“It would be. But this is something else. Not Sahel. A French dairy. But the pattern’s the same. Same London firm. Same Cyprus bank. It’s a pretty big coincidence. Except for one thing. The client isn’t an anonymous LLC. It’s a firm in Geneva.”

That registered. Frank looked up from his game, hitting pause so he wouldn’t be killed. “In Geneva? Here? ‘Lake City’?”

“Yeah.”

Frank got up and walked over to look at Rafe’s screen. He read the name of the Geneva firm. “Sterling Wealth Management?”

“I know someone there,” Rafe said.

Frank looked at Rafe with a look that was either respect or suspicion.

“You know someone there. You know the babe at the Holborn Bank. You’re personal friends with everyone we investigate?”

“We’re not investigating Catherine. But yes, we all went to Harvard Business School. That’s sort of the point of my being here.”

Frank pointed to himself. “Missouri State. Lower class of crook.” Spoken with pride. “So, are you going to see your Harvard pal at Sterling Wealth Management? Maybe have a drink and sing old school songs? Boola boola?”

“That’s Yale,” Rafe said, wondering briefly what they sang at Missouri State. “Anyway, it could be a coincidence.”

“Lot of coincidences going around,” Frank said, and then, a distant memory triggered, he started to hum “Let’s Do It for the Bears.”

Toxoplasmosis

TOXOPLASMOSIS

The Syrian lingered outside the windows of Ladurée, watching the customers seated on pink cushions sip coffee and eat macarons, the house specialty. They came in dozens of colors that were laid out in a display case like a rainbow. An expensive rainbow. A menu posted in the window offered to sell a box of twelve (each easily consumed in two bites) for thirty-two euros. The Syrian and his roommates in Neydens could eat for days for thirty-two euros. In Syria, his family, what was left of it, could eat for a week.

He himself had had three-day-old bread and cheese for breakfast, and he was hungry. He bore no resentment toward the well-fed customers in Ladurée, and he didn’t think it would be just for them to resent him, even though they would. Stealing was forbidden not only by their laws but also by Islam, which prescribed the penalty of having one’s hand cut off. But suicide was also forbidden (despite the suicide bombers having found, or claimed, an exemption), and it took money to buy food, and it took food to stay alive.