Foucaultgrunted. “I never asked you to come. Just don’t slam my door this time.”
Stiffly, Adeleturned and marched, straight-legged, out the door. She quietly shut the doorbehind her, resisting the urge to linger and eavesdrop through the glass.
As she steppedinto the hall, she exhaled, breathing a sigh of relief. It felt, for the firsttime, like a ball and chain had been unlocked from around her ankle. Hopefully,she could move freely for the first time in days.
She shook herhead in a physical gesture of relief. Adele thought of the three victims, ofthe killer with his toolbox. Despite what Paige thought, Adele felt certainthat organ harvesting had something to do with it. The water on the floor andice—the toolbox as a cooler, the missing kidneys… Someone was killing people toharvest their organs. But where should they go from here? What was the nextstep? They still didn’t know who that fake maintenance man was. What connectiondid he have with the three women? All of them had been expats. There wereonline forums and groups where they connected. Perhaps that was where theywould start. To investigate anyone who might have a connection to those groups.Maybe they weren’t the killer, but they could easily be supplying informationto the actual culprit.
Adele adjustedher suit and straightened her sleeves again. She marched straight to theelevator and pushed the button. Paige could take the stairs this time. Adelehad to find an organ harvester.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Adele stared outthe window, watching the corpulent rain clouds lumbering across the grayhorizon. The bleak skies matched her mood. She could hear Robert at hiscomputer, which was once again clear of viruses. She’d spent the last thirtyminutes listening to the tech rep admonishing Robert and giving him a series ofinstructions to avoid infecting his computer again.
Adele had verylittle doubt the computer would likely be inoperable within the week. Still,she could hear her old mentor tapping away and murmuring quietly to himself.She glanced over her shoulder in his direction, and said, “Anything?”
He didn’t lookup, and instead smoothed his mustache and yawned, exposing the two missingteeth in the upper part of his smile.
“Still nothing,”he said. “Nothing related, at least. No missing kidneys as far as I can tell.There was a case three years ago where someone’s lungs were taken, but it wasdone sloppily. Not professional. They were useless once the police caught upwith him.”
Adele shivered. “Well,thanks for that image,” she said. “Let me know if there’s anything relevant.”
Robert waved andreturned his attention to the screen. Adele glanced back into the gray skies.She pressed her hand to her pocket with her phone, waiting impatiently for it tobuzz. She’d contacted Ms. Jayne, who’d promised to have her own people atInterpol look for connections to organ-harvesting outside of France.
The wayclearance worked with Interpol’s files, only one of the French agents hadaccess to old cases at a time. Adele and Robert had flipped a coin and he’dwon—though she suspected he’d cheated. But now, Adele had to sit and wait forher turn to go over the old cases.
“Almost done?”she asked.
Robert shrugged.“Only a few more hours,” he said. “Then you can have the security key.”
Adele sighed.This license with Interpol was still in a testing period. She hoped,eventually, the more trust she garnered, the easier it would be to accessfiles. For now, though, a few hours was a long time to wait and stare out a window.
At last, sensingher disgruntlement, Robert glanced up from his computer. “If you want,” hesaid, “you can take a break. You look like you need it.”
Adele studiedthe rain clouds and watched as the first few droplets appeared as hazy streaksagainst the sky. She had once found herself caught in a rainstorm, right on theverge of the raindrops, fleeing it. Angus hadn’t believed her when she’d toldhim, but Adele still swore to this day that at one point the back half of hercar had been tapping with rain, while the front windshield had been completelyclear.
“Nowhere to go,”she said with a shrug.
Robert waveddistractedly at her, once again his attention fixed on the computer. “Theswimming pool is open back at the house. Or you could go for a jog.” He trailedoff, muttering to himself. Adele glanced over; it seemed as if he was againriveted by whatever he was reading.
“Just make sureto text me if there’s anything important,” Adele said.
Robert waveddistractedly and continued to study his computer screen, scrolling with hismouse. “Fascinating…” he murmured.
Adele rolled hereyes, pushed out of her chair, and exited the office.
As sheapproached the elevator, she felt a prickle up her spine, and she glanced overher shoulder, half expecting Agent Paige to be watching her every move. Butthere was no one in the hall. The disruptive agent had been assigned a newcase, and Adele would have to wait for her new partner.
She thought ofRobert’s comment about the pool back at the mansion. The last time she swam inthe pool, she had company. But that had been nearly a month ago. A month sinceshe last spoke with John.
Adele found herhand moving absentmindedly to the elevator’s buttons. She pushed the downarrow, waiting for the compartment to arrive. She entered the elevator andpulled out her phone. Absentmindedly, she scroll down to a contact: Dad.She stared at the screen for a moment, and then tapped the button.
At the sametime, as the phone emitted a quiet ringing noise, she reached out with herother hand and pushed the button for the basement. She didn’t really feel liketaking a break, but right now there was nothing for her to do. Perhaps shecould meet up with an old friend.
She sighed asher phone continued to buzz. At last, before the elevator reached the bottomfloor, there was a quiet clicking noise, the sound of static, then a voice. “Sharp?”her father’s voice buzzed through the speakers.
Adele frowned.Her father
