THE KING OF MACAU (The Jack Shepherd International Crime Novels) Read Online Free

expressionless. It was obvious that she didn’t want to come up with a name, or couldn’t come up with one so, being a gentleman, I took her off the hook.
    “I taught international business at a university in Bangkok for a couple of years, that’s true, but I’m not sure you could call my academic career distinguished. I got fired because the university didn’t like the kind of people I hung out with.”
    The welcoming smile on Pansy’s face never wavered.
    “What kind of people were those?” she asked carefully.
    “I represented Plato Karsarkis. He wanted me to get him a presidential pardon so he could go back to the United States. The university didn’t particularly want to be connected with a notorious international fugitive,” I shrugged, “so they sacked me.”
    Pansy nodded slowly and studied a spot on her desk that didn’t seem to me to be all that interesting.
    “Did you think Plato Karsarkis was guilty?” she asked after a moment, her eyes still on her desk.
    It sounded as if this was going to turn into one of those ‘how-can-you-represent-a-man-like-that’ conversations. I hated conversations like that.
    “To get a pardon you have to admit you’re guilty,” I said.
    “Or at least you have to be convicted.”
    “As he was,” I nodded.
    “But do you think he was really guilty?”
    I smiled. “You don’t really expect me to answer that, do you?”
    Pansy smiled right back, and it was a very nice smile indeed. Warm and ironic at the same time.
    “Let’s sit down,” she said, gesturing toward one of the wingback chairs. “Shall we?”
    THE THREE OF US made small talk about Macau while an assistant fussed around with another coffee service. I guess that’s one of the advantages of being in the hotel business. You got all the coffee you can drink. When the assistant finally left and closed the door, Brady got straight to the point.
    “Jack says he’s not interested in our proposition,” he told Pansy.
    “I never heard your proposition,” I corrected him. “We didn’t get that far. What I said was that I wasn’t interested in taking a job investigating the triads.”
    “I didn’t ask you to investigate the triads.”
    “You asked me to locate the source of money laundering activity that you admitted might be triad related. It’s the same thing. Any white guy who accepted a job like that in Macau would have to be out of his mind.”
    Pansy made little patting gestures in the air with her hands. And very nice hands they were, I couldn’t help but notice. Her fingers were slim and tapered, and her nails were carefully manicured and finished in a deep red polish, a shade that fell about halfway on the scale between librarian and party girl.
    “I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves here, Professor Shepherd.”
    “It’s Jack,” I reminded her.
    “Yes, okay, Jack. I understand you’ve been very successful in tracing funds for all sorts of people, including agencies of the US government. You’ve come highly recommended to us as an expert in international money laundering. All we want you—”
    “Recommended by who?” I interrupted. “Or is it by whom?”
    Pansy looked confused. “What?”
    “You said I came highly recommended. I want you to tell me who highly recommended me.”
    Pansy looked distinctly uncomfortable, although I couldn’t see why. It seemed to me to be a simple enough question, so that’s what I said: “It’s a simple enough question.”
    “Yes, I see that. But I can’t tell you.”
    “You can’t tell me who recommended me?”
    “No.”
    “That doesn’t make any sense.”
    “I can well understand how you might come to that conclusion, but he asked me not to use his name.”
    Still not one of my ex-wives, then.
    “Why not?”
    “You’ll have to ask—”
    “Never mind,” I interrupted. “I’ve already had that conversation with Brady.”
    Pansy and Brady once again exchanged a look. This time I didn’t even try to guess what it