THE TAINTED TRUST (Volume 2 of The King Trilogy)

CHAPTER 90

         Toronto. Ten minutes later.

Mike and Karen stared at each other, both heart throbbing, trying to decide if their telephone should be answered.

"You get it," Mike said. "If it's the Feds, tell them you don't know where I am."

Karen answered.

"Hello Karen. It's Alfred Schnieder. May I speak to Mike, please?"

"Hold for a second, Alfred," Karen said, then cupped her hand over the mouthpiece and turned to Mike. "Alfred Schnieder," she mouthed.

Mike closed his eyes and shook his head. "I don't want to talk to him," he groaned. "He's a goddamned crook. He told Visconti everything."

"How do you know that?"

"Visconti told me. That knowledge gave him his confidence. Without it, there's no way he would have had the balls to scoop the money."

"Talk to him," Karen demanded. "He might have something very important to tell you."

Karen took Schnieder's number and Mike reluctantly called him from his car phone. "What do you want, Alfred?" he asked, not caring in the slightest.

"I was anxious to tell you our window of opportunity with the Creditsuisse Bankhaus is about to close. Olaf Leutweiler has advised me that he is about to leave for an extended stay in the Far East."

"As far as I'm concerned Alfred, you can take your window of opportunity and shove it up your ass. Tell Olaf there's no money and there probably never will be."

"There is trouble?"

"There wouldn't be any if you hadn't opened your fat mouth ten years ago. How could you do that? I thought banking secrets were sacred."

"I don't understand what you're talking about. Please explain."

"Visconti just took off for Europe with all the money in our trust, and our little secret gave him the balls to do it. He said if I tried to stop him, he'd go straight to the Feds and spill his guts. He was laughing at me, Alfred, deliberately trying to humiliate me. He was so certain I wouldn't try to stop him, he even told me what he did with the money."

"And what was that?" Schnieder asked, extremely curious to know why Visconti had not shared the money with him in accordance with their plan.

"He used it to buy shares in some mirage company in Europe. I'll give you three guesses who the seller was. Now he's got the money and I've got the Feds coming at me from all directions."

"He told the Feds?"

"No. Phillip did. Your friend Visconti conned him into believing he was going to help him get his money. In fact, he was planning to have Phillip killed. For all I know, he may have already done that."

"That is not good news. Regrettably, Louis conned me as well. I am ashamed to tell you I was his accomplice. We planned to relieve you of your problem and the trust of its money. Instead of respecting your wish to give the money to charity, we planned to keep it for our own selfish purposes."

"That's beautiful," Mike said, then chuckled at Schnieder's admission. "You know the intriguing reality of the whole thing, Alfred? It's never a question of whether anyone has a price. It's only a matter of how high it is."

"Very true. In addition to preserving clients' secrets, it is a lesson one should learn very quickly in the banking business. After all my years in the business, I am guilty only once. Unfortunately, you are the innocent victim...I only wish there was some way I could make it up to you."

"Only if you could turn back the calendar, Alfred."

"Please accept my apology...If you ever discover where Louis went, please let me know."

"He's staying at the Hotel de Paris, in Monte Carlo. You should go down there and do lunch with him. You deserve each other."

"How did you find him so quickly?"

"It's a secret, Alfred. If I thought you could keep it, I might have been inclined to share it with you."