“I don’t understand,” Lance said.
“It’s better that way,” Holly replied.
“Come on, Holly,” Stone said, “who better than Lance?”
“Yes,” Lance said, “who better than me? If you have a problem, I’d like to help.”
Holly looked around the table.
“Maybe I’d better go to the john,” Dino said, half rising.
“Sit down, Dino. All right, I’ll tell you about it.” Holly went through her story. Everyone was rapt, except Stone, who seemed to have trouble not laughing.
When she had finished, Lance patted her hand. “Don’t worry about it, my dear, we’ll think of something.”
“Think of what?” Stone asked.
“Yes, what?” Holly echoed.
Lance looked around to be sure he wasn’t being overheard. “You have a large sum of money obtained from an illegal operation—money you didn’t report. You want to get rid of it in a, shall we say, profitable manner?”
“I suppose.”
“This is called money laundering, and there are a number of ways to do it.”
“I’ll bet,” Stone said.
“All of them carry a certain amount of risk,” Lance explained. “Perhaps the safest thing to do is for you to get the case to me, and I’ll deal with it. After a little time has passed, you’ll have a sizeable sum deposited in an overseas bank account. You’ll receive a credit card in the mail, and from then on, you charge whatever you wish to the card. You’ll have to keep track of what you spend in your head, because you don’t want the mailman bringing a monthly statement, do you?”
“That’s it?” Holly asked.
“That’s it.”
“It sounds too simple.”
“Well, you’ll have to pay a service charge on the original deposit, say, ten percent.”
“To whom?”
“It’s better you don’t know. But you’ll still have more than five million in the bank, should you ever need it, and it would be invested in any manner you wish.”
“So, I’d be earning money?”
“I should think at least an eight percent return.”
“Nice.”
“Of course, you’ll owe taxes on what you earn, but you can invest in tax-free municipals. You can buy just about anything with a credit card these days—a car, for instance—but you’d want to stay away from buying anything that would create a legal record, like a house.”
“A car creates a legal record,” Holly said.
“Not an important one. It wouldn’t show up on your credit report, for instance, if you didn’t finance it.”
“There you are,” Stone said. “Pro
blem solved.”
“Not exactly,” she replied. “I’ve still got to get it to Lance.”