Fear No Evil

Chapter 14

Paris

Bree exited a taxi in the Batignolles neighborhood, which was more subdued than the area around her hotel, with blocks of matching and beautifully maintained nineteenth-century apartment buildings that had boutiques and shops on the ground floors.

She spotted the hand-painted sign for the Canard de Flaque bistro at the end of the block and walked toward it, aware of the appreciative looks she was getting from men passing her. And why not? Bree had always looked ten years younger than her actual age, and she was wearing one of two evening outfits she’d packed for the trip: a pearl-colored silk blouse with a plunging neckline, tight charcoal slacks, and black leather high heels that clicked on the sidewalk. The clutch purse was the perfect size to hold the small Beretta and the euro-coin beacon, which she’d activated and slid into an inner pocket of the bag before leaving her hotel.

Seeing herself in the window reflection of the bistro door, Bree decided that the Tahitian pearl earrings and necklace Alex had given her on their anniversary were the perfect accessories for this outfit, which was much more feminine and provocative than the sort of thing she usually wore. Exactly what she wanted. She pushed open the door, stepped inside, and took in the bistro and its patrons in a sweeping glance.

Canard de Flaque was laid out in an L shape, with an eight-stool bar to her right. There were long, narrow mirrors on the walls between the windows, six low-backed, tufted-leather booths along the interior wall, and ten tables in the remaining space. It was elegant without being overly formal, and almost every seat was occupied.

“Do you have a reservation, madame?” asked the maître d’ in English. He wore a nameplate on his lapel that said HENRI and apparently had a sharp nose for strangers.

“I don’t, Henri,” Bree said in French.

He replied in French, with a pained expression, “I’m afraid to disappoint you, madame. As beautiful as you are, Puddle Duck is booked solid.”

Back home, Bree might have been irritated at the “as beautiful as you are” comment. But here in Paris, in Philippe Abelmar’s favorite eatery, she smiled and put her left hand gently on Henri’s forearm so he could see she wore no wedding ring.

“I don’t mind sitting at the bar if there’s space,” she purred. “I’ve heard so many good things about the food here. It would be a shame to go somewhere else.”

The maître d’ broke into a happy grin. He picked up a menu and said, “The bar I can do for you, madame. And where did you learn to speak French so well and with such an interesting accent?”

“In Saint Martin, in the Caribbean, where my mom taught French.”

“Fantastic,” he said, turning toward the bar. “You are visiting?”

“And exploring my options,” Bree said.

“Well, then, I wish you luck,” he said and gestured to the stool on the near end of the dark mahogany bar. “Please sit, madame.”

Bree slid onto the stool next to a young woman with shoulder-length raven-black hair who was hunched over with her finger in her ear, talking on a cell phone in harsh whispers.

Smiling at the maître d’, Bree said, “Thank you, Henri. You’re very kind.”

“My pleasure,” he said, bobbing his head and handing her the menu before moving quickly back to his station near the door.

“Can I get you something to drink while you look at the menu, madame?” said the bartender, a tall, gaunt woman in her late thirties. She had a long narrow nose and moved in an awkward manner that reminded Bree of a crane.

“Champagne, Carole,” Bree said, reading her nameplate.

The bartender smiled, made a half bow. “Oui, madame.”

Bree looked in the mirror behind the bar and noted that the seat next to the young woman on the phone was empty. The other five bar stools were occupied by two women and three men who all seemed to know one another. Bree realized that if she pivoted to her right, she would be able to see the rest of the bistro and its patrons, even those in the booths along the inner wall, which were reflected in narrow mirrors.

Bree acted curious and relaxed as she turned on the stool to see the mirrors better. In less than ten seconds, she determined that unless he’d undergone radical plastic surgery, Philippe Abelmar was not in Canard de Flaque this evening.

As she was turning back to her champagne and the menu, she heard a man say, “Enough with the phone, Valentina. I need your undivided attention, please.”

Bree glanced in the mirror behind the bar and saw that the seat next to the young woman was now occupied — by the same calm, assured, and well-dressed embezzler and sexual predator she’d come to Puddle Duck to hunt.