Night Watch

FIFTY-ONE

My heart was racing as Peter Danton turned and went back inside the bunker. He pulled the door after him, and it closed as tightly as if it was the breach door on a submarine.

I slid off the hay bale and ran to the great steel handle, twice the size of a steering wheel. I turned and pulled at it, but nothing moved.

Outside the shed, I heard several trucks speeding across the gravel and stopping just in front. It sounded as though there were three different voices, as the men exchanged comments with each other.

“I think she’s got light hair,” the first one said. “I could see it on the tape when they drove in. Danton wants you to check the horse barns. Maybe she’s out walking over to the animals.”

“How about the shed?” another asked, as I flattened myself against the wall, behind the tallest pile of bales.

“That’s where Mr. Danton was standing when he called me. Fan out and look for her. No need to be unpleasant. Just bring her back to this blue car. They’ll be leaving soon.”

“Who’s watching the surveillance screens?” the second guy wanted to know.

“There’s only the three of us working today. One of you will be back on that duty after you find the girl.”

I was relieved that nothing unpleasant was in store for me, and also to know that the security team was understaffed. But I didn’t feel comfortable enough to identify myself to them as long as Mike was on the other side of a locked door. And I didn’t want Mercer to meet any resistance if he drove in before we were able to get out.

I exhaled when I heard the workmen leave. But now all I could focus on was that two of the men who meant the most to me in the world-Luc and Mike-were locked in the underground storage facility and had no reason to know that Peter Danton was unhappy to have Mike there.

I didn’t want to be “found” by the searchers, so I squeezed myself farther back between two tall stacks of hay bales.

There must have been a legitimate purpose for the meeting Danton had arranged, I tried to convince myself. Both Jim Mulroy and Josh Hanson had expressed their interest in investing in Lutèce. Had Luc been lured here to see the vault, and then been obligated to sit down with the group to accept their offer to expand his team?

And what did he know about Gineva Imports? Had Gina Varona not been invited to this impromptu get-together, or was she simply unable to make it on short notice?

I saw the giant wheel on the steel door begin to spin only minutes after Danton had gone back inside. Maybe the discussion had been aborted because of Mike’s presence, and the foursome was coming out. But it was Peter Danton, this time accompanied by Josh Hanson.

Danton walked to the opening of the shed and must have seen his workers scrambling around, inside and out of the other barns.

He held the walkie-talkie to his mouth with his good hand.

“Haven’t you found her yet?” he demanded.

I couldn’t hear the answer.

“Just get her back to her car. I’ll have the detective out to her shortly. He’s just poking around before he leaves.”

I was frozen in place.

Peter Danton turned and started talking to Josh Hanson. “It’s time to break up our meeting. I want to get Chapman out of here before he does any more snooping. Go back in and tell Luc you’ve got to hurry back to your kid’s soccer game. Understood? We’ll deal with your cut of the business another time.”

“That’s fine.”

“Get rid of the detective and Luc, so we can move the stuff out of here if we need to. Worst he can do is come back in a couple of days looking for it, if he’s half as smart as he thinks he is. I’ll rejoin you in a few minutes. Just keep Chapman away from that bin behind the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.”

“Will do.”

Josh Hanson went back through the open steel door, and Peter Danton took one more look outside the shed.

He pressed the walkie-talkie to find his security head. “Where is everybody?”

The machine crackled back at him.

“If the detective’s traveling companion wasn’t in any of the barns, then check the closest trails,” he said. “She can’t be that far away.”

“Say that again? You’ve just gone back to watch the surveillance tape a second time?” Danton held the device to his ear. “You’re telling me she came into this little building with the detective but never left?”

Danton turned and started to look around the small shed. “No, no. You go out with the other men and keep looking. I’m doing fine right here.”

Peter Danton put the walkie-talkie in his rear pants pocket, then walked to the door of the vault. He pushed it closed and locked it, with four men still inside, to begin his search for me.