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“WELL, THAT WAS INTERESTING.” Daniel walked past Francine’s desk and stopped at the door to my viewing room. “Where do you want to chat?”
I glanced back at the images of Adèle’s chart filling all fifteen monitors and frowned. “I don’t want to chat.”
He laughed softly. “Of course not. What I should’ve asked was where you would like for me to debrief you on our visit to the self-storage warehouse.”
“We’ll do it in here.” Manny got up from his desk and pointed at the round table close to the large windows. “Doc’s room is too small for all of us.”
I was loath to leave studying Adèle’s chart and figuring out the different aspects of her business, but Daniel had already interrupted my train of thought. I got up. “The table is a better option.”
“Then I’ll make coffee.” Vinnie walked to the small kitchen on the far side of the large open space. We were on the top floor of the building adjacent to the one Phillip owned and ran his insurance business from. The elevator to our floor was only for our use and led to the foyer of Phillip’s building. Vinnie, Colin and Daniel had taken extensive measures when designing our team room to make it as secure as possible. And difficult to access.
My viewing room was the only closed-off space. The soundproof glass walls and doors not only kept us in sight of each other, but also maintained the spaciousness of the area. Colin had a desk in my room, Manny a desk in the team room and Francine had a large computer station set up across from the door to my room.
Vinnie spent most of his time on the dark green sofa by the windows or in the small kitchen. He reached up to pull down a bin from the top of one of the cupboards and filled a plate with his homemade cookies. By the time he walked to the round table with the large tray of coffee mugs and cookies, we were all seated. “The cookies are just for the worst hunger. Don’t eat too much. I’m making lasagne for dinner and you’d better eat it all.”
“Count me in.” Daniel grabbed a cookie from the plate and leaned back. “Pink got lucky when he moved in with you guys. Good food every day.”
I wasn’t in the mood for social repartee. I held up my hand when Pink inhaled to answer and looked at Daniel. “What did you find at the self-storage warehouse?”
“Nothing that is of immediate use to our case.” Daniel sobered and took a sip of the coffee Vinnie handed him. “The documents in the manager’s office show that Adèle paid for five lockers in that self-storage warehouse. Not all of them were next to each other.”
“The security in that place is terrible.” Pink took another cookie and placed it on a napkin next to his coffee mug. “There are three cameras outside, but nothing inside the warehouse. I would never use a place like that to store something I valued.”
“Yet Adèle did.” The expression on Daniel’s face alerted me that he knew why. He nodded. “Because she took care of her own security. By the time we got there, the regional manager had arrived. He opened all her lockers for us and all five of them had cameras installed inside and just above the doors outside. All top-of-the-range cameras—small and strong.” He looked at Francine. “Did she stream the footage to her system?”
“Yup.” Francine’s fingers hovered over her tablet screen, ready to type in whatever search we needed. “The girl was one strange cookie. She had state-of-the-art security, but her computer is way too easy to access. One password and anyone could be in her whole system. She stored all the video footage from the lockers on an external drive. The crime scene techs found it behind the perfume bottles, but I had already remotely accessed it. Shocking security. I checked the recordings of the last few days and so far haven’t found anything suspicious.”
Francine was one of the most sceptical people I’d ever come across and I completely trusted her when she said there wasn’t something noteworthy. I’d been so absorbed in studying the photos of Adèle’s chart that I hadn’t given much thought to the self-storage lockers. “What was in the five lockers?”
“The dogs went on full alert in one of the lockers.” Vinnie straightened in excitement. “The techs tested the air and said there was residue of cocaine and heroin. But that locker was completely empty. Two of the others were also empty. One had some of her personal stuff, like an old sofa, a bicycle and a few boxes. The techs are going through that now, but the stuff we saw was nothing important.”
“He’s leaving the best for last.” Pink looked at Colin.
Daniel also turned his attention to Colin sitting next to me and smiled. “As soon as the techs are done in that locker, they’re bringing the artworks here.”
Colin’s eyebrows rose. “What artworks?”
“I took photos.” Pink took his smartphone from a pocket in his uniform shirt and tapped the screen. “I’ll send them to you now. Hey.” Pink looked up from his phone, his brow pulled down low over his eyes. “Did any of you know Adèle had a sister?”
“No way.” Francine swiped her tablet screen and started tapping. “I didn’t find anything about any sister anywhere.”
“The case file said nothing about siblings,” Daniel said.
“Why do you think she has a sister?” Manny asked.
“Because of this.” Pink turned his phone to show us a photo of two young women laughing at the camera. This was the first photo I’d seen of Adèle. I didn’t know which one of the two women she was.
They were on an empty beach, the sunset creating beautiful hues of purple and orange behind them. The woman with the short blonde hair and freckles on her nose had a red heart drawn around her face. Above their heads in distinct feminine writing were the words, ‘The best twin anyone could ever want. Love you, sis.’
“Bloody hell.” Manny tapped his index finger on the table and looked at Francine. “Find her.”
“On it, boss.” She winked at him.
“What else don’t we know?” Manny slumped into this chair. “We don’t even have a proper connection between Caelan’s dead friend and Adèle.”
“I consider the wine to be a very strong connection between Jace and Adèle.” I studied Manny’s expression. “I’m surprised that you would dismiss that.”
“I’m not dismissing anything, missy.” Manny grunted when Francine slapped him lightly on his shoulder, immediately returning to tapping and swiping her tablet screen. He inhaled deeply and schooled his expression to his usual scowl. “I’m just saying...”
“These are all artefacts that have been looted from Iran.” Colin interrupted Manny and lifted his smartphone. “My God. These works are priceless cultural treasures. They should never be in an unguarded storage locker.”
“What are you talking about, Frey?”
Colin pointed at his phone. “The photos Pink just sent us. Two of the artworks they found in Adèle’s storage locker are part of the Oxus treasure. These pieces should be in the British Museum exhibition.”
“Are these the same pieces in the photos in her house?” I asked.
“Yes.” He swiped his phone screen and held it for me to see. “This one and”—he swiped again—“this one.”
One of the bearded men and the deer.
“What about the other pieces?” Daniel asked.
“These are all from the Persian era,” Colin said.
“And let’s not forget that Jace had a degree in Persian history.” Pink looked at his phone. “He would’ve known about this treasure.”
“You think that’s relevant, Doc?”
I considered my answer for a few seconds before looking at Manny. “I don’t want to speculate.”
“Doc.” His expression was very familiar.
“No need to become irate. In this situation, I think speculation is called for.” I ignored Manny’s faux relief. “If Jace had seen these artworks, he would undoubtedly have recognised them to be from the period he knew well. But I have to reiterate that we have no way of knowing he’d seen these.”
“And it’s impossible that he studied this era and didn’t know about the Oxus treasure,” Colin said. “I also think that Jace would’ve mentioned it if he’d found this. He would’ve been much more excited about these artworks than the crates of wine.”
“Hmm.” Manny narrowed his eyes. “You’re sure there’s nothing to this Oxus treasure thing, Frey?”
Colin’s lips thinned and he exhaled loudly. “It’s a theory some treasure hunter started in the 1980s. It’s utter nonsense.”
Manny pushed his hands into his trouser pockets. “Tell me about this Oxus treasure. Without writing poetry about it.”
“It’s a collection of about a hundred and eight pieces of metalwork in gold and silver as well as around two hundred coins.” Colin’s muscles relaxed as he talked about a topic he was so passionate about. “These pieces were found around 1880 in the Oxus River. The greatest value of this treasure is the possibility that some of it dates as far back as 200 BC.
“The exact date and location it was found have never been established, but it is said to have been discovered by local people somewhere on the north bank of the river. That part is now in Tajikistan, but then it was all part of the Persian Empire. The area was a major ancient crossing point for the river.”
“I’m sure Caelan can tell us more about the river and how it has changed in the last few centuries.” Daniel looked at me. “Where is Caelan?”
“I don’t know.” Why would he even assume I did?
“He’s with Phillip.” Francine smiled at me. “He refused to leave.”
“Get him up here,” Manny said. “His useless facts might be useful for once.”
Francine rolled her eyes at Manny and lifted her phone. We didn’t need information about the Oxus River at the moment, but I did have questions about geocaching. An unrelated thought flashed through my mind. I looked at Pink. “Have you recovered anything from Jace’s phone?”
“Nah.” Pink winced. “Between the damage, the toilet water and the cleaning agent, that phone is completely destroyed. We couldn’t get anything from it.”
“Dammit.” Manny sighed. “Please tell me you got something from testing the wine bottles.”
“Oh, yes.” Pink’s smile told me the answer before he spoke. “It’s liquid heroin all right. The techs reckon that there’s two hundred and fifty grams in that one bottle. It sent quite a shockwave through the labs.”
“And the department.” Daniel looked at Manny. “Did the chief call you?”
“No.” Manny’s lips thinned. “The president did. Art and murder is one thing, but this kind of heroin connected to Iran is creating all kinds of political problems. They’re all panicking about it.”
“It’s not just the drugs coming from Iran.” Colin put his phone on the table. “It’s the anger because the West is stealing cultural treasures from countries they so publicly denounce as terrorists. The sanctions, the travel bans, the”—he shook his head—“the disdain for their culture, yet it is rich Europeans who buy these artefacts.”
His expression caught my attention and I leaned towards him. “What did you find out?”
Colin exhaled angrily. “I’ve been phoning around. Three of the four men I’d identified on the photos on the chart have been asking for unusual artworks. They want things that are extremely valuable, but not mainstream like a Rembrandt or a Van Gogh.”
“What do you know about them?” Manny asked.
“Mayer is a property magnate. He’s made his fortune restoring old houses, villas and even castles and then selling them at exorbitant prices. He’s sharp and known to step on anyone and everyone who gets in his way of a good deal.
“Riner inherited his wealth. He’s made himself wealthier by investing in art. I know of three paintings he bought for less than ten thousand euros from some unsuspecting person. Then he sold them a few years later at an auction for millions.
“Lastly, Leveaux got lucky with investments. He started small and built his portfolio by taking incredible risks on volatile markets. But it paid off and he’s a multi-millionaire. None of them are notorious criminals, but everyone knows they’re willing to push the line of legality when they want something.”
“Forgive my ignorance, but how much would a piece like this go for on the black market?” Pink tilted his smartphone to show a photo of the deer statue.
“Millions.” Colin’s depressor anguli oris muscles turned the corners of his mouth down. “It should never be for sale. It should be protected as a national treasure. It infuriates me that the Western appetite for antiquities feeds the looting of ancient sites. These people who pride themselves on their sophistication of taste and appreciation of cultural heritage are the ones who create the demand that leads to the pillage of ancient sites and the trade in black-market artefacts.”
“That’s...Wow. That’s just wrong.” Pink looked down at his phone and shook his head. “Wrong.”
It was quiet around the table. My mind was rushing through all the pieces of information we’d gathered so far.
“I’m here!” The elevator door opened and Caelan rushed out. “Greenland is the largest island in the world! Doctor Lenard! I solved the riddle! I solved the riddle!”
Phillip followed Caelan out of the lift and smiled when Caelan sat down next to Francine. Phillip walked over to the sofa and sat down. When Vinnie motioned towards his coffee mug, Phillip shook his head and settled deeper into the sofa.
I turned my attention back to Caelan. He was no longer tapping or scratching his thigh or compulsively squeezing his stress ball. The muscle tension in his body was much less than before and his eyes focused. He looked at my shoulder. “I’m here. I solved the riddle.” He paused and frowned deeply, still staring at my shoulder. “How much detail should I give you?”
I appreciated his question. Like many people on the spectrum, myself included, Caelan was prone to sharing information in the finest detail. “For now I think just the end result, not how you got to it.”
He nodded. “When I solved the riddle, I entered ‘Gaudi’ into the app and look!” He took his smartphone from his trouser pocket and showed me the screen. A digital clock filled the screen. “This is a countdown cache. As soon as I entered the answer, the countdown started. We have to wait twenty-four hours before we’ll get the GPS co-ordinates for the next cache.”
“We have to wait?” Manny looked as impatient as I felt.
“That’s how it works.” Caelan frowned at his shoulder. “Don’t you understand how a countdown works?”
“Bloody hell.” Manny turned away from Caelan, then turned back. “And what the hell is a Gawding?”
“You’re such a Philistine.” Colin shook his head. “Antoni Gaudi is only one of the most famous architects ever. His Catalan Modernism influence can be seen all over Barcelona. I can see you don’t care, Millard, so I’m going to stop wasting my precious breath on you.”
I thought about this cache and looked at Caelan. “Explain how one would create a cache on the app.”
“Huh. Yes.” Francine turned to face Caelan next to her. “I suppose this means that Jace indeed did create a cache.”
Caelan nodded. “His cache isn’t complete. If he’d entered all the answers to the riddl—”
“Whoa there for a sec, superman.” Vinnie scratched his forehead. “Explain very simply how a cache is created.”
Caelan stared at his shoulder. “First Jace would’ve registered a name for the cache, then he had to enter the steps. Each step needs an answer to a riddle to unlock the next co-ordinates. I don’t have access to Jace’s account, so I don’t know how many steps he completed or even the name of the cache.”
“But how is it that we can see it now? He didn’t register it.”
“It’s a glitch. The incompetent app designers haven’t been able to fix it. If anyone enters the correct answer to the app, it will automatically publish the cache hunt.”
“Yeah, I don’t really get that, but whatever.” Vinnie frowned at Daniel when the latter jerked at the sound of his phone’s notification.
Daniel looked at the screen, his eyes widening. “We have more intel on those crates. Pink’s CI at Easy Post did a bit more snooping around to see if there was anything else to be found on that shipment.”
“What do you have?” Manny narrowed his eyes at Daniel’s phone, then glanced at Francine as she lifted her tablet and swiped the screen.
“This won’t come as a surprise,” Daniel said. “The crates were shipped from Iran. They were supposed to be delivered to... hold on a sec. The recipients were changed online. The original recipient was completely deleted from the system. Gilles and Adèle are the only names the CI could find connected to this shipment.”
“Tell me more about this shipping company.”
“I’m checking them now.” Francine tapped her tablet screen. “Easy Post. It’s a third-party company that simply receives international orders and delivers them to customers. They make it easier for individuals to receive large orders through them. No customs fee, etc.”
“This is how the cigarettes from Belarus entered the country,” Daniel said. “Easy Post is a small international mailing service, but deals in large shipments and has agreements with a few government agencies to streamline incoming shipments from outside the EU.” He looked at his tablet screen again. “These crates cleared customs without any problems, went to Easy Post and were then taken to Self-Storage Solutions.”
“Where Jace found them.” Caelan’s words came out as a whisper.
Daniel gave Caelan a compassionate smile. “Indeed.”
“Here’s one theory.” Colin looked down from where he’d been staring at the ceiling. “The drug suppliers send the wine bottles to their distributor here in France. Somehow Adèle knows about this and intercepts the shipment by changing the recipients. The distributor finds out about her when he goes to Easy Post to collect his crates and goes looking for her. He finds her at the house and tortures her to get the location of his missing crates. I’m assuming she dies after she tells him about her lockers at Self-Storage Solutions.”
“He rushes over there.” Vinnie leaned forward, nodded at Colin. “When he gets there, he finds the locker empty. Maybe he goes through the limited outside security footage and sees Jace taking away the crates. He finds Jace and tortures him to force him to reveal where he hid the crates.”
“But Jace can’t tell him because Jace doesn’t talk.” Caelan swallowed and scratched his leg.
“We need to find the crates that Jace took.” I didn’t know how correct their hypothesis was, but it fitted the information we had so far. “That will bring us closer to finding the killer.”
“Who most likely is the distributor.” Daniel looked at Manny. “We find him and we might stop the influx of drugs from the East.”
Manny nodded. “We need to be careful. Politically, this is a minefield.”
“Could this minefield wait until tomorrow?” Phillip moved to the edge of the sofa and studied us. “You are all tired. It’s quarter to seven and I’m sure you haven’t had dinner yet.”
I didn’t want to wait until tomorrow. I wanted to continue studying the chart we got from Adèle’s house. I was sure there was information that could help us find the killer. But from experience, I knew that Phillip was right. My desire to find an answer usually turned into a state of hyperfocus that didn’t allow me to eat or sleep.
It took Francine’s outrageous flirting to convince Caelan that it would be prudent to continue investigating this with a rested and fresh mind. Twenty minutes later, I was sitting next to Colin in his SUV, looking out of the window as we made our way to our flat. I wondered if Nikki had already bathed Eric and whether she had remembered to use the sponge alphabet letters to teach him while playing.
I felt conflicted. On the one hand, I was looking forward to sitting on the sofa and having that little body snuggle up to me after dinner. On the other hand, my mind kept returning to the chart, the mystery of Adèle’s business and the person who had tortured and killed her and Jace.
