Suspects(66)

“I hope you can live in peace now,” Guy said sincerely. She wasn’t too old to marry again and have other children, but he didn’t know if she would. Theo had already decided that having another child would have been a betrayal of Axel, and she would live in constant terror that another child could be taken from her, or killed simply because of what she had. She couldn’t imagine living with that kind of fear as a constant presence in her life, and she didn’t want to try. She knew she couldn’t endure it again. Axel had been her bright shining star, and the only one she wanted now, in her heart forever. But at least her life would be relatively normal again, with the four surviving kidnappers in custody. Until the next time, or the next threat, if it ever happened. It would always be a possibility. She had to learn to live with that now. She was almost used to it, but not quite. And maybe she never would be, having bodyguards around her for the rest of her life.

And the DGSE and MI6 had passed a serious message, both through underground channels and with an official warning to his government connections, warning Dmitri Aleksandr that if he pursued the Pasquier matter again, he would be prevented from entering England and France in the future, which he did not want. So it was over.

A week later, Guy contacted her again, by phone this time.

“I thought you’d be interested in knowing that Pierre de Vaumont has turned up.” She wasn’t surprised and was sure he was off taking advantage of someone, making a deal and a commission at someone’s expense. He was a lowlife and would always find a way to make use of someone.

“Where was he?” She was sure he would say Dubai, or Morocco, or someplace where deals were made and rich people congregated.

“He turned up in the Seine, early this morning. His body was dumped there sometime in the last day or two. He didn’t drown, he was strangled.” He had been found with a thin wire around his neck. “He made a few too many deals for his own good. I don’t know where he’s been since he disappeared—Russia probably, or maybe he’s been in hiding somewhere. I think he made promises he couldn’t deliver on. I’m not sure who his client was for your chateau, but he may have already taken an advance on a commission and couldn’t return it, or perhaps he promised your husband’s angry investor that he could deliver you this time for the balance and it all went awry. The kind of people he dealt with don’t take kindly to not getting their way, and there’s a price to be paid for that. His matchmaking was bound to catch up with him one day. It did. He poisoned you, and God knows what else he would do for money. Money is a god to some people, and it’s a dangerous one to have.”

There was a final sense of closure with Pierre de Vaumont’s death. He had led an empty life. His victories were hollow, and none of the people who had known him and profited from the connections he made seemed to miss him. Many didn’t even remember him. Men like Pierre de Vaumont were soon forgotten.



* * *



—

Mike was relieved to hear the news of the final kidnapper being arrested and Pierre de Vaumont’s ignominious end. He was satisfied with the stern warning to Dmitri Aleksandr from the British and the French. And he was relieved for Theo, as much as he could be. None of it would bring back the people she loved. But at least the criminals would be punished for the crimes they had committed. Two of the kidnappers had died, the first ransom had never turned up, and had been laundered somehow, somewhere, and whatever part Pierre de Vaumont had played in it had cost him his life. Theo’s life had been altered forever, in ways that could never be repaired or replaced. The life of a thirteen-year-old boy had been snuffed out like a brightly burning candle, which was the cruelest of all.



* * *



—

Theo took a long drive to Deauville with one of her bodyguards after she heard all the news from Guy Thomas. She needed time to absorb it and think about what the future would look like without the people she’d lost. She was still working it out in her own mind.

They stopped for lunch at a little café, and she looked at the ocean and the beach. She thought of when she had gone there with Mike. He was recovering in New York, missing Theo and chafing to get to work. He was almost back to full strength, but not fully there yet. His doctors were pleased and told him every time they saw him how lucky he had been. He knew it in many ways, and a woman like Theo crossed your path once in a lifetime.

She and the bodyguard drove past Deauville after lunch, and she noticed a large Norman farm on the other side of the road, with tall old trees around it. There was a small sign that said it was for sale. She asked the bodyguard to drive up the long driveway, there was a high wall surrounding the property and an iron gate standing open. There was a beautiful old farmhouse inside the walls, and a stone cottage near the gate. She looked around, and an old caretaker came out to ask what they wanted. Theo asked him about it, and he said that the property was for sale. The elderly couple who had lived there had died, and their children didn’t want it. They all had left France and lived abroad now and weren’t planning to return to France, so they were selling it.

“May I look around?” Theo asked. She had a strange feeling being there, as though she had been led there by some inexplicable force. He asked if she wanted to look inside the house, and she said yes.

It was beautiful and charming with heavy wood beams and a wood-paneled dining room. There were fireplaces everywhere and an old-fashioned kitchen. It needed to be modernized, but it was big and rambling and comfortable, the kind of place you’d want to come to on a weekend. Theo could see the ocean from the master bedroom.