Unknown Diners

Chapter Sixty-Two

Denise took out her phone and punched at it as Lorne went in to pull three more espressos. She was still on the phone when he returned with the cups, and he listened to her.

"... we'd need full twenty-four-hour security here. I think it would be better if they were there. Closer contact... I'll ask." She smiled up at Lorne as he set her cup on the table. "We've a secure suite at headquarters. Want to be moved? All the computer geeks are there, the whole investigative team is —"

She saw his nod and turned back to her phone conversation, confirming, and then arranging the details for their transfer. After she had clicked off her phone, she looked up and smiled. "Some things aren't meant to be carried alone."

Catherine put one hand on her own belly and extended her other hand across to Denise's. "Together. We'll go through this together."

"Yeah. Stronger this way." They leaned into a hug, then shuffled it closer. "Yeah, much stronger."

Thirty-five minutes later, they were escorted down the elevator and into a van in the parkade, then driven to E Division headquarters in Surrey and installed in a small suite.

"Spartan, but adequate." Lorne examined the rooms. "Better than some of those airport hotels. God! Remember that horrid place in Santiago when the flight was cancelled?"

"Strange thinking back to then. Five years ago. Five years married to Nathan. I couldn't stop thinking of you in the next room. My friend with whom I could talk. Stupid isn't it? How long it took me to realise I was unhappy with him. Really stupid."

They had begun unpacking the two bags they had quickly stuffed at the loft, when there was a knock. He looked through the peephole at a uniformed man, then he opened the door to the Staff Sergeant.

"The Deputy Commissioner wishes to meet with you in half an hour. I'll come back in twenty minutes to escort you."

"Thank you, we'll be waiting." Lorne closed the door and looked at Catherine for a moment, then they merged in a hug.

After several silent minutes, Catherine said, "I should finish unpacking, and you should see if there's a response from your message to rubme."

He opened his computer and logged in. "We need access to the net. The wifi code." He thumbed on his iPhone, clicked Hotspot and enabled it, then back at his computer, he connected the Bluetooth. "Quite a bit slower this way, but I'm in."

He browsed to the site, clicked on the PM flag and read Catherine the reply:

"Hello, Francis... I'm in Yaletown. Gustav is running marketing for us. You write well, he can give you some work if you want it. I'd love to do some work on you if you still don't want it. Be well, Bill."

"Interesting. In Yaletown. That has to be why he found Tastevin so quickly."

"My thoughts, exactly. So Frick is doing the marketing." He looked up at her from his computer screen. "We'll have to search for a connection between BorNullo and CynCat."

"Yeah, they're both involved in marketing, both into stretching and both on Robotham's bme site, so it should be easy to —" She was interrupted by the knock on the door. "Is that twenty minutes already?"

They were escorted to a small boardroom and introduced to the nine officers who were already waiting there, a Chief Superintendent, a Superintendent, four Inspectors and three Staff Sergeants. Among them were the heads of the Child Exploitation, Homicide Investigation and the Market Enforcement departments, as well as inter-force liaisons with Federal and International Operations and the Vancouver Police Department. Deputy Commissioner Singh came in, acknowledged Catherine and Lorne, then he asked everyone to take a seat at the boardroom table.

"Sorry for the short notice on this," Singh said. "But these two have uncovered something huge which crosses the lines between all of your departments, possibly other departments, but we'll start here." He looked at Lorne. "I'm going to let you ramble through this from the beginning, but to ensure they pay attention to you, I'll mention a few topics you'll be hitting."

Singh turned to the group. "Kidnapping, child porn, torture, mutilation, perjury, forgery, bribery, corrupting the courts and now widespread organised fraud and attempted murder." He looked at Lorne. "Have I missed anything?"

Lorne stood and nodded to Singh. "You've mentioned most of it, though I think at least one murder can also be added to the list." Lorne looked at Catherine and then at the group. "I'll not start there, but I'll mention now where I'm heading with the story. The murdered body pieces found in the Gastown alley last November, the boat explosion and fire at Quayside a few days ago and the restaurant fraud thing that's gone viral. Those are some of the places where this has evolved."

He paused and examined each face as he gathered his thoughts. "In 1996 I was chained in a garret and held captive there, sexually abused and mutilated by a priest for seventeen months. Some of you may remember the trial in 2003, and the subsequent ones for the defence lawyer and his expert witness."

Lorne watched as most of them nodded, then he continued the story with only sufficient detail to show the web of corruption and conspiracy which extended back at least a decade and a half and involved the organised crime mobs.

After he had brought the story to their current digging through the body modification and mutilation culture, he paused and scanned the faces again. "Last night, I discovered evidence that shows two child-molesting priests were fraudulently acquitted. There are likely more, but my stomach couldn't handle going back any farther at that point." He stood watching the silent faces.

Singh broke the silence. "Ladies, gentlemen. Any questions? Comments?"

A hand popped out, followed by a voice. "Inspector Bourgeois, Child Exploitation. Where are you finding your evidence on what you call fraudulent acquittals?"

"From the computer files which were seized when Robotham was charged. I was beginning to mine the emails."

"And how have you access to these?"

"From Ottawa. Harold pushed it through."

"Harold?"

"Sorry. Commissioner Gillespie." There was silence again.

Singh stood. "Lorne's been working quietly but closely with us for more than a dozen years. Some of you know him by code and will have now related him to that. Ensure his identity remains secret." There was nodding around the table.

Singh turned to Lorne. "Where should we start?"