The Gauguin Connection

by Estelle Ryan

  “I thought you would have the names for us before the event.” I looked up at Francine to see a brief frown. We were in one of the front rooms, surrounded by throngs of designer-dressed bodies. Feigned interest, false laughter and idle chatter threatened to distract me. I focused on the warmth of the palm touching mine and waited for Francine to answer.

  “I also thought I would have them.” She picked a champagne flute off the tray, which a bulky waiter politely offered to our group. Vinnie and Colin also took flutes. Manny declined and I did not have a free hand. My left hand had a death grip on Colin’s and my clutch bag was in my right hand. Alcohol was not something that I considered a wise beverage at this time. What I needed more was information.

  “So you have nothing?” I asked. Everyone looked at me with widened eyes. Maybe my tone had been too displeased.

  “I think I’m angrier about this than you are,” Francine said. She elbowed Vinnie lightly and he took a tablet computer from his jacket’s interior pocket. Big pockets for a big jacket. “But I don’t have nothing.” She swiped the tablet a few times, tapped a few more times and smiled triumphantly. We followed Manny to a mantelpiece and stood close enough so no one could overhear Francine. “This flash drive is the mother load.”

  “Francine, English,” Colin said.

  Francine glanced at me. “Oh yes. Okay. This flash drive has all the account numbers of anyone who ever had any dealings with the shipping companies. It is divided into the art auctions, the artists, the security companies, which by the way is helping me getting the real names of the owners of these accounts. The encryption to these banks are really good, but–”

  “I really don’t want to know this,” Manny said.

  “Ah, of course. You can’t be party to anything that is not strictly by the book. Hypocrite.” Francine rolled her eyes.

  “Would you stop interrupting Francine so she could tell y’all what she’s found.” Vinnie glared at Manny. I wondered why he had the Texan accent again.

  “Thanks, Vin.” Francine leaned into him, her eyes on her tablet. “I did a lot of search work on your mister Brun. He has a few accounts all over the world, but his Hungarian account is the oldest. It was opened twenty-five years ago. I checked the photo ID’s he gave when he opened his numerous accounts and each is different. Never the same person’s photo. It’s most definitely a cover identity.”

  “It isn’t logical that he would use the same name over and over again. It makes it so much easier for him to be discovered.” I huffed. “Not a very intelligent move for a criminal.”

  “Maybe he has some sentimental attachment to the name,” Manny said.

  “He also owns property in all these countries where he has his accounts. In Croatia he has a large villa and there he insured some artwork to the amount of,” she checked her tablet, “seven million US dollars.”

  “Does it say which pieces are insured?” I asked.

  “No, but I can find that for you if you need it. Something that bothered me was the lack of family that I found with all his identities. Except for Hungary. There he listed his wife as Irene Brun.”

  “Irene?” A connection was tugging at my consciousness.

  “Jenny?” Colin squeezed my hand. “What is it?”

  “Somewhere I came across that name. I just can’t remember where.” I needed a quiet place and Mozart.

  “Irene is a very common name,” Manny said. “It is also very possible that it is a false identity.”

  “Don’t worry about it now, Jen-girl,” Vinnie said. “It’s more important that you check out the people here.”

  “Do you have anything else on Simon Brun?” Manny asked.

  “No, but I’m also working on that.” She waved her tablet computer at us. “This tablet connects to my work computers and will let me know as soon as the decryption is complete. I’ve set it up to immediately compare the names of the owners of those five accounts to all the other lists of names that I have. It will also do a general search on those names, which should give us more.”

  “We’re running out of time, people.” Stress tightened Manny’s throat so that his speech was strained.

  Tension pulled at my back and shoulder muscles and I wished that I was more comfortable with other people touching me. A deep tissue massage would be a wonderful experience to have. I turned my attention away from the group towards the door and froze. Colin must have felt my reaction. His other hand briefly rubbed my forearm. I glanced at him and he smiled at me. “Wild horses couldn’t keep him away.”

  Emotion placed a huge lump in my throat as I watched Phillip make his way through the crowd towards us. Not once did he take his eyes off me. I indulged in the silly thought that if one could’ve chosen one’s parents I knew who I would’ve chosen as my father. A wide smile lit up his face as he reached us.

  “Genevieve, you look well.” He lifted his hands and let it drop before he touched me. “Actually, you look beautiful. How are you?”

  “Coping,” I answered honestly. “This is not something I’m prepared for.”

  “I don’t think anyone was prepared for this.” He smiled at me and for the first time looked at the people forming a protective circle around me. “Good evening, everyone.”

  Greetings and introductions were exchanged. Phillip didn’t insist on knowing any more about the case. He was just there to make sure of my safety.

  Manny glanced at his watch. “Most of the guests should be here already. Maybe we should start mingling. Do you all have your cell phones?”

  “I have my smartphone.” I pinched my clutch bag under my arm and proudly lifted my phone.

  “Will you answer it?” Manny lifted one eyebrow.

  “If I must.”

  “Tonight you must, missy.”

  Manny asked for Vinnie, Colin and Francine’s numbers. A brief argument about invasion of privacy and someone’s big brother was interrupted by Phillip reminding everyone of the bigger picture. I observed a lot of resentment when the exchange of numbers happened. Just then we were joined by Leon. Another round of greetings and introductions followed before I pulled lightly on Colin’s hand.

  “They’re arguing again. Can we please start analysing people?”

  “A very good idea.” He looked relieved. “They’re stomping on my last nerve, so I can’t imagine how you must feel.”

  As soon as we left, Vinnie and Francine followed us at a distance. Throughout the welcoming and award ceremony at least two of our group were within view. I started relaxing into the feeling of being watched and protected. We were approaching the bar for a much needed glass of water when Manny intercepted us.

  “Seen anything?”

  “Relevant to the case?” I asked. I had observed a lot of interesting behaviour, but didn’t want to hear Manny’s sarcasm again.

  “Yes, missy.”

  “I’ve seen a few men with similar posture and movement as the thugs who broke into my place.”

  Colin stiffened. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

  “They just walked and behaved in a similar manner. It’s not evidence of anything. They’re mingling, but are much more observant than any of the other guests.”

  “Some of them might be our guys,” Manny said. “Have you seen anyone who might be Piros?”

  “No.”

  Manny sighed. “Okay, let me borrow you for a while. I want to introduce you to my boss.”

  “Which one?” I asked.

  “The Head of the EDA and the Chief Executive. They’re in the other room.” Manny looked at Colin. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to tag along.”

  “Amen to that.” Colin blinked twice and suddenly looked concerned. He turned to me. “Jenny, will you be okay?”

  I looked at our hands and for the first time in hours took my hand out of his. The imprint of his hand felt ridiculously permanent on my palm. I rubbed my palm against my thigh and took a bracing breath. “If it’s only ten minutes, I’ll be okay.”

>   “Millard, you heard the lady. Ten minutes or I’ll come looking for her.” There was no ambiguity in the threat delivered. Even I heard the unspoken implications.

  “You don’t get to threaten me, you low life. It will be ten minutes because of Doctor Lenard, not because of you.” Manny gestured for me to go ahead of him and said over his shoulder, “Asshole.”

  “I have a theory,” I said as we made our way through the crowd. Manny leaned closer to me and nodded that he was listening. I took my time to draw on my education to phrase what I was about to say very carefully. “You think you are old and settled in your ways. It is not true. You are an exceptionally open-minded person, for some reason reluctant to let anyone see it. I also think that you like Colin, respect him and even like Vinnie. What I don’t know or understand is why you can’t admit to this. Why you think it is shameful.”

  Manny was quiet for so long that I glanced up at him. An angry vein was throbbing on his forehead and he was continually swallowing. I had failed to phrase myself carefully. He stopped and breathed as if he had just run up a few flights of stairs. A waiter passed us with a tray and Manny grabbed a glass with an amber-coloured drink in it. In one gulp he emptied the glass and closed his eyes. I waited, watching as his breathing slowed and his face returned to its normal colour.

  “Doc, you would drive a man to do and say things that could land him in prison.”

  “Technically, I don’t have that kind of power. We are each responsible for our own–”

  “Doc,” Manny held up his hand as if stopping traffic. “Now would be a good time to not speak. I’m going to forget the last five minutes and introduce you to my bosses. You are going to be your best social self and you are going to observe the hell out of them.”

  He didn’t wait for my response, but turned away from me and walked with measured steps to a small group of people. I followed him, immediately recognising the Head of the EDA and Chief Dutoit from the footage I had watched. They made their excuses and broke away from the group to face us.

  “You must be Doctor Lenard.”

  “And you must be the Head of the EDA, Sarah Crichton.” I was ready and produced a warm smile. I even allowed her to shake my hand without flinching.

  “Doctor Lenard,” Frederique Dutoit said. “It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person.”

  My smile faltered and it took work to not react when we shook hands. In deference to our different nationalities, we spoke English. Chief Dutoit’s English was perfect and without accent. His voice deep and smooth. I needed a moment to ascertain what it was about his voice, his non-verbal communication that was troubling me. Very likely it was just his social pretence. And I always found social pretence grossly abrasive.

  I answered a few polite questions about the event. When questions about the case were aimed at me, Manny smoothly interrupted and answered untruthfully or with half truths. I allowed him to lead this strange interaction, aware of how important it was for him. It was also invaluable for me. I was reeling with the revelations of what the Head and Chief were loudly projecting. I wondered if Manny knew how much the Chief hated him, or the Head distrusted the Chief, but valued Manny. Office politics. I couldn’t stand it.

  “Genevieve, there you are.” A soft hand rested on my shoulder blade. I turned to be air-kissed by an enthusiastic Francine. “When I heard that you were here, I just had to find you.”

  “Um, hello.” Her strange behaviour led me to surmise that she was pretending. I didn’t know if I was allowed to use her name or not. Or what my role in this ruse was.

  “Oh honey, look at you. You look fantastic. I just have to hug you.” I was pulled into an embrace that I forced myself to return. While holding me close she whispered into my ear, “I’m sorry for all this touching, but I need you to play along. You need to go to the ladies’ room with me.”

  I straightened when she let me go and managed a happy smile. “It’s wonderful to see you too. I didn’t know you would be here.”

  “Yet here I am.” She turned to a slack-jawed Manny and smiled brightly at him. Her acting skills were admirable. “If you’ll excuse us, us girls need to freshen up.”

  Francine didn’t wait for a response, but grabbed my hand and started pulling me away from the group. I sent an apologetic smile to Manny and his bosses. The cluster of facial muscle movements indicated Manny’s intense anger. Oh dear. I turned my attention to Francine. “What’s happening?”

  “Colin got impatient.” She let go of my hand and led us out of the room. “And I needed to go to the washroom, so I thought it was a good plan to get you away from those stuffy suits.”

  “Are we really going to the washroom? I thought it was all a ruse.”

  “After two glasses of bubbly, my bladder is killing me. So yes, we’re going to the loo.”

  “What about Colin and Vinnie?”

  “They’re following us and will keep an eye on the doors.”

  “Oh.” I followed her to rest rooms more elegant than any of those in the top hotels and mansions I had been in. An anteroom with lush carpets and designer sofas led to a room that looked like it had been carved out of marble. A middle aged lady passed us on her way out, preceded and followed by an excess of perfume. I looked at Francine and she rolled her eyes.

  “Rich old ladies.” She nodded at our surroundings. “Stunning, isn’t it? I have only seen this kind of crazy opulence in Moscow and St Petersburg. This is so Russian.”

  “It is beautiful,” I said. It was not my taste though. It was cold, impersonal and would take far too much time and specialised products to keep clean. Francine disappeared into one of the cubicles. I made use of the facilities and met Francine at the marble basins with gold-finished taps. I dried my hands on a small hand towel and dispensed of it in a small wicker basket.

  An electronic ping sounded next to me and I glanced at Francine. Her eyes widened in pleasure and she grabbed her tablet computer out of her bag. “Results. We have results.”

  “What results?” I lowered my voice when three women entered the room chatting about someone’s weight gain. Francine was tapping and swiping the tablet screen without any awareness of our surroundings. I lowered my voice even more. “Maybe we should leave.”

  “Hmm?” She looked up and then focused on the sofas by the entrance. “Let’s go sit there. I need a moment to check this out.”

  I followed her there and sat down next to her. The sofas were not only beautiful, but surprisingly comfortable. It took less than a minute before I became impatient. “Speak to me, Francine.”

  “In a moment.” She swiped and tapped a few more times. When she looked up, her eyes were bright. “Who exactly is Kubanóv?”

  “He’s the founder of the charity organisation hosting this event. Why?”

  “Simon Brun is married to his cousin.” She tilted the tablet towards me and pointed at the screen. “I followed the bank accounts like I said earlier. His Hungarian account where his wife is registered also required photo ID of her. There are two more bank accounts with her photo, one as Irene Brun, the other as Irena Kubanóv, born in Volosovo, Russia.”

  I closed my eyes for a heartbeat, then opened them on a deep inhale. “When you first mentioned her name, I knew I had seen it somewhere. It was on the Foundation’s website. Kubanóv said there that his inspiration came from a few people in his life, one of them being his cousin Irena. So, that is the connection between Kubanóv and Piros. We need to tell Manny and the others.”

  “That’s not all, Genevieve.” Francine changed screens on the tablet. It showed a scanned form of sorts. “I checked the name Simon Brun on Interpol’s data base.”

  “You can do that?” Understanding hit me when she merely raised her eyebrows. How many agencies was she working for? “Oh, okay. Sorry. Go on.”

  “His name was set to send a red alert when searched. I circumvented it.” She waited for two ladies to exit the room before she continued quietly. “Simon Brun was the name used by an undercov
er agent during the eighties. There is a list here of places he worked, but nowhere does it say who the agent was.”

  “We have to tell Manny now.” I got up and took my smartphone from my clutch bag.

  It took only two rings before Manny answered. “Where are you?”

  “Meet us in front of the ladies room. Francine found something,” I said. The rude oaf didn’t even answer me; he just disconnected the call. Francine and I left the restroom and found Manny, Colin and Vinnie huddling next to a large flower arrangement. They were leaning in close in what seemed a heated discussion. I sighed. They were arguing again. It would seem that Manny had already been close by when I phoned him.

  I narrowed my eyes on a realisation. When we were close enough, I interrupted Manny. “Why aren’t you sneezing?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “You said that you suffer severely from allergies to flowers. Why aren’t you sneezing?”

  “Because I have really good medication, missy. Now can we get to business?”

  “Okay,” I said. “What were you talking about?”

  Colin took half a step to the left and nodded at the wall. “What do you see?”

  I looked at the beautiful flower arrangement. It held no clues. I raised my eyes and blinked in shock. “Gauguin’s Still Life, The White Bowl.”

  “And it’s the real thing,” Colin said. “I’m willing to stake my freedom on it.”

  “You still haven’t convinced me.” Manny glared at the painting. “How can you be so sure?”

  “While you were arguing, I studied the painting,” Colin said. “Look close enough at the frame and you’ll see that I’m right.”

  I stepped closer and focussed on the bottom left corner. “He’s right. You have to look carefully, but I can see where the strip was cut from the painting.”

  “I still can’t believe that Danielle would’ve desecrated a masterpiece like this,” Colin said.

  “Desperation makes people do strange things, Frey,” Manny said. He looked at me. “Care to share what big new revelations you two ladies got in the restroom?”

  I left it to Francine to fill them in and show them the new information on her tablet. For a few precious moments I allowed Mozart to dominate my mind. I took two steps backwards to gain a minimal distance from all the outraged expressions bouncing back and forth within our small group. As it was, I hoped that we could find Piros tonight and end his reign. Not only was he a megalomaniac tyrant, he was also a traitor. And a serial killer.

  My gaze drifted away from our group, over the crowd of pretentious people constantly competing to improve their social standing, yet completely unaware that their presence here put them in association with murderers of the worst calibre. A familiar voice pulled my attention to the left.

  About three meters from me stood Manny’s boss, Chief Dutoit, who was deep in discussion with another man. His tailored suit and manicured hands gave him the look of a pampered businessman. Not quite the kind of company a man of Chief Dutoit’s character would seek out. This anomaly interested me. I paid closer attention. They were conversing in French, arguing about a delayed delivery that could have disastrous financial repercussions.

  Next to me, Vinnie and Manny were trading insults. Vinnie about the depth of the corruption in government agencies. Manny about simpleminded criminals. I smiled. They liked each other. Colin and Francine were focussed on her tablet.

  My mild amusement at my group and interest in Chief Dutoit’s discussion were brought to a brutal halt. All it took was one word. A word so softly spoken I could barely believe I had heard it, yet I was convinced that I had. In my mind all the separate elements of this case suddenly moved into perfect alignment. One word combined all the loose bits of information to a state of completion where all my observations, analyses and theories came to one single conclusion. The answer to all the questions. The innermost gear powering, driving all the others.

  Still arguing, Chief Dutoit and the other man started walking away. Without thinking I followed the voice that had uttered that crucial word. Overcrowding, people touching me and my own personal safety no longer mattered. Hearing that word again was all I could think about. Getting it recorded would be even better. With a start I realised that my smartphone, still resting in my palm, enabled me to do exactly that.

  I followed them through two rooms. The crowded rooms made it easy to keep some distance between us. It also provided me with an irrational sense of safety. That last thought made me gasp. Colin. Manny. I should not have left like I had. The sudden vibration of my smartphone in my hand nearly had me screaming in fright. Adrenaline pumped through my system, causing me to answer the call with a shaking hand.

  “Hello?” I whispered unnecessarily. I was surrounded by conversation and laughter.

  “Jenny, where are you?” Colin sounded winded and worried.

  “Um, I don’t know. I went through two rooms. They’ve turned left. It looks like a corridor to the back of the house. Maybe to the right side of the house. I really don’t know. I’m following Piros.”

  “You’re what?” Manny’s loud voice made me cringe.

  “Am I on speaker phone?”

  “Yes.”

  “I know who he is,” I said just as I broke free of the crowds. I glanced into the long corridor. I took three steps back into the crowd. “I don’t think it would be prudent to continue talking to you. The corridor is rather quiet and they might hear me. I’m switching on my video app and streaming it to your phone. Find me.”

  I ignored three male voices yelling all types of orders at me and tapped the mute button. It took only a moment

  before I connected Colin via video to what I was seeing. Another tap on my smartphone and it was recording. I took a moment to examine my situation and decide on a course of action. First things first. I kicked off my shoes for comfort and stealth. One calming breath and I walked down the long, dimly-lit corridor, my smartphone leading the way.

 

  Chapter TWENTY-NINE