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“What else?”
I told her about the woman’s ex-husband and how we had never looked into him, nor did we know anything about Francesca’s husband.
I watched her process what I’d said. “Francesca can’t be Xavier’s mother. She would’ve been in her mid-fifties when he was born.” She tapped her finger on the armrest. “She was twenty-seven when Charlene was born and thirty when she had Marco.”
I cocked my head. “How do you know that?”
“It was in one of the briefs.”
“I guess what I should’ve asked is, why do you remember her age? Or theirs?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “I remember things like that.” Her eyes opened wide. “Wait. Charlene would’ve only been fifteen when Pharaoh was born, unless the coroner was off in determining her age.”
“My experience is the medical examiners at Vauxhall Cross don’t make mistakes, let alone ones so significant.”
“It’s possible Charlene could’ve lied about her age when she went under Rile’s protection. Then again, girls in their teens are certainly able to have children.”
“Schön, I’m…” Could I tell her I was impressed without it sounding as though I believed she wasn’t capable of recalling the details of the vast number of briefs this mission had generated?
“What were you going to say?”
“You have a very good memory.”
She shrugged her shoulders again. “I’ve spent hours studying the details of the investigation. The briefs, I mean.” She raised her head. “I just remembered something I wanted to ask you about. Can you tell me more about Manual Varilla?”
I thought back on what I remembered about the man, wishing I had the same ability as Schön when it came to details. “Sorry, I need to pull up my notes.”
“We don’t have to do it now.”
“Now’s as good a time as any.” I glanced over when I found the brief I was looking for. “Do you want to take notes?”
“I don’t need to. I’ll remember.”
I cleared my throat. “Very well. Varilla first appeared on our radar during Operation Felixstowe when our team of agents raided ten shipping containers, liberating over one hundred victims. Varilla was arrested in the port of Yavaros on Mexico’s west coast prior to the raid, and his trafficking operation was shut down. This took place several days before containers belonging to him were scheduled to leave for Shanghai, China.”
“The raid on those containers was carried out in conjunction with K19 Security Solutions, who Ares worked for.”
“That’s right,” I said.
“Sorry for the interruption. Go on.”
“There isn’t much more to it than that. His area of operation was on the Central Coast of California. He and his gang engaged in a turf war there with a guy who’d controlled the territory for decades. While that man, Harry Crosby, is now dead, it wouldn’t surprise me if we learned it was one of his men who got to Varilla in prison and killed him.”
“Or whoever was responsible for the containers on the ship that landed in Felixstowe had him murdered.”
“According to one of Crosby’s informants, some of the containers belonged to his organization and some to the one Varilla worked for.”
“AMPS?”
“It’s possible, although we haven’t found anything specifically tying him to them.”
“It seems more likely he worked for the Calabrian Syndicate.”
That was an excellent insight and something that would likely have been brought up in a future briefing in the same way as her question about Xavier Vella’s ties to Francesca Vella and her daughter.
“You’re a good agent, Schön.”
She smiled. “Thanks, but all I did was get myself up to speed.”
