“It’s almost over,” Guy told Mike. “We only have one more man on the loose.” Mike had been right. The hundred-million-euro investor in Matthieu’s two stores in Russia had decided to collect or kill him, and he wanted the rest of the money from Theo after killing her husband and son. “It’s very complicated and Russian. I don’t think he’ll come after her again if they don’t succeed this time. It’s too much trouble—he’s lost too many men, and paid them for nothing. I want to put the last one away. We can’t get to the man who hired them, but four people have died, and he got half his money back with the first ransom. That should be enough, even for a Russian,” Guy Thomas said. It had taken an enormous amount of money and manpower just to get this far, and two people had been poisoned, which could have meant two more victims.

“Do you think he killed Matthieu’s young actress too?” Mike asked, fascinated by how sick and how wrong the whole thing was.

“He might have, as a warning to him. Or she was killed by the FSB or SVR. She was double-crossing everyone, so it could have been them or Matthieu Pasquier’s disgruntled investor. She was dispensable for them, a meaningless pawn in the game who probably betrayed too many people too many times. She was young and foolish and no match for the people she was cheating. Pasquier lost twice as much money as his investor on that deal, but he had a more pragmatic attitude about it, and he could afford it. So could his Russian associate, but he’s known to be a hothead, according to one informant. Hopefully he’ll let it go now. We’ve put the word out that we know who he is, and we’ll make trouble for him with the SVR if he doesn’t stop. I’m not sure they’d care, but it’s one thing killing their own, and another coming here and killing respectable people and a child. We can make a request for extradition, but they’ll never give him to us. They protect their own, no matter how bad they are.”

“Robert says that too. They don’t seem to hesitate to poison the people they’re unhappy with. Theo is damn lucky they didn’t use a more powerful nerve agent on her. Maybe de Vaumont is a casualty in this too. He took a lot of risks with the people he’s been working for recently. Any news of him, by the way?”