Suspects(45)
There was still no sign of him by late Sunday night, and he had never called the people where he was meant to spend the weekend, which was unlike him. That was all it said. Theo reported it to Mike when he called her after he got up at seven, which was lunchtime for her. As usual, she was eating a yogurt and an apple at her desk, with new merchandise samples to choose all around her in the room. Mike teased her that she kept her slim figure because she never had time to eat. She wondered what had happened to Pierre, and Mike was curious about it too.
“With someone like him, anything could happen. He could be in Russia by now—with two goons dragging him there—or dead, poisoned like he tried to do to you. It sounds like he has too many irons in the fire these days, with some very dicey people. And the people he’s making deals with don’t play games.”
“Maybe he’ll just turn up, and went to a party at the last minute in Dubai. Or someone sent a plane for him. I think he’s capable of that too. He goes where the money is. His friends probably don’t realize who he does business with.”
“You’re probably right. But he’s one guy I won’t worry about. He’s a social butterfly, and he’s dangerous and ruthless if he’s the one who poisoned you. That’s a very heavy-handed sales pitch.”
She didn’t disagree, and as the day went on, she forgot about him. That afternoon she called the realtor she wanted to use and listed the chateau, as she said she would. She had a pang when she did it, but she’d thought about it, and she knew it was the right thing for her. She was never going to use it again after what had happened there, and it made no sense to keep it.
The listing went up on the real estate agency’s website the next day, with a few photographs she provided them. The price was listed as “upon request,” which suggested it was very high. She was shocked when, two days later, there were four requests to see it. Things were moving faster than she’d expected, or maybe even wanted them to. She had put a huge price tag on it, but it was worth it. She had one price to sell it furnished, minus some of the art she wanted to sell separately or keep, and another price to sell it empty. Either way she was going to make a lot of money if the chateau sold.
The realtor had made appointments for all of the potential buyers to see it, and told Theo that there were two Americans, a Russian, and a Chinese man scheduled for visits by the end of the week. She wondered if the Russian was Pierre de Vaumont’s client, but she had no way to know.
Her bodyguard Daniel came back to work that day, and she was happy to see him when she got home. He said he was feeling better. He’d had one dizzy spell that weekend, but since then he’d been fine.
She had brought home some work that night, and waited for Mike to call her after midnight, as he always did now, at the end of his workday. He sounded tired and distracted when he called, and she told him about the four prospective buyers set to look at the chateau. She was sending a bodyguard to protect the house, to each appointment, so no one damaged anything or stole something as a souvenir.
“I hope you sell it if that’s what you want, Theo,” he said, tired but happy to hear her.
“I think it is.” She sounded quiet.
“Did you take one of the DGSE guys with you to work today?” he asked her.
“Yes, he sat outside my office and made everyone nervous.” There was a feeling of tension having him there, as though they were expecting an attack any minute. There was the heavy sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It reminded her of when they were waiting to pay the ransom a year before, and every minute felt like an hour. She tried not to think about it after she and Mike hung up. The nights seemed empty without him after he left. She was used to filling her life with work, but now it no longer seemed like enough.
They were going to open pop-up stores in Paris and London before Christmas, and she had plenty to do, making plans for them. To make it exciting, they had rented a fabulous private house in London, and a big space that had just opened up on the Avenue Montaigne after being vacated by a store that had closed. They were hoping to catch the wave of Christmas sales, people wanting clothes for parties and as gifts. It was fun working on it, and made her miss him less, and filled her nights when she couldn’t sleep. But she was sleeping better now since Mike had come into her life.
What she had to get used to was no longer having a family, no husband to take care of, no child. It had left an enormous void in her life that she still didn’t know how to fill except with work.
Mike was like a shooting star in her life, a comet across her skies. His visits had been brief and very bright. But he couldn’t get away as often as she would have liked. He had only been in her life for a month, and it already felt as though he had been there forever, but in fact it was all very new, and they hadn’t figured out how to spend time together yet, with both their jobs. His was even harder to get away from than hers. He’d managed to come to Paris twice in the last month. He wanted her to come to New York, but she hadn’t been able to figure out when yet, and she was busier than ever at the office, since she had spent a week in the hospital. She hadn’t been able to work at full speed while she was there. The remnants of the poison in her system had made it hard to concentrate, which was one of its effects.
* * *
—
It was almost Thanksgiving when she got the first offer on the chateau. The Russian had dropped out when he learned that her price was firm, and she had no financial need to sell it. He had tried to get the realtor to cut his commission, and he refused, so the Russian never made an offer. One of the Americans thought it was too pricey too. It became a bidding war between the remaining American and the Chinese buyer. The American was from Houston and wanted to buy it as a gift for his wife. She had always wanted a chateau in France and he wanted to make her dream come true, while the Chinese man was single and wanted it for himself, for his visits to Paris.