He shook his head. "No, I cannot." His gaze pinned on me. "I told you I'd come back. I told you that you would want to speak to me, but you didn't believe me then."
"Just answer the question, Van Linsted," I prompted.
Amelia scowled at him too. "We're here to listen. When you were arrested, you said you could offer information. What was it?"
He sat back and crossed his arms even though his solicitor was prompting him with her eyes to respond.
"I don't think I will. I don't think you're ready to hear it."
Amelia frowned. "Enough jerking our chain. You either have information, or you don't."
I wondered how this man could have gone from refined and handsome to this. His skin was sallow. His nose looked like perhaps it had been broken. The exact opposite of refinement. It was then that Van Linsted looked between the two of us and started laughing. "Ah, I see. Something has changed." He glanced at me and grinned. "You are in the doghouse, which means you are now in charge.” He pointed while looking at Amelia. “I find this shift intriguing."
Amelia tried to drag his focus back to the line of inquiry, but he wasn't having it. "Go on, tell us what you did."
“I’m not here to be interrogated,” I said coolly.
"Oh, come on, I just want to know what you did wrong that would get you dethroned from the gilded towers. Tell me, did you fraternize with the enemy?" he asked while directing his eyes at me.
I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of being taken aback, so I tried my best to stay unaffected and smirked. But Amelia saved the day for me. “May I remind you, Mr. Van Linsted, we’re supposed to ask the questions, not you. We don’t have time for any of your crap.”
“All right fine, I'll tell you what you want to know." He grinned at me evilly. "You are looking for an organization called the Elite. It's a secret society, but you know, since I'm in here and no one's done a goddamn thing to get me out, I don't give a shit about keeping their fucking secrets. Not anymore."
I made a point to show zero emotion. I wasn't going to get embroiled in this battle.
Amelia leaned forward. "Explain more please. Who are they?"
"The baddest, wealthiest men in the world. We run the world."
I couldn't help it. My mouth got away from me. Honestly, it wasn't my fault. "Well, not we, right? Because you are no longer master of anything."
He narrowed his gaze at me. And I could tell, I knew in that moment, he wished me dead.
"I can even tell you who's in it. But the most important thing you need to know, as you probably gathered from your work on my father’s case, is that its members are powerful. They will do anything and everything within their power to avoid detention. They're involved in underworld activities, corruption, bribery, theft. This is not your ordinary secret society. This is something altogether different. These men are dangerous."
Amelia could sense it. She had him where she wanted him. "Unless you can give me names and a list of crimes, I don’t buy any of it. So why don't we start with the names first?"
He laughed. "Ah, yes." He smiled at me then. "I seem to recall that you were snooping around some very specific members, Ben Covington and his mates."
I nodded. "That’s not news.”
“The list of their crimes is a mile long. You'll have a hard time proving it though. But one thing I could help you prove is the Canary Jewel. They stole it."
I smiled half-heartedly. "We're not here for conjecture. We're here for something you can prove. And unless you have proof, nothing you say can be of any use to us."
He turned to me then, his face a mask. "All right, you want something that you can use? I have proof. Ben Covington and his London lads, or whatever the fuck they call themselves, were working with my father on the human trafficking ring. The old man kept a ledger. I took it from him. It details his associates. You’ll find the London Lords in there. A good mate of mine is holding onto it in his office for me. Rhys Mathison."
“And if you’re lying?” I asked.
He smirked. “You’re Interpol. I’m sure you’ll check for authenticity and whatnot. You bring me a deal I can work with, and you can have it. The London Lords on a platter.”
And just like that, a knife had been stabbed into my gut. I didn't hear anything else that happened in that interview. I knew he was lying. I knew I needed to warn East, and Ben, and Bridge. But I had no way of getting to them. No way to contact them. East wouldn’t listen to me.
That's not true. You have ways in.
Olivia Ashong would listen. Jessa Ainsley too.
I needed to reach out to them, because if Bram Van Linsted had his way, he was coming for them, and he’d use Interpol to do his dirty work.
At the end of the interview, Amelia had a bounce to her step. "This is huge, Ny," she said as we waited for security to let us pass through the gates. She checked her watch and frowned. “Shit, I have to get back to the office since this is an unsanctioned fishing expedition. But listen, I need you to call some of your private investigator contacts and see if they can get us that ledger from Mathison. Maybe he’s not a mate of Van Linsted after all. In the meantime, I’m going to try to get a warrant.”
I turned to her. "You can't be serious. You don't believe him for a second, do you?"
"We have to look into it. And maybe I don't believe that they're part of the human trafficking ring, but he's told us what to look for. He can give us more access than we've ever had. And
