The Ilium Obligation (A Matt Savage Adventure) Chapter 27

[seymoure]

The Malvito Contract

 

“I have never yet heard of a murderer

who was not afraid of a ghost.”
-John Philpot Curran

 

“You’re going to have to read it to me,” my dazed voice box tried to sound calm, “And I’ll decide what it means.”

“This kind of call is really expensive, Boss,” she tried to take care of me, as she had always done.

“I’m a millionaire, remember?”

“Well, yeah,” she said, “I just want you to stay one.”

“Just read it to me and let me worry about the telephone company fees.”

Here is what it said, basically:

“Mr. Savage,   

“If this should reach you then I have been murdered. My solicitor in London had been given instructions that will empower a new codicil to my will that will activate this agreement.

“I have had concerns since leaving my estate in Kyoto that I am being followed by agents hostile to my involvement in the search for the Trojan Horse. I have dealt with such as these on other quests I have undertaken. These, however, are more given to violence than any I have ever encountered. So much so, that I fear for my life.

“To the point.

“If I am the victim of homicide I am contracting you to solve this crime and bring the perpetrator or perpetrators to justice. You are hereby given the enclosed check for $20,000 to pay your expenses for this investigation.

“If you bring the killer to trial that will fulfill you end of this pact. I take into account the corruption of the courts, and do not hold you to the stupidity of the jury system. All you must do is prove to authorities that there is enough evidence to take someone to trial.

“Mr. Savage, I have no family. If you do not find my murderers the entirety of my estate will go to the state. All I have left if vengeance.

“I leave you this final act. My three homes in Kyoto, London and New York. I have a great deal of stocks and bonds. My accounts in several banks amount to, at this writing, over $25 million dollars.

“It is all yours.

“Find out who has murdered me.

Yours, Victor Malvito.”

 

“That’s it, boss,” she summed up, “Plus all the legal paperwork and contact information with his lawyer and a couple of brokers.”

“Thanks, Ray,” I said, hung up and sat stunned.

“Bad news Boss?” Hugo said after a few minutes.

             “We just got another job,” I told him, “After we finish up in D.C. I think we have to go to London.”

© C. Wayne Owens
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