by Peche, Alec
“Sounds like a plan,” said Angela.
“What do we do when we reach the hotel? Does this person know where we are staying?” asked Jo.
They had been whispering to each other, pausing at times to listen for footsteps. As they thought about Jo’s question, they heard footsteps approaching. They hunched down and stayed quiet, watching the street through the wrought-iron fence.
The same stranger slowly passed by their gate, talking on a cell phone in a language they couldn’t understand. They knew it wasn’t German, Spanish or French. Beyond that, they couldn’t tell if it was Dutch or a different language.
The four of them sat crouched in the shadows. They waited another five minutes but the stranger did not return. They returned to their plan, waited another five minutes, and then called a taxi.
While waiting for the taxi, they discussed what they should do to return to their hotel safely. They agreed that they would have the taxi drop them off two blocks from their hotel and they would look for a back entrance – perhaps through the kitchen or laundry area. If they didn't find a back entrance, they would split up and enter the hotel one at a time.
The taxi arrived soon and dropped them off close to their hotel. The women took a moment to evaluate the situation. They didn't see anyone lurking around the entrance to the hotel, and the road was too dark and they were too far away to really see into the parked cars. They took the long way around, looking for a back entrance to the hotel. Luck was with them - they found an employee taking a smoking break outside a back door. They showed him their room keys and proceeded in and up the stairs to their rooms. Despite the excitement of the past hour, jetlag was still washing over them, and they soon dropped off into sleep.
Chapter 6
The next morning was to be their last in Antwerp before heading to Amsterdam on the train. A couple of hours on the train would give Jill and Jo time to do a little more research on Laura. After checking out of their hotel, they headed for the train station. It was an amazingly beautiful station with twin towers and large dome.
After locating the platform where their train was, they climbed aboard and stored their luggage overhead before settling in their seats. The countryside was beautiful as the train glided by. The bike paths were numerous and well used. Jill had always found it interesting to look at the architecture of homes in the countryside, and this was as fascinating as ever. In Europe, she was constantly amazed at how frequently nice homes were adjacent to the train tracks. As a light sleeper, she’d had a lifelong aversion to hotels and homes close to train tracks.
Eventually she settled in to her Internet search. She wanted to get a sense of how Europeans viewed nut allergies. Were these allergies as prevalent as in the United States? Was it routine that people with nut allergies carried EpiPens in Europe? Were nuts a basic ingredient in Flemish cooking? Certainly they were a staple in chocolate recipes. How many nuts did it take to generate an allergic reaction in someone with this allergy? Would one nut do it, or was it a minimum quantity, like a quarter of a cup? She enjoyed the intellectual exercise of refreshing her knowledge on nut allergies.
Jo knew everything about how to find financial information in the United States, but she knew nothing about it in Belgium. She started looking for tax returns and corporate tax filings, and she acquired a sense of the availability of financial information in Belgium.
She couldn't imagine that Laura Peeters had filed any tax information under her real name considering she was officially dead, but some of her aliases might have. She would start with the name of Julie DuPont. Somehow, it just seemed that someone whose occupation was “diamond thief” would not be likely to file tax returns.
Jo looked a little into the diamond market. If one stole loose diamonds, what was your potential market to sell them to? Had Laura set up a company that sold loose diamonds to retail jewelry stores in Antwerp, Europe, or the world? If she had set up a company, would there be corporate information about that company? It was a good place to start.
About thirty minutes into their search activities, Jill received an email from Dr. DeGroot. He was appreciative of the work the women were doing in trying to help him solve the mystery of Laura Peeters. He had reviewed the information that Marie was able to compile. Using Jill's checklist, he had performed a lot more analysis than his usual autopsy.
The four friends were facing each other, thanks to the seating arrangement on the train. When Jill had finished reading Dr. DeGroot’s email, she lowered her voice and leaned in.
“Dr. DeGroot just sent me an email regarding Laura. He had some interesting findings. He found chocolate with nuts in her stomach contents, which had been ingested about an hour to an hour and a half prior to her arrival at the hospital. As we suspected, it was not in the bread or butter of the restaurant. Whoever sold her the chocolate had to have indicated to her that there were no nuts in the chocolate.”
“Did she die from the empty heart condition you described?” asked Angela.
“Yes she did. The autopsy showed a minimal amount of blood in her heart chambers. That will kill you every time. They are not sure, if she sat up herself or if someone sat her up. She was dusted for fingerprints and they are running the results through Interpol. I don't know if they’ll get anywhere with fingerprints, because a lot of people cared for her in the emergency room, and even our fingerprints should have been on her. Hospital staff members are not routinely fingerprinted so they don't even have enough prints on file to eliminate legitimate staff.”
“She must have been a chocolate fanatic,” said Marie instantly sharing an affinity for Laura’s preference. “Chocolate is one of the few foods in which you can consistently have traces of nuts. You would think for her own health, she would've just stayed away from chocolate. I love chocolate, but I would go cold turkey tomorrow if it was determined I had a nut allergy.”
“What else did he say in the autopsy report?” said Angela.
“She had a little facial reconstruction done about ten years ago. I would guess that was to help her stay hidden from Interpol. There are a few comments about different organs and various skin marks. She had a tattoo on her right hip that is the logo of the International Gemological Institute. Interesting how important her profession was to her. His final comment, and this is certainly unusual: her stomach contents contained several carats’ worth of diamonds. When he pulled her stomach out to weigh it, it was unusually heavy. He had to slice her stomach open as he was looking for nuts. Imagine his surprise on seeing diamonds.”
“Was that her method of transporting diamonds, or did she swallow them during the burglar process?” Angela probed. “Can I just say yuck to the retrieval process that would follow?”
“You would be amazed at what I have found in stomachs at the time of autopsy. Usually it's drugs. Diamonds would have been a pleasant surprise.”
“Let me see if I can find anything on Interpol about her alleged style of burglary,” offered Marie.
Jill passed the iPad over to Marie. They had another thirty minutes on the train before they would reach Amsterdam. As Marie began her search on diamond thieves, Jill and Angela enjoyed the scenery. The fall colors were amazing – vivid reds and yellows. Some trees looked like they were on fire, their leaves were so alive. The train stopped in Rotterdam, but there wasn't much to see of the city from the train station. Pretty soon they were packing up their belongings to get ready to disembark from the train at Amsterdam’s Central Station. Jill gave the other passengers a glance as they exited the train. She thought she had seen the man in the seat behind her previously, but that thought passed out of her head as she began to lug her heavy luggage off the train.
The gentleman in question had been seated behind the foursome and had been listening intently to their conversation. He was a computer hacker, among his many skills, and thanks to the unsecured Wi-Fi, was soon looking at Dr. DeGroot's email, as well as the sites they visited. He sent an email off to Antwerp with a summary of their activities
. He hoped he wouldn't be ordered to kill them; he rather liked their looks and conversation. They had guts, a trait he always respected. He would continue to follow them and figure out what they were up to.
It took a lot of energy to heave their suitcases up and down the stairs at the train station. Their hotel was within half a mile of the train station, so they planned to walk loaded down with their luggage. They were all grateful that the suitcases had wheels on them. Carrying forty pounds any distance was beyond them.
Upon reaching the station exit, they came to a halt to look at the bicycles parked at the station. There were thousands of them. Everywhere you looked, there was a bicycle. Angela wondered aloud, “How do you find your bicycle?” From their vantage point, they all looked alike. They looked out onto the street where they were headed to see a hundred more bicyclists riding along the bike lanes. A tourist had to quickly get used to looking for bicyclists before crossing the street.
Soon they reached their hotel and checked in. Sitting down on the chairs in their suite, they planned their stay in Amsterdam. First, they decided to walk toward Anne Frank's house. Jill received another message from Dr. DeGroot asking her to give them a call. She planned to chat with him as they walked toward the house.
“Dr. DeGroot, this is Jill Quint. How may I help you?”
“Thank you, Dr. Quint, for returning my call. I am sorry to keep bothering you on your holiday, but I've never performed an autopsy like the one I did for Laura Peeters, and I feel so fortunate that I have a forensic expert to guide me in this investigation.”
“I'm glad to help, Dr. DeGroot. My team and I are walking toward Anne Frank's house, so you're not interfering with my holiday. How can I help you with the investigation?”
“Did you see my earlier email with the results of the autopsy?”
“Yes, I did. You found diamonds in her stomach. You also found nuts in the chocolate in her stomach.”
“I'm going to declare her death a killing. We don't use the word ‘homicide’ in Belgium. The police did extensive questioning of the staff in the emergency room that cared for her. That questioning suggests that a stranger was in the area near Laura. No one saw that stranger move her to an upright position. They were busy that night with a major auto accident and had thought that she was stabilized. So at the time, no one thought to follow up on the rumor of a stranger.”
“Is the stranger in the area the only reason you have for calling it a killing?”
Jill would never label a death as a homicide based on the single piece of information about a stranger alone.
“I'm declaring it a killing because of the nut allergy. She told hospital staff that she always carried an emergency epinephrine pen in her purse. However, a man had taken the pen out of her purse and crushed it earlier that day and she had not had the opportunity to get her back-up pen. She told the staff that in thirty years she had never been without the pen, as she knew she had a severe allergy. The second thing she told hospital staff was that she purchased chocolate from a limited number of stores worldwide that she trusted not to put nuts in their chocolate. She had gone so far as to inspect their kitchens and have their chocolate tested for nuts before she consumed it. She'd been eating chocolate safely for ten years.”
“Wow, that was wise of her. I had wondered why she would ever touch chocolate given her severe allergy and the propensity to manufacture chocolate close to nuts.”
“Dr. Quint, based on what I have told you, would you agree that I have the basis to label this case a killing?”
“In the United States, we have a category called ‘suspicious death.’ It's a term used to say obviously that the death is suspicious, but the coroner needs further information from law enforcement’s investigation to make a final determination. From what you have told me about Laura Peeters, she would fit the category of suspicious death in the United States.”
“Let me contact the Belgian police to see if I can use that label for her death.”
“Do you know if swallowing diamonds was her usual method of diamond theft?”
“From what law enforcement said to me, I would think that her swallowing the diamonds was unusual.”
“Why?”
“She was caught on camera during a few thefts early in her career. That was how her calling card of chocolate was connected to her. She always carried her loot in a bag. The police believe she used her gemologist credentials to establish paperwork for the stolen diamonds. At one time she even had connections to the DeBeers mines in South Africa.”
“Why there?”
“Dr. Quint, how much do you know about the diamond trade?”
“Not much. I likely own a diamond in a piece of jewelry, but I have never paid attention to carats or quality. I get bored with jewelry and stop wearing it, so it's best for me to own fake stuff. Tell me about South Africa.”
“Most diamonds are mined in South Africa, and the largest theft of diamonds actually occurs in the mines. Miners often swallow raw diamonds as a means of stealing them. Mines have x-rays to randomly scan workers for swallowed diamonds, but they can't do it every day as the radiation exposure is too great. Some experts estimate that 25 percent of diamonds are stolen in the mines.
“Before diamonds are sold, they have to be certified by a gemologist for their cut and clarity. It is extremely hard to sell them without this documentation. Also for this reason, it is hard to resell stolen diamonds-especially famous diamonds or settings.”
“So why would you think that Laura went out of character and swallowed diamonds to carry out a theft?”
“I don't know. The police and Interpol are looking into that angle. Dr. Quint, can you think of any other tests I should run on Laura Peeters that would give us more information?”
“Did you analyze the chocolate?”
“The chocolate?”
“You might be able to identify where she purchased the chocolate she consumed by analyzing its DNA. I would get a sample from, say, ten to fifteen prominent chocolate shops in Antwerp. I would compare the chocolate in her stomach contents to the samples from the stores to see if there is a match. I understand that chocolate in Belgium is a craft, so I would think that each brand of chocolate would be unique in an analysis. Knowing where she purchased the chocolate containing nuts would help the police with the investigation.”
“An excellent suggestion, Dr. Quint. I remember a few years ago an announcement from someone in the chocolate industry about the genome sequence of chocolate. If I recall, they did the sequencing to improve the health of the cocoa tree. At the time, I thought it was superfluous research. Later, when I understood the agricultural benefit, I thought it was a good idea. Now, maybe it will help us solve this mystery.
“I'm going to send a student out to purchase chocolate as you suggested, and get to work on this DNA analysis. Thank you for your help and for taking my call today.”
Jill closed out the call with Dr. DeGroot and switched back to vacation mode. Her friends had heard her comment about the chocolate.
“Did I hear you say that you recommend he run DNA tests on the chocolate in Laura’s stomach?” asked Marie.
“About three years ago, some scientist mapped out the DNA of chocolate,” replied Jill. “Being a chocolate lover, do you know much about the industry?”
“Not really,” answered Marie with a grin. “I just enjoy eating it.”
“Nearly all of the world's chocolate comes from small farmers in Africa. Ghana and the Ivory Coast produce something like 70 percent of the world’s cocoa beans. The tree is relatively fragile and certain pests can do great damage to the crop and the industry. Scientists hypothesize that knowing the DNA of the different cocoa trees could help them design a tree more resilient to pests. It's very possible that each Belgian chocolatier purchases their chocolate from a different farmer and therefore it would have different DNA. Knowing the DNA will assist the police in identifying where Laura purchased the chocolate that caused her reaction.”
&nbs
p; “You know, Jill, your brain contains some of the most obscure facts of anyone I know,” said Marie admiringly. “It’s lucky for Laura that you know this stuff.”
“Thanks! I think,” said Jill with a laugh.
She caught a reflection in a storefront glass window. She slowed her pace and looked out of the corner of her eye. She rarely believed in coincidence, and this situation was too coincidental. She turned and hurried back a few steps.
“Excuse me, why are you following us?”
“I am not following you madam.” said the man that Jill had noticed as they were getting off the train.
Jo, Marie, and Angela followed her and caught up.
“You were on the train about an hour ago that arrived from Antwerp. Now you are on the same street as us. Are you following us?” she asked again.
“You are mistaken. I did not take the train from Antwerp. You must be thinking of someone who looks like me. Excuse me, I must be on my way.”
While Jill was confronting the man, Angela had gotten a nice shot of his face with her camera. Jill had always been really good at sensing people around her and if she thought she had seen the man on the train, the other three knew it to be true.
“Jill, are you sure he was on the train? If he was, then he had to be following us since we detoured to the hotel first,” reasoned Jo.
“Yes I am sure he was on the train,” responded Jill. “You know how vigilant I am about keeping an eye open at all times looking for pickpockets. He was dumb to follow us so closely. He must have been trying to hear our conversation.”
“Why is anyone following us?” asked Angela. “We’re just a bunch of American tourists.”
“It must have something to do with the Laura Peeters case. I can't think of a reason to observe us on our vacation. I will have to pass this information on to Dr. DeGroot. There is nothing like having us followed that solidifies his impression that Laura was a victim of a homicide.”