by Peche, Alec
Jill, surprised by his statement, exclaimed, “Throughout all of the computer searches that we did on the case, we never discovered that Laura was married!”
Chapter 15
“Well you wouldn’t have discovered that since we were married in the United States and Laura listed herself as deceased in Belgium. The reason your hands are still tied is, I want to have a conversation with you and I need you to stay seated until I am finished with all of my questions. You will be returned unharmed tonight to your hotel in Brussels.”
Jill just shrugged and said, “Go ahead and ask your questions then, since it will be the middle of the night before we are returned to Brussels. Before you start, can you allow me to use a bathroom?”
Henrik responded with a nod and replied, “I’ll do more than that since I understand my men interrupted you on the way to dinner. If you would all like to use the water-closet, then we will adjourn to my dining room and I’ll feed you while we talk, no?”
Jo, ravenously hungry by now, and feeling no eminent threat to her safety spoke for the group. “That is a good idea. I will request that you leave the handcuffs off while we dine as I need both hands to eat.”
Henrik, having no faith in the Americans’ remaining docile, said “I’ll move the tie to one of your legs, and your waists. That will still leave you bound to the chair, which will make it difficult to attack me or depart.”
Resigned but not surprised by his answer, they made use of the bathroom one by one and were then escorted and tied to a chair in a dining room. It was apparent that Henrik had zero trust in their compliance.
A server brought in two bottles of wine that Henrik proceeded to uncork in front of them and pour into glasses. “See, I just opened these bottles, no drugs have been put in it.” Obviously his men had told him of their conversation earlier.
“Laura was excellent at sleight-of-hand, and she had the time to teach you the same skill. You could have poured something into the bottle and I would not necessarily have caught that.” Jill reached over and said, “I'll swap glasses with you, just to be on the safe side.”
“None of this really matters. We are entirely at your mercy as our phones have been removed, and your men are armed,” Nathan lacked the patience to play whatever games were going on in this room. “So maybe we should stop the bullshit, and just move on to what you want to know.”
“You are a man of few words, but clearly you have a need to protect your women. Hopefully you understand my desire to find what little justice I can after the killing of the love of my life.”
Servers entered the dining room, delivering bread and butter to the table, followed by bowls of soup. Henrik described what was to be on the menu for their conversation.
Despite being tied to the chair, Jill felt that Henrik in the present situation was of no threat to her and her friends, other than a potential risk of missing their flight in the morning. So she decided to plunge in with her usual aggressive questioning behavior.
“Is this beautiful house, complete with servants, where Laura spent the proceeds of her diamond heists?”
“I will tell you a little about my relationship with Laura,” Henrik replied. “We met over her one and only failed diamond heist. Yes, she tried to steal from this house while I was here. It was love at first sight.
“I manage a global computer and identity security company. A company engineer created an algorithm that could predict when thieves were casing an individual. I was beta testing the algorithm on myself since I wasn't sure of the commercial appeal of the technology. I think the science on identity theft points to it being random, rather than targeted. Our algorithm was developed for use in targeted thefts.”
“It was during that beta testing period that Laura began investigating this house with a plan to steal the diamonds in the chandelier over this dining-room table. She studied blueprints of my house from the local planning authority. She also studied my movements. So I began studying her in return, assessing whether she acted alone or she had help, trying to guess when she planned to hit my house. The more I studied her, the more intrigued I became. I could tell that the identity of Julie DuPont was fake, but I didn't know her real name. In the end, all I could do was add some secret security measures to my house, and generally put out the word that I would be gone for a particular month.
“Two weeks into that month, she made her attempt to steal the chandelier. I had also given my staff vacation time for that month. I have a twin brother who is an actor on a German crime show. We had arranged for him to be photographed as me in the French Riviera, just to cement the appearance that no one was in this house. I had stocked the house with food for the month and was working in a room serving as my office that I knew was not on any blueprints that the city had on record. I went to elaborate trouble to meet this thief in person, planning on turning her over to the authorities when I was done.
“Instead I ended up marrying her. I had installed camera monitors in my office, which alerted me when she finally stepped onto my property. I quickly hid in that china storage area,” said Henrik, as he opened the door to the storage area to reveal the space.
“I served in the German Intelligence Agency prior to starting my own security company and felt quite felt quite comfortable confronting the thief and protecting my property. Imagine her surprise, and that of her cousin Chloe, when I stepped out of that door. Instead of trying to run, Laura went on the attack about the blood diamonds in my chandelier. The nerve of the woman – I was in a perfect position to turn her over to German authorities. Instead, we sat down and had a very intriguing conversation. She and her cousin eventually left and we started dating. What you see in the chandelier now is cubic zirconia. I sold off the original diamonds and donated that money to her charities; she wouldn't have dated me otherwise.”
Angela asked the question that had been top of her mind since Henrik began his story. "Why did she continue to steal diamonds after she met you? It seems as though you have sufficient funds to support her charities for the miners.”
“You do not understand Laura and her irrational belief that there should be no market for blood diamonds in the world. At the base of everything was a desire on her part to change the business model for diamonds. It may seem to you that she strictly stole diamonds to fund the charities for the miners, but what she was really trying to do was bankrupt the consortium owners and the people that bought the diamonds to begin with.
“I had endless conversations with her on redirecting her passion, but nothing I suggested convinced her to change her course of action. So I just learned to accept her as she was, do what I could to keep her from getting caught, and now in the end, since I'm convinced that the diamond consortium caused her and Chloe's deaths, I will seek justice for her killing.”
Henrik’s story was very engaging. It was so powerful that the man continued to love Laura despite her huge flaw relating to diamond thievery.
Marie was pulled into this love story and asked, “Did you have children?”
“No, it was a point of contention in our marriage. We both wanted children, but Laura, despite her long-term success as a thief, thought she was fated to get caught and spend the rest of her life in prison. She did not want to subject any children to their mother's fate.”
“Your story is so sad, and I cannot believe I am in sympathy with Laura,” Jo grumbled, expressing the conflicted emotions that the women felt towards Laura and now Henrik.
Nick, unlike the women, was not particularly moved by Henrik's story. He was a law-and-order kind of guy. He didn't care about Laura's passion for the miners. He saw her as a criminal and Henrik as her accomplice.
“Your story is interesting, but why did you kidnap us and bring us here? You said you wanted to ask us questions, yet all you have done is talk about yourself. We would like to be released from our bonds as soon as possible and head back to Brussels,” Nick said.
Angela frowned at Nick for the abrupt shift from the romantic notion of H
enrik and Laura to whatever questions Henrik had for them. It was like hearing a record get scratched.
Angela reached over and put her hand on Henrik’s and said “Henrik, just ignore Nick for now; he has been slow to grasp how attractive strong women are, and how important it is that we follow our passion to make the world a better place.”
Nick couldn’t help himself; he made eye contact with Nathan and rolled his eyes. Nathan kicked him under the table. If Nick wanted any chance of a future with Angela, he needed to stay out of the conversation. He just didn’t realize what a force the four women could be when they jointly decided to do something, and clearly they all had reached some sisterhood agreement to help Henrik.
While Henrik had been sharing his story, the ravenous captives had consumed an aromatic and tasty soup. It was a ham broth with the smell of hickory and bacon rising up. These dishes had been replaced with the main course: moist and tender pork roast with vegetables and potatoes. The food was excellent, and Nathan, their resident wine expert, had been impressed with the wine selections that had accompanied each course.
Jill’s mind had been running a hundred miles a minute trying to put the loose ends that formed this case together. “Henrik, how often did you have us followed? Were you a friend of Chloe’s and do you know who killed her?”
“My operatives followed you from that first morning you took the train to Bruges. At first, I just wanted to thank you for trying to save Laura. Then when you assisted Dr. DeGroot with the case, I stayed close with your findings. Chloe was like a sister to me. We tried to get your attention to ask you some questions, but then someone else was tailing you. Sadly, I lost Chloe to the same person that killed Laura.”
Jill needed to correct his perspective, “Henrik, I don’t believe they were killed by the same person. Interpol has Alexei Bok in custody. He confessed to putting the nuts in Laura’s chocolate and forcing the chocolate store owner, Mr. Jacobs, to give her the product. Bok was weirdly focused on Laura – he blamed her for his mine running out of diamonds. He assumed Chloe was her assistant at the store and nothing more. A question we forgot to have Interpol ask him was whether or not he was the person who sat her up in the hospital, and if he removed the EpiPen from her purse.”
“I’m not sure I follow your questions. What do you mean someone sat her up in the hospital and that killed her? How does sitting up in bed kill you?”
“She died from empty vena cava syndrome. When someone has an allergic reaction and their blood pressure drops, the treatment is to give them epinephrine. The danger with those patients is if you sit them up after they have regained a heartbeat, all of the blood in their ventricles runs out and they die. Laura survived her initial allergic reaction, thanks to the quick action of the first responders and the CPR administered by Marie and I, and was doing well in the emergency room, talking to hospital staff. About half an hour after her arrival a major traffic accident distracted the staff and someone got in Laura’s room and sat her upright. That someone had to know something about allergic reactions, to know he or she could so easily kill Laura.”
“I was not aware of this part of the story. My investigator must not have looked into what happened at the hospital. Apparently Chloe didn’t know that, either. We had both thought that Laura didn’t make it alive to hospital.” He took a moment to swallow and gather his emotions. Eventually anger overcame his grief and he focused on Jill again.
He motioned to one of his security people and directed, “You can remove the ties from them. Jill, I would like to hire you to complete this investigation,” said Henrik naming a fee that would easily fund their next two vacations. “I need to know who killed my wife and Chloe, and Interpol doesn’t seem to be getting close to an answer. Will you work with me and my men to solve these crimes?”
“I am not one to turn down a job offer, but why do you want our help?” Jill asked. “You obviously have your own staff already, so why would you need us? Really, you said you did a stint in the German Intelligence Agency, doesn’t that make you more resourceful than an amateur team from America?”
“You have told me more details about Laura than my own staff found,” replied Henrik. “Also, you sat with Interpol and the Belgian police, which privileged you to more conversations than my men were involved in. So, I repeat, I would like to hire your team.”
“Angela and I must return to the United States tomorrow; our jobs require that we be there,” Marie replied. “We can assist long-distance in a few days, but I will return to a large in-box that will require more hours at work my first few days back.”
“Actually, I have had a change of plans. When I checked my mail earlier today, I had a note from the family I was supposed to shoot. Since, the kids just went back to school, they are passing illnesses back and forth to each other. This family has a five-year-old and an eight-year-old. This shoot was to be their picture for their Christmas card this year. Unfortunately, the five year old has a case of chicken pox and so they have rescheduled for three weeks from now, hoping the pox marks will no longer be visible and he’ll be released from quarantine. My next photo shoot is two days after that, so I can stay an extra two days in Belgium.”
“That is about what I can afford to take off work,” said Jo. “Two days is a hard deadline that I can’t extend.”
“I am good for a week,” said Jill. “I hope that if we have your intelligence resources, and we work full-time on this case, that we will resolve it in the two days, before we lose Angela and Jo.”
“I would like you to stay here at my estate, both for your own protection and because it is well wired and you’ll have the resources you need. I’ll provide you with a car to take you anywhere you need to go for in-person investigations. Gentlemen, I’ll leave it up to the ladies as to what your role is here, since I understand that neither of you are employed by Jill.”
Jill, looking out for Angela’s interests, said, “Nick, you’re welcome to join us in the investigation if you can afford the time away from your own business and if you want to join us. Nathan, I’m sure you’ll find some wineries in the area to visit while we work from this base.”
“Henrik, is your estate close to the Rhine Valley?” Nathan did not have a sense in his head of where in Germany they were presently located.
“Yes, we are in the Rhine Valley. My intelligence report about you indicates that you’re the premier wine label designer in the world. I would imagine that you have clients in this vicinity.”
“Yes I think I have about six clients in this region and it is always good to visit them. Once I have assured myself that you have adequate security on this estate to protect the women, I’ll spend my day visiting my clients with this estate as a base. We’ll need to check out of our hotel and have our luggage brought here.”
“Why don’t I escort Angela back to Belgium, where we can pack up everyone’s luggage,” proposed Nick. “Marie, what time does your plane depart tomorrow?”
“It leaves at noon.”
“This estate is about a ninety minute drive from the airport, which is located on the northwest side of the city, and that is the direction from Brussels of my home,” explained Henrik. “You can spend the night here with your friends, and I’ll send you by car in the morning to the airport if that is acceptable.”
“I would like to stay here and lend a hand to my friends,” replied Marie, “if you’ll take care of that ride tomorrow.”
“Do you have a room we can begin work in tonight?” asked Jo. “I would like to start by re-booking my airline tickets, and Angela, I’ll take care of your ticket change as well.”
“Can I just say this weird vacation, just got weirder and the beer mystery has deepened? I will have to be creative in describing this part of our vacation in our photo album,” said a smiling Angela. “Thanks, Jo, for making the flight change. I am ready to head back to Belgium with Nick, if your driver is available.”
The group broke up at that point. Angela and Nick headed outside to be driv
en back to Brussels to pack up everyone’s things. Henrik showed everyone else to a beautiful conference room where they could work. It contained more computers than users, a white board, and a projection screen. Adjacent to it was a small kitchen filled with snacks and drinks. From there Henrik toured them around the house, showing them the bedrooms that they could use. Henrik also demonstrated the security measures present in his lovely home while they waited for Nick and Angela to return with their belongings. After their luggage arrived, Nathan would have his own laptop, which had the graphic-design software he needed for work, as well as the information on his clients. Now that he was satisfied the women would be safe, he was looking forward to setting up appointments to meet his clients. He had been to three of the wineries before, and it would be great seeing the vineyards of his three newer clients.
Jill loved the setup of the conference room that was designated for them to work in, especially the white board. She hadn’t realized how much she missed organizing her thoughts about a case on a white board, but then up to this point on this case she had been a casual crime- solver, an accessory to law enforcement’s efforts. Now she was about to morph into full-time on–the-job consultant.
She began by arranging as many facts as she could on the board. She printed pictures of Laura and Chloe, the consortium CEOs including Mr. Bok, and Mr. Jacobs. Then she added pictures of the men who attacked them in Amsterdam and Brussels, and the Russian Interpol agent to the white board. Next she added a section of the board that had the unknown facts. What was Laura’s relationship with the consortium members over time? Who had forced Laura into an upright position? Jill realized that she needed to prepare a list of questions about Laura’s and Chloe’s thoughts, behaviors, and actions. She would wait for Angela to return before they questioned Henrik, because she knew Angela would do the best job extracting information from him. Given the loyalties of the Russian agent in Antwerp, she supposed she would keep a separate side list of all the law enforcement people they had worked with so far on the case. Finally, she added a timeline of Laura’s life and when it had begun to intersect with the women’s vacation.
