The Uccello Connection (Genevieve Lenard, #10) Read online

“That is a sensible decision.” Although I was disconcerted by seeing her genuine desire for revenge. The hatred when she spoke about Fradkov and her sons’ deaths was real and strong.

  Justine looked at the closed door of her granddaughter’s bedroom. “She’s here for a final interview for university. Gads, I’m proud of that girl. Hell, I’m proud of all my kids. Being the youngest, Alexis took the death of her parents much harder than the others. We’ve had to work really hard for her to have any kind of enjoyable adolescence. Mind you, she’s the one who did most of the work. I’ve never seen anyone fight so hard against the viciousness that is depression.”

  “Having you there fighting with her made it easier.” Vinnie’s voice was gentle, his expression revealing the respect he had for this woman.

  She snorted an unfeminine laugh and put her coffee mug down. “I’m a fighter, Vinnie. You know me. But you don’t know how much I want to... no, how much I need to find that fuckface and kill him. The thing is, I’m not getting younger and I need to choose who and what I’m fighting for. My grandkids come first. Which means I’m going to need you to fight this one for me.”

  “It will be my pleasure.”

  She turned her attention back to me. “I need you to understand why I want Fradkov to suffer before he dies. He didn’t only kill my sons and their wives. He used them in a cruel game.” She swallowed as her blinking increased. Then she pulled her shoulders back, her lips tightened and her bottom jaw jutted. “Adam was eleven months older than Evan. They grew up as if they were twins and had always been best friends. Adam was the numbers guy and Evan the people guy. When they decided to start a business together, many people thought it might damage their closeness. It didn’t.

  “They ran their investment company for eighteen years and never had one argument.” She laughed. “No, that’s not true. They constantly argued about the brand of coffee and tea Evan was buying. Adam liked stronger flavours and Evan would always buy the milder roasted coffees and fruity or flavoured teas. Yes, they did argue. But it was never serious.”

  She picked up her napkin and played with the seams. “Eight years ago, they signed a contract to handle the pension fund of the Department of Justice in Romania. Their reputation, their integrity got them that contract. Man, they were good at their jobs. Evan would reel the clients in and Adam would make their money grow in ways that the biggest investment firms would never achieve and most definitely would never guarantee.

  “Six months later, strange things started happening. Someone broke into their office, but didn’t steal anything. Adam had their computers checked for possible malware. Nothing. Evan had the office checked for all kinds of electronic listening devices. Nothing. But it was there. Those little bugs were so far advanced that the security company didn’t find them.

  “They were pinhole cameras that allowed Fradkov to not only listen, but also watch Adam and Evan as they worked. That’s how he knew everything. How he knew exactly what to do to destroy my sons’ careers, reputations and business.”

  No one spoke. Vinnie’s expression led me to believe that he’d never heard the full story of Adam and Evan’s murders. Justine took a shaky breath and continued. “In my investigation later, I discovered that Fradkov had been hired by the opposition party in Romania to discredit the president. He took what he knew about Adam’s strategy and used it to develop his own. That bastard knew where Adam planned to invest the money and when.

  “So he fed false information to the media about these companies where Adam was to invest, ensuring that their stock fell moments after Adam bought in. My sons lost three hundred million euros in eight days. Most of that money was the Romanian government’s. Fradkov then sent the local media in Romania expertly and viciously edited videos that made it look as if Adam was conspiring with the president to steal the country’s money.”

  She folded the napkin and put it on the table. “But my Adam wasn’t stupid. He used that footage to determine where the cameras were and hired another security company to take them out. He also paid ridiculous money to a hacker to find out who had accessed those cameras. And that’s how he found out it was Fradkov. That hacker traced the connection back to a hotel in Bucharest where Fradkov was staying and managed to get a video grab of his face. It was a side profile, but it was enough. He put that photo up on the dark net and very quickly got a name.

  “By now, the Romanian government as well as the French government were launching investigations against my sons. One evening, my sons were putting all the evidence they had together to hand over to their lawyer. Adam’s wife Jenna and Evan’s wife Anne were in Adam’s house helping them. We’d agreed that Adam’s two kids and Evan’s two boys would stay with me for a few days so the adults could work undisturbed.”

  She clenched her teeth and took a few deep breaths. “Adam’s home security footage showed how Fradkov entered the house from a side door, walked into the dining room where they were working and shot each of them.” Her voice broke. “Twice in the head and twice in the heart. Jenna was last to die. The bastard ignored her crying and her pleas, just calmly walked to where she was cowering and killed her too.”

  It was quiet in the dining room. Fury showed in Vinnie’s lowered brows, his tightened eyelids and his clenched jaw. Colin’s expression was not as strong, but beneath the anger I did observe deep concern. I didn’t want to lose myself in the emotionality of what had happened. Instead I put all my mental energy into analysing Justine’s words and everyone’s expressions.

  I was deeply affected by the intensity of this woman’s emotional pain. It had been eight years and her grief appeared as fresh as that of a person who’d lost someone a few days ago.

  “I have questions.” But I didn’t know if it was appropriate to ask yet.

  “Good.” Justine straightened in her chair, shook her shoulders and looked at me. “Ask me.”

  “How do you know that it was Fradkov who killed your sons? Did you see his full profile on the footage?”

  “Of course not. He was wearing a cap, glasses and had a big scarf around his neck, almost up to his ears.” She lifted one hand to stop my next question. “But I’m not without resources, Doctor Lenard. Once the haze of my children’s funerals lifted, I got to work. I hired all kinds of experts to analyse the video. They compared it with photos and a few other videos I’d been able to get on Fradkov and came to a unanimous decision that it had been him.”

  “How did you know to look for Fradkov? Did your sons tell you that he was the person behind the market manipulation?”

  “No, they didn’t. Not before they died.” She pulled her shoulders back even more, pride flooding her face. “A week after they died a package arrived at my home. It was their failsafe. They had given it to their courier company to deliver at that date, unless one of my sons cancelled it in person.”

  “They knew their lives were in danger,” Colin said.

  “Yet they were fighting for the right thing. All of them were fighters. Even the petite and usually weak Anne.”

  “Fighters like their mom.” Vinnie leaned over and squeezed her shoulder.

  “You betcha big ass they were fighters.” She patted his hand and moved out from under the gesture of sympathy. Her gaze returned to me. “One man. Only one man was responsible for my sons losing everything they’d achieved, for my grandchildren being orphaned overnight and for me losing both my children.”

  “What about a police investigation?” I asked.

  “Oh, there was an investigation, all right. But between Romania and France, everyone was so scared to cause any more scandals that they didn’t want to look too hard. There had already been two huge revolutions in Romania and they didn’t want to cause another.” Her smile was triumphant. “They thought they could get away with sweeping all of this under the rug, but there was no way I was going to let my grandchildren grow up reading about their fathers being involved in some illegal dealings. Not in this lifetime.

  “So I gave the prosecutor an
ultimatum. Either he made sure France as well as Romania cleared my sons of any and all wrongdoing or I was going to go public in the biggest, loudest way possible. I have enough money to produce a movie about this and pay broadcasters to show it. They knew it and relented.”

  I studied her. “You’re not completely satisfied with the outcome.”

  “Of course not. I mean, I’m really happy that there isn’t a single black mark on my sons’ names, but their killer is still running around hurting other families. In order to get my sons’ names cleared, I had to agree not to pursue Fradkov’s prosecution.”

  “Why not?” Surely the police would like to convict a murderer.

  “I’ve never been able to find out exactly why, but I’m ninety-nine percent convinced Fradkov has some dirt on both the French and the Romanian head prosecutors. Either that or he promised a revolution that was going to put Egypt’s and Ukraine’s revolutions to shame.”

  “So you decided to look for Fradkov on your own.” Colin nodded. “I would’ve done the same.”

  Justine sighed. “I didn’t take into account that I would no longer have as much free time having four teenagers in my house. Previously, I would’ve dedicated every waking moment to finding Fradkov. Not the last few years. I had to go to parent-teacher meetings, go shopping for new shoes, deal with teenage outrage because the teacher dared give them homework, control their internet access, check that they speak to real friends and not just tap away to social media friends, remember to feed them and”—she touched her hair—“remember to go to the hairdresser once in a while. So no, I didn’t have much time to get that motherfucker.”

  “But you have people helping you.” Vinnie leaned back in his chair. “And I’m willing to bet that someone came through with something.”

  She raised one professionally shaped eyebrow. “Money buys a lot of information and even loyalty. All I did was offer some criminal a nice monthly stipend and he keeps his ear to the ground.”

  “Why would he do that?” No one could get useful information from such an action.

  “It’s an expression, love.” Colin took my hand and looked at Justine. “What did your guy find out?”

  She looked from us to Vinnie and back. “Well, I suppose Vinnie has told you everything I’ve found out before, so I’m not going to bore you with that.”

  “I would like to hear it again.” Mainly because I wanted to see her nonverbal cues as she shared the information. I might learn something of great value that she didn’t tell Vinnie.

  “Huh. Very well.” She scratched behind her ear, her expression revealing her bemusement at my request. “Ivan Fradkov was born in Cuba, spent most of his childhood in that area, but went to the US to study politics. I’ve confirmed a few rumours about him working for national security agencies. So far, my guys have only been able to confirm his connections to the CIA and to the old USSR’s KGB, but we’re not sure about MI6, Germany’s BND, Israel’s Mossad or Iraq’s INIS. But we do know that most of these places showed an interest in him as soon as he graduated. I reckon that one of them got him then. That’s why he disappeared for such a long time.”

  She took the jug with orange juice, filled her glass and took a few sips. “Then, about seventeen years ago, he started his... er... career in politics. Something in those years must have triggered his interest in changing the course of history. His first big success was in Belgium in 1999. He was the power behind the push for the government to admit that there were dioxin-like toxins in the feed, eggs and tissue of millions of chickens. You should read about it. It’s quite an interesting story. But for brevity’s sake, I’ll just say that the end result was that seven million chickens and fifty thousand pigs were slaughtered and discarded. It caused a food crisis in Belgium to the cost of around six hundred and twenty-five million euros.”

  Vinnie whistled, his eyes wide. “That’s a shitload of money.”

  “Yes. Not only did many Belgians shop for meat and dairy products in neighbouring countries, but they had totally lost faith in the governing party. The CVP lost spectacularly in that year’s elections, which ended their eight-year reign.

  “Then he got really into it. One day I’ll tell you all the detail. Hey, I might even write a book about it, but for now you only need to know that I have concrete evidence that Fradkov was behind the first campaign in Kiev that started the 2001 Ukraine-without-Kuchma mass protest campaign. Fradkov got a few people very heated about journalist Georgiy Gongadze’s disappearance.

  “The protesters went to the main plaza of Kiev in December 2000, insisting that there was a proper investigation into that journalist’s disappearance and also that President Kuchma stepped down. Fradkov incited a few more such events which ended up in the prime minister being fired, but more importantly, it was the precursor for the big Orange Revolution in 2004.”

  She drank the rest of her orange juice and filled her glass again. “The list of all his conquests is long. I hate to say it, but Fradkov is a hugely intelligent and very successful man. He’s never claimed responsibility or taken credit for any of the revolutions he’s caused. He always works under the radar and is smart enough to know when he needs to outsource.”

  The slight contraction of her orbicularis oculi muscles around her eyes gave her secret away. I leaned back in my chair. “The person giving you information about Fradkov is someone he’s outsourcing work to.”

  “Yes.” She looked straight at me. “And that’s all I’ll say on the topic. To continue about Fradkov, he’s been this successful because he’s not greedy. He does maybe one job every twelve to eighteen months. But those are huge jobs. I have not been able to establish the exact fee he charges, but you can imagine.”

  “No, I can’t.” I had no frame of reference for remuneration related to criminal activities.

  “Oh, I can, Jen-girl.” Vinnie snorted. “I bet his fees are seven figures, if not more.”

  “That would be my guess as well.” Justine nodded. “The kind of changes Fradkov’s work brought made new presidents and new CEOs very rich and powerful. Or I should say, richer and more powerful. They already had more than enough money to part with a few million before they had their competition ousted. Now to get to the reason I invited Vinnie for breakfast.” She pushed her glass away and leaned her forearms on the table. “Over the past few months, Fradkov’s behaviour has changed. To the point of being so obvious that it’s gotten a few mentions amongst his people.”

  “You’ve used far too many generalities and unclear expressions.” I needed detailed information. “What about Fradkov’s behaviour has changed? And who are ‘his people’?”

  Justine’s eyebrow lifted and her eyes narrowed. She did not appreciate my need for clarity. “If you give me a moment to explain, I will tell you. Firstly, Fradkov used to communicate periodically with his people. Okay, okay. I’ll first explain who ‘his people’ are.” The way she rolled her eyes was befitting her grandchild, most definitely not a woman in her sixties. “As far as I’ve been able to figure out, there are five people who frequently work with Fradkov. Even though he has something very powerful to control them, they have proven their worth to him a million times over.

  “And when I say a million times, I should actually say millions of euros. These guys have helped Fradkov infiltrate companies and government organisations through hacking, spying and all kids of subterfuge. Like I said before, he’s been this successful because he’s had a lot of help. As for knowing these five people’s names, I don’t.”

  “Tell me about Fradkov’s change in behaviour.”

  She tilted her head and studied me. “Do you know that you sound really rude most of the time? I know I’m a bitch and that I’m rude and sarcastic, but your rudeness is different.”

  “My intention is not to be rude.” I didn’t want to explain my non-neurotypical mind to her. “But I do want that information.”

  “See? Rude in a not really rude way.” She leaned back in her chair and waved with one hand. “
Never mind that. Fradkov’s behaviour. So, the last seven and some years I’ve had him on my radar, I’ve gotten to know his habits quite well. Like I said before, he’s in contact with his people frequently. And when I say frequently, I mean at least once every two weeks. That’s changed. In the last six months, he’s gone as long as six weeks without making any contact.

  “My guy was beginning to get happy because he thought that Fradkov was maybe dead and that would mean freedom. But he did make contact, only to go quiet again for three weeks, then five weeks. His communication was never predictable before, but it was within a two-week period.

  “Another thing that has my guy scratching his head is that Fradkov has never gone this long without planning someone’s demise. The contact he’s had with my guy has not been about work, research or some criminal activity. It has just been to touch base.”

  “Touch base?”

  “Ah, it’s mostly an American expression. It means Fradkov has only been phoning his guys to stay in touch and make sure they’re still living in fear of him. He’s not been asking them to do actual work and all of them are waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

  “When did the first shoe drop?” And what did shoes have to do with Fradkov’s change in behaviour?

  Justine laughed and Vinnie chuckled. He leaned towards the older woman. “It’s better to cut out most idioms and weird expressions, else you’ll realise just how silly most of them are.”

  Her laughter disappeared and her eyes widened. She turned to me, regret in her expression. “You’re autistic, aren’t you? Dammit. If you’d told me, I would’ve been more careful with what I said. One of Alexis’ friends is on the high end of the spectrum and it certainly taught me a few things about communication. Hmm. You make a lot more sense now.”

  “The shoe?” If this was an expression, I needed to know what she’d meant with it. I didn’t need to have a long discussion about autism.

  “Right. Back to business.” She winked at me. “These guys are waiting for the real reason Fradkov has been this quiet. They suspect that something big is coming and that this ‘something’ is going to be big and bad. Especially since they started doing some covert investigation.”