The Courbet Connection (Book 5) (Genevieve Lenard) (21 page)

“None of the cases have an exact date of disappearance. The universities, landlords and neighbours who reported them missing had no knowledge of their daily lives or activities. There also weren’t friends who could say when they’d last seen them. Sandino Eandi, Robin Ames, Joni Édouard and Bradford Charon. These are more missing students I found. Seven young men and three women in France.”

“Some of them don’t have French names,” Manny said.

“That is another trend I saw. As far as I could determine, all these young people were international students, displaced. Being far away from home made them easier targets.”

“We have a lot of international students at university.” Nikki’s shoulders lifted towards her ears when we turned around to look at her. She blinked a few times, then lowered her shoulders and lifted her chin. “The local students don’t really like them, unless they have a lot of money. Generally, they fit into two categories: those who go wild, and those who do nothing but study.”

“I’m interested in the ones who do nothing but study.” These were the type of students now on my monitors. “Do they integrate? Socialise with the other students?”

“No. They keep to themselves.” Her face paled a shade. “Like Michael.”

It was clear Nikki needed reassurance. I couldn’t give it to her without lying, so I stayed on topic. “I found four students in Belgium. Elise Brenner, Lara Miller, K.A. Raya and Sheryl Bergel. In Germany I found five students. Teresa Christensen, Deborah Norling, Arthur Aguire, Trish Cox and Travis West.”

“Again the non-German-sounding names,” Manny said.

“Not everyone in Germany is called Hans or Gretel. Could you be any more ignorant?” Colin shook his head in disapproval. “The borders in Europe has been open for decades now. You might not be able to wrap your head around it, but people from different cultures do get married.”

“I’m a Brit living in France, Frey. Of course I know what a melting pot the major European cities have become. I just find it interesting that none of these names are typically French or typically German.”

“Again.” Colin lifted both shoulders. “What is typically French? Dubois?”

“This is an inane argument.” And I could see they were prepared to continue indefinitely. “The three students I found in Spain are all foreign students. Lori Rheiner is a second-year biochemistry student originally from Leeds. Megan McLay is from Scotland, in her last year studying art, and Cynthia Beaumont is originally from France, but got a scholarship to study business economics in Madrid.”

“Are you telling me all of these students are from another country?” Manny leaned back in his chair. “Doc, are you sure about this search? What about young people who aren’t students? What about homeless kids? Wouldn’t they be good targets for organ dealers?”

“I chose these parameters because I needed something to work from. Twenty-two young people mysteriously disappearing in a six-month period is a lot. That is a student almost every week.”

“Or it’s very little,” Colin said. “If each body can be sold in two auctions, totalling up to more than three-quarters of a million dollars, then I can’t see the reason for someone to limit his income by only kidnapping and butchering a kid a week.”

Nikki gasped and Colin’s face immediately displayed contrition. He turned around and looked at Nikki for a few seconds. “This case is not good, Nix. I would feel so much better if you weren’t here.”

“I’m not leaving.” She swallowed a few times, building up courage. “I think you’re lying to me. I saw the looks you and Francine gave Doc G. There’s something more to this and it involves me, doesn’t it?”

“We don’t know yet. There are a lot of things happening at the moment and we want to make sure everyone is safe.”

“Doc G?” Nikki waited until I looked at her. “You will tell me if this affects me directly, right? You won’t lie to me?”

I swivelled my chair completely so I was facing Nikki directly. “Colin, Manny, Francine and Vinnie don’t want you to worry about things that might not be a problem.”

“What do
you
want?”

I wanted her to never have seen violence, never have known criminals, never have been exposed to this brutal side of life. The idealism and irrationality of what I wanted irritated me. “I want you to be strong and wise.”

“Argh. That doesn’t tell me anything.” She folded her arms. “You didn’t answer my first question.”

“I will not lie to you. The moment we have any confirmation, I’ll talk to you and trust that you will be strong and wise.”

Her chin started to quiver, but she stopped it by pressing her lips together. She glanced at Manny and Colin before looking back at me. “Okay. I can do that.”

“Thank you.”

“Good girl.” Manny cleared his throat. “Doc, did you get all of this on the Interpol database?”

“And a few newspaper articles. Not all of these cases have been registered with Interpol.” It simultaneously made me angry and sad. “It seems like the police didn’t care enough about the missing young people to spend any time looking for them.”

“Sometimes an adult, which they all are, wants to disappear.” Manny waved a hand at the monitors. “Some of these kids might have decided that studying is too much work and they no longer wanted to do it. They’d rather live next to the sea somewhere, pour drinks in a bar and live carefree.”

I knew he was right. It didn’t alleviate my frustration with the system though. “We must find these people.”

“We will, Doc.”

“Okay. That’s it!” A loud crash followed Francine’s exclamation. Manny and Colin were first through the door to the team room. I was right behind them.

Both Manny and Colin stopped a few steps into the room and leaned back. Manny’s nostrils flared a second before he slapped his hand over his mouth and nose. A potent smell of flatulence hung in the air.

“Look.” Francine stood two metres away from Caelan, her chair overturned. “It’s bad enough that you smell like the inside of a barf-b
ag, but did you have to do that?”

Caelan’s face was expressionless, but he started rocking and shaking his head. “I don’t smell like the inside of a barf-bag.”

The anger on Francine’s face was instantly replaced by contrition at Caelan’s softly spoken words. She righted her chair and sat down. “Honey, you really smell bad. And passing wind is not going to win you any friends.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Does that mean you’re not going to teach me how to get a girlfriend?”

Francine let out a surprised laugh. “No, sweetie. I’ll still teach you. As a matter of fact, we can start with your first lesson right now.”

Caelan inhaled sharply, his eyes moving from Francine’s one shoulder to the other. “Now? Really?”

“Yes, really. Lesson number one. No girl is going to want to be near you when you smell like a bum sleeping under a garbage dumpster.” Francine’s tone and expression were kind, softening the words. Not that Caelan would register those subtleties. He’d only hear the stark truth. “Your clothes are dirty and look like you’ve worn them for the last three years. Your hair is in desperate need of a cut. You’re not rocking that afro at all. Your nails are long and gross. Sweetie, you are gross. And I say this with a lot of love in my heart.”

“So much for breaking it to him softly,” Colin said quietly.

Caelan stared at the wall behind Francine, shaking his head. He appeared to do this whenever he was considering something. “I don’t have soap.”

“That’s an easy problem to solve,” Francine said.

“I don’t like smelly soap. All soap smells. I don’t want soap that smells.”

“There is the coolest organic shop about three blocks from here.” Nikki walked past me, pressing her fingers against her lips, a gesture we employed when we realised we’d erred. “No, I think it’s four blocks. Maybe five. Oh! It doesn’t matter. This shop has soap that has no smell at all and it makes your skin really soft.”

“Is it white?” Caelan asked. “I like white soap.”

“The one I bought was kind of transparent. We’ll have to ask them if they have white soap.” Her eyes flashed open. “Ooh! I have a rad idea. Let’s go shopping. I’ll take you to the soap place first and then we’ll go buy you some clothes. Doc G, can I have your credit card?”

I barely managed to stop my panicked refusal by biting down on the insides of my lips. Nikki’s trust in me had to be one of the most challenging issues I’d had to deal with. Her request had come without any guise, her expression open and excited. I wasn’t worried that she would spend too much money. In the year that she’d stayed with us, she’d proven herself competent with finances. When her father had died, he’d left her a considerable estate, all of which would only be available to her upon her twenty-fifth birthday. Until then, a trust fund paid for her studies and provided her with a very small stipend.

I trusted her with my money. It was my carefully-planned budget that was going to change if I handed her my credit card. The change in my monthly spending plan weighed heavily on me as I studied her guilelessness. This was about more than just my credit card and I knew this. I cleared my throat three times before I felt ready to speak. “Please bring my handbag.”

“Yay!” Nikki ran to my viewing room and was back a few seconds later, handing me my handbag as if it was fragile. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and took my credit card from my wallet and gave it to her. She turned it over a few times, then pressed it against her heart. “Any limit?”

I couldn’t speak. The distress of my pedantic budget changing was pressing hard enough on me to consider grabbing my card out of Nikki’s hand. I shook my head.

“No limit? Doc G, you’re the best.” She stepped closer. “I’m going to hug you.”

She threw her arms around me and hugged me tightly. I gingerly put my arms around her and patted her on her back.

After a second, she lifted her head and put her lips against my ear. “I love you.”

I froze. Tears formed in my eyes and I blinked them away, my arms dropping to my sides. I knew how much those three words would mean to Nikki, yet I couldn’t get my mouth to form them.

A few months ago she’d declared her love for everyone in the household and frequently told us how much we meant to her. Apart from myself, everybody else expressed their love for her, often in a light-hearted manner.

Nikki released me from her embrace and stepped back. Intense relief flooded me when I couldn’t detect any hurt or offence on her face. She wasn’t expecting anything else from me. Her smile was beautiful and genuine when she turned to Caelan. “Come. Let’s go shopping.”

For the second time today I found myself in a place I didn’t want to be. I was standing in the men’s clothing section, my arms folded tightly around my torso. Caelan’s response to Nikki’s invitation had been strong and unexpected. He’d grabbed onto the idea of shopping with surprising ferocity, but had refused to even leave his chair without my agreement to accompany them.

Vinnie hadn’t liked the shopping proposal at all, not with the recent discovery of Dukwicz being in Salzburg. Manny and Colin had agreed with him. Francine had lamented her inability to join us, getting excited about the prospect of shopping. But she had too much work. I also had too much work. I didn’t want to be standing between men’s pyjamas watching Nikki playfully banter with Caelan. She was incredibly successful at getting his agreement to her choices in pants, shirts, socks and other clothing.

Manny and Vinnie’s resistance to the idea had brought realisation followed by regret to Nikki’s eyes which had affected me. By then Caelan had already latched onto the idea and no amount of reasoning had been able to dissuade him from his desire to go shopping with me. When it had become clear that no more work would be done until I went shopping with Caelan, Vinnie and Manny had insisted we go to a shopping centre. Their reasoning that it was safer and easier to contain did not add to my sense of comfort or safety.

I wanted to be in the soundproof safety of my viewing room. Instead I stood here, observing the two members of GIPN aiding Vinnie in providing security. Daniel and Pink had joined us within fifteen minutes of Vinnie phoning them. That had been the first time Colin had relaxed about the shopping suggestion. He trusted Daniel’s and Pink’s ability to assist Vinnie in keeping us safe.

The two GIPN men’s fast appearance in our offices led me to suspect they been in close proximity. Currently Daniel was standing next to the ties, Pink next to the men’s underwear. They were alert, screening every person who came close to us. Since Caelan had showed signs of a meltdown when I had insisted on staying in the office, Colin volunteered to remain behind and help Francine.

Nikki had promised that the shopping spree would take no longer than an hour. It had already been forty-seven minutes and Pink was carrying four large shopping bags. In one was a smaller paper bag with seven bars of fragrance-free soap. There were also seven pairs of socks, seven pairs of underwear and seven t-shirts. Nikki and Caelan were busy choosing his seventh pair of pants.

“What do you think, Doc G? This green one or this green one?” Nikki held up two pairs of pants, the colours differing slightly. She shook the one in her left hand. “I’m liking this one more. I goes well with half of the t-shirts we’ve bought.”