But living glamorously was not the only thing he was good at. He was also well known to the readers of Fortune magazine, Business Week, the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal and many other financial publications, as a businessman to be reckoned with. Having inherited from his father a fortune in excess of four hundred million Deutschmark in interests ranging from textiles to oil, from high explosives to wheat farming and to the manufacture of ball bearings for railway carriage wheels, and having turned these not entirely humble origins into a combine turning over more than five hundred million pounds annually, Deke Sleder could not be reasonably described as either lacking in grey matter or being short of a bob or two.

A taxi drew up at the barrier at the end of the quay, and a short, plump American in a loud, checked jacket, tangerine Polyester trousers, white shoes with tassels, and a thin silver chain inside his open-neck shirt, clambered out. He was struggling simultaneously with the French language, a large Gladstone bag and the French currency. Judging from the expression of thunder on the taxi driver’s face, he had won his struggle with the French currency.

The American picked up his bag and strutted jauntily up the quay, reading off the names of the boats as he went along, until he reached the Chanson II. As he started to walk up the gangway, he didn’t notice a man at a café on the quay lower his copy of France-Soir and study him carefully through the 200mm lens of his Nikon before pressing the shutter button.

The American was excited. Invitations to spend long weekends on yachts in the South of France did not come often to Adamsville, Ohio, and he sure as hell was going to make the most of this one, even though he fully expected to spend most of the time discussing important business. That was what he had assured his wife, and he had assured her that in good faith, because it was what his host-to-be had told him. He was, all the same, a trifle curious as to what deal was so important it was worthwhile his host-to-be’s flying him all the way out here – and first class at that.