The Flinck Connection (Book 4) (Genevieve Lenard) by Estelle Ryan Read Free Book Online Page A

responsible for that heist.”
    “Um, maybe later you can add that to your research report, Francine.” Phillip was a master in diplomacy and negotiation. “Let’s hear from Colin what he knows about it.”
    “Since Frey is the expert on stealing art, I agree with Phillip on this one, supermodel.” He grunted when Francine winked at him. “At least Frey won’t have theories that include alien invasions.”
    “You might be as sexy as hell, but you’re a real spoilsport, Manny.” Even though Francine’s mouth was pulled into an unhappy pout, her eyes communicated merriment. After all this time, I still didn’t fully comprehend the pleasure she took in pestering Manny.
    He ignored her and turned to Colin. “So? What happened?”
    “Two men walked into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, tied up the guards and eighty-one minutes later walked out with thirteen works of art to today’s value of five hundred million dollars.”
    “Bloody hell.”
    “You can say that again. These guys disguised themselves as policemen and entered through the side entrance of the museum. They buzzed the intercom and demanded to get in, saying they had received reports of a disturbance inside. There were only two guards securing the entire four-storey building, so it was easy to overpower them. They tricked the first guard, who was sitting behind the main security desk, by telling him they had an outstanding arrest warrant for him. He stepped away from the desk and the alarm button that he could’ve used to call the real police, and they duct-taped him.
    “They tied up the other guard as well, disabled an alarm when it went off and took their sweet time stealing the art. It took them less than an hour and a half. Two trips to their car and voila! They had half a billion dollars’ worth of hot art.”
    “That easy?”
    “Making it look easy isn’t always that easy.” Nikki shrugged when everyone looked at her. “What? Doc G makes reading people look easy, but I know she studied very long to be able to do that. Francine makes hacking look easy, but it took her a long time and a lot of practice to get to that level.”
    Concern tightened my chest. I turned to Nikki. “Your expression tells me that you admire Francine…”
    “I have no plans to start hacking anything, Doc G. I also don’t plan to steal anything or to intimidate anyone, but I still think Colin and Vinnie are cool.”
    “Thanks, punk.” Vinnie shook his index finger at her. “But you better not get any criminal ideas. We will spot you coming from a mile away.”
    I exhaled loudly. There were too many personalities seated around the table. This caused every conversation to be derailed at least five times. In the beginning, I had kept count of the distractions, but found that knowledge useless. Manny was now mocking Colin and Vinnie’s sincerity because of their criminal pasts. From experience, I knew that it would require anger from my side to bring the conversation back on track. I didn’t desire expending energy on such a doomed ambition, so I closed my eyes and went over the numerous bits of unconnected information.
    Was Minister Claude Savreux’s death connected to the Boston heist? If so, how was it connected? Most importantly, who was sending Nikki those direct messages? How did he know of her connection to us and where did he get his information? Was he connected to the Boston heist? There were many unanswered questions requiring attention, yet the arguments around the table continued.

Chapter FOUR
     
     
     
    It was the sudden silence in the team room that had me opening my eyes. The reason was leaning against the doorway to the corridor. Dressed in an immaculate suit, dress shirt without a tie and the top button undone, Henri Fabron communicated careless style. He was the president’s aide and was supposed to work closely with us on any case the president sent our way. In the year we had been working under the president, I had only seen him