to Moscow, and then before he leaves – boom – a bullet to his head.” He pointed his finger to his temple.
“Something isn't right here,” I said, remembering my earlier conversation with Benny. “Do you know who his Soviet contacts were?”
“We are working on it right now,” said Eric. “I presume they should be in Moscow and Baku, Azerbaijan.”
“It doesn't sound right to me,” I said again. “On the one hand you say that DeLouise was reluctant to use his U.S. passport or openly appear in an airline reservation system, for fear that INTERPOL was looking for Raymond DeLouise – then he makes reservations to Moscow and Baku under that very same name? I know for a fact that he made reservations to travel to Moscow under the name DeLouise.”
Eric and Benny looked at each other. The room was silent.
I continued, “How could he enter the Soviet Union with a ticket carrying a name other than Popescu that appears on his Romanian passport? He couldn't even get on the plane to begin the journey.”
Benny was the first to respond. “We don't know for sure, but with his skills, he could have bought another ticket to Moscow carrying the name Popescu.”
“I can suggest another theory,” I said.
“Enlighten me,” said Eric, his eyes focused on me.
“Well, one explanation could be that the reservations to Moscow and Baku were a decoy perpetrated by DeLouise. We all know that when you want to confuse those who are watching you, you make three, four, or five airline reservations to different destinations under different names and times. Then you use only one or none at all. Bear in mind that DeLouise was trained in covert activities, so he knew the tricks of the trade.”
Eric turned red. “Tom, call the office to cable Langley to check all airline reservations for the period around DeLouise's murder under the three names DeLouise used.”
“Remember that there were more than eight or nine days between DeLouise's murder and the expected departure to Moscow with the ticket he bought under the name DeLouise,” I went on.
“I wouldn't be surprised if DeLouise had intentionally made the reservation under his own name to show the Iranians, Guttmacher, and anybody else who was watching his movements that he was indeed leaving for Moscow to take care of business. However, he also made other reservations, to go to Moscow or elsewhere, as Popescu, well before the date he was supposed to fly as DeLouise. With such a plan he could achieve several goals: one, he leaves for Moscow with everyone else thinking he's still in Germany; two, his departure doesn't alert INTERPOL because he travels under a name that it doesn't have. I also think that just before his purported day of departure to Moscow under the name of DeLouise he planned to cancel the reservations, because he had already returned from Moscow. He probably planned to be invisible for a few days and then call Guttmacher and pretend he had just returned from Moscow.” Everyone in the room looked at me in silence.
My confidence in my own theory increased. “The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that he had already traveled to Moscow even before he called the Mossad or his daughter.”
Benny gazed at me for a moment, reflecting on my theory and then said, “If he in fact did that, it was a brilliant plan.”
“Your theory is inconsistent with your own logic,” said Eric. “If we agree that DeLouise was loath to use any airline, fearing the discovery of his whereabouts, then why did he make reservations under his own name, even if he never intended to take the flight? That would have placed him in Munich, and the police could then narrow in on him.”
Eric wasn't stupid after all. “Well,” I continued, “my theoretical answer is that such a maneuver may have been an indication that DeLouise had no intention of staying in Munich on his supposed day of departure to Moscow. If I read him clearly, his plan was to return from Moscow and either disappear or continue working for the Iranians but from a new location where they couldn't threaten him personally. If he planned to run with the money, that could mean that the collateral he gave Guttmacher was bad; on the other hand, if that was good money, he probably planned this maneuver to transfer the money from Switzerland. Remember that DeLouise received two million and gave collateral with a slightly greater value. Now, if DeLouise takes off, he keeps his own two million advance, and Guttmacher collects the $2.05 million collateral. So, in effect, DeLouise gets his own two million: money he couldn't reach earlier because it was stuck in Switzerland. I don't think that the collateral was bad, because that would have caused Guttmacher to reimburse the Iranians from the bank's own resources. An unwise move for anyone who had significant additional business with the bank.”
Benny interrupted my train of thought. “I tend to believe that theory, even if it does seem far-fetched. Since the Colombians also spotted him in Munich, there was no point in staying here, and he could find a more convenient location with better weather.”
“Let's wait for tomorrow's results. Langley will tell us if your theory holds any water,” said Eric.
“Do we have any other business?” asked Tom. “I guess not,” he concluded when nobody answered.
“OK,” said Eric, “enough for today. We have some work to do in the office. Benny, what's your next move?”
“I'm leaving for Israel tomorrow and will discuss my findings with my director as soon as I see him.”
“Good,” said Eric. “You know the rules of dispersal from this location.”