Sharks by Matt Rogers (best book series to read TXT) 📕

a “considerable amount of money” — according to unofficial sources — to key members of the government through a company Groves officially owned, called DEVCO. Stands for the Grand Bahama Development Corporation. They used those payments to get a Certificate of Exemption, which allowed them to drop a metric shitload of casinos and banks into Freeport before anyone else could seize the opportunity. And we’ve just discovered how beautifully casinos and banks work together, haven’t we?’

King thought of Dean Cohen’s brains plastered on the wall.

Violetta said, ‘This is all conjecture, obviously, but the late Archie Walcott seemed to form a symbiotic relationship with the casinos and the banks. Everything I’m reading hints at organised crime running smoothly through the casinos, and Walcott turning a blind eye. I’m sure he got kickbacks, but he was awfully discreet about it. There’s not a scrap of hard evidence that Archie was ever dirty, but it’s implied.’

‘Where are you getting this?’

‘You’d be surprised how extensive Uncle Sam’s records are.’

‘And now his grandson runs it all?’ Slater said. ‘He took over the family business?’

‘Archie got old,’ Violetta said. ‘He lived a long life, died in the 1990s. He made it to one hundred years old, as a matter of fact. It seems the absence of a guilty conscience is the fountain of youth. Then he handed everything down to the descendant he was closest to. Looks like Dylan expanded on his grandfather’s operation, but it’s like trying to read indecipherable code. I’m looking at a labyrinth of shell companies. He’s keeping his cards close to his chest.’

‘Can you find out more?’

‘Not unless we go have a talk to him,’ Violetta said. ‘Which I’m imagining will be harder than it sounds.’

Slater said, ‘Never stopped us.’

King said, ‘We really only need to know one thing to act on this, right?’

Everyone’s eyes turned to him.

He said, ‘Violetta, can you confirm Dylan is fully aware the money he’s laundering from Vegas is dirty?’

‘He has to know,’ Violetta said, scrolling through pages of documents. ‘There’s no way he can’t know.’

King said, ‘Then that’s someone I want to talk to.’

Slater said, ‘But is it smart to pursue it?’

A long silence.

The obvious answer was staring them right in the face.

No.

It was a long, complicated financial trail with a multitude of different players. It wasn’t their game. King and Slater usually helped people on the ground floor — desperate people, people who needed urgent intervention. They didn’t busy themselves in the boardroom, sorting through legal documents, trying to deduce who’s at fault within a global conglomerate. It wasn’t in their sphere of influence.

King didn’t want to say it.

Slater did.

He stepped forward and said, ‘We all know the answer. No. There’s plenty for us to handle here in Vegas.’

Alexis nodded solemnly. She’d reached the same conclusion.

Violetta nodded, too. She hadn’t wanted to say it first, but now that it was out there, it was the obvious answer.

King didn’t do anything. Didn’t nod, didn’t speak.

Just stood there, stewing.

Slater looked at him. ‘You taken some vow of silence I didn’t know about?’

King stayed quiet.

Kept stewing.

Slater threw his hands up in the air and made to turn away.

King said, ‘Violetta.’

She looked up from the laptop.

He said, ‘This is all just sitting there, right? I was gone forty-five minutes, and you dug up enough dirt on this Walcott guy on official government servers to show he’s rampantly corrupt. Right?’

Violetta said, ‘Right.’

‘So the government knows,’ King said. ‘They just don’t care.’

Violetta bit her lower lip to stop herself from talking.

King said, ‘What?’

She just shook her head.

He said, ‘Say it.’

She shrugged. ‘This is how the world works, Jason. This is how it is everywhere. Those in power fuck over those who aren’t and everyone turns a blind eye because they’re in on the racket. You know why I didn’t do anything about cases like this when I was employed by the government? Because a case like this came across my desk every five minutes. Some big-shot businessman screwing over the little people. It’s dirty money. It’s all dirty money. It makes the world go round.’

‘You’re saying you’re okay with it?’

‘Of course not,’ she said. ‘I’m saying we’re never going to fix it all.’

King looked at Slater. ‘That change your mind?’

Slater had ice in his eyes. ‘Yeah. It did.’

Violetta looked up at Slater. ‘What?’

Slater said, ‘Of course we’re not going to fix it all. But we can fix one thing. We can send a message.’

King nodded.

Alexis sat still, reserved.

Violetta shrugged. ‘It’s your call. I could swing either way.’

King said, ‘We’re going to the Bahamas.’

He walked out of the room.

16

Nothing more to it.

Violetta packed her bags alongside King. They didn’t talk. Everything that needed to be said had been said. They could go back and forth all day about the finer details, but she’d realised long ago that King’s style was the same as hers.

Nothing is complicated unless you make it complicated.

Sure, the paperwork was a labyrinth, but they had a target in their sights. Dylan Walcott was going to end up answering questions he didn’t want to answer, and the only way that was going to happen was after a one-way flight to the Bahamas. Everything concerning the planning of that meeting could take place later. For now, all they had to focus on was getting there.

She had a bag full in five minutes. She zipped it up, stepped back, and took a breath.

King turned around from the closet, clothes in his hands. He smiled. ‘It’s getting easier, isn’t it?’

She said, ‘It never stops.’

‘If you don’t want to do this,’ he said, ‘you can stay here.’

‘Of course I want to do this.’

He rounded the bed, took her waist in his hands. She relished the feeling.

He said, ‘I know. I don’t know why I said that.’

She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him. ‘You do know. You think you’re crazy for having a life like this.’

He shrugged.

She said, ‘You’ll realise sooner or later I’m just as crazy as you are.’

‘That’s why we’re a perfect match.’

She took her bag downstairs and got