The bell rang. I slipped my feet into my high heels while nervously smoothing the fabric of the dress I’d changed into, checked my make-up in the mirror and rushed to the door. I’d spruced myself up as I wanted to make sure Dan knew what a catch he’d passed up on.
I opened the door and the light from the hallway spilled out into the dark night, illuminating Dan’s face with a warm glow. His coat was casually open, and he’d exchanged the three-piece suit he was wearing this afternoon for tight jeans and a green polo. His gaze dropped as he took in my appearance. “You look stunning.”
I whispered. “Quickly, come inside.” Before I closed the door, I glanced in both directions down the street – I had this ever-present uncanny feeling that I was being watched – but saw nothing or no one out of the ordinary. I put a finger to my lips and pointed upstairs towards Tim’s bedroom. He got the hint and quietly took off his coat, then followed me into the living room. “Nice place you have here.”
“Thank you,” I said, smiling, and indicated at the dining table. “Have a seat.”
Dan lowered himself onto one of the fabric chairs, while I walked towards the kitchen.
‘What can I get you? Coffee, tea?”
“How about a glass of wine?” Dan suggested.
I’d resolved not to drink any alcohol tonight – I couldn’t trust myself around that man – but I didn’t want to spoil the mood. “Sure, does white sound okay?”
Dan smiled. ‘Sounds perfect.” He gently slid the crystal vase containing flowers to one side and spread out the four reports that we’d printed out this afternoon over the table.
I took a wine bottle from the built-in wine fridge with a tinted glass door, which Oliver had insisted on buying when we’d had our new kitchen installed. I took two wine glasses from the cupboard and checked if the baby monitor was turned on. My eyes fell on the neighbour, nosily peering into my living room from a third floor window in the house behind mine, instigating a feeling of uneasiness. Other than the city lights, it was now pitch black outside and I decided to close the curtains.
“Here you are,” I said, and slid the glass of Pinot Grigio, which Oliver’s mother had brought back from France last year, towards Dan. I pulled out the seat opposite Dan, but before I could sit down he suggested, “I think it would be better if you sit here. Otherwise it’s difficult for us both to read the papers.”
I smiled and walked calmly to the other side of the table, although inside I felt flustered – whenever I got too close to that man my toes would clench and my chest would start to tighten.
As I plopped down onto the chair next to him, a faint whiff of his familiar scent reached my nostrils, bringing back memories of the lingering kiss we’d shared. I pressed the back of my hand to my nose, trying hard to concentrate.
“Since we …” Dan started, until he noticed me guzzle half of the wine in my glass, in an attempt to control my nerves. “ Is everything all right?” he inquired, looking surprised.
I nodded my head and gave him a reassuring smile, my hand waving in the air. “Sure, I’m fine.”
Dan shook his head ever so slightly, the puzzled look still on his face, and then continued. “So, since we left the office I’ve buried myself in these files. I’m slowly getting an idea of what’s been going on. In all four cases your husband documented, the suspects were acquitted. On all other aspects of these cases, however, there are substantial variations.” Dan laid his hand on a stack of papers in front of me and tapped it. “This case is about a batch of cocaine that was found in a hangar in 2017, for which a guy name Santos was charged. The next case involved a robbery-homicide on a jeweller in 2018, in which a man named Casimir was a suspect. Later that year there was another case identified as De Mees, involving a dismantled drugs lab. And lastly, we have the rape story from last year, which we discussed earlier this afternoon.” Dan drank a mouthful of his wine, ruffling his hair with his hand to remove it from his face. “At first I didn’t see the shared characteristic between all of these cases – we’re dealing with various types of offenses and suspects, spread over several years, and the crime scene locations were different. But I knew from Oliver’s overview that there had to be something wrong with the evidence – there had to be a common denominator I was overlooking.”
My heart thumped in my throat. “What was it?”
“Hold on. I’ll get to that,” Dan said as cool as a cucumber. “It’s quite a lot of information we’re dealing with, so I’m trying to go through it step by step.”
“Sure, sure,” I said feeling jumpy and took another gulp.
“With regard to the evidence, Oliver first looked at the forensic traces that were available, such as DNA. Then he analysed the phone records and came to the mind-puzzling conclusion that it always concerned the same people.”
I looked at him, feeling dazed. “What do you mean by ‘the same people’?”
Dan browsed through the pack of papers until he came to Oliver’s overview. “Let’s start with the forensic evidence: it was always analysed in the lab by the Dutch Forensic Institute, the DFI. Interestingly enough, in all four cases, the DNA that was found at the crime scene was handled by the same person at the DFI.”
I looked at the overview and indeed noticed the name ‘Joe de Smet, senior scientist,’ written down, something Sandra had already pointed out over the phone weeks ago.
Dan took the last sip of his wine. I refilled both of our glasses and placed the bottle back in the silver wine cooler.
“What’s so peculiar about the same scientist analysing the DNA?” I asked. “Maybe there’s simply one person assigned per law firm or per region, or whatever.”
Dan looked into my eyes. “It’s possible, but because the name had been underscored by Oliver and thus apparently caught his attention, I went through the four internal reports with a fine tooth comb. It transpires that in all four cases, at first, a match had been established between the DNA trace they’d found at the crime scene and the DNA of the suspect. However, Mason & McGant impugned the results and requested a re-analysis of the evidence by Joe de Smet – in all four cases the DNA turned out to only be a partial match on the second test.”
I couldn’t follow. “What does that mean legally?”
“It means that based on the first test results, the suspect would have almost certainly been convicted. Only after a second analysis was carried out did the forensic evidence prove too weak to bring the case to a close and all four suspects were exonerated.”
I shoved the wine glass away, leaned back and interlaced my fingers behind my head, while reflecting on this information. “Is it a regular occurrence, to impugn forensic results and request a reanalysis?”
Dan shrugged. “It can happen, but it’s extremely rare. As a general rule, it’s done when there’s reason to question the method of analysis or if mistakes have been made in the lab. But in that case, the test has usually already been re-conducted before the results are even released to us by the DFI.”
“So just to recap: four cases with re-analysis of DNA, all performed by the same senior scientist at the DFI? And as a result of this, all four suspects were acquitted of their charges, allowing them to walk free?”
Dan grimaced. “Exactly.”
I felt a flush of excitement – this was actually going somewhere. “So this Joe de Smet chap at the DFI was supposedly bribed by Mason & McGant to tamper with the evidence?”
“It’s a possibility we have to consider,” Dan said, drumming his fingers on the table. “Look, we cannot yet rule out that this scientist made a few screw-ups and that we’re simply dealing with a man not fit for his job – a square peg in a round hole, if you like. But it’s improbable and …” There was a brief pause. “To find out more, we may be forced pay him a visit.”
My eyebrows rose in shock. “Dan, stop. We have no idea what we’re getting ourselves into if we open Pandora’s box. You just listed a string of mega crooks. Those are all heavy hitters, if I understood you correctly. It feels like we’re standing on the edge of a very slippery slope.”
Something came to my mind. I rifled through the papers Sandra and I had copied at Mason & McGant, until I reached the overview of figures and the arrow pointing to the DFI, which had earlier raised my suspicions of bribery and forgery. I tapped the overview with my finger, looked at Dan and lifted my chin.
“I knew it,” Dan exclaimed and smacked his hands on the table. “My mind has been going in circles trying to figure out the exact role Mason & McGant played in all of this. But what if … suppose those clients pay extortionate rates to Mason & McGant, who in turn ensure the forensic evidence is falsified by the DFI?
I nodded and complemented his words. “The younger lawyers, those who do the donkey work, are kept under the thumb by compromising footage to prohibit them from spilling the beans. All the while the partners are lining their pockets, without getting their hands dirty.”
Our eyes locked and for a moment there was a click – we make a good team.
I was afraid that those piercing, big brown eyes of his would make my head start spinning again and so I looked away. “Do you think all lawyers at Mason & McGant are in the know?”
Dan shook his head. “I doubt it. If you ask me, I think they made the incriminating images of those paralegals as a means of pressure, to wield an influence only in case a lawyer smells trouble and starts asking questions. Otherwise, I’d have received word of it long ago.”
“This whole situation makes my flesh crawl,” I whispered. But there was a somewhat comforting aspect in all of this too – perhaps Oliver hadn’t been hiding this secret from me for all these years and had only recently found out about it. “Do you think someone may have caught wind of Oliver’s plans to expose the abuses?”
Dan nodded. “I imagine Oliver was intending to build the case fully before taking the evidence to the police, but the more he probed, the deeper he became caught up in a web of deceit and corruption. Someone must have found out what he was doing. We still can’t exclude the possibility that Oliver died as a result of an accident, but it seems increasingly unlikely.” Dan spoke softly. “Oliver knew too much and the stakes were too high for Mason & McGant. In all likelihood, he perished while searching for answers and uncovering the truth.”
I stared into the distance. “So he probably was murdered after all,” I mumbled. I needed a moment to process this bitter conclusion.
Dan gently caressed my face. “Are you alright?”
I was startled by this unforeseen, intimate gesture and flinched away. “I’m not sure. It’s a lot to take in.”
Dan retracted his hand. “I understand,” he said and remained silent for a moment, running his fingers up and down the stem of his wine glass.
I pulled myself together and looked at Dan. “So what now?”
“We don’t have the full picture yet. Since Oliver also recorded the name of a telephone company, they must also play a role in this, but I haven’t worked out what that could be.”
I pointed to the file on the right side of the table and opened my mouth to speak and at that very moment, Dan reached out for his wineglass, causing our hands to collide in the air. He took hold of my hand and gently enclosed it with both of his, turning me towards him and sending a rush of passion through me. His gaze shifted to meet mine, and we shared a look so intense I felt like it was boring deep into my soul. I swallowed audibly and felt the heat of a deep blush on my cheeks.
“You have the most beautiful blue eyes,” Dan whispered and I felt my legs weaken. He gently pulled my hand towards him, his face now a mere centimetres away from mine, and brushed a lock of hair back from my face. “Dan,” I breathed, but his lips swallowed up my words. I wrapped my arms around his broad shoulders and felt our bodies fold against each other as I leaned into his warm embrace, closing my eyes. The sound of the soft music in the background slowly faded away. He kissed me on the neck, his teeth nipping gently on my skin, subsiding the whirling flood of thoughts in my mind.
Suddenly I heard Tim coughing through the baby monitor and I instantly came to my senses.
I abruptly pulled away from Dan. “I’m sorry,” I said, avoiding his eyes, and ran a hand through my ruffled hair to smooth it back into shape. “I can’t do this. Not now. Not after our first date and with everything going on here. It’s all too complicated,” I said, indicating the chaos of papers on the dining table.
‘It’s all right. I get it,” he said softly and gave me an uplifting smile. “We’re not in any rush,” he added, and my heart leaped.
I stifled a grin and tried to focus my attention on the documents in front of us. “Maybe we should call it a day. I’d like to let it all sink in.”
“Sounds good,” Dan said, knocking back the remainder of his wine in one go. “Do you mind if I take all of these papers with me?”
“No, go ahead. So where are we going from here?”
“I want to dig into the role of the telephone company over the weekend. Bella will return from her mother’s tomorrow afternoon, so until then I’ll have ample opportunity to do so.”
“What about the DFI?”
“How would you feel about paying them a visit?” he asked, gauging my reaction. “They may recognise me since I’ve been in contact with DFI staff in the past – it would put us at risk.”
I inhaled sharply and let the air escape from my lungs with puckered lips. “How exactly do you see that working?”
Dan thought for a while. “What if you were to pose as a lawyer working at Mason & McGant, requesting a re-analysis?”
“I can’t, Dan,” I countered, feeling blind sighted. “That’s insane!” I cried.
“I concede it would be unusual,” he said.
I stood up and placed the wine glass on the counter, letting my thoughts go over his suggestion. Then I walked back to Dan and responded to his proposal. “I’m going to sleep on it, okay?”
He narrowed his eyes and seemed to sense it was best to refrain from pushing me on the matter. “Of course.” Dan collected all the papers and slid them into his briefcase. Then he brought his hand to my upper arm and stroked it tenderly. “Look after yourself. I’ll call you after the weekend.”
I nodded and followed him down the hall.
He slid his arms into the sleeves of his jacket, said goodbye and walked briskly towards his bike.
I peered quickly down the deserted street, shut the door behind him, and locked it with the deadbolt. Then I swivelled, rested my back against the steel frame and felt the coldness creep over my body. I brought my hands to my head and felt this bizarre sensation of excitement rush through me. “Oh my God, what’s happening to me?” I said out loud.