Casimir was pouring a waterfall of coffee into his mug. “Vaguely.”
“She was from Mauritius. Stunningly beautiful, and she ended up marrying Estebe Fournier.”
Casimir looked up at Arthur, startled. The hot coffee reached the very rim of his cup, brimming, and he set the coffee carafe aside just before it overflowed. “Estebe Fournier?EstebeFournier’s wiferushed up to Maxence in a casino in broad daylight?”
“Just after ten o’clock at night, but in full view of everyone,” Arthur said.
Casimir shook his head. “Right, right. But, as a lawyer, you hear things, you know? You hear things about people.”
Roxanne sipped her coffee and tried to remember anything about Estebe Fournier. Emails and tangential references surfaced in her head. None of them were good references.
Arthur and Gen waited quietly and watched Casimir. Roxanne wasn’t entirely sure that she shouldn’t ask Casimir about this in private.
Casimir stared into his black coffee. “Fournier is involved in some unsavory things. He appears to have financial connections to Russian mob bosses in the Ilyin and Butorin organizations, meaning that both his money and name have been involved in the same projects as theirs. Those guys are involved with illegal pornography in Asia and Europe, which is why we strongly recommend to our clients that they don’t accept roles in films if those people are producing or financing them. There’s been a rash of unsavory funding sources lately, so we’ve been keeping close tabs on them. We don’t let our clients get mixed up with mob money.”
Arthur nodded. “It’s hard to avoid the black hats sometimes.”
Roxanne mused, “I guess we’re left asking the question of why the wife of a man with ties to Russian mobsters would rush up to Maxence and the two of them vanished together.”
“But why on Earth would he leave with her?” Casimir asked the ceiling. “The Russian mob is trying to take over Monaco right now because they love tax havens. Why would he trust the wife of someone mixed up with them and go somewhere with her?”
“The fact that Maxence was in Monaco might be important,” Gen said, still cradling her pregnancy tea and sipping dreamily. “If something happened to him here, the police could be told not to investigate it.”
Roxanne nodded. Little countries sometimes had the same underhanded politics as small Southern towns, as she knew all too well. “I can’t believe Max has disappeared at the same time his uncle is in the hospital and might not make it.”
“What?”Casimir nearly rose from the table. His makeshift toga slipped, and he grabbed the white sheet as it slid down his six-pack of abs.
Arthur raised one dark eyebrow above his pale gray eyes, and Gen hurriedly set her preggo tea back on the table and said, “I beg your pardon?”
“Yeah. Maxence is related to that musician you represent, right, Caz? Max said he was that one time when he was over at the house. He said he was going to call him up to get tickets to a show. Xan Valentine, I think?”
Casimir grimaced and said, “They’re cousins. He was a few years behind us at Le Rosey.”
“Right,” Roxanne continued. “Xan Valentine emailed us a couple of days ago to ask about some inheritance problems he was anticipating because his uncle Rainier, who had no children of his own, had suffered a massive hemorrhagic stroke and was on life support.”
Arthur was watching the two of them. “Do you mean to tell me that Alexandre Grimaldi,thatAlexandre Grimaldi, Maxence’s cousin, who may or may not have murdered at least one person, isXan Valentine?”He rolled his eyes and looked at the ceiling. “Now, I get it.Valentine.He holds the Valentinois duchy, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, Alexandre Grimaldi is Xan Valentine,” Casimir said with a frown and one eyebrow lifted, like this was obvious. He turned back to Roxanne. “Wait, Alexandre thinkshemight get ‘an inheritance?’”
“He wanted to know how torefusean inheritance,” Roxanne said. “I assumed his uncle got into vacation timeshares or something, and he didn’t want to be saddled with them. I replied that you didn’t do inheritance law and forwarded it to Lallie Antic over in wills and trusts. She’s another lawyer in our practice,” she told Arthur and Gen. “I didn’t think you wanted to stray outside of contract law too much.”
“Rainier Grimaldi is dying,” Casimir said, staring at Arthur.
Arthur had settled back in his chair. He had folded his hands in his lap and had a slight frown on his face. “I asked the security people who met us at the heliport about why we’d received a call when Maxence had only been missing for a few hours. That bothered me. They said Pierre knows Maxence is missing, and Pierre was the one who sent for us.”
Casimir blinked hard and drew in a shaky breath. Roxanne held his fingers more tightly.
Arthur continued, “On the surveillance footage last night, I saw at least five individuals stalking one or the other of them. One group was either following or with Simone Maina. The other appeared to orient on where Maxence was standing in an alcove before she was sighted.”
“Damn it,” Casimir said, running both hands through his thick, auburn hair and combing it back with his fingers, nearly yanking it. “We’re here to find Maxence’s body.”
Roxanne reached over to Casimir and touched his shoulder. He grabbed her hand in both of his and held it to his chest. His heart was thumping under his skin.
Gen extended a hand toward Arthur’s shoulder, too. He didn’t grab her but leaned slightly into her touch.
“This is bad,” Casimir said. “We have to find out where Simone took him.”
“If Pierre has coordinated with the Russian mob to kill him, we’re too late,” Arthur said quietly.
