Page 109 of Tin God
???—Zasha back to Alaska
“And sometime later in the fall,” Carwyn said, “Henri Paulson and Zasha meet again.”
Ben said, “That’s when the crewman on thePacific Ladysaid his girlfriend saw a very scary redheaded vampire who seemed to spook Paulson.”
“Which probably means that Paulson is a victim in this,” Jennie said. “Why would Paulson be spooked if Zasha and he were working together?”
Brigid remained silent, but she updated the timeline.
1990s—Paulson in Alaska
Last summer—Zasha rents house outside Sitka (meets with Paulson?)
Last summer—Zasha and Ankers lose in Vegas
???—Zasha back to Alaska
Last fall—Zasha and Paulson meet on theDolphin
A few weeks later—TheDolphingoes missing along with the crew
Brigid looked around the room. “Zasha Sokholov is an opportunist. There’s no way of tellin’ if they approached Paulson or Paulson approached Zasha. But at some point last year, I think they decided they could benefit each other.”
She used her stylus to bring up pictures of boats on the TV and looked at Carwyn.
“These are all vessels of various size and utility that Gavin Wallace sent to us last night,” he said.
Brigid flicked through a dozen pictures, one after another. A barge. A fishing trawler. A yacht. Something that looked like a ferry. More barges.
Carwyn continued. “All these vessels were bought by anonymous buyers or shell companies inside of shell companies. And none of them are currently registered in any legal way.”
Buck stared at the screen, shaking his head. “I don’t recognize any of these ships.”
Brigid leaned on the table. “They’ve all been tracked to the Pacific Northwest over the past twelve months, and then they disappeared.”
Carwyn said, “And every single one belongs to Henri Paulson.”
Dead silence filled the room.
Jennie narrowed her eyes. “How do you know?”
Ben raised a hand. “I actually know this part. Gavin is really pissed off, and he has a team of hackers. He followed the money. Paulson suddenly started shifting a lot of gold from known accounts in the Netherlands to vampire gold exchanges in Vancouver. Regular amounts sent monthly.”
“To pay crew,” Buck said. “I mean, you gotta have crew to run that kind of fleet, and you gotta pay ’em. And if it’s off the books, they’re gonna want cash.”
“It may be a big ocean,” Tenzin said, “but money is harder to hide.”
Brigid continued, flipping the screen to more boats. “Paulson has mixed this growing shadow fleet with his legitimate fleet to expand his operations. These are not all in the Pacific Northwest—a good few of ’em are in Northern Europe.” She looked at Jennie. “Have his tariffs for doing business in Katya’s territory increased? Reportin’ to human authorities is one thing, but he should have reported them to Katya.”
Jennie glanced at Buck. “I don’t deal with financial stuff. Not my area. Like I said, Paulson doesn’t cause trouble.”
Carwyn spoke quietly. “Are you sure about that? Why does he have all these ships? Why is he expanding so quickly?”
“He’s a smuggler,” Ben said. “That’s obvious. And you know he’s hiding vampires who want to disappear.”
“That’s not a crime in our world.” Jennie leaned forward. “And Paulson’s not the only one who’s disappeared in the past, is he?”
Ben smirked. “I didn’t disappear so I could avoid paying taxes or quietly foster a vampire regime change.”