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Nestor said, “From the scale you mentioned, I could imagine it being Russian oligarchs and Saudi princes, dictators who have raided national treasuries, crime syndicates, drug cartels, your run-of-the-mill billionaires with criminal sides to their businesses, or legit ones who just want to offload money to avoid taxes and acquire more wealth surreptitiously and then pass it down from generation to generation without the taxman getting a dime.”
Devine said, “But there’s more to it than that. This money is not sitting in stock and bond portfolios. From what I saw, they’re buying huge chunks of this country with it.”
Nestor shook her head. “Can you imagine if the Taliban or Iran or North Korea or Russia were getting cash flow from investments in this country to fund their terrorist activities? Kim Jong-un a landlord in New York? An Iranian ayatollah owning hog farms in Kansas? Or Putin having oil fields in Texas? That would be the scandal of the century.”
“How do you think this all started?” asked Devine. “I know that Cowl left the country over two decades ago and was gone for a while.”
“He had burned through all his inheritance by then, and he had some personal scandals he was dealing with. Over twenty years ago, when I’d only been an investigative journalist for a few years, I traced a meeting that Cowl had with some shady people in the Seychelles, but then the trail went cold. Then he dropped off the radar for about a year or so. He might have been in Asia or eastern Europe, at least those were my best guesses. Next, the man waltzes back into New York, buys and rehabs that skyscraper, starts his investment group, hires all sorts of pricey talent, suddenly has a client list that the biggest players on Wall Street would covet, and boom, he’s the talk of the town. He wasn’t even twenty-five years old.”
“And no one really questioned that?” said Montgomery. “That seems crazy.”
Nestor said, “The money folks will forgive a lot if the cash keeps rolling in. Same goes for the government. Cowl’s operations bring millions to the city and state in taxes. He employs lots of people, and they also pay taxes and spend money there. He greases the palms of politicians he needs to. He gives liberally to charities. Always good for a funny one-liner or an ‘expert’ diatribe on a business show. Lives life fast and hard but backs up the talk with results, and he can afford an army of lawyers. Who’s going after a guy like that? Hell, I’m living proof of that.” Nestor looked at Montgomery. “Now, this signaling technique using a bikini is intriguing, and unique.”
“Not the words I would use for it,” said Montgomery, looking embarrassed.
“I actually thought it was cumbersome,” interjected Devine. “It just seems like sending an email would be a lot more efficient.”
“I think I can shed some light on that,” said Nestor. “About twelve years ago Cowl came really, really close to being indicted by the Justice Department and the State of New York for some financial shenanigans. I mean huge fines, delicensing, and possible prison time. They got on to him by electronic eavesdropping. Phone, computer, associates’ electronics. He used his money and influence and a fleet of high-priced attorneys and calling in chits from political pals to get out of the jam, but—”
“—but it would make the man paranoid about relying on those types of communications again,” interjected Devine. “He actually mentioned to me something along the lines of what you just said. He told me for the important stuff, he always went analog.”
“And let me tell you something else. Anne Comely? I spent years trying to track her down. She doesn’t exist. I’m sure of it.”
“I watched an old interview where Cowl said she might just represent an idea or something like that,” said Devine.
“Well, maybe now we have our answer: It represents a criminal enterprise.” She eyed Devine over her coffee cup. “So, what will you do now?”
“Keep following the money. And anything we do find goes right to you for your exclusive. I want to make sure you come out of this with your career and good reputation back.”
“I appreciate that very much, Mr. Devine. But what about the murders? Do you think these two women found out what was going on and that’s why they were killed?”
“Ewes knew about the Locust Group. Stamos was her lover and was also sleeping with Cowl. He might have let something slip over pillow talk, and Ewes and later Stamos followed up on it. And they were both murdered, maybe as a result.”
“Financial crimes are one thing, killing people is totally something else.”
“I don’t think Cowl is calling the shots here, not really. I’ve run into some goons who decided my time on earth was up. Luckily, they were wrong. But it was strongly intimated that Cowl is not running this show.”
“If Brad Cowl is involved with the sorts of people it looks like he is, this will become even more dangerous,” said Nestor.
“I’m actually sort of counting on it,” said Devine.
