He smiled at me and returned his attention to the road. We were close to the street leading to our team room. “Millard needs to get himself together though. This chase changed things for us on this case.”
“What changed?” This was why I hated my shutdowns. Most often it happened during a crucial moment when important information was revealed. I usually felt like I had a lot of catching up to do after a shutdown. It was most frustrating.
Colin parked his SUV in the designated spot for our building and turned to me. “Are you okay to get out?”
I wiggled my toes and moved my arms before I reached for the door handle. “I’m well.”
“Okay then.” He opened his door and joined me on the pavement, then took my hand as we walked to the entrance of Phillip’s building. The small elevator in the back of the foyer was the only way to reach our team room from the street.
Colin entered the code into the keypad and the door slid open. I could no longer wait. “What changed? Why is this case different now?”
“Francine was able to trace the company who rented the two SUVs that followed us to Iran.”
“Is that what she found interesting when she spoke to us?” There were a few other things she’d said that I wanted to follow up on, but I decided to take it one revelation at a time.
“Yes.” He leaned against the side of the elevator, watching the numbers change as we went to the top floor. “So my question is how does Iran fit into this? Are we talking a national involvement or is it only private citizens who are somehow involved in this wine-drug smuggling thing and torturing the young people?”
I realised his question was rhetorical and didn’t answer. It reflected much of what I was thinking.
The elevator stopped and the doors opened to a busy team room. Francine was at her computer, furiously typing away. Pink sat next to her, his hands moving fast on his tablet as he swiped and tapped. Manny was at his desk glaring at his computer and Vinnie was in the kitchen area, putting more mugs on a tray.
He turned when we entered and smiled. “You’re just in time for coffee and pastries. I think we all need some comfort food. Except maybe the old man. He needs a personality transplant.”
Francine jumped up and rushed over to me. “Hey, girlfriend. Are you okay?”
“I’m well.”
“You better be.” Manny walked over and glared at me. “You shaved a good ten years off my life, missy.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
Francine put her arm through Manny’s and leaned her head on his shoulder. “It means Manny cares for you and was extremely worried when you guys were being followed.”
Manny shook her loose and walked over to the round table. “Sit. We need to talk.”
“Did you find anything else on these guys?” Colin asked Francine as we walked to the table.
“Nada.” She looked at me. “I’m really glad you’re okay.”
I nodded and sat down. Vinnie put the tray down on the table and placed the two plates heaped with pastries in front of me. “You get first choice, Jen-girl.”
“Where’s my tea?” Manny scowled at the tray.
“If you want tea, you can make it yourself. Or you can drink coffee like the rest of us.” Vinnie sat down hard in his seat and raised both eyebrows at Manny. “Or you wanna take this outside?”
It was Manny’s lack of response that really had me worried. He took a mug of coffee, added milk and sugar and slumped into his chair.
I took one of my favourite pastries and put it on a small plate. The one thing I didn’t like about these delicacies was the mess they left behind. That was why I’d taken to eating them with a cake fork—one that Vinnie had supplied for me. He smiled and winked when I looked at him. “Enjoy.”
“Thank you.” I looked at Daniel, who reached for the second plate of pastries. “Was there any salvageable evidence from the SUV that exploded?”
“Nope,” Vinnie answered before Daniel could. “Everything and everyone burned to a crisp.”
“All the evidence is gone. We have to wait for the car to cool down before the techs can look at the engine for VIN numbers and the like, but I doubt we’ll find anything useful.”
“All their electronics are gone too.” Pink sighed heavily as he stirred the sugar into his coffee. “I saw the casings of at least two smartphones, but they’re completely destroyed. We won’t get anything from that car. The back of it is completely gone. There had to have been some incendiary device or substance to make it blow up like that.”
“Let me just pile on to this good news report.” Francine’s expression revealed her sarcasm. “I have nothing on the Iranian company. I looked, but man, it’s hard to find anything understandable from that country. Their government databases are hard to hack and then there is of course the language thing.” She held up her manicured finger. “But fear not, I have guys on it. We’ll find out who they were.”
I resisted the urge to ask her about the ‘guys’ helping her. Francine frequently used her network of hacker contacts to help her find intel. For my own peace of mind, I’d found it best not to ask details about favours being exchanged and other borderline illegal activities happening in pursuit of information we needed.
Daniel’s phone pinged and he took it from one of the many pockets in his uniform. His eyebrows rose slightly before lowering into a frown. “We still don’t have an ID on the two victims in the Robertsau forest. The crime scene techs are doing everything they can, but there’s nothing to give us a lead. No one has reported them missing and they’re not showing up in any databases.”
“That’s just wrong.” Francine rubbed her arms as if she was cold. “Those young people should not be anonymous. Someone knew them, laughed with them, loved them.”
“We’ll get their names, Franny.” Vinnie pushed a plate of pastries towards Francine. “We’ll honour them.”
“Ask Caelan.” I blinked when everyone turned to look at me.
Manny’s brow lowered and he inhaled deeply. “I almost forgot about him. Get that little bugger in here.”
Francine blew Manny a kiss and swiped the screen of her phone. A short conversation later, she smiled at him. “Caelan is with Phillip. They’ll be here in five minutes.”
I thought of what Pink had said about the burned-out SUV. “How many people’s remains were in the SUV?”
“The crime scene guys have to confirm, but we all agreed that we could see three people.” It was fleeting, but Daniel’s micro-expression revealed the horror of what he’d seen. “They’re completely burned.”
“What are you thinking, Doc?”
“Adèle had photos of a man as part of the chart. Somehow he plays an important part in that business organisation.” I sighed. “He has a visible birthmark on his right hand.”
“Ah, and you thought that he might’ve been one of the dudes in the SUV.” Vinnie nodded. “Yeah, we won’t be able to tell now. Not from that birthmark on his hand. All gone.”
“Their hands were the first we checked once the fire was out.” Daniel swallowed. “We were hoping to get fingerprints.”
The elevator doors pinged. “Doctor Lenard! I’m here.”
“I see that.” I wondered why Caelan so often felt the need to state the obvious.
“How can I help?” He sat down next to Francine. “I want to help. Tell me what I can do.”
Colin put his hand on my arm and I looked at him. He shook his head slightly before looking at Caelan. “We need your help, but this will not be easy.”
Caelan looked at my shoulder. “What happened?”
“Two more people died.” I considered trying to be more sensitive with my words, but then stayed with what I knew Caelan would understand. “They were tortured like Jace and Adèle. And discarded in the forest.”
“Tortured. The Andes Mountains are the longest continental mountain range in the world.” He took his backpack from his shoulder, reached inside and came out with two stress balls. We all watched as he squeezed them five times slowly while watching his hands. Then he looked up, again at my shoulder. “Okay. How can I help?”
“Give me a minute.” Francine lifted her tablet and turned it so Caelan wouldn’t be able to see the screen. “I’m just cleaning up the photos a bit.”