05.3 Netting

Nightfall at the Silverside Club, a police squad arrived to check on Marina’s belongings and question the guests. Shadowy movements of the robed figures meandered on the rambla and loomed over the piazza under the amber lights.

John Pellufa maintained his shoulders high and eyes wide open, “No, you cannot talk to them.”

“Why can’t we?” asked the officer.

“They’re my clients, eh! VIP, very V-V-I-P. You don’t understand! Different folks. They come from different world. Different culture. Dunque! They don’t speak Spanish, no Italian, no French, no English.”

“We must check her room!”

“You need a warranty. A warranty from Mr Falak. He’s in Brazil. But I will show you her room and arrange talk in presence of the PR,” said John Pellufa, “You question them one by one at my office.”

“Why?”

“Perché!” manager frowned, “You don’t understand these people, eh!”

“Okay,” said the officer, “Do you know that she was having an outside contact?”

“She talked to an American one day on the phone,” disclosed Elena, the receptionist.

“What was his name?”

“Jamal.”

“An American Jamal?”

“He brought those photographs,” said Elena, “he came here insisting to meet her. He called on the phone from this lobby.”

“Did they meet?” asked the officer.

“I didn’t see them together,” said Elena.

Andrés added nothing.

“See!” cried the officer, “That is why we must check her belongings!”

Police checked her room and they were showed to another room stocked of suitcases one on top of the other up to the ceiling – her belongings. There they decided to call it off.

Police could not find any more photos from Marina’s possession. Some staffers and the manager saw those photos police brought gathered from Lucero’s possession.

They sat down to question the guests, with help from the PR as their translator, and called one by one to the club office but none would talk. Those two personal maids, Layla and Adela, claimed that they never saw those photographs in Marina’s possession. They did not even mention that they met at Malibet.

Here the operator would pass the calls but they did not keep records or recordings. So, the only two known outside contacts were Jamal Carreon and José Lucero.

Police pulled out after midnight. Crowd gathered outside the Silverside Club to watch the lights of police cars.

Meanwhile, police had gone into to the tennis club and interviewed the club manager. Police called a search for a brown Club Wagon, the Ferrari and a photographer.

 

“Bitch!” cried Zaid Falak when he was told, “Another American Jamal!”

“You must talk to the police.”

“I can’t talk to the police! They’ll come to know everything. I’m in the middle of a very important business trip. My life depends on it. And what would my old man say!”

“He will understand, Mr Falak,” spoke Idris, “but at this point we must go to Buenos Aires and show our priorities are to save your wife, protect your family and members of the staff.”

“Hell with women!”

“Mr Falak,” his secretary tried to get his attention.

“Dubur! Dubur!” he gave a twerk, “Now she’s got those buttocks like watermelons. Not when I got married. I don’t know why I married her in the first place.”

“Mr Falak, it is time to call.”

“A police probe will eventually dig out this one and half billion dollars I am trying to save by putting them in banks here in South America. Do you know that transferring them in private jet is illegal?”

“Mr Falak! We can think about it later,” insisted Idris.

“It is everything. There is nothing else to think. Number one concern. My money!”

“Mr Falak! You must move your family to Buenos Aires immediately. We can expect a ransom call…”

“Ransom! I am not going to pay a single dime! She ruined my whole life!”

“Please! Let’s talk some sense!”

“Go on!”

“There are places you can still put your money. I understand the weight of the matter is grave but countries like Argentina will still take your money. That is most important. We must cooperate with them.

“Argentina is hit with recession, hyper-inflation and riots, begging for funds from IMF or any source. An injection of money from any side would help ease tension,” Idris continued, “You have a large stock. All you need to do is to talk to the top brass directly and leave aside the banks.

“The Pharoah partnership failed and it left void in the Argentine Central Bank for a party to fill. BCCI paid bribes to the directors and loans to build Pharoah’s luxury hotel, by all means, buying the Argentine foreign debt with a huge discount and cashing it with the Central Bank. As a result, the Central Bank in essence kept financing the hotel scheme. And BCCI paid no attention to anything else other than Pharoah’s projects.

“Pharoah managed to cut the red tape placed by legislators on his project by talking to the president. That is the underlying truth; that too is possible even today.

“Now you know the case is going on in court and Pharoah is out. BCCI created a hell of problems there. Talks of financing an Arms Deal, procuring drawings from Miami; nothing but lies. Argentina is not looking for a broker, they need a financier.”

“What will happen to my money then?” asked Zaid Falak.

“If the economy takes a turn, it will do good for you, even better,” replied Idris.

Only he knew that his money in BCCI could not be recovered if he did not take this action now. BCCI entered a probe and he knew the scandals behind it. Zaid Falak was deep in it to his neck. There was no way out.

His father, the Old Sheik, was a conservative and an oil baron who inclined to stock his fortune in vaults at his palaces in Sharjah, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Zaid Falak wanted to save every dollar by transferring them out of the Arab World.

Some old wealthy people believed that they have fallen victim to the UAE and these disputes remain in the fragments of the foundation. This move of transporting large sums of money in cash from one country to another was illegal. It would surface anyhow now after the incident of the abduction of his wife. UAE or any government for that matter would try to stop his move.

Zaid Falak returned to his senses and began to make calls to assure his support and cooperation.