Gauguin Connection, The (28 page)

“None?” Colin moved in closer.

“None,” I confirmed.

“Have you put them in chronological order? I mean from the first registered company to the last?”

“Not yet.” I realised what he was aiming at. “Oh my! You think that if we get this in chronological order, we can find the first company.”

“Yup.”

Vinnie appeared in front of us with light brown oven mitts on his hands. They were most certainly not my oven mitts. I did not own oven mitts that looked like happy dogs, complete with ears flopping around. He pointed an oven mitt at the computer. “But wouldn’t that also mean that the first company registered might lead us directly to the asshole who started this?”

My lower jaw went slack and I stared at the muscular, scarred criminal wearing happy-puppy oven mitts. “You are just like Manny!”

The anger that radiated from Vinnie made me realise that I had said something very insulting. It took me only a second to realise my latest faux pas. Colin’s laughter fuelled Vinnie’s anger and I sighed. I was going to have to explain myself. Again. “Colin, stop laughing. Vinnie, I’m sorry. I know you despise Manny. What I meant was that just like Manny you hide your true intellect and insights. Knowing that people will underestimate you gives you an advantage. It is an excellent mechanism to get more from people than they would generally be willing to give. I’m the complete opposite. The moment I open my mouth, people give me less. Usually they just avoid me.”

“Aw, Jen-girl. You’re not that bad. Maybe you are a little bit blunt, but I like it. I just don’t like being associated with Millard.”

“Understood.” I shuddered. Talking to people required so much forethought. “I just want to clarify that I was actually paying you a compliment. Not many people would’ve followed that path of reasoning to the person who might be behind all this.”

“Why, thank you, ma’am.” He looked uncomfortable with the compliment. His eyes moved around looking for something. Most likely a change of topic. “Dinner is ready. Do you guys want to eat now or later?”

The moment Vinnie mentioned food, my stomach rumbled and I realised how hungry I was. “Now is good.”

“What about your lists?” Colin nodded to the computers.

“I don’t have all the companies’ registration information. I would need to look into each company associated with the Foundation. I would also need their registration office and the date of registration to confirm the connection. Then I can put them in chronological order.”

“Can you access that info?” Colin asked.

“I doubt it. At least not for all the companies, unless their information is publicly available on the internet.”

“You never try alternative ways of accessing info?” Colin asked.

I gasped. Horrified. “I never do anything illegal on my computers. All the data I retrieve are on public sites. If people only knew how much information is publicly available. You just need to know where to look.” I got up and walked to the kitchen. Colin followed me. Vinnie had dished up something that smelled heavenly. There were three trays on the kitchen counter, each with a plate of food, a glass of wine and cutlery resting on a folded red serviette. It looked like we were going to eat in the living area.

“And you know where to look.” Colin took his tray and walked with me to the living area.

“I’ve been doing this for long enough to know where to look for corporate information. If that fails, there are always social networking sites, online job-hunting sites where people post their lives in the form of résumés, and let’s not forget about companies advertising their services. A lot can be learned from that as well.”

Vinnie picked up his tray and joined us. I marvelled at the gnocchi on the tray on my lap. It looked and smelled more appetizing than a similar dish I had had in a Michelin-recommended restaurant.

“So, what do you do when you run out of publicly available information?” Colin asked as he lifted the fork to his mouth. I thought we were done with the conversation. Apparently not.

“That has not yet happened.” My fork clattered onto my plate as a realisation hit me. “It has happened.”

Both men looked up and waited for me to continue. I didn’t, not until Colin asked, “When?”

“This week. With Danielle. I haven’t exactly asked for your help, but have used it. Oh my.” I covered my face with both hands. There was no doubt in my mind. I was going to have to draw up a new list of guidelines for myself. Guidelines that would unblur the lines that used to clarify my strict moral and ethical codes.

“Jenny, stop arguing with yourself. Nothing would be done tonight in any case. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked you. I should just surprise you with the info.” Colin lifted his hand to stop my response. He pointed at my plate with his knife. “Leave it for later. Eat. You’re missing out on Vinnie’s great gnocchi.”

My stomach rumbled again. Later tonight I would work on new guidelines. I had no idea if I could rationalise the illegal gaining of information. With the mouth-watering aroma wafting up from my plate, I decided that physical needs took precedence. I had to eat.

“So,” Colin said after a few minutes of silence, “Vinnie told me everything that happened at the station.”

“Everything?”

“Everything I know, Jen-girl.”

“Did he tell you that I didn’t speak to anyone?”

Colin smiled. “He did. Was it difficult?”

“Not really. Nobody came into the room once they put me there.”

“But you were treated right?”

“I don’t know the protocol for treatment when in an interrogation room, so I can’t answer that. I was left in a locked room for five hours. I was fine. What were you doing while I was held at the police station? No, wait, first tell me about Crenshaw’s house.”

“Nothing to tell, really. Everything happened like I told you. I watched the house the whole day. No one went in and no one came out. By the time I went in, the house had been dark since nightfall. It was obvious no one was home.”

“Which means that he was killed in the dark?”

“Must be. The drapes were closed, so the neighbours wouldn’t have seen muzzle flashes even if they were looking at the house.”

“And no one heard anything.”

“I most certainly didn’t. As soon as I got in the house, I was suspicious. I first went into his office to find some clues and get out as soon as I could. That’s when I found the safe. I got in, saw what was in there and took everything. It turned out that only the flash drives might be of use. There were five identical-looking flash drives. All the documents were just personal stuff of no particular interest. I had just finished sorting through this when I started smelling it.”

“What?”

“The blood. I was so focussed on listening for anyone coming in and at the same time getting something out of the safe that I never paid attention to my nose.”

“His nose is legendary,” Vinnie said. “He will smell a painting and tell you what mix was used.”

“It’s not a mix, Vin.” Colin closed his eyes for a second. A shudder shook his shoulders. When he opened his eyes, they looked haunted. “There was so much blood. Crenshaw was lying at an awkward angle and it was very obvious that he was dead. The wooden coffee table was overturned and that is when I got suspicious. Well, more suspicious.”

“About the coffee table?” I asked.

“Yes. It is one of those low, long tables. Not easy to topple over. It would move across the floor if someone bumps into it. So I reckon that someone must have picked it up and laid it on its side to make it look like there had been a struggle. Also, the sofa cushions were messed with. If the struggle was violent enough to have the cushions displaced, surely the sofa itself would’ve moved from its original position. It had not.”

“That sounds like someone was looking for something rather than setting up a crime scene.” Vinnie seemed captivated by this.

“If they had lifted all the cushions, yes. But only a few were displaced.
Vin, I’ve seen your aunt’s living room after you and your cousins had a wrestling match in there. This looked nothing like that. It looked too neat, too arranged. And the whiskey glass that was so conveniently on the side table? I’m no crime scene investigator, but I know when something looks off. I still can’t place my finger on exactly what was wrong, but I didn’t have more time to look around.”

“Because the police arrived?”

“Yup. That was another suspicious thing. If I didn’t even know something was amiss in the house, how did the police know to come? I had been watching the house the whole day.” He took a sip of his wine. “Soon as I heard the sirens, I made my way outside, but decided to watch.”

“You stayed there?” Was this man totally insane?

“Not at the house, no. I was watching them from the balcony of a neighbour’s house. I would really like to know how the police knew to bring their crime scene guys. They stopped their van five minutes after the patrol cars arrived and cleared the house. From the time I left until the first crime scene investigator walked into the house all suited up was a total of fifteen minutes.” Colin and Vinnie looked at each other with an understanding I didn’t share.

“Dude, that’s just wrong.”

“Why?” What did they know that I didn’t?

“Jenny, the police simply are not that well organised. Their response time is hit-and-miss. Sometimes it takes
them three minutes, sometimes fifteen minutes to act on a call. If there is a call for the forensic guys, it could take hours to get those guys to leave their labs, get their vans ready to roll. It’s only with high-profile cases that they act that fast.”

“But Crenshaw is… was… high-profile.”

“True. But I still want to know how the police knew to be there in full force.”

“So that must be why they got my fingerprints so quickly.”

“And why is it that your fingerprints are on file?”

“I work for an international insurance company. I deal daily with fraud cases. I never asked Phillip why it was important, but they wanted my prints on file and I didn’t have a reason to say no.”

Colin stared at me incredulously for almost a minute. “Okay, I’m not going to touch this one. So, after watching the police for a while, it was a bit tricky to get out of the area. By the time I wanted to leave, they were everywhere.”

“And you couldn’t get out?”

“Of course I could get out.” He looked insulted at my sincere question. “It just took me a little longer. The moment it was okay for me to phone, I called you. And the rest you know.”

“No, I don’t. You haven’t told me where you’ve been the whole day.”

A cluster of expressions fluttered across his face. “You’re not going to like this.”

“Colin, I can see on your face that you don’t want to tell me. Get past that and tell me.”

He hesitated. The internal conflict was as clear on his face. “You have to know that I really did try to do this myself, but it’s too sophisticated for my skills. It took me hours, but I got nowhere, so—”

“Just tell her, dude.” Vinnie groaned in annoyance.

“I met with Francine.”

“Francine? Your friend who found Danielle?”

“Yes. She’s going to help me”—he cleared his throat—“help
us
with the code.”

“What code?” I placed my tray with the empty plate and wine glass on the coffee table. Leaning towards Colin, I placed my hands on my thighs. “Stop talking in circles and tell me what you’re so blunderingly trying to avoid.”

Colin stood. “I’d rather just show you. Let’s go to the computers.”

“And this is from Crenshaw’s safe?” I stared at the computer screen. “Five flash drives with this on it?”

“Yup.”

“It looks like those 3D pictures that were popular when I was a teenager,” Vinnie said over my shoulder.

“Yup.”

“And you tried to open this?”

“Yup.” Colin shrugged. “This is far above what I can do. It’s not any kind of encryption I’ve ever seen.”

Silence fell between us. I stared at the computer screen, at the dots forming an optical illusion. It looked like they were moving around the screen.

Colin had given me two of the five flash drives he had taken from Crenshaw’s safe. Each one looked the same when I inserted it into my computer. A screen of dots appeared. When I clicked on the external drive, a password request popped up. I was not a hacker. Apparently Colin was, but not a good one.

That brought me to the other issue. I inhaled deeply, trying to find rational calm. “Who exactly is Francine?”

“A trustworthy friend.”

“If she’s so trustworthy, why does your face and body tell me that you are worried about her?”

Colin sighed a laugh. “I’m not worried about her. I’m worried about your reaction to her helping us.”

“What did you tell her?” Vinnie asked.

“That this is a government cover-up and if she is able to get into those files a huge conspiracy will be revealed.” Colin’s answer caused Vinnie to laugh. I didn’t understand why it was funny. Colin turned to me. “Francine believes that there is a conspiracy behind every government decision, action. Aw, hell, I’m sure she believes her birth was a conspiracy.”

“And you trusted this crazy person with something that might potentially solve this case? With something that was stolen from a murdered Eurocorps Brigadier-General’s private safe?” I shoved my chair back and glared at him. “How, please tell me how, am I supposed to explain that to Manny?”

“Why would you explain anything to him?”

“Because I told him that I would give him full disclosure from now on. I’m not keeping any more secrets. It’s exhausting.”

“Well, that certainly takes the fun out of this.”

“The fun?” My shocked exclamation echoed through my apartment. I inhaled deeply and modulated my tone. “What fun? Oh. You enjoyed keeping Manny in the dark about these things. My God. You must really carry an enormous grudge against him. Whatever did he do to you?”

“Oh, dear,” Vinnie said and quickly walked to the kitchen. Colin’s jaws were clamped so tight, I feared for his teeth. In the kitchen Vinnie was making coffee again. I did not give in to the temptation to look when I heard a cup clang against something. I was not looking anywhere but at Colin’s face.

“Stop reading me.”

“What else am I supposed to do when you’re not telling me everything?”

He swallowed. “Manny and I have had a few run-ins. I’m not a big fan of his, and I’m sure he feels the same way about me.”

“And you’re not going to tell me what happened.”

“I would prefer not to.”

I narrowed my eyes when I heard Vinnie expel air loudly. As if he had been holding his breath. Why was Vinnie worried about Colin telling me about his history with Manny? It was most inconvenient to have yet another mystery added to this already complicated day.

“Well, then tell me about Francine. Please tell me why I should not kick you out of my apartment for bringing another criminal into this mess.”

“Firstly, you can’t kick me out. Vinnie will protect me.” He smiled when Vinnie chuckled. “Secondly, Francine is not a criminal.”

“But…” For once I was able to stop my runaway mouth in time.

“But what? She’s my friend, therefore she must be a criminal? Or is it her distrust of the government that makes you jump to these conclusions?”

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry. But you can’t blame me for thinking that.”

“Forget it.” He shifted in his chair.

“Colin, please.” Asking plainly didn’t work. Maybe begging would. “I really need to know who this Francine is. It will make me feel safer. Please?”

His face softened. “I’ve known Francine for fifteen years. She is a computer genius. One of those people governments fear. And employ. Francine has very strong objections against anything to do with government. According to her, they’re all just puppets being controlled by some unseen force, playing geopolitical games with the world. She also believes that the only way she can keep herself safe from all government conspiracies is to work for them. She is formally contracted by the EC to keep their online systems safe. Informally she works for the British and American governments as well. All of them think that she is working exclusively for them.”

“She is just like you.” This amused me so much, I almost missed the annoyance on Colin’s face. Oh, dear. I was insulting everyone today with my comparisons. “What I mean is that she likes to beat the system. She likes to play with the authorities. Just like you.”

Colin took a few seconds to think this over. “I suppose you’re right. Anyway. Now you know something about her that could destroy her. She gave me permission to trust you with this, so that you will feel more comfortable trusting her with breaking this encryption.”

“Do you trust her?”

“With this? Implicitly.” He showed every marker that he was telling the truth. I had come to trust Colin and his intuition. It would seem that Francine was another individual moving on the fringes of society to be included in this case.

Colin shifted in his seat. His expression changed.

“What?” Suspicion was heavy in my voice.

“You’re running out of places to look for the registration details of these subcontracted companies. Let me help.”

“How?”

“Francine—”

“No.” I knew it. His face had told me he was going to say something annoying. “I can find this. I just need time.”

“But Francine can find it much faster.” He must have seen my revulsion at the outright lack of faith in my skills. “I don’t mean it like that. She is really good at finding information that is hidden.”

“Illegally.” I turned away from him.

“Not necessarily. Okay, maybe, but at least you’ll get it. How else are you going to find anything on a small catering company that doesn’t even have a website?” He squeezed my forearm lightly until I looked at him. “Come on. What do you have to lose? When we have all the data, we can put it into chronological order. Like you said, we need all the facts. She will look into this for us and maybe even find more companies.”

“She doesn’t know what to look for.”

“You can tell her.”

“No,” I almost shouted. With a frown I cleared my throat. “I don’t want to speak to anyone else.”

“Then I’ll tell her.” He took out his smartphone and silently waited for my permission.

The moment I closed my eyes in resignation, I heard him tapping on the phone’s screen. I listened to the one-sided conversation. Colin was telling Francine just enough to give her clear parameters for finding the necessary information. There was no conceivable way she would be able to draw any conclusions from this little information alone. I was impressed, but still worried.

“Now I’ll have to tell Manny about this too,” I groused as soon as Colin ended the call. No sooner had I spoken than the doorbell rang.

“Expecting anyone?” Colin straightened, his body coiled.

“No.” I glanced at the door, not knowing what kind of trouble was waiting there. Vinnie came from the kitchen, laced his fingers, reversed his hands and stretched them far enough to pop his knuckles. With this non-verbal announcement of battle readiness, he walked to the door and looked through the peephole. Every muscle in his body tightened.

The doorbell rang again, followed by banging on the door. “Open this door!”

Vinnie’s fists tightened and he looked over his shoulder at Colin. “This dude is cruising for a bruising.”

I had no idea what that meant, but I knew what his body language indicated. With a sigh I got up and walked to the door. It took an insistent tug to get Vinnie to move away from the door so that I could open it. Manny was standing with his fist raised for another pounding when the door swung open.

“Manny.”

“Doctor Face-reader.” He nodded to me and then to Vinnie. “Criminal.”

“Asshole,” Vinnie returned the greeting without missing a heartbeat. I laughed.

“You two are the most wonderful subjects to study. Textbook territorial displays, verbal abuse to show superiority, and the lowered tone used to intimidate.” It didn’t seem like either man appreciated my observations. “Manny, please come in.”

I stepped aside to allow Manny entrance to my apartment. He walked past me and the moment his body tensed, I realised that he had just noticed Colin. I swung around wondering if I should have given Colin the chance to first leave my apartment before I had opened the door to Manny. Now it was too late. Colin had moved and was sitting on the sofa facing the bookshelves.

“Colin Frey, as I live and breathe.”

“Colonel Millard.” Colin remained seated, lounging on the sofa. His legs crossed at the ankles and his left arm rested on the back of the sofa. All signs of not feeling threatened in his territory. An obvious ploy not allowing Manny the upper hand. “You missed dinner with us. Would you like a glass of wine?”

Oh, this was better than sneaking video footage of people in cafés. I wished I had had the foresight to set up recording equipment. It would have given me hours of joy replaying this. Analysing the dynamics between three alpha males. Heaven.

“Oh, so this is your apartment where you offer the guests wine, is it?”

“Just being hospitable, Millard.”

An interesting bit of information entered my mind. “Did you know that the
Saccopteryx bilineata
, or more commonly known sac-winged bats, adjust the frequency of their territorial songs? When another male enters their territory they sing lower and more often to scare off the intruder. It has also been shown that the more often and the lower the male sings, the more offspring he produces.” All three men stared at me with slack jaws. “What? They do. That is how they prove their male superiority to an opponent. And make more babies.”

Colin got up from the sofa. “I don’t think we’re going to start singing, do you, Millard?”

Manny stared at Colin with great animosity.

“Come on, Millard, surely we can be civilized.”

“Like in Prague?” Manny looked doubtful.

“Ah, Prague.” Colin crooned. His posture belied his tone though. He was ready for an altercation. “If I didn’t know any better, I would say our colonel was suffering from a case of sour grapes.”

“What happened in Prague?” I asked.

“Nothing.” Both men answered simultaneously without looking at me, still staring at each other in challenge. Often men did this, waiting for the weaker to lower his gaze in submission. I did not think either of them would submit to the other soon.

“Well, if none of you are going to sing, can we try to solve this case?”

A smile tugged at Colin’s lips and he turned to me. He did not break the stare in submission; he did it out of respect for me. It won him a few points.

“Jenny tells me that you should now be told everything,” he said, still looking at me.

“That must really gall you.” Manny looked happy at that prospect. “The only way I can protect Doctor Lenard is if I know who is involved in this case. Unfortunately, that includes you and the gorilla over there.”

Not for the first time, Manny insisted that I was Doctor Lenard. Knowingly or unknowingly, he had revealed his opinion of me. This behaviour could often be observed with siblings. Within their own relationship they could tease each other, insult, banter and call each other names. Outside of that dynamic, they would declare war on anyone abusing their siblings. Such behaviour was exclusive to and only acceptable within that circle of trust. Manny had just shown me that I was included in his circle of trust. Interesting.

“Let’s sit by the computers. I have something to show you, Manny.” I walked to the dining room table, knowing the men would follow. Not doing so would give the others reason to beat him down for disrespecting me. This situation was a first for me. The level of civility and co-operation depended entirely on me. All three men felt responsible for me and would do anything to keep me safe. Even co-operate. It was a position of power I had not held before.

We settled around the table. Colin sat to my right, Manny to my left. Vinnie brought a tray with coffee and settled across from us. I brought Manny up to date with my discoveries about the Foundation’s extraordinary income in the last fiscal year. He looked disappointed at the lack of irregularities in their income and expenditures. But he did pale slightly when I showed him the list with all the companies registered at the same office. We spent about twenty minutes in a relatively amicable discussion. I postponed telling him about the registration dates. Or to be more precise, Francine’s involvement in finding the dates.

“I understand the eighteen shipping companies registered at this office. Where did the other twenty companies come from?” Manny frowned at my list.