Roxanne remembered Maxence’s tattoo from the last time he’d shown up in California and Casimir had started shoveling food at him. Max’s tattoo was the same but rotated with the shield bearing a red and white diamond checkerboard pattern pointing downward.
If something had happened to Max, that tattoo might identify his body.
Roxanne didn’t want to think about that, and she didn’t want to think about how devastated Casimir would be, either. When he went downhill, he went downhard.
But Casimir was married to her now, and they’d had their daughter Juliana since the last time Casimir had fallen into a metaphorical black pit. He wouldn’t do that anymore, she hoped. Maybe her love and Juliana’s would preserve him.
Across the table from Roxanne, Gen was cradling a small teacup in her hands with her eyes closed and a serene smile on her face.
Roxanne said to her, “I thought you gave up coffee because of the baby.”
Gen opened her eyes just a little, still giving off every impression of a happy kitty. “Issouf brought me more pregnancy tea.”
“Did Issouf say anything about whether Maxence had gone back to his room last night?” Roxanne asked, reaching for toast.
Casimir stared at her, his bright green eyes wide over the rim of his coffee cup. “You didn’t mention that you guys had found out something.”
Roxanne poured herself a cup of the coffee and started dumping sugar and cream into it. “You never asked. Besides, I had crashed by the time you guys finally got back from the casino. Did you mention it to them?” she asked Gen.
Gen shrugged. “I was asleep. I’m growing a baby. I’m so tired. I forgot to mention it.”
Arthur carefully placed his teacup in the saucer and looked at his wife. “Do tell.”
“Last night after you guys bolted out to the casino to find out whatever it was you were looking for, one of the guys who works here opened the café for Roxanne and me because I was about ready to hurl from not eating anything. Anyway, his name is Issouf, and he makes really,reallygood pregnancy tea.”
“And?” Arthur prodded.
“Because Casimir here,” Gen pointed a silver spoon at him, “has no sense of operational security, he was waving the name Maxence Grimaldi around last night like a hurricane signal flag. Issouf heard him talking and wasn’t fooled at all by my valiant attempt to call him Maxence Robert.”
Arthur nodded. “It was doomed to failure.”
“Hey!” Casimir set his coffee mug on the table. “Nobody said that we shouldn’t throw his name around. Indeed, he’s kind of famous around here. I thought maybe it would get us some information, and it looks like it did. What did he say?”
Roxanne told them, “He said Maxence was staying in the hotel, and they would check his suite this morning because they thought he hadn’t come back last night.”
Gen said, “When Issouf brought me more tea before we came over here for breakfast, he said that housekeeping had entered his suite this morning to do a welfare check, and it looks like he didn’t come back to the hotel at all last night or this morning. He also said that Maxence left his room about eight o’clock yesterday evening.”
Casimir nodded. “See? It did get us some information. We have a confirmed sighting at eight o’clock last night.”
Arthur’s eyebrows contracted over his silvery eyes in a frown. “Surveillance footage from the casino’s closed-circuit security camera system shows one brief sighting of him in the casino around ten-thirty in the evening. He was standing off to one side of a room in a surveillance shadow, but he poked his head into view once.”
Gen said, “But his security people called us just after eleven and said he’d been missing for four hours.”
Arthur twitched his eyebrows and studied his tea. “Either they had lost him earlier in the evening, or they called us directly after the incident.”
“That’s distressing,” Gen said.
Arthur nodded. “Rather.”
“And how did you find that out?” Roxanne asked him.
Arthur sipped his morning tea before he answered. “A friend.”
Roxanne waited for a follow-up question, but Gen and Casimir didn’t comment on Arthur’s obvious evasion.
There was something about Arthur that Gen knew and Casimir wasn’t asking questions about, and Roxanne wanted to know what it was. “Anything else?”
Arthur was sipping his tea again and returned his cup precisely to the center of its saucer and adjusted the handle to its perfect location. “It was difficult to discern from the footage, but it appears that a mutual friend of ours rushed up to him in the casino. Caz, do you remember Simone Maina from Le Rosey?”
