Suspects(2)

It was the first trip Theodora Morgan had taken in over a year. She was the founder and very successful owner of Theo.com, a well-established internet shopping service that had broken all records of success worldwide. A year before, at thirty-seven, she was one of the most successful businesswomen in the world, and a fashion icon herself, always photographed when she appeared in public, although she kept an intentionally low profile, particularly in the last year. She was also the recent widow of Matthieu Pasquier, who owned more than a dozen of the biggest fashion brands in the world and was the acknowledged multibillionaire mogul of luxury fashion. She and Matthieu had met when she started her fledgling business at twenty-two, fresh out of Harvard. She had started it on a shoestring and rapidly proved the business model’s success. Financial journals and the business press began writing about her. Pasquier had made a point of meeting her. He was twenty-five years older than she, and a ruthless businessman. He had fallen in love with her bold, adventuresome, innovative business plan, and her gentle, determined nature behind it, as well as her youth and beauty. After a rapid courtship, they were married a year later, and remained married for fourteen years. She was his third wife and he had no children, and she had enchanted him even further by giving birth to a son, Axel, ten months after their wedding.

Her own family history had prepared her for marriage to an older man. Her father was almost twenty years older than her mother, and they had had a stable, loving home, where she had thrived as her parents’ only child. She had often preferred the company of adults while growing up.

Her parents included her whenever possible. She had a quiet nature and was an outstanding student. Her parents expected academic excellence from her, and encouraged it. Her father greatly admired success in business. He had done all he could to assist her entrepreneurial dreams and help her to make them a reality.

She had spent more time in college working on her business plans for the future than making friends. Her relationship with a much older man who was considered a genius in luxury retail seemed tailor-made for her. Her parents were reserved and only mildly concerned by her relationship with Matthieu initially, but they were supportive over time.

Theo spoke adequate French when she and Matthieu met. She studied diligently to improve it, until she was fully fluent within a year, for both business and social purposes, which made for a smooth transition when she moved to Paris for him. She had missed New York at first, but Paris rapidly became home and now she preferred it.

She was a devoted mother, often working from home, brilliant at her own business, which she never merged with her husband’s empire, despite his entreaties. She remained independent professionally, while still being a loving wife to him and mother to their only child. She adored their son Axel, who was the joy of her life. And her business was her passion. Her husband Matthieu had been her mentor and best friend, and the marriage solid. Although strikingly beautiful, she had never looked at another man.

It had all ended brutally a year earlier when Matthieu was kidnapped with their son at their country chateau, while Theo was in the city working.

Both Matthieu and Theo occasionally worked later than planned on Friday nights, in which case whichever parent was free would drive Axel to their chateau near Paris, and the other would arrive later. Matthieu preferred having just the three of them on the weekends, without staff underfoot. Theo liked that too. They were both surrounded by employees all week and it was a relief to lead a simple life on Friday nights and Saturdays and Sundays, and to fend for themselves. Sometimes Axel brought a friend, but he hadn’t then. They valued their privacy and family time, in contrast to the business pressures they dealt with during the week.

Theo had had a late meeting she couldn’t escape on that fateful Friday, and Matthieu had driven to the chateau with Axel toward the end of the afternoon. By the time Theo arrived shortly after eight that night, they were both gone. She found one of Axel’s running shoes on the front steps. The front door had been open. There were signs of a struggle, and with her heart pounding in terror, she called the police. Once they surveyed the scene they in turn called the DGSI, the Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure, the French equivalent of the FBI. After further investigation, when an empty pack of Russian cigarettes was found on the grounds, the case was then turned over to the DGSE, the French CIA, the Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure. The strong suspicion then was that the kidnappers were foreign.



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The empty pack of Russian cigarettes had been found in a secluded area where the kidnappers had presumably lain in wait for Axel and Matthieu. Once negotiations began, a translator had to be brought in to facilitate communications with the kidnappers, who proved to be Russian. The DGSE had remained on the case, since the criminals involved came from another country and foreign informants had been used to try to discover who they were. The informants had not been able to provide conclusive information as to who had ordered the abduction, the DGSE had strong suspicions but no solid evidence, and the Russian authorities could supply no factual corroboration of their theories. Not enough to make an arrest. The thugs who had kidnapped Axel and Matthieu had vanished afterwards.

Father and son had been kidnapped by six men who were seen wearing face masks and hoods driving away from the scene in a truck with a chase car, as observed by a neighboring farmer. There was no sign of Matthieu and Axel in either vehicle. Both the truck and car were found abandoned in a nearby village. They were stolen vehicles.