“Annie and the girls are not going to like this,” Harry said.

“You’re right about that. Did you get the feeling when we were talking to the landlord or whatever these people call the person who owns the flat that handles the registration or whatever . . . that she wasn’t being entirely truthful? She was giving off vibes that made my hair stand on end. Maybe we missed a beat and should have offered a bribe. What do you think, Harry?”

“What I think is if Petrie has been coming here several times a year and staying at the same place, she’s more than likely built up some kind of rapport with the owner of the flat. I’m thinking when she left in such a hurry, she would have told the landlady not to answer any questions if someone came looking for her. She also probably told her to go ahead and rent out the flat and didn’t take a refund. Petrie probably slipped her a few bucks to keep quiet, and along with being able to rent out the flat again, that made the woman happy. Petrie will probably call her from time to time to check to see if anyone really is checking up on her. We can go back first thing in the morning and take another shot at her. This time, we lean a little harder and of course offer up a substantial. . . ah . . . gift for whatever knowledge she has to share. Your French is good enough to get your point across, isn’t it, Jack?”

Jack was always astounded when Harry said more than two words at a time. “It’s worth a try, that’s for sure. Since the local police were no help, I was also thinking maybe we could get Jack Sparrow to intervene on our behalf. They have something over here called the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure. It’s France’s top external intelligence organization. I read about it on the plane on the way over. I also remember the Attorney General’s talking about them when I was a prosecutor. Sparrow has the juice to make the call and do it as one Director to another, then it’s one of those, I owe you, and if I’m lucky, you won’t want to collect for years and years. It’s all in the spirit of cooperation. I can call if you agree, Harry.”

“It can’t hurt. If we bomb out with the landlady tomorrow, we might as well go home unless you want to tramp these streets in the hopes of spotting Petrie. We both know she’s gone to ground. Hell, she could be in Belgium for all we know. The only thing in our favor is she’s traveling using her own passport. Maybe Sparrow or Abner can find out if her passport is in play. If it isn’t, that means she’s still here and in hiding.”

Harry was right, Jack decided. “I’m dead on my feet, Harry. I hate jet lag. I’m going to call Nikki, report in, and you call Yoko. And then I’m hitting the sack. I’ll send Abner a text and ask him to do what he can. If we don’t hear back first thing in the morning, then we hit the streets as soon as we dress and have breakfast. I’ll send Sparrow an e-mail before we turn in. When we wake up, he might have some news for us. I’d call him now, but it’s four in the morning in the States. Ditto for the text to Abner.” Jack yawned to make his point that he was dead on his feet.