Suspects(21)

“Aren’t you concerned that they’ll kidnap his wife now to get the other fifty?”

“Yes and no. It’s difficult to believe they would try again. They made a clean escape. Next time we might be luckier and catch them. Maybe they don’t want to risk it.”

“What are you doing to protect her?” Mike asked him pointedly, wishing he could see Guy’s face and his eyes when he did.

“She has good private security now, and I think she’s careful. We provided armed police for six months, but we can’t forever. This is France, not the U.S. We don’t have the money or the manpower. If she had nothing, it would be different. She has the money to pay for good security, and we’ve advised her to do so. Personally, I don’t think they’ll go after her again. They got half the money they wanted. They should be satisfied with that.”

“Maybe. But are they? Has anyone heard anything at all from them?”

“No, nothing, no threats of any kind. Dmitri Aleksandr warned Matthieu at the time that there would be a price to pay for not refunding his money. A lot of people made money on the two stores he never opened, all the wrong people. I’m sure some of it ended up in government hands too. The only one who really lost money was the Russian investor, and Pasquier of course. Though the Russian investor may have skimmed some off in the early stages. It’s a difficult country. There is an undercurrent of violence, and a strong criminal element that is very powerful within the country. Pasquier didn’t understand that at first. The whole project was a terrible mistake and ended in tragedy.”

Mike took a breath then. “I’m sorry to bring this up, but Richmond with MI6 told me that Pasquier had a mistress in Russia. They have it from a reliable informant. She was poisoned and killed two weeks before he was kidnapped. Do you think that’s related?”

“Possibly, but it’s unlikely. She was a double agent, selling information to both sides, and the girlfriend of an FSB official. She was playing with fire and with Pasquier. He probably didn’t know she was a double agent, or an agent at all.”

“Did you know about her during the kidnapping?” Mike was just curious now, but he sounded official.

“We found out during our investigation, shortly after Pasquier and the boy were killed.”

“Did you tell his wife about the girl?”

“No, I didn’t. There was no point. The girl was already dead, and so was Pasquier. His wife was heartbroken enough over the boy and her husband. She didn’t need to know about the other woman. It would have been unnecessarily cruel.” Mike was surprised at the delicate touch and decision not to tell her. In the States, they would have, but mistresses were more common in Europe, so they dealt with situations like this more frequently. “She found out later anyway,” he added. “One of our younger detectives let it slip, which was unfortunate. In the end, I’m not sure it made things any worse. She was already so distraught about their deaths. She’s been in seclusion since it happened. I can’t blame her. I’m sorry she was told about the woman though. She didn’t need to know.”

“No, she didn’t.” Mike didn’t tell him he was having dinner with her. He could only imagine how she felt about the Russian actress on top of everything else. “And you don’t think the two deaths are related? Pasquier and the girl in Moscow?” Mike asked him again.

“It’s hard to say. And less important. A double agent being poisoned is not an unusual occurrence. And I don’t think de Vaumont is involved in any of it. He’s an annoyance, but I don’t think he deals in murder and kidnapping, just with lining his pockets.” Agent Thomas sounded disgusted when he mentioned him, and Mike shared his opinion.

Mike thanked him for the very interesting exchange, and he asked to be kept informed if anything surfaced regarding Theo or Pierre de Vaumont.

“Do you have a personal interest in the case?” Thomas asked him, and Mike was embarrassed that he should think so. It was very unprofessional of him to inquire about a case he had no involvement in, merely because he was fascinated by her.

“No, I don’t, but it troubles me when the perpetrators can’t be found. They committed a terrible crime and should be brought to justice.”

“We all agree. But we also know that some crimes are never solved. This may be one of them. It may be why they used an unknown team from Russia, so they’d be harder to trace.” Mike thought he was all too willing to accept that outcome, and it was the same impression he’d had when reading about the case. He was sorry for Theo. It wouldn’t bring her husband or son back, but she deserved to have closure and for the men who murdered them to be punished for their deaths.



* * *



—

The day after his call to Paris, Mike showered and changed at his office at the end of the day. He put on a suit and new light blue shirt that he kept there and had been saving. He decided to wear a tie, and was freshly shaved. He looked clean and conservative when he left his office in time to meet Theo at the address he had given her. He questioned the choice now. Maybe it was too ridiculous and she wouldn’t like it. It was an old diner on the West Side that looked straight out of the fifties. It had been restored by new owners recently, and the burgers were terrific. They had typical diner food, but at a higher standard than previously. They served delicious meatloaf, southern-fried chicken, mashed potatoes that melted in your mouth, classic hot dogs, homemade ice cream sundaes. He loved the food and had been there a few times, and he hoped she’d think it was fun. It definitely wasn’t La Grenouille or Le Bernardin, the best restaurants in New York. They had comfortable booths, and little jukeboxes in each one, with songs from the fifties, sixties, and seventies. It had become popular since it reopened.