by Estelle Ryan
Colin glanced at me once, then longer and smiled. His facial muscles revealed true pleasure. “Hey, you.”
“Hey.” I rubbed my calves. “How long?”
“Almost an hour. How are the legs?”
“Uncomfortable.” I sat up. “Is Manny well?”
“No.” His smile dimmed. “He had a really hard time with you not responding to him. And I thought Vin was going to punch him.”
“It’s not good.”
“No, it’s not.” He turned into a street that ran parallel to one of the beautiful canals. “Dan phoned Francine, who got Manny to go back to the team room before something happened that we’d all regret.”
“I don’t know what to do.” The absurdity of it irritated me, yet the urge to do something to restore Manny’s usual grumpy mood overrode logic.
“Yeah. None of us know how to handle this situation. Vin just wants to punch him. I would really like to do that too, but I think Millard needs to talk. He needs to tell us what is going on so we can help or butt out.” He smiled. “So we can mind our own business.”
“‘Butt out’ is nonsensical. I’ve heard Vinnie use it and it simply doesn’t make sense.”
Colin laughed. “I can agree with that. Yet we use it all the time.”
“I don’t.”
He smiled at me and returned his attention to the road. We were close to the street leading to our team room. “Millard needs to get himself together though. This chase changed things for us on this case.”
“What changed?” This was why I hated my shutdowns. Most often it happened during a crucial moment when important information was revealed. I usually felt like I had a lot of catching up to do after a shutdown. It was most frustrating.
Colin parked his SUV in the designated spot for our building and turned to me. “Are you okay to get out?”
I wiggled my toes and moved my arms before I reached for the door handle. “I’m well.”
“Okay then.” He opened his door and joined me on the pavement, then took my hand as we walked to the entrance of Phillip’s building. The small elevator in the back of the foyer was the only way to reach our team room from the street.
Colin entered the code into the keypad and the door slid open. I could no longer wait. “What changed? Why is this case different now?”
“Francine was able to trace the company who rented the two SUVs that followed us to Iran.”
“Is that what she found interesting when she spoke to us?” There were a few other things she’d said that I wanted to follow up on, but I decided to take it one revelation at a time.
“Yes.” He leaned against the side of the elevator, watching the numbers change as we went to the top floor. “So my question is how does Iran fit into this? Are we talking a national involvement or is it only private citizens who are somehow involved in this wine-drug smuggling thing and torturing the young people?”
I realised his question was rhetorical and didn’t answer. It reflected much of what I was thinking.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened to a busy team room. Francine was at her computer, furiously typing away. Pink sat next to her, his hands moving fast on his tablet as he swiped and tapped. Manny was at his desk glaring at his computer and Vinnie was in the kitchen area, putting more mugs on a tray.
He turned when we entered and smiled. “You’re just in time for coffee and pastries. I think we all need some comfort food. Except maybe the old man. He needs a personality transplant.”
Francine jumped up and rushed over to me. “Hey, girlfriend. Are you okay?”
“I’m well.”
“You better be.” Manny walked over and glared at me. “You shaved a good ten years off my life, missy.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
Francine put her arm through Manny’s and leaned her head on his shoulder. “It means Manny cares for you and was extremely worried when you guys were being followed.”
Manny shook her loose and walked over to the round table. “Sit. We need to talk.”
“Did you find anything else on these guys?” Colin asked Francine as we walked to the table.
“Nada.” She looked at me. “I’m really glad you’re okay.”
I nodded and sat down. Vinnie put the tray down on the table and placed the two plates heaped with pastries in front of me. “You get first choice, Jen-girl.”
“Where’s my tea?” Manny scowled at the tray.
“If you want tea, you can make it yourself. Or you can drink coffee like the rest of us.” Vinnie sat down hard in his seat and raised both eyebrows at Manny. “Or you wanna take this outside?”
It was Manny’s lack of response that really had me worried. He took a mug of coffee, added milk and sugar and slumped into his chair.
I took one of my favourite pastries and put it on a small plate. The one thing I didn’t like about these delicacies was the mess they left behind. That was why I’d taken to eating them with a cake fork—one that Vinnie had supplied for me. He smiled and winked when I looked at him. “Enjoy.”
“Thank you.” I looked at Daniel, who reached for the second plate of pastries. “Was there any salvageable evidence from the SUV that exploded?”
“Nope,” Vinnie answered before Daniel could. “Everything and everyone burned to a crisp.”
“All the evidence is gone. We have to wait for the car to cool down before the techs can look at the engine for VIN numbers and the like, but I doubt we’ll find anything useful.”
“All their electronics are gone too.” Pink sighed heavily as he stirred the sugar into his coffee. “I saw the casings of at least two smartphones, but they’re completely destroyed. We won’t get anything from that car. The back of it is completely gone. There had to have been some incendiary device or substance to make it blow up like that.”
“Let me just pile on to this good news report.” Francine’s expression revealed her sarcasm. “I have nothing on the Iranian company. I looked, but man, it’s hard to find anything understandable from that country. Their government databases are hard to hack and then there is of course the language thing.” She held up her manicured finger. “But fear not, I have guys on it. We’ll find out who they were.”
I resisted the urge to ask her about the ‘guys’ helping her. Francine frequently used her network of hacker contacts to help her find intel. For my own peace of mind, I’d found it best not to ask details about favours being exchanged and other borderline illegal activities happening in pursuit of information we needed.
Daniel’s phone pinged and he took it from one of the many pockets in his uniform. His eyebrows rose slightly before lowering into a frown. “We still don’t have an ID on the two victims in the Robertsau forest. The crime scene techs are doing everything they can, but there’s nothing to give us a lead. No one has reported them missing and they’re not showing up in any databases.”
“That’s just wrong.” Francine rubbed her arms as if she was cold. “Those young people should not be anonymous. Someone knew them, laughed with them, loved them.”
“We’ll get their names, Franny.” Vinnie pushed a plate of pastries towards Francine. “We’ll honour them.”
“Ask Caelan.” I blinked when everyone turned to look at me.
Manny’s brow lowered and he inhaled deeply. “I almost forgot about him. Get that little bugger in here.”
Francine blew Manny a kiss and swiped the screen of her phone. A short conversation later, she smiled at him. “Caelan is with Phillip. They’ll be here in five minutes.”
I thought of what Pink had said about the burned-out SUV. “How many people’s remains were in the SUV?”
“The crime scene guys have to confirm, but we all agreed that we could see three people.” It was fleeting, but Daniel’s micro-expression revealed the horror of what he’d seen. “They’re completely burned.”
“What are you thinking, Doc?”
“Adèle had photos of a man as part of the chart. Somehow he pla
ys an important part in that business organisation.” I sighed. “He has a visible birthmark on his right hand.”
“Ah, and you thought that he might’ve been one of the dudes in the SUV.” Vinnie nodded. “Yeah, we won’t be able to tell now. Not from that birthmark on his hand. All gone.”
“Their hands were the first we checked once the fire was out.” Daniel swallowed. “We were hoping to get fingerprints.”
The elevator doors pinged. “Doctor Lenard! I’m here.”
“I see that.” I wondered why Caelan so often felt the need to state the obvious.
“How can I help?” He sat down next to Francine. “I want to help. Tell me what I can do.”
Colin put his hand on my arm and I looked at him. He shook his head slightly before looking at Caelan. “We need your help, but this will not be easy.”
Caelan looked at my shoulder. “What happened?”
“Two more people died.” I considered trying to be more sensitive with my words, but then stayed with what I knew Caelan would understand. “They were tortured like Jace and Adèle. And discarded in the forest.”
“Tortured. The Andes Mountains are the longest continental mountain range in the world.” He took his backpack from his shoulder, reached inside and came out with two stress balls. We all watched as he squeezed them five times slowly while watching his hands. Then he looked up, again at my shoulder. “Okay. How can I help?”
“Give me a minute.” Francine lifted her tablet and turned it so Caelan wouldn’t be able to see the screen. “I’m just cleaning up the photos a bit.”
“It’s not necessary.” Caelan squeezed the stress balls harder.
“Oh, it is, superman,” Vinnie said. “Let Franny do her magic. Then you can see if you know them.”
“You don’t know who they are?”
“No, we don’t.” Daniel’s tone was gentle. “And it will definitely help us if we have their names.”
“Done.” Francine turned her tablet, but then pulled it away again, looking at Caelan. “I cleaned it up as best I could, but you’ll still see they were badly beaten up.”
Caelan nodded and squeezed the balls a few times. “Okay. Show me.”
Francine tilted her tablet towards Caelan, the frontalis muscle raising her inner eyebrows in concern.
“The Sargasso Sea is the only sea without any coasts.” Caelan closed his eyes tightly, his hands frantically squeezing the balls. “The Pacific Ocean basin is home to seventy-five percent of the world’s volcanoes. I know them. It’s Camille Vastine and Martin Gayot. They’re also members of the geocaching group. That’s Camille’s favourite sweater. She always wore it.”
Pink was already putting the names into his tablet when Vinnie knocked on the table close to Caelan. “You really are a superman, dude.”
“Did you know them well?” Daniel asked.
“No. Jace met up with them a few times. I didn’t want to. I don’t like meeting new people. Jace did. He wore his glasses so I could watch them when they met for coffee. They were nice to Jace. They were nice. Mexico has more pyramids than Egypt.”
“And they were part of the geocaching group,” Colin said.
“Yes. Jace and I were the best team. Especially when it came to the caches that weren’t easy to find. Camille and Martin were also good. Very good. They were second best. Now there’s no one left. Only me.”
I thought about Camille’s and Martin’s connection to Jace and Adèle. “Did Camille and Martin go to Self-Storage Solutions to look for that cache with the ‘e’?”
Caelan nodded. “They got there forty minutes after Jace.”
“Oh, my God.” Francine’s eyes were wide. “I see where you’re going with this. I mean, we already think the killer saw the security footage from the warehouse. That must be how he knew Jace took the crates. But this must also be how he knew to look for Camille and Martin.”
“We need to get the names of the other people in your group.” Manny straightened. “Do you have a list?”
“What group?” Caelan glanced at Manny’s shoulder.
“Your geocaching group.”
“I can’t give you their names.” He shook his head repeatedly. “They’ll never trust me again.”
“Then they are not as smart as they think.” I hoped logic would convince Caelan. “You’ll be saving their lives by giving us their names.”
He thought about this for a few seconds, nodded and started rattling off names.
“Whoa, there.” Daniel chuckled. “Give us a moment to make notes.”
Caelan repeated the names he’d already given, slower and waiting for Daniel to nod before he gave the next one. Pink put them all in his tablet.
“Do you want everyone in France or only the people in Strasbourg?” Caelan asked after he’d given the nineteenth name.
“Only Strasbourg.” Daniel looked at Pink and Francine. “Did you find any other crimes with the same MO in other cities?”
“Nope.” Francine winked at him. “How did you know I looked?”
“You always do.” He smiled at her, then looked at Manny. “I’ll mobilise teams to get these people to safety. It might take a while though.”
“Good luck with that.” Manny didn’t look sincere. “I’ll stay here and keep this lot safe.”
Vinnie snorted and Manny’s head jerked up. His eyes narrowed and he inhaled sharply, but a foreign notification tone caught his attention. Caelan took his phone from his trouser pocket and swiped the screen. “Russia spans eleven time zones. Australia is wider than the moon.”
“For the love of all that is holy.” Manny slumped deeper into his chair. “Now what?”
“The countdown finished.” Caelan turned his smartphone so we could see his screen. On it was the interface for the application he used for the geocaching. Large red numbers were in the centre of the screen.
“Do you know what that is?” Colin asked.
Caelan turned his smartphone back and looked at the screen. “It’s a GPS location. Jace gave me a GPS location.”
Chapter THIRTEEN
“HOLY HELL!” MANNY SQUINTED at the monitors in front of us. “Is that—”
“We’re in Jace’s basement.” Vinnie’s voice was clear over the speakers. He had joined Daniel’s GIPN team to go to the GPS location Caelan had received. Phillip had taken Caelan to his office when it had become clear that the young man wasn’t coping with this new information. He was missing his friend and the GPS location caused him great distress.
It had also caused a few minutes of intense debate until everyone agreed that Daniel would ask the other GIPN teams to get all the members of Caelan’s geocaching group to safety. Daniel, Pink and Vinnie had left immediately after they’d assured me that I could receive live streaming when they found and entered the location.
I watched as Vinnie followed Daniel into the dim space, their guns swinging from side to side, their nonverbal cues clearly communicating their readiness to take action if needed. Three seconds later, the tension in Daniel’s muscles decreased and he lowered his rifle. “All clear.”
“Well? Let’s see what’s in that bloody basement.” Manny had received a call just after Vinnie had left. He’d been in an even more disagreeable mood since. Behind the posturing, his grief was clear. I didn’t know what to do.
So I returned my focus to the monitors and gripped Colin’s hand. He was quiet next to me.
“I count eight crates.” Vinnie pointed at the wooden crates in the centre of the room. They were in the same place they had been on Jace’s video.
“And we know that Jace took eight.” Daniel swung his assault rifle over his shoulder and rested his hand on his holstered handgun. “We have these eight, but where are the four crates that Adèle took?”
His question was in the forefront of my mind. But I had many other questions too. “Are all the wine bottles still in the crates?”
Vinnie moved towards the crates, but Daniel held out his hand to stop him. “I think we ne
ed to get the bomb squad in here first before we open anything. Just to be safe.”
“That’s going to take forever.” Manny hunched his shoulders.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Daniel glanced at Vinnie’s button camera, which made it appear as if he was looking at us. “We’ll try to make this as quick as possible though.”
“I want the bottles.” I saw Daniel reacting with a slight frown and collected my thoughts to be clearer. “I want to study all the bottles. I think their labels might give us important information.”
“I don’t think I can get you the bottles very soon, Genevieve.” Daniel turned to look at the crates. “If these bottles contain liquid heroin like the one we found in Adèle’s house, we won’t be able to handle them without all of them first being processed. Will photos do?”
I considered this. “The photos will have to be of the highest quality. I need to see every detail of the labels.”
“I’ll do that as soon as the bomb squad clears the room.” Daniel tilted his head and thought about this some more. “I might get our hazmat team in here as well. I’ve heard of cops dying from overdoses when they handled confiscated drugs. Rather safe than sorry.”
Manny scowled. “How long is this drama going to take? We need those labels, Daniel.”
Daniel’s eyebrows rose slightly, but it was Vinnie who answered. “Back off, old man. Go drink some milky tea or something. Just get off this fucking line and let us do our jobs.”
“Us? Our? What, you think you’re bloody law now?”
I leaned away from Manny. The anger in his voice was most disturbing.
“Vin, get the photos to us as soon as you guys can. I’ll handle things here.” Colin leaned forward and disconnected the streaming. Then he turned to Manny. “You need to get yourself together, Millard.”
Manny got up and walked away without a word. His shoulders were tight, his gait stilted. I knew this was not physical, but it truly felt like my heart was hurting when I watched him walk to the elevator.
