CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

Vito Collucci could find anything, if the matter was about money. He made his living as a forensic accountant, tracking down the buried assets of philandering husbands for vengeful ex-wives. The hidden profits of large companies trying to fend off class-action suits. Before putting out a shingle, he had been a detective on the Stamford police force for fifteen years, which was where Hauck knew him from.

Vito Collucci could spot a bad seed in a sperm bank, he liked to say.

“Vito, I need a favor,” Hauck said over the phone, heading out to the airport for his flight from Pensacola.

These days Vito ran a good-size company. He was a frequent “guest expert” on MSNBC, but he had never forgotten how Hauck had thrown him cases when he first got started.

“When?” he asked. When Hauck called, Vito knew it usually involved information. Information that was hard to find.

“Today,” Hauck said. “I guess, tomorrow, if you need it.”

“Today’s fine.”

Hauck landed at two, taking his Bronco up from La Guardia. As he passed Greenwich heading to Stamford, the station a mile away, it occurred to him that he was getting deeper into something and a little further outside the law than he liked. He thought about giving Karen Friedman a call but decided to wait. There was a text message on his phone.

Usual place. From Vito. Three P.M. was fine.

The usual place was the Stamford Restaurant & Pizzeria, a no-frills cops’ haunt on Main Street, past downtown, close to the Darien border.

Vito was already there, at one of the long tables covered in checkered cloths. He was short, barrel-chested, with thick wrestler’s forearms and wiry graying hair. A plate of ziti with sauce was set before him, and a bowl of escarole and cannellini beans.

“I’d run up the check,” he said as Hauck came in, “but you’re lucky, Ellie’s got me on this cholesterol thing.”

“I can see.” Hauck grinned and sat down. He ordered the same. “So how’ve you been?”

“Good,” Vito said. “Busy.”

“You look thinner on TV.”

“And you don’t seem to age,” Vito said. “Except for that shiner you’re carrying. You gotta realize, Ty, you can’t tussle with the young dudes anymore.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

Vito had a manila envelope beside him on the table. He pushed it over to Hauck. “Take a peek. I’ll let you know what I found.”

Hauck gazed at the contents.

“The ship was easy. I looked it up in Jane’s. Persephone, right?” Vito stabbed at a few ziti with his fork. “ULCC-class supertanker. Built in Germany, 1978. Pretty much outdated now. What’re you thinking, maybe of trading up to something a bit more seaworthy, Ty?”

“Might look good on the sound.” Hauck nodded. “Be a bit of a bitch to dock, though.” He scanned a photocopied page from the nautical manual that displayed an image of the ship. Sixty-two thousand tons.

“Been sold around a couple of times over the years,” Vito went on. “The last time to some Greek shipping company-Argos Maritime. That mean anything to you?”

Hauck shook his head.

“Didn’t think it would. So I kept at it. Pretended that I was a lawyer’s assistant to the company, tracking down a claim. The past four years this scrap heap’s been leased to some oil-exploration outfit I can’t bring up anything on anywhere. Dolphin Oil.”

Hauck scratched his head. “Who’s Dolphin?”

“Fuck if I know.” Vito shrugged. “Believe me, I checked. No record of them anywhere in the D &B. Then I tried a trade list of petroleum-exploration and-development companies, and it didn’t show up either. If Dolphin’s a player in the oil and gas business, they’re keeping it pretty much on the QT.”

“You think they’re a real company?”

“My thoughts exactly,” Vito said, pushing his plate away. “So I kept digging. I tried a directory of offshore-company listings. No record of them in Europe or Asia. I’m thinking, how does a company with no record in the industry lease a goddamn supertanker? Guess what came up? Feel free to turn the page.”

Hauck did.

Vito grinned widely. “Out of Tortola -in the BVIs…Whaddaya know about that-Dolphin fucking Oil!”

“In Tortola?”

Vito nodded. “A lot of companies are being set up there now. It’s like a mini-Cayman Islands. Avoids taxes. Keeps the funds out from under the eye of the U.S. government. As well as the SEC, if they’re public. Far as I can tell, and I’ve only been at it a couple of hours, Dolphin’s basically just a holding company. No revenues or profits of any kind. No transactions. A shell. The management seems to be just a bunch of fancy barristers down there. Check out the board-everybody’s got an LLC behind his name. Far as I can tell, it basically belongs to this investment company that’s situated down there as well. Falcon Partners.”

“Falcon…never heard of it.” Hauck shook his head.

“You’re not supposed to have heard of it, Ty. That’s why the hell it’s there! It’s some kind of private investment partnership. Or at least was. The fund was dissolved and the assets redistributed back to its limited partners earlier this year. Took me a while to figure out why. I was hoping to try to get a list of who the partners were, but it’s totally private-buttoned up. Whoever they are, the money’s probably long back to wherever it came from by now.”

Hauck scanned over the one-page company summary of Falcon. He knew in his gut he was getting close.

Whoever owned Dolphin had been engaged in some kind of cover-up. They had used empty tankers but declared that they were filled with oil. Pappy had stumbled onto it, and they’d tried to shut him up, but whatever they were hiding, he wasn’t the kind that shut up easily, and it had ended up costing him his son. Seen enough now? Dolphin led to Falcon.

Close enough, Hauck felt, the hairs raised expectantly on his arms. “How the hell do we get to Falcon, Vito?”

The detective was staring at him. “What’s the point of all this, Ty?”

“The point?”

Vito shrugged. “First time since I’ve known you you’re not up front with me. My spies tell me you’re on leave from the department.”

“Maybe your spies told you why.”

“Something personal, is all. Some kind of case that’s consuming you.”

“It’s called murder, Vito, no matter who I’m working for. And if this was all just so personal”-Hauck looked back at him, curling a smile-“I’d have called Match.com, not you.”

Vito grinned. “Just warning an old friend to stay within the boundaries, that’s all.”

The private investigator took out a folded piece of paper from his jacket pocket and pushed it across the table. “Whoever Falcon is, Ty, they wanted to keep it secret. The board’s pretty much the same legal functionaries as Dolphin.”

Hauck scanned down the page. Nothing. Fucking close.

“One thing, though,” Vito added. “I mentioned that Falcon was comprised of a bunch of limited partners who want to remain secret. But the general partner is listed. In the investment agreement, plain as day. It’s the outfit who manages the funds.”

Hauck turned the page. Staring back at him, there was a name. Vito had highlighted it in yellow.

When Hauck’s gaze fell on it, his heart sank a little, as opposed to the leap he’d always imagined. He knew where this was about to lead.

Harbor Capital. The general partner.

Harbor was the firm that belonged to Karen Friedman’s husband.

“That what you’re looking for?” Vito asked, watching Hauck dwell on the page.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m looking for, buddy.” Hauck sighed.