3 The Braque Connection (14 page)

“You put your life in danger, missy.” He nodded to Colin without taking his eyes off me. “And Frey’s life.”

Cold dread filled me.

“Enough, Millard.” Colin’s hand tightened on mine. “Let’s move past this.”

“No. Not this time, Frey. You people play fast and loose with rules. You don’t respect team work and do just what the hell ever you want. If you don’t start working according to some regulations, I will disband this merry group of ours and actively investigate you. All of you. Don’t think for one minute that I will not lock you up. And that includes you, missy.” Manny had been angry, scathing and even insulting, but seldom grim.

“I already gave you my word,” I said. “You need to phone more of your people now, and go to Hawk’s warehouse.”

Manny didn’t follow my lead and changed the topic. “Missy, I will hold you responsible for any future illegal acts of the three criminals we’re working with. It’s time you people start acting more like a team working directly for the president.”

He walked out of the room and returned a few seconds later.

“You will allow the medics to do whatever tests they need to do, missy. None of your nonsense. We need to know what they pumped into your system and how much of it. Got it?” He waited for me to nod, then called towards the door for someone to enter. “Hug Frey or sing a Mozart ditty. We need your blood. I’m going to get a team over to Hawk’s warehouse. To do something legally for a change.”

He ordered Vinnie to go with him. It was obvious that everyone understood the severity of Manny’s ire. And the justification thereof. Vinnie didn’t argue with him, just quietly got up and followed Manny out the room. A medical professional approached me like one would a wild animal.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake.” I held out my one arm, away from me. “Just do this. I’m not going to attack you. Make it quick.”

I caught the surprise and relief on the medic’s face, but I turned away from him to face Colin. I didn’t need to see someone drawing my blood. This was different than sitting in the kitchen of Colin’s cottage, the amiable Ben joking while taking blood samples. This time I was concerned about more than just being drugged, abducted and not having yet solved this case.

“Did I do irreparable damage?” My voice was quiet and shaky.

“Oh, Jenny. You have much to learn.” Colin put his hand on my cheek. “I was—still am—furious with you and Vinnie. But being angry doesn’t mean that I want to leave you. It only means that I’m supremely pissed off. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Millard is right. Most definitely regarding your and Vinnie’s visit to Hawk’s warehouse. I’m angry because it terrifies me to think of all the things that could’ve gone wrong.”

His hand dropped to his lap, the anger returning to his features.

“How can I make your anger go away?” My parents used to leave me with caretakers for weeks when I had done things to induce their anger. At university, so-called friends had completely cut off contact when I had offended them. It had happened often. I didn’t know what to do.

“Give me time.” He shook his head. “No, first give me your word that you will tell me everything from now on. Every decision you—”

“That’s impossible. You would have to reside in my cerebral cortex for that.”

The medic behind me snorted, but quickly grew quiet at Colin’s stern look.

“Yes, of course.” Colin’s eyes went up and to the right. “Let me say this another way. You are smart enough to know which decisions you should include me in.”

“That is true.”

“I want your word that you would talk to me.”

“Whenever it is possible, I will do this.”

“Done.” The medic’s soft announcement interrupted us. “Thanks, Ms Lenard.”

“Doctor Lenard to you, laddie.” Manny stepped back into the room, followed by Vinnie. Their body language didn’t reveal any animosity. Manny appeared less agitated, which was interesting. Usually spending any amount of time with Vinnie ended moments before a physical altercation. Both men sat down, Vinnie in his previous chair, Manny in a matching chair.

“Okay, Doc. Hopefully you won’t throw many more surprises at me, and we can actually finish one topic. Tell me why you think your coffee was drugged.”

“It’s like I told you before. Colin made us coffee. After he drank it so quickly, he lost consciousness before me. I think I regained consciousness sooner because I didn’t ingest the same quantity of the drug as he did.”

“And you really don’t remember making the coffee, dude?” Vinnie asked.

“No. If they used the same drug, the fact that I took more might be why my memory is affected differently than Jenny’s.”

“Hmm.” Manny tapped his bottom lip with his index finger. “You two are the only ones in the office drinking that coffee. Everyone else drinks coffee from those little capsules. You also use the same cups all the time.”

“Mugs,” I said. “They are ceramic mugs, not cups.”

“Same thing, Doc. Same thing. So, who did you piss off in the office so badly that they would want to hand you over to Kubanov?”

“I don’t interact with people at Rousseau & Rousseau.” Most people actively avoided me. When the others had joined and we had had the team room made, I had become even more distant from the rest of the employees.

“Well, the crime scene people should be there now bagging the coffee. We’ll have to interview the staff.” Manny shifted in the antique chair. “Tell me everything from the moment you woke up.”

I did. Manny had asked me to tell him everything, so I even included the sounds of the insects I had heard. Manny wasn’t interested in that part. It was Hawk’s last words that caught his attention.

“Printer? What bloody printer?”

“I asked him, but he didn’t say.”

“Could it be a thing and not a person?” Vinnie straightened in the chair. “One of those printers he imports and that sits in his warehouse?”

“How can a printer be dangerous?” Colin shook his head. “Apart from the pen being mightier than the sword, I can’t see how a printing machine could have drugged and kidnapped us. And killed Hawk.”

“And what about the big blow part?” I asked. “Does this imply an explosion?”

“Blow is the street name for cocaine.” Manny looked at Vinnie. “Did Hawk deal drugs as well?”

“No, he strictly dealt in arms only. He believed in keeping things simple. Drugs were too messy, he said. Too many people being killed.”

“With the guns he supplied.” Disgust was evident in Manny’s tone and expression. “How could you be associated with someone like that?”

“Above your pay grade, Millard,” Colin said. He was defending Vinnie, despite his anger. “This is need-to-know basis only. If you want to know, take it up with the bosses at Interpol. Or with the president.”

Manny studied Colin long enough for me to read both. Colin’s nonverbal cues were closed, not revealing anything. At least not to the untrained eye. I noticed that he was uncomfortable with having revealed what he had.

Those few sentences implied that Colin had been doing much more for Interpol than merely reappropriating art which had been acquired in wartime or through other nefarious means. It also revealed that Vinnie had been assisting him with the knowledge of Interpol, possibly even on their payroll. Manny’s micro-expressions told me that he had come to the same conclusions as I had. I also noticed respect which was quickly tempered. For some time I had suspected Manny enjoyed disliking Colin and Vinnie.

“If you say so, Frey. We still don’t know anything. Bloody hellfire, this is frustrating.” Manny rubbed his hands hard over his face. “A dead arms dealer, my two best people drugged and taken to his house, a printer and a big blow. Frey being set up, Doc playing Mata Hari and guns that kill people, but can’t be traced.”

“Can you find Monique?” I asked. “I gave Hawk my word that I would make sure she’s well.”

“Of course you are going to keep your promise to a dead criminal.” Manny made a disbelieving sound. “You’re one in a million, Doc.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“Yes, Doc. I’ll find her for you. She might be able to give us some helpful information about her daddy dearest.”

“I don’t think so.” Vinnie’s lips pursed. “Hawk kept her pretty far away from his life.”

Manny frowned when Vinnie’s phone rang loudly.

“It’s Francine.” Vinnie tapped on the phone’s screen and held the phone towards us. “Yo, sexy. You’re on speakerphone, so hold your sex talk for later.”

“Hey, Vin. Is Manny there?”

“I’m here, supermodel.”

“Ooh, then I can do the sex talk.” Her voice was husky and sensual.

A blush spread just above Manny’s collar. “Watch out, little girl. I’m not in the mood for wasting time. Why did you phone?”

“He’s being all alpha. Sexy.” She laughed softly. “Well, this supermodel found out how Genevieve and Colin were taken from the office. I’m here now and have been going through the CCTV recordings.”

“How were we taken?” I asked, leaning towards the phone.

“If Manny remembered to charge his phone and always carry his tablet with him, I would have sent you the footage. Now you’ll just have to watch it when you get here. It didn’t take me long to find the culprit. Of course, he was very smart and made sure to not have his profile caught on camera.”

“It’s someone from Rousseau & Rousseau,” I said. “Or someone who received this information from an employee. Are you sure it is a man?”

“I’m no expert in body language, girlfriend, but that man was walking like a man. You’ll have to see for yourself, but I know my men. He was dressed as one of the cleaning crew, pushing one of those cleaning trolleys with all their cleaning stuff in little compartments inside.”

“I was put in a cleaning trolley?” I needed to shower.

“Isn’t this just too cliché for words?” Francine sounded offended. “They could’ve at least been more original than that.”

“Clearly they were very effective.” I really wanted a hot shower. “Why be more original?”

“Hmph. Anyway, I have the footage of this guy going into the team room with his trolley. Seven minutes and forty seconds later, he left. He pushed the trolley to the elevator doors and from there went to the basement.”

“Where there is a back entrance with CCTV,” Vinnie said. I hadn’t known there was that much surveillance around the office. These had to be the new cameras they had set up after our first abduction.

“Yeah, but they disabled it,” Francine said. “I only have him in the office. He came back and did the same thing a second time. He didn’t even pretend to clean.”

“What time was that?” I remembered Colin bringing our coffee at around quarter to six.

“He entered the first time at…” There was silence for a few seconds. “Twenty-seven minutes past six.”

“The office is usually empty after six,” Vinnie said. “Most people leave at five.”

“We drank our coffee approximately forty-five minutes before being taken,” I said. “Someone must’ve told them we were drugged. Did you see anyone else enter the team room or the viewing room before or after that?”

“Nobody. The last person in or out before the cleaning guy was Colin. I have him walking out the room and returning with two mugs. Coffee, right?”

I frowned. “Really? Nobody after Colin, not even after we were taken out?”

“Sorry, girlfriend. Nobody in or out.”

“Are you sure the footage wasn’t tampered with?” Manny asked.

“Of course I checked for that and no, it is the raw footage.”

Phillip joined Francine and the conversation. I was not surprised that he was at the office, controlling everything. It took another seven minutes to convince him that I was unharmed, as was Colin. Another ten minutes were spent going over the events and Hawk’s last words. Francine posed a hypothesis that Hawk was importing cocaine in the printer cartridges. There was a moment of shocked silence. For a change her theory didn’t include government conspiracies or aliens, or both.

I soon got bored with their speculations and insisted on leaving. I wanted to shower and go to the office. Verbalising this thought resulted in a loud and negative response. I was ordered by Manny and Phillip to take the day off to recover from being drugged. Everyone else agreed. Manny’s argument won me over. His team was still going through the office looking for evidence and I would not want to be there to experience that. I was tired enough to capitulate after only a few attempts at resistance.

But I was not comfortable with losing time solving this case. If Kubanov was staying true to character, we were working against time. He would have an end goal and that goal would have a date and a time
.

Chapter TWELVE

“Who’s your daddy now?” Vinnie slammed both hands on my dining room table. I had learned that this phrase was metaphorical, so I didn’t answer him. I had made that mistake only once.

“Another one down.” Francine rolled her head to stretch her neck muscles. We had been sitting around the table for more than five hours working on the twenty-seven cases Manny had found. We had just solved a seventh case.

After returning from Hawk’s house, I’d had a long, hot shower. When I walked out of my bedroom, Vinnie had prepared breakfast, Colin and Francine already seated at the table. They had known I was not going to spend the day doing nothing. Francine had brought my work laptop from the office for us to look into the cases after breakfast.

“I kinda feel like a traitor.” Vinnie sat back in his chair, disgust in every nonverbal cue. “I can’t believe I’m turning into a Mountie.”

Francine snorted. “More like a Bronx cop. You’re not polite enough to be a Mountie.”

“Not all Canadians are polite.” Lecturing at a local university a few years ago, I had met a Canadian anthropologist who had put paid to any preconceived notions I’d had about Canadian stereotypes. “In the east they are less polite than in the west.”

“It will be a long walk before you turn into a copper, Vin.” Colin was sitting next to me, making notes as we went along. He was using his own notebook and pencils, my notepad safely in front of me and three pens neatly arranged next to it.

“We still have another eleven cases to go through,” I said. “Maybe we will solve a few more to add to the seven we have.”

“And maybe I should make dinner so we can refuel, Jen-girl.” Vinnie stood up. “We’ve been at this for hours with only cookies for energy. It’s time for my mama’s pasta.”

“I’ll help.” Francine got up, ignoring Vinnie’s vehement rejection of her offer. I didn’t understand the pleasure she gained from teasing him while he cooked. The sound of my doorbell stopped all jesting. Colin and Vinnie glanced at each other and walked to the door together.

The bruising on Colin’s jaw and cheek was dark against his skin and he was still careful with his hand, but I knew he would not stand back if it came to our safety. Neither would Vinnie. The two of them appeared to have reached some truce. At the front door, Vinnie leaned forward to look through the peephole. His posture relaxed only marginally as he straightened and opened the door. “Howdy, old man.”

Manny grunted something unintelligible and pushed past Vinnie’s bulk into my apartment. He frowned at the computer and the notepads on my dining room table. “Are you still working, Doc? You’ve been sending me emails the whole bloody day.”

“You’re also working. Why shouldn’t I work?”

He stopped next to me, narrowing his eyes. “Maybe because you were drugged and you should rest.”

My jaw stiffened. “I’m not as weak as everyone thinks.”

“Oh, hell.” Manny rubbed his hand over his face. “That’s not what I meant.”

Colin sat down next to me. “That’s not what any of us mean, Jenny. We’re just concerned about you. We’re concerned about each other.”

“What my man said.” Vinnie stood next to Manny, glaring at him. “We got each other’s backs.”

Manny turned to face Vinnie head on. He was at least a head shorter than Vinnie, but no less of an alpha male. He lifted his chin. “What are you saying, criminal?”

Francine stepped closer. “You might be a handsome beast, but threatening all the time to throw us in jail is not winning you any brownie points. That and fighting every single idea we have. We need to know if we can count on you, Manny.”

A combination of the tone of Francine’s voice and her body language led me to believe she, Colin and Vinnie had been discussing this.

“Yes, Millard. Can we rely on you?” Colin asked softly. “You know you need us more than we need you.”

Manny looked like he had just finished a long, tiring day. This was his normal look, the difference now being the dark circles under his eyes. At Colin’s question, his posture changed, the irritability he normally used as a shield no longer evident. It made him look younger, stronger and more formidable. This was more pronounced as his back slightly straightened, his head lifted and his shoulders pulled back. He even looked bigger and stronger.

Manny made unflinching eye contact with Colin, undoubtedly knowing where Vinnie and Francine’s loyalties were. If he convinced Colin, the others would follow.

“Ganging up on me, are you?” The lack of Manny’s usual derision got everyone’s attention. “I would still prefer it if you people kept the law. We have a certain leverage because of our direct orders from the president. But I will not allow for us at any point to overstep boundaries. All you have to do is watch the news to see what happens when governments and other institutions start to freely look into their citizens’ private data.”

“Well, thank God for whistleblowers.” Francine sighed, a small smile lifting her red lips. “I would so totally do Snowden or Manning any day. They are heroes.”

“Francine, not now.” The look Vinnie gave Francine communicated more than just a warning.

“Why not now, Vin?” Francine asked. “Manny knows we can’t do our jobs, this job the president wants us to do, without bending the rules a bit.”

“I will not aid or abet any criminal action.” Only a few times had I seen Manny this serious, this professional. “As long as you lot understand and respect that, I will have your back.”

Colin stared at Manny for almost half a minute. He must have seen the same sincerity I had, because he nodded. “I still think you’re an arsehole.”

“And you’re still a thief.” Manny walked to his usual seat and sat down heavily. “But I want your word, all of you, that you will not do anything as stupid as this Hawk fiasco again. I can’t have your back if you pull stunts like that. I also can’t have your back when you do things I don’t know about. You have strategies, you run them by me. We work as a team. That includes you, Doc. You are smart enough to see that the cases we handle are increasing in complexity and danger. I cannot have you put your life in danger like you did going to that warehouse. I need to know that you will inform me about any action you consider taking.”

I inhaled.

“Any action pertaining to the case, missy.” Manny scowled when I narrowed my eyes at his annoyed interjection. “You were going to ask if ‘any’ meant absolutely any action. I only need to know about the cases we work on, not your dinner plans with Frey.”

“That I can agree to.”

“Why are you here, Millard?”

“To see what you’ve been up to, of course.” His glance towards the kitchen was telling. “Have you had dinner yet?”

The change on Vinnie’s face was comical, even to me. I had not often observed such an incredulous expression on him. He grunted a few insults before turning to the kitchen. “Dinner will be ready in forty minutes.”

“Enough time for you to tell me about the solved cases, Doc.”

“I sent you the files of each case.” With the name of each murderer.

“But no explanation. I want an explanation. I want details.”

“Very well.” It was arduous to organise my thoughts every time I had to explain myself to others. On a deep breath, I did just that and went into the detail of the first case we had solved. Soon I noticed Manny’s nonverbal cues. I exhaled loudly through my nose. “If you didn’t want the detail, why ask me about it?”

“Not that minute detail, Doctor Face-Reader. Give me an outline.”

“You are contradicting yourself.” Did he want detail or not?

“An outline, missy.”

I took a moment to think this over. “These seven cases all have one common denominator. Cocaine.”

Manny’s chin dropped to his chest after a few seconds. He sighed heavily before looking up. “Doc, that outline is too broad. But it’s a good start. Were all the victims users?”

“Actually, only one of them was. But the killers of the seven cases were all involved with cocaine at some point. The victims of these cases can be divided into three categories. Victims of armed robberies which had turned violent, victims caught in some drug-ring dispute, or victims of domestic violence.”

“Tell me more about the victims. An outline.”

“Paul Daniel’s brother killed him in a drug-induced rage and Alta Clout was a pharmacist killed by a man looking for money and drugs. There is no proof that Jim Roberts was involved in drug dealing, but his sister was and her rival killed him. The other cases are the same.”

“How the hell did you guys solve seven cases in a few hours when the locals couldn’t do it in weeks?”

“Objectivity,” I said. “We looked at the facts with an untainted mindset, studied the evidence and added everything together to find the perpetrator.”

Manny looked around the table, slowing when his eyes caught something in Francine’s expression. I deeply hoped he was not going to ask about her discomfort. In most of the cases, she had ended up accessing information in an illegal manner. After the speech Manny had just given us, I didn’t think he was going to take kindly to all the methods used solving these crimes. I relaxed when he rolled his eyes and looked at me. “Okay, Doc, tell me how this cocaine clue of yours is important.”

“It is what can be inferred from it rather than the cocaine itself.”

“Drugs and guns go hand in hand,” Vinnie said from the kitchen. A mouthwatering aroma was drifting from the stove. “Where you find drugs, somewhere close you will find guns. And vice versa.”

“Hawk?” Manny asked.

“As I said before, the guy didn’t believe in mixing those two. He imported electronics and sold weapons. He did large-scale sales, so it would be no surprise that some of his guns landed in the hands of drug dealers or other small-time arms dealers. But he never dealt with those smaller guys. His market was the big clients.”

“Like Third World crime lords.” Manny sighed. “That bloody warehouse has given my guys quite a few surprises. Did you know about the basement?”

“No. There’s a basement?” Vinnie shook his head. “I only ever visited him in his office.”

“That room behind the cabinets?”

“Yup, that’s the one Jen-girl also went into. It’s on the video.”

“Well, there is a basement that is much larger than the warehouse. It is keeping the crime scene guys busy.”

“They’re watching out for explosives, right?” Vinnie’s contempt was not convincing. He was genuinely concerned.

“They’re the best, arsehole. They know what they’re doing. Already they’ve retrieved more than two hundred submachine guns and crates filled with handguns. I should have a full report this afternoon on what they’ve found.”

“Would you like to hear more about my thoughts on the cocaine?” I almost smiled when Manny closed his eyes and breathed deeply.

“Hmm…” Manny tapped his index finger on his lips. He was being sarcastic, which meant he was angry. I didn’t know why. “Let me guess. You want me to ask these killers you’ve found where they get their drugs from?”

“I already told you this two days ago. If we know who supplied them, we might find their arms supplier.”

He looked at me, his lips compressed. “Any other requests, missy?”

“When you look into the cocaine, make sure to see if there is any connection to Tall Freddy.”

“The Mafia guy who killed Frey’s friend?” Manny stared at the ceiling before he nodded. “Okay. I get it. Tall Freddy is involved in Susan Kadlec’s murder, which was connected with a mystery weapon. He is also one of the biggest cocaine importers in Europe. Good thinking, Doc. Maybe you’ve got the right idea here after all.”

“Did you look for solved cases like I asked?” I was tired and found it increasingly difficult to contain my impatience.

“I did and I was getting to it.” Manny reached into his jacket pocket and brought out the small tablet Francine had given him. He tapped and swiped the screen a few times. “A few of my contacts got back to me. Right now I have four solved cases, the killers in prison as we speak. I will run the cases you have solved and check if any of those killers are also in prison. Bloody hell, I’m going to owe these locals a lot after this case. They will have to interview the guys and ask them about the weapons, cocaine and Tall Freddy, and get back to me. Soon.”

I thought about his plan. It was sound. “I think it would be prudent to find out as much as possible about the cocaine, the product itself. From what I have read, law enforcement agencies can identify unique production batches of cocaine by its composition. If it is tested, we will know if those cases are connected despite the different countries.”

“Why is the cocaine important?” Colin often asked the right questions.

“Blow. It really troubled me that with his last breath, Hawk decided to use that specific word. I looked for all its different uses on the internet and the only two relevant to this case are cocaine, which has been abundant in the murder cases, and of course explosives. The latter is a different topic and one that is more closely connected to Hawk than drugs.”

“You’re really on to something here, Doc. I’ll get the locals to double-check the evidence in these cases as well to see if there is anything pointing to Hawk or to Tall Freddy.” The tablet in Manny’s hand pinged. He glared at it while stabbing at the screen. “Oh, you’ll be pleased with this, Frey.”