Are you sure about the spelling?
Zacharie’s jaw tightened with each reply.
He expanded his search. Business registries. Real estate records. Tax filings. Social media, though he despised it. Obituaries, in case the man was dead. University alumni databases, law school records, courtroom transcripts going back twenty years.
Nothing.
Not a single trace of anyone named Luc Infernalis existing anywhere in the world.
By the fourth hour, Zacharie had exhausted every resource at his disposal. His network, the same network that could locate a fugitive in forty-eight hours, that had tracked down Mira’s auction location from fragmentary intelligence, that had never once failed him in fifteen years of operation, had come up completely empty.
He sat back in his chair, staring at his laptop screen.
There was one last thing he could do, but it was also the least desirable option.
Zacharie reached for his phone, and his call was answered on the second ring.
“Twice in one week,mon ami? I’m flattered.”
“I need your help locating someone.”
When Calixte spoke again, the amusement in his voice had sharpened into curiosity. “That’s not a request you make lightly. Who is this someone?”
“Luc Infernalis.”
“Should I know this name?”
“I don’t know. But I’ve done what I can, and I haven’t found anything.”
“Context?”
A slight pause, and one Calixte immediately noticed.
“Your silence speaks volumes,mon ami. Does it have to do with your young guest?”
Zacharie gritted his teeth.This.This was why he hated having to ask for his friend’s help, with Calixte’s extraordinary ability to read a situation with just the slightest of clues.
“Anything else she said about him that I might find helpful?”
“She compared him to a prosecutor on television. In detail. His fashion preferences. His courtroom strategy. The way he moves.”
“The way he moves,” Calixte echoed. “My, my.”
“Can you locate him or not?”
“I can certainly try. Though I confess myself curious. You have resources that rival my own. If your network has already come up empty, what makes you think mine will fare differently?”
“You have contacts I don’t.”
“True. But that’s not why you called.”
Zacharie’s grip tightened on the phone. “So you know my thoughts better than I do?”
“I know when my friend is lying to himself,oui.Because what you are,mon ami,is jea—”
“Disturbed,” Zacharie said at the same time. “That’s all there is to this,” he said forcefully. “I’mdisturbed.”
And that was the truth.
