3 The Braque Connection (22 page)

I turned around, nodding. “Of course. It would be a futile exercise, but without looking at me as well, your investigation would be incomplete.”

“So cool,” Francine said as I walked to my desk. “You are so cool.”

I settled in front of my computer, closed my eyes and thought about the paintings in the conference room.

“Jenny?” I opened my eyes to find Colin in the chair next to mine. A quick glance at the clock told me I’d had only had seven minutes alone. It was not enough time. “What are you thinking?”

“Not much. I don’t have time to think.”

“Okay.” He drew out the last syllable, something he did when I became impatient.

“Sorry.” I dropped my head against the high back of my office chair. “It’s just frustrating.”

“It is.” He stretched his legs and crossed his ankles, a sign of high comfort. “But we are getting more and more pieces of the puzzle.”

“Not fast enough. Kubanov will continue killing until we stop him. The question is whether it will be individuals like your friends or whether he is planning bombs for crowds.”

“Still individuals, Doc.” Manny stepped into the viewing room, the corners of his mouth turned down. Reading strangers’ faces was easier on an emotional level since there was no personal tie. The distress displayed on Manny’s face caused my chest to constrict.

“Who’s dead?”

“Tina Frazier.”

Colin covered his eyes with one hand.

“Who was she?” I asked, looking at Colin. Uncharacteristically, I put my hand on Colin’s and lifted it away from his face. He gripped my hand tightly, his lips thin lines of distress. “Another friend?”

“She was a good person, Jenny.” His voice was low and hoarse. “One of the best goldsmiths I had worked with. She was a true artist. And she had a wicked sense of humour.”

“Sorry, Frey.” Manny pulled the third chair closer and fell into it. He looked exhausted.

“What happened to her?”

“Shot, like the others.”

“Why is he targeting women? I have male friends as well.”

“Maybe he wants Doc to think that these were all previous girlfriends and that will make her jealous. Maybe they are easier targets. I don’t know.”

“Kubanov won’t choose anyone because they are easier targets.” As I said this, evidence of the last few days caused me to reconsider. “Or maybe he did. It would not be the first time that he is contradicting his previous behaviour.”

“We need to put a stop to him, Doc.”

“I know. When did Tina Frazier die?”

“The local police think it happened late last night, but the autopsy will give us the exact time. Her sister found her this morning.” There was little to no inflection in his tone. People did that when attempting to avoid the very personal nature of whatever they were saying. “This is another associate of Frey’s, another artist.”

“Wait.” I recalled Manny’s expression when he first entered with the news. “You had known Tina Frazier was connected to Colin before he said it. How?”

Suspicion and anger replaced the grief on Colin’s face. “Explain yourself, Millard.”

“We need to include Phillip in this discussion.” Manny stood up. “Doc, call him to meet us in the team room. This place is no good for meetings.”

When Colin wanted to argue, I put my other hand on his and shook my head. “It will be good for Phillip to sit in.”

“And prevent me from killing that arsehole.” Colin waited, not letting go of my hand, while I asked Phillip to meet us in the team room. It was awkward. We got up and entered the team room at the same time as Phillip. Francine was at her computer, her fingers flying over the keys. Vinnie was already seated at the table.

“When did you come in?” I asked as Colin and I sat down.

“Two seconds ago. The old man told me we’re having a meeting.”

Manny cleared his throat. “Before we get onto the real reason for this meeting, I got some feedback from your convicts, Doc.”

For a moment, I had no idea what Manny was talking about. I was still thinking about Colin’s friend, and also wondering what Francine was finding. I blinked a few times while changing topics. “Oh, you’re talking about interviewing those imprisoned killers who had used similar weapons.”

“Yes. I gave the locals your list of questions. One idiot’s gun exploded when he shot his victim, but he wouldn’t say what gun it was or how it had exploded in his hand. Apart from the cocaine connecting these convicts, there was only one similarity in all their answers. They all said they had bought their weapons from the Printer.”

“Who the fuck is that?” Vinnie asked. “I’ve been asking around and no one knows someone using that street name.”

“The convicts couldn’t say. They had only spoken to him over the phone. All of them said he had a high-pitched voice and spoke with an Italian accent.”

“It’s Tall Freddy.” Vinnie nodded as if he agreed with himself. “I’m willing to bet my aunt Theresa’s cheesecake recipe that he also supplied them with the cocaine.”

“Hawk had sent Tall Freddy five 3D printers.” Pieces were beginning to fit now. “Could he have printed a few guns, sold them or given them to some of his customers? We know that 3D printing is still new and many printed guns have been reported to explode. This might have been the cause of that one killer’s injuries.”

The more I spoke the faster Manny was breathing. “Bleeding mother of all, Doc. Not only are you speculating, but it is a brilliant theory.”

“That is not speculation.” The audacity. “It’s a hypothesis built on facts. The gun exploding in the one killer’s hand is not physical evidence, but strong circumstantial evidence supporting my hypothesis.”

“Potato, potahto. I still think it is a brilliant theory.” Manny twisted around to look at Francine, who was totally consumed with what she was doing on the computer. “Supermodel, find everything you can on Tall Freddy. We need to see how he fits in with Kubanov.”

Francine’s fingers froze above the keyboard. She slowly looked up at Manny, blinking in the slow way she did when she flirted with the waiters during our lunches. “Handsome, but impatient. Just because I am the best in the world does not mean I am four people. Already I have five different searches running at the same time. Yours will have to take a number.”

Her expressions told me she said this only to irritate Manny. It was working. The artery on his forehead was becoming prominent, his face turning red.

“What other searches have you got?” Phillip asked.

“I’m almost done with this one, but I got a few results on my search into Dukwicz.” She looked at Vinnie. “What did you find out?”

“That he’s even worse than I had heard. He’s a mercenary who does any kind of crime for money. Not only killing, but obviously kidnapping, burglary.”

“What kind of burglary?” Colin asked. “If he stole anything of importance, I might have heard about it, but I’ve never heard that name.”

“The kind of burglary where the dude goes in and destroys everything inside the house while the owners watch. Then he tortures them a little just for giggles before he takes all the watches.”

“He only takes the watches?” Francine walked to the round table, carrying her laptop.

“Watches and clocks. Apparently, the dude has a thing for timepieces. And before you ask, most of those break-ins were never reported. Most of these burglaries were at the homes of some criminal. It was a message from some badass to a smaller badass to maintain the hierarchy of the food chain.”

“Vinnie is right. I’ve found similar anecdotes about this Dukwicz guy. He hires himself out to organised crime bosses, all kinds of syndicates and the rich who want their competition to disappear. Basically, he is the muscle or gun for the worst of the worst.”

“Why has no one ever caught him?”

“Because no one knows his full name for starters.” Francine pointed at her laptop. “Not one single entry with his name other than just ‘Dukwicz’.”

“Did you check Interpol?” Manny asked.

“I don’t have clearance to do a proper Interpol search.”

“That was not my question, supermodel.” Manny lowered his brow to stare at her. Clearly he had come to know her as well as I did.

“Okay, fine.” Her smile was seductive. “You’re so handsome when you get me. Sadly, Interpol doesn’t know much about Dukwicz. Only a few rumours.”

“Hmm. Doc, what do you make of this?”

“Give me a moment. Francine, can you open Susan Kadlec’s crime scene report?” I gave Colin an apologetic smile. I didn’t want to remind him that he had lost a good friend, but I had to make sure my suspicion was grounded.

“What are you looking for, girlfriend?” she asked a few seconds later.

“Can you put some of those crime scene photos up on the screen? If I remember correctly, her house had been devastated by whoever had killed her.” The room went quiet when everyone must have realised my train of thought. Francine arranged six photos on the big screen against the wall. It looked like a tornado had gone through the living room and study. “Did the police find any watches in the house?”

“As a matter of fact, they said that it was strange to find not one single clock or watch in that house. They thought since she was a professor, she was maybe a bit nutty.” Manny leaned back in his chair. “That bloody Dukwicz bastard killed her.”

For a few seconds no one spoke. I had a few more things to add, but didn’t know what was proper behaviour in such a situation.

“I can see that you have more, Jenny. Just say it. She’s gone and nothing will bring her back.”

“Dukwicz is our link between Tall Freddy and Kubanov.” It felt good to finally draw a line between some of the elements in this case. “He also connects Hawk and Kubanov—”

“—which connects all of them,” Manny said. “Well done, Doc.”

I nodded. “We have the connections, but it still doesn’t tell us what Kubanov’s plan is. I want to find out what the final destination is in this game Kubanov is playing. I would also like to stop him from killing any more of Colin’s friends.”

Vinnie’s eyebrows lifted. “Dude, who else died?”

“Tina Frazier.”

“No fucking way.” Vinnie swung around to look at Manny. “Is this why we’re sitting here?”

“Yes.” Colin let go of my hand, rested his forearms on the table and leaned towards Manny. “Millard was just going to tell us why he knew about my connection to Tina.”

Manny exhibited the same agitation as before, but didn’t show any insecure body language.

“Let me ask you this first, Frey.” There was no antagonism visible in Manny’s expression. “Apart from your work with Interpol, you have a lot of connections in the criminal world, right?’

Colin looked at him, not moving a muscle.

“Those people and the other people you have befriended along the way are not like Hawk—killers, the kind of dirt that should be cleaned off the streets.”

“What’s your question, Millard?”

Manny’s internal struggle was visible only in his micro-expressions. Whatever he was about to say was going to require trust and he didn’t want to trust Colin. Even though I believed he did.

“I have a dossier on you.”

“You said so.” Colin leaned back. “The one you showed to Phillip?”

“Correct.” Manny inhaled deeply and spoke very fast on the exhale. “In the years I investigated you, I gathered as much intel on you as I could get my hands on. Friends, associates, connections, places you had been spotted, aliases.”

I didn’t want to leap to conclusions, but I anticipated Manny’s next sentences.

“The people in our current case who have a connection to you all appear in my dossier. So does your Sydney Goddphin alias used for those strange purchases.”

“You knew about Susan?” Colin’s voice was strained. “And you didn’t tell me earlier?”

“I knew very little. I only knew you visited her once a few years ago. I caught that one purely by chance. I never noticed her in your life before, or after. I didn’t know the full extent of your friendship.”

“What does this mean?” Vinnie asked.

“It means that someone saw his dossier, Vin.” Colin didn’t take his eyes off Manny. “Who did you show my dossier to, Millard?”

“Firstly, it is a paper file with clippings, printouts, photos and other paper documents connected to you. None of that was ever entered into any computer system. Secondly, you were a pet project for me, so I didn’t show my bosses what I had on you.”

“Not even after you arrested me and Interpol stole me from you?”

“Especially not then. I was asked if I’d had any useful information that would help them with their case against you. I gave them some stuff, the same intel I had on my computer and that was not gained by speaking to a lot of people and asking a lot of questions.”

“Do you know exactly who saw this file?” I asked. Manny was avoiding a straightforward answer which made me suspicious.

“Phillip only had the bloody thing for four days. He read through everything, verified some things and gave it back to me.”

“When I wasn’t reading it, it was locked in the safe in my office,” Phillip said.

“Sorry to tell you, my man, but that safe is piss-easy to open.” Vinnie’s expression fluctuated between guilt and pride. “It took me all of three minutes to get in there. Colin would’ve done it in under a minute.”