The Russian Passenger by Ohnemus Gunter

Author:Ohnemus, Gunter [Ohnemus, Gunter]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781908524201
Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press
Published: 2012-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

Sunday

We’ve got four million dollars, Harry. We can’t spend them here in Italy. America’s the only place where we can really do anything with them.

How are we going to get there without passports? We can’t leave Italy with the ones we’ve got – it’s too risky.

* * *

We discussed the problem with Luigi over supper. He also thought the States a good idea. But you mustn’t take a scheduled flight, he said. A charter flight full of tourists would be best. No one would suspect you of smuggling Mafia money out of the country on a charter flight. I’ll see what I can do.

Then he looked at Sonia. Yes, I reckon the dollars would be safest in their place of origin. Does the cash in your bags come from the States? I mean, the bills weren’t printed here in Europe, were they?

The money has been laundered, Sonia told him. Laundered twice over, in fact. I drew it out of a bank in Luxembourg, little by little.

Good, said Luigi. Some Russian counterfeiters printed vast quantities of dollar bills in Germany. I don’t know what the quality was like, but the gang was busted in the end.

I can imagine, I said.

Sonia gave me an angry look. In Germany even the treasury’s official printers botch things up, she said. A few years ago a Munich firm produced a series of hundred-mark notes with no printing on the back. They even got into circulation. You Germans are so stinking rich, you didn’t even notice.

Luigi laughed. I did too.

Maybe we’d better take a close look at those dollars of yours, Luigi said.

Still, he went on, turning serious, the passports are a problem. You shouldn’t have any trouble in the States with the ones you’ve got. Italy could be difficult, though. I’ll see what can be done.

* * *

Three days later I thought of a way of getting hold of some passports. We were having dinner in a restaurant and got into conversation with an American couple at the next table. They were very nice people with plenty to say for themselves. After dinner they invited us for a drink in the bar of their hotel. It was their last night. Next day they were flying back to the States via Florence and London. They’d had a wonderful time in Italy. When we said goodbye they gave us a book that had served them well – Under the Tuscan Sun by someone called Frances Mayes. We brought it with us, the husband said, but I doubt if we’ll ever come back to Italy. The same went for me and Sonia.

On the way back to Luigi’s place I said to Sonia: I know how to get hold of some passports. American passports. We’ll steal some, that’s all.

Steal them from those nice people, you mean?

No, not from them, from some other nice people. Your criminal mentality is coming on nicely.

It wasn’t such a dumb idea, stealing some American passports. When tourists came to Italy they had to show their passports at the border or airport and then at their hotel.

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