She turned, the yellow dress slipping from her arm before she could catch it. It landed at her feet, creating clouds of dust that swirled around the floor at her feet. The dust rose, only to be sucked to the back of the closet by a draft, vanishing under the back wall. Estelle kicked off her shoes and, in three steps, crossed to the rear of the closet. Here, she could feel the draft tickling her bare toes and instantly recognized what that meant. The back wall was not a wall at all but a door. Something she would never have been able to identify had she not just finished a similar renovation in her own apartment. How very ironic.

Estelle ran her fingers around the edges of the wall. It took her only seconds to find the latch, and seconds more before she was able to release it. The back of the closet swung silently inward on well-oiled hinges. Beyond, a narrow, wooden staircase vanished down into darkness.

She had minutes, she knew, before the German aide would start to wonder what was taking her so long. But those were minutes she could use. Without stopping to consider what she was doing, Estelle started down the stairs. A hiding place for more stolen art, she guessed, keeping her hands along the uneven plaster of the wall as she descended. Or maybe a place to secrete the most valuable of all Paris’s treasures.

Or maybe a dungeon where they kept assumed whores too curious for their own good.

The air became cooler as she reached the bottom of the stairs, and she guessed she was somewhere at the level of the Ritz cellars. Here, the light from above was losing its battle against the shadows. The scent of newly cut lumber was as strong as it had been above, mingled with the oily, metallic aroma of machinery. Someone had recently been working down here, though she could see nothing in the space beyond. She lifted her hand over her head and was not at all surprised to find a light cord identical to the one in the closet. The Germans were nothing if not predictably efficient.

She wrapped her fingers around the cord and tugged, flooding the room with a bright glare.