“And inspired many artworks.” Colin leaned his elbows on the table and steepled his fingers. “One of Roubaud’s earlier mentors influenced him to never take sides, not even in commissioned works. In his paintings, he would reveal the bravery of Russian soldiers as well as the heroism of the mountain men equally.”
“Ooh.” Nikki clapped her hands, her eyes wide, warning me to be sceptical of whatever she said next. “And then there are the theories about Roubaud’s art.”
“That’s nonsense, Nix.” Colin shook his head.
“We don’t know that.” Nikki looked at Francine, her conspiratorial expression completely fake. “There are theories that hidden treasure maps were worked into Roubaud’s paintings and in some of his lost panoramas.”
“What?” Francine froze, her wine glass a centimetre from her lips. She lowered her glass and leaned forward. “Tell me everything about these treasure maps.”
“Nonsense, Francine.” Colin held his hand up, palm towards Nikki, when she inhaled to speak. “Roubaud loved the Caucasus. A lot of his work is associated with the place, the people and the history. His Caucasian cycle lasted for a decade and he was prolific. He painted landscapes, lone horsemen and many battle scenes. He also loved painting river crossings. That was where the first of these ridiculous theories came from.
“The Oxus River was never even close to the areas depicted in Roubaud’s art. Yet treasure hunters inspected every millimetre of every painting he ever produced, thinking they’ll find hints of where the Oxus treasure entered the river before it started washing downstream. This ridiculousness has been disproved by numerous scholars. There is no substance to any of those theories.”
“Dammit!” Francine’s shoulders dropped and she leaned back in her chair. “And here I was just getting excited. You’re sure there’s no fire in this smoke?”
“There isn’t even smoke.” Colin looked at me. “Need an explanation?”
He knew my tendency to understand everything literally. I thought about it. “I don’t care.”
Everyone laughed.
“How was Caelan when you left him?” Phillip asked Manny.
“Pouring himself a glass of milk and cutting a few slices of white cheese to go with his white bread.” Manny shrugged. “He’s struggling, but he seems okay.”
“He’ll be fine once he goes through his nightly ritual and has a good night’s rest.” Francine’s micro-expressions didn’t agree with her statement. She was worried about Caelan. “He’ll feel even better when he goes through his morning routine before he joins us tomorrow morning.”
“He’s joining us?” Manny turned to glare at Francine. “That’s news to me. I thought I told you to convince him to stay out of this.”
Francine raised one eyebrow. “And since when did I ever follow your orders?”
“Does he have any more useful information?” I couldn’t imagine any other reason for Caelan to join us tomorrow.
“Nothing he’s consciously aware of.” Francine’s expression turned serious. “But I do think that he can help us. He was Jace’s best friend—Jace’s only friend. I also think that helping us will help Caelan deal with this. He’s not doing too well.”
I agreed with Francine’s assessment. I hadn’t seen Caelan after his earlier shutdown, but my non-neurotypical mind recovered quicker when I felt like I had control over a situation. Being left out of this investigation into the death of his best friend would leave Caelan feeling helpless and powerless. It would put unimaginable strain on his already overwhelmed psyche.
I only hoped that this case wasn’t going to take us too deep into the depravity of some criminal mind.
Chapter FOUR
“Look who we found in the lift.” The concern underlying the playfulness in Daniel’s tone caught my attention and I turned away from the fifteen monitors in front of me.
Caelan was standing between Pink and Daniel. Juxtaposed to the two tall, muscular and older men, he looked young and lanky. He was wearing fresh clothes, had shaved and looked less overwhelmed than he had yesterday.
He walked into my viewing room and sat down in the chair Manny usually used. Daniel walked towards the kitchen where Colin was putting our mugs in the dishwasher. Colin turned and his eyes widened when he saw the painting in Daniel’s hands. He rushed over to an easel and waited impatiently for Daniel to place it there.
Pink was at Francine’s desk in the team room, handing her a set of eye glasses. I assumed those were Jace’s smart glasses—Francine’s enthusiasm when she grabbed them confirmed my suspicion.
I looked back at Caelan sitting next to me and narrowed my eyes when I noticed the dark shadows under his eyes. “Did you sleep?”
“A bit. I spent most of the night listing all the mountains on the planet, from tallest to shortest. Then the rivers from longest to shortest. Then islands from largest to smallest.”
“That’s gotta be worse than counting sheep.” Vinnie was leaning against the doorframe and winked at Caelan.
“Usually it helps me sleep, but it didn’t work last night.” Caelan scratched his thigh, then curled his fingers into a tight fist and slammed it on the same spot. “I don’t know how to cope with this. It feels like my brain is overloaded and is going to explode.”
“Overthinking seldom helps.” It usually made things worse for me and sent me into a long shutdown. “It might help to focus on something you can control. Like giving us information.”
Caelan’s fists relaxed and he straightened. “Information. What information? I can give you a lot of information about...”
“Geocaching.” I didn’t want him to give us useless facts about planets, stars and mountains. I turned back to the monitors in front of me. “Where can we find the geocaching site you and Jace used?”
“It’s on TOR.” Caelan took his backpack from his back and put it on the floor next to him. He reached into the backpack and came out with two stress balls. This was one of the many fidget toys people on the spectrum used to calm themselves when stimuli began to overwhelm them. He took one in each hand and squeezed. “Do you know how to get onto TOR?”
“Of course she does.” Francine walked into my viewing room, her tablet in her hand. “Most of the crimes we investigate have something to do with the dark web. But since I’m here, I’ll do it. What’s the address?”
“The site won’t be helpful.” Caelan shifted in his chair in a restless move typical of people on the spectrum. “The site is only for membership screening. Once you’re accepted as a member, you’re given access to the app. That’s where all the information is.”
“Okay, superman,” Vinnie said. “Can you give us access to your app?”
Caelan hesitated. “It’s private.”
“Will you use the app without Jace?” I asked.
“No.” Caelan hunched his shoulders. “We were a team. I don’t want to do this without him. I can’t do this without him.”
“You can do anything you want.” Daniel walked to the back of my room and leaned against one of the two antique-looking filing cabinets.
“Okay.” Caelan swallowed and gave Francine his log-in details in a hoarse voice. The increased tension in his body made me shift away from him.
“Give me a moment to download the app, sign in and put it all on the screen.” Francine sat down next to me in Colin’s usual chair, tapping and swiping her tablet screen.
“I checked the painting.” Colin walked in, glanced at Francine in his chair and went to stand by my antique-looking filing cabinets. Daniel joined him.
“And?” Manny walked into the room and stopped abruptly when he saw Caelan on my other side. He scowled. “You’re in my chair, young man.”
The room was feeling crowded now. I was used to the whole team in my room, but Manny’s hovering and Caelan’s fear took up a lot of space. Francine must’ve noticed my expression. She snapped her fingers at Manny. “Caelan’s our guest of honour. You’ll just have to stand next to Dan and Colin.”
“I’m not going to the back of the bloody classroo...” Manny’s eyes narrowed as he focused on Francine’s raised eyebrows. He looked at me and sighed. “Fine. I’ll go to the back.”