“There’s always been a small faction desiring the reestablishment of the monarchy, but it wasn’t until the recent events in Egypt, the end of the Mubarak regime and the continuing turmoil, that the royalist movement picked up steam. Sadek realized that the Double Eagle could be used to raise money to finance a coup that would put Prince Fouad back in power, but it wasn’t the sort of thing you could take to a pawnshop. It would have to be a top secret deal. He couldn’t risk the U.S. getting wind of it, so he entrusted the coin to his grandson, Adil, who hid it in Elizabeth and Sylvie’s apartment while they sought a buyer. They had already entrusted Sylvie with funds they had raised from contributors, funds they wanted to hide from the tax authorities. Unfortunately for Adil, Elizabeth is a good housekeeper. . . .”

“That’s news to me,” muttered Lucy, getting a scowl from her daughter.

“And she found the coin when she was cleaning and kept it for good luck. It wasn’t good luck for Adil, however, when he tried to retrieve the Double Eagle and found it was gone. That’s when he and Malik searched your vacation apartment, desperate to find the coin. When it didn’t turn up, Sadek seized Sylvie, demanding to know what she’d done with it. When she couldn’t tell him, she was killed.” Chris paused. “I suspect Sadek wanted to go after Elizabeth next. That’s when Adil and Malik bought some time by attempting to search her apartment. When that didn’t work out, he ordered them to nab her at the cemetery. Elizabeth was going to be next.”

“That’s so scary,” said Elizabeth, struggling to come to grips with her close escape. “I had no idea it was worth anything. I thought it was one of those weird French coins, ecus or francs or something that went out when the euro came in.”

“You weren’t far wrong,” said Chris, “except it’s American instead of French.”

“Didn’t you look at it?” asked Bill.

“Not really. I thought it was sort of pretty, so I kept it. I just threw it in my coin purse. I thought it would be good luck,” admitted Elizabeth. “Is it worth a lot?”

Chris nodded. “One was auctioned a few years ago. The Secret Service made a deal with the owner and got a percentage of the sale price, which was almost eight million dollars.”

Stunned, Elizabeth collapsed against the banquette. “I had a coin worth eight million dollars?”

“Sacré,” breathed Serge.

“Probably more now,” said Chris.

“I was carrying it around like a lucky penny,” said Elizabeth.

“That would be something like eight billion lucky pennies,” said Bob.

“More like one billion,” said Serge, getting a few puzzled looks. “I went to Sciences Po,” he said with an apologetic shrug.