Diana shrugged. “Well, if she called you, you should know.”

“Did you know he was married?”

“No. I knew nothing about him. I just met him that night,” she said. He studied her, clearly wanting more. She sighed. “And I went to his house, yes. Mostly because you were blaming me, and I knew he was a philanderer, and if he had no compunction about cheating on his wife, I thought there were some other shady things he might be involved in. I thought she could shed some light on who he was. Whether he had anything to do with the necklace.”

“And?”

She shrugged. “I’m sure she told you the same thing. Nothing. She knew her husband was a cheat, but she didn’t care to know anything else he was involved in. So it didn’t get me anywhere.”

He nodded, agreeing with her assessment.

“I was right, though. He was a thief. He stole a man’s wallet.”

Lieutenant Bayans’ eyes flashed to her, full of surprise. “And how did you know that?”

She raised both palms to the sky, innocent. “I might have run into one of the other guests, who told me that his wallet was found on the body.”

“How fortunate for you.” He closed the pad. “But yes, that’s true.”

“And what about the wristwatch?”

Again, he looked surprised. “Now, Mme St. James, listen to me. I hope you are not trying to interfere in this investigation. Because if you do, you might find yourself in trouble. Big trouble.”

If it was a threat, it wasn’t spoken like one. His voice was like that of a big brother, looking out for a reckless child. She nodded. “I’m not. I know that. The last thing I want to do is interfere.”

“Good.” He pushed away from the table and stood up.

“Nevertheless . . . the wristwatch?”

His frown deepened, and he scratched at his moustache as his eyes went to the ceiling. At first, she thought he wasn’t going to answer the question, but then he sighed. “The Rolex wasn’t found on Lachance’s body. In fact, all we found with him were a couple of wallets, which were returned to the owners. Happy?”

“Thank you,” she said.

She wasn’t happy. Now, she was more curious than ever. Did that mean there were two thieves at the ball?

After he left, she quickly grabbed her phone and googled the Grand Paris Hotel. Turned out, it was only a fifteen-minute walk away. And it was a beautiful night, too beautiful to be spent indoors when all of Paris was waiting for her, alive outside her doors. Besides, she felt like she was on the trail, making progress. And asking questions wasn’t interfering. It was simple curiosity.

So the wine could wait. The answers couldn’t.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

The Grand Paris Hotel was anything but grand.

It sounded as if it would be better than her little inn, but she’d nearly missed it when she followed her GPS along to a rather seedy area of town. She actually had to backtrack to find the front door, sandwiched between a Thai restaurant and an insurance agency. The sign above the door was so faded she could barely read it.