The Courbet Connection (Book 5) (Genevieve Lenard) (14 page)

“Oh, pooh. It’ll take me less than a New York minute to get all of that set up.”

“How can a New York minute be different from any other minute?”

“An expression, girlfriend.” Francine pulled Colin out of his chair and sat down next to me. “I’ll need your brain to make this fool- and fail-proof. You boys can leave us alone.”

They didn’t. The men stayed while we used the online profile Francine had talked about to create an account in SSS. Fortunately, Tor and SSS had been created to make tracing someone almost impossible. Francine insisted it wasn’t completely impossible, but even though there were over two million people using Tor, not many of those people had the hacking skills necessary to find someone’s digital footprints.

“Now for that little virus,” she said when we decided it was safe to send the emails. “I believe this is how the FBI arrested Dread Pirate Roberts. Of course, they wouldn’t give away their secret how they got into Silk Road. Some say their experts found a back door in Tor that got them in. And that ol’ Dread Pirate wasn’t the smartest of programmers and they managed
to find a weakness in his computer code and hacked into the site. Personally I think they sent him a nice little gift with one of their emails when they got him to order a hit on a delivery man.”

“A Trojan horse.” I knew this was the commonly used term for specific types of computer viruses, but I was referring to the original tale.

“Yes.” Francine continued to type strings of code on my computer. My skills were above average, but this surpassed everything I knew about computers. “I need a photo of Phillip’s clock.”

“He emailed it to you,” Manny said. “He wasn’t happy about it.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to it.” Francine opened her inbox on my computer and downloaded the photo. “I’m just putting it up here to sweeten the pot.”

“How many of these clocks are still in circulation?” I asked.

“Phillip said they’re not so exclusive as to create a problem. Yes, missy, I thought of this.”

“You’re calling me ‘missy’ and your nonverbal cues are telling me you’re angry with me. Why?”

“I’m not angry with you, Doc.”

“Do you know that men also suffer from menopause?” Vinnie’s sincere expression was false. “They call it manapause. Maybe they should call it Mannypause. See what I did there? See?”

Manny turned his back on Vinnie, his lips in a thin line. “Phillip is taking the clock to another location as an added security measure.”

“Good for him.” With a final, and dramatic, tap on the enter key, Francine looked at me and smiled. “Done! Now we just have to wait for Dukwicz to step into our web.”

“Do we have to do the waiting here, supermodel?” Manny’s feet were pointing at the door. He was ready to leave.

“No. I’ll get an alert the moment someone opens our email and another alert the moment he hits the reply button.”

“We should arrest anyone who opens or answers this frigging email.” Manny walked to the door. “Advertising assassination services. What next?”

“Doc G! Doc G!” Nikki’s voice came from down the hallway, most likely from the elevator. Her panic had me out of my chair, moving into the team room. Everyone followed. Nikki ran into the room, almost colliding with Vinnie. He caught her and steadied her, but her focus was on me. “He’s gone. He’s gone.”

“Who?”

“Michael.”

“The young man who was studying with you in my apartment?”

“Yes.” She waved her pink smartphone at me. “He’s gone.”

“Punk, you need to take a deep breath and start at the beginning. Jen-girl is not the only one who’s confused at the moment.” Vinnie gave her a sideways hug and looked down at her. “When you’re ready.”

Nikki took a deep breath. “Rebecca and I were shopping when I got this very strange message from Michael. I called him back, but he didn’t answer. He always answers. I tried again and again and again, and still nothing. He’s gone.”

“Nikki.” Manny’s tone was gentle, but reproving. “Just because someone is not answering your calls doesn’t mean he’s missing. Maybe his phone’s battery died.”

“And you know what happened with Pascal.” Vinnie gave her another sideways hug. “I’m sure he’s fine, just pissed off that his phone died.”

Nikki looked from Manny to Vinnie, tears gathering in her eyes. “You don’t believe me. Doc G, please believe me.”

I had an uncomfortable tightening around my chest seeing her tears and hearing the pleading tone in her voice. “Come to my room.”

Without waiting, I walked back into my viewing room, hoping only Nikki would follow, but everyone did. I pointed to the chair next to mine and waited until she was seated. “Tell me everything. Including the information you’re hiding.”

“I don’t want to get Michael into trouble.”

“If he’s missing like you’re saying, he’s already in trouble. Talk.”

“Michael, Rebecca and I have been talking to each other every day for the last six months or so. Every day, Doc G. This morning Rebecca and I couldn’t get hold of Michael. We know that he was going to meet with—”

“Don’t even think of lying.” I pointed at her face. “Your eyes, mouth, hand and a few other things are telling me you’re going to. Who was he going to meet?”

She stared at me with big eyes. “Our visual literacy professor. He was going to meet Professor Vega after our study session last night.”

“So he likes older women.” Francine shrugged. “What’s so bad about that?”

“Professor Vega is a man.”

“So he likes older men.” Francine shrugged again. “What’s so bad about that?”

“The professor is married and it’s against university policy. It is so not allowed.”

Rules and moral dilemmas were not important now. “Do you think the professor did something to Michael?”

“No. We had visual literacy class this morning. Professor Vega asked us where Michael was. The professor said they
were supposed to meet last night for an ‘extra lesson’”—she put the last two words in air quotes, something she did often to indicate irony—“and he didn’t show up. He also wasn’t in class. He always comes to class.”

“Punk—”

“Don’t even say it, Vinnie. Michael doesn’t do drugs, he doesn’t sleep around, he doesn’t party like crazy. He’s like me.”

“A punk who doesn’t listen?” Vinnie stepped closer. “I was going to ask you when was the last time you spoke to him.”

“Oh. Sorry. I spoke to him last night at the library when we finished studying. Rebecca and I went home after teasing him about his affair with Professor Vega.” Nikki sniffed. “Rebecca and I were the first ones to make friends with Michael. He’s always been a loner. As far as I know we’re his only friends. Prof Vega is a fling that started only a few weeks ago.”

I thought about everything she’d said so far. “What message did you receive in the shop that caused you to panic?”

“He left me this.” She tapped on her smartphone and held it towards me so I could listen.

My immediate impression upon hearing the young male voice was that he was intoxicated. His speech was slurred and he sounded incoherent. I had to strain to hear his words. “Nikkidee, help. They have… Auct… Traders… been othe… Traff… help.”

“That kid is high.” Manny tilted his head. “Nikki, are you sure this is Michael? Did he phone you from his phone?”

“Yes. He has two phones. One he uses a lot because his grant pays the bills. The other one he only uses when the first one’s battery dies because he’s texting too much. He phoned me from the second phone.”

“I’m sorry, Nikki.” Manny looked truly contrite. “The police won’t take this as evidence. If you take this to them and claim your friend is gone, they’ll tell you to wait another day before you report him missing.”

“That’s why I’m not taking this to the police.” She gave her phone to me. “I’m bringing it to you. You have to help him, Doc G. This is not like before. I can really feel something is wrong.”

I thought about her previous behaviour. “Have you been to Michael’s flat?”

She swallowed. “Yes?”

“You’re not sure?”

“No, I’m sure. I just don’t want you all to shout at me. Rebecca and I went to his place to look for him. We have a key, so we went inside.” She sighed. “Everything looked fine. There was nothing out of place.”

“But you have a bad feeling?” Vinnie asked.

She nodded.

“I think we should give your friend until the morning to surface.” Manny’s smile was gentle. “He’s a young man. He might be doing… young man things.”

“He’s not like that.” Her voice was strained. Manny continued to look at her until her shoulders dropped. But then she lifted her chin. “If I can’t reach him tomorrow, you have to promise that you’ll look for him.”

Not only Manny agreed. Vinnie and Colin equally committed to finding Michael if indeed he was missing. They continued to comfort her, but my attention was on Nikki’s phone. I scrolled down the SMS history between her and Michael. They spent an inordinate amount of time communicating in this manner. Many of the conversations were joined by Rebecca. It didn’t take long to see the depth of their friendship. I was pleased that Nikki had friends her own age group. People who accepted her as she was. I handed her phone back to her, pondering the language used in the many messages.

“Thanks, Doc G.” She quietly added, “For believing me.”

I didn’t know how to react to it, so I merely nodded. “I’m going home. We should all go home.”

“Good plan.” Colin handed me my handbag. “Vin will cook for us. Nikki can serve us ice cream if she wants to help Vin make some food.”

I wanted to argue that scooping ice cream from a container was not making food, but decided against it. The mood in my viewing room had lifted and it pleased me. We’d had a productive day and a possible way to find Dukwicz. As I turned off my computers, I hoped Vinnie was going to make his Aunt Theresa’s gnocchi. I also hoped Michael was enjoying a good party somewhere. Not scared and lost like the sound of his voice on that message.

I opened another window for the article on the Silk Road arrests. I’d been in my viewing room for the last three hours reading as much material as I could on Tor and Silk Road. There was surprisingly little on Sher Shah Suri. I had only found one article and it hadn’t given me any more insight into this online marketplace.

Apart from the obvious illegal use of Tor, I found it to be a well-developed browser, even though it was considerably slower than the usual browsers I used. Francine had explained that the encrypted connections through relays on the network were the reason for the slow access. Had I not been prepared for the time it took to open a site, I might have lost my patience a long time ago. As a reprieve from surfing around Tor, I was now using my normal browser, reading another article.

It had been a peaceful morning so far. I was alone, enjoying the lack of bickering and constant interruptions. From previous experience, I knew that it would be another two hours before the enjoyment turned into longing. The latter irritated me. I didn’t want to be used to, take pleasure in and sometimes even need the exasperating exchanges between my friends. I had just clicked on the link to another article about the arrests of illegal arms traders on Tor when my peaceful morning ended.

I hadn’t closed the glass doors separating my viewing room from the team room. Therefore, Francine and Manny’s loud argument reached me before they entered the team room. Francine marched in and threw her red leather handbag on
Manny’s desk. “Eight minutes, handsome. It took us eight minutes to get here. I don’t know what your problem is.”

Vinnie was sitting at the round table. The newspaper he’d been reading was hanging loosely in his hands, a smile starting to lift the corners of his mouth as he watched Manny. The older man stopped at his desk and dropped four large shopping bags to the floor. He glared at Francine’s handbag and dropped it next to the shopping bags. “My problem is that I was stupid enough to give in to your incessant nagging.”

“My incessant nagging? I only asked you three times, Mister Cantankerous. Three times is not nagging.” She fell into her chair, flipped her hair over her shoulder and tapped away on her computer. I got up and stood in the doorway, fascinated by their body language.

“It is when your asking is done while sexually harassing me.”

“In your dreams.” She spat out the words, not once looking away from her computer. “Least you can do is explain to Genevieve why we’re arguing.”

Manny turned to me and pointed first at his legs, then at his torso. He wasn’t wearing his usual clothes. The light brown pants fitted him well, were tailored and clearly much better quality than the dull grey and brown pants he favoured. His shirt was also not two sizes too large and wrinkled. This one was beige, styled to display Manny’s wide shoulders and flat stomach, making him look fitter than I’d ever seen him look.

“See this? She made me wear this off the hanger. Who wears stuff off the hanger? You would’ve washed it first, wouldn’t you, Doc?”

His nonverbal cues indicated he was asking a rhetorical question. I didn’t respond, but felt my eyes widen in the realisation why Francine and Manny hadn’t been in the office
when I arrived this morning. “You went shopping with Francine? Why?”