Mountains of Dawn

"How is Edda?"

"Not good. She's in critical condition, unconscious. We can't get her story, at least, not for now."

"And where's Tanya?"

"Right now, she's in Cannes. The police let it leak out about the accident, but made it seem Tanya was injured, not Edda. In fact, they made it seem that Tanya was killed." He wiped his mouth as if to wipe away a bad taste. "Tanya made me promise to call and tell Kevin it was a lie, so he wouldn't worry." He frowned, shook his head. "Well, at least with the media claiming Tanya's dead, we have a little time to think things out. We can't stay still, but we can plan. We have more suspects than before, with clues spread all over." He stood and began to pace, a slice of pizza in his hand. As he talked, he took small bites.

"I thought Charles had taken Tanya to safety. The police received a fax from him, claiming something was wrong and he was taking her away. Then Tanya called me and told me she was alone and hadn't seen Charles. No one has seen Charles, dead or alive. And the Fiat 1445 is missing."

"Did you ever get Charles on the phone?" Paul asked. "You were going to do that before you went on your vacation."

"Yes. He told me all was well, that Tanya spent most of her time at Kevin's villa. He expressed concern over her relationship with Matwin and the people she came in contact with through him." Malcolm rubbed his temples as if to press back the beginnings of a headache. "One was Jeff Moore, Matwin's Shoppe manager, another was one of those aristocrats from Europe, a count or something. Luigi Amedeo di Monteturro, a new business associate of Matwin's. Charles was concerned this could cause leaks in Tanya's security."

"Did you find out why I couldn't contact him? Why he was never home?"

"He said he'd taken some short trips in the country with Edda to visit an uncle. He said he had Tanya's approval, and that she was always at Matwin's, in any case."

"Yes, that's true. But she doesn't pay Matwin to be her bodyguard," Paul said sharply. "Let me get Charles' file, check on him a bit."

"Later, Paul. First we need to find out a little more about Kevin Matwin. I think he's a suspect. I have no desire to contact him and tell him Tanya's alive, but I can't make decisions for my client." Malcolm sat down behind his desk, grabbed the fiasco and took several gulps. "It would be stupid of Matwin to plant the supposed accident in his own house when he could have done it personally dozens of times, but I can't be sure. Tanya's in love with him, which makes it easy, except…" He paused, tapped a pencil rapidly between two fingers. "Except if he couldn't bring himself to do it in person, or if he were used to set her up by a third party. We could learn a lot by letting him believe she's dead."