He stared at the barrel of the gun, unable to believe what he was seeing. Or what she was saying. They were both in on this? His mother and his sister?
‘Maman?She knows about this?’
‘Maman has known for years. Our father showed her the cave when they were first married. He was a lovesick fool, desperate to impress her with the family secret. The “real treasure”, he called it, not that she was impressed. Dahut had forgiven us, forgiven our family, because Fabien sacrificed himself to protect this place. He and Tristan Poullain died to protect the secret, haven’t we been told that for years? But we didn’t realise what that meant. It was all over then, no curse any more, not since ’43, he said…but the story lingered on. And then…’ She gave a sigh. ‘Papa had to go and have an affair. He was going to leave Maman, take you and me away from her. No way would anyone give her custody of the du Lac children. So she did what she has always done, shedealtwith it. The women of our family have always had todeal with it, haven’t they? She killed him, dumped the body in the pool here and let the legend take its course. Genius really. But even she didn’t realise what she’d woken up.’
His mind reeled around inside his head. It wasn’t possible. She didn’t know what she was saying. He had his differences with Maman, but…
And yet, here was his own sister holding a gun on him.
‘Maman…she killed Papa?’
‘Better than losing everything.’
‘She would have got a settlement.’ It didn’t make sense. None of it made sense. But somehow, horribly, it did.
‘He betrayed her, Rafael. An affair. He was going to dump her. You may have thought he was a saint, but he wasn’t. You barely knew him. He was the same bastard du Lac lord of the manor they all were. Now put on the fucking mask.’
He jerked back at the violence in her voice, the way her face contorted, and most of all at the way the gun shook wildly. If it went off, she might not hit him. Or she might take his head off. It was impossible to tell. His sister was deranged.
The chamber trembled, a rain of fine dust falling from the ceiling, the waves in the pool slapping against the stone around it.
Rafael kept his voice as calm as he could, stretching out his open hands towards her in a gesture of peace, or at least that was what he hoped. The last thing he wanted to do was put on that mask. He remembered the sensation of the voices crawling under the surface of his skin, controlling him, manipulating him. But this time…not a murmur…why? ‘If you shoot me, you aren’t going to get anyone to believe I was the victim of a curse.’
Her right eye twitched in irritation. ‘It doesn’t matter. I can just leave you down here. No one will find you.’
‘The others know I’m here.’
‘And I can take care of that too.’
‘Three more murders? What about Simon? Thierry? What did you do, Laure?’
She pouted, twisting her mouth to one side as she did so, like a petulant child. ‘Simon was working for Mémé and he found the mask. I told him to give it me and he refused. He was obsessed with Gwen by that stage and I tried to reason with him, told him I’d tell his beloved Ariadne, ruin his life, but he wouldn’t listen. Next thing I knew, he’d hidden it and he wouldn’t say where.’ Her grip on the gun tightened, her knuckles white. ‘He wouldn’t say when I trapped him down here, or when I strangled him.’
‘You…you strangled him…’ He echoed the words like a hollow log, hardly able to believe they were real.
Laure nodded with a frightening enthusiasm, her eyes shining. ‘A garotte. It was La Fontenelle’s favourite method of torture, did you know that? You think you know everything, don’t you?’
Rafael shook his head and she laughed at him. ‘What about Thierry?’
‘The diver? Well, when it was found again, I had to test the mask, silly. Make sure it was the real thing.’ A slow smile trickled over her features. ‘And it is.’ The sneer she threw his way wasn’t pretty. ‘Do you even realise how much the Foundation is worth, Rafael? Accidents happen all the time, especially to divers, to men who drink too much and to people who wander into caves they don’t know. Sometimes they’re never found. Besides, I don’t need to shootyou, brother of mine. Do I, Dr Ariadne Walker?’
The muzzle of the gun swung to his left and, to his horror, he saw Ari stop by his side. She reached out to grab his arm, her cold hand on his skin. She was shaking. He didn’t blame her. But what on earth was she doing here? She could be far away with her brother and Nico by now, safe, or at the very least raising the alarm. But she was here. With him. She’d come back. For him…
‘You do know she’s just a teacher, don’t you?’ Laure went on dismissively. ‘They’re conmen, her and her brother. People believe whatever they want to believe.’
Ari didn’t answer, but her grip on him tightened. He could see she was angry. More than angry. But he couldn’t afford to let her tackle Laure. She’d shoot Ari in an instant, the way her mind was right now.
‘And yet they found this place. Just as they promised.’ He wrapped his free hand around Ari’s and pressed her gently against him, trying to keep her calm, trying to let her know that he would handle it. Somehow.
‘Of course. You had her thoroughly researched, didn’t you? All the little company spies scurried off to report back to you as soon as you laid eyes on her. Did you know that he does that, Ari? Did you know he investigated every aspect of your life as soon as he heard your name?’
Laure wasn’t lying. He had done that. Of course he had. And he wasn’t entirely sure how Ari would react to that truth. It had been the last thing on his mind until this moment. She was still angry with him, he suspected, angry that he had accused her of running away. And yet, here she was by his side.
Not running away at all when it really counted.
She cleared her throat, glanced at him briefly, and then fixed her gaze on the gun. She was no fool. ‘He does have a habit of throwing money at things.’ Her voice was extraordinarily calm.
‘Well, it works,’ he said. Then, aware of their situation, he felt he ought to elaborate. ‘Sometimes.’
