After arriving back in Atlanta, the three parted ways to get a little more sleep at their respective residences, Adriana going with Sean. After a few hours of rest, showers, and a quick rendezvous breakfast at their favorite coffee shop, the three made their way to IAA headquarters in downtown.
At first glance, the location where Hamlet took place didn’t matter much, but several words being underlined with invisible ink changed everything.
“So we were right. Whatever it is we’re looking for might be located at the Kronborg Castle.” Tommy seemed a little ashamed of himself. “Shame we didn’t just fly straight there.”
Sean chuckled. “Don’t beat yourself up too much. It’s only money.” He grabbed his chest as he laughed. It still ached from where the bullet struck his money clip.
He was right. They’d done what research they could on the plane, but eventually all three of them had succumbed to fatigue and the need for a good night’s rest. Sean remembered when he was in his early twenties, staying up for thirty consecutive hours didn’t seem like such a big deal. Now, it wasn’t the same. All the more reason he was glad he’d retired from such ventures.
“I probably would have thought of it,” Alex prodded, as he remained focused on the task at hand. “But I think differently than the rest of you.”
Tara took offence. “Excuse me. Pretentious much?”
It was far too late for Alex to apologize, though he certainly tried. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant that I’m kind of a weird thinker is all. It wasn’t like I was saying I’m smarter than everyone else.”
The three older people in the room watched the conversation with hushed amusement. Sean and Tommy had seen it play out before. It was Adriana’s first experience.
“So you think you are smarter than the rest of us?” Tara asked, the entire time carefully maintaining her rhythm of turning the old pages.
“No!” Alex said so loudly it bordered on yelling.
Tara smiled. “I know you don’t. I just like pushing your buttons.”
He shook his head and went back to the discussion of the castle. “You guys should definitely check out that fortress. It’s pretty impressive. And it certainly seems like the previous owner of this book had a special place in his heart for that particular spot.”
Sean glanced over at his friend. “Looks like we’re heading back across the pond, buddy.”
“I know. I wish we’d thought of this sooner. Could have saved us a trip. London to Copenhagen is such a long way to travel.”
Sean put his arm around his friend’s shoulders. “All part of the adventure,” he said with a broad smile that nearly stretched from ear to ear.
“While we’re here, we should check on your friend at the hospital,” Adriana suggested.
“Good idea,” Sean agreed. “And we should probably see if he killed Charlie.” He winked as he finished the last sentence.
Before anyone else could add more to his attempt at humor, Sean’s phone started ringing in his pocket. “Excuse me for a minute.” He glanced down at the screen but didn’t recognize the number. The call was coming from somewhere in Europe, London if he didn’t miss his guess. Then he remembered the request Jim had put in regarding Petrov.
Sean made his way to the far side of the lab to take the call. “Hello?” he answered, still unsure if it was their English driver or not.
“Sean, it’s me, Jim,” he clarified. “Got a minute?”
“I’m all yours.”
“I don’t know if anyone is listening in on this conversation so I will have to be brief. There’s way more at play here than I thought.”
“Okay. Hit me.”
“Petrov was working for a guy named Gerard Dufort. He’s a big-time scumbag, really wealthy too. He lives in Paris but has connections all over the world. There are as many as a dozen legitimate multimillion-dollar businesses connected to him. Although most of his money originally came from the trust his parents set up before they died.”
“So he was born into it,” Sean said. “Based on the fact that you used the word legitimate, I’m guessing he’s got his fingers into some things that are less than on the up and up.”
“Right. On top of all that, it gets pretty shady.” Jim paused for a few seconds before elaborating. “The darkest thing I’ve heard is that he runs a human trafficking ring. No one is really sure where the transactions happen, but he owns enough properties that it could be from almost anywhere.”
Sean considered the information. “Sounds like this Dufort needs someone to teach him a lesson.”
“People have tried. No one’s been able to convict him of anything. He has most of the Parisian politicians in his pocket, and Interpol won’t touch him. There’s definitely something fishy going on with him, but whenever someone tries to pin something on him, it either goes away, or they end up dead.”
That last part made Sean remember something he’d wanted to ask Jim at the beginning of the conversation. “You said Petrov was working for Dufort.”
“You don’t miss much, do you?”
“Not usually. I try to pay attention. It’s an old habit, I guess.”
“Good man. Well,” there was a slight hesitation before Jim went on, “French police found Petrov’s body this morning. A tourist stumbled across it a few miles outside of the city. There was a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.”
The last bit of information threw Sean for a huge loop. “Why would Petrov kill himself?” It didn’t make any sense. Unless he owed money to someone. The big Russian didn’t seem like the type to owe. He seemed more like the collector.
“He wouldn’t,” Jim answered. “It gets stranger. The reports say that his face was pretty beat up, like he’d been in a fight. And one of his arms was severely broken.”
Sean wasn’t sure what any of it meant. The man that had tried to kill him was dead less than twenty-four hours after their encounter. But why? Sean’s mind ran through various scenarios, trying to connect the dots that would bring about the answer.
“What else do you know about Dufort?” he asked after a minute of silent contemplation.
“Enough to know that he would kill his own mother if she weren’t already dead.”
The gears in Sean’s head were spinning at mach speed. Dufort was the one behind all this. He was pulling the strings. That much, Sean realized now. But to kill his head mercenary would mean that Dufort either believed he had all the pieces to the puzzle, or that Petrov had screwed up.
“I don’t suppose you know anything about how Dufort usually dispenses with people, do you?”
“I’ve only heard some of the rumors.”
“Tell me.”
“Ah, it’s stuff that sounds more like urban legends, really. But the word on the street is that when Gerard Dufort has somebody killed, they’re never seen or heard from again.”
Sean absorbed the last bit of information. “That means he wanted to make a statement.”
“Say again?” Jim sounded thrown off by the statement.
“Dufort’s victims are not usually found, according to what you’ve heard. And you said that Petrov’s body was found by some tourists outside of town?”
“Yeah. Kind of weird, actually. It wasn’t very well hidden. Looks like they wanted to make it look like Petrov really killed himself.”
“That, or Dufort wanted to make a statement,” Sean added. “Odds are, Dufort knows we are on the same trail. He might be trying to scare us away. Nothing would do a better job of that than letting us know that he is willing to kill one of his most trusted aides to get what he wants.”