Chapter 7
Tristan
“Can you talk?”
I glance out the office door, pressing my mobile to my ear.
Lucia isn’t at her desk, and the hallway is clear.
“Yes.”
“Doug Dolsten died earlier today.”
“Cause of death?”
“Heart attack is what I’m being told. Nothing official has come through. No foul play suspected.”
“I’ll have Ozzie review the tapes.” We didn’t allocate live monitoring, although in theory, our systems would have alerted us if it picked up stress tones or keywords.
“Her team is on it. But, according to his passport, he’s been abroad since you visited his property.”
“Where did he pass?”
“Outside of Heathrow.”
Which means someone could have intercepted him on the plane or in Heathrow.
“Are they doing an autopsy?”
“We’re working on it.”
He’s never home.
His wife’s commentary says it all. Dr. Dolsten had been a traveling executive who worked himself to death or ventured into a land of vipers, or perhaps a mix of the two. The autopsy may reveal the complete story.
“Any updates?”
“No.”
“Still keen on this endeavor of yours?”
“Quite.” Although, my appetite for protecting the Wagner family name has diminished since meeting my father’s girlfriend.
“Please don’t tell me you’re shagging someone in the office.”
This statement from Nigel of all people has me suppressing a grin. “Sod off.”
“What can I say? Didn’t hear from you all weekend. Put ideas in my head.”
“Spent the weekend with my mum getting an overload on company details.” All I wanted to ask her was, do you know? But I held back, uncertain I wanted the answer, as neither answer works for me. Either my dad lied to me and is cheating on my mom, or my dad told the truth and the marriage I thought was rock solid is a farce.
“Why don’t you read her in? Seems like the best way to expedite the case.”
“First, like I told you, she’s no longer an employee here. She’s hasn’t been in the weeds in over a decade. Second, she’s too trusting.” Growing up, I doctored the truth a thousand times and she never once questioned me. “Third, if she learns what I really do, she’ll humble brag endlessly, and I’d go nowhere in Europe without someone in the upper echelons of society recognizing me as Tristan Wagner, an Interpol officer.”
“Meh.” The sound from Nigel’s mouth blends with the crinkling of a wrapper and a banging sound.
“What are you doing?”
“Grabbed a bar from my drawer. Day full of meetings. Keep me updated.”
The call ends as Lucia passes in the hall with a lidded cup of coffee. Her dark eyes flash as she speed walks to Peltz’s office. What a shite job. Her old school boss probably treats her like a house servant, expecting her to pick up his dry cleaning and cater to his whims.
My mum said Lucia has been here for almost eight years, and worked her way up as an intern to an executive assistant. Of course, she also bopped me on the head with her damn ring just for asking.
Lucia’s background report showed she doesn’t carry debt, but she doesn’t have much saved either. She has relatives in Portugal, Great Britain and Brazil. Her father and brother are both in prison, and the timing of her move to Portugal coincides with the charges of drug trafficking against her father. The conviction of her family might make her a target as an accomplice, if she believed money could get her family out of prison. Although, from what I know of the Brazilian penal system, it would require bribing the right official. The fact her father has remained alive for such a lengthy stay says it’s likely he’s climbed to the top of the prison order. Her brother’s served less than five years, but the same goes for him.
But, it occurs to me as I sit down at my desk and login to the Lumina network for the first time, there’s going to be a travel log of all personnel travel. Email is monitored by the company, which means it’s accessible. We can sort email logs by country destination. Phone logs can also be sorted by area code.
If anyone within the company researched Lucia’s family, contact with Brazil might stand out.
A week has passed since Hun Tap Peth’s alleged suicide. The BBC News stopped cycling the story, and the US media never picked the story up. He’d belonged to the opposition political party, so it’s conceivable his murder had nothing to do with his willingness to talk to us.
But if anyone within Lumina traveled to Cambodia or had correspondence with Cambodia, that’s another country that will stand out.
Nigel wasn’t wrong when he said this undercover role is akin to hunting for a needle in a haystack. Forty-six thousand employees aren’t involved. Finding the ones who are will be challenging, but not impossible.
Lumina does a significant amount of business with China and India. The two countries have more lenient human rights protections, making them ideal for pharmaceutical testing. Almost all of Lumina’s in vitro, meaning in life, or in human testing, occurs in those two countries initially. At least, that’s what’s recorded in the annual reports.
Out the door, Lucia sits at her desk, head bent diligently working. I halfway wonder if Pelz assigned me to an office overlooking her to see how easily I can be distracted.
Of course, he’s a politician of the corporate variety. Around my mother, he’s welcoming and amenable. In the meeting with underlings, he introduced me and didn’t acknowledge me again. I’ll learn a lot about the company simply by observing how he introduces me to the different executives. Around the ones he’s kissing up to, or the ones with tight allegiances to my family, I’ll receive one treatment, and around those that are in his pocket, or who work for him, I expect he’ll ignore my presence.
I can’t stand corporate politics. Wankers, the lot of them.
I far prefer investigations. Reading people. Discovery. Moving on to the next mystery.
A young man in a sweater and brown corduroy slacks approaches Lucia’s desk. She thumbs through a tray filled with files, removes one, and stands to hand it to him. I can’t hear what’s being said, but I can tell from his smile and the way he’s adjusting his spectacles he’s friendly with her. Based on his casual business dress, and the fact he’s chatting with an assistant, he might be someone else’s assistant.
Lucia’s thick black hair is pulled back into a low braided bun. She’s wearing a calf length pleated skirt, and a belted black turtleneck sweater. The narrow leather belt accentuates her trim waist. Her high heather gray heels are for office only. I didn’t see her arrive, but somewhere there’s a pair of boots tucked away in a drawer. Those heels she’s wearing don’t function on icy, snowy sidewalks. The forecast for today is cold with a significant chance of freezing rain.
The young man’s eyes widen when he looks beyond Lucia, and he catches sight of me.
Yes, I’m watching you.
He clutches the folder to his chest, says something that looks suspiciously like I’ll see you at lunch, and then he’s off. Lucia glances over her shoulder. Did he tell her I’m watching or does she sense it?
She turns and walks my direction. Her skirt sways with each step, but when she stops outside my door, it takes a significant amount of willpower to keep my gaze trained on her face and not the curves her body hugging sweater amplifies.
“Do you have everything you need?” Her demeanor is one hundred percent professional. There’s no sign of the friendly woman from the pub.
“Actually, I need some basic information. What’s the process for booking flights? Hotels? Or filing expense reports?”
“HR should have taken you through that.” She approaches my desk, takes my mouse, swivels it to awaken the monitor, and directs me to a violet square with the Lumina logo. “You might not be set up yet. Are you going to have an assistant?”
“Are you offering?”
Her perfume is light and sweet. The scent is so mild that it might be a fragrant lotion. If I removed her clothes, it wouldn’t take me long at all to discover the answer.
Click .
“This is Lumina’s system.” She leans across the desk, careful to avoid touching me. “Everything you should need is in this hub. Expense reports. Travel requests. Calendars, although not everyone’s calendar is available. When you schedule an appointment, you can select if you want it to be available for viewing or if you want it private.” She backs away from the desk, taking her sweet scent with her. She crosses her arms below her breasts and I completely fail at keeping my eyes trained on her face. No need to sweat it, since I’m playing the role of cad.
“That’s a nice feature. Does it exist for travel plans and the like?”
Her lower lip protrudes slightly, the only sign she’s giving this some thought. Which means Pelz doesn’t worry about others seeing his travel schedule.
“I don’t believe so.” Her gaze flits to the ceiling. “I would imagine the only people with access to travel and expense reports would be Human Resources and accounting.”
“On expense reports, do you know if the phone detail is included?”
She slowly shakes her head. “I don’t have to expense Mr. Pelz’s cell phone bill. I imagine it’s part of a corporate bill.” She backs up further. “I’ve never seen his bill.” Her eyes narrow and a remnant of pub girl surfaces. “If you’re asking if anyone will notice if you visit lewd sites, the answer is yes. Our IT department blocks access to adult sites. If you happen upon a site that’s not blocked, they’ll catch on. I don’t know how but…”
Her gaze flickers to the hallway.
“They caught someone?”
“That’s what I’ve heard. Better to do all that at home.”
She steps towards the doorway.
“All that?”
Her cheeks flush ever so slightly and her eyes widen. “The naughty bits.”
An unruly wisp falls loose and she whisks it behind her ear. I’d like to step up to her, breathe her in, run my nose and lips along that graceful neck, nipping her until she shivers.
Her glance over her shoulder before returning to her keyboard confirms she feels the weight of my gaze.
I have no business playing with her. But then again, she’s been here eight years. I’d wager she’s observant. She’s in the case file. And it’s quite possible for the right price she could be convinced to do things like lie to an employees sister when she calls.
Chasing her fits my role. And hell, it might even mean I’m following in my father’s footsteps. I always thought it was romantic that he met my mother at work, but how many others did he meet and sleep with? Sexual harassment wasn’t a thing for most of his career.
Is that why he no longer works here? Did he have too many affairs? Did HR consider him a risk? I’d wonder if that’s why my mum jumped to the conclusion I’d hit on an assistant, but she’s heard too many stories from my boarding school and university days. And it’s a persona I’ve purposefully amplified since joining Interpol.
Lucia stretches her neck to the left, and her slender fingers knead the muscle. She’s going to be a distraction. Perhaps instead of fighting it, the best plan is to leverage her. After all, any good hunt thrills.