THE TAINTED TRUST (Volume 2 of The King Trilogy)

CHAPTER 98

          Monaco. Friday, September 28.

"Hi, Pierre," Kerri said, crossing the middle and index fingers of both hands.

Lambert stepped inside her suite and closed the door. He displayed a huge smile. "A numbered Iacardi account just received an injection of slightly more than one hundred and sixty-six million dollars?"

"Yes!" Kerri shouted, her waning confidence having received an enormous boost. "Thank you, Pierre. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

"Congratulations. It took an enormous amount of courage to do what you've done. You're now my wealthiest client."

"I'll never see or touch that money, Pierre."

Lambert frowned. "On that subject, I just talked to Dan Turner. He regretted to inform me that he tried every trick in the book to get the charges against your father dropped, but couldn't. He said the Feds' influence was obvious. He speculated that they leaned on the court. They did it to put maximum pressure on your father to talk. Now here's the really bad news. He further advised me that if your father can turn over six hundred million to them, they'll drop the charges and close their files. They refused, however, to put it in writing."

Kerri closed her eyes and bit her lip. In spite of all of her efforts, including risking her life, she had nowhere near that amount. "I don't know my father very well, Pierre, but I'm sure even if they gave him a life sentence he still wouldn't talk."

"Dan was delighted to hear that you had recovered the money. He said he would pass the information along to your father as soon as possible."

"Thank you. What about me? When am I going to be allowed to leave Monaco?'

"I don't know. I'm having a lot of difficulty getting answers from anyone. The police appear to be delaying any formal action on your case. Whenever I press the issue, they just tell me to be patient. I suspect they think you know where the money is."

"Will you call me as soon as you know anything? I'm really scared."

"I will. I suspect the delay is to get you to talk. I'm sure the Monaco police have been informed of the enormous amount of money involved in this case."

"Then I want you to get a message to my father as soon as possible. Tell him that hell will freeze before I breathe a word about that money to anyone."

"I'll certainly do that, but I'm confused. What could you possible hope to achieve by continuing to hide it?"

"I want my father to use it to negotiate with the Feds, but it's not enough, not nearly enough."