The October List

meeting and was out all day. Has there been an accident? Please. You have to tell me!’
    They were regarding her with what seemed to be suspicion. Surani offered, ‘Mr Prescott has disappeared … with, it seems, a lot of his clients’ money.’
    Gabriela barked a laugh. ‘No, that’s impossible. There’s a mix-up.’
    ‘I’m afraid not. Detective Surani and I are with the Financial Crimes Division of the police department. Mr Prescott’s been under investigation for the past two months.’
    ‘A different Charles Prescott. It has to be a different one.’
    Surani had taken to doing most of the talking and he continued now, ‘The SEC and the FBI were investigating cash flow into and out of suspicious stock trading accounts here and abroad. Some of those accounts were set up by Mr Prescott and it appears they were for the benefit of various clients. There were New York connections so we got involved. It’s been going on for months.’
    ‘It can’t have!’
    Surani continued, ‘We were going to raid the office and arrest him at home this morning, but he must’ve gotten word about the investigation and fled late yesterday. There’re teams going through the office and his houses now. He’s vanished, cleaned out a half-dozen accounts in the U.S. and transferred the money into untraceable accounts overseas.’
    She looked down. They were standing at a water main access panel in the sidewalk. The ironwork was from somewhere other than New York. It wasn’t even American. She told them, ‘He did say he was going to work late yesterday. I told you – I was at a meeting out of the office most of the day. I saw him for about an hour in the morning. We hardly said a dozen words. I assumed he worked late and then went home.’
    ‘He didn’t go home. We had it under surveillance.’
    ‘He left? Oh, God.’
    Kepler asked Daniel, ‘You a friend of Ms McKenzie’s?’
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘Do you know Charles Prescott?’
    ‘No,’ Gabriela said. ‘He doesn’t.’
    Daniel explained, ‘We just met last night. Gabriela and I.’
    They lost interest in him, as if thinking it had been a pickup, a night of sex and breakfast this morning. Daniel didn’t seem to care about their impression of him.
    She continued, ‘This just has to be a mistake. First of all Charles would never do anything illegal. It’s not conceivable.’ Her voice quivered. She cleared her throat. ‘If he left unexpectedly, I’m sure it was an emergency. One of his clients had a problem. Charles’s that way. He’s more than an investment adviser. He’s a friend—’
    ‘A problem, yeah. A federal indictment.’ Kepler added, ‘Really, Ms McKenzie, there’s no mistake.’ He was unemotional, but you could also hear a fragment of irritation in his voice.
    She was blurting now: ‘I’m the office manager. How could he possibly do anything like that without my knowing? How could that be?’
    Daniel stirred, his meaning probably: That might not be the wisest thing to say, suggesting she was complicit. She fell silent. Surani blinked through his none-too-effective shades and said, ‘We don’t have any evidence you were involved in the scheme.’
    His tone, however, added the word ‘yet’ onto the end of that sentence.
    ‘Who’re the clients you were mentioning?’ Gabriela demanded.
    ‘We don’t have any names yet. A fair number were from the Far East, South America and the Middle East, according to the FBI. They’ve been tracing the cash and stock purchases.’
    Gabriela laughed, albeit a bit hysterically. ‘It is a mistake! I’ve never heard of any clients there. And I know all of them.’
    Surani countered, ‘Well, our information is that he did have clients there. Thirty-two, apparently. And he was shuttling money into these accounts. Who knows why? Money laundering most likely. But we aren’t sure.’
    ‘My God.’ A dismayed whisper. ‘Thirty-two clients?’
    ‘That was as of two days ago.’
    Gabriela opened her mouth and then slowly pressed her lips together as if words failed her completely.
    Surani: ‘Ms McKenzie, you have to understand, Mr Prescott caught us by surprise. We knew he had a one-way ticket to Zurich on Columbus Day weekend, so we thought he’d be in the country until then.’
    ‘One way?’ Gabriela said. ‘No. I make all his travel arrangements. He didn’t have any plans to leave. Sure not one way.’
    ‘Well, he did,’ Kepler barked.
    His partner continued, ‘Prescott must’ve got