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CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

T hey all jumped out of their stools to huddle around Finn. The man didn’t appreciate it, lowering his laptop’s screen. ‘I’m not having strangers breathing on me.’

Daisy rolled her eyes. ‘Don’t be a bairn.’

Robert fought the urge to smack the man on the head. He gritted out, ‘What did you find?’

Finn huffed. ‘Nothing much. At least, I can’t make sense of it.’

When Nina raised her eyebrows and pointed to the laptop, Finn adjusted the screen so they could all see. ‘They’re just a bunch of pictures of some sort of register.’

Robert leaned in to see the screen. His chin nearly rested on top of Nina’s head as she too peered at what Finn was showing them.

It was a register, like a roster at a factory.

Nina gestured for Finn to keep scrolling through the images. After images of the registers came pictures of a table with numbers scribbled in the columns. Once more there were rows and rows of them.

Robert held up a finger. ‘Hold on. Scroll back to that one.’

Finn complied, but his scowl only deepened. ‘It’s the same as the rest of them. Some odd numbers scribbled on either side.’

Aye, after seeing the last five similar images, Robert’s brain had tuned those out, but this image had caught his eye. ‘It’s not the table. Look at the background. There’s a window right there in the corner.’

Finn zoomed in on the window. Unfortunately, the more he zoomed, the grainer the image became. ‘I can try to enhance it.’

Under Robert’s chin, Nina shook her head. ‘You don’t need to. I know where that is.’

And that’s what Robert had spotted, too. ‘That’s the street outside the crime scene. How did Jonas take these pictures? You said the lead asked you to meet at that place within thirty minutes of getting in touch.’

Nina placed her palm on her forehead. ‘I don’t know. And he’s taken those pictures in the daylight… We didn’t get there until dark. Jonas wasn’t who he said he was, was he?’

Robert tapped Finn’s shoulder. ‘Find everything you can about the person who owned this device. Jonas Pederson.’

‘I’m not your intern. I have work to get back to.’

‘I’ll pay you,’ Nina snapped. ‘Just do it. And send me a copy of those numbers. I need to know what they are.’

Nina tried to straighten, but her head collided with Robert’s chest. He reached out to steady her, holding on to her for just a moment. Then he stepped away.

Once they found who had framed Nina, when it was all over, would Nina stick by him?

‘You don’t.’ Finn’s grumble pulled Robert out of his thoughts.

‘You will be compensated, Finn,’ Robert said. ‘Please, just get this done. It’s important.’

The man had a serious problem with responding to anyone’s orders. And pleas it seemed like. Instead of getting on with whatever it was he did to find information on people, Finn had angled the laptop so they could all see his screen.

‘When I said those are numbers, what I meant was… er… I?—’

‘Spill it, Finn,’ Daisy snapped. ‘He doesn’t even have his warrant card on him.’

Robert nodded, hoping that would encourage the man. But Finn didn’t spare him a glance at all. He looked at Daisy, before clearing his throat. ‘Passport numbers. I’ve created enough fakes to know what they look like. I can probably tell you which country each of these belong to. But at a glance, it’s mostly Eastern European. The issue is we don’t know who these passports belong to.’

Nina brought a stool next to Finn and hopped on it. ‘I think I do. Robert, could you please bring me my laptop?’

Robert did as she asked then stood between Finn and Nina, watching them. Nina had some sort of email service open, scrolling through what looked like notes.

Billy set down a fresh cup of coffee for all of them then crossed his arms. ‘What are you going to do when you get the information you need? There’s going to be a point where you can’t handle it yourself.’

Finn stopped typing on his computer, his head now turned towards Robert. ‘You bastard.’

‘Not the cops,’ Robert sighed. ‘At least I won’t go to the wrong cops. Besides, I don’t think they can actually protect us. Someone’s after that data, Finn. And I’m going to keep yous safe.’

Daisy squeezed Robert’s arm. ‘And we’ll help. Actually, I’d kill for something to do.’

‘Me too,’ Billy added.

Robert ran a hand through his hair. ‘Billy, can you get me a list of all Shah’s businesses? You were right: that man was a sleaze, and somehow he’s connected to Anne and possibly the firm she worked for. And the firm’s embroiled in human trafficking. We need to find out if Shah dabbled in that business and if he had any enemies who could shoot him dead. Daisy, you’re with me. We’ll get a few answers for Nina.’

Robert laid a hand on Nina’s shoulder. ‘If this is a human trafficking ring, and those passport numbers belong to people brought here illegally, Daisy might be able to find out who those people are.’

Nina sighed. ‘That’ll be dangerous.’

‘That’s why I’m going with her,’ Robert said, then shook his head when Daisy tried to object. ‘The person in question didn’t think twice before shooting Shah. You’re not dispensable. None of you are. And human trafficking is dangerous.’

Daisy narrowed her eyes. ‘And it’s one of the worst possible crimes. Nina, tell me what you want me to do.’