Sue was directing the question to Richard, who put up his hands and shook his head. “Why are you asking me?”

“You’re a reporter, that’s why. I thought you guys have inquiring minds,” she answered, placing the platter of pastries on the table. “Coffee will be ready in a minute.”

Elizabeth was helping herself to a plump chocolate-covered éclair filled with mocha cream. “I don’t think Sylvie was a first-class professional bonker, not from the guys I saw her bring to the apartment. I think she was an amateur,” she said, taking a big bite. “An enthusiastic amateur.”

“Well, we know there was a black market ring operating at the hotel. Maybe she was involved with that,” suggested Bill, choosing a mille-feuille topped with a strawberry.

“She would have to be the mastermind to have that much money,” said Richard, “and pretty young girls aren’t usually at the top of the criminal food chain.”

Lucy thought he was right about that. Her experience as a reporter had taught her that attractive young women were usually the victims of crime, subject to abduction, rape, beatings, and worse.

“She was no mastermind,” said Elizabeth, reaching for a second éclair.

“She was obviously holding the money for somebody,” said Bob, speaking with authority as he dug into a strawberry tart with his fork. “And it seems obvious that Adil and Malik were looking for it. I suppose they must have had trouble breaking in to the girls’ apartment, so they thought they’d try our place, on the off chance the money had been hidden here.”

“I guess whoever they’re allied with is getting a bit desperate,” said Lucy, who had chosen an éclair and was scraping her plate with her dessert fork to get every last bit of cream filling. “That guy this afternoon seemed like a pro, with a stocking mask and bolt cutters.” A horrible thought occurred to her. “Maybe he was the one who killed Sylvie.”

Silence fell at the table as the group members began to realize the terrible danger Lucy and Elizabeth had been in.

“Just imagine . . .” began Rachel, only to be interrupted by her husband.

“Sylvie was probably holding the money for somebody, and they sent that guy to get it back. Money laundering is big business, and it’s endemic. It’s everywhere. Even respectable banks do it. The Swiss have made a specialty of it,” said Bob.

“He’s right,” agreed Richard. “Paris is full of Arab factions, all busy raising money for weapons and equipment. Just look at Syria, for example, and Iraq, and of course, there’s Egypt. And now that France has started aggressively hunting down Muslim radicals in former colonies like Mali, there’s been a real upsurge in resistance. And that’s on top of the more established groups, like Al-Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.”