She laughed. “Can’t fault your detective skills. Not that it’ll do you any good.”

That accounted for Blomstein’s Bogie.

I flipped back to the photographs Nazari had taken. They told the story of how Qadduri’s body had been found, and then the crime scene taken over by Martaud’s team of imposters. Obviously to stifle any actual investigation of the knife murder. That was slick. Ordering a murder, then suppressing its investigation. There had been a shot of Martaud standing over the body, with Caro. Bonnet had been in the picture, looking at Martaud. I’d overlooked the complicity between them. Maybe it had been impossible to judge at the time, given the information available to me.

An ex-spook turned mercenary. I indicated the giant Caro. “But he isn’t ex-anything, at least not anything interesting. Where’d you find this monster?”

Martaud looked reflective. “Found him when I set up my private practice. I think he was killing people for free, just because he liked it. Now I pay him. Caro is very useful and loyal.”

Caro was hulking, glowering, red-faced and psychotic. His fists were clenching harder, pulsating with muscle.

I said, “That other guy, Grouse, he didn’t end up being very brave. What makes you think you can count on this monster?”

“I’m not counting on him.” She racked the slide back on the MP5 and let it snick into place. “I’m counting on Heckler and Koch.” Martaud sat down on a cushioned velvet divan. “Now I’ll watch you die.” She spoke to Caro. “Slowly, and make sure to tear off pieces.”

During that exchange, I’d been on my ass, where I’d landed from Caro’s sucker punch. Right up against the sofa. Behind my back I’d been using hidden fingers to remove the Opinel from my back pocket, thread it back through the belt loop. Then I flicked it behind me, wrapping the knife handle once around a sofa leg with the line. Taking out the knife wouldn’t be a good idea, since Martaud had an automatic weapon. I needed to go through with her little charade, at least to some extent. I didn’t have any intention of dying, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think staying alive would be easy.