Night Watch

TWENTY-NINE

“Ssh, ssh, ssh, ssh, ssh,” Luc said, wrapping me inside a great embrace, kissing me all over the top of my head. He kicked the door shut while he tried to stop my crying. “Everything’s going to be all right.”

“It can’t be. That’s a foolish thing to say, Luc.” I was unable to stop the meltdown. “What are you doing here?”

He stroked my hair and held me close. “We’ll talk about it, darling. Just calm down and-”

“Calm down?” I said, looking up at him. “I had no idea where in the world you were. I’ve had every horrible thought-”

“Just stop thinking, then, Alex.” He lifted my chin and kissed me, long and lovingly. I gave in to him, letting the tears stream down my cheeks, kissing him again and again.

“When did you get here?” I suddenly realized there was barely enough room in Mike’s apartment for two of us to be inside with him. I took a step back. “Where’s Mike?”

“He’s been a prince throughout all this,” Luc said, dabbing at my mascara-streaked face with his handkerchief. “I owe you an apology for the way I talked about him on Sunday.”

I bit my lip, laughing at myself. “Great. And I’ve been an absolute bear to him tonight. Blew him off completely.”

“He’ll recover.”

“Did you send some guy to my apartment the other night, to talk to me? Did you really do that?”

“It was before I had a chance to talk things through with Mike. I was desperate to get word to you. Just one of my old friends. It was a stupid thing to do. Sorry, Alexandra.”

Luc took my hand and started to lead me over to the bed.

“Don’t even think about that here in this apartment,” I said.

“Give me a little credit, darling. I was just going to get you off your feet to talk.”

I went over to one of the two stools in front of the kitchen counter. I could hardly handle the idea of being in Mike’s apartment to meet with Luc about anything.

Luc took the other stool. “It’s the police who kept me from calling you, Alex. You understand that, don’t you?”

I couldn’t look him in the eye. I didn’t answer.

“What? You think I didn’t want to?”

“I’m so confused. What are you doing here?”

“The Brooklyn detectives asked me to come over. You understand there was a man who was killed,” Luc said. “Mike told me you-”

“Luigi Calamari? Do you know him?”

“I don’t know him. I mean, I met him where he used to work, in a professional capacity. I don’t know him outside of that.”

“But you’ve hired him to be at Lutèce?”

“I didn’t hire him. I’ve got a manager and partners who do all that work on the ground over here. I didn’t know anything about Luigi until I got the call from the police.”

I looked away from Luc. A photograph of Valerie on the table next to Mike’s bed caught my eye. She was standing on a steel beam, thirty stories above the city, on the framework of a building she had designed. I wanted a share of the courage she possessed till the very end of her life.

“Listen to me, Alex. I’m as confused as you are.”

“That couldn’t possibly be. Your head would be spinning like mine is,” I said, closing my eyes and shaking my head. “You’d be as dizzy from it as I am right now.”

Luc stood up and put his arms around me, resting my head against his chest.

“I am dizzy, Alexandra, but not because of you. I’m quite clear about that.”

“I spend half my professional life trying to sort out lies people tell me-even the people who come to me for help. Now I feel like my personal life reeks of the same deceitfulness.”

“I’m not lying to you, darling. I never will.”

I broke away from him and pushed the stool out behind me. “Why are we here, anyway?” I asked. “Let’s go to my place.”

“We can’t, darling. At least I can’t, for now.”

“What do you mean, you can’t?”

“Look, Mike picked me up at the airport this morning and drove me to the detectives’ office in Brooklyn. They know all about Lisette, Alex. They’ve spoken with Belgarde in Mougins. The matchboxes, the skulls, the murders-they think there might be a connection.”

“To each other, yes-but to you, Luc?”

“Not to me.”

“And Mike?”

“They wouldn’t let him stay for the interviews. They said it’s not his case. So he came home to sleep for the day-he said he’d been working all night. Then at four o’clock this afternoon, when they had finished with me, Mike came back to pick me up.”

“Then let’s go,” I said.

Luc pulled me back to him and kissed me again. As good as it felt in the moment, I was seized up inside with doubt and dread of the days to come.

“I can’t stay with you tonight,” he said.

“But that’s crazy.”

“Mike convinced them to let us have dinner together-with him as the chaperone. But all the cops think it’s not wise for me to stay at your place. Not for me,” Luc said, drawing back with his hands on his chest. “But that there’s no need to drag you into this investigation right now.”

“I’m already there. Where are you staying?” I asked.

“The Plaza Athénée.”

The elegant boutique hotel on East 64th Street at which Luc always stayed. “Fine. Then I’ll just throw some things in a bag and go with you.”

“Darling, it’s the same problem. If there’s any negative media, neither the cops nor I want you drawn into it.”

I threw up my arms in despair. “I feel like I’m talking to a perp. If you didn’t do anything wrong, why is everyone worried about the possibility of negative press?”

“Be sensible, Alex. I’m well-known in my business-and someone is obviously trying to bring me down, on two continents. There could be news stories about this and they won’t be pretty.”

“Paul Battaglia’s getting so much bad publicity about Baby Mo that there won’t even be room for a footnote about us. I wouldn’t worry.”

“Come here, darling. This half hour of stolen time is Mike’s gift to us. He didn’t tell the cops he’d let me see you alone for a while at his apartment. He simply promised he wouldn’t let me go to yours. Just let me hold on to you, Alex. It may be the last chance we have for the next several days.”

I walked to Luc and put my arms around his neck. For the next three or four minutes, I got lost in his kisses, comforted by the expression in his soft blue-gray eyes.

I jumped at the sharp sound of a rap on the door.

Mike pushed it open and I stepped away from Luc.

“Break it up, you two. Think Casablanca-1942. This is just about the moment when Rick tells Ilsa, ‘We’ll always have Paris.’”

I could feel the color rising in my checks. I swiveled to the sink and ran some cold water to rinse my face.

“Thank you, Mike,” Luc said. “Thank you for giving us this time.”

“I got one question for you, Luc. Do I need to change the sheets?”