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

money was flowing thorough MGM, but it isn’t. To them, it would only look like they were having a few better months than usual. Which is what any business always expects to have, so they don’t try too hard to explain it.”
    “You’re saying this mysterious bubble of money is turning up at more than one casino?”
    “It’s spread pretty evenly across at least four casinos.”
    “So why only tip Pansy? Why not tip everybody?”
    “Because Pansy is the most vulnerable. She scares easiest because the slightest hint of a triad connection to her would blow her personally right out of the water. I figured she might even be scared enough to hire somebody from outside to track down the source of the funds. So I floated your name and lied my ass off about how smart and reliable you are.”
    “I’m sure you did a hell of a sales job.”
    “Well…to tell you the absolute truth, it turned out to be easier than I thought. She’d already heard of you. Said you had a great reputation as a troubleshooter. She had to be thinking of somebody else, obviously, but I saw no point in correcting her.”
    Pansy Ho had heard of me? Said I had a great reputation as a troubleshooter? Even I was pretty impressed by that, but to Pete I only nodded matter-of-factly.
Of course Pansy had heard of me,
I wanted my expression to say.
How could she not have?
    “And you went through all of that…why? To save the FBI having to pay me?”
    “Don’t be stupid. I did it for the cover. You think I’d want everybody to know you’ve been hired by the US government to track down the source of a flood of money through Macau? Why would the FBI need some half-assed lawyer hiding out in Hong Kong for something like that?”
    “But you do.”
    “Well…ah, yeah. We do.”
    “I’m flattered, Peter, but—”
    “Look, man. Think about it. It’s beautiful. All Pansy knows is that I tipped her about millions of dollars being laundered through MGM every month, so she hires you to get to the bottom of it. That gives you inside access to MGM so you can shut off the dirty money before anyone finds out about it. What she doesn’t know is that some other casinos have exactly the same problem. If she thought her competitors were involved, too, she would never give you the kind of access you’re going to get. Beautiful, huh? Fucking beautiful.”
    Oh, yeah, beautiful. Fucking beautiful.
    PETE DIDN’T SPEAK AGAIN until we were almost directly in front of Government House.
    “Then today,” he said, “Pansy calls and tells me you’ve refused to take the goddamned job. You know what she asked me? She wanted to know if I could recommend anyone else.”
    “And could you?”
    “That’s not the point.”
    “In other words, you couldn’t.”
    “I got on an airplane, came straight to Macau, got a couple of our local lads to track you down, and here I am starving my ass off and begging you to take the goddamned job. Does that answer your question?”
    “I’m flattered, Pete.”
    “You sure as shit ought to be. Look, Jack, I know you’re the best at this kind of thing so I need you. You happy now? Want me to say it again? You’re the best! I need you! How’s that?”
    “My God, Pete, you must really need me if you’re willing to debase yourself like that.”
    “Tell me you’ll take the goddamned job and I’ll figure it was worth it.”
    I stood looking at the front of Government House, a two-story Mediterranean structure the color of over-ripe raspberries. With its white shutters and white balustrades, it looked like a very large cake of some very peculiar flavor.
    “Let me make absolutely certain I understand what you’re saying here, Pete. You want me to let Pansy pay me to track down the source of this mystery money and tell the FBI where it’s coming from. Is that right?”
    Pete nodded.
    “You don’t think it would be unethical of me to give you information my client had paid for?”
    Pete turned his head and gave me such a look of total