THE KING OF MACAU (The Jack Shepherd International Crime Novels) by Jake Needham Read Free Book Online

appeal to my sense of symmetry.”
    I puffed on my cigar and made a rolling motion with my right hand.
    “Okay, here’s the thing. A lot of money is laundered through the casinos in Macau. We understand that. There are thirty-five casinos already with more being built every year. And remember, Macau is a place with a population of less than half a million people. It’s a river of cash with very few people sitting on the bank watching it. It’s inevitable that a lot of dirty water is going to get mixed up with the river.”
    “That’s a remarkable image for a cop to come up with, Pete.”
    “Yeah, I thought it was pretty cool myself.”
    “I’m going to try this one more time before I give up. What’s your point?”
    “About a month ago there was a spike in the amount of money moving over the table in Macau.”
    “Pansy’s already told me that.”
    “Yeah, but it was a major spike, and it wasn’t a one time thing. It’s still happening. That worries us.”
    “How major?”
    “So far…” Pete seemed to be adding something up in his head. “Ten, maybe twelve million dollars a month.”
    “Hong Kong dollars?” I asked, since Hong Kong dollars were the usual currency of Macau’s gambling tables.
    “Nope,” Pete said. “US dollars.”
    I whistled slightly, impressed in spite of myself.
    “If we don’t do something to find the source and stop it,” he went on, “we could be looking at a hundred and fifty million dollars of dirty money funneled into the international banking system over the course of a year. I need you to help me here, Jack. I need you to trace the money. I need to know where it’s coming from, and where it’s going.”
    We came to a corner and turned north alongside a wide boulevard. I took a last puff on my Montecristo, flipped the butt into the gutter, and glanced up at the blue street sign to find out the name of the street we were on now.
    Avenida Doutor Stanley Ho
, the sign said.
    Of course it did.

SEVEN
    “I ALREADY TOLD YOU, Pete. I’m not dealing with the triads. If I won’t do it for Pansy Ho, the beautiful billionairess, I’m sure as hell not doing it for you. You’re ugly and you’re poor. Forget it.”
    “I thought you said billionairess isn’t a real word.”
    “That’s not the point.”
    “Okay, then try this on for a pretty good point. This isn’t triad money. The triads are a big deal here, but not that big a deal. A hundred million dollars is out of their league.”
    I was so surprised at that I stopped walking and glanced back at the street sign that said
Avenida Doutor Stanley Ho.
I half expected to see it smirking down at me.
    “Are you telling me, Pete, that you already know where the money’s coming from?”
    Pete didn’t say anything. He had continued walking when I stopped and by now he was half lost in the fog. I didn’t know if he was ignoring me or he hadn’t heard my question, so I caught up with him and repeated it.
    “Are you telling me you already know where the money’s coming from?”
    “No. But I know it’s not the triads.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “I just know, okay? Don’t piss me off here.”
    Pete looked over and gave me a smile that had absolutely no humor in it.
    “Look, Jack, you understand more about shit like this than anybody I’ve ever known. My job was to open the door for you. I’ve done that, and now I’ve had to come all the way up here and starve my ass off to get you to walk through the fucking thing.”
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Who do you think tipped Pansy to the spike in money passing over the MGM tables?”
    “It sounded to me like they had figured it out for themselves.”
    Pete gave me a long stare.
    “Okay,” I said when I saw Pete’s face, “but why would the FBI have to tip MGM off about money hitting their casino? They must have some pretty sophisticated cash management systems in place. They would have picked it up before anyone else.”
    “They would have if all the