The Matejko Connection: Genevieve Lenard, #17

By Estelle Ryan

​​Copied masterpieces. Mediaeval obsession. Ruthless revenge.

After months of reaching frustrating dead end after dead end, Doctor Genevieve Lenard and her team finally have a location for the enigmatic criminal who controls the Camorra through fear.

Mondi is a vicious criminal who has taken over the Mafia drug trade in Italy, yet he's traced to an unexpected location in Central Europe.

The moment they set foot in the same city as Mondi, their cybersecurity is compromised. And this is just the beginning of a relentless onslaught. They soon realise Mondi would stop at nothing to carry out the revenge he's been meticulously planning for the last two years. 

The more Genevieve delves into Mondi's world, the more she realises that her usual methods of solving cases are inadequate. It will take more than she knows, more than she can contribute to stop this man who has turned into a monster. The stakes have never been this high.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Estelle Ryan
• Release date: Apr 22, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224087938

Book preview

Chapter ONE

I got him! Francine’s excited and very loud utterance startled all of us at our workstations. She punched the air above her head and wiggled in her chair, dancing from one side to the other. I got him, I got him, I got him.

Where is that bloody bastard? Colonel Manfred Millard got up and walked to my best friend’s desk. She was still shaking her shoulders and waving her arms in a celebratory dance, her bracelets jangling.

I narrowed my eyes and got up from my desk. Our office was on the top floor of this building we owned. I had a glassed-off, soundproof room where I watched footage and analysed information on the fifteen top-of-the-range monitors arranged in front of me in three horizontal rows with five monitors in each. Everyone else’s desks were in the open space area.

Vinnie, my male best friend, also got up to join them. Please tell me that fucker is close so we can end him.

I left my viewing room, but walked to Colin’s desk. My life partner held out his hand and kissed my knuckles when I put my hand in his. Our team was all present in the office today. We’d been looking for a criminal since our last case in Naples, Italy.

Mondi. The elusive and enigmatic Mondi.

When we’d first heard of Mondi, we hadn’t even known if Mondi was a person or a place. This name had been mentioned twice in Italy and both times have been with great trepidation. We’d since learned that Mondi was a man who’d gained immense power over the Camorra in the last two years.

On its own, the Camorra was one of the most violent and brutal organised crime groups in Italy. It was also one of the oldest and largest criminal organisations in that area, with a history dating back to the seventeenth century. Their key businesses were money laundering, counterfeiting, drug trafficking as well as the usual racketeering. And like most organised crime groups, it was common for the Camorra to infiltrate politics. Many politicians were already incarcerated for cooperating with this violent group of criminals.

Last night, Francine and I had made a discovery that was likely the reason she’d finally found Mondi’s location. I narrowed my eyes at her. I knew that look. She was about to tease and waste time before revealing this pivotal discovery. I looked at the three monitors on Francine’s desk. There was a map on the one in the centre. I immediately recognised the topography. Poland. He’s in Poland.

Oh, my God. Why don’t you just steal my thunder? Stab me in the heart? Francine rolled her eyes at me and turned back to face her computers. As you just heard from my ex-best friend, Mondi is indeed in Poland. I traced him to an IP address in Warsaw.

I decided to ignore her obvious overreaction to my revelation and instead focused on her last sentence. How did you find the IP address?

And explain again how you know he’s a he? Vinnie raised both shoulders when we looked at him. He grinned at me. You didn’t talk as quietly as you thought you might’ve when you told Colin about your breakthrough last night. Roxy was reading to the kids and I was ordered to get another book. I overheard you.

Vinnie and Roxy stayed in the apartment next to ours. Many years ago, we’d cut through the adjoining wall to create a large archway joining our two apartments. We lived separately, but spent most evenings around the dinner table, enjoying Vinnie’s cooking that he always prepared in my kitchen.

The last few months had been a challenging adjustment for me though. Our previous adults-only space was now shared with seven-year-old twins.

During our last case, which started on Vinnie and Roxy’s wedding day, Vinnie had learned his cousin had twins he hadn’t known about. His cousin’s health deteriorated while we’d been there, and Vinnie had promised Carlo he and Roxy would take care of the kids. Within weeks after our return from Italy, they’d formally adopted the seven-year-olds. Our living arrangement had become rather noisy and active. The first weeks had been truly difficult for me. Any change in my routine took a lot of energy and time for my neurodiverse brain to accept.

Focusing on work, on finding Mondi, had gone a long way toward softening the adjustment somewhat. I’d been working at the dining room table last night when I’d finally gained some new insight into Mondi. Francine showed me Mondi’s communication on the gaming chats. His vernacular indicated English is his second language, yet he is fluent. His use of pronouns, as well as his general vocabulary and sentence structure, indicated he is a male.

I’d already explained this in detail to Colin last night, so I’d been prepared to forego the comprehensive analysis. I kept to neurotypical simplicity.

Uhm. Vinnie blinked twice, then turned to Francine. Gaming chats?

Francine sighed dramatically. I had a beautifully sensational presentation ready to impress you with how I figured out Mondi is a person and where I found him.

Francine. Manny closed his eyes for a moment before he looked at her on an inhale. Debrief us without the dramatics.

For a moment, I could see her consider saying something inappropriate, then she just laughed. Okay, fine. I got access to Alessandro’s cloud storage. She turned to her computer and held up one index finger.

Alessandro had been a victim of a Camorra clan we’d investigated in Naples. Under great duress, he’d done favours for the clan leader, which had led to his aunt’s violent death. When a clan hitman had fatally wounded him, he’d used his last breath to tell us that Mondi had been using Pegasus to control that clan.

After months of obsessive searching, we’d finally had a breakthrough. One that Francine was taking her time to share with the rest of the team. She took another ten seconds before she pointed at the left monitor on her desk. Alessandro had an interesting hobby.

That’s... Vinnie frowned and leaned closer.

Discord. Francine nodded slowly.

Why is that important? Manny asked.

Seriously, old man. Vinnie shook his head. Discord is only the most important gaming chat platform on the internet.

But not the only big one. Francine winked at Manny. It’s important because most gamers hang out on the big platforms like Discord, Guilded, Band and so on. And for those of us who are not gamers, these platforms are really important in the gaming community. It’s like the Facebook, Instagram and TikTok of the gaming world. Many gamers are loners in real life, but here they connect with like-minded people and feel like they’re part of a community.

It was such a deeply ingrained human trait—the need to belong. When Francine had shown me this two days ago, I’d almost lost focus. It was a fascinating study of human social interaction that I vowed to give myself the pleasure of investigating at a later stage.

Francine was about to continue on a topic not related to Mondi. I spoke as she inhaled to resume. Francine looked at Alessandro’s interactions and realised he conducted Camorra business on the chats.

Then my bestie told me to look for Mondi in those chats. Francine took her time to look at us individually before announcing, Then I found him. I followed up on one interaction he had with Alessandro on Discord. That led me down a rabbit hole. She pointed at the monitor on the right. "This is not Discord. This platform is frequented by a specific subset of gamers—hardcore gamers that only play mediaeval games."

Like Knights of the Round Table type stuff? Vinnie asked. Game of Thrones?

Exactly. Francine nodded at the monitor. These guys are passionate about it. I mean, these people are the type who would study that era, the people, their food, their clothing and everything about the history of the game they’re playing.

That sounds more like an obsession. There was no censure in Colin’s tone.

Exactly. Francine pointed at the monitor on the right. That’s where Mondi has been hanging out. For some odd reason, he seems to have a serious issue with the Teutonic Knights. Hmm. I suppose everything about him is odd.

What do you mean? Vinnie asked.

I don’t know. Francine looked at me. Genevieve thinks he’s highly educated, retirement-aged and married. I think he’s a sicko. He takes a lot of vile joy in brutally slaying the knights.

Oh, he’s one of those. Vinnie crossed his arms and leaned back.

One of what? Manny asked.

A fucker who enjoys being the bad guy. Vinnie’s fists tightened, his biceps bulging. I’ve never had good experiences with gamers like that.

There are games that allow the players to control the villain. Colin didn’t play often, but he was good at it. I’ve never played any of those, but that’s another subset of players that the world needs to be careful of.

Bloody hell.

Indeed. Francine shook her head. Mondi likes one specific mediaeval game—and yes, that’s the one where he controls the sickos killing the Teutonic Knights. He’d had several discussions on the gaming chat about that.

Mondi’s chats had been very revealing. Despite his enjoyment of destroying the Knights, his discourse with other gamers was rather level-headed. He didn’t provoke them into petty arguments. Instead, he presents thought-provoking ideas about how people at the grassroots level rarely benefit from the decisions the so-called kings make. And how the Knights are often brainwashed into thinking they’re fighting for a noble cause when in reality their actions are destroying the past, present and future of the innocents.

Mondi wasn’t wrong. I’d read his conversations with great interest. I had no doubt that he was highly educated and wouldn’t be surprised if his education included history. There was no way a person could look at the path humans have walked across millennia, repeating mistake after mistake and not come to some of the conclusions Mondi had presented in the chats.

How were you able to find his location? Colin asked Francine.

She smiled. His first chats. He wasn’t as careful and paranoid as the latest chats. It’s also obvious in his conversations, right?

I nodded when she looked at me. His chats go back three years and two months. There was an abrupt break around two years ago. After that, he communicated differently. The last—I thought about the time frame for a few seconds—nine months, he more often catches himself in a rant. He would start a diatribe about a topic, then suddenly just stop his chat and go offline.

Those are the ones I couldn’t trace at all. Francine leaned back in her chair. Genevieve is right. In the last two years, something changed. The firewalls he’s using, the general protection is... well, it’s not general. It’s military-grade protection, encryption and a few more things that have my respect.

Back to finding him. Manny rolled his hand in an impatient gesture.

He wasn’t that careful in his very first chats. Francine narrowed her eyes, then shook her head as if to herself. No, I won’t tease you. And I’m not going to explain all the many clever things I did to finally track down his IP address. But I did. And it’s a flat in Warsaw.

Vinnie took a step toward the elevator. What are we waiting for? Let’s go!

I sighed. Francine’s not finished.

Oh? She’s not? Manny lowered his chin and raised one eyebrow as he scowled at Francine. You didn’t tell me everything?

Nope. There— A beep alerted all of us that someone just entered the elevator. Francine changed the centre monitor from the map to the security videos. Oh, it’s Dan and Jazzy.

Good. Manny walked to the large, round wooden table by the windows. We can brief him. He looked at Vinnie. Do we have milk?

One day, old man. Vinnie walked to the kitchen area. One day, you will ask me politely for a cup of tea. And I might faint from shock.

The elevator pinged and the door opened. It was a small elevator, chosen specifically by Vinnie and Daniel when they’d designed the security for our building, especially our office floor.

Lieutenant Daniel Cassel and Doctor Yasmine Abidar exited the elevator, holding hands. We’d met Yasmine during our last case. She’d been working with the Italian police task force, who focused all their investigation powers on finding and stopping the Camorra and other Mafia clans in the area.

Yasmine was wearing light green trousers, an oversized white shirt with lace finishings and white sneakers. At first, it had greatly confused me that Francine not once mentioned Yasmine’s preference for comfortable footwear, yet she constantly berated Roxy’s choice of colourful sneakers. After Francine had explained that it was her way of showing her deep love for Roxy, I’d stopped trying to understand yet another neurotypical puzzle.

Daniel and Yasmine had reconnected after many years apart and were now romantically involved. I was happy for Daniel. He was not only a brilliant GIPN team leader, but also a good man—someone I trusted implicitly.

Jazzy! Francine jumped up and walked over to the shorter woman, her arms open. It’s so good to see you.

Yasmine laughed loudly and hugged Francine back. You saw me yesterday, you crazy woman. Don’t pretend like you missed me.

Francine stepped back and slapped her hands over her heart. You wound me.

They laughed and walked to the table where Manny was greeting Daniel. Ten minutes later, Daniel and Yasmine were briefed and I was enjoying a second cup of coffee. I didn’t wait for Francine to digress into some inane topic. She had just finished talking about the mediaeval games when I cleared my throat. The Camorra conversations?

The what now? Yasmine straightened. Even though she’d accepted a post at Europol here in Strasbourg to get away from the toll of dealing with the brutality of the Camorra on a daily basis, she still stayed in contact with her previous colleagues. She hadn’t lost her interest in weakening the Mafia as much as possible to minimise the power they wielded.

Francine. Manny glared at her. Talk.

She sniffed and straightened her shoulders. So, Mondi was not only active on that one gaming platform for the mediaeval gamers. He was active on six others. Including two of the big ones.

And that’s where he communicated with the Camorra. Daniel nodded. We’ve seen this before. Gangsters and all kinds of criminals use these platforms to communicate. The encrypted platforms are not always their preferred channels since we can trace numbers even if we can’t read their messages.

Correct on all counts. Francine lifted her tablet and scrolled. I’m sending all these chats to your devices for your reading pleasure. On the one platform, I hacked my way into his locked account and—she huffed at Manny—Don’t look at me like that. The privacy settings on that platform are really good, but not superb. It wasn’t too difficult to find my way into his private account.

Just remember, we have to do this in a manner that we can present the evidence in court. Yasmine looked at Daniel. Right?

Daniel chuckled. Right. Francine knows how to navigate this so we never have a problem with the legality of our cases.

Daniel was right. Francine also knew how to irritate Manny and irk me with her nonstop digressions. Both of us had similar expressions of displeasure. Much to Francine’s enjoyment. She winked at me, then looked at Yasmine. I will give you the chats that you can forward to your guys in Italy. With the intel on it, they’ll be able to make all kinds of arrests.

For example? Daniel asked.

Let me read one short interaction. She cleared her throat. "This is from Mondi: Unless you pay the full amount in cash by tomorrow, I will take your wife from her desk in front of her thirty-three fourteen-year-old students, I will ra... Francine shuddered. You know what? I’m not going to read what Mondi planned to do with this guy’s wife and adult daughter. Let me just read the reply: No need for any of that. I will send the three hundred thousand Euro with the courier like before. You will have it by tomorrow. Then Mondi replies: Good. The fent shipment will arrive via courier two days later. Great doing business with you."

That’s bloody brazen. Manny’s frown deepened. Why would anyone talk so openly about their criminal activities?

Good question. Daniel leaned back in his seat. Definitely not something we see often. It’s mostly coded communication. This is very incriminating.

But absolutely fantastic for us. Yasmine’s smile was victorious. Easy-peasy to make a case with this evidence.

Oh, there’s lots more. Francine’s eyes were as wide as when she’d first shown it to me. The Italian police are going to think Christmas came early and is on steroids. There are all kinds of stuff on all the platforms Mondi uses. And he uses one platform per criminal. I’m guessing so there won’t be any cross-contamination.

That mediaeval game Mondi plays, Vinnie said. Is he any good at it?

Francine snorted an unfeminine laugh. He’s terrible. And is showing no improvement.

Did you read all his communication? I asked Francine.

Not yet. It’s a lot if you haven’t noticed.

I know. I read all of it. It had taken me most of the night. Mondi has uncanny insight into the lives of the criminals he’s doing business with. If Alessandro had been correct when he mentioned Pegasus, it would explain how Mondi knows so much.

I think Mondi also has many higher-ups by the short and curlies. Yasmine stopped and looked at me with wide eyes. She knew I didn’t always grasp her numerous expressions immediately. I pressed my lips together at the comprehension of her crude expression and nodded. She smiled. Okay. As you know, I’m still talking to my previous team and we’re hitting stonewall after stonewall. If Mondi is using spyware to learn the secrets of politicians and powerful people? Well, then I’m surprised by all the stonewalls. Removing Mondi will remove all the stonewalls, which means we might finally make a significant dent in the power the Camorra still has in that area.

For such an intelligent woman, Yasmine overused words in almost every sentence, repeating her favourite words ad nauseam. I still hadn’t grown used to it. But I’d come to like her and trust her.

Well. Daniel