A week later, Mundo’s email finally hit my inbox- at eight o’clock on a Friday night. And like everything Olmando touched, it contained nothing more than platitudes and indirect messaging. He must have dictated it to his secretary.
Hi Pierre,
Hope this email finds you well.
Below, please find an initial networking itinerary for the month of July:
Date: Friday, July 24
Time: 7:00pm
Location: Norwood Club
Attending:
Filo Betancourt
Stefano D’Acosta
Luis Arauz
Javier Ruiz
Ernesto Castellano
Bernard Searle
This list will be updated as attendance is confirmed.
Date: Friday, July 31
Time: 9:00pm
Location: Bobo, 181 West 10th Street
Attending:
Skip Artis and date
German Flores and date
Andres Vilariente and date
Please reach out if you have any questions.
Best,
Olmando
And that was it.
I really didn’t want to spend the time to get all Blue’s Clues and deconstruct the email, but I refused to call Mundo and ask him what the fuck this was all about. So, I did the next best thing- I texted Hopeton and asked where he was.
At home. What’s up?
Mundo sent me some fucked up shit that I need help decoding.
Ok, give me an hour. I’ll come over to you.
I placed a bottle of rum and a bottle of Armagnac on the kitchen table then called Gino’s pizza for an extra-large pie- half sausage, half extra cheese.
Hopeton showed up exactly on time, a bottle of red wine in hand.
“I figured if this involved Mundo, alcohol would be needed,” he said drily.
“I broke out the rum and the Armagnac and I got us a pizza,” I replied.
We sat in my kitchen and poured ourselves drinks as I explained the mystery of Mundo’s shady email.
“Basically, you and I need to figure out who these people are and what it is he wants me to do with them,” I explained.
I fired up my new laptop and showed him the email.
“So, this guy,” I pointed to Filo’s name, “is someone I met at the Mandarin Oriental when Mundo dragged me to some random drinks thing in Miami. All I know about him is that he and Doe know each other from the Panamanian Business Club.”
Then I pointed to Skip’s name. “Same with this guy. The rest of them, I have no idea about.”
Hopeton nodded and said, “The thing at the Norwood is obviously just drinks with a group of random men. Let’s google their names and see what we can figure out. See if any of them connect. And the second event is clearly a fancy ‘wives and girlfriends’ dinner.”
He looked at me and asked, “Do you even have a girl you can take to something like this?”
“Of course not, Hopeton,” I replied. “Back when PanStar was a weapons depot, I’d make Eula go with me to anything that required a female. I don’t even have anything like that anymore.”
I thought of Mistou, and wondered if she’d be interested in coming up to New York for the weekend.
Hopeton filled his glass to the rim with Armagnac. I grabbed a slice of pizza.
An hour later, we’d come to the conclusion that the first event was most likely being positioned to a handful of Panamanians with ties to Central American banking and credit companies, international development projects and semi-shady political fundraising organizations.
“So, this would be Mundo’s money grab crew,” I reasoned. “And there may be four people who wind up showing or there may be fourteen. There’s really no way of knowing.”
Hopeton nodded and took a bite of sausage pizza.
“And,” he said, once he’d devoured his slice, “I would lay money down that that second list comes down from Bolo. Mr. Henriques might also have had a hand in this.”
“That would make sense,” I agreed. “Filo seemed to be more of slickster and Skip definitely gave me ‘American boarding school’ vibes, and not the Miami or Orlando kind.”
“You’d better find a date for that dinner,” Hopeton advised.
“More pressure to do shit I never wanted to be involved with in the first place,” I sighed.
Hopeton clapped his hands together sharply and told me to lay off the Bitter Brón routine. I guess Doe’s high school nickname for me had made its way through our circle.
“I’ll lay off ‘the Bitter Brón routine’ if you agree to do two things for me,” I replied.
“Yeah, what’s that?” he asked.
“First off, go with me to the Norwood to scope the place out. May as well spend an evening there, getting the lay of the land. We can get a car service to and from the joint and charge it all to Doe’s black card.”
“He got you a black card?” Hopeton looked shocked.
“Yes, and that’s how I know there’s fuckery afoot. But wait, here’s the second thing- I need you to roll with me on the Twenty-fourth. You have to be there with me at the Norwood. I need back-up.”
Now it was Hopeton’s turn to look bitter. But in the end, he agreed.
I made a mental note to come up with something I could get him as a thank you, and charge it to Mundo’s black card.
