Evan pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked exhausted too, and like he realized he shouldered much of the blame. “We don’t think he did it on purpose. But, when I offered him the job a few years ago, he was … let’s just say he was headed down the wrong path, with the wrong people, and his mom is a family friend. I knew he was a good kid, just needed direction and gainful employment. But I’ve always kept one eye open with him just in case—afraid for the right amount of money someone might get to him. I also detected a feed from the Wi-Fi on the boat a few days ago. Someone had obviously opened a bad link and well, some of Xavier’s business documents were compromised. Luckily, we think they only got a fraction before it was detected. When I asked each of the staff, Rod was acting all … off. Not much, but enough that I pressed him. He said he’d been approached a few weeks ago by a “total ten”—his words not mine—and spent the night with her. He almost missed the boat, showed up in the wee hours. Anyway the next day, she texted him and sent a link. Thinking it was a nude, he clicked.” Evan’s eyes rolled. “Not a nude of course. It was a wildlife picture. And yeah, bobs-your-uncle, we got ourselves some malware on the Wi-Fi.”

“What is this, bobs?” Madame asked.

“In this context it just means ‘of course.’ Bien sur,” Evan added the translation for her.

God, the trap could have happened to any one of us. “But what about Dauphine?” And how did Xavier get from malware to accusing me?

Xavier paced over to the other armchair and sank into it, weariness oozing out of every molecule. “Dauphine has an uncle, I mentioned him?”

I nodded.

“Michello,” Madame spat. “C’est une racaille.” I could surmise what that meant. ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬Something distasteful.

Xavier went on. “We’ve been watching him, and he’s been down at the port keeping an eye on us. We think he even had someone at Les Caves the night you and Andrea were there. Were you approached?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Oh. Wait. There were these two guys. Young. Gorgeous. They were all over Andrea and me. Quite insistent, actually.”

Xavier tensed. “Insistent how?”

My irritation simmered. What, was he jealous now? “Persuasive. Handsy.”

His eyes narrowed.

“It was nothing over the line,” I added, relenting.

Evan’s eyes flicked between us. “Ahem. I think we get the point. I’d just found the discrepancy in the data feed and shut it down. That’s when I told Xavier I thought we had some malware.”

“I remember not being able to get online or send an email that day,” I said.