We’d never heard the voice of Jace’s killer because he was whispering. But we had heard his perfect French. When Colin and I had spoken to Shahab, he’d used English, so we wouldn’t have made the connection just by listening to his voice.
“I’ve looked everywhere. After Shahab went into that parking structure, he just disappeared.” Francine had not lifted her hands from her computer keyboard or tablet screen since we’d returned to the team room. “I can’t even find him on any of the cameras around Caelan’s flat. He had fifteen minutes to get from the president’s residence to Caelan, but I don’t see him anywhere. I looked at all the cameras along all the possible routes.”
“He’s most likely using a disguise,” Colin said. “Already we know he’s got a police uniform. In this cold weather all you need is an oversized winter coat and a cap to disappear in the crowd.”
Colin was right. Francine also knew this, but it didn’t ease the frustration and concern on her face.
The president had told us to do whatever we needed. When we’d left, he had been busy berating the Iranian ambassador and pushing for any more information they could give on Shahab. He’d phoned fifteen minutes ago to let us know he’d had to let the ambassador, Amin and Hamid go before it became an international incident. They’d not been able to tell him any added information on Shahab, and Hamid had not known about any of Shahab’s activities.
I turned back to the monitors in front of me. There was nothing new I could learn from Adèle’s chart, nor the photos of the labels. All the names and cities from the labels had been matched with descriptions from the chart. But without more context, any conclusions would be speculative.
I closed my eyes and mentally called up an empty music sheet. Instead of my usual speed of writing a Mozart composition, I took my time connecting the top two staves with a solid line. Then I took care to draw the G-clef, finding pleasure in the curls that formed such a beautiful symbol.
My eyes flew open and I turned to the team room. “Where’s Fran?ois?”
“What are you thinking, Doc?” Manny walked into my room as Francine lifted her phone and tapped the screen. She got up and joined us, her phone pressed against her ear.
I looked at Manny. “Fran?ois had an undeniable connection to the murders as well as the drugs.”
“Nothing that we could prove and then arrest him for.” The corners of his mouth turned down.
“True.” I thought back to Fran?ois’ nonverbal cues. “My observations confirm Phillip’s conclusions that Fran?ois didn’t torture and kill Adèle, Jace, Camille Vastine and Martin Gayot.”
“That animal Shahab did it.” Vinnie was leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed.
“If we’re working on that assumption, then Fran?ois is connected to Shahab.” Colin was sitting next to me and had been either working on his computer or phoning contacts to find out if they knew anything about these men. “I see where Jenny’s going with this. If we can’t trace Caelan or Shahab, it might be worth a shot to look for Fran?ois.”
“His lawyer isn’t answering his phone.” Francine sat down on the chair Manny usually used and tapped her tablet screen. “But... Hmm... I’m hacking Fran?ois’ phone. Damn, it’s turned off. But... yup, I have his location history.” She tapped the screen a few times. “I’m putting the map on the monitors.”
As I looked up, photos of Adèle’s chart on four of the monitors were replaced by a map of Strasbourg. Red dots littered the centre of the city, a few red dots to the north and the west. They started disappearing.
“What’s happening?” Vinnie asked.
“I’m changing the time to the last four hours.” She tapped a few more times, then looked up. “There. These are all the towers his phone connected to since noon today.”
I saw it immediately. “That’s the route to the self-storage warehouse.”
“Holy hell.” Manny lifted his phone. “I’m phoning Daniel.”
“I don’t know what he’ll be doing there,” Vinnie said. “That place is locked up. All the tenants have been told it’s an active crime scene. And it hasn’t been released yet.”
“Is it guarded?” Colin asked.
“No. Dan told me the crime scene techs went through all the lockers and found no more artefacts or drugs. The brass decided it would be a waste of resources to post officers there when the locks on the doors worked perfectly fine. But the same clever brass also determined it should stay a crime scene. Smart, right? Not.”
Colin’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of locks?”
“Keypad.” Vinnie grunted. “Easy enough to bypass.”
“Their system is ridiculously insecure.” Francine pointed at the bottom right monitor. It was split into three windows, all showing the outside of the warehouse. The parking area was empty and there was no movement anywhere. “Too easy to hack.”
“We’ll talk about your illegal hacking later.” Manny put his phone in his trouser pocket. “Daniel says they were called out to a robbery. They’re wrapping up and will leave in about ten minutes.”
I looked at the security footage and wondered if we would be able to see anything once it got dark. This time of the year, we only had another thirty minutes of daylight left. I remembered Pink’s disgust at the lack of security and I inhaled sharply. “Adèle had cameras above her lockers.”
“Of course! How could I forget about that?” Francine’s fingers were flying over her tablet. “I’ll put the live streaming on the monitors. This is one of the times I’m happy someone has bad security on their system. I still have access to Adèle’s entire system, including her...”
Everyone in the room jerked and inhaled sharply when the monitor above the warehouse videos came to life.
“Oh, God.” Francine wiped roughly at her eyes and leaned forward. “Caelan.”
He was only partly in view of the camera placed above one of Adèle’s lockers. His feet were out of the view of the camera, his legs stretched out in front of him. He was rocking and slapping his thighs, his mouth moving constantly.
“He’s reciting his geographical facts.” The anger in Vinnie’s voice made me turn around and look at him. Every muscle in his face was pulled tight in fury. “I’m going to find this motherfucker who picks on those weaker than him and I’ll show him—”
“Save that for later.” Colin got up. “We can be at the warehouse in less than ten minutes.”
“It will take Dan and his team at least thirty to get there.” Manny scowled. “They’re on the other side of the city.”
“I’m going now.” Vinnie’s hand rested on his holstered gun. “Whether you’re coming with me or not. I’m going there right now to bring Caelan home.”
“Take a breath and be smart about this, big guy. We’re going, but we need to do this right.” Manny turned to me. “We might need you, Doc.”
“Fuck no.” Vinnie took a step towards me. “She’s not going anywhere close to danger.”
“Will you be able to calm Caelan down and protect him?” Colin took my hand and pulled me up to stand next to him. “Look, I don’t like it either, but with you, Millard, me and the GIPN team there, Jenny will be safe. There will be too much happening for you to focus on Caelan.”
“I’m good at calming him.” Francine didn’t take her eyes off the monitor. “But I’ll be much more useful here.”
Sometimes, it amused me to observe neurotypicals argue. Right now, it only irritated me. I pulled my hand from Colin’s and walked to the filing cabinet to get my handbag. “This is my choice. I don’t want to go. I don’t want to be in a dangerous situation, but Colin is right. None of you understand Caelan as well as I do. I’ll go.”