“Oh, yes.” Pink’s smile told me the answer before he spoke. “It’s liquid heroin all right. The techs reckon that there’s two hundred and fifty grams in that one bottle. It sent quite a shockwave through the labs.”
“And the department.” Daniel looked at Manny. “Did the chief call you?”
“No.” Manny’s lips thinned. “The president did. Art and murder is one thing, but this kind of heroin connected to Iran is creating all kinds of political problems. They’re all panicking about it.”
“It’s not just the drugs coming from Iran.” Colin put his phone on the table. “It’s the anger because the West is stealing cultural treasures from countries they so publicly denounce as terrorists. The sanctions, the travel bans, the”—he shook his head—“the disdain for their culture, yet it is rich Europeans who buy these artefacts.”
His expression caught my attention and I leaned towards him. “What did you find out?”
Colin exhaled angrily. “I’ve been phoning around. Three of the four men I’d identified on the photos on the chart have been asking for unusual artworks. They want things that are extremely valuable, but not mainstream like a Rembrandt or a Van Gogh.”
“What do you know about them?” Manny asked.
“Mayer is a property magnate. He’s made his fortune restoring old houses, villas and even castles and then selling them at exorbitant prices. He’s sharp and known to step on anyone and everyone who gets in his way of a good deal.
“Riner inherited his wealth. He’s made himself wealthier by investing in art. I know of three paintings he bought for less than ten thousand euros from some unsuspecting person. Then he sold them a few years later at an auction for millions.
“Lastly, Leveaux got lucky with investments. He started small and built his portfolio by taking incredible risks on volatile markets. But it paid off and he’s a multi-millionaire. None of them are notorious criminals, but everyone knows they’re willing to push the line of legality when they want something.”
“Forgive my ignorance, but how much would a piece like this go for on the black market?” Pink tilted his smartphone to show a photo of the deer statue.
“Millions.” Colin’s depressor anguli oris muscles turned the corners of his mouth down. “It should never be for sale. It should be protected as a national treasure. It infuriates me that the Western appetite for antiquities feeds the looting of ancient sites. These people who pride themselves on their sophistication of taste and appreciation of cultural heritage are the ones who create the demand that leads to the pillage of ancient sites and the trade in black-market artefacts.”
“That’s...Wow. That’s just wrong.” Pink looked down at his phone and shook his head. “Wrong.”
It was quiet around the table. My mind was rushing through all the pieces of information we’d gathered so far.
“I’m here!” The elevator door opened and Caelan rushed out. “Greenland is the largest island in the world! Doctor Lenard! I solved the riddle! I solved the riddle!”
Phillip followed Caelan out of the lift and smiled when Caelan sat down next to Francine. Phillip walked over to the sofa and sat down. When Vinnie motioned towards his coffee mug, Phillip shook his head and settled deeper into the sofa.
I turned my attention back to Caelan. He was no longer tapping or scratching his thigh or compulsively squeezing his stress ball. The muscle tension in his body was much less than before and his eyes focused. He looked at my shoulder. “I’m here. I solved the riddle.” He paused and frowned deeply, still staring at my shoulder. “How much detail should I give you?”
I appreciated his question. Like many people on the spectrum, myself included, Caelan was prone to sharing information in the finest detail. “For now I think just the end result, not how you got to it.”
He nodded. “When I solved the riddle, I entered ‘Gaudi’ into the app and look!” He took his smartphone from his trouser pocket and showed me the screen. A digital clock filled the screen. “This is a countdown cache. As soon as I entered the answer, the countdown started. We have to wait twenty-four hours before we’ll get the GPS co-ordinates for the next cache.”
“We have to wait?” Manny looked as impatient as I felt.
“That’s how it works.” Caelan frowned at his shoulder. “Don’t you understand how a countdown works?”
“Bloody hell.” Manny turned away from Caelan, then turned back. “And what the hell is a Gawding?”
“You’re such a Philistine.” Colin shook his head. “Antoni Gaudi is only one of the most famous architects ever. His Catalan Modernism influence can be seen all over Barcelona. I can see you don’t care, Millard, so I’m going to stop wasting my precious breath on you.”
I thought about this cache and looked at Caelan. “Explain how one would create a cache on the app.”
“Huh. Yes.” Francine turned to face Caelan next to her. “I suppose this means that Jace indeed did create a cache.”
Caelan nodded. “His cache isn’t complete. If he’d entered all the answers to the riddl—”
“Whoa there for a sec, superman.” Vinnie scratched his forehead. “Explain very simply how a cache is created.”
Caelan stared at his shoulder. “First Jace would’ve registered a name for the cache, then he had to enter the steps. Each step needs an answer to a riddle to unlock the next co-ordinates. I don’t have access to Jace’s account, so I don’t know how many steps he completed or even the name of the cache.”
“But how is it that we can see it now? He didn’t register it.”
“It’s a glitch. The incompetent app designers haven’t been able to fix it. If anyone enters the correct answer to the app, it will automatically publish the cache hunt.”
“Yeah, I don’t really get that, but whatever.” Vinnie frowned at Daniel when the latter jerked at the sound of his phone’s notification.
Daniel looked at the screen, his eyes widening. “We have more intel on those crates. Pink’s CI at Easy Post did a bit more snooping around to see if there was anything else to be found on that shipment.”
“What do you have?” Manny narrowed his eyes at Daniel’s phone, then glanced at Francine as she lifted her tablet and swiped the screen.
“This won’t come as a surprise,” Daniel said. “The crates were shipped from Iran. They were supposed to be delivered to... hold on a sec. The recipients were changed online. The original recipient was completely deleted from the system. Gilles and Adèle are the only names the CI could find connected to this shipment.”
“Tell me more about this shipping company.”
“I’m checking them now.” Francine tapped her tablet screen. “Easy Post. It’s a third-party company that simply receives international orders and delivers them to customers. They make it easier for individuals to receive large orders through them. No customs fee, etc.”
“This is how the cigarettes from Belarus entered the country,” Daniel said. “Easy Post is a small international mailing service, but deals in large shipments and has agreements with a few government agencies to streamline incoming shipments from outside the EU.” He looked at his tablet screen again. “These crates cleared customs without any problems, went to Easy Post and were then taken to Self-Storage Solutions.”
“Where Jace found them.” Caelan’s words came out as a whisper.
Daniel gave Caelan a compassionate smile. “Indeed.”
“Here’s one theory.” Colin looked down from where he’d been staring at the ceiling. “The drug suppliers send the wine bottles to their distributor here in France. Somehow Adèle knows about this and intercepts the shipment by changing the recipients. The distributor finds out about her when he goes to Easy Post to collect his crates and goes looking for her. He finds her at the house and tortures her to get the location of his missing crates. I’m assuming she dies after she tells him about her lockers at Self-Storage Solutions.”