Theo had had a late meeting she couldn’t escape on that fateful Friday, and Matthieu had driven to the château with Axel toward the end of the afternoon. By the time Theo arrived shortly after eight that night, they were both gone. She found one of Axel’s running shoes on the front steps. The front door had been open. There were signs of a struggle, and with her heart pounding in terror, she called the police. Once they surveyed the scene they in turn called the DGSI, the Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure, the French equivalent of the FBI. After further investigation, when an empty pack of Russian cigarettes was found on the grounds, the case was then turned over to the DGSE, the French CIA, the Direction générale de la sécurité extérieure. The strong suspicion then was that the kidnappers were foreign.

—

The empty pack of Russian cigarettes had been found in a secluded area where the kidnappers had presumably lain in wait for Axel and Matthieu. Once negotiations began, a translator had to be brought in to facilitate communications with the kidnappers, who proved to be Russian. The DGSE had remained on the case, since the criminals involved came from another country and foreign informants had been used to try to discover who they were. The informants had not been able to provide conclusive information as to who had ordered the abduction, the DGSE had strong suspicions but no solid evidence, and the Russian authorities could supply no factual corroboration of their theories. Not enough to make an arrest. The thugs who had kidnapped Axel and Matthieu had vanished afterwards.

Father and son had been kidnapped by six men who were seen wearing face masks and hoods driving away from the scene in a truck with a chase car, as observed by a neighboring farmer. There was no sign of Matthieu and Axel in either vehicle. Both the truck and car were found abandoned in a nearby village. They were stolen vehicles.

Negotiations for ransom of a hundred million euros began the next day. It was clumsily handled by police who were trying to stall the kidnappers so the various authorities could discover their identities, but they failed to do so. The authorities delayed payment while frantically trying to find where father and son were being held. Theo begged the police to allow her to pay the ransom, which she could have done through her own business and Matthieu’s, and they finally allowed her to make a half payment of fifty million, hoping to buy time to find Matthieu, Axel, and the kidnappers in the area. The half payment enraged the kidnappers and caused them to panic. During the negotiations, they proved to be nervous, erratic, and unprofessional, arguing among themselves and with the police. The negotiations went on for seventeen agonizing days, the longest in Theo’s life.