THE MASTERMIND 79

this some time ago, sooner or later someone will be knocking on our door, mine in particular. I am not sure of your agenda." I tried to reassure him that I was simply gathering as many perspectives on Le Roux as possible. "The 'Fatman' caused a lot of issues here which are very sensitive," he replied, "therefore my colleagues and I will have to discuss this first." A day later he wrote again and said he was willing to talk, but only face-to-face. "I wish to make it clear I at no time worked for the Fatman," he added.

On my next trip to the Philippines, we arranged to meet at a bar he owned on P Burgos Street, the expat-heavy central artery of Ma- nila's red-light district. It was a weekday afternoon with only a scattering of lunchtime customers. Amid the framed English soccer jerseys on the wall was a poster from the TV show Breaking Bad, captioned, I'm the one who knocks. Donovan wasn't hard to pick out: a hulk of a man, probably six-foot-four with a head shaved to the point of polish and the swollen torso of a body- builder, his arms tattooed along their length. He was easily the most intimidating physical presence I'd ever encountered. He'd just come from training a promising mixed martial arts fighter, he told me as his hand swallowed mine. Then he lit a cigarette. Not knowing how to start, I told him the bar seemed like a homey place. "I was shot right out front there," he said, in a thick Irish brogue, launching into a story about the failed assassination. As a kind of unconventional stating of credentials, it was hard to know what to make of it. "I assume you want privacy," he finally said, "so we'll go upstairs to the office."

We took an elevator up two floors to a dimly lit hallway, where Donovan unlocked the door to a small office strewn with stacks of papers. He took an energy drink from a minifridge and sat down at a wooden desk. I pulled out a tape recorder. He told me I could ask him anything I wanted about Le Roux. "I didn't work for the guy, so I've got nothing to hide," he said. "If I did, I would have known the minute you landed. I would have put surveillance on you to see who you go speak to first, before you speak to me, just to see what your game is.