Swimming to Catalina

by wire. Maybe they’re shipping cash.”
    “Money laundries, when they ship cash, ship it out of the country. Our people think the shipments are coming this way. Why would they ship money into the States?”
    “To buy things,” Stone ventured.
    “Well, of course, but what could they do with raw, unlaundered cash?”
    “Launder it.”
    “Obviously, but we’re talking about major quantities, is my guess.”
    “So they’re buying big things, like businesses; big businesses.”
    “You don’t understand, Stone; you can’t go buy a business with, say, a hundred million dollars and bring cash to the closing. The money has to be laundered, to appear legitimate, to appear to be after-taxes. It has to be in a bank and then wire transferred to another bank, or be put into a negotiable instrument, like a cashier’s check.”
    “Ippolito has a bank at his disposal, doesn’t he?”
    “He does, but I’ve checked with Treasury and the state examiners, and Safe Harbor has always been squeaky clean.”
    “Then he must be using it in some way we don’t know about. I think people like Ippolito are too greedy to be happy with the income from a legitimate business; they want more. They want it all, too; they don’t want to share it with stockholders or the IRS.”
    “Well, it’s early days; I expect we’ll come up with more as time passes.”
    “I don’t have a lot of time,” Stone said.

    “Are we talking about the kidnapping again? I can have fifty agents on that in an hour.”
    “Not yet.”
    “Not until what? Until the abductee is dead? It gets a lot harder after that.”
    “Hank, if I knew where she was I’d welcome fifty agents on it, but I don’t know.”
    “So it’s a she.”
    “Yes, and that’s all I’m going to tell you.”
    “Suit yourself, buddy; I just hope it doesn’t blow up in your face. We take a dim view of people trying to deal with kidnappers. It’s like this with ransom: you can pay the ransom and get the abductee back, or you can not pay the ransom and get the abductee back. Or—and this is the tough part—you can pay the ransom and lose the abductee, or you can not pay the ransom and lose the abductee. It’s a crapshoot.”
    “You really think that? You really think that even if these people get what they want, they could still kill her?”
    “Stone, it’s likely that the decision, one way or another, was made before they grabbed her. She could already be dead.”
    “I don’t think so; a family member talks to her every day.”
    “That’s good news, but it doesn’t mean it will last.”
    “You’re depressing to talk to, you know that?”
    “It’s part of my job to bring a ray of darkness into other people’s lives.”
    Stone laughed ruefully. “Well, you’re good at your work.”
    “I’ll call you if anything worth reporting comes up, and I’ll tell my people to listen for any talk on Barone’s lines about your abductee.”

    “Thanks, Hank.” Stone said goodbye and hung up.
    Stone found a little printing shop with a sign in the window: 100BUSINESS CARDS PRINTED WHILE YOU WAIT —$19.95. He drew a little sketch for the printer, and, while he waited, bought a cheap plastic briefcase, some file folders, and paper. When the cards were finished, he left the shop and dumped all but a dozen into the nearest trash bin, then drove to Marina Del Rey and found the marina office.
    He asked for the dockmaster and handed him a card that readREED HAWTHORNE, ADJUSTOR, CHUBB MARINE INSURANCE . He didn’t know if Chubb even wrote marine insurance, but at least it was a recognizable name. “I’m here about the sinking of a sports fisherman calledMaria, ” he said.
    “Yeah, I know about that,” the dockmaster replied.
    “We raised her a couple of days ago. She was a mess.”
    “Can you show me where she’s berthed?”
    “Sure, come with me.”
    Stone followed the man down toMaria’s berth, unconcerned that he might be recognized, since both the people associated with the boat who knew him were dead.
    “You want to go aboard?” the dockmaster asked. “I’ve got a key.”
    “No, I’m primarily concerned with security for the future, since she was obviously maliciously sunk. What kind of security do you provide here?”
    “We’ve got a night watchman who has a walkie-talkie for contacting the night man at the office. We don’t have a lot of trouble here.”
    Stone nodded sagely, opened his briefcase, and consulted several blank sheets of paper in a