Kennedy’s Ghost. Gordon Stevens

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      ‘How many bodyguards?’ Haslam asked.

      ‘One with him all the time, plus his own driver and two more he normally has when he is in Italy.’

      Except that Benini wasn’t in Italy when he was snatched, but he still had a whole army of minders. ‘How did the kidnappers access his room?’

      ‘We’re not sure.’

      ‘You said he was last seen at eleven?’

      ‘Apparently a fax was sent to the hotel for his attention. Reception informed him and he asked for it to be sent up. The porter remembered it was eleven o’clock, give or take a couple of minutes, when he delivered it.’

      Haslam knew what the kidnappers had done and how they had done it. Months of research and planning behind the snatch itself. Which was bad, because their security would be watertight, but good, because they’d know the rules.

      ‘You’ve checked the fax?’

      ‘It’s being checked now.’

      Haslam nodded. ‘As I began to say earlier, my name is David Haslam. I work regularly for companies like the one to whom the bank is contracted under the kidnap section of its insurance policy. I’m British but based in Washington. Before that I was in the Special Air Service of the British Army.’

      Umberto was about to intervene again, he sensed; therefore he should get the next bit out the way and fast, because that way he was covered, that way even Umberto might begin to understand how they all had to play it.

      ‘Have the kidnappers been in touch yet?’

      The father drummed his fingers on the mahogany. ‘No.’

      ‘In that case the first thing we do is prepare for when they do.’ Why – it was in the way they looked at him. ‘Because they might even phone while we’re talking.’

      His briefcase was on the floor; he opened it and took out an A4 pad.

      ‘Where do we think the call will come?’ The question was directed at Umberto Benini.

      ‘I assume it will be to here.’

      ‘So who’s most likely to take it?’

      ‘I am.’ It was the wife.

      Haslam focused on her. ‘The man who calls you will be a negotiator. He won’t know where Paolo is being held or anything else about him. Nor will he have power to make decisions. He’ll report back to a controller. But the negotiator is important, not just because he’s the contact point, but because he’s the man who’ll interpret to the controller how things are going.

      ‘The key thing in the first call is that you don’t commit yourself to anything. The negotiator will say certain things. We have him. If you want him back you’ll have to pay. How you react will govern the rest of the negotiations. So it’s imperative, imperative …’ he repeated ‘… that you don’t say anything you might regret later. We do this by giving you a script.’

      He looked at her. ‘May I call you Francesca?’

      She nodded, too numb to do otherwise.

      He wrote three brief sections on the paper and passed it across the table. The wife read it and passed it in turn to her father-in-law.

CONCERN OVER PAOLO	Is he alive?Is he being treated well?
MONEY	Can’t even think about money until I know he’s alive.
IF PRESSED	Too much.Don’t have that sort of cash.Prove he’s alive.

      Umberto Benini nodded at the wife but kept the paper in front of him.

      ‘Signore Santori gave you the recording device?’ Haslam asked.

      ‘Already in position.’

      ‘Good.’ He turned again to the wife. ‘Tell me about Paolo.’

      ‘We’ve been married sixteen years; he’s away a lot now, so the girls miss him. We have this apartment in town and a home in Emilia.’

      ‘What about you?’

      ‘I run my own interior design company.’

      ‘I can see.’ He looked at the paintings on the walls and saw that she’d smiled for the first time. ‘Tell me about the girls, where they are now.’

      ‘They’re with their grandmother,’ Umberto informed him.

      ‘Have you and Paolo ever discussed the possibility of one of you being kidnapped, made any plans for it?’ Haslam looked at Francesca. ‘Any codes, for example?’

      ‘No.’ The wife’s face was drawn again, the tension showing through.

      ‘Have the police been informed. And if not, do you wish them to be?’

      Most families suffering a kidnapping preferred to keep that fact secret from the police. Partly because Italian law forbad the payment of money to kidnappers; therefore if a kidnap was reported or suspected the first action of the state was to freeze the family’s funds to prevent payment. And partly because most families rich enough to attract the attention of kidnappers normally wished to conceal the size of their wealth.

      ‘No to both questions.’ Umberto and Rossi answered simultaneously.

      ‘Fine, that’s your decision. You should be aware, however, that it’s possible they’ll find out.’ At least they were in Italy, he thought, at least there was no Ortega to worry about.

      ‘That aspect is already covered.’

      Because this is Milan and in Milan we pay to make sure that sort of thing doesn’t happen. Or if it does somebody sits on it and fast.

      Umberto Benini lit another cigarette.

      Haslam took them to the next stage.

      ‘In that case the next thing we have to discuss is our own organization, what some people call the CMT, the crisis management team. Who’s on it and who fills which roles.’

      They went through the positions.

      Chairman.

      ‘I would be more than happy to fulfil that role.’ Umberto Benini.

      Negotiator.

      Myself again – it was in the way Umberto sat back, the way he shrugged.

      It might be advisable to separate the positions, Haslam told him carefully. The negotiator’s job was communication and the chairman’s was decision-making, and sometimes the two were incompatible.

      ‘In that case, Signore Rossi,’ Umberto suggested.

      ‘In some ways a good choice,’ Haslam agreed, ‘but in other ways not. In a way it depends whether we wish to reveal the fact that the bank is involved.’

      ‘Why СКАЧАТЬ