Sunstroke by Madge Swindells

Author:Madge Swindells [Swindells, Madge]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Endeavour Media
Published: 2017-12-14T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 40

After Clive Wattling had left, Father and I spent half the night going through the files. I was amazed at how gullible some investors were.

‘The con-artist usually catches his victims through their greed,’ Father said. ‘Yet our Wolf always shows a flair for the unexpected.’

‘He’s bright and versatile. I always considered him a genius.’

‘A bent genius.’

Around two a.m. we both came to the same conclusion. The Friends of Unita fund was right up Wolf’s street.

‘Look at the initials. FOU!’ I smiled at my father. ‘Wolf always had a sense of humour.’ I picked up the file and read: ‘A man claiming to be Dr Andres Anselmo, a well-known Portuguese surgeon, formerly resident in Angola, initiated a fund to assist Unita in its drive to bring democracy to Angola. A successful fund-raising drive was launched in the States to buy military and medical equipment. Subsequently, the man impersonating Dr Anselmo disappeared with four million dollars.’

British Intelligence had typed a note stating that the real Dr Anselmo had returned to Angola to set up a mission for war casualties, but he had died of a new and virulent strain of malaria in a remote local mission station.

‘Wolf’s a natural for this one,’ I said thoughtfully. ‘He was often in Angola buying illicit diamonds. He could easily have found out about the doctor’s illness.’

‘Exactly.’

‘What does this sentence mean: “The merchant banker concerned, David Bernstein, refused to hand over the sucker list”?’

‘It means a list of those people, or suckers, who were caught by the con. A sucker list is a highly valuable commodity for any crook. Invariably the con will use this list for future scams. Some of them will probably bite again.’

Father glanced doubtfully at me. ‘We need this list, Nina. David Bernstein can’t release it because of the confidentiality banking laws in the States. You’ll have to get out there and take it. Once we have it, we’ll contact every one of them, asking them to pass on any new approaches that come their way. Whoever this con-artist is, he was working against time. He must have been concerned that the news of the real Dr Anselmo’s death would reach the American press. For cons, timing means survival. That’s how we’ll catch up with him eventually. How about booking your flight? Be ready to leave on Monday. That gives you enough time to fix your hair and get the passport pictures to Wattling. Check out Bernstein on the Internet. See what you can find. I’ll think up a reason for you to be there.’

David Bernstein’s CV was daunting, I learned later that evening. He had graduated brilliantly from Yale, only to enter the Israeli Army where he slogged in the ranks for a year before being hoisted off to Military Intelligence and awarded the rank of captain. After five years, he had returned to enter his family bank, for he was the sole surviving heir. He was thirty-four years of age, a millionaire, and last year a woman’s magazine had voted him the fourth most eligible bachelor in the States.

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