Final Target
“ Not yet. But her father promised to have her call me if she surfaces.”
“He doesn’t know where she is?”
“He says he doesn’t. Of course, he may consider everyone a threat to his daughter.” He smiled. “ Though who could be less intimidating than me?”
“Attila the Hun.”
“Careful, I’ll leave the seasoning out of your scrambled eggs. And what’s life without the spices?” He set a plate of eggs and bacon in front of her. “How’s the little girl?”
“ No more nightmares.”
“ Travis said you’d pulled the plug on them. Congratulations.”
“ I got lucky. It could have gone either way.” She began to eat. “So you’re here on guard duty in Travis’s place?”
“ I just needed a little vacation by the sea. After all, I’m the one who’s been doing all the work. How are the eggs?”
“ Fine.” She sat back, her gaze narrowed on his face. “ Will you tell me if Monsieur Dumair or Danielle Claron calls you?”
He stared at her thoughtfully. “ What would you do if I said no?”
“ Become very frustrated and start thinking of ways to find out for myself.”
“ I thought so.” He nodded. “ I’ll tell you. Though Travis will not be pleased with me. Now, what do you want for lunch? My abundant talents are at your disposal. Ask me for anything.”
She smiled. “ You’ve already given me what I want.”
Cannes
2:50 P.M.
The roof of the hotel.
Possibly the open window above the bakery.
Or the souvenir shop on the corner.
Any of the three or maybe none of them.
Travis stepped farther back in the shadows. He had already checked out the street earlier in the day, but he would have to check again before the meeting with Karlstadt that evening. To be unprepared was often fatal.
Was that movement in the alley beside the bakery?
6:05 P.M.
Galen and Melissa were sitting down to supper when his phone rang.
Melissa stiffened.
Galen smiled. “ It could be anyone. An important person like me has to remain in touch.”
“Answer it.”
He nodded as he flipped open his phone. “Galen.” He listened, his smile fading. “Right. I’ll tell Travis. Of course I’m interested. I said, I’ll tell Travis. Could I have a number to call you back?” He pressed the end button. “She hung up.”
Her heart jumped. “She?”
“Danielle Claron.”
“Are you sure? How did she sound?”
“Scared. Very scared. And no, I can’t be sure about anything. But she had my number and she knew I’d talked to her parents.”
“ What did she say?”
“ That she needed money, a lot of money. And a safe place to hide. She wouldn’t promise anything until we came to terms. She wants to meet with Travis tonight.”
“ Where?”
“At the old church at the north edge of the village. She said they’d built a new one in the center of town and this one is deserted now. She’ll be there after midnight.”
“ Then we have to go and meet her.”
He shook his head. “ Travis will go. It’s with him she wants to bargain.”
“ But Travis isn’t here, dammit.”
“ I’ll phone him later.” He glanced at his watch. “He’s supposed to be meeting with Karlstadt in a couple of hours and the situation may be very delicate at the moment.”
Even after his “delicate” situation was resolved, Travis would never let her go with him to the church, Melissa thought with frustration. And there was always Cassie to think about. “ You stay with Cassie. I’ll meet with Danielle Claron. There’s a chance she’ll feel less threatened with another woman, isn’t there?”
He shook his head. “She specified Travis. Besides, she has to be targeted by Deschamps. It will be dangerous to be anywhere near her.”
Her hands clenched into fists. “ I’m not stupid. I won’t barge right up and call for—”
“ I know you’re not stupid.” His lips tightened. “ But you don’t know this game. I don’t agree with Travis that you should be kept in the dark, but I’m not helping you act recklessly.”
She could tell by his expression that she wasn’t going to be able to move him. She got up from the table and strode toward the door.
Galen jumped to his feet. “ Where are you going?”
“ For a walk. I’m mad as hell and I need to burn off a little steam.” She gave him a grim glance over her shoulder. “Did you think I was going to jump in the car and head for St. Ives?”
“ The thought did occur to me.”
“ Like I said, I’m not stupid, Galen. I know you’d try to stop me and you’re probably very good at stopping people.” She slammed the door behind her and ran down the steps. She moved quickly, forcefully, her heels digging into the soft sand. She’d had to get out of the house before she exploded.
She wanted to hit someone, dammit.
No, she wanted to hit Travis. He was blocking her at every turn and seeing that Galen would be no real help to her either. This was the first break, a chance to find Deschamps, and she was supposed to sit here and wait for someone else to find Jessica’s murderer.
Jessica.
Don’t tear up. She had cried too much already, and she couldn’t think straight when she let emotion rule her. She stopped at the edge of the surf and looked out at the sea. She felt very small and alone.
Stop thinking like that. Negative thoughts were bull. She was alone, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t do anything that had to be done.
She just had to work on it.
8:35 P.M.
“So I’m here,” Karlstadt said grimly as he sat down at the table at the sidewalk café. “ It had better be good, Travis.”
“ Your situation couldn’t be worse, could it?”
“ Yes, it could. You could still be alive at the end of this meeting. I don’t appreciate being double-crossed, you bastard.”
“ You weren’t double-crossed. Not intentionally.” He pushed the pouch across the table. “All the diamonds I have at the moment. Unfortunately, the rest are in the hands of the CIA.”
Karlstadt didn’t touch the pouch. “ That’s not good enough.”
“ I’ll return the deposit you made to the Swiss account. That means you won’t have to pay for the missing diamonds.”
“ You know that’s not the issue. Those diamonds have to be taken out of circulation.”
“ I have a few ideas how that might be done. In the meantime, you have to admit that having them tucked away by the CIA is the next best thing.”
“ I don’t have to admit anything.” Karlstadt’s expression was rock hard. “ You’ve put me in a very bad light with my employers. They don’t appreciate failure.”
“ You haven’t failed. You’ve gotten the time to deal with the Russians. They don’t know you don’t have all the diamonds.”
“ I don’t have the process either. Give me the disk, Travis.”
“ You’ll get it.”
“ Now.”
“ I’m not stupid, Karlstadt. It’s in a safe place and will go straight to The New York Times if I don’t call for it in a reasonable length of time. I’ll send it to you.” His gaze wandered to the rooftop of the hotel across the street. “Otherwise you might decide to signal that gentleman to take me out.”
“ You expect me to trust you? I trusted you once.”
“ You didn’t trust me. You did what was necessary to please your employers. Just as you’ll do what’s necessary to please them this time. I’ll keep my word to you because it’s the intelligent thing to do. I have enough problems without having you after me.”
“So I’ve heard.” He was silent a moment. “ You could have made a copy of the disk.”
“Same answer. I want out, not more trouble.”
“ When do I get it?”
“ I’ll call you to let you know where to pick it up.” He stood. “ Long distance.”
Karlstadt’s smile was without mirth. “ That’s wise. I’d be very tempted to recoup my losses in a very violent fashion if you don’t stay out of my way.”
“ I’ll keep that in mind.” He glanced at the rooftop again. “ I’m leaving now. Please tell our friend not to attempt to follow me. It would be a deal breaker.”
“ I’ll give you two days to get that disk to me. Then I’ll come after it.” He smiled maliciously. “ I can’t afford to wait much longer. You’re in plenty of hot water. I don’t want someone else to kill you before I get my chance.”
“ That would be unfair. I’ll try not to disappoint you.” Travis strode down the street and around the corner. His pace quickened as he wound a zigzag path around the town for the next thirty minutes until he was certain he wasn’t followed. Then he set out for his car.
So far, so good. It had been close. Very close.
His only advantage had been the fact that Karlstadt was a businessman and knew when to cut his losses. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t come after Travis if he took too much flak for losing the rest of the diamonds. The sensible thing would be for Travis to get out of Europe and lie low for a while.
Screw the sensible thing.
Not while Deschamps was still alive.
His phone rang as he was starting the Peugeot.
“ We have a problem,” Galen said. “Have you left Cannes?”
“ Not yet. I should be back at the cottage in a few hours.”
“Don’t come here. Go directly to St. Ives. I got a call from Danielle Claron. She wants to negotiate with you. She’ll be at the old church at the north edge of the village after midnight.”
“ When did she call?”
“After six. I thought I’d give you time to finish with Karlstadt. It’s only a few hours’ drive from Cannes to St. Ives.” He paused. “ But you’d better hurry. Melissa may get there before you do.”
“ What? You told her?”
“Guilty. But I watched her all the time she was on the beach. And she came in from her walk and went straight to bed.”
“ For God’s sake, you weren’t suspicious?”
“Of course I was suspicious. I opened the door and looked in on her four times in the past couple of hours. The last time she threw a book at me. Five minutes later I heard the van start. She must have crawled out the window the moment I closed the door. I ran out, but she was already gunning it down the beach.”
“ I’m going to murder you.”
“ I may commit suicide. It was most humiliating. Now I’m relegated from being a mighty warrior to being a lowly nursemaid for Cassie.”
“ You should never have told her. We don’t know what the hell is happening with Danielle Claron.”
“ I wouldn’t have appreciated being kept in the dark.” He paused again. “And she’s not totally without protection. You did give her the gun.”
“ That’s the only weapon she has. She’s out of her depth. She doesn’t know—”
“ That’s what I tried to tell her. She wasn’t listening. In her place, I don’t know if I would have listened either. Call me when you get to St. Ives.” He hung up.
Travis glanced at his watch. At least three hours to get to St. Ives from here.
His foot stomped on the accelerator and the car leapt forward.
21
St. Ives
The ancient church on the hill had to have been built centuries ago, and the graveyard stretching behind it looked like the resting place of generations of villagers. The building itself had no windows, and the stone steps leading up to the massive oak doors were splintered.
Melissa was not about to go up those steps. She would be a clear target in the bright moonlight. Her hand closed on the gun in her jacket pocket as she stepped deeper into the shadows beneath the oak tree.
She couldn’t just stand there all night. She moistened her lips and called, “Danielle. Danielle Claron.”
No answer.
“ I’m Melissa Riley. Michael Travis sent me.”
No answer.
“He wasn’t sure he could make it in time. But I can authorize any money you might need.”
No answer.
“ For God’s sake, would he have sent a woman if he’d wanted to harm you?”
“ If he was clever.”
Melissa whirled to face the woman coming around the church from the direction of the graveyard. She was petite, dark-haired, and in her middle thirties, wearing a purple sweater and long print skirt. “My husband was never that clever. He never listened. He always underestimated me.”
She was pointing a gun at Melissa.
“ That’s how that bastard managed to kill him. I don’t underestimate anyone. I’m not going to die. Put up your hands.”
Melissa slowly raised her hands. “ I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to give you what you want.”
“Can you give me my husband back?”
“ No, but I can give you the money to keep you safe.”
“And what do you want in return?”
“Edward Deschamps. Do you know where he is?”
Silence. “Maybe.”
Melissa’s heart leapt. “Either you do or you don’t.”
“Maybe,” she repeated. “ We’ll talk again when I see some money. And it better be soon. Do you think I’ve liked hiding out here all these weeks?”
“ Will you put away that gun? You can see I’m no threat.”
Danielle stared at her appraisingly before saying finally, “ No, you’re too soft.” She lowered the gun. “ I wasn’t sure you weren’t hired by Deschamps to trick me into coming out in the open.” Her lips twisted. “ The bastard has a history of using women. Like that bitch Jeanne Beaujolis. That’s how I got into this mess.”
Melissa put her hands down. “She told you about what was going to happen at Vasaro?”
“ No, only that Deschamps was going to help her strike it rich. I put the rest together when I heard what happened there.” Her face hardened. “She was crazy about him at first, and then she was crazy only about the money she was going to get.”
“Did you meet him before Vasaro?”
“Once or twice.”
“ Where?”
She shook her head. “ The money.”
“How much?”
“ Travis offered my husband five hundred thousand dollars. I want seven.”
“ It may take us some time to get that amount.”
“ I don’t have a lot of time. I have to get out of here. I’ll give you until tomorrow night to — What’s that?” She lifted her head to gaze at the woods behind Melissa. “Did you hear it?”
Melissa whirled around. “Hear what?”
“Rustling. There’s someone in the woods.” She looked back at Melissa, her eyes blazing. “ You lied to me. Deschamps did send you.”
“ No, it might be Travis. He said he’d—”
“ Liar.” She jumped toward Melissa. “ It’s not Travis. It’s Deschamps.” The butt of her gun was coming down toward Melissa’s head.
Melissa ducked, grabbed the woman’s arm, and twisted it behind her back.
“ Let me go, you bitch.”
Melissa released her but pulled the Smith & Wesson out of her jacket pocket at the same time. “ When you listen to reason.” She pressed the gun to Danielle’s back. “One, I didn’t hear any rustling, and two, I’m the last person who’d be in league with Deschamps. He killed my sister. I want him as much as you do.”
“More,” a man’s voice said from behind her. “Much more, Ms. Riley.”
Pain burst through her head.
She slumped to the ground.
“ Is she dead, Edward?”
Danielle Claron’s voice, Melissa realized dimly.
“ I hope not.” He bent down and picked up her gun, which had fallen from her hand. “ I have other plans for her. No, I think she’s just out.” r />
“ You took long enough. I did like you said. I tried to distract her.”
“And you did very well, Monique. If I hadn’t known Danielle was dead, you would have fooled me. Sorry to make your job harder. I was scouting around for Travis.”
“He’s not here?”
“ Not yet.”
“ But you’re through with me? It’s not my fault she came instead of Travis. I can have my money?”
“Of course. I promised you, didn’t I? Come along into the church, where I can turn on my flashlight and count it out for you.”
“ What about her?”
“ This will take only a minute.”
They were walking away. Something wasn’t right. . . .
It didn’t matter. Think about it later. Get up. Get away before he comes back.
She struggled to her knees.
Jesus, her head hurt.
Move anyway. Get to your feet.
On the second try she made it.
She staggered to the road. Get to the car.
God, she felt sick.
Find a place to rest for a few minutes.
She had to throw up. She staggered to a tree and leaned against it while she heaved.
A hand fell on her shoulder.
Deschamps!
She whirled and crashed her fist into his face.
“Jesus, what the hell—”
It was Travis.
She collapsed against him. “He’s here. We have to go back—”
He stiffened. “Deschamps?”
“He’s in the church. There’s a woman . . . but it’s not Danielle Claron. He called her Monique. I think Danielle Claron’s dead. He’s paying the woman now.” She pushed him away. “ We have to go back.”
“ You don’t have to do anything at the moment but sit down before you fall.” He frowned. “Are you bleeding?”
“ I don’t know. He hit me.” She looked up the hill. “ We have to go to the church. He and that woman are—” She stopped. “ No, there’s something wrong. He didn’t even check to see if I was unconscious. He would know how hard to hit someone, wouldn’t he? He didn’t check. . . .” She rubbed her temple and her fingers came away wet. She was bleeding. “He wanted me to get away and find you. He wanted you to rush back to the church. It’s a trap.”
He said slowly, “ But if we know it’s a trap, then we have the advantage.”