Gauguin Connection, The (32 page)

“Then he will walk you there and wait outside the door,” Phillip answered. It would seem that we had reached an agreement. “I still don’t like it, but if that is what you think best.”

“I think it is,” Manny said and sat down again. “Doc doesn’t have to do anything except watch the people there and point out anyone suspicious. Is there anything else, Phillip?”

“For now that is all.” He hesitated. “Genevieve?”

“Yes?”

“If you need me, you know where I am.” The heaviness in his voice gave the statement much more meaning. I just didn’t know what I was supposed to read into it.

“Okay,” was the best answer I could come up with. Nothing more was said that interested me. Soon the phone call ended.

“Tell me more about the information you have on this list,” Manny immediately asked Vinnie. When Vinnie’s lips thinned, Manny sighed. “No more questions about Hawk.”

“For now, you mean.” Vinnie snorted. “Whatever. Like I said before, he records every transaction, whether it is buying or selling. All details are written down—names, dates, specs of products, everything.”

“My kingdom for that list,” Manny muttered. Vinnie’s calculating expression stopped me from asking about Manny’s kingdom. Did Vinnie truly have access to something so incriminating? Was he planning on giving it to Manny?

“Whatever.” More avoidance. Vinnie pointed to the paper in front of me. “On this list are some weapons from Eurocorps’ cache. The specs are the same. All of them come from the same supplier.”

Manny took the piece of paper. “Where is the name of the supplier?”

Vinnie massaged his neck and exhaled slowly with puffed cheeks. He was uncomfortable.

“What is it going to cost you?” I asked softly. He was already in debt to this Hawk-person. Of that I was convinced.

“I’m sorry, Jen-girl. The price for the name of the supplier is too high.” He closed his eyes briefly and shook his head. “Just look at what we do have.”

“The date of purchase, date of sale, calibre, serial numbers,” I said.

“They didn’t remove the serial numbers?” Manny asked.

“Nope. Hawk removed them before he moved it. He also took the time for bore-lapping.”

“Oh, no.” Manny groaned. “Bastards.”

“What is bore-lapping?” I asked.

Vinnie looked at Manny. When Manny closed his eyes, Vinnie explained. “It is a method used to kind of polish the inside of a barrel. If done correctly it can improve the performance of a barrel.”

“And it removes the rifling.” One corner of Manny’s mouth lifted in a smile. “That means, Doc, these guns can’t be identified. Guns can be traced to the owners by the serial numbers and also by the striae. These are the lines formed on a bullet by the rifling on the inside of a barrel when it travels through the barrel. Each barrel creates its own unique striae.”

“The gun’s fingerprint.” I was very proud of my comparison. Especially when all three men nodded their heads in agreement. “So, by bore-lapping and removing the serial number it is impossible to trace the weapon anywhere.”

“Well done, Doctor Face-reader.” Manny waved the paper in his hand. “This, however, gives us a direct link to the weapons’ case. Leon will be delighted. There are just a few things that do not make sense at all.”

“Like why the Russian Ninja Turtles would steal guns to stock up their supplies, but then sell them on the black market,” I interrupted.

“Exactly,” Manny said.

“It wasn’t a Russian who sold Hawk the guns,” Vinnie said. “This is why the price for this info was so high. He must have bought the guns from someone very important, else he would’ve given up the name. The price he’s asking for this name tells me a lot.”

“Crenshaw,” Manny said. “Hawk could’ve recognised him. Did he know the guns came from Eurocorps?”

“He didn’t say, but a guy who knows a guy told me that everyone knew there were Eurocorps guns on the streets.”

“I suppose Crenshaw decided to make a bit of extra money for himself on the side. I’m sure if Leon compares this list to the stolen weapons from Eurocorps, the remaining weapons might be the ones in RNT possession. I will give this list to Leon. Thank you, Vinnie.”

Vinnie responded with a half-nod. This was helpful, but not for me. I needed that one piece of the puzzle that would connect it all. I needed something that would help me solve the mystery of Piros. But most of all, I needed this case to end.

It would seem like nothing was close to ending. The short lull was rudely broken by the doorbell. I was the only one at the table who did not go into fight mode. The testosterone levels in the room heightened.

“I’ll get it.” Vinnie was already halfway to the door. Manny moved his torso a few inches towards me. Unconsciously he had just moved himself half in front of me. This time I didn’t remind him about my personal space. Colin followed Vinnie, but stopped a few feet behind him.

Vinnie looked through the peephole, straightened and looked again. Then he turned to Colin with a
half-smile. “You’re not going to like this.”

Colin took the few steps to look through the peephole. When he straightened, his jaw was clenched. He opened the door just wide enough to step through. Vinnie followed him and closed the door. I didn’t get to see who was on the other side of the door. I only heard the surprise in an unfamiliar female voice.

“Who’s that?” Manny asked me. He had moved back to slump in his chair.

“I don’t know.”

“Don’t you want to know?”

“Manny, I’ve grown weary with all these secrets and deception, and I don’t want to be bothered with this.”

He started to respond, but loud voices made their way through the closed front door. I could not hear exactly what was being said, but Vinnie did shout the word ‘agent’. That was followed by a female ‘oh’ and then I could only hear the murmur of their voices. My curiosity was now piqued. Before I could act on this, the door opened and the two men stepped in. No woman.

“Who was that?” Manny asked.

Colin’s nostrils flared. They walked towards us. “You know, Millard, for all Jenny’s faults, she is much less offensive than you. You really need to work on your tone.”

“Oh, thank you, Colin.” I was touched. There was only truth in his statement. Never before had I received a compliment in reference to my social skills. If it was a compliment.

“You’re welcome, Jenny.” Colin handed me a flash drive. “Francine opened the first drive.”

“That was Francine by the door?” I asked. “Why didn’t you let her in?”

Colin glanced at Manny. “She doesn’t like law enforcement types.”

“But she works for—”

“Us,” Colin interrupted me with a pointed look.

“Ah. I see. You don’t want me to say anything about her in front of Manny.” She had after all entrusted me with her duplicity. Or was it
triplicity? I didn’t know how many entities she was working for. I could only hope she worked exclusively for the good guys. “Why didn’t she just email the documents?”

“She wanted to meet you.” Vinnie smiled. “You intrigue her.”

“Oh.” I didn’t consider myself intriguing. I took the flash drive from Colin and inserted it into my personal computer. There were two folders. I opened the first one and got a well-organised list of companies that were registered at Volosovo. My face must have given my surprise away because Manny moved closer to look at the computer monitor.

“Fifty centimetres.” I turned my head to glare at Manny. And waited until he moved far enough. Focussing again on the computer, I zoomed in so that the text was large enough to read from where he was sitting. Colin’s arm brushed mine, but it didn’t feel like an intrusion of my personal space. I didn’t ask him to move away. “This is amazing. She found more companies. And all of them registered at the same place. She even managed to get all the dates.”

These companies could wait until later for me to compare it with the lists I had. I also wanted to check for any connections they had to the Foundation’s financials. Also later. I closed the folder and opened the second folder.

Vinnie was standing behind us. All attention was focussed on the computer monitor. The folder held three documents. Each one had a date on it. The first was from 1999 until 2003, the second from 2004 until 2008. The last one was until last year. I opened the first one and gasped.

“Jackpot,” Manny said after a stunned moment. I hardly heard him. My mind was processing the information on the screen. It was more than I had hoped for. Neatly laid out on the screen was a complete list of all the people who had been on cruises. Listed were cruise ship names, dates of cruises, people, addresses, room numbers, number of people per room, amount of money spent by each person, items bought, even the smallest glass of water was listed. It was an immensely detailed list.

“Is this enough information for you, Jenny?” Colin asked very close to me. I turned my head to find his face almost next to mine.

I frowned and pulled away. “This is perfect. With all of this information I’m sure that we will find something to connect a few more things. This is fantastic.”

“This is from only one of the flash drives you found in Crenshaw’s safe?” Manny asked Colin.

“Yes, there are four more. Francine is working on those as well.”

“Why do you think he had all this?” Vinnie asked.

“Assuming that he’s not Piros, that he is not the mastermind behind all of this?” Colin said. “I think that he kept this as insurance. Maybe he didn’t trust Piros. Maybe he expected to one day be forced to use this to get himself out of a tight place.”

“I really don’t care why he had this,” I said. “I’m just glad he did. And now we have it.”

The three men speculated some more, but I had lost interest. Their conversation receded until it was a distant drone. Already I had a search running between one of my lists and the names of people on the cruises. I vaguely heard Manny say his farewells and leave. I waved my hand impatiently and once again lost myself in the search.

Only when Colin threatened to shower in my bathroom did I agree to turn the computers off and get a few hours’ sleep. I had to give my body some rest before I continued looking for new connections. Tomorrow was going to be a very exciting day. I just knew it.

“Aw, Jen-girl, have mercy.” Vinnie’s plea stopped me mid-sentence.

“What?”

“I can’t take all this information anymore. Can’t you please just give us the highlights?”

“But then you lose the context.”

“Screw the context. My brain is on fire.” Vinnie dropped his head in his hands. I would never have thought of him as melodramatic. Maybe he really didn’t want to hear the finer and immensely exciting details of my discoveries.

“Just the highlights?” I asked, disappointed. I loved the details. And these were exhilarating details.

“It might be quicker, Jenny,” Colin said.

“Fine.” I turned away from the computer. On the screen was a wonderfully laid out list. What a waste. “The first list that Francine accessed didn’t bring me any closer to finding out who Piros is or who has been killing the artists.”

“Oh, God, I need coffee.” Vinnie went to the kitchen. I could also do with another cup of coffee. It had been a long morning comparing all the lists I had on my computer.

When I had woken up Vinnie hadn’t been in the apartment. He had returned less than an hour ago, carrying bags of groceries and curious about my discoveries. Until I started laying it all out.

“I found so many exciting connections. I’ve been trying this whole week to find out who owns Kozlevich.”

“You’re still looking into the company who owns all the shipping companies?”

I took exception to Colin’s tone. “You might consider it a waste of time. I do not. It is an oddity that the owner of Kozlevich isn’t listed anywhere. That makes me suspicious. Especially when, after a week, I couldn’t find anything.”

“I didn’t mean to offend you, Jenny.” He was genuinely contrite.

I accepted his apology with a nod. “I know who owns Kozlevich.”

“What? Who?” Colin leaned forward.

“Francine found the owners.” I consciously chose not to ponder too much on how she had obtained this information. “Three entities own Kozlevich. A Simon Brun owns thirty-three percent, P&S owns thirty-three percent and a private holder owns thirty-four percent.”

Vinnie stared at me with a slack jaw. Colin shook his head disbelievingly. “P&S? The bastards who also own La Maison Russie? Judas Priest.”

“Who’s Simon Brun?” Vinnie asked.

“I have no idea. Francine emailed me and said she tried to find out who he is, but hasn’t been able to get anything yet. She’s busy with the decoding of the flash drives, but she promised to find out about Brun and also the mysterious private holder.” I thought of my earlier clock analogy with all the parts. I whispered to myself, “Wheels within wheels.”

“You can say that again,” Vinnie said.

“Wheels within wheels,” I repeated and was rewarded with broad smiles from both men.

“Did you get anything else from the list?” Colin asked.

“Which one?” I asked.

“Let’s start with the list of companies.”

“Francine did an amazing job. There are companies that I had not uncovered. I now have quite an extensive list of shipping companies and other companies working for or with the Foundation. Not all of them are still active, but all of them at one time were connected.” I was itching to show them the details. With difficulty I resisted the urge. “I took Vinnie’s idea and looked for the first of these companies to register in Volosovo. I think it is not one hundred percent correct to deduce that it would be the very first company. I mean, I can only work with what I have. Maybe there are more companies.”

“Jenny,” Colin interrupted me gently.

“Oh. I’m rambling. Sorry.” I inhaled deeply. “Just for the record, this is a calculated assumption.”

“Noted.” Colin smiled.

“The first company that I have here is P&S.” They looked as shocked as I had been when I first saw this. “Posiet and Somov seems to play quite an important role in this mystery.”

“Dude, we are so going tomorrow evening.” Vinnie looked at Colin with excitement flushing his cheeks.

“Vin,” Colin warned.

“Don’t worry, Colin. I know you are planning to go there tomorrow evening,” I said.

Vinnie leaned forward, closer to me. “Jen-girl, isn’t it difficult to always know everything people are thinking?”

“No.” What a silly notion that it might be difficult. “It makes my life easier. That way I don’t have to guess at people’s intentions and meanings and try to read between the lines. And in case you were wondering, I don’t mind that you will be there tomorrow evening.”

“Why haven’t you told Millard?” Colin asked. Curious.

“Because I’ll feel safer if both of you are there too.”

Colin smiled. “Do we know who owns P&S?”

“No. I have all the information on P&S, but can’t find the name of the owner of this company anywhere.”

“I’ll ask Francine to look into that.”

“Okay.” It was becoming easier to accept help from people functioning on the fringes. “Um… could you also ask her if she could find out who the private holder is?”

“Sure. She’ll enjoy that challenge. What did you find with the other list?”

“I compared all the names of the cruise guests with the lists I have of Eurocorps employees, EDA employees, those fictional private investigators and the dead artists. All the artists were on the guest list of the cruises. I was also not surprised to find Crenshaw there. As well as Mark Smith. Other interesting people are Chief Frederique Dutoit and a lot of the VIP’s that we saw on the footage of last year’s gala event. And the enigmatic Tomasz Kubanov was also a frequent guest.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” Colin said. “He’s the founder of the Foundation and on the receiving end of a lot of donations from these cruises. Not to mention the millions they get from the European Union.”

“I simply can’t reconcile myself to the notion that he is not involved in this. It is after all his charity organisation. A charity organisation with close ties to a lot of dead artists, forged artworks and apparently money laundering. He must be somehow involved.”

“But look at all the good things the Foundation has done.” Colin pointed towards the computers. “Everything I’ve read points to him only being the face of the Foundation. I agree with you that he is shady, but we have nothing connecting him personally to this. It only implicates the Foundation. And of course Piros.”

“Manny needs to tell us more. He promised a week ago already to find out more about Kubanov. Until we know more, it is only speculation.”

“Millard will just tell you all the official stuff.”

“And that is bad?” I asked.

“Not bad. Incomplete,” Colin answered.

“Yeah,” Vinnie said. “They don’t even know my surname. Not very efficient investigators, are they?”

“Don’t underestimate Millard.” There was a strong warning in Colin’s voice. “He’s sharper than most people think.”

I refrained from insisting on an explanation. Hopefully, when Colin was ready, he would tell me about him and Manny. We were lost in our own contemplation for a few minutes until Colin asked, “Did you have time to look at the stuff Francine emailed you this morning?”

“Yes. She apologised for crashing my party yesterday. What does that mean?”

“It means that she came here uninvited.”

“But I didn’t have a party here.”

“If there are more than three people, Francine sees it as a party.”

“Or a conspiracy,” Vinnie said.

I thought for a second. “So, you will be crashing the gala event tomorrow evening?”

Vinnie laughed. “No, Jen-girl. We won’t be crashing.”

“We have invitations,” Colin said when he noticed my frown. “Just don’t ask where and how we got them.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. I turned back to the computers. “Francine managed to decode the second flash drive. It has a list of all the young artists and the works we can assume they had forged. At first all the names and artworks next to it didn’t make sense. Then I recognised names.”

“What? Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t Francine tell me?”

For an uncanny second I had the desire to put my hand on Colin’s arm to calm him. I didn’t. “Maybe she didn’t tell you because she knew you would be this upset. You really care about these artists.”

“Of course I do. Jesus, at last count, sixteen have lost their lives because they were good at what they did.”

“It’s thirty-seven,” I said.

“Thirty-seven what?”

“The list I have here has thirty-seven young artists on it and all the works that they’ve reproduced. Eleven names were the same as our list of sixteen murdered artists. Francine posits this is a list of all the murdered artists.”

“Thirty-seven?” Colin’s lips disappeared and he swallowed hard. I hated being the one to give bad news. “Thirty-seven gifted people. The bastard had a list of all the murdered artists? Were they all students?”

“Most of them, yes. It seems to be a pattern. Find an extraordinarily gifted young person, get them to forge a few masterpieces, then kill them. I just don’t understand why they would all be murdered. It’s really sad.” I shook my head. “To use impressionable young people like that.”

“Were most of them killed with handguns?” Vinnie asked.

“I don’t have access to police reports of their deaths, so I can’t say. From what I got on the internet, some of them were killed with handguns. Others apparently committed suicide. It’s not difficult to believe that artists suffer from depression and commit suicide. Some of the other artists jumped from buildings and bridges.”

“Or were pushed,” Vinnie added.

“I wouldn’t know. But those who didn’t jump killed themselves with handguns.”

“Same calibre—”

“As the stolen guns, yes,” I finished Vinnie’s sentence. “Not that it can be used as concrete evidence.”

“Thirty-seven,” Colin said softly and shook his head.

It was quiet while we thought about this. The doorbell followed by Manny’s demanding voice broke the silence. Three minutes later he was seated at the table. The tension in the room had risen to uncomfortable levels. I ignored the resentment on all three faces and told Manny everything about the companies.

“So, it all started with P&S?”

“This is only an assumption,” I said. “A fact, however, is the names of the three owners of Kozlevich. P&S owns thirty-three percent, Simon Brun owns thirty-three percent and an unknown entity owns the remaining thirty-four percent.”

Manny frowned and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Simon Brun?”

“Yes. We don’t know who he is. This is the first time his name has come up.”

“I know that name from somewhere.” Manny pointed at the EDA computer. “Hand me that thing. I have to check something.”

I took a bracing breath before I moved the computer from its careful placement. We sat in silence for a few minutes while Manny grumbled at the computer. He surprised me with fast fingers and a comfort with technology.

“I knew it!” He jabbed at the screen. “Simon Brun is one of the two aliases for Piros that our guy gave to Interpol.”

“Simon Brun is Piros?” I was breathless. All the lists, all the cross-checking and we had a name. Vinnie’s bottom jaw had gone slack and Colin’s eyes were wide. We were all in shock. “But who is this Simon Brun?”

Manny did something on the computer before he turned it to us. On the screen was an enlargement of a driver’s licence. “He’s an eighty-two-year-old retired teacher, living in the Belgian city of
Turnhout.”

“This can’t be right,” Colin said. “This must be a forged identity.”

I clenched my teeth to not say a thing about Professor John Dryden, the professor who took me to Danielle’s apartment. Colin would know all about forging identity documents.

“That much we knew, Frey,” Manny said. “Nobody has been able to track Simon Brun down to verify his age and identity though.”

“Francine will find him,” I said and quickly continued. “No, don’t fight with me, Manny. She’s the one who gave us the three owners of P&S. And she offered to find out who Simon Brun and the private holder are.”

Manny’s lips disappeared, but he nodded.

Colin turned to me. “I have a question for you.”

Why did people say that? Why didn’t they just ask the question? I didn’t encourage Colin to ask his question. After some time I did lift my eyebrows, though. It would seem that he needed permission to ask.

“It’s hypothetical, so don’t focus too much on facts. I’m wondering about the many people, prominent people, who bought art at these auctions. Only to discover that they had bought forgeries. Would they ever report it?”

I thought of people like my parents. “Knowing the importance these people attach to never looking foolish, I can’t imagine that anyone would admit to buying a forgery at an auction on a ship.”

“There would also be the speculation on whether these people preferred to buy art at sea because of its legal gray area,” Colin added.

“And that would not be acceptable to anyone in a prominent position. Just the speculation could destroy careers, reputations and social standing.”