| |
BARCELONA
––––––––
“YOU CAN HAVE NOIR ARRESTED now,” Pizarro announced the moment he walked into the office Bright was using. “Sofia Torres has positively identified him from the pictures you supplied.”
He was pleased, and he made no attempt to hide it. He understood the necessity of having Interpol involved in his investigation, given the cross-border nature of it, but he didn’t like it. It made him happy that it was his witness, and not the work of the Interpol team, that had resulted in the positive identification of Philippe Noir.
“I can’t have him arrested based on one identification.” Bright concealed the irritation he felt at the detective’s assumption that it was okay for him to simply walk into the office, without even knocking. “I can request that the French police detain him for questioning in connection with the murder of Mr Abrantes, his family, and his staff. If we’re lucky, they’ll agree to the request, but you’ll need a lot more evidence than a single identification if you expect to have Noir extradited, let alone secure a conviction against him.”
“What do you mean ‘if we’re lucky’?” Pizarro asked sharply. “Do you think the French police will ignore the request?”
“No, I doubt they’ll do that. I’m sure they’ll give it their fullest consideration. I just don’t think they’ll feel that a single identification is sufficient to justify bringing Noir in for questioning, and it certainly won’t be enough to get him extradited. Noir is rich and powerful, and he employs an expensive and capable lawyer,” Bright said. “The odds are that given the circumstances, they won’t want to risk doing anything that might upset Noir.”
“Why not?” Pizarro was disappointed to hear that the identification he had managed to get didn’t seem to be worth anything in the eyes of Interpol. “Why should they care about upsetting someone who is responsible for massacring dozens of people?”
“Because, as I said, Philippe Noir is rich, with powerful connections in all walks of life. The French police have been investigating him for two decades, and Interpol have been investigating him for over a decade, since he became the number one supplier of illegal narcotics in France. He has sued the police multiple times for harassment and won. The few times they have managed to get enough evidence or witnesses to charge him with something, his lawyer finds some way of getting it thrown out. Either that or the evidence and the witnesses disappear.”
“You make it sound like it’s impossible for us to get a conviction against him.”
“That wasn’t my intention. I’m not saying it will be impossible, just very difficult. If you get the chance to question Noir, you can’t expect to trick him into confessing or letting something slip that will help your case. He and his lawyer know every trick in the book.”
Bright could see that Pizarro was disappointed, but he thought it best to burst his bubble now, rather than leave him in the dark to be mauled by Noir’s lawyer.
“You’re going to need plenty of evidence if you want to get a conviction, and you’re going to have to make sure that whatever evidence you do get is in no danger of being tampered with or made to disappear. You especially need to make sure that no harm comes to Sofia Torres, since without her you have nothing to connect Noir to the massacre, unless your forensics people can come up with something.”
“We have an officer outside her room and another at the nurse’s station,” Pizarro said. “They should be able to cope with any threat. We also have a response team on alert for a possible attack at the hospital. I’ve been assured that they can respond within minutes.”
“That all sounds good, but the people who attacked Tomas Abrantes’ estate massacred everyone there, and they were up against guards with semi-automatic weapons. I doubt a couple of officers with handguns will stop them if they find out about Sofia Torres and decide to remove her.”
The new voice made Pizarro spin towards the door behind him, where a woman with a look of sharp intelligence on her face stood.
“If it was Noir who was responsible for the massacre and he finds out about your witness, which he almost certainly will, if he hasn’t already, then you won’t be able to stop him killing her. Not if your best effort to protect her involves two officers and a response team that can’t possibly get to the hospital before at least two dozen people are dead.”
“Detective Sergeant Pizarro, this is Special Agent Marie Hapsburg, she’s my number two on this operation,” Bright introduced the new arrival. “Agent Hapsburg has extensive experience in dealing with organised crime, and she has been involved with the investigation into Philippe Noir since the beginning. Since she knows just about everything there is to know about Noir and the current Interpol and French investigations into him, I thought she might be able to help, so I’ve borrowed her for a while.”
“I certainly hope I can help,” Marie Hapsburg said as she stepped further into the office. “In fact, that’s why I’m here now. About a month ago, Philippe Noir met with someone at a country club.”
“Is that relevant to this?” Pizarro asked. He was sure that a man like Philippe Noir met with a lot of people in a lot of places.
“I believe so, yes. The man Noir met with was Tomas Abrantes. Before you say anything,” Marie held up a hand to forestall Pizarro, “the reason you haven’t been told about this before now is because it’s only just been discovered. I have no idea how, but at the time the meeting was photographed the agents responsible failed to identify the second man as Tomas Abrantes.”
“How is that possible?”
“I have no idea. I can only give you the information I have. I got it sent over by the team I’ve been working with in France.” Marie placed the file she had brought with her on the desk and slid it over to Bright. “On the twentieth of last month, Noir and his bodyguard were followed from his home to the Pleasant Days Country Club outside of Paris. When he got there, he was shown to a table outside the restaurant. His bodyguard sat with him, while the area was patrolled by men with submachine guns. We figured he was up to something because it isn’t often he brings out that level of firepower.
“It was a while before his guest arrived. I use the term ‘guest’ loosely since the gentleman was escorted to the table by four men with submachine guns. We know the man who led the group is called Marc Delcroix, and he handles a lot of special work for Noir. He’s suspected of several murders: rivals of Noir who didn’t have the sense to step aside, officers and agents who attempted to infiltrate Noir’s organisation, and witnesses who were prepared to testify against Noir, but he’s good at not getting caught. Anyway, to get back to the subject at hand,” Marie said, seeing that Pizarro wasn’t interested in what she was saying. “Noir’s guest was there for some time, though what was discussed we have no idea, and was then escorted out by the same men who had brought him. The security at the meeting meant we weren’t able to get close enough to record any of what was said but the man who we now know was Abrantes did not look happy when he left, in fact, he looked pretty scared. Why Tomas Abrantes wasn’t identified previously from the surveillance footage of the meeting, I don’t know. Abrantes is in our database, so we should have been able to come up with his name.”
“That’s strange,” Bright said. “We don’t normally have a problem like that. If someone’s in a database somewhere we’re able to find them. How did you finally make the identification?”
“When I saw the pictures of Tomas Abrantes yesterday, I thought he looked familiar. After reading Sofia Torres’ statement and her mention of a meeting in France between Abrantes and his attacker, whom we believe to be Noir, I recalled the meeting at the country club, so I sent pictures of Abrantes to Paris to be checked. The reply came back a short while ago. It was definitely Tomas Abrantes that Noir met with.”
“That should help to convince the French authorities to let me question Noir,” Pizarro said, a pleased look on his face.
“That was my thinking,” Marie agreed. “I’ve requested copies of some of the audio recordings we have of Noir. If Miss Torres can identify Noir’s voice from a recording, then it will improve your chances of getting help from the French authorities still further. It will also improve your chances of securing a conviction against him.”
“That’s good news.” Pizarro’s smile grew. “When do you expect to receive the recordings?”
“That’s where we encounter a problem,” Marie admitted. “Noir is very careful about not being overheard, let alone recorded. He’s almost paranoid about it. We haven’t been able to get many recordings of him, and I’m not sure we have any of him speaking English. The team is checking what recordings we have for instances.”
“Does that matter?”
“It might,” Bright said. “A person’s voice can sound different when they speak a different language. Miss Torres might be able to recognise Noir’s voice even if he is speaking French, rather than English, but I wouldn’t like to guarantee it, and I certainly wouldn’t want to bet everything on that possibility. Still, the fact that Noir met Abrantes recently, and it fits with what Miss Torres overheard, will help a great deal. I’ll coordinate with your superiors regarding a request to the French authorities to have Noir brought in for questioning. They’ll most likely take time to consider it, but that’s alright since it will give us time to strengthen our case.”