Chương 9
“We only found billing references.”
“Which say?”
“Procurement fraud, unauthorized debt, executive conflicts.”
Claire stared at nothing.
“That was before my father died.”
“Yes.”
“Did he receive the report?”
“We don’t know.”
Elias thought of the USB drive in Claire’s shoe.
“Maybe he did.”
Claire looked at him.
“The drive.”
“Possibly.”
Matteo went silent for a second.
“What drive?”
“Police found one at the estate.”
“Contents?”
“Unknown.”
“Label?”
Elias looked at Claire before answering.
“Ghost.”
Matteo did not speak for several seconds.
Then he said something Elias had never heard from him before.
“Leave France.”
Claire’s eyes narrowed.
Elias’s voice hardened.
“No.”
“Listen to me.”
“I am.”
“If Étienne labeled that drive for you, then he expected your identity to matter after his death.”
“Or someone wants me to think he did.”
“Exactly.”
Claire sat forward.
“What does that mean?”
Matteo answered carefully.
“It means whoever built this may not have been trying only to control Delcourt Industries.”
Elias watched the city slide past the window.
“They may have been trying to bring me back into the open.”
Matteo said, “And if that is true, Claire’s inheritance may have been the bait.”
Claire did not answer immediately.
The words seemed to change the air inside the SUV.
She looked down at her phone, then at Elias, and finally toward the driver as if remembering there were other people in the vehicle.
“Stop talking like I’m not here.”
Matteo replied through the speaker.
“I wasn’t.”
“You called me bait.”
“I said the inheritance may have been bait.”
“That distinction is not helping.”
“No.”
Matteo’s tone softened.
“I’m sorry.”
Claire leaned back carefully.
“If someone wanted Elias exposed, why use my father’s company?”
Elias answered before Matteo could.
“Because Étienne knew who I was.”
“And because your mother’s finances created an existing weakness,” Matteo added.
Claire’s face tightened at the phrase your mother.
“What weakness?”
“We are tracing several accounts.”
“How bad?”
“Bad enough that I don’t want to guess.”
“Then don’t.”
Matteo went silent.
Claire closed her eyes.
For a few seconds, only the tires against wet pavement filled the car.
Then she said, “Where are we going?”
Elias glanced toward her.
“My apartment.”
“Our apartment.”
“Yes.”
“You said it like I moved out overnight.”
He looked at her.
“I wasn’t sure what you wanted to call it.”
She let out a tired breath.
“I haven’t decided whether I’m leaving you.”
The driver kept his eyes forward with the intensity of a man wishing himself deaf.
Elias said, “Understood.”
Claire looked toward the front.
“What’s his name?”
The driver hesitated.
“Julien, ma’am.”
“Julien, if you repeat any part of this conversation, I will deny ever having met you.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And stop calling me ma’am.”
“Yes, ma—”
He caught himself.
Claire’s mouth twitched.
Elias looked out the window so she would not see his.
At 7:14, Matteo sent a secure document to Elias’s phone.
It contained a transaction chart connecting Arden Holdings to three consulting companies, two of which had received money from Delcourt Industries under procurement contracts.
The third company had no visible business activity at all.
Its registered director was a seventy-three-year-old man living in a retirement community near Tours.
Claire examined the chart beside him.
“Who is Henri Mallet?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“He received two million euros?”
“His company did.”
“Does he know?”
“Unknown.”
She zoomed in.
“This transfer.”
“What about it?”
“It happened three days after Dad’s surgery.”
Elias checked the date.
“Were his credentials still active?”
“Yes.”
“Was he working?”
“No.”
Claire shook her head.
“He could barely hold a spoon.”
Elias looked at the timestamp.
Someone had authorized a seven-figure transfer using Étienne’s credentials while Étienne was recovering in intensive care.
Claire’s breathing changed.
“Mom had his phone.”
Elias turned.
“You’re sure?”
“She kept saying she needed to answer messages for him.”
“Did she know his passwords?”
“She knew everything.”
Claire paused.
“No.”
“What?”
“Not everything.”
She stared at the chart.
“Dad changed the password to his laptop before the surgery.”
“How do you know?”
“He complained because he kept forgetting it.”
“Did anyone else have it?”
“I don’t know.”
She rubbed one hand against her forehead.
“There was a little black notebook.”
Elias’s attention sharpened.
“Passwords?”
“Maybe.”
“Where?”
“He kept it in the desk.”
“At La Bruyère?”
“Yes.”
“The study?”
“Yes.”
Elias picked up his phone.
Claire stopped him.
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Don’t send people to tear apart my father’s office.”
“I was going to tell Mercier.”
“Then tell Mercier.”
He did.
The lieutenant answered on the second ring.
Elias explained the notebook without speculation.
Mercier asked Claire several questions directly, then said officers had not documented such an item among the visible contents of the desk.
“Could it have been removed earlier?” he asked.
Claire stared at the window.
“Yes.”
“Who knew where he kept it?”
“My mother.”
“Pauline?”
“Probably.”
“Vanel?”
“I don’t know.”
Mercier said he would add the information to the search request being prepared.
When the call ended, Claire looked at Elias.
“You’re behaving.”
“Painfully.”
“That must be difficult for a king.”
“I was never actually a king.”
“You let people call you that.”
“People called me worse.”
“I’m sure.”
The SUV slowed near their building.
Julien took them through the underground entrance rather than the front.
Two more security employees were waiting by the elevator.
Claire stopped walking.
“How many?”
Elias said, “Four in the building.”
“Why?”
“Because Matteo is worried.”
“So am I.”
She looked at the men.
“But I don’t want a fortress.”
“They can stay out of sight.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
Claire pressed the elevator button herself.
“We are going to discuss your definition of normal later.”
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“No, you aren’t.”
“No.”
The elevator doors opened.
Inside the apartment, nothing had changed since Elias left before two in the morning.
A coffee cup sat beside the sink.
May you like
Claire’s book remained face down on the sofa arm where she had left it the previous afternoon.
One of her shoes was under the dining table.
