Reviewing restaurants is normally a safe pursuit, but Lorne and Catherine face torture and death when they try to unravel organised crime's infiltration of the fine dining scene.
Their longstanding friendship deepens when they meet again seven mont...
Over the following days, the seized computers and servers were mined for information, and the large collection of plastinated amputation trophies was sent for DNA analysis to try to match them to mutilation and murder victims. A team of officers was assigned to study recent emails and to continue the routine correspondence as the members of the Canada-wide web were identified.
Lorne and Catherine had been moved back to the loft on the morning after the arrests, and Denise visited them daily with updates and groceries. On Saturday morning, Catherine had two broad parallel strips of pink paper taped to the belly of her yoga pants when she opened the door to greet her. Denise screamed. "Told you they work."
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They hugged and kissed and played like silly schoolgirls as they slowly giggled their way toward the kitchen. Lorne locked the door and followed, enjoying the bubbling energy of the pregnant pair. We knew it. Pleased science agrees with us.
A lot of baby talk later, Denise looked up from her coffee. "They arrested George yesterday afternoon in Calgary, so it's safe again for you outside for short spells."
Catherine looked up and winced. "Cynthia? You've still found nothing to connect her? Tough, isn't it? Re-establishing trust." She ran her finger around the rim of her cup. "Still no connections beyond the initial marketing and the opening promotions?"
"She appears to be completely clean. We've done a full search, a thorough record check. Nothing. She dealt by email directly with the Montreal office, and the communication is all business. There's no mention of either Robotham or Frick in any of it."
"Same we're finding with the body mod site." Lorne combed his fingers through his hair. "They don't seem to know each other there either." He laughed. "I'm pleased to see you're back to Bill Robotham and Gustav Frick. Samir Azmeh and Malek Jandali were a bit strange for me to use."
"Yeah, we've gone back to their fingerprint names. We have to do a lot of sorting and matching the next while. Not one among the hundreds we've identified so far has a criminal record."
"So they've also an identity theft thing going?"
"That, but most of them have emerged onto the records as refugees. We've uncovered a hole in the system — a huge one. It appears they've infiltrated, and they've been creating new identities at will."
"That makes sense. Use the system, be official and unique. It's a great base for them to start over — clean." He drained his coffee. "So what's the next step?"
"We've been setting up a lot. I'm not sufficiently high in the loop to know for sure, but from what we've been asked to contribute, everything points to something big happening soon. A coordinated Canada-wide sweep the next day or two."
"I should wait until after that's done before I contact Cynthia." Catherine shook her head. "Trust. So hard to... So hard. I've never before had to think like this."
Lorne wrapped his arm around her shoulder and hugged her into his side. "Trust. Yeah, so easily broken, so hard to repair. The doubts, the questions. They continue to linger."
She turned her head to him and drew a twisted smile, then she looked back at Denise. "What about the DNA?" She put her hand to her mouth. "God! It's so sickening to think about that. Any more matches besides Nathan?"
"Yeah, six more unsolved murders linked — seven now and they still have so many pieces unidentified. God, so sick."
"Coffee!" He stood and looked into the empty cups. "We need more coffee and something lighter to think about." He gathered the cups and went to the machine.
They were silent as they sipped the hot espressos. After a long quiet spell, Lorne spoke. "I guess we're still officially dead until the roundup is finished, so no internet presence. No follow-on or response to the blogs, no social media, no emails yet."
"That would be best for the gathering net." Denise looked up from her cup. "Catching them by surprise saves a lot of bullets and a lot of blood. Best if you remain quiet a while longer."
"The only one outside the Mounties I've been in contact with is my lawyer, and he's aware of the situation. He's working with my insurance company. The surveyor was given access to the hulk on Thursday, so the settlement is in process."
"That was quite the fire. I saw the glow through the bridge from our balcony, so I walked down to Spy Glass Place. So sad to see it burn and then sink. Big boat. Very big."
"Yeah, when I had her built, I was dreaming of sailing with a big family."
"Fuck!" Catherine reached out, fell onto his shoulder and held on to him, scrabbling tighter.
He cupped the back of her head and laughed. "Not right at the moment, Gorgeous, we have company."
She sat up and stared at him. "When was that? When did you have her...?"
The sound of Lorne's phone going bing-bong interrupted her. Catherine looked at him. "You need to get that, don't you?"
"Yeah, I do. My Mountie email sound." He pulled out his phone, thumbed it on and thumbed in, then clicked on the blinking icon and read a short while before he lifted his head and smiled. "It's from the Commissioner." He read it to them.
Lorne... Here's a press release I've just authorised. Thank you again for your assistance... Harold.
For Immediate Release
The RCMP, the OPP and the SQ completed a coordinated joint operation this afternoon, arresting nearly eight hundred people across Canada. This was the culmination of a long investigation involving a broad range of charges from child pornography and commercial fraud, through to murder.
The active portion of the operation involved more than twelve hundred officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Ontario Provincial Police and la Sûreté du Québec. They were armed with more than nine hundred arrest warrants as they moved in on three hundred and six addresses in seventy-four communities across the country.
The number of outstanding warrants is diminishing as the follow-up operations continue. Computers and files have been seized, and the ongoing investigations are adding to the number of suspects. More warrants are being issued. Further details to follow.
