Murder Below Montparnasse

Murder Below Montparnasse - By Cara Black


Monday, Late February 1998, Paris, 5:58 P.M.


AIMÉE LEDUC BIT her lip as she scanned the indigo dusk, the shoppers teeming along rain-slicked Boulevard du Montparnasse. Daffodil scents drifted from the corner flower shop. Her kohl-rimmed eyes zeroed in on the man hunched at the window table in the café. Definitely the one.

Gathering her courage, she entered the smoke-filled café and sat down across from him. She crossed her legs, noting the stubble on his chin and the half-filled glass of limonade.

He sized up her mini and three-inch leopard-print heels. “Going to make me happy?” he asked. “They said you’re good.”

“No one’s complained.” She unclipped the thumb-drive from her hoop earring and slid it across the table to him. “Insert this in your USB port to download the file,” she said, combing her red wig forward with her fingers. “Et voilà.”

“You copied the entire court file to that?” The thick eyebrows rose above his sallow face.

“Cutting-edge technology not even patented yet,” she said with more confidence than she felt. She wished her knees would stop shaking under the table.

“How do you do it?”

“Computer security’s my business,” she said, glancing at her Tintin watch. This was taking too long.

“We’ll just see to make sure, non?” He pulled a laptop from his bag under the table, inserted the thumb-drive. More tech-savvy than he’d let on. Thank God she’d prepared for that.

“Satisfied?” She fluffed her red wig.

A grin erupted on his face. “The Cour d’Assises witness list with backgrounds, addresses, and schedule. Nice work.” He’d lowered his voice. “Perfect to nique les flics.” Screw the cops.

She grinned. Glanced at the time. “Don’t you have something for me?”

Under the table he slipped an envelope, sticky with lemonade residue, into her hands. In her lap she counted the crisp fresh bills.

“Where’s the rest?” Perspiration dampened the small of her back. “You trying to cheat me?”

“That’s what we agreed,” he said, slipping another envelope under the table. Winked.

Thought he was a player.

“Count again,” he said.

She did. “No tip? Service compris?”

“Let’s do business again, Mademoiselle. You live up to your reputation. Glad I outsourced this.” He smiled again. “I couldn’t be more pleased.”

She smiled back. “Neither could Commissaire Morbier.”

His shoulders stiffened. “Wait a minute. What …?”

“Would you like to meet my godfather?” She gestured to the older man sitting at the next table. Salt-and-pepper hair, basset-hound eyes, corduroy jacket with elbow patches.

“Godfather?” he said, puzzled.

“Did you get that on tape, Morbier?”

“On camera too. Oh, we got it all,” Morbier said. Two undercover flics at the zinc counter approached with handcuffs. Another turned from a table with a laptop, took the thumb-drive and inserted it.

The man gave a short laugh and pulled a cell phone from his pocket. “Zut, that’s entrapment plain and simple. It’ll never fly in court, fools. My lawyer will confirm.…”

“Entrapment’s illegal, but a sting’s right up our alley, according to the Ministry’s legal advisor.” Morbier jerked his thumb toward a middle-aged man at a neighboring table, who raised his glass of grenadine at them. “Don’t worry, I had the boys at the Ministry of the Interior clear the operation technicalities, just to err on the side of caution. Makes your illegal soliciting, paying for and reading confidential judicial documents airtight in court.”

“Lying slut,” the man said, glaring at Aimée. “But you’re not a flic.”

She shook her head. “Just another pretty face.”

“To think I trusted you.”

“Never trust a redhead,” she said, watching him be led away. Aimée removed the red wig, scratched her head, and slipped off her heels.

“Not bad, Leduc.” Morbier struck a match and lit a cigarette. The tang of his non-filtered Gauloise tickled her nose.

“That entrapment business, you’re sure?” She leaned forward to whisper. “I won’t get nailed somehow? Alors, Morbier, with such short notice.…”

“Quick and dirty, Leduc. Your specialty, non? I needed an outsider.”

“Why?” What hadn’t he told her in his last-minute plea for help?

“But I told you.” A shrug. “He broke my last officer’s knees.”

She controlled a shudder. “You forgot to tell me that part.”

He shrugged. Not even a thank-you. And still no apology for what had happened last month, the lies he’d told about the past, her parents. A hen would grow teeth before he apologized. But she’d realized it was time to accept that he’d protected her in his own clumsy way. And make up for her outburst—she’d thrown caviar in his face at the four-star resto.

“So we’re good, Leduc?” The lines crinkled at the edges of his eyes, the bags under them more pronounced. His jowls sagged.

She blinked. Coming from Morbier, that rated as an apology.

She pulled on her red high-tops, laced them up. Scratched her head again.

“Au contraire.” She stood, slipped the wig and heels in her bag, buttoned the jean jacket over her vintage black Chanel. “Now you owe me, Morbier.”





Monday, 7:30 P.M.


IN THE QUARTIER below Montparnasse, the Serb shivered in his denim jacket, huddled in the damp doorway, watching Yuri Volodya close and lock his atelier door. Why do they lock the doors and leave the windows open? Just foolish.

Yuri Volodya walked across the wet cobbles and disappeared up the dark lane. The old man kept right on schedule—he’d be out for the evening. Now for this simple snatch-and-grab job. The Serb noted a few passersby taking the narrow thread of a street—the shortcut to the boulevard—the general quiet and cars parked for the night. Perfect.

He peered over the cracked stone wall of the back of the old man’s place—part atelier, part living space. A small garden wreathed in shadows, the windows dark. He heaved himself up and over.

The garden was redolent with rosemary. The Serb waited a few seconds, then moved without making a sound on his padded soles to the side window. He slid it fully open and slipped in. He reached into his pocket and checked the syringe filled with the tranquilizer, just in case the old man came back. All capped tight.

“Don’t kill him,” they had said. Would have been easier.

A couple of lamps were lit, so the Serb didn’t need his flashlight. The atelier was small enough to search quickly. He looked behind the worktable and under it, too—but nyet—no one would store a painting flat.

He had to think … What was wrong here? His eyes scanned the room and he noticed some fresh scuffing in front of the armoire, as if it had been moved back and forth—more than once, too.

He moved the armoire aside to find a locked door. He searched the armoire drawers for a key, and when he found it, he put it into the lock.

Then he heard a switch click, and the room plunged into darkness. The Serb sensed someone behind him. He flung out an arm, hoping to strike before being struck, but he tripped instead. Someone kicked him in the stomach. He felt gut-wrenching pain and the hypodermic needle rolled in his pocket.

His attacker went down on his knees and roped him around his neck, but the Serb fought him off. That was when he felt the jab in his rear. The liquid ran cold into his muscle, and he felt the freeze go up his body. He went limp.

His attacker let him go, thinking his job was done. A small penlight went on and the key turned in the lock. The wall cabinet opened to reveal … nothing. The painting was gone.

The Serb’s attacker turned on his heel and walked out. The Serb, disturbed by the strange buzzing in his ears, knew he had to leave too. The simple snatch-and-grab complicated by a rival intruder, and then no painting. He stood, unsteady, and realized it was much harder to breathe. He needed to go outside into the fresh air.…

He managed to unlock the door and stumble onto the sidewalk before he realized he couldn’t catch his breath at all. A rock-like weight pressed into his chest. Gasping, he reached out between the parked cars. His sleeve caught on something and the world went black.





Monday, 8 P.M.


IN THE OVERHEATED commissariat, Aimée signed her police statement. She took the last sip of Morbier’s burgundy, then dabbed Chanel No. 5 on her pulse points and slipped the flacon into her bag.

“You’ll need to testify against him, Leduc,” said Morbier from behind his desk. “So the rat won’t get up the drainpipe again.”

“Not part of our deal, Morbier.” She shook her head.

He waved his age-spotted hand. “Legally you’re covered. Sanctioned from the top. It’s all in my report.”

“Against the Corsican mafia?” She snapped her bag shut. “My identity becomes public knowledge and then a thug appears on my doorway. I disappear. Didn’t you tell me his history of intimidating witnesses?”

“Your testimony takes place in closed judges’ chambers. No leaks. No media.” Morbier stabbed out a Gauloise in the overflowing ashtray. “For three years the rat’s boss has evaded every conviction. Now the Corsican’s going down and I need you as a witness.”

She figured this was linked to the corruption investigation that had almost cost him his career.

“More like someone you can trust,” she said. And someone he could dupe into assisting him. It always went like this with Morbier. As if she didn’t have enough on her plate right now after losing her business partner, René, to Silicon Valley.

The light of the desk lamp on Morbier’s sagging jowls illuminated how he’d aged. Despite her annoyance with him, her heart wrenched a little.

“Then you double owe me, Morbier.” She kissed him on both cheeks, then grabbed her jean jacket from the rack. She nodded to an officer she recognized from his undercover unit before she noticed Saj de Rosnay, the cash-poor aristocrat and Leduc Detective’s part-time hacker, standing at reception.

“You need bail, Aimée?” Saj worried the sandalwood beads around his neck.

“Non, just a ride, Saj. And I borrowed your thumb-drive—owe you a new one. We’ve got work to do tonight. Feel like takeout?”

“But I thought you’d been arrested.” He sniffed. “Drinking?” His jaw dropped. “What the hell have you been doing?”

“Morbier and I made up, but I had to play his game.”

“Didn’t look like poker to me.” His eyebrows rose.

“He needed last-minute help with a sting. Long story.”

Outside on the dark, narrow street, the locked exit of the Catacombs glowed under a street lamp. The car was parked in front of an old forge, horseshoes visible high on the façade. Saj unlocked the door for her. He took the wheel of René’s beloved vintage Citroën DS, a classic entrusted to Saj temporarily until René had a chance to settle in San Francisco. Saj readjusted the custom seat controls, which were usually fitted for René’s short legs. A pang went through her.

“You know, that could have gone very badly,” Saj told her. “You took my technology without asking—what if I had had important client files on that drive? Warn me next time, Aimée, when you’re putting the business at risk.”

Her cheeks reddened as the Citroën’s heated leather seat began to warm her derrière. “Desolée, Saj, I didn’t think—”

“Comme toujours,” Saj interrupted, exasperation in his tone. “Isn’t it time you started thinking of the consequences before jumping into these dangerous schemes?”

Guilt assailed her. This was worse than her usual tactlessness—she’d been plain stupid. She needed Saj more than ever right now; she couldn’t afford to lose him. Or stress him out. “Saj, I only had two hours to put this together. But you’re right,” she said, trying to sound contrite.

“What about my thumb-drive prototypes? I’m supposed to test them.”

“I only borrowed one.” She unclipped her hoop earrings, wondering how to make it up to him. “La police kept it as evidence. You’ll get it back with the court files erased and good as new.”

A crow cawed from outside the car window. There it was, looking down on the church, perched on the charcuterie’s façade. She caught its beady black-eyed stare. Bad luck, her grand-mère would say.

“I won’t hold my breath,” Saj said, shifting into first.

“Consider the thumb-drive a rental. Morbier needs me to testify.” She cringed at the thought. She hated the cold marble-floored tribunal, the smell of fear and authority.

Saj didn’t reply, just nudged the Citroën out into the street. Aimée ran her fingers through her blonde-streaked shag-cut hair, wishing she hadn’t run out of mousse. An evening of reports stretched ahead. They were barely coping with René’s workload.

“It’s a good time for you to start being honest with me about your other side-jobs.” A thick envelope landed in her lap. The second tonight.

“What’s this?” she asked, surprised.

“You tell me,” Saj said.

Inside the envelope she found a bundle of worn franc notes and a card embossed with YURI VOLODYA, 14 VILLA D’ALÉSIA and a phone number. On the back: Accept this retainer. Contact me. Urgent.

She had no idea who this Yuri Volodya was. “Out of the blue, this man gives you … when?”

“This afternoon.”

“Une petite seconde, did you speak with him?”

Saj said, “I told him to call you.”

She’d turned her cell phone ringer off. Now she checked for messages. The same number had called twice but left no message.

“Some scam?” Another five thousand francs tonight. “We’re busy. How could you accept this without an explanation?”

“I didn’t—he mentioned being a family friend. Protecting his painting. Said you’d understand.”

“Understand?” She shook her head. “What did he mean, family friend? You think an old colleague of my father’s?”

“Your mother, he said.”

For a moment everything shifted; she felt the oxygen being sucked from the car. Her pulse thudded. Her American mother, who was on the world security watch list? “How did he know my mother?”

Saj downshifted. “So he’s trouble, non?”

She hit the number. No answer. “What else did he say?”

“That’s all.” Saj shrugged. “Even if his money’s good, this smells bad. Alors, Aimée, we need to keep on track. We need to spend our time figuring out how to juggle all René’s projects and keep our existing clients happy. We don’t have time for whatever this is.”

Anxious, she tried the man’s number again. She needed to know more. A friend of her mother’s? But no answer.

“We will sort it all out, Saj. But turn around. Let’s meet this Monsieur Volodya.”

“Didn’t you say takeout?” Saj said.

The last thing Aimée was in the mood for was food. But she needed to do something for Saj. She also needed to talk to this man Yuri, and return his money. Her nerves jangled.

“Yes, takeout,” she said. “My treat.”

Saj downshifted off the boulevard into the honeycomb of tiny lanes of small houses, ateliers, and old warehouses. A longtime resident, he knew the best routes to take at this time of night. The quartier was a less well-heeled bourgeois-bohemian version of adjoining Montparnasse, complete with mounting rents. Saj complained that the former ateliers of famous Surrealists like Picasso now belonged to bohemian-chic residents whose trust funds couldn’t quite afford the 6th arrondissement.

Twenty minutes later the couscous végétarien takeout sat on the backseat, the turmeric and mint smells reminding Aimée she’d forgotten dinner. But she had no appetite. Yuri Volodya still didn’t answer his phone. Was it worth going to the address on the card? Part of her wanted Saj to drop her off at the Métro so she could head home and collapse in her bed. The other part knew she wouldn’t be able to rest until she discovered why he’d sent this, and what his connection was to her mother.

The Citroën bumped over the cobbles. She wished Saj would slow down. He unclipped his seat belt, reached in the backseat for his madras cloth bag. Popped some pills from a pill case.

“What’s wrong? Your chakras misaligned again?”

“Try some.” He dropped a fistful of brown pellets into her hand. “Herbal stress busters. Works every time, remember?”

“Bien sûr,” she said, chewing her lip. His fungus-scented pellets reminded her of rabbit droppings. “We’ll make it work without René,” she added. “We should think of his amazing job offer. This opportunity for him.”

Inside she thought only of the hole he’d leave. Selfish Aimée, as usual.

“René didn’t trust me or the business, Saj. Avec raison,” she said, hating to admit it. She couldn’t compete with René’s job offer—six figures, stock options, and the title of CTO, Chief Technology Officer.

“Maybe René doesn’t trust himself right now,” Saj said, pensive. Apart from the purring motor, quiet filled the car. He was right; René had moped around, couldn’t concentrate after his broken heart.

“We should do some more asana breathing sessions,” Saj went on. “It will expand your awareness and you’ll feel less stressed.”

Not this again. She almost threw the pellets at him.

“Make a right here, Saj.” She hoped they hadn’t made a wasted trip.

He turned into Villa d’Alésia, a tree-lined lane lit by old-fashioned lampposts. Suddenly, a white van lurched in front of them. Saj honked the horn and downshifted. The van shot ahead, its hanging muffler scraping the cobbles, and turned out of sight.

Aimée scanned the house numbers for number fourteen. From the corner of her eye she caught a figure flashing in front of the Citroën’s grill. A man’s blue jean jacket shone in the headlights’ yellow beam.

“Look out, Saj!” she shouted.

Horrified, her right arm shot out against the dashboard, while out of instinct she threw her other arm protectively across Saj’s chest.

Saj punched the brakes. Squeals and then a horrible thump as the man hit the windshield. For a second the man’s pale face pressed against the glass, his half-lidded eyes vacant, his palms splayed.

The man crumpled off the side of the car as Saj veered to the side. Too late. The Citroën jolted, hitting an old parked Mercedes. The metal screeched as it accordioned; the car shuddered. Cold air tinged by burning rubber poured over her face.

The impact set off the alarms of parked cars, a shrill honking cacophony. A hiss of steam escaped the Citroën’s crushed radiator.

Her bag had fallen from the dashboard—mascara, keys, and encryption manuals spilling on the floor. Saj’s body hung over the steering wheel. Good God, he’d taken off his seat belt.

“Saj, can you hear me?”

He stirred, rubbed his head.

“The mec came out of nowhere,” he said. And before she could struggle out of her seat belt, Saj pushed open the dented door. He staggered in shock, his pale dreadlocks hanging in the yellow slants of the headlights. “Mon Dieu, I killed him.”

Aimée’s door jammed against the Mercedes. She climbed out of the driver’s seat, then realized her phone was somewhere on the car floor. Stunned, she tried to take in the dark, wet lane, the body lying beside the car. Saj limping and clutching his neck.

A woman down the street, gripping a gym bag, ran toward them. Green surgical scrubs showed under her short brown jacket.

“Call for help,” Aimée shouted. “Ambulance!”

“Quelle catastrophe,” said the woman. She pulled out her cell phone. “And I just finished my shift at the hospital.”

The nurse knelt down beside the steaming car, the hem of her green scrubs trailing on the oil-slicked cobbles. With the nurse attending to the victim, Aimée hurried toward Saj. “What hurts? Can you move your neck?”

“Where did he come from? I didn’t see him until he.…”

Dazed, Saj touched his temple. Grimaced in pain. She realized he was in shock, and guided him to a low stone wall.

“Stay here, Saj,” she said.

“Help’s coming,” the nurse was saying to the motionless man. Apart from the cuts on his face, the man could have been asleep. “The hospital’s two blocks away. Can you hear me?”

Not even a groan.

It had happened so fast, one minute she and Saj were talking and then … Aimée realized she might be in shock herself. She struggled to focus, became aware of the nurse’s thrusts to the man’s chest. The whining echo of a siren. Approaching red flashes splashed the walls. Lights went on in the windows of the adjoining alley.

Suppressing a shudder, Aimée watched the nurse put her index and middle finger on the man’s carotid artery.

“No pulse,” she said.

Aimée gasped. She looked closer at the man’s pallor, his fresh facial cuts and scratches. “But he’s not bleeding anywhere.”

The shifting of the fire truck’s gears swallowed the nurse’s reply. The red lights reflected on the water pooled between the cobble cracks and on the roof tiles of the two-story ateliers.

Saj shivered in his thin muslin shirt, his sandalwood prayer beads tangled with his dreads. He had a glassy look as he spoke to the first response team. As if in a nightmare, Aimée watched the helmeted sapeurs-pompiers confer with the nurse beside René’s Citroën. The arriving medic tried for vitals and shook his head.

They lifted the body onto the stretcher. The man’s torn jeans were oil-spattered; his lifeless, pale arm fell limp, exposing the blue tattoos peeking from beneath the rolled-up sleeve of his Levi’s jacket. Cyrillic letters intertwined in an elaborate figure of a wolf.

Haa Bepa

“He’s Russian?” she said to the medic who was putting a blood pressure cuff on Saj’s arm.

“Worse,” said the medic, a thin-mustached twenty-something. “A Serb.”

Shivering, Aimée stared closer at the tattoo. “How can you tell?”

“Believe me, as the son of a Ukrainian dissident, I’m supposed to hate both Russians and Serbs.” He pointed to the script. “See there? Serbian uses Cyrillic and Latin script. The Serb mafia tattoo themselves like that in prison.”

Her blood ran cold. Serb mafia?

The medic clipped a Styrofoam brace around Saj’s neck, then draped a blanket across his shivering shoulders. Then he took Aimée aside. “You look pale. We’ll bring you in for observation.”

“I’m fine.” Aimée was loath to share how shaken she felt. How her stomach churned at the image of the man’s white face, his half-lidded eyes reminding her of the fish on ice in the market. His palms splayed on the windshield. His tattoo.

“If we hadn’t driven up this street to find.…” Her words left her. It spun in her mind that a man she didn’t know who knew her mother had sent her an envelope of cash.

“Fate. Accidents happen, terrible,” the medic said. He took her vitals. “Your blood pressure’s a bit high.” He put a stethoscope to her chest.

“But we ran him over,” she said, hesitating. “There’s something wrong—”

“You feel guilty, that’s natural,” he interrupted. “But if it happened as you say, it’s not your fault.”

Her shoulders shook. She couldn’t get the words out, but any medic should be able to see the Serb didn’t look like a man who’d been hit by a car.

“Alors.” The medic leaned forward. “We’ve treated Serbs who were injured after bar brawls and knife fights here in the quartier.”

“How’s that supposed to make me feel better?”

He scanned the street, nodded to a colleague who assisted Saj toward the ambulance. “Between us,” he said, lowering his voice, “I’d say watch your back.”

But who was this Serb? Why hadn’t anyone come out to identify him after the sirens, the commotion?

Her jacket whipped in the rising wind. She turned to see the van waiting for the corpse, engine running, as the flics arrived. Before she could get past the crowd, the medic bundled Saj into a waiting blue-and-white SAMU van. The engine rumbled, backing out down the lane.

Too late.

A flic escorted the nurse to a police van that had been set up for questioning. Aimée followed. “Wait your turn, Mademoiselle.”

“But my friend’s hurt.” Shaken up, tired, and cold, she wanted to get this over with. “I need to get to the hospital.”

“Where he’s going you can’t visit him.”

The hair stood up on her neck. “You’ve taken him in garde à vue?”

“C’est de rigueur, questioning and treatment, Mademoiselle.”

She knew the criminal ward at Hôtel-Dieu, the public hospital.

“But it was an accident, this man came out of nowhere and landed on our windshield.”

“That’s up to our investigation,” he said, checking for messages on his cell phone. “Right now we’re calling it a homicide involontaire.”

Her heart dropped. Saj could face a charge of manslaughter. Saj? A gentle soul who meditated and spent months in ashrams in India. A hacker genius who could paralyze the French bourse, bring a Ministry database to its knees, but wouldn’t hurt a fly. It made her sick to think they suspected him.

“Zut alors, Saj swerved trying to avoid this man.”

“So he’d had a few drinks, eh?”

Again, the flic was off base. “Saj drinks green tea.”

“Immediate blood tests and alcohol level analysis will confirm that.” He nodded to the crime scene unit to tape off the area. “What’s your worry?”

“The victim’s injuries.” She pointed to the dry cobbles. “Do you see any blood here?”

But he’d already gone to join several officers near the ambulance.

She hated waiting. Hated thinking of Saj being questioned in the criminal ward. The Mercedes’ smashed grill leaked water; escaping radiator steam hovered cloud-like over the hood. At least the car alarms had subsided.

A stocky man of medium height, bundled into a black lamb-fur coat—the kind she hadn’t seen since the seventies—and a Russian fur hat ran toward them. His gaze took in the ambulance. Short of breath, he paused and shook his head. “Mon Dieu. Someone hurt?” There was shock and concern in his voice.

“Dead,” muttered someone in the crowd. A finger pointed at her. The Mercedes.

“My car? Think you can get away with smashing my car, too?”

Aimée flinched.

Just what she needed. René’s insurance would go sky-high. Another layer of guilt descended on her. René hadn’t been gone twenty-four hours and they’d run over a Serb and totaled his prized car.

“An angry little Cossack,” said one of the firemen under his breath. “The only things missing are his boots.”

“Restez tranquille, Monsieur,” Aimée said. “I’ll take care of the damages.”

Aimée noted a long-haired young man, a cell phone to his ear, rushing up behind the older man. An armband encircled his khaki jacket sleeve. “What’s happened to your car?”

The old man waved him away. “I’ll handle this, Damien.”

His brows knit in worry. “But you need my help.”

“Go back to the hospital,” the old man said. “Your aunt’s more important.”

“You’re sure?” said Damien, his tone conflicted.

The old man nodded. Aimée heard the slap of Damien’s footsteps as he disappeared into the shadows.

“So you don’t have insurance, Mademoiselle?” The man’s face flushed. “I know your type, you want to rip me off. Offer to fix my car but sell the parts. You some gypsy?”

“Do I look like a gypsy?” He grated on Aimée’s nerves. Saj injured, a man dead, and now this callous car owner. “I’ll have your car repaired.”

“Think I’ll fall for that old trick?” Suspicion showed in his watery blue eyes. He gave a quick shake of his head. “Don’t think you’re leaving, Mademoiselle.”

She had no intention of leaving—not until she had done everything she could to save René’s insurance. But before she could respond, a flic, notepad out, asked for the car registration. She opened the intact door on the driver’s side and reached into the glove compartment. Felt René’s kid leather driving gloves. Size petit. A pang went through her.

After handing the flic René’s car registration and scooping up the contents of her bag from the floor, she shifted on her high-tops, awaiting questioning. The crime scene unit photographer’s flash emitted bursts of light. She caught sight of the old man a few meters away—he was opening the door to Number 14. He had to be the man she’d come to see, Yuri Volodya! She hurried after the old man just as he disappeared behind the gate.

“Monsieur … Monsieur Volodya?” she called out.

No answer. As she reached the darkened front door of the atelier, Aimée heard the tinkle of broken glass. A cry. She reached out but felt only cold air.

“Monsieur?” Her eyes tried to adjust to the dank vacuum in front of her. “What happened?”

“My door was open, the lights don’t work,” he said, his voice quavering. “I’ve been robbed.”

Aimée’s spine tingled. Smart thieves short-circuited electricity these days. With a tickle of intuition, she wondered if this was connected to the Serb they’d run over outside his door.

She rooted in her secondhand Vuitton bag until she found her penlight. Shined it on the man’s confused face. A trickle of blood trailed on his cheek. He’d cut himself on broken glass.

“Where’s your fuse box, Monsieur?”

“What good will that do?”

Did he want to argue now? “I’ll try to switch the power back on.”

She followed the old man across the creaking floorboards, glass crackling underfoot. A musty scent of paper emanated from the shadows. In the thin yellow beam she saw the problem right away. She pulled on her leather gloves and with a quick flick switched the fuse box levers upright.

Light flooded the sparsely furnished turn-of-the-century atelier. A worn velvet armchair had been overturned. A vase lay on its side, orange marigold petals scattered and water pooled on a long worktable.

Horrible. She pitied the old codger. His car, now his house.

“Monsieur Volodya? That’s you, non? I’m Aimée Leduc, you sent for me. I’m so sorry about your car, but I hope—”

“Forget about the car.” He grabbed at a dark wood beam in the wall, his bony white wrists shaking. Reminding her of her grandfather. She righted the chair, took his elbow to help him sit down. Dazed, he resisted, refusing to sit. With his thick fingers he smeared the blood on his cheek. Shock painted his face.

“I think you should see a doctor.”

“Wait …”

With surprising agility he hurried to the armoire, which had been shoved aside. She followed, noticing the small door behind it. Like a broom closet. A dark red stain smeared the wood door.

Blood.

He pulled the creaking door open. Empty. Anguish painted his face. “You’re too late. My painting’s stolen.”

“You kept a painting in a broom closet? A valuable painting?”

“But I locked it. It was only until the formal appraisal tomorrow.” His lip quivered. “My legs feel not so steady.”

His face had gone white. This time, he let her help him to the chair. “Let me get you water.”

He shook his head. “Vodka.” He pointed to the galley kitchen. A show of bravado, or to calm his nerves? But he looked like he needed it. She’d humor him until he explained. Then alert the flics.

The dark wood-walled atelier held an open mezzanine above, a cramped kitchen off to the side, an alcove with faded flowered wallpaper, and a bed covered by a rumpled duvet.

At the empty sink she wetted an embroidered towel, noticed the dish rack with a single plate, cup, and fork. The old man lived alone. Tidy. In the one cupboard she found a bottle of Stolichnaya, two glasses.

Could the Serb have been the one who robbed the old man? Caught in the act, she figured. But he hadn’t been carrying anything. Definitely not a painting.

“Now how do you feel?” She uncapped and poured the vodka. Handed him the towel.

“A scratch,” he said, clinked her shot glass. “I’m Yuri Volodya.”

“I know. You sent me five thousand francs.” She set down her card on the side table.

“So of course you came,” he said. “But too late. Hand me my glasses.”

Stubborn old Cossack, all right.

“There’s a pair hanging from your neck,” she said. “What’s this all about?”

He put on his glasses, and his voice changed. “You look just like her.”

Hope fluttered in her heart. “Maman? She’s alive?”

He shook his head. Winced in pain. “Forgive me. I thought you could help. You see, I owe your mother.”

“I don’t understand. Help how? And owe my mother what? When did you last see her?”

He averted his eyes and swigged the vodka. “I’m a bookbinder, I craft special editions. A commission takes a year.” He rubbed his thumb and fingertips together.

Why had he changed the subject? Nerves? He seemed anxious now, worried. Like he was saying one thing but meaning another.

“Alors, Monsieur Volodya, if we could talk about my mother, this painting.…”

“My craft’s for les connaisseurs, vous savez,” he said, as if she hadn’t spoken. “A certain clientele who appreciate the feel of a hand-bound book, the presentation of prints inside. Salvador Dalí commissioned my work, des gens comme ça.” Apart from his odd sentence structure—as if he translated from Russian construction—he spoke with a pure Parisian accent.

Under her boot she felt something hard and round. A brass button embossed with LEVI’S. Like the brass buttons on the Serb’s jean jacket. Her heart skipped. “What if this fell off the Serb’s jacket?”

“That man you ran over?” Yuri’s teary blue eyes widened. “Blame it on the Serb curse.”

“Meaning?”

“We have a saying about Serbs: An unfortunate man would be drowned in a teacup. But of that man I know nothing. Nothing.”

She doubted that. “I think this button came from his jean jacket. Maybe he trashed this place and came up empty.”

Yuri’s shoulders sagged, and the lines framing his mouth grew more pronounced. A quick scan told her the intruder knew exactly what to look for and where. The leather-bound books lining the shelves were untouched, as was an antique iron book-press on the worktable. An open calendar and notepad lay undisturbed on the desk.

“Life kicks one in the gut and we’re surprised?” he said. “As if one is the exception, not the rule?”

Since when do people refer to themselves in the third person, she wondered. An old-world thing?

“Monsieur Volodya, I’m here to return your money.”

“Keep it. Find my painting.”

“Art recovery’s not my line of work,” she said, suspecting he’d mentioned her mother as a ruse. This smelled off.

“I’ll make up a list, tell you everything.”

Everything? “Tell me how you know my mother.”

His left hand trembled slightly. “Please, in my own way. Give me a moment.”

It was foolish to rush him. Of course he was still in shock. He’d seen a man die, his car damaged, and his home burglarized all within a short time.

“Damien, my neighbor, the political boy, just brought me back from dinner at Oleg’s place. Oleg’s my stepson, as he calls himself. My wife’s child. Not mine.” Yuri’s voice rose, petulant. “Oleg’s wife served burnt blinis, like cement—can you imagine?”

Aimée contained her impatience with effort. “Why contact me to protect your painting?”

“Pour me another.”

Frustrated, she reached for the bottle. His liver-spotted hand clamped on her gloved one with surprising strength. His confusion was gone.

“If the Serb left empty-handed,” he said, “someone else didn’t.”

He knew something. She saw it in his eyes. Suspicion filled her.

“So you claim a painting is missing, but the man who appears to have broken into your house didn’t have it. Strange, Monsieur. And I still don’t understand what any of this has to do with my mother.” She sipped the vodka. “Why do I feel all this is some ruse?”

There was fear in his eyes. He downed the vodka. His hand clenched in a fist, his knuckles white. “I’ve been rude to you, I’m sorry.”

He was wasting time she should have been using to help Saj. “S’il vous plaît, Monsieur Volodya, quit the guessing games.” She was angry with herself for getting caught up in this, for buying into his fishy story just because he’d mentioned her mother.

“So help me. I know you’re a detective. I wanted to hire you to protect the painting, but now it’s too late for that. I’m hiring you to get it back for me instead.”

Like she needed to add to Leduc Detective’s workload. They were already drowning. “Like I said, Monsieur, we don’t do art recovery.” She couldn’t resist adding, “You didn’t really know my mother, did you?”

“Of course I knew your mother. The American.”

Aimée gripped his hand. “How?”

“It’s complicated.” He stiffened. “I didn’t know her well.”

Aimée didn’t know her well, either. Sydney Leduc had abandoned them when Aimée was eight years old. “But you knew her. When?” Hope fluttered despite his vagueness.

“Of course, she was much younger then. Changed a little, but … it’s been years.”

Years? Her heart sank. “Where … how?”

“Now I want to make good on my debt.”

“Debt?” Why wouldn’t he give her a straight answer? “Is this about the painting?”

Footsteps crackled over the glass, and a draft of cold air rushed through the atelier. “Monsieur?” It was the flic with the clipboard.

“Please, Monsieur, how do you know my mother?”

“Not now.” Yuri put his finger to her lips. Dry, rough skin.

She’d had enough. She reached into her bag for the francs, about to tell him to forget involving her, when he whispered, “I’m being watched.” He held her hand. “Tomorrow. Wait for my call. I’ll tell you about her.”

“But I can’t take your money—”

“Recover my painting.”

“Monsieur, I need your car registration,” said the flic. He glanced around, noticing the scattered objects. “Your house was broken into as well? Is anything missing?”

“My wife. She died last year.”

“Desolé,” he said. “But I’ll need to take down the accident details before I make a robbery report.”

“No report,” Yuri said, shaking his head. His defiance belied the fear in his eyes. “I’m remodeling.”

She wondered why the old man was lying.

The flic’s eyes narrowed. Maybe he wondered the same thing. Yuri pulled open a drawer in the Art Nouveau chest, the most expensive-looking piece in the room. Took out a folder and handed it over.

As the officer noted the vehicle info, Aimée watched Yuri sit hunched in his chair, his mouth set, the blood clotting on his cheek. She wasn’t sure she believed him about her mother, or trusted him about his missing painting, but she felt pity for him.

“Let me ask a medic to look at your cut, Monsieur.”

He waved his wrinkled hand in dismissal. “Now both of you get out.”

OUTSIDE YURI’S DOOR on narrow Villa d’Alésia her hands shook. A man dead, her friend injured and in police custody, an old man who claimed to know her mother, and now a stolen painting. A sour aftertaste remained in her mouth and it wasn’t from the vodka.

The day had gone from bad to worse after René’s departure. She wanted this all to go away. To go home, crawl under the duvet. But first she had to help Saj.

Aimée needed her laptop case and reached for the car door handle. Couscous végétarien dripped all over the back floor.

“Not so fast, Mademoiselle,” said a balding flic. “I’ll need to search the car. And you.”

They suspected her now? “Search the car? I tell you, the man ran into us. Not our fault.” She hoped to God that René hadn’t left his unlicensed Glock under the seat.

“If you’re in such a hurry, better give me the details at the commissariat, Mademoiselle.”

A “midnight special” in a wire-frame holding pen? Forget it. Weren’t they supposed to offer her a trauma counselor?

“You call that procedure?” She flashed her détective privé license at him. Time to pull out the big guns. “I’m sure my godfather Commissaire Morbier will be interested, since that’s his dinner all over the floor.” A little lie, as Morbier’s appetite ran to bifteck-frites. But a way to take the focus away from her—and maybe divert it to Yuri. She gestured to the spilled takeout. “Care to explain to him why you think picking up takeout somehow involves me in the robbery of an old Russian man’s atelier?”

The flic’s mouth tightened. “Morbier’s into couscous végétarien now?”

So he knew Morbier better than she’d guessed. Oh well, she had to roll with it now. “Part of his new healthier lifestyle.” One could always hope.

“Robbery of the old Russian, you said, Mademoiselle?” The flic didn’t miss a thing.

She nodded. Let him draw his own conclusions when he saw the blood behind the old man’s armoire. “Too bad you can’t ask the Serb about the robbery. Right place, right time for him to know something.” She shivered, pulling her jacket tighter. “Don’t you find it strange the victim didn’t bleed? There’s no blood here on the street. Do you understand it?”

“No, I don’t.” He shrugged. “Maybe there was internal bleeding. We’ll know after the autopsy.”

The tow-truck driver’s horn shrieked a blasting echo off the stone walls. “Finished?” he yelled out the window to a crime scene tech. “Last run tonight. I need to hook up the cars and process them at the yard before it closes.”

“Take your things, Mademoiselle.” The flic waved to the crime scene tech and hurried ahead. “Open them up, show the officer.” He paused and turned back, his shoe squeaking on the stone. “And the trunk.”

AFTER FINALLY GIVING her statement, Aimée hurried down the cobbled lane. In the brisk chill, she searched her old address book for the fifth-floor criminal ward phone number in Hôtel-Dieu. She hoped her contact, Nora, a nurse, was working the night shift.

“Nora’s off,” said an older female voice laced with irritation. “Who’s this?”

She needed to know Saj’s condition and hated dealing with the notoriously close-mouthed police medical unit. She thought quick. “Traffic division in the fourteenth arrondissement. Any status update on the man injured in the collision fatality on Villa d’Alésia?”

“But I don’t even have your report yet. Why so eager?”

“Make my life easy tonight, eh? The medics checked his vitals and took him for observation. Didn’t even list suspected concussion, head injury, whiplash, or superficial injuries. I need a possible diagnosis for my report.”

Yells and shouts came over the line.

“We’re busy tonight,” she said, “must be a full moon. I’ll get back to you later.”

“New regulations,” Aimée said. “We need to fill in all the boxes and I’ve got a few empty. Please.”

Sigh. “Just a moment. The patient’s here. I’ll ask his doctor.”

“Parfait.” She had an idea. “I know you’ve got other patients. Put me on speakerphone with the doctor, it’s faster.”

Another sigh. The click of a button. A rush of background noise. “Doctor Robler speaking,” said a crackling speakerphone voice. “The patient shows possible shoulder muscle and neck injury.”

Poor Saj. “The patient’s with you? You’re taking him for X-rays?”

“Bien sûr,” said Doctor Robler, “but after his questioning.”

Alarm spread over her. “Saj, only give your statement,” she said, hoping he was in earshot.

“Aimée?” It was Saj’s voice, tired and confused.

“There’s a robbery involved. Say nothing else until.…”

A loud buzz. The speakerphone disconnected.