The Courbet Connection (Book 5) (Genevieve Lenard) (23 page)

“It’s not a mystery. It’s a crime!” Caelan wrapped his arms around his waist and lowered his chin until it was almost touching his chest. “I thought you wouldn’t listen to me unless I had something to make you listen.”

I wondered about this adolescent’s life experience. Had people been treating him so badly that he considered manipulation the only way to get and keep someone’s attention?

“I suggest we start over then,” Phillip said from the door. “Here we treat each other with respect. No matter who you are. You don’t have to scream or kick my assistant to gain anyone’s attention. I would greatly appreciate it if you would simply ask next time.”

Caelan was quiet for a long time. We waited in silence and I wondered if Tim was injured or merely bruised. Caelan raised his chin a bit and looked at my shoulder. “Are you listening to me?”

“We all are.”

“Okay. I’ll try to ask next time.”

“That’s great,” Colin said. “Now maybe you can tell me about those paintings you’ve seen.”

“It was Courbet’s
Desperate Man, The Stone Breaker, The Waterfall in the Jura, The Bather, The Sleeping Spinner, The Wrestlers
.” Caelan named another eight paintings in a monotone. “And
Full Standing Figure of a Man
. I thought they were the original paintings. A forger would need to see the originals to make such good forgeries.”

“Hmm.” The
frontalis
muscles drew Colin’s eyebrows up. “Yes, you might be right. To paint an acceptable forgery, you need to see the direction and thickness of the brush strokes, the correct colouring, the right shading. From a photo that’s almost impossible.”

“Tell them the rest, Caelan.” Francine was sitting back in her chair, looking like she was enjoying herself immensely. “What did you find yesterday?”

“I looked for all the paintings that went up on the second of every month. It’s all the same seller. Zana22Dactor3178.”

Francine clicked with her computer mouse and looked pointedly at the screen behind us. “Look what we found.”

Colin and I turned around. On the screen was an SSS storefront. Like so many others I’d looked at in the last two days, several products were displayed with a description and price. There were photos of small bronze sculptures, watercolour paintings and sketches. All of them looked amateurish.

“What’s so special about this, supermodel?”

“This is Zana22Dactor3178’s shop.” She clicked on a product and another window opened. “This lovely watercolour painting of three roses is a lure. As soon as I clicked on a product the first time I visited this storefront, a pop-up window opened asking me to become a member of Zana22Dactor3178’s VIP section. Like the super-smart woman that I am, I didn’t subscribe to anything.”

“Why not?” Manny asked.

“Oh, my darling grumpy bear.” Francine fluttered her eyelids dramatically. “I’m not the only one who uses Trojan horses to get into people’s computers. The moment ol’ ZD has my email address, he can get into my computer. Well, he can try.”

“Does this story have a happy ending, supermodel?” His sharp tone caused Caelan to start rocking in his chair. Manny sighed heavily.

“Of course there is. Caelan and I hacked the auction website.” She smiled at Caelan. “ZD’s profile on SSS has a link to his website. Any guesses which website it is? Huh?”

“The auction website,” I said.

“That’s right, my lovely bestest friend.” She clicked again and the screen changed to show the clock counting down. “Now your average visitor will only ever see this. Or the auction video whenever ZD puts it up. But we’re not average, are we, Caelan?”

“Francine totally hacked into the website,” he said. “You should see the things we found there.”

“We make a good team, Caelan,” Francine said.

“Then be my girlfriend.” He winked at her shoulder, the gesture exaggerated and unpractised.

“The answer is still no, kiddo.” She clicked once more and the clock was replaced with a gallery of paintings. “Here are more than thirty Courbet paintings.”

“Oh, my.” Phillip sat down heavily next to Manny. The sudden tension in Colin’s muscles caught my attention. His eyes had narrowed and he was leaning towards the screen, studying it intently.

“What is it?” Before I could stop myself, I moved a bit closer to him until our arms touched.

“Maurice showed me one of these paintings.” He took a shuddering breath and looked at Manny. “When I met with him three days ago.”

“The day you were arrested?” Manny asked.

“Yes. Maurice showed me
Courbet’s
Nude Reclining Woman
he wanted me to authenticate. We were chatting about the value of it were it the original when he told me the owner had said he had more such paintings. Apparently, he’d told Maurice he would ask us to authenticate five more if he were satisfied with our service. I thought how strange it was and was about to ask Maurice about it when those Interpol idiots stormed in.”

“Which painting is it?” Manny squinted at the screen. “They all look the same to me.”

Colin and Phillip both glared at Manny. Phillip spoke first. “Second row, third painting from the left.”

“It’s the one with the naked woman, Millard.” Contempt made Colin’s voice hard.

“Aha. Okay. Hmm.” Manny repeated these meaningless interjections a few times, his eyes narrowed.

“I prefer the paintings with landscapes. People paintings don’t interest me,” Caelan said, looking at Colin’s shoulder. “You should check how much the people paintings are.”

“They’re called portraits,” Phillip said. “Where on earth did these paintings come from?”

“More importantly, who the blo…” Manny grunted. “Who is this ZeeDee seven million idiot? If we can get him, we might get some answers about the paintings.”

“It’s Zana22Dactor3178.” Caelan paused. “Why don’t you say ‘bloody’? I say ‘fuck’ all the time. Bloody is not a swear word. I’m not a kid.”

Nikki’s snort drew our attention to the door. “Don’t even try to understand this, Caelan. I’ve been through this with them. They think swearing in front of young people will injure our delicate ears.”

Caelan touched his ears. “I don’t have delicate ears. I don’t mind swearing. I like it. It helps me when I’m angry.” He glanced at Manny’s shoulder. “I don’t like it when other people are angry.”

Nikki walked to Manny, stopped behind him and leaned with her elbows on his shoulders, her chin resting on the top of his head. “Manny always sounds angry. He’s like a grumpy bear, but he’s totally harmless.”

“Get off me, lass.” Manny patted her elbows, pushed them, patted, then pushed until she stood up. He looked at Caelan until the young man focussed on Manny’s shoulder. “Nikki’s safety, your safety, everyone’s safety is my first concern. I don’t have time for bullshite emotions when people are in danger.”

Caelan focussed on the ceiling and muttered under his breath. His eyes narrowed slightly before he jumped out of his chair. “I’m going home. I will find more to help you. You listen.”

“Hey, Caelan!” Nikki’s call stopped him halfway into the hallway. He turned around and looked at her shoulder. “I like your duds.”

The
zygomaticus
muscles pulled the corners of his mouth up into the first smile I’d seen on his face. Without another word, he turned towards the elevators and walked out of sight.

“What are duds?” I asked Colin quietly.

“Clothes, love. He’s wearing the new clothes he bought with Nikki.”

Regret made my chest feel heavy. How had I not noticed Caelan’s clean clothes? I tried so hard to be aware of those around me, but time after time I failed.

“I don’t get that kid.” Manny slumped deeper into his chair. “Why did he run off like that?”

“To find more information to help us. That is what he said.” I didn’t see anything in Caelan’s nonverbal cues to indicate otherwise.

“He’s really, really, really strange.” Nikki sat down next to Manny. “But I like him. He’s cute.”

Vinnie walked into the team room, his large form making the room feel smaller. Any more people and I would feel compelled to retreat to the safety and emptiness of my viewing room. Vinnie glanced around the room and sat down in his usual chair at the table. “Where’s the kid running off to? When I came out the conference room, he nearly ran me over trying to get to the elevator. Did you scare him, old man?”

“He’s going home.” The increased tension around Manny’s mouth indicated offense. “Where the hell have you been, criminal?”

“Aw, look at you sweet-talking me.” Vinnie put his hands behind his head and stretched his legs out, communicating his confidence. “Did you miss me?”

“Like a haemorrhoid. Now tell me where you were.”

“I walked Daniel out.” He looked at me. “We won’t have a repeat of what happened today, Jen-girl.”

“You can’t guarantee that.”

“I can fuc… I can try my best to guarantee that.”

Manny rubbed his hand over his face. “How the bleeding hell did Dukwicz know where you were, Doc?”

“I don’t know.” This had been the one question foremost in my mind. “In the note he said he got a job to kill my boyfriend.”

“Since I know for a fact you’re not romantically involved with anyone else, it has to be me.” Colin crossed his arms. Defensive. “I simply can’t see how Dukwicz could have made the connection between Edward Taylor and me.”

“There is an alternative option.” I didn’t like the thought of it. “Someone else hired him to kill you. Colin Frey.”

Colin was shaking his head before I’d even finished my sentence. “The only reason they would look for me, would be through the work I do as my aliases.”

“Kubanov wanted you,” I said softly.

Colin sighed. “You’re right. We have to consider all possibilities. I just find it highly unlikely.”

“Dukwicz was in my apartment. He took your watch.”

“In our apartment. And he still has my watch. The one he gave you is a terrible fake of the one you bought me. It’s cheap plastic.” Colin shook his head. “I still don’t believe he knows I’m Edward Taylor.”

“But if by some miraculous way he does, how on God’s green earth did he find that out?” Manny asked.

It was quiet in the room for a few seconds.

“I hate to be the one saying this,”—the expression on Francine’s face confirmed it—“but could it be one of the GIPN guys?”

“I asked Daniel that same question,” Vinnie said. “He convinced me it’s impossible.”

“This speculation is not productive.” I knew they were capable of creating different theories and arguing about it for the next hour.

“I agree, Doc. It would just be really nice to know where Dukwicz is getting his info from.” Manny frowned when his eyes rested on Colin’s back. Colin had moved closer to the screen and was staring intently at the paintings. He was not paying attention to Vinnie discussing security measures.

“I didn’t know about this one.” His words were barely audible above the bantering.

“Which one?” I asked.

“This site selling art.” He shook his
head, the
corrugator supercilii
muscles pulling his brows low. “These paintings are worth millions. Why didn’t I know about this place?”

“Does it mean you know about all the others?” It was a logical deduction. All attention was now on our conversation. Nikki took her sketchpad, sat down on the floor and started drawing.

“You better be talking about this place selling art and not organs, Frey. If you knew about a place cutting people into pieces and selling them off, you’d better have reported it a long time ago.”

Colin huffed dismissively. “Calm down, Millard. I’m talking about these obviously lucrative and obviously illegal sales of masterpieces.”

“Ah, the delicate line you walk between being a thief and a… a whatever you are.” Manny had found it very hard to accept that Colin was employed by Interpol. Outside of our team, only four people knew he was retrieving objects for the international law enforcement agency. “So tell me, why is Interpol so interested in Edward Taylor?”

Colin took a step closer to Manny. “What do you know, Millard?”

“I met Laurence Gasquet today.” There was no mistaking the derision on Manny’s face. “Cagey. Very cagey.”

“What does that mean?” I didn’t want to make the mistake of assuming what I thought it meant.

“He answered every question like a politician would, Doc. I didn’t get one straight answer from him.”

“What did you get from him?” Colin asked.

“He said some confidential informant, whose identity he was not willing to divulge, has been feeding him info on Edward Taylor. Gasquet sat on it for a while before he went to his mates at Interpol. They decided to look into it and that’s how the official investigation was opened. It was also this supposed CI who told Gasquet that you were going to meet with Maurice Dupin three days ago. Of course, Gasquet was an upstanding citizen and told his Interpol guys about this.”

“And I was arrested.”

“You have to think harder, Frey. Who did you piss off?”

Colin’s smile was mocking. “Seriously? The list is long and you take up the top four places.”