Manny’s eyes were wide and his nostrils flared. “What have you done?”
“I visited a few old friends.” Colin was enjoying this. He had broken the law and now he was flaunting it in front of Manny. And Manny wasn’t handling this well. At all. Colin smirked. “Remember those four men I identified in the photos? Well, I visited them while they were sleeping and took the things that didn’t belong to them.”
“Fucking hell, Frey!” Manny walked to the front door, turned around and walked back, his scowl deepening as he neared. He shook his index finger at Colin, then walked away again.
“Colin.” Daniel frowned at the sports bags. “Are you sure all these are stolen?”
“Oh, yes.” Colin went down on his haunches and unzipped one bag. With his gloved hand, he carefully took out a bubble-wrapped shape, no bigger than the palm of his hand. “I made sure these babies will get back to their homes unharmed.”
Francine joined us as we watched Colin unwrap the shape until he held a small statue of a gold fish in his hands. “This, my lovely family, is the gold fish vessel that should be on show at the moment with all his mates from the Oxus treasure.”
“All of them stolen?” Daniel asked again.
This time Colin wasn’t glib. “One hundred percent sure. You can take the bags as is and log them in as evidence. The moment the museums find out you have this, they will put in their claims. That is, if the insurance companies don’t get wind of it first.”
“I think I’ll do just that.” Daniel reached into a side pocket in his uniform trousers and came out with two latex gloves. Manny joined us, but didn’t say anything. Once Daniel covered his hands, he took the statue from Colin and rewrapped it. “Nothing that will point back to you?”
“I’ll pretend you didn’t just say that.” Colin got up and winked at him. “This is all yours.”
“I can’t believe you people! If no one is going to ask for the deets, I will.” Francine pushed past Manny and poked Colin in the chest with her nail. “Tell me everything. All the dirty little details.”
“Don’t.” Daniel got up. “Let me take this and leave. I want deniability.”
“Spoilsport.” Francine smiled at Daniel and watched as he walked to the door. The moment the door closed behind him, she turned back to Colin. “So?”
The effort it was costing Manny not to give in to his anger was visible. At least to me. I watched as he controlled his breathing, his fingers tightening in fists and relaxing, only to tighten once again until his knuckles were white. He was looking at Colin, waiting for him to reply to Francine.
“I don’t just know who these men are, I also know where all of them live.” Colin didn’t look at Manny. “So I broke into their homes once they were asleep and I took the things they illegally bought. Mayer, Riner and Picon were average break-ins. I’d been there before, so I knew where to look and found the artefacts very quickly.”
Francine narrowed her eyes. “What was the other guy’s name? Damian?”
“Yes. Damian Leveaux.” Colin’s triumphant smile returned. “He had the jackpot.”
“You found something more than only the Oxus artefacts.” I could see it clearly on his face.
“The bastard had three different statues and seventeen coins. Seventeen.” His lips thinned. “Good thing I’d been in Leveaux’s house before. He might have a state-of-the-art safe, but the idiot was never smart. He didn’t change the code since the last time I reappropriated art from him.”
“And, of course, he will never report it.” Pink put a large plate of sandwiches on the table and sat down. He waved at the plate. “Help yourselves.”
We didn’t.
“And?” Francine gestured impatiently.
“I found his black book.” This time Colin’s smile had a hint of malice in it.
“Did you take it?” Francine asked.
“No. That would give him grounds to report or find me. That really is his property.” He smiled at Francine and took his phone from his trouser pocket. “But I took photos. Many, many photos.” He looked at Manny. “There’s enough evidence for you to close your case on him.”
“Frey.” Manny glared at Colin’s phone. “How do you know we’re investigating him?”
“Who is this ‘we’?” I knew Manny frequently visited the Interpol offices, but I didn’t know he worked cases separately from the ones we did.
“Millard here runs an elite task force over at Interpol as well.” Colin raised both eyebrows, his posture challenging.
“Handsome?” Francine took a step away from Manny. “Is that true?”
The tension around Manny’s mouth and eyes increased, his face turning red. “It’s not related to anything we do here.”
“Like hell it isn’t.” Colin stared at Manny. “Are you going to tell them or must I?”
“Frey.” Manny pressed his fists against his eyes. When he lowered his hands, he looked exhausted. “Later. Let’s deal with that crap later. Tell me what else you found.”
Colin looked at Manny through narrowed eyes for a few seconds before nodding once. “Okay. I found entries in his black book about his dealings with élodie.”
“Adèle’s criminal pseudonym.” Francine was still looking at Manny, a frown pulling her eyebrows together. She turned to Colin. “What did you see?”
Colin swiped the screen of his phone and turned it so I could see. The handwriting was too small on the screen to read. I looked at Colin and he smiled. “He detailed the whole deal he did with élodie. Adèle. The payment, the shipment, everything.”
“Let me guess.” Francine tapped her chin in fake contemplation. “He paid her using some hawala broker.”
Colin nodded. “He glued the hawala slip in the book as well.”
“The courier?” I asked.
Colin’s smile was wide. “Easy Post.”
“Them again,” Manny said.
“Oh, yeah. Again. And again.” Colin put his phone back in his trouser pocket. “When I saw the name, I remembered that Johan told me Adèle had insisted he used Easy Post to send the Roubaud he’d painted for her.”
Manny turned to Francine. “I want everything on Easy Post.”
“And I want a unicorn.” She lowered her chin and stared at him. “And I want to know about this super-secret task force.”
“You might get that unicorn first, Franny.” Vinnie walked to the table, more relaxed than before. He was wearing sweatpants and a sleeveless t-shirt. His pyjamas. “But I would also like to know about this task force.”
“Later.” Manny rubbed one eye, which drew my attention to the dark rings surrounding his eyes.
“Let’s do this tomorrow.” I surprised myself by suggesting a break.
“It is tomorrow, love.” Colin smiled. “But I agree. We can all do with a few hours’ rest.” He looked at Manny. “To get our heads a bit more level.”
“Bugger off.” Manny turned towards the door. “Eight o’clock tomorrow morning in the team room. I want everything on Easy Post.”
Francine followed him to the door and waved at us before she also put on her outerwear and left with Manny. Vinnie sat down at the table and took one of Pink’s sandwiches. “That old man better deal with his shit.”
“Be patient, Vin.” Something in Colin’s tone caught my attention.
I turned to him, but stopped when he shook his head at me. “Let’s go to sleep, love. We’ll deal with everything tomorrow.”
It was clear that he wasn’t going to tell me what he knew, but I could see that he’d discovered something about Manny that worried him.
I didn’t know if I was going to get any sleep tonight. My mind was obsessed with those photos of the labels. And my concern for Manny had deepened even more.
Chapter FOURTEEN
“Speak.” Manny knocked on the round table in the team room. We’d sat down a few minutes ago and Francine was telling yet another joke, Daniel and Vinnie already laughing as she came close to the punchline. Manny knocked on the table again. “Bloody hell! Tell me about Easy Post.”
“Pharmacy!” Francine burst out laughing as Vinnie and Daniel joined her.