The Uccello Connection (Genevieve Lenard, #10)

by Estelle Ryan

  “No.” Her answer was strong and without hesitation. “I have three bank accounts. All of them are held in France. My finances are open for anyone to inspect at any time. Why?”

  “Do you remember Daniel Cassel?” Francine gave an impressive summary of what we’d found, including the damning evidence and the fact that Daniel’s account had been hacked. There was a moment of silence when she finished.

  “Are all of you in agreement that Daniel is innocent of accepting bribes from me?”

  “Not only that”—Francine leaned closer to the phone—“we don’t believe that you paid those bribes.”

  “But you have evidence that I have an offshore bank account.”

  “Nowadays evidence means squat.” Francine ignored Manny’s warning gaze. “I will prove that your so-called account was not opened by you. That is if it actually exists.”

  “Manfred Millard here, Madame Godard.” Manny rested both palms on the table and spoke into the phone in Francine’s hand. “The bigger question here is why Ivan Fradkov and Emad Vernet want to destroy your husband’s reputation. Why they want to use you and Daniel to do it and whether it will be effective.”

  “Of course it will be effective. It doesn’t even have to be true.” Anger entered her voice. “We saw what happened after those falsehoods were revealed seven months ago. It was easy to prove that not one of those accusations had any basis, but the damage was done. Another non-scandal like that and I don’t know if we will be able to recover.”

  “Where are you now?” I asked.

  She hesitated. “Oh, what the hell. I know I can trust you guys. We’re in Brussels for the night.”

  “Meeting about the mess Europe is in?” Manny asked.

  “No.”

  “Russia?”

  “I really can’t disclose anything, Manny.”

  “You just did.” I leaned away from Manny when he glared at me.

  “No, you didn’t tell us anything, Madame Godard. Let me ask you this—and please feel free to answer in the same way you did before. Does this meeting have anything to do with a peace agreement between Russia and previous USSR territories?”

  “I can’t disclose that.”

  “I see.” Manny straightened. “Thank you for your time, Madame Godard.”

  “Oh, for goodness’ sake, Manny, call me Isabelle. Your girlfriend does.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Francine?”

  “Yes?” The smile around Francine’s lips sounded in her answer.

  “Is this line secure?”

  “From our side, yes.”

  “Good. This cloak-and-dagger stuff is ridiculous.” She inhaled. “I wonder if the plane disappearing was about more than just the paintings, if Fradkov was involved.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Two weeks ago, Raymond contacted Daniel. Julien was so angry about it.”

  “Privott gets angry about everything,” Manny said. “Why this time?”

  “Because Ray asked Daniel’s advice about certain security measures and Julien took it as a personal attack that he and Ray’s security detail weren’t doing a good enough job.”

  “Privott is such a girl.” Vinnie cleared his throat. “Vinnie speaking, Isabelle.”

  “I agree with you, Vinnie.” There was no humour in Isabelle’s laugh. “But Julien is good at his job. Really good at it.”

  “Do you know what security measures they discussed?” Manny asked.

  “No. Sorry.”

  “Dammit.” Manny rubbed his hand over his face.

  “I need to tell Ray about this. The last while, he’s been getting more concerned about Fradkov and Emad still being free. After what happened, you know.” Isabelle had been held captive by Emad’s brother before he’d been killed. The president had been grateful that we’d kept Isabelle safe, but also furious that her life had been in danger. I didn’t hear anger or fear in her voice now. Only determination. “Manny, will you speak to Julien or must we contact him?”

  “I’ll brief him, ma’a... Isabelle.” He looked at me. “Any other questions, Doc?”

  “Not now.” I raised my voice slightly towards the phone. “I will work very hard to make sure your reputation is not affected by this new development.”

  “I know you will, Genevieve. Thank you for looking out for me.” She took the time to say goodbye to everyone around the table before ending the call. I liked her.

  “I was wrong about Daniel not being a target.” Colin didn’t take his eyes from where he was staring at the ceiling. “This adds another layer to him being on the plane.”

  “What do you mean, Frey?”

  He looked at Manny. “I mean that they could’ve hijacked the plane to kidnap Daniel.”

  “And extract security information about the president from him.” Pink started shaking his head before he finished his sentence. “No, that doesn’t make sense. If they did their homework on Daniel, they would know he would never reveal secrets. No matter how they tortured him.”

  I blanched at the mention of torture. I didn’t know what to think about the missing plane or about any of this, but my mind had not yet gone to such dire scenarios. Now I could only hope that it would not become an unending loop playing in my mind.

  “Okay, people.” Manny closed Francine’s laptop and lifted one eyebrow when she complained. “It’s really late and I think we all need a few hours’ sleep so we can get at this fresh and early in the morning.”

  “We need to look for the plane.” Vinnie crossed his arms.

  “God, I wish I could.” Pink put his hand over his eyes for a second. “We’re good at this, Vin. The people who are the best at finding missing planes are working around the clock to find Daniel and the other two hundred and twelve people on that plane. I agree with Manny. A few hours’ sleep will give us new perspective.”

  “I don’t like it.”

  “I don’t care.” Manny pulled Francine from her chair. “Come, supermodel. We’re going home.”

  “I need my computers.” The fact that Francine didn’t use Manny’s order to make some inappropriate sexual comment confirmed how this case was affecting us all. This was personal.

  Five minutes later, only Vinnie, Colin and I remained around the table. I didn’t know if I would be able to sleep tonight, but I knew that my body needed to rest. If I were to find the missing elements that connected all these many pieces, I had to be in optimum physical condition.

  Chapter TEN

  “What?” It was the tension in Colin’s sleepy voice that brought me to wakefulness.

  Our bedroom was dark, but enough light from the street spilled into the room for me to see Colin’s outline. He was leaning on one arm, his smartphone against his ear throwing an eerie light against the side of his face. This allowed me to see his micro-expressions, first relief, then concern. His frown intensified as he sat up and turned on his bedside lamp.

  I also sat up. “What’s happening?”

  “We’ll be ready.” He lowered his phone and swiped the screen. “Millard and Francine are on their way. Privott is most likely already waiting downstairs for them. They’ll come up together.”

  “Why? Did they find the plane?” The muscles in my throat tightened. “Did it crash?”

  “It didn’t crash.” He took my hand in both his and squeezed. “Millard only told me that they found the plane and they’ll be here in a few minutes.”

  I glanced at the clock on my bedside table. It was eleven minutes to four. I pulled my hand out of Colin’s and got up. “Nothing about Daniel?”

  “Millard didn’t even give me a chance to ask.” He got up and walked to his wardrobe. “I was still talking to him when he ended the call.”

  It took us less than three minutes to get dressed. As we left the room, I noticed that we both wore jeans and black shirts. Mine was a three-quarter-sleeved t-shirt, simple in design and comfortable. Colin was wearing a tailored shirt of the highest quality. I’d grown used to him always dressin
g with the utmost care. It was his way of preparing for whatever challenge he was about to face.

  “I’ll go wake Vin.” He walked to the other side of our joined apartments and I went into the kitchen. Vinnie would want to be the one making coffee, but I couldn’t just sit and wait. I needed to be busy.

  Colin returned a few seconds later. I stopped when I noticed his expression. “Why are you amused?”

  “He should be embarrassed, not amused.” Vinnie walked into the kitchen, pulling a t-shirt over his head. The muscles in his torso stretched and moved with this action, drawing my eyes to the scar that ran over his shoulder. I’d known Vinnie for four years, but had only found out about the origins of his scars recently. He pulled the t-shirt down and walked to the coffee machine. “And he should’ve knocked.”

  “Oh, get over yourself, snookums.” Roxy walked into the kitchen, her hair an abhorrent mess. She patted it once, shrugged and finished buttoning her shirt. “We were not naked, we were not doing fun things and Colin didn’t know I would be in bed with you.”

  “He should know by now.”

  “Pah!” She slapped his shoulder and turned to me. “How’re you holding up?”

  I stared at her. Her question was too generic to answer. And I simply couldn’t keep my observation to myself anymore. I pointed to her shirt. “Your buttons are not aligned.”

  She looked down and giggled. “I do this all the time. I mean, really! How hard can it be to put the first button in the first button hole, right? Okey-dokey. I’ll go fix this on the other side of the wall so I don’t make Vinnie blush.”

  As she walked out the kitchen, I called, “Your socks also don’t match.”

  She giggled again and disappeared behind the wall separating the two apartments. I’d come to truly like Roxy. She was intelligent, astute in her observations and without any pretence. I did find her chaotic nature hard to accept though. I constantly had to remind myself that she had not once judged my many non-neurotypical behaviours and that the least I could do was accept her as she was. It was hard.

  The beeping of our security system followed by the sound of a key in the front door interrupted my thoughts. Vinnie and Colin both walked to the door, Vinnie reaching behind his back for the handgun he had put there.

  The front door opened to Manny and Francine bickering, Julien Privott standing behind them.

  “Hacking it would be so much faster. You’re just being a ninny.”

  “A ninny?” Manny’s lips were in a tight line, his glare focused on Francine. “That’s the best you can come up with?”

  “Where’s the plane?” I walked to Manny and stared at him. “Is Daniel alive?”

  “Let’s all sit down, Doc.”

  “No.” I crossed my arms. “Is Daniel... Is Daniel dead?”

  Manny inhaled deeply. “We don’t know. Everyone else on the plane is fine. Now let’s sit down so Privott can explain everything.”

  I looked at the president’s director of public relations. He was wearing suit pants and a white shirt that looked like it had just been ironed. His face was clean-shaven and his hair carefully styled. None of this hid the exhaustion around his eyes and pulling at the corners of his mouth. He nodded at me. “Genevieve.”

  “Julien.” Only recently had our working relationship progressed to a first-name basis. “What do you know about Daniel?”

  “Not much.” He pointed at the dining room table where Francine and Manny were seated. “Shall we? I’ll tell you everything I know.”

  “You’d better.” Vinnie put the tray with our coffee on the table, straightened and looked at Julien with such menace that I crossed my arms over my chest before I realised what I was doing. He took a step towards Julien. “Now.”

  “God, you people are wound even tighter than the airline people and the president’s security.” Julien sat down at the table, took a mug of coffee and took a long sip. I couldn’t muster sympathy for the unmistakeable stress visible on his face. I needed to know about Daniel. Julien took another sip before putting his mug down. “Just before one this morning, the local authorities on both the Belarussian and Russian borders found the plane. It had landed on a road on the Russian side, but only eight hundred metres from the north-eastern border line between Belarus and Russia. At last count, eighty-four passengers managed to get into Belarus before the Russian authorities stopped anyone else from crossing the border.”

  I had so many questions. “Did the plane crash?”

  “No. It made a perfect landing on the road.”

  “Where is Daniel?” I asked before he could say anything else.

  “We don’t know.” Julien lifted his hand when Vinnie, Francine and Manny all spoke at the same time. “Just give me a chance to tell you what we know. From the few witness statements we’ve gathered so far, two men got up about twenty minutes after take-off and pulled out automatic weapons. One went to the front and ordered the flight attendant to open the door to the cockpit. Despite what all protocol dictates, when you have a gun aimed at you, people do what they’re told. The flight attendant opened the door.

  “The other gunman told the passengers that no one was going to get hurt. They would be inconvenienced, but if no one tried to be a hero, everyone would go home or wherever they were planning on going. Or something to that effect. The witnesses had a few versions of this. Anyway, the passengers just sat there quietly. The gunman even told them that they were going to land on a road that would be able to handle the landing. And when the time came, the landing was indeed executed perfectly and still none of the passengers had acted or tried anything heroic.

  “The moment they landed, a group of men came from three different SUVs on the side of the road. The gunmen opened one of the plane’s doors and one SUV drove a ladder to the door. There is conflict in the witness statements whether it was three or four other men who joined the first two gunmen. The newcomers held the passengers at gunpoint while the first two ordered the pilot to open the cargo hold.

  “The men on the ground then took the paintings that were being transported to Minsk from the containers they’d been packed in and placed them in one SUV, which drove away as soon as they loaded forty-three paintings. One passenger counted carefully and was sure about the number. He was amazed how quickly they worked to fit all the smaller paintings in the vehicle. They then loaded a second SUV with the larger paintings. This SUV was out of sight and the passenger wasn’t sure of the exact number, but estimated it to be about the same as what was put in the first SUV.”

  “That means they got away with all the paintings.” The tension in Colin’s throat raised his tone. “My God, the combined value. This is...” He scratched his head. “This is definitely the biggest heist in known history. Even if they took the least valuable of the paintings that were on that plane, their combined value is more than the Gardner museum heist.”

  “What was the value of that?” Roxy asked.

  “Around five hundred million euros.” Colin’s skin had lost its colour. His eyes narrowed, his top lip raised in disgust. “This is going to devastate the art community.”

  It was difficult for me to witness the man I loved being distraught. I needed to focus on something else and looked at Julien. The tension around his eyes and in his shoulders caught my attention. “What’s wrong? What else happened?”

  “The gunmen eventually left and didn’t hurt any of the passengers, just like they’d promised.”

  “They took Daniel.” My words came out in a whisper.

  “What the hell?” Manny slapped his hands on the table and half-pushed himself out of his chair. “Is Doc right? Why didn’t you tell me this?”

  Julien only nodded. “The passengers say that the first two gunmen sought out Daniel and another passenger, a woman.”

  I pointed at his face. “You’re very distressed. What did they do to Daniel?”

  Julien closed his eyes for three seconds. Typical avoidance behaviour. He didn’t want to talk about this, but then he in
haled deeply and looked at me. “They beat him pretty badly.”

  “How badly?” Colin asked.

  Julien swallowed. “He was unconscious when they put him in the third SUV.”

  “Fuck!” Vinnie got up and stormed into the kitchen. He opened the fridge and stared inside. After a few seconds he slammed the door shut. “We have to go get him.”

  “We’ve already got people on the ground.” Julien pulled his shoulders back and turned to face Vinnie. “We have assets from three different countries starting a search. The president and the director of foreign intelligence have both called in a lot of favours. I’ve also called in one. My guys are following up on the SUVs. The registration plates came back to non-existent people in a shell company in Russia.”

  “Shit.” Colin interlaced his fingers and rested his hands on his head. “Vin’s right. We need to get Daniel back. It doesn’t feel right just sitting here.”

  I looked at Julien. “Are these people who are currently searching for Daniel competent?”

  “They are the best people we have.” He straightened. “I didn’t know we had so many people on the ground in that area. Not until a few hours ago.”

  When I looked at Vinnie, I was unsettled by the raw emotions displayed on his face. “The most prudent use of our time, skills and energy would be to continue our investigation.”

  “Fuck it, Jen-girl. I can’t just sit around and look pretty.”

  “You’re not pretty.” I waved my hand to avoid an inane discussion. “You will not be sitting around. You have valuable resources that you can use.”

  “Like what?”

  “Finding out if there have been any rumours or communication about a plane being hijacked or about an influx of art on the illegal market.” I turned my attention back to Julien. “Tell me more about the woman the gunmen took. Who is she?”

  “We don’t know. Yet again, there’s conflict in the witness statements. We’re trying to determine exactly where she was seated. I’m expecting a call any moment now with her identity.”