Hardball (James Reed Book 3) by Jimmy Sangster

Author:Jimmy Sangster [Sangster, Jimmy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-09T22:00:00+00:00

He was wide awake at six thirty a.m. His body clock still hadn’t adjusted to London time. He dressed in a pair of jeans, a sweatshirt and sneakers and went for a jog. It was another cold day. Later it was going to be bright; right now it was only just getting light. The streets were comparatively empty. People didn’t go to work in London as early as they did in Los Angeles. He pounded the pavements for twenty minutes and got back to the hotel at seven fifteen. For once, Barlow didn’t appear the moment he walked into the lobby. Upstairs he called down for some breakfast and started to plan his day. At nine a.m. he called the London branch of the Swiss bank that issued his credit cards and instructed them to transfer one thousand dollars direct to Ted’s wife’s cousin in Florida. Then he called Barlow and asked for the name and number of a reliable travel agent. He called the agent and told him that he needed to go to Jersey today, what was the best way to go about it? Two hours later he was on a flight out of Heathrow Airport.

James had been to St. Helier, the capital of Jersey, once before. It still looked like an English seaside town with French overtones. The bank he was looking for was just off Broad Street and, from the outside, looked as if it might have been used by Charles Dickens. Inside it was more up to date. There was a small counter with two tellers’ windows, one of them unmanned.

Ninety-five percent of Jersey banking was done by mail or telex. A very small proportion of people owning bank accounts in Jersey ever came near the place. As a European tax haven, it didn’t compare to Switzerland or Luxembourg, but it did all right for itself.

He asked the girl behind the teller’s window if he could speak with Mr. Roget. He was asked to wait, while she disappeared into the back of the building and reappeared a couple of minutes later accompanied by a middle-aged man with a creased face and a suit to match. Only when James dropped Langer’s name did Roget unlock a door at the side of the counter and ask him to step through into a small, untidy office. How could he be of assistance? James told him that he was acting on behalf of Mr. Langer and was interested in the John Peterson account.

“I must check with Mr. Langer himself before I divulge anything,” said Roget.

“Go ahead,” said James. “I’ll wait.”

James’s ready acceptance to the suggestion was sufficient for Roget. “Please go ahead,” he said.

“How much notice would you need if Peterson wanted to close out his account?”

“In what way, close his account?”

“Say he wanted to pitch up here and take it in cash?”

“Over half a million dollars?”

“Humor me.”

“Seven days minimum.”

“Would you be prepared to waive that?”

“I couldn’t even if I wanted to. We don’t keep large sums of cash in this branch.

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