Gauguin Connection, The (30 page)

“Give me a moment,” Colin said. He picked his smartphone off the table. After a moment of tapping the screen, he put it to his ear and smiled at me. “I was hoping to surprise you with this.”

“With what?” Manny growled next to me. Colin lifted a finger to indicate silence. This seemed to anger Manny further, if his breathing was any indicator.

“Hallo, sexy.” Colin smiled into the phone. Who was he talking to? There was silence around the table. We were all watching Colin. “No, I’m well, thanks, love. Listen, do you have the registration details yet?”

“I want the details for that friend of his,” Manny said next to me. I ignored him. The only person Colin would ask about registration details was Francine. That information interested me much more than Manny’s displeasure.

Colin was making agreeing sounds. “Fantastic. You’re a doll. I have one more company for you to check.
Posiet & Somov ZAO… Yes, I’ll wait.” He looked at me and smiled. “She’s just making a quick call. And she’s going to email me the details for those companies. She got all of them.”

“Francine?” I asked.

“Yes.” There was a full minute of silence in my apartment. I glanced at Manny and could see his mind working. He was busy building up a righteous fury. Just as Manny inhaled angrily, Colin lifted his finger again. “Yes, hon, I’m still here… yes? Super. Thanks, doll. Can’t you tell me anything more about those codes?” More agreeing sounds. “Hon, I really appreciate it. Yes, yes, I know. It will be a larger bottle than last time, I promise.”

A few more promises and Colin finished his call. He turned to us. “Our Francine has some interesting friends. She knows somebody who knows somebody who works in the Russian bureaucracy. That person has been able to get her everything we need. Not only were all thirty-three shipping companies registered in
Volosovo, but P&S as well.”

Vinnie shook his head. “This seems like a huge criminal enterprise that has been running for many years. How could they have made such a fundamental mistake?”

“Says the expert on criminal activity.” Manny was sarcastic. He was angry.

“I’m not in prison, am I?” Vinnie was halfway out of his chair when his cell phone started ringing. He glared at Manny for two more rings, answered the call and walked to his bedroom.

“Please tell me this Francine is your trusted friend you talked about. My ulcer won’t be able to handle yet another criminal knowing everything.” Manny looked pained.

“Yes, she is the same person,” Colin said. “She said that it should take her programme another few hours to get into those files. She’s very impressed with the coding.”

“Okay then.” It looked like Manny was having just as much trouble as I co-operating with criminals. For a man like Manny it would be working with people who did not work within the same honour code as he. Both of us were challenged outside of our clearly delineated beliefs. I supposed for Colin and Vinnie, they were having difficulty being forced to work within parameters.

This was a totally mismatched team and it made for fascinating observations. Contrary to all indicators, we were tolerating each other pretty well. A common goal did that to people. We were inclined to forget race, religion, politics,
even personal beliefs if our goal was commanding enough. Ours was. Stop the people who were using, then killing artists.

“Show me what you’ve got, Doc.” Manny brought me out of my musings.

“The video footage you sent me.” I moved my computer back and aligned my chair. Moved the computer again. Tilted my head and narrowed my eyes. Another five millimetres to the right and I sighed contentedly. Movement caught my peripheral vision. Manny and Colin were shaking their heads at me. At least they agreed on one thing. Even if it was at my expense.

“Watch this.” I clicked on a clip and played it once.

“Is this last year’s gala event?” Colin asked.

“Looks like it,” Manny answered. “Yes, there is that White Bowl still life painting.”

“Still Life, The White Bowl,” Colin sighed. “What are we looking at, Jenny?”

“Group dynamics are interesting to observe, to learn from. Watching a group of people, whether they are teenagers, female friends, gangsters or a police team, can teach us a lot about the dynamics in that group.”

“That’s how you knew that the German was the leader of the group that broke into your place.”

“Yes.” My hand moved involuntarily to my left eyebrow. Most of the bruising was gone. The memory was still very fresh. “When watching people who know each other in a group setting, you can see who’s considered the alpha, the leader. The other’s eyes will constantly stray towards him or her to check in.”

“Check in?” Manny asked.

“For approval, permission, acknowledgement. Even if they are not standing together in the same group, there will constantly be eye contact between them. Millisecond eye contact. If someone’s behaviour is off, the others will have disapproving looks and might even intervene. But it all depends on the leader.”

“And every group has a leader,” Colin stated.

“Even in a group of friends there is a stronger personality that the others will follow. It doesn’t mean that it is like a military outfit where everyone follows the officer blindly. They would just imitate that person’s habits, from choice of drink to relating to people. The leader would not seek out acknowledgement. He or she would give it. Now watch this clip again. Watch Crenshaw.” I replayed the same clip and turned down the sound. Sometimes we see better without auditory distractions.

The formal part of the event had taken place and people were mingling. Business cards changed hands, social smiles were abundant and eyes were roaming constantly for the next contact to be made. Crenshaw was standing next to a pillar with a glass of red wine in his left hand. He was talking to an elderly couple. His body language was submissive, which led me to believe that this couple held enough power for him to want to impress them.

“Doc,” Manny said while the clip was playing. “I can watch this all I want, but I don’t know what to look for.”

“He’s not acknowledging anyone.” Didn’t they see it? It was so obvious.

“How would that look?”

I demonstrated with an elderly gentleman who Manny said was the European Commissioner for Trade. Quite a few people at the event were connected to him. It was visible from how their eyes were seeking him out. If they made contact, he would nod slightly or lift his eyebrows. That pacified and pleased those people, relaxing their facial muscles and body language.

“Okay, so what does this mean?” Manny asked. This was going to be more difficult than I thought.

“Crenshaw did not give acknowledgement, but rather sought it. I then made note of where he was looking. Then I looked for other people also looking in that direction. That included the guys from the intelligence division of Eurocorps. They were definitely submissive to Crenshaw, but they only made eye contact with him when they needed to talk to him.”

“So who were they looking at?” Manny was studying the screen.

“I don’t know. That person is off screen. This is the only footage that I have of this part of the event. Were there any other cameras? Any possibility of any more footage?”

“I’ll have to check,” Manny said. “So how do you interpret all this, Doc?”

“From watching this and other clips, I don’t think that Crenshaw was the brains behind the operation.”

“We already agreed he wasn’t Piros,” Manny said. “Leon and I talked a lot about Crenshaw. I’m no profiler, but he doesn’t sound like he could plan a thing like this. He was an operations guy. He made things happen; he didn’t plan them. He was also good at the diplomatic stuff, but never took initiative.”

“And this would need initiative,” Colin said.

“A chess player, like I said before,” I stated.

“Leon said that Crenshaw couldn’t play chess if his life depended on it.”

“Enough said.” That was it for me. I was convinced.

“Unfortunately this isn’t concrete evidence. It’s just reasonable doubt.” Manny looked very tired. “I’d rather we now focussed our energy on finding the person behind it all. I would also love to know what Crenshaw’s part in all this was.”

“Hopefully the coded files will give us insight into that.” The need to comfort Manny surprised me. I wasn’t an empathetic person.

“First they tried to intimidate Jenny from working the case, then they set her up for Crenshaw’s murder. At the same time we are given clues making Crenshaw look like a master criminal. Who has the power to do this, Millard?” For a change Colin didn’t sound argumentative. Just very concerned.

“I don’t know, Frey. And that worries me.”

“How sure are you about Chief Dutoit?” Colin asked.

Manny hesitated. “Sure.”

“I don’t need Jenny’s skill to know you’re lying, Millard.”

“Until this case I was very sure of him,” Manny admitted after a minute of glaring at Colin.

“What changed?” I asked.

“His uncommon interest in this case. Doctor Face-reader’s observations.” Manny’s cell phone started ringing with a most annoying disco ring tone. His eyes widened. “Talk about the devil.”

I frowned at yet another expression that I didn’t understand. He cleared his throat nervously, pressed something on his phone and said, “You’re on speakerphone, Chief Dutoit.”

“Thank you, Colonel Millard. Good evening, Doctor Lenard.”

“Um… Good evening.” I had no idea how to address this man. And I did not want to speak to him. Next to me Manny was gesturing to Colin to keep quiet. Colin lifted his middle finger in a vulgar gesture, but sat back in his chair. Vinnie folded his arms and glared.

“Colonel Millard’s been telling me what a wonderful asset you’ve been to this investigation. I appreciate all the work you’ve done so far as well as your discretion. I can’t stress enough the importance of keeping this as confidential as possible.”

I took a moment to find the safest answer. “I understand, sir.”

“Earlier tonight I spoke with Phillip Rousseau. He kindly agreed to remove himself from this investigation.”

“He what?” Phillip would never leave me on my own with all these people. All these men.

“The Commanding General of Eurocorps headquarters, Lieutenant-General
Barreiros, and I had a lengthy conversation with Colonel Millard and Major-General Leon Hofmann. We decided to limit any other eyes on this case. Mister Rousseau completely understood our position. He did, however, sound very concerned about you spending time with Colonel Millard. Are there any problems I should be aware of?”

“No, there aren’t any problems. Not yet.” There were so many things I wanted to address. I started with the most disturbing. “I don’t understand your rationale for removing Phillip from this investigation. He knows everything.”

“And I have his word that all that information is safe.”

“So what’s your problem? I need Phillip.” Next to me, Manny gasped at my irreverence. I didn’t care. I was feeling the loss of Phillip’s presence and interpersonal skills in my life very strongly.

“Doctor Lenard.” Chief Dutoit’s voice turned hard. “We are focussing on a much larger problem here. Not to take away from the horror of the deaths of those artists, there are the stolen weapons from Eurocorps. The political impact of all this alone could be staggering, as could the long-term damage to the agency’s reputation and credibility. And I really don’t want this to touch the EDA.”

I was tempted to tell him I didn’t care about his stupid politics, but I breathed through it. It would seem that we all needed reminding to stay focussed. “I understand.”

“We will keep all information limited to us here in Doctor Lenard’s apartment. It will not leave here, sir.” Manny needed commendation for that brilliant sentence. It was not a lie. Simply an ingenious manipulation of the truth. He had successfully included Vinnie and Colin without Chief Dutoit being any the wiser.

“Well, that’s good. Colonel Millard, I want you to focus on this investigation. It needs to be done with.”

“Yes, sir.”

“In the meantime, Lieutenant-General
Barreiros and the Head of the EDA decided that we’ll issue a statement that Crenshaw’s death was a bungled burglary. Mister Rousseau agreed to spread the word that Doctor Lenard is on extended sick leave.”

“I’m not sick.”

“I know that, Doctor Lenard. If anyone else wonders why you’re not at work, sick leave makes much more sense. Especially if it is due to overwhelming stress.”

“I’m not stressed.” Although my voice sounded very stressed at that moment.

“I know that too, Doctor Lenard.” A sigh came through the phone. “Mister Rousseau is very concerned about you. He agreed to this because I reasoned that the people who had tried to intimidate and set you up for murder might back off a bit if you are at home, too stressed to work.”

That made sense. “Okay then. Can I at least phone Phillip?”

“No. The only people you will be in contact with are Colonel Millard and me. Understood?”

“I understand,” I said. I was under house and phone arrest.

“Good. I hope that we have this wrapped up very soon. And once again, thank you for all your help, Doctor Lenard. I’ll be keeping an eye on you.”