The Case of the Black Pearl by Lin Anderson Read Free Book Online Page B

take a proper look round the
Princess
,’ he said.
    Stephen nodded his agreement.
    ‘There’s a dinner for some bigwigs tonight. François is supplying fresh fish for it,’ he informed Patrick. ‘If you like we can deliver it for him.’
    Patrick approached the gunboat with some trepidation, which evaporated when Oscar rushed from the top deck to greet him. The dog’s manner suggested there had been no visitors, welcome or otherwise, in his absence. Once aboard, a quick look round proved this to be the case.
    Patrick rinsed out his dive suit and hung it out to dry, then took a long hot shower.
    Dressed, he sat under the awning to contemplate his next move.
    His dive trip had eased his concerns that Angele may have gone overboard, either accidentally or by design. He couldn’t be sure, of course, but from Stephen’s knowledge of the area and its currents, the Irishman seemed convinced that there was no body under the water, or likely to come ashore soon.
    So, in Patrick’s reckoning, Angele had left the yacht by some other means. Her sister seemed to think so too. Camille hadn’t mentioned the possibility that Angele might have drowned. Her immediate reading of the situation was that Angele had left of her own free will and taken the pearl with her. Patrick had to assume Camille knew her sister well enough to make that judgement. Her main fear seemed to be that Chapayev would find her sister before she did.
    Which brought him back to last night’s warning.
    Patrick went over the names of those who were aware that he was looking for Angele.
    Camille Ager came top of the list. Since she’d employed him, he couldn’t see why she would try to put him off the scent via a dead rabbit. Chevalier he also dismissed. He would trust Chevalier with his life. In fact, he had done so on more than one occasion.
    Marie Elise? There was, as far as he was aware, no connection between Marie Elise and Chapayev. She’d revealed that she’d spoken to Angele that night and had sympathized with her opinion of her Russian benefactor. During their evening together, he’d had no sense that Marie was trying to get information from him, rather than the other way round.
    Brigitte Lacroix? She’d supplied an escort for the party that night, but not directly to Chapayev.
    He moved on to the production team from
The Black Pearl.
He hadn’t revealed his true identity to either Polinsky or Gramesci, which didn’t mean they wouldn’t make a point of checking it. The card he had given them was bona fide, as was the company name, although if they dug too deep they would discover the company didn’t do much business. If, on the other hand, they made local enquiries in Cannes, the likelihood was their visitor would emerge as Le Limier.
    It seemed clear after his visit to the Hôtel Majestic Barriere that her director and producer were aware she was missing, probably with the pearl. He was also certain that neither Gramesci nor the producer had any idea where their leading lady was. Gramesci had appeared a lot more worried about Angele’s disappearance than the American had. Though whether the Italian’s concern was for Angele, or his own position with the Russian, Patrick didn’t know.
    However, neither Polinsky nor Gramesci struck him as the sort to gut a rabbit, even if they had worked out who Patrick was, where he lived, and wanted to stop him investigating further.
    Which reduced it to two possibilities.
    A local enemy, carrying out a grudge for some previous job he’d undertaken, which meant it had nothing to do with Angele Valette.
    Or back full circle to Vasily Chapayev, who’d issued a warning to Patrick to stay out of his business.
    Thinking about Polinsky reminded Patrick of the DVD the producer had thrust into his hand as a parting gift. He went below deck to check it out. The sleeve was blank, as was the DVD itself, with no title or description of what it contained.
    Patrick slipped it into his laptop and launched it.
    It opened