Chocolate Diamonds (Jill Quint, MD, Forensic Pathologist Series Book 2)

by Peche, Alec

  “Nick, are there any cameras in this hotel in the hallways or stairwells? How did you know there was trouble in our suite?” Angela probed.

  “It’s funny you ask that question. I had thought I should have a hallway camera installed and was planning to follow up with hotel management in the morning. I know there is nothing in your hallway, but whether there are other cameras in the hotel, I won’t know until that discussion. I’m sure that the assistance of Inspector Willems will render a quicker answer on those questions. As to how I knew there was trouble in your suite, I heard the fire brigade sirens, and that was followed by the smoke alarms and I thought it likely that your suite was the source of trouble.”

  “Are you implying that we are the source of any trouble in the city of Brussels?”

  “I’m not implying it; I’m just looking at the evidence. I’ve had more adventures with you Americans in five days than I think I had during my year of service as a policeman,” disclosed Nick with a grin, “and I have loved the entertainment and mystery of this entire episode.”

  They heard a knock on the door and Willems entered, followed by Dubois, each with a crime scene investigator. The women had the look of someone pulled out of a deep sleep, with creases still on their cheeks from the pillows..

  “Ladies, what happened here tonight?” asked Inspector Willems. “I spoke with my counterpart in the fire brigade and he said they responded to a smoke grenade in your room. Can you give me the details?”

  Angela took the lead. “I was dreaming about smoky chocolate, when I awoke out of the dreams and realized the smoke was real.”

  Since the men looked dumbfounded, Jo took pity on them, “Angela always has very vivid dreams, and she typically shares the details with us. Fortunately, most of them do not come true! What did you do when you realized the smoke was real, Angela?”

  “I jumped out of bed, went to my bedroom door and felt the door for heat. Since it wasn’t hot, I figured it was safe to open. I grabbed a scarf and wet it and put it over my face and then crawled on my hands and knees into this lounge. Frankly, I didn’t know how to call the fire department here in Belgium but I knew there was a phone out here that I could call the front desk. I couldn’t see any flames so I went and banged on everyone’s door, getting them out of their rooms. Then the smoke detectors went off. A guy from hotel security arrived, followed by the fire brigade and then we discovered the source, which hotel security identified as a smoke grenade. We asked the firemen to leave it here in case there were fingerprints or other means of identification.

  “Can you guys think of anything else to add to my description of the smoke?” Angela asked.

  After a few seconds’ thought, the group all shook their heads no.

  “I would like to talk to the hotel security person. Let me call the front desk,” Willems said as he walked over to the suite’s phone, which was sitting on a desk.

  Nick said to Dubois, “I had hoped to talk to management in the morning about putting temporary cameras in the hallway outside of this suite and to understand where they might have cameras in this hotel.”

  Inspector Willems returned to the suite with a puzzled look on his face. “I just spoke with the front desk and they indicated that the hotel does not have security staff here at night. They have no idea who the person masquerading as security was.”

  The three friends looked expectantly at Angela and asked, “Did you get his picture?” nearly simultaneously. Then they laughed at how well they knew each other.

  “For once, I did not have my camera in hand, so no pictures.” Angela glanced over at the desk, where she had left her camera charging overnight. The cord was plugged in but the camera was gone. “I think my camera is missing. Let me go check my room for it, but I think I left it there last night,” she said, pointing to where the plug was sitting on the desk.

  They heard Angela searching her room for her camera, and a few minutes later she returned to the lounge. “It is not in my room, and I’m certain I left it charging on the desk last night.”

  “Perhaps that was the point of this elaborate ruse with the smoke grenade?” Jill hypothesized. “Was it to allow time for the fake security guard to search this room for a camera? Is anyone missing anything else?”

  They each returned to their bedrooms looking through their belongings. They found their purses, cash, iPad, and passports all in place. Jill’s cellphone and Marie’s camera were also missing. Jo and Nathan had left their phones in their coats and thus they were still in place.

  “It seems like everything they took had the potential to have taken photos while out and about,” said Nathan. “Otherwise it doesn’t make sense that the iPads were left untouched. You can take photos with a tablet but you wouldn’t walk around as a tourist snapping photos with such a big item.”

  “Yeah, but they didn’t get all of our photos. I changed my memory card while we were at the Royal Museum. I had over 400 pictures by then. My original memory card is still safe inside a pocket of my suitcase. I looked for it when I searched my room for my camera.”

  “So this smoke grenade event was to give cover to a fake security guard while he lifted all of your smaller electronics?” Officer Dubois asked incredulously. “What is possibly among your photos that has anything to do with this case? It seems very far-fetched. Angela, we would like a copy of all of your photos on the memory card. We cannot compel you to turn those photos over to Interpol, but we'd appreciate your cooperation.

  “If you agree to share your photos with us, I would like to see you meet with our expert in facial recognition software. I'll ask him to go through the photos with you one by one, focusing on any people in the background of any of the photos. I can't think of another reason to steal your cameras.”

  “Of course I’ll turn my memory card over to Interpol, as long as I get it back – there are a lot of good memories on that card. Whoever our suspect is, he must have thought we would immediately run out of the suite for the stairs. He didn’t know we were not easily frightened. I bet he was standing in the hallway waiting for our exit and when we didn’t leave, he thought the noise and confusion of the fire brigade would be enough cover for him to take care of business, and he was right. And he got our cameras. I’m glad he used a smoke grenade rather then something that could have done real damage to us.”

  “He also had a master pass key which is concerning. Nick, how hard is that to get from a hotel?” Nathan asked.

  “That depends on the hotel. Hackers with sophisticated software have been known to be able to develop their own master key. When I acquire a new hotel client, evaluating hotel key security is one of the first assessments I do. In the morning, I’ll have a conversation with management about their key system and that will tell us if the criminal was sophisticated, or if a lousy lock system made it easy. Inspector Willems and Officer Dubois, I’ll follow up on the hotel security and the hallway camera situation in the morning since that is my area of expertise. If I need your authority behind me, I may call you to vouch for me with management.”

  “Not a problem. It is getting close to two in the morning. Let’s all return to our beds. Again, we appreciate your ongoing assistance and we would like you to join our meeting at nine. Maybe we can figure out how you can sightsee tomorrow, and still provide assistance to us,” Dubois said standing up and preparing to leave. “Good night, ladies and gentlemen.”

  The two officers left and closed the door behind them. Nick turned to the group and said, “I could sleep on this sofa tonight if you want additional security.”

  “I think we are good, and you deserve some solid sleep for whatever is remaining of this night. The fake security guard will be back once he or his superior notices the lack of pictures on the camera, but I don’t think it will be while we are here. I would wait until we leave and then do a thorough search of every nook and cranny of every piece of luggage. Thanks for coming to our aid,” said Jill with a huge yawn. She stood up and headed toward her room with a “goodn
ight all” thrown over her shoulder at the group.

  Chapter 13

  In the morning, they were all dragging with a lack of energy after their adventures in the middle of the night. After Jill left for her bedroom, everyone had soon retired, but it was hard to shut down their thoughts. Jo, Angela, and Nathan were still in bed. As usual Jill was up first followed by Marie. They left a note for the others planning on visiting a café across the street from the hotel. They watched the street for a while before crossing it, but saw no suspicious people. They then sprinted across the street quickly entering the café’s doors and sitting in the back of the table space.

  Jill was reading the menu and divulged to Marie, “I could eat breakfast for every meal in this country. I love the croissants and strong coffee.”

  “Me too, but I might alternate the croissants with a Belgian waffle and strawberries.”

  “I suppose I should be looking around for anyone suspicious entering this cafe.”

  “You do live an interesting life. So far it has been fun. My kids would be appalled if they knew about the red-light-district appearance. Think I’ll wait until I’m really old to scare them with that adventure. Seems to me, though, that this is far less scary than the helicopters and gun battles of your last case. Jo has been in the greatest danger of any of us. I’m sorry I can’t stay longer to see what happens as I don’t think we are going to solve the case before we’re scheduled to go home.”

  “So far I have been able to keep calm. I am not scared, just high on adrenaline. Thankfully, Nathan is also calm and supportive. I couldn’t ask for more,” Jill said.

  She continued, “As for the case, in some ways I feel we have made almost no progress since you and I were doing CPR on Laura. Sure, we know a lot more about diamonds, but the motives are still fuzzy. It feels like Laura and later Chloe were thieves for themselves and for the consortium. Then there was some interaction that made the consortium want to kill Laura. Chloe muddied up the picture by dying before we could have a real conversation. Now I am puzzled by the theft of our cameras. If we’re lucky, maybe we’ll find the answer in Angela’s pictures from the beginning of our trip.

  “I had a hard time falling asleep last night because I was retracing in my head where we have been and snapped pictures. I don’t think the consortium CEOs are wandering around in the background of our vacation photos or anything. I’m tempted to sit with Angela and the facial recognition expert since I can’t think of what to add to solve this case. Jo may have more on the financial side once they retrieve information from the Swiss banks. What are we missing here?”

  “My expertise is in people, so I have been thinking about who the possible players could be in this case beyond the ones that we have met so far. Is it truly the business reputation of the six diamond companies? It would seem like some regulatory body would find them guilty of criminal behavior. I don’t think their reputations or their businesses will recover once the public knows about their paying Laura to steal, and that is probably enough to kill for – millions of dollars and hundred-year-old companies. However, I think someone could have harmed us last night with either a real grenade or just in the chaos that followed. So is the problem that, even if we are all dead, we have some evidence on us that the police would continue to investigate?”

  “Do you think they were looking for a picture of the information that was on Laura’s chip?” speculated Jill, sipping her steaming coffee. “That doesn’t ring true for me as it would not be a likely vacation picture. If we had asked, the police would have sent us an email with an attachment, not have us take a picture with the camera. In fact, they will allow our review of the paper copy anytime we want.”

  Looking through the café windows from the back of the room, they could see Angela and Nick crossing the street to join them. They made a good-looking couple – tall and seemingly in-concert with each other this morning. That was especially remarkable as Angela’s charm, while always evident, tended to be less powerful in the morning.

  Jill greeted the two as they approached. “Good morning. This is a delightful café for breakfast. Marie and I have been discussing the events of last night. Maybe we should switch the conversation to what we should do if we have some tourist time in the city. Nick, you have been here many times. What is your favorite part of Brussels?”

  “Good morning, ladies. That is a nice change of topic. My favorite place depends on my mood to some degree. Sometimes I enjoy watching the world go by sitting in a perfect café on a perfect street. There are concerts here that I have traveled to see – like U2, or the Stones, and Gotye. What might be a different experience for you ladies today is the Foret des Soignes, or the Sonian Forest translated into English.

  “As it is fall, the oak and beech trees are changing color, so it is spectacular this time of year. There are also a few art museums if you would like to be indoors. From a security perspective, a museum is safer than a wide-open forest.”

  “I think that sounds like a perfect idea as we have been cooped up in too many police conference rooms,” affirmed Angela. “The spirit of a beautiful forest will clear our minds. Too bad I don’t have a camera to take pictures with.”

  “I always keep a camera with me as I never know when I might need a picture related to a job. It is digital, so you could take the memory card with you back to the States,” offered Nick knowing that a camera was one of the paths to Angela’s heart.

  “Thanks Nick. I’ll take you up on your offer whether we go to the forest or not. I feel naked without my camera. If it’s not a bother, I would like to borrow it for the reminder of our stay in Belgium.”

  “It is not a problem and the camera will be happy in the hands of a true professional.”

  “Okay, we have the fun part of the day planned. Jill wanted to join you, Angela, to review the photos on your card with the facial recognition expert. I’m leaning toward that also as I can’t think where else I can contribute to this case at the moment.”

  “Let’s see if Nathan and Jo are awake and alert yet. We should be heading over to the Interpol building in about twenty-five minutes,” said Jill as she stood up from the café table and approached the cashier to pay. “Should we grab something for Jo, to take back to the room? I’m selecting a pastry for Nathan and coffee to go.”

  “Let’s get Jo the cheese, fruit and bread combo, and some coffee,” suggested Angela. “I’ll help you carry it.”

  They left with their purchases, scanning the street before stepping off the curb. Nick was also keeping an eye on any pedestrians that were getting close to the women. There were no mishaps and shortly they entered their hotel suite. Jo and Nathan were in the lounge dressed and ready to go, but looking pitiful since they hadn’t had their morning cup of coffee. Both were pleased with the items from the café. Nick left to grab his camera for Angela from his room. They caught two taxis and traveled to their nine o’clock meeting.

  Arriving at the conference room, the women saw the committee seemed to be growing in attendees. Dubois had Angela describe the events of the previous night, including the theft of the cameras. No one had a picture of the fake hotel security man and the smoke grenade had prints that had been traced to the manufacturer, so that was a dead end.

  Jo and Ms. Bernard, along with one of the new faces, left for a smaller conference room to discuss finances. Nick and Nathan stayed in the conference room. Both were at a loss as to how they could contribute to the investigation.

  Angela, Jill, and Marie joined up with the Interpol facial recognition expert, Josef, and walked to his lab. Soon Angela’s pictures were on a big screen. They agreed to set aside all pictures that contained no faces. This took the four-hundred pictures down to two-hundred. Then they slowly went through each picture starting at Austin Straubel International Airport in Green Bay, Wisconsin. From there they magnified each picture to assure that no face other than one of women was in the picture. This further reduced the number of pictures under review to about forty.


  “Let’s enlarge and focus on each face and give some thought as to why the person is in our picture and whether anything about the person looks odd,” suggested Marie. “Or really I guess we should ask you, Josef, how we should sort through some forty pictures?”

  “Ladies, I think that is an excellent idea. I was trying to remember the last time I was asked to view so many pictures that may or may not contain a clue, and I can’t think of another case like this one. I like your suggestion and would agree that we proceed.”

  In the end, they narrowed it down to about twelve pictures, which gave Josef thirty-two faces to look up. He entered each face into his system and by the end of about an hour, they had names to go with all but two of the faces.

  “I think we should return to the larger conference room and flash these pictures up on the screen with their faces tagged with names,” said Jill. “Josef, can you connect to the conference room and see if we can break into their meeting?”

  Josef checked in with Dubois and permission was granted. Josef downloaded the pictures onto a memory stick and they returned to the conference room.

  When they entered the conference room, Jill noticed that Jo and Ms. Bernard were not present. She hoped that was a sign of them finding some good information in the financials.

  “We have narrowed the original four-hundred plus pictures down to twelve and we have labeled them with thirty-two faces,” said Josef. “Shall we start by taking a quick look at each picture? Then we can return for a longer view on a second pass?” The pictures started moving across the screen, and no one said anything at first, so they went back for the second longer view of the pictures.

  On the third slide, there was a call out from one of the Belgian police officials to stop on the third photo. It was a picture of Jill staring into a jewelry store window with an amazing array of diamonds sparkling in the background. Also in the picture, three storefronts away was a group of three men seemingly speaking with each other. “One of the men in that picture is the owner of the chocolate store where Laura Peeters purchased the chocolate that caused her nut allergy. His name was Andre Jacobs. I remember that name from the police report. Who are the others in that photo?”