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“WE’VE TOLD GUESTS IT’S a gas leak.” Ivan looked towards the wide staircase in the centre of the hotel’s foyer. Dozens of people were coming down, some with their suitcases. I detected no panic, just looks of annoyance, confusion and curiosity.
“That is always the simplest and fastest way to get a large group of people to evacuate an area.” Daniel was standing with us next to the beautiful mahogany reception desk. Even though he was wearing jeans and a thick jacket, his posture was exactly the same as the specialised police officers calmly leading the guests outside.
“Have you heard from the hospital?” Colin asked Ivan.
“Yes.” Ivan had tried to calm Antonin down in gently spoken Czech, but Antonin had been hysterical. I’d recognised that level of debilitating panic. The state he’d been in had reminded me of my meltdowns. When Antonin had started crying and rocking in his chair, Manny had told Ivan to order an ambulance. “They’ve sedated Antonin and he’s sleeping.”
“If they’ve sedated him, he’ll most likely sleep until tomorrow morning.” Daniel shook his head. “I usually see such breakdowns only in traumatised children.”
“His fear was real.” It had affected me greatly. Even now, I was mentally listening to Mozart’s String Quartet No. 1 in G major to slow my breathing and heart rate.
“We’re here! We’re here!” Roxy rushed over from the front entrance and went on her toes to kiss Vinnie. “How can I help?”
Francine stopped next to Roxy and looked at me. “Are you okay?”
“I’m well.” Anxious and trying to process all the new information, but I was managing. For now.
Roxy took a step closer to me and stared at me, then nodded. “You’re good to go.”
I leaned away from her. “I’m not going anywhere.”
She smiled and moved back to Vinnie’s side. “Where’s Bree?”
“Her hotel is three blocks away.” Colin nodded with his chin towards the street. “She said she was going to walk there and do some more research. And eat. She was hungry.”
“Good riddance.” Manny jerked when Francine slapped his shoulder. “I don’t trust that journalist.”
“Not yet, but you’ll come around.” Francine turned to Ivan. “What do we know about this death?”
“He wasn’t tortured like Shahab’s other victims.” That had been the first question Ivan had asked the first responders. “He had been exposed to some form of opioid, collapsed in his room and died there.”
“Is this the poison Antonin was talking about?” Vinnie asked.
Ivan raised both shoulders. “We need autopsy results to know that.”
“Who found him?” Francine asked.
“The hotel received a call from the victim’s business partner. The victim was supposed to be at a meeting, but didn’t show and wasn’t answering his phone. The partner managed to convince the hotel to check his room.”
Francine lifted her tablet. “What’s the victim’s name?”
“Jarda Zonyga.” Ivan looked at Francine tapping on her tablet, closed his eyes for a second and sighed. “I don’t know what you’re doing now, but I hope you’ll find more than we’ve done so far.”
“What do you know?” Manny asked.
“Zonyga was a partner in a toy company. My team is looking into him, but so far they tell me they can’t find a connection to Shahab.” He swiped his smartphone screen and held it out for us to see. A handsome man in his late thirties was smiling at the camera. “This is Zonyga. Too young to be dead.”
I studied Ivan’s expression. “You’re frustrated about something.”
“I am.” He looked at the last of the guests leaving the hotel. “It’s hard to do my job when my bosses are trying to prevent me from doing it.”
“The thing you don’t want to talk about.” Vinnie crossed his arms. “Dude, you might want to tell us soon.”
The regret on Ivan’s face was real. “If I do...” He shook his head. “I can’t.”
“Bloody hell.” Manny turned to Roxy. “Maybe you can be more useful, Roxanne.”
“I hope so, Manfred.” Her smile lifted her cheeks and crinkled the corners of her eyes when she used his full name.
“Oh, bugger off.” Manny pushed his hands in his trouser pockets. “Tell me what kind of weapon was used in Moscow that is also related to our case.”
“You know this.” My frown was deep and my tone impatient. “The moment Antonin referred to Moscow, I saw the recognition on your face. You know he was talking about Kolo...” My frown disappeared when I registered his expression. “You wanted Roxy to confirm your theory.”
“Well, you just did, missy.”
“Wait. What?” Roxy’s eyes were wide as she looked from me to Manny and back. “Are you talking about Kolokol-1?”
“Um, I don’t know what you guys are talking about.” Ivan looked at Roxy.
“In 2002, Kolokol-1 was speculated to be the agent used in the Russian theatre hostage crisis.” Roxy’s lips thinned. “Eight hundred and fifty people attending a performance were taken hostage by around fifty armed men. On day four, the Russian government pumped some chemical into the complex. Official numbers put the death toll at a hundred and seventy people, but it’s highly disputed.” Her curly hair bounced as she shook her head. “Not relevant, I know. What’s relevant is that the Russian media reported the drug used to be Kolokol-1. It’s deadly.”
“Doctor Ferreira.” Ivan studied Roxy for a few seconds. “If you take into account Shahab, Doctor Jan Novotný, his research and everything else you know about him, what conclusions do you reach about a poison Shahab is said to have created?”
“Firstly, call me Roxy.” She paused and pulled at one of her wayward curls. “Secondly, hmm. If I take everything you just mentioned and I add your talk about Kolokol-1 and your visit with Antonin, it’s easy to jump to conclusions about a chemical weapon that could wipe out as few or as many people as Shahab wants.”
“Do you think Novotný could’ve developed this weapon for Shahab while held hostage?” Manny asked.
“Without a doubt.” Roxy looked at me. “What do you think?”
“And don’t say you’re not going to speculate, Doc.” Manny lowered his chin to stare at me. “We need something to work on, so share whatever theory you have.”
“It’s not difficult to come to a theory similar to Roxy’s.” It might not be based on irrefutable evidence and facts, but there was far too much circumstantial evidence not to reach these conclusions. “In order for Doctor Novotný to develop a cure for opioid addiction, he would’ve needed exhaustive knowledge of all forms of opioids, their effects on the human body and much more we’re not even thinking of at the moment. All of this can be used in reverse as well. Not as a cure, but as a weapon.”
“Bloody hellfire.” Manny looked around the empty foyer. “What numbers are we looking at?”
“Numbers?” I wished people would be more specific in their questions.
“What kind of casualties?” Roxy inhaled deeply. “It could be catastrophic, depending on what kind of agent or narcotic Shahab has weaponised.”
“This is too much speculation.” I didn’t feel comfortable talking about theory as if it were fact. I inhaled to continue, but paused when a man still dressed in his hazmat suit walked towards us.
“Ivan.” The man continued talking in Czech, his nonverbal cues clearly communicating his respect for Ivan. I also detected puzzlement and concern.
Ivan held up his hand to stop the man and turned to us. “My apologies. Václav doesn’t speak English. As soon as he’s debriefed me, I’ll share.”
Immediately, Václav continued talking, his eyes frequently going towards the elevators.
“While they’re talking, I have a question.” Roxy waited until we looked at her. “Where is Shahab getting money to do all of this? Scientific research and development is awfully pricey. Since he’s not paying Doctor Novotný, I’m not talking about labour, but rather the outrageous cost for the equipment Doctor Novotný would need to do this kind of work. We’re not talking about things the price of a computer or smartphone. This equipment can easily reach half a million euros each.”
“Seppo-Tommi.” Francine smiled when we looked at her. “What? You think I was sitting in the hotel painting my toenails while you were speaking to Antonin?”
Manny swore under his breath. “Speak.”
“So, I found out that Seppo-Tommi is a small, but ridiculously successful company. It was established in Finland three and a half years ago and registered to trade in the fields of research and development and human resources.”
“That’s vague,” Daniel said.
“Absolutely.” Francine nodded. “And of course I think it was done on purpose.”
“Do you have any useful information?” I wanted her to get to the point.
“I do, my bestest bestie.” She winked at me. “The real owners of the company are Anna Elg and Sven Laakso. The Seppo and Tommi who are listed as owners are false identities. Those people don’t exist. I looked Anna and Sven up and they are as good as married. They have been a couple for fifty-three years.”
“Huh? How old are they?” Vinnie asked.
“Anna is eighty-one and Sven is seventy-nine.”
“There’s more.” I recognised the look on her face. She enjoyed building up the anticipation.
She rubbed her hands. “Anna and Sven are both in a care home in Vaasa, a small city on the west coast of Finland. This care home is an exclusive place where the richest of the rich put their parents.”
“So who are their children?” Manny glanced at the hazmat official leaving and Ivan turning back to us.
“They don’t have any.” Francine’s eyes were wide with enjoyment. “Anna and Sven met at university when they both studied optometry. They opened consulting rooms and worked together until their retirement. They did a lot of charity work, gave a lot of free eye-care and donated a lot of glasses to refugees. I didn’t find one negative thing about them.”
“Are they paying for their care?” I asked.
“Nope.” Francine leaned forward. “They were put in the care home, guess when?”
“Three and a half years ago,” Daniel said.
“Ding-ding! You win the prize.” Francine spread her hands as if to emphasise the obvious. “Someone used their identities to register a company and as payment put them in the best possible care home.”
“Can we interview them?” I asked.
“I suppose we could, but it wouldn’t help much. Sven has advanced Alzheimer’s and Anna suffers from dementia.” Her pause and micro-expressions warned me. “I phoned the home and asked a few questions. They said both Anna and Sven were in a very bad state when they arrived. It took four months just to deal with their malnutrition.”
“You didn’t phone.” Why would she lie? “Did you hack the home’s system?”
“Never!” Her eyes shot to Ivan before she looked at me, her eyes widened in an expression I was familiar with.
I pointed at her face. “You’re a terrible liar. And your threats don’t work on me.”
“You’re the worst bestest bestie.”
Manny glared at her, then looked at Ivan. “See what I have to deal with all the time?”
“I don’t agree with this illegal action, but we got answers.” Ivan cleared his throat. “What else did you learn?”
Francine smiled. “Not much more on the care home’s system. There are loads of internet search results about them—lots of newspaper articles. I’ll go through those later. But once I learned all of this, I looked a bit deeper.” She glanced at Manny. “And you can shout all you want, but I got us great intel.”
Manny sighed. “What did you do now?”
“I might’ve peeked into the care home’s bank records.”
“Dammit, Francine.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “What did you find?”
“Anna and Sven’s bill is being paid by a company that is registered in Cyprus. That company is owned by a company that is registered in Turkey. And that company is owned by a company registered in guess where?”
“Iran,” Colin said quietly.
“Yuppers. And what’s even more exciting is when I took a quick peek at Seppo-Tommi’s finances. Guess who their main client is?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “Yes, you are right. This Iranian company. Almost eighty percent of their financial transactions is with them.”
“Do you think Shahab has a relationship with Anna and Sven?” Daniel scratched his chin. “No, I can’t see it.”
Neither could I. “Nothing in our research about Shahab revealed any such connection.” I looked at Francine. “Did you check the timelines we built about his whereabouts when he was in Finland?”
“I did. And no, Shahab was never close to the care home. He didn’t buy any old-people stuff, didn’t mail anything, didn’t hire a car to go there. Nothing.”
“Then what is this connection?” Ivan rubbed the scar on his hand. “Do you know who owns or is connected to the company in Iran?”
“Uhm. Yeah. About that.” Francine raised both shoulders. “I tried to get into the registration records, but this is Iran. I need to finesse my way around their system a bit more and you guys phoned about this.” She waved her hand towards the hotel foyer. “I’ll get into that later.”
“Let me see if I can look into it through legal channels.” Ivan waited for her to nod, then looked at Roxy. “We need to know much more about the research Doctor Novotný developed.”
“Oh, I agree.” Roxy’s curly hair bobbed as she nodded. “It would be ideal if we could go to his workplace and speak to his boss, look at his lab and nose around. We will learn a lot more than just reading their website.”
“I thought you would say that.” Ivan glanced at his watch. “It’s almost five, so we won’t make it to the company before they close. But I phoned them earlier and asked if they would stay until we got there. Everyone agreed. It seems like Doctor Novotný was very popular with his colleagues. They want to do everything they can to help us find out what happened to him and why.”
“We’re not going anywhere until we’ve eaten.” Vinnie looked at me. “You haven’t eaten since breakfast and that was just a puny bit of fruit.”
Had this been seven years ago, this case would’ve sent me into a state of hyperfocus and I wouldn’t eat, sleep or shower for days on end. Being in a team with neurotypicals had taught me the importance of breaks, meals and taking a step back to regain perspective.
“We’re not bloody going anywhere until I know what happened here.” Manny looked at the staircase, then at Ivan. “What did your pal have to say?”
“They’ve cleared the building. The only place they found the opioid that killed Jarda Zonyga was in his hotel room.” His lips thinned. “It was aerosolised. They took samples and are going to test it to find out exactly what it is.” He looked at Roxy. “And whether it is an opioid analogue.”
“Why did your colleague look perplexed?” I became concerned when experts looked confused.
“He told me he’s never seen anything like this before. I’ve asked the ME to rush this autopsy. We need to know as much as possible about this.” Ivan took out his smartphone. “I think I’ll just phone them again.”
“Do we still need to be here?” Colin turned to me. “Do you want to see something? Ask anything?”
I considered my answer, then shook my head. “I would rather go to Doctor Novotný’s laboratory in Prokop Industries.”
“First food.” Vinnie put his hands on his hips. “No arguments from anyone. The only choice you get is to choose restaurant food or my cooking.”
I had enough occupying my brain space without having to obsess over the cleanliness of an unknown restaurant. “Your cooking.”
His pleased smile brought a soft feeling to my chest.
