The Courbet Connection (Book 5) (Genevieve Lenard) (7 page)

“We’re talking about Nazi-looted art.”

“Aha.” His nod was exaggerated and slow. “And my man here is getting all hot under the collar about this. You should know better than to start a topic that’s going to piss a man off, Jen-girl.”

“He’s not pissed off.” The aroma of the food on the tray caught my attention. I lifted the lid on the plate. “Lasagne?”

“Yup. There was nothing to do here, so I went home to make some food for us.” He looked at Phillip. “There’s a plate for you in the team room as well.”

“Thank you, Vinnie.”

“It’s really good,” Manny said from the round table in the team room. He lifted a heaped fork. “At least the criminal is good for one thing.”

“Aw, old man. You’re just—”

“I’m never listening to you again!” Nikki stormed past Manny into my viewing room, pointing her finger at Vinnie. “Ever!”

“Why? What have—”

“You made me look stupid. Really, really stupid.” She emphasised the last three words by pressing her index finger into Vinnie’s chest. Even though Nikki was clearly at a height and weight disadvantage, she felt safe enough to confront him in a physical manner. Dressed in cream pants, a colourful top and flat sandals, she looked small and feminine against Vinnie’s tall, muscular body in his usual dark fatigue pants and
a black t-shirt. She pushed her finger hard into his pectoral muscle. “Doc G was right. You’re a bad influence on me.”

“I also said so,” Manny called from the team room. He wiped his mouth, dropped the serviette on his plate and walked to my room. “You should never listen to this criminal. What did he tell you?”

“To listen to my gut.” She turned to me. “I’m never listening to my gut again. Ever.”

“It is not wise to make sweeping statements which include the words ‘ever’ or ‘never’.” I couldn’t let her previous incorrect statements go. “I didn’t say Vinnie is a bad influence on you. I said you shouldn’t allow anyone to influence your own opinions or impressions of a person or situation.”

Vinnie closed his hand over Nikki’s and pressed it against his sternum. “What happened, little punk?”

She pulled her hand back, but Vinnie didn’t let go. After a few seconds of senseless struggling against Vinnie’s strength, she fell against him with a dramatic sigh and spoke into his chest. “Pascal is back in class.”

“Who’s Pascal?” Manny asked.

“Nikki thought he had been abducted when he didn’t attend lessons.” I leaned back from the growing crowd in my room. “She thought his kidnapping was connected to the one in Paris.”

Manny grunted. “Can you people never make sense?”

“I can.” Nikki pushed herself from Vinnie, but didn’t move away. She liked physical closeness. It took her five minutes to relay her suspicions about Pascal’s absence. Manny listened closely. “And then he walked into class this morning as if nothing was wrong. The dork had been partying for the last three days and didn’t even thank me for being concerned. I’m taking him off my tea list.”

“Tea list?” Manny asked.

Nikki smiled. “Francine talks about the people who you would invite for tea as being on your tea list. Well, Pascal is off. Out. Erased.”

“Hmm.” Manny’s micro-expressions indicated there was something else on his mind. “You did good, Nikki.”

“By looking like a doofus and thinking he’s been sold into slavery?”

“No, by caring, by paying attention. There is a lot of human trafficking happening around us and most people don’t even notice because they’re absorbed in their own lives. You might have overreacted by asking Doc to investigate, but you shouldn’t stop paying attention.”

“What do I always tell you?” I asked.

She sighed, rolled her eyes and said in a bored voice, “Observe, assess, analyse and act. I know, I know. You’ve told me this like a million times already.”

“Then you should listen to Doc. The criminal isn’t as smart.”

“And you are, old man?”

Manny ignored Vinnie. “We got updated stats on human trafficking last year. The report called human trafficking a modern form of slavery. It’s estimated that there are at this very moment between twenty and thirty million people who are victims of slavery. The majority of these victims are eighteen to twenty-four years old. Your age.”

“Thirty million people?” Nikki’s eyes were wide. “That’s like half the population of France.”

“Less than half.” France was home to an estimated sixty-five million people. “Or about two million more than the male population in France.”

“Those poor girls can’t all be from Russia, right? The movies always show trafficked girls coming from Russia.”

I lowered my chin and glared at her. “Are you getting your facts from films?”

“Um. No. I just never really thought about this.”

“Maybe you should.” I’d read an in-depth report about this topic a few months ago. “There are around one and a half million people trafficked in the United States, which generates nine point five billion dollars a year.”

Nikki pressed in closer to Vinnie and he put his arm around her shoulders. “That’s horrible. People selling people. No. What’s even worse is people
buying
people.”

“In Europe there has also been an increase in human trafficking,” Manny said. “The latest stats say that seventeen percent are men.”

“So, according to statistics, the chances were really small that Pascal would’ve been kidnapped,” Nikki said.

“For human trafficking, maybe.” Vinnie patted her shoulder. “But kidnapping happens for many other reasons, punk. They could’ve wanted a ransom from his rich parents—”

“He’s an orphan.”

“—or it could’ve been his bookie beating up on him because he didn’t pay his debts.” Vinnie pulled away from her and crossed his arms. “You shouldn’t hang around boys who get kidnapped, punk.”

“Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to know who gets kidnapped and who doesn’t?” Nikki looked at me. “Tell him he’s being illogical, Doc G.”

I pushed my back deeper into my chair. “I’m not getting involved in your argument, even if I agree with you.”

“Hah! See? Doc G agrees with me.”

“I would also like for you to take more care, Nikki.” Manny took a step closer to Nikki. “You were smart taking note of this boy’s absence. I want you to continue being smart.”

“Oh, my God. You’re serious.” She pulled her arms closer to her body, rubbing her arms as if she was cold. “Do you think I’m in danger? What about Rebecca?”

I sighed. I understood the propensity young people had for overreacting, but it was tiresome to be a constant witness to Nikki’s melodramatic reactions to situations. I lowered my voice in what Nikki called my trying-to-be-patient tone. “Think carefully about the situation, Nikki. Do you think you are in danger?”

She was about to respond, but held her breath when I lifted my index finger and stared at her with a raised eyebrow. I wanted her to consider her answer. She did. Her shoulders dropped and she rolled her eyes again. “Okay, fine. I suppose my life is not really in danger. Not any more than anyone else’s. I’ll just be extra careful.”

“You do that, punk.”

“That’s my girl.”

Manny and Vinnie glared at each other when they spoke at the same time, then turned away to stare at my monitors. The sound of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue interrupted the awkward silence. Everyone, including me, looked at my smartphone in surprise. It was placed at an exact angle to the left of my keyboard, the screen flashing. The call was from an unknown number.

I grabbed my phone and swiped the screen. “Who is this?”

“It’s me.” Colin’s voice sounded different than usual, but I was too annoyed with the dramatic ringtone to pay close attention.

“You really must stop changing my ringtones.”

“Jenny, I have a situation.” Only a few times had I heard that specific tone in Colin’s voice. Adrenaline shot through my body, causing my fingertips to tingle.

I pressed the phone tighter against my ear. “What’s wrong?”

“I’ve been arrested.”

“Who caught you stealing what? Where are you? Are you hurt?”

“Jenny, I need you to focus.”

I took a deep breath, ignoring the curious looks of everyone in the room. “I’m focussed.”

“Good. Are you still in the office?”

“Yes.”

“Is Millard there?”

“Yes. Why?”

“You must bring him with.”

My eyebrows shot up. Colin never asked for Manny’s help. “How bad is it?”

“I don’t know. I can’t talk much. They’re only allowing me to make this one call.”

“Who? The police?”

“No. Interpol.”

“You’ve been arrested by Interpol?” My voice raised in pitch and volume. I shook my head when Manny stepped closer, holding out his hand towards my phone.

“Yes, Edward Taylor was arrested.”

“Not you?”

“Yes, Jenny. I was arrested.” His tone implied there was much more to his words. I hated that I couldn’t see his nonverbal cues. I would’ve been more confident in my conclusion that he had been arrested under the alias of one of the seventeenth-century poets he so often disguised himself as.

I didn’t know how to ask about his identity without saying the wrong thing. “What do you need me to do?”

“Bring Millard with you. There was some other situation during my arrest and Interpol brought me to the police station. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be here, so please hurry.” He gave me the address of the police station where he was being held. I had been there before and had hoped to never go there again.

“I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

A strange voice coldly told Colin he had chatted enough and the call was disconnected. I lowered the phone and stared at it.

“Doc? What happened?”

I slowly looked up. “Interpol arrested Colin and he’s being held at the police station. He said you must come with.”

“Did he say anything else? Why he got arrested?” Not too long ago, Manny had still hoped to put Colin in prison. In the last few months, the dynamics had shifted and now I was witnessing exactly how much. The concern in Manny’s nonverbal cues was genuine. There was not one hint of pleasure or triumph at the news of Colin’s arrest.

“I think he got arrested as Edward Taylor. He wasn’t very clear about that and didn’t say anything else.” I went to one of the three antique-looking filing cabinets against the wall behind my desk and took my handbag from the bottom drawer. “We have to go now.”

“We’ll take my car.”

I froze mid-step and shook my head. “No. No. Definitely not. No. I’m not getting in your car. No.”

“I’m a better driver than Frey.” Manny’s tone lost all its concern and warmth.

“It’s not about your driving skills.” Manny’s car was not dirty. It was messy. Scraps of notepaper covered the backseat. On the passenger seat were numerous shopping lists that he never took into the shops with him. There was no way I was getting into that vehicle.

“I’ll drive you, Jen-girl. I want to make sure my man is okay in any case.” Vinnie took his car keys from one of the many side pockets on his cargo pants. “The old man can drive himself if he doesn’t want to go with us.”

“Let’s go.” I walked out of my viewing room, not caring how Manny was going to get to the police station. The tone in Colin’s voice was making me increasingly concerned for his
wellbeing. I barely registered Nikki calling out for us to be careful and Phillip telling Nikki to join him for lunch.

Manny got in the backseat of Vinnie’s double-cab pickup truck without complaint. A trip that would usually take around ten minutes took Vinnie less than six minutes. I clung to the sides of the passenger seat and mentally wrote the first page of Mozart’s Flute Concerto No.2 in D major, not paying attention to the scenery around me. By the time Vinnie double-parked in front of the police station, I’d gained a modicum of calm.

Manny and I exited the pickup truck. Vinnie had no desire to enter a police station. He was going to find legitimate parking and wait for us. I followed Manny to the few steps leading into the station. On the top step, he stopped, his expression serious. “Doc, you’ve got to let me handle this. I don’t know what kind of delicate situation we’re walking into.”

“And I might say something inappropriate.”

“Most likely something true and necessary, but it might work against us.”

I thought back to earlier this morning and narrowed my eyes. “You weren’t surprised when I told you Colin had been arrested. You know something. Is this what you and Colin were talking about this morning?”

Manny closed his eyes briefly. “We can’t talk about this here, Doc. Let’s get Frey out and we’ll discuss it in full. Okay?”

I studied his expression and only when I could not detect any deception cues did I nod my agreement. I pressed my lips tightly together and followed Manny into the station. It took him less than a minute of professional and courteous inquiry to win the respect of the duty officer. It felt as if my skin was on fire from my impatience to get to Colin and assure myself he was well. Yet I continued to press my lips together and allowed Manny to take the lead in an environment he was more familiar with.