A/N. Thank you tlh45, smuffly, CSIFlea, Marianne and guest for continuing to review so faithfully. So glad I haven't lost you yet but you're going to have to wait a little for the action chapters. Almost there but first it's time to bring the teams together!
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Chapter 7 – The Target
"Okay Jo, I have something." Jo twisted round as Adam came rushing in. "I checked Lucas Mattelli's accounts and he has been using a coffee house in Arlington. Fortunately all their branch computers are networked and use a remote maintenance program that is really rubbish and is supposed to wipe all the user data but in fact it is only a ..."
"Adam?" Jo stuck up two fingers and slowly pushed them towards one another. "Short version."
"Oh right yeah. Okay … well it seems Lucas was using a an account called BlueBoy1412. He sent a dozen messages with details on the op to rescue Davy Schaeffer to someone called BlackWidow66 who in turn sent messages to an account called GoodDoctor451 – that's Moreau's account, the one he accessed from the tablet you found under the couch."
"Okay so where does this leave us?"
"Well, I checked the BlackWidow66 account and this account is almost always accessed from a number of internet cafés in Washington with the exception of the last message sent. This was sent from a café here in New York yesterday afternoon." Adam held out his tablet and Jo read the message there.
"Good doctor compromised. NY have made link with NO. Please advise." Jo thought for a moment, the ring on her thumb drumming out a little tune as she tapped it against the desk. For some strange reason it reminded Adam of the funeral march and he gulped nervously. "Adam, do you think you can find footage from near the coffee house around the time this message was sent?"
"Er yeah … er I can see if there's some NYPD traffic cams or CCTV … er am I looking for anyone in particular?"
Jo turned to face him, her eyes full of anger. "Yes! An Interpol officer by the name of Elsa Rossi."
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"CSI:NY – CSI:NY – CSI:NY"
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"Curtis Maine?"
"Yeah." The small bespectacled man with a CTC baseball cap looked up from his tablet PC, his stylus poised in the air as Stella Bonasera approached, her badge held out.
"I'm Detective Bonasera, this is Detective Frank Mitford. You were expecting a shipment of French perfume from the Bella Rosa to be delivered today?"
"Er, yeah but it's been delayed in customs ..."
"I know. That's because I asked them to hold it. One of the cases is missing from that shipment. What I need to know from you is why?" Stella stuck her badge back on her belt and stared intently at the warehouse manager who face was a mask of confusion.
"Huh? How the hell would I know that? I haven't even got them yet."
"Actually yes you have." Frank Mitford turned around and waved. A large truck slowly backed into the warehouse. "I take it you track all the crates by bar-code?" Maine nodded.
"Good. Then get checking. I want to know which one is missing and where it was supposed to go." Maine stared at the pair like they had gone mad.
"Now?" he asked timidly.
"Now!" Curtis Maine gulped at the intensity of their demand and the urgency that seemed to be etched into every muscle of their faces. He grabbed his radio and made a call.
Stella was impressed by how quickly the crates were removed from the container by reception forklifts, scanned and shifted onto the enormous storage racks. Within forty minutes Frank and Stella had the answer to their question.
Curtis Maine ran the stylus across the screen as he stood by the forklift with a pallet of seventeen crates piled onto it. The young driver peered at them curiously from the cab. "Okay this shipment is the one with the missing crate." Stella and Frank peered over his shoulder. "It was due to be shipped overnight to our Brooklyn warehouse and ..." He tapped at the screen with his stylus. "... then it's due to be delivered on to Hall 3 of the convention centre in New York the day after tomorrow for the cosmetics fair." Stella and Frank looked at one another, thanked him curtly and left without another word leaving the poor man bewildered.
Jed, the young forklift driver looked at his boss. "So what the hell was that all about?"
Curtis Maine lifted his hat and scratched his balding head still staring at the space the two police officer's retreating backs. "I haven't the faintest idea."
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"CSI:NY – CSI:NY – CSI:NY"
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It was getting late as Don Flack paced up and down the conference room. "Bitch!" he spat.
"Well, that's a charming welcome!" Don spun round, a look of astonishment on his face.
"Stella!" He wrapped his arms around her. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"I invited her." Jo smiled as she extended a hand. Stella returned the smile and the handshake, both women asking the same unspoken question. Anything from Mac? "Nothing. You?"
Stella shook her head. "Allow me to introduce Frank Mitford." Stella greeted her old team and once the introductions were made, they settled down to business.
"So who's the bitch?" Stella grinned at Don.
"Elsa Rossi!"
"What?" Stella looked stunned. "What's she got to do with this?"
"Who's Elsa Rossi?" asked Frank looking around the room.
Jo opened her mouth to explain their latest findings but before she could answer, Stella stepped in. "NYPD Interpol liaison. One of our first cases about ten years ago. Mac and I had to work with her on a child pornography ring. She's a devious, ambitious, manipulative, man-eating she-devil ..."
Frank stared at her in surprise. "Wow! So you got on well then?" Frank rolled his eyes at Don who was grinning like a Cheshire cat. Frank was clearly a man after his own heart.
Stella bristled. "No I didn't and as for poor Mac ..." Stella shuddered and threw a look that left Jo feeling in no uncertain terms that she had been right about Elsa Rossi from the minute they had met.
"Well Elsa Rossi is still our Interpol liaison but I have a feeling that she is playing for both teams." Jo walked over to the screen and tapped at one of the photographs which she enlarged. "Not one hour after she left us, she sent an anonymous message from an internet café under the name BlackWidow66. This is her leaving the café." Elsa Rossi was pictured flagging a cab and given the look on Stella's face Jo was surprised the screen didn't disintegrate. "Adam is trying to trace her movements as we speak. We believe that she is the link between The Forum and Lucas Mattelli who was leaking details of the mission to rescue Davy Schaeffer."
"She must have known that Jean-Luc Gallet was going to the convention centre; she could have been the one who reported him to The Forum," added Lindsay.
"More than likely," agreed Jo.
"Have you identified his murderer?" asked Frank.
"No, but we have a list of people in the tri-state area who are registered as having Marfan's syndrome." Frank looked questioningly at Sheldon. "It's a genetic disorder of the connective tissue. People with Marfan's tend to be unusually tall, with long limbs and long, thin fingers. They often have to be treated for complications resulting their unusual bone structure – back pain, joint problems etc."
"I've contacted my friend Max in Hawaii. According to him HPD had one eye witness statement in the murder of Lee Chang but it was discredited because the guy had been drinking." Sid opened a file in front of him. "The witness described the man he saw leaving Chang's house as an 'Angel of Death', a giant with white skin and white hands!" Sid looked at them over the top of his glasses. "I don't know how helpful that is but we have compared the murder weapons and they are identical. Lee Chang, Jean-Luc Gallet and Pierre Moreau were all killed by the same person."
"Stella what can you tell us about CTC and the death of Roger Clemens?" asked Jo.
"COD was drowning but he had help. According to my ME sub-dermal bruising is consistent with him being held under water. The size of the marks indicate someone with strong small hands and stubby fingers. What was unusual was that the killer placed a shell in his mouth. It's a round shell generally less than two centimetres, called the L'Oeil de St. Lucie that's to say the Eye of St Lucy.
"His god-daughter's eyes," trilled Danny and Lindsay making Stella and Jo smile.
"It's typically found in Corsica. It has a rounded side and a flat face with a pink spiral. It is considered to be a lucky charm particularly for fishermen, and is considered to bring wealth and ward off the evil eye," continued Stella. "Now I've done some checking and traces of this same shell were found at the crime scene in Baghdad and at the murder of a longshoreman in the port of Marseille."
Frank Mitford nodded as Stella recounted what they had found. "It seems that the Corsican is well known to both the French and Italian police forces. His trade mark is leaving an Oeil de St Lucie in the mouths of his victims as a warning to others not to cross him."
"Do we know where he is now?" asked Lindsay.
"Thanks to my team and a painstaking facial recognition we do." Stella quivered with pride. "Our Corsican friend flew into New Orleans four days ago under the name of Marcello Antonetti. He hired a car claiming to be on vacation. Although he is now off the grid we believe that he could be responsible for the death of Roger Clemens and that he was the one who … diverted … the shipment of perfume."
"And you know this how…?" Danny looked curious.
"Because he hired a speedboat with enough fuel to intercept the Bella Rosa as she came into port. Coastguards reported seeing the Bella Rosa slow down for no apparent reason. It is our belief that someone on board the Bella Rosa, opened the container and somehow passed the crate over the side to our Corsican friend Antonetti." Stella leaned back in her chair with a small shake of her head that sent her golden-brown curls bouncing. "The big question is why would someone go to a lot of trouble to divert a case of French perfume?"
"For the same reason they took my son." Stella and Frank turned around to see General Marty Schaeffer leaning heavily on his stick. "Hello Stella."
"General Schaeffer." Stella immediately rose and approached the old man. "It is good to see you again. I am so sorry to hear what happened to Davy." The old man smiled weakly and nodded. Stella guided him to a chair shocked to see how frail he had become since she last saw him.
Martin Schaeffer sighed as he eased his body into the chair. "Davy decided to take a sabbatical working for a humanitarian mission after he was made redundant from a weapons research corporation. His last project involved developing safety containers for liquid explosives, the kind that could be used to transport minute quantities of explosive and be primed by ordinary soldiers in the field. I kept wondering why al Shabab would hand Davy over to al Qaeda. It didn't make sense unless they knew about his work in this field. From what Jo has told me, these containers may look like perfume but it is highly possible that are in fact bombs … "
"Then that would make the target the New York Convention Centre?" Frank suddenly sat up straighter, his actions mirroring the other occupants. "We have to find that shipment."
At that moment Adam came rushing in his face a picture of joy.
"Oh tell me you have found Elsa Rossi!" pleaded Jo as Sheldon asked if he had identified the mysterious stain on Pierre Moreau's sleeve and Don asked if he had identified Red Hawk.
For a moment Adam look overwhelmed by the barrage of questions. He looked from Jo to Sheldon and then to Don. "Er … no … yes … no! But never mind that now … I have something even better!" Adam grinned at the astonished faces around the table and pointed to the speaker phone in the centre of the conference table. "The boss … on line one!"