‘You found her?’ Lea asked.
I nodded and sank onto the barstool beside her.
‘She all right?’
‘She’s fine.’ Or she had been, until I turned up, wrecked her dinner and blew up her plan.
‘Told you the PI I recommended was good.’ Lea smiled. ‘I use him for business intel mostly, but he handles personal cases too. I—’ She paused, reading my face. ‘Didn’t go well, then.’
There was sympathy in her voice, but I knew her well enough to hear the schadenfreude underneath.
‘Mira just needs time.’
Lea waved the bartender over and ordered a Boulevardier for me. ‘That’s what I said. She needs time to process the news. Alone. You showing up probably made things worse. Did she lash out?’
‘No.’
I took a long gulp. It went down smooth, but it didn’t touch the mess inside me.
I couldn’t forge
‘You found her?’ Lea asked.I nodded and sank onto the barstool beside her.‘She all right?’‘She’s fine.’ Or she had been, until I turned up, wrecked her dinner and blew up her plan.‘Told you the PI I recommended was good.’ Lea smiled. ‘I use him for business intel mostly, but he handles personal cases too. I—’ She paused, reading my face. ‘Didn’t go well, then.’There was sympathy in her voice, but I knew her well enough to hear the schadenfreude underneath.‘Mira just needs time.’Lea waved the bartender over and ordered a Boulevardier for me. ‘That’s what I said. She needs time to process the news. Alone. You showing up probably made things worse. Did she lash out?’‘No.’I took a long gulp. It went down smooth, but it didn’t touch the mess inside me.I couldn’t forge
‘Bet you were gutted when you didn’t catch me shagging Fabrizio in a hotel room.’ The sarcasm slipped out. ‘Is that what you thought? What you’ve always thought, ever since you met him? That he’s fancied me, and the second you left Paris, the two of us jumped into bed? Is that what this is?’Then it hit me. ‘Is that why you left Paris so suddenly? You didn’t actually leave, did you? You just pretended to, hoping I’d fall into his arms so you could catch me red-handed.’Ashton tried more than once to cut in, but I steamrolled right over him.He’d always had stalker tendencies. I saw that the day he bought the flat across from mine. Then he showed up at a bar I’d picked at random. When I moved into Oakwood Apartments, he bought the entire building.It had unsettled me, yes, but back then, we were two people tangled in a lie, each trying to solve our own mess. I didn’t feel it was my place to call him out.But I couldn’t keep ignoring it.I shot out of the chair and started pacing. Blood
‘Ashton! What are you doing here?’I couldn’t tell if I was more shocked or furious at the worst possible interruption.But I knew exactly what Ashton felt.‘Murderous’ didn’t even begin to cover the look on his face.I instinctively took a step back.‘Mr L-Laurent.’ Fabrizio had staggered to his feet and extended a hand.Even drunk, he remembered his manners.Ashton ignored him.His gaze locked on me, making the hairs on my neck prickle. ‘Let’s go.’‘Go? Where? Wait, I can’t!’Fabrizio had been about to give me the name of the man who helped him cook the books. With that, I could close the case and finally get my money back.‘Why didn’t you call me? And how did you even know I was here?’Ashton reached for my wrist.‘Don’t!’ I yanked my hand free. ‘I said I’m not leaving.’I glanced nervously towards the restaurant entrance, half expecting Silva to storm in.‘Is dinner with him really that important?’ Ashton’s voice was a low, dangerous growl. ‘I’ve got news. Important news.’‘Whatev
Inspector Silva walked up to me and reached for the front of my blouse.I snatched the button out of his hand. ‘I can do it myself.’‘The gadget’s sensitive,’ he said. ‘Needs careful handling.’‘I can manage pinning a button to a blouse, thanks.’If not for the strictly professional look on his face, and the fact I’d spent the last three days getting a sense of him, I might’ve thought he was trying to grope me. But the man had one setting: work.‘The mini camcorder captures everything within twenty metres of your field of vision,’ he said, stepping back. ‘Make sure the lens is facing outwards and at the right angle.’I looked down and adjusted the tiny white device. It blended in perfectly with the rest of the buttons on my blouse.Silva checked something on his laptop, then put on a pair of earphones. ‘The view’s good. Say something.’‘Something.’‘Loud and clear.’ He pulled the earphones off.I resisted the urge to keep looking down at the button. ‘What if he doesn’t say anything us
I stood. ‘Brief me on the way. Dom, call the pilot. Prep the plane. File the flight plan. Let me know the moment it’s approved.’Dominic was already on his phone. ‘Got it, boss. Destination?’‘Paris.’‘You’re going to Paris?’ Lea asked.I nodded. ‘Franklin Vance was Mira’s father. The news of his death will be a shock. I need to be there.’‘I’ll walk you down.’ She matched my stride as I headed for the executive lift. ‘What did he do to end up in prison?’‘Embezzlement, fraud, forgery, tax evasion, the works. When I asked him to make a will leaving everything to Mira, he tried to forge one to shift his assets abroad.’‘Huh. So you had him locked up?’‘He did that to himself. I just sped up the process.’‘Huh,’ she said again.‘What?’ I glanced at her. The lift was already descending.‘Does your wife know?’‘Of course. I told her.’‘So she knows you’re the reason her father went to prison.’‘There was no love lost between them, if that’s what you’re getting at.’‘Like my parents and yo
‘Penny for your thoughts.’I turned from the floor-to-ceiling window. ‘Nothing. Just thinking about work.’Lea didn’t buy it. ‘Work doesn’t make you look like that.’‘Not my work. Mira’s.’I glanced at the phone clenched in my hand. Mira had just texted to say she was extending her stay in Paris. She didn’t say how long. Just that work was piling up, they were short-staffed, and she needed to pull her weight. As if to prove the point, when I called, she barely got two sentences out before cutting the call.Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling there was something she wasn’t saying.It wasn’t what she said—it was how. Something in her tone. A kind of evasiveness.‘Ah, yes, the famous jewellery designer.’ Lea tilted her chin towards the safe in the corner of the office. ‘May I?’I keyed in the code and unlocked it.She removed the top box, opened a velvet case, and lifted out a necklace. ‘What’s this one called again?’‘Veyra.’‘Pretty name. Eliza Black wore it, didn’t she? I remember the