“Maybe we’re not too late,” Casimir argued. “Maybe they just took him somewhere out of the way for a few days until Pierre can lock down his inheritance without his younger brother in the mix.”
Arthur nodded, but he didn’t look up.
Roxanne had become good at reading people, and she could tell that Arthur was humoring Casimir about his hope. He thought Maxence was already dead.
Fear inserted hard, brittle needles into her heart.
“We need to find out what happened to him in any case,” Roxanne said. Her voice was a little shaky. “So we need to find out where Simone Maina went.”
“We didn’t see either of them leave the casino,” Arthur said.
“Do you think they’re still in there?” she asked him.
Arthur looked up at her, thinking, and then shook his head no. His tone was still reserved and resigned. “While absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, I think that we would have found some trace of him if he had stayed in the casino for three hours. I don’t think Simone could have killed him right there.”
Casimir rocked slightly in his chair, still clutching Roxanne’s hand to his warm chest. Fine, auburn hair softened the stones of his pecs and bricks of his abs under her hand. “Jesus, Arthur,” Casimir said. “When were you going to mention this?”
“I was rather hoping to finish my tea, but it appears we’ll be leaving the hotel sooner than I anticipated.” He began buttering rolls and stacking them on his wife’s plate while he continued his deduction of the events of the previous night. “If Maxence had been murdered in the casino, his corpse would have been found within an hour, surely. Hiding such a large corpse in that small pass-through between the rooms would not have been possible, and security would have investigated an inert person on the floor, assumed to be falling-down drunk. That sort of unsavory inebriate would have been removed to a private room.”
Roxanne nodded. She’d been to several high-society events and venues since she’d married Casimir, and drunks who embarrassed themselves were quietly led away from the party. Yes, security would have removed him if they had thought he was drunk or stoned.
Arthur mused, “Finding a dead body would cause a commotion even in the Monte Carlo casino. So, if Maxence wasn’t killed there and he wasn’t still in there, he must have left somehow. He was inside for less than two hours that we know of, and we did find an image of him on the video monitors during that time. If he hadn’t left, we would have seen him within those three hours.”
“So, if you were Simone,” Roxanne asked them, “where would you take Maxence? What hotel would you stay in?”
Arthur blinked. “Estebe Fournier wouldn’t stay in a hotel. He’s paranoid, and he has an enormous mega-superyacht that I would bet is anchored off the coast. It’s one of the largest in the world. It’s twice the length of a football pitch and looks like an aircraft carrier. She must have been ferried to shore on one of the tenders because that ostentatious monstrosity is far too large to dock at Port Hercule. They would have taken Maxence back to the ship the same way, on one of their landing tenders.”
“And then, they pulled up anchor,” Gen said, frowning. “If I had a captive on board, I’d sail away.”
Arthur nodded. “It might take them some time to get that beast moving, though.”
“Jesus, Arthur,” Casimir said, nearly panting. His heart was flailing in his chest under Roxanne’s hand, and she was still clasping Casimir’s fingers. She held onto him more tightly. He said,“Maxencehas been takenprisoneror hostage or whatever.Maxence.I swear to God, if Pierre engineered this, even if it is just for a few days, I’ll kill him. I will take him apart with my bare hands.”
Roxanne was missing something, but she could tell that Casimir was vibrating with violence. He was ready to punch a wall.
“Yes, Pierre does know just how to turn the knife in someone’s back, doesn’t he?” Arthur mentioned lightly.
Roxanne grew more worried.
Arthur told Casimir, “Don’t sully your hands with him. If that’s the case, I’ll call in favors, and I’ll make sure it hurts. We need to go down to the marina to question people, to see if anyone saw a tender take Maxence and Simone Maina back to Fournier’s yacht last night.”
Chapter Nine
Métropole Shopping Monte-Carlo
Gen
That morning, Gen and Roxanne meandered around the Métropole Shopping Monte-Carlo shopping mall, dubbed the “Billionaire’s Shopping Center,” well before the shops were to open at ten.
Only a few people strolled the mall at that hour, a few early-rising tourists in shorts and baseball hats and some hotel employees getting off the night shift.
Four men wearing dark suits lingered on the benches or leaned against walls, watching from behind mirrored sunglasses.
Someone famous or royal must also be window shopping early, Gen mused, and had brought their private security with them.
Gen told Roxanne, “I do not like that those two buckeroos swanned off to the port without us.”
Roxanne nodded. “It was ungentlemanly to leave us at the hotel while they ran off and searched for Maxence.”
