Tea Leafing: A Novel (31 page)

Tanya wanted this to go
smoothly. The goal was to get the job done and fly under the radar so if
questioned later, the employees wouldn’t be able to recall anything out of the
ordinary about Mr. Fedya Patrushev.

Heidi had begun her own
examination of the credentials in front of her. Tanya was sure that this time
the scrutiny was genuine.

“One moment, bitte.”
Without making eye contact, Heidi swiveled in her chair and lifted the receiver
on her high tech office phone. She entered a series of numbers and again, spoke
in low voice to someone.

Tanya could feel the
underarms of her shirt become damp and she thought of Shug. She concentrated on
keeping her breaths even and at a normal pace. The walls closed in and she
wondered if the teller would have gone to all the trouble of processing
documents if the Swiss Polizei were about to swoop in.

Tanya pushed the French
cuffed sleeve of her dress shirt back just enough to peek at the Cartier watch
Shug had given her as a gift upon departure, mindful not to reveal her hairless
arm to Heidi.

The gesture wasn’t lost
on Ms. Donders.

“My apology Fedya. We
handle transwer everyday, but dees is especially large.” Heidi plucked a pen
from a small beer stein next to her computer.

Tanya smiled and
nodded, hoping she seemed wise rather than panicked.

Heidi laid out the
franked documents in a row in front of her and began initialing the upper right
hand corner of each in rapid succession.

CHAPTER 74

Mary Jane spotted
Pietra the minute she shoved her way to the staircase leading to the main
floor, more by sound than sight. The commotion around the bar had died down
since the waitresses were ordered to stop serving during Ursula’s first song.
Mary Jane knew there would be a rush in the next few minutes. She hoped Bunny,
the other bartender, hadn’t realized the respite wouldn’t last the entire set.

“Oh Lord.” Mary Jane
nudged Bunny and gestured toward the one woman wrecking crew. “I think I need
to have a cigarette. You got it?”

Snorting a wicked
laugh, she smiled. “Go ahead. I got it.”

Mary Jane ducked under
the hinged counter and made a beeline for Pietra, praying she would be able to intercept
the nitwit before she started her ascent to the second floor. She wasn’t sure
whether anyone else had the balls to stop Pietra, so she climbed through
faceless bodies in the dark.

CHAPTER 75

“What the . . .” Joe’s
voice trailed off as he stared through the binoculars.

One of the two-man team
responsible for the surveying the club had called in sick. Joe had agreed to
fill in since there were no other available agents.

His partner for the
evening slurped a saucy bean sprout from a Chinese take-out container. He
tilted his head and squinted out the window of the sedan.

With a mouthful of
food, he mumbled, “Lotta’ activity in the back tonight, huh?”

His attention returned
to his food as Joe stared at the dimly lit back door of the club. Two dumpsters
stood at the right corner of the building. On the left
was
a steel door, a landing and a few concrete steps.

A homeless woman, who
had slumped against one of the dumpsters twenty minutes ago, got to her feet
and began digging through her overloaded cart.

Producing a pink
shopping bag, she scurried through the shadows and placed the bag at the top of
the steps just outside the door.

The bag didn’t sit for
long. The back door to the club popped open and a tan, slender arm reached out just
far enough to remove the bag from its resting place. The homeless woman, who’d
wandered back to her post by the dumpsters, stood again.

A feeling in Joe’s gut
told him to watch and wait. His partner was proving to be about as useful as
tits on a bull, so he kept his grip on the telephoto-lens-equipped camera and
let the man eat in peace. He zoomed in on the woman who was now unloading the
bags from her cart. Strangely, most were going into the dumpster. Usually this
was a withdrawal only situation for the homeless.

Wiping the corners of
his mouth with a napkin, his partner said, “I think we’ve seen that woman
rooting around there before. Probably nothing to write home about.”

Joe smiled and
answered, “Yeah, probably right.”

His eye stayed glued to
the viewfinder watching the woman push her cart to the dark side of the steps
behind a southern pine. The back door popped open again and an arm reappeared.
So slight was the door’s excursion, he couldn’t be certain whether or not it
was the same arm. The club’s interior was dark making recognition next to
impossible.

Loosely tied garbage
bags were being set outside the door. From the movement of the sacks, Joe could
tell they had some weight to them. Crouched just behind the door of the club,
the homeless woman was now pulling bags into her cart as quickly as they were
coming out the door.

Super Fed continued his
slurping, oblivious to the unfolding events. Joe tried to make sense of what he
was seeing. His training told him to keep still. It took several minutes for
all twelve bags to hit the cement and be diverted into the cart. The steel door
swung shut.

The hunched woman
unfastened two bags she had saved from her original load. Although the shadows
made it difficult to tell exactly what was going on, it looked like cans were
being dispersed between several of the top plastic bags just loaded. She swung
the now partially empty bags back onto the top the cart. Straining, she guided
the shopping cart across a grassy patch and onto a nearby sidewalk.

From underneath the
navy skullcap the woman wore, Joe could swear he saw wisps of red hair. The
woman turned her head to look at the traffic traveling past her to the left and
pulled her coats closer to her face. She leaned into the task, using her body
weight to push the cart along the cracked surface and toward the driveway
leading to the club’s entrance.

CHAPTER 76

Tanya watched the
manager initial the slips.

“I’ve taken da liberty
to called and werify dees transwers are in prozess, Fedya.” Heidi’s smile was
genuine and her knitted brow was now smoothed, taking ten years off her
appearance. Tanya wanted to recommend a moisturizer, but thought better of it.

“Zign und dees weel be
guute.” Heidi pushed the slips across the desk toward Tanya.

Busying herself with
her computer, Heidi punched keys and tried to give Tanya the illusion of
privacy.

Picking up the provided
pen with her left hand, she began signing Fedya’s name as she had practiced a
hundred times before. The undertaking was especially challenging for the right-handed
Tanya. Finishing the task, Tanya set the pen on top of the stack to signal
Heidi she was done.

Comparing the signature
to that on her screen, Heidi smiled.

“Ms. Heidi, I can’t
zank you enough. Your beauuuty iz only matched by your competenze.” Tanya gave
her a broad smile.

Blushing and looking
down she withdrew a small digital device Tanya instantly recognized as a thumb
print reader. Her heart skipped a beat.

“Dees ees formality but
I’m shure you understan for secuurety . . .”

Tanya absentmindedly
checked the latex sheath covering her right thumb before placing it over the
scanner. She wasn’t sure if the Swiss banking system had adopted the
fingerprint system for security but since it was universal back in the States
they’d taken the precaution of casting a false print just in case.

At the end of the night,
Mary Jane spent bartending in the Skybox, she’d slipped Fedya’s glass into her
apron with a beverage napkin. At the time they weren’t sure it would be needed.
But Mary Jane was smart enough to know there might never be another a chance to
lift his prints. The idea was to approach Helvetia with a stacked deck.

Sealing Fedya’s glass
in an aquarium with some baking soda and superglue saturated cotton
balls,
was all that was needed to lift and set the prints. A
transfer was made, then a mold, and finally the flesh colored latex cast that
was applied with spirit gum. Tanya would be happy when her surgery was over so
she’d never have to look at another bottle of the gooey adhesive.

Tanya moved her right
thumb to the glass of the scanner. Heidi’s computer burped an unattractive
sound.

Heidi hit a key and
gestured for Tanya to try again, “Deed not read eet. One more please.”

Watching her own thumb
move in slow motion, she positioned her thumb on the glass oval again. She
noticed the glue had begun to release ever so slightly around the edges. Beads
of sweat now dotted her forehead.

The computer paused
while the red light on the pad scanned the false thumbprint.

Horrified, Tanya
wondered if the scanner was able to read not just one, but two sets of prints
through the latex. A standard stamp would have been no problem but realizing
this was an untested theory made her shiver.

The device buzzed
followed by a happy chirp from the speakers on the Bank’s computer.

Heidi swiveled her
chair to face Fedya and began tearing the duplicates from the documents in
front of her, neatly disposing of the strip of spine.

Heidi gathered the
single slips for Tanya one final time. The tapping and straightening ritual was
soon over and the manager rose and handed the slips to Tanya.

“Ze transwer,” she
paused, “is complete in tventy-four hours.’ She slipped a business card from
its holder and offered it to the dumfounded Tanya. “Eef vee can halp again,
plees call on me.” She extended her hand in front of her for the traditional
close of business handshake. Her earnest face melted into a smile.

Tanya grasped her
hand,
only half believing she’d pulled it off. She bowed her
head in a show of respect and turned to leave.

CHAPTER 77

“Get outta my way!” Pietra shouted at the bouncers stationed at the
bottom of the staircase. “Gio will have yuh heads when he finds out! Let me go
see my SON!”

“Please, ma’am,” the larger of the two tried to reason with her. “The
orders came from Gio. No one is allowed to move around the club while Ursula’s
first song is going on.” He gestured to the darkness, “Fedya is worried about
the liability of someone getting hurt. Just a couple more minutes and we can
escort you up there.”

Mary Jane came to a skidding stop just short of the threesome. Panting,
she said, “Pietra, Gio wants me to entertain you in front while Ursula’s first
song is ending.”

“Who the hell awe you?” Pietra’s anger turned toward Mary Jane.

“I’m one of the bartenders. I was just going out for a quick cigarette
break. I called to clear it with Gio and he asked that I keep you company for a
bit. He said he’s afraid you’ll get hurt if you try and go up there now.” Mary
Jane blew out a long breath, thinking she should quit smoking.

Pietra looked back at the bouncers to confirm this was the truth.
Recovering quickly from their confused expressions, they both nodded
vehemently. No order had come down from Gio but both were ready to have Pietra
distracted and away from them.

Pietra weighed her options for a few moments, muttering to herself.

“Foine!” Turning on her heels she stomped off toward the front door,
with Mary Jane skipping along behind.

Two of the door girls and several bouncers winced as they saw Pietra
heading back toward them and they quickly busied themselves.

CHAPTER 78

“Fack. Sonovabatch.”
Birdie grumbled. The random pedestrian must have thought she was just a crazy
old lady but the heartfelt curses were real as Birdie struggled to maneuver the
loaded shopping cart. She smiled as she rolled the club’s cash across the
street and past the entrance of the club. The valets were busy loading and
unloading cars of rowdy men. Bouncers chattered into the walkie-talkies
attached to shoulder harnesses while funneling the crowds through the front
door of the club like cattle going to slaughter.

Midway down the gentle
slope of Piedmont Avenue, in the direction of the self-storage place, Birdie
lost control of the cart, sending it into the flow of traffic. Knowing it would
be impossible to get the cart back onto the sidewalk, she cursed and maneuvered
so that it was parallel to the curb. Picking up her pace, she hoped
she wouldn’t get nailed by a fast moving car
.

A few minutes passed. Just
as Birdie was feeling more confident about her progress, flashing red and blue
lights over her shoulder sent her into a cold sweat.

“Ma'am, please move the
cart out of the roadway. You’re obstructing traffic.” Came a bored male voice
through a speaker mounted to the exterior of the police car.

Birdie continued her
progress like she hadn’t realized the cop was addressing her.

“Ma'am, please leave
the roadway.” The voice came again, with a sharp edge this time.

Birdie waved a gloved
hand without turning to look. Hoping the years her mother spent faithfully
attending mass had somehow earned her enough extra-credit-by-association that
God would cut her some slack on this one.

Wahn. Wahn.

The officer tapped his
siren two short bursts, designed to get her attention as he pulled to the curb
opposite her. A spotlight mounted just in front of the driver’s window blazed
to life and pointed toward Birdie and her derailed cart.