Unknown Diners

Chapter Sixty-Six

On Tuesday morning, the computer analysts in the Commercial Fraud section began combing through the online reviews on the popular sites, starting with Vita Toscana, Nuance and Roberto, searching for patterns and repeats.

By mid-afternoon, they had identified thirty-seven accounts which had posted negative reviews on each of the three restaurants on Yelp, TripAdvisor, EatHere and Zomato. They shared common themes and phrases, and though each was slightly different, it was easy to see their relationship.

"Getting account information from Yelp, TripAdvisor and Zomato will be a long process." Inspector Raadsveld looked up at Lorne and Catherine as she tapped the list. "But we should be able to get something more easily from EatHere, it's Canadian, and we'll have freer access."

"What about CanDine and VanDine?"

Helma looked at Lorne. "I'm not familiar with them. New?"

"I'm not sure... They came up in my Google when I started digging a week or two ago. I saw high praises for a place I was doing research on — Molly's." He looked at Catherine. "That's where I got the idea to go try The Driftwood. Probably them."

"Who?" Raadsveld began slowly nodding, then accelerated it as she rose from her desk and motioned them to follow. "Yeah, good chance it is." She stopped in the lane between cubicles. "New direction, everybody. Comb through..." She paused and turned to Lorne. "The names again?"

"CanDine and VanDine. One word each. Search for the same or similar accounts to those on Yelp, Zomato, the others."

Lorne sat at an unoccupied desk, opened his computer, logged in, entered a url in his browser and clicked for a while. "The IP address for VanDine is a proxy server in Yaletown." He did the same with CanDine and found a different server IP. He clicked on the map link then turned to Catherine. "Two different servers, but the same coordinates. Appears you're neighbours."

She leaned closer to the screen to see the pin on the map. "Oh, God! That's just around the crescent from us, close to Tastevin's berth. He'd know the boat when he talked with George."

Lorne browsed to imBMEX.ru, did some clicking and looked back up at Catherine. "Robotham missed some security basics when he set up his systems, leaving himself wide open here." He chuckled. "He may be a clever lawyer, but as an IT, he totally sucks."

He stood, picked up his computer, grabbed Catherine's hand and led her back to Helma's office, pausing to knock on her open door. She looked up, smiled and beckoned them in. "Find something?"

"Yeah, Robotham." He grinned. "His dining review sites and his body modification site share servers in Yaletown. All three IP addresses point to a townhouse." He tabbed to GoogleEarth StreetView. "That one. Residential, not commercial. Too much coincidence. Way too much."

Helma was on the phone to Singh, before Lorne had finished. "Raadsveld here. We need to see you, Sir. Big... Yessir, on our way." She led them along the hall toward the Deputy Commissioner, who was standing at his door as they approached.

Within five minutes, Hopgood, Ferguson, Tung and Bourgeois had joined them. Each gave situation reports on the progress of their investigations, then they began tying pieces together.

When the discussion slowed, Singh stood from behind his desk and paced. "From the private message exchange, Frick is with Robotham, and they're likely at the townhouse on Marinaside. Makes sense they're there with the servers, but we'll find out. Robotham's now eager to meet Connolly. We've been told the arrest, search and seize warrants will be issued within the hour."

He paused his pacing and looked at each person in turn as he slowly nodded. "I think the next step is to set up a meeting. Can you see any reason we can't have our ghost of Connolly initiate the contact now?"

There was no response except a shaking of heads.

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At nineteen twenty-five, a white-haired man dressed in black walked slowly around the crescent, then turned back to retrace his steps, before he sat on the waterside bench across from Aquarius Mews. He looked at his watch, then pulled out a bag of sunflower seeds and began feeding the gathering pigeons.

Seven minutes later, a young man in jogging clothes stopped and sat beside him. "You can relax now. We nabbed Robotham and Frick shortly after they came out through the front door." He laughed. "Claimed we had the wrong people. Showed ID that they were Samir something-or-other and Malek whatever. The photos on the warrants stopped that cold. The team's inside now."    

The white-haired man looked up, smiled and extended the bag. "Another nice quiet one. Care for some sunflower seeds?"