When she lookedback, John was watching her with a slight smile on his lips. When he noticedher looking, though, he quickly coughed and turned away, glancing up thestairs. “Look,” he said, hesitantly, “have you thought to look in organizedcrime?”
Adele shook herhead. “We discussed it, but thought to start with Interpol’s cold ones.”
John nodded. “Makessense, but I’ve actually worked a couple of cases. Three years ago…” Hehesitated, trailing off.
“Three years agowhat?”
He looked herstraight in the eyes. “I didn’t try to kiss you. I just got a little too close.It was the alcohol.”
“Fine,” Adelewaved her hand, “you didn’t try to kiss me. Totally professional. What were yousaying?”
John seemed tosettle. “Three years ago I worked a case with organ harvesting. A group ofSerbians operating in France. They offered twenty-fivethousand euros for a good set of lungs, kidneys, liver, anything.”
Adele stared. “Agroup? How proliferate?”
John shook hishead. “Not entirely sure. We didn’t get all the books. We did, however, shutdown the ring. We caught the Serbians. A lot of desperate and poor in Francewere coming here, some of them offering their own kidneys, or whatever organsthey could spare without dying. Twenty-five thousandeuros is a lot of money.”
Adele felt herstomach churn. “Right,” she said, “and so you shut them down?”
John nodded. “Itwas messed up, Adele. I saw some things… and I’ve seen a lot.”
“What do youthink this has to do with my case?”
“The Serbiansoften didn’t pay. People would come, go under, have their organs removed, orbring some poor hapless victim who didn’t know any better, and prey on them.They would take the organs, sometimes killing the person, and then leave. Theywouldn’t pay. They left these people poor, broken, no money, with injuries andpoorly done stitches. Sometimes they wouldn’t even stitch them back up, andwould just leave them on their operating tables in a back warehouse, bleedingout; when they would wake from the anesthesia, they would be in pain, minus anorgan, and no money to show for it. There were more than a few of those caseswhere I had to visit someone in the hospital and watch while surgeons repairedthe messy job of the organ harvesters.”
Adele shiveredin horror.
He sighed. “Youknow what… fuck those guys. Fine, I’m in. I’ll help. But I can’t tell youanything it sounds like you don’t know. There is one angle, though.”
Adele watched,waiting for him to continue.
“I did have acontact. A French criminal. Not Serbian, but he worked with them, adjacent. Heturned informant to get off without penalty.”
“So he gave up acrime ring in order to avoid a prison sentence?” Adele asked. “Bold move.”
“Anyway,” saidJohn, “I think I know where to start.”
“If you want, wecan meet up tomorrow morning and—”
John snorted. “Whosaid anything about morning? Come with me, American Princess.” He turned andbegan hurrying up the stairs; Adele fell into step. She felt like he was movingfaster than necessary, just to force her to jog to keep up with his lankystrides. As they moved, John fished his phone from his pocket, and pressed itto his ear.
“Who are youcalling?” she asked, following him onto the first-floor landing and movingtoward the sliding doors that entered the parking lot.
“My contact,”said John. “He still works in France.”
Adele frowned. “We’regoing to go meet with a criminal?”
“Hush,” saidJohn. He held out a finger and actually pushed it against her lips. Adeleslapped his hand away, glaring, and John smirked again as he moved through thedoors into the parking lot, gesturing she should follow.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
By the time Johnpulled his sports car to a grumbling halt along the ridged curb outside thecafé, night had fallen.
Adele was stillstaring at the luxurious interior of the vehicle, shaking her head. “This can’tpossibly be government issue,” she said, glaring at John.
He smirked backat her, tapping the steering wheel. “No?” he said. “I thought Yankee DoodleDandies liked cars like this.”
She rolled hereyes. “Some of us think cars likes these are compensating for something small.”This time it was her turn to give John a significant glance and flip her eyesdown.
His expressionbecame rather fixed. “I can assure you, American Princess, there’s nothingsmall about—”
“Right, fine,”Adele said, hurriedly. “Who are we here to see then?”
Still glaringat her through narrowed eyes, John said, “My contact. Name of Francis. No givensecond name—learned that when we arrested him. He just goes by Francis—I don’tthink his parents could bother giving him another.”
Adele nodded. “Youguys friendly?”
John winked. “Comenow, of course. Everyone likes me.”
“That doesnothing to put me at ease,” Adele muttered. Stomach twisting, she followed Johnout of the sports car. She shut the door behind her, glancing back at thetinted windows and the glossy black paint. Vaguely, she wondered how on earthJohn had gotten permission to use this as his official government vehicle. DGSIallowed operatives to bend rules for the sake of collaring criminals, but shewould’ve loved to be at the pitch meeting for this gas-guzzling excuse for amode of transportation.
Then again, thiswas the same man who had a speakeasy in a government building’s basement. John’slengthy gait picked up as he moved toward the seedy café’s door. Adele couldpractically see smoke coming from within, twisting up past the low roof. Fourpanes of glass occupied the wooden green door, but the paint was chipped, andone of the sections of glass was missing.
Adele stared atthe café. She only knew what it was due to John. Otherwise, she couldn’t seeany sign or name suggesting this was a place of business. A series of redumbrellas hemmed in the front porch, wrapped in straps like leather above a fewround tables.
Beer canslittered the ground around the sidewalk, and the windows of the café itselfwere painted black. They weren’t tinted; it was as if someone had actuallyspray-painted them from the outside. The adjacent red brick building displayedall sorts of obscene drawings and graffiti. But the café itself hadn’t beenvandalized. Adele frowned. She’d once been on a case with Robert, years ago,where he’d told her that any place in a seedy
