Follow Your Star, Jennifer Bohnet [best fiction novels to read txt] 📗

that,’ Jean-Claude said. ‘Your prints will be over the outside of the package but you have a legitimate excuse for that. It wouldn’t be so easy to explain how your, or my, fingerprints came to be inside on the bottles or the paper. Does Florence have any rubber gloves in the kitchen?’

Nanette nodded. ‘I’ll fetch them.’

Too small for Jean-Claude’s large hands, it was Nanette who put on the gloves.

‘Leave the bottles for a moment and put the paper on the table where we can both see it,’ Jean-Claude said.

At first glance it appeared to be a jumble of dates, some crossed through, with a single name – either Pepi or Cruz alongside, followed by two initials – RS or MW.

‘The dates from April are each roughly a fortnight apart,’ Jean-Claude said thoughtfully.

‘The exception is the 12 May which is only a week after the preceding one. And that’s the only date to have Cruz and MW after it – all the others have Pepi and RS. Is there some sort of pattern here?’

‘The crossed-out dates have all gone,’ Jean-Claude continued. ‘So why haven’t the 12 and 19 June been crossed out? We’re almost into the last week of June now.’

There was a short silence before Nanette said slowly ‘Think about it, JC. It’s virtually a Grand Prix timetable. And those two dates coincide with Zac not coming back here after Silverstone, but going straight out to Canada.’

‘The next date is three days before the French Grand Prix next month, when Zac, no doubt, will be back on board Pole Position,’ Jean-Claude said looking at the list again.

‘Now all we’ve got to do is work out the connection with Pepi, Cruz and what the initials mean,’ Nanette replied thoughtfully.

‘I can tell you that. Pepi is a crew member on the Reine Soleil and Cruz is on the Mediterranean Wanderer.’

Jean-Claude and Nanette spun round to see a dishevelled Mathieu regarding them tiredly from the doorway. Carefully Nanette placed the paper on top of the shampoo bottles, forlornly hoping to hide them from Mathieu’s view for some reason. But he’d already seen them.

‘Where did those come from?’ he demanded.

‘Never mind those,’ Jean-Claude snapped. ‘Where the hell have you been?’

Mathieu looked at his father. ‘It’s a long story that will have to keep until tomorrow.’

He held his hand up to stop Jean-Claude’s protestations. ‘I promise, you and I will get together tomorrow and I will tell you everything I know.’

‘Everything?’

Mathieu nodded. ‘Yes. Now, will you please move that paper and let me see those bottles properly.’

Silently Nanette picked up the paper.

‘Where did you get these?’ Mathieu asked again, as he looked at them.

Nanette hesitated before telling him. ‘I was supposed to put them on Pole Position.’

Jean-Claude looked at his son. ‘These bottles contain something other than shampoo, don’t they?’

Mathieu nodded.

‘I wondered how they were doing it. I had a good idea how the money laundering was being done but not the actual diamond smuggling.’

‘Money laundering? Diamond smuggling?’ Nanette said, looking from Jean-Claude to Mathieu. ‘Zac?’

‘Yes,’ Mathieu answered. ‘And, I guarantee, if you were to unscrew one of those bottles, more diamonds than you ever thought to see in your life would flow out of those bottles with the shampoo.’

Nanette was returning from taking the twins to school the next morning, when her mobile rang.

‘Chérie, Luc has asked to meet me this morning. I’ll come to the apartment as quickly as I can afterwards. Try not to let Mathieu leave before I get there.’

‘I’ll do my best,’ Nanette promised, not sure how she could detain Mathieu if he decided to leave.

Mathieu was in the small ante-room he was using as a temporary office, working on his computer and listening to an international news bulletin through its speakers when she got back to the apartment.

He glanced up as Nanette opened the door.

‘I’ve brought you a coffee,’ Nanette said, handing him a cup. ‘Any news about Boris and the others?’

Mathieu shook his head. ‘No. But there’s some trouble in Formula One,’ he said, as the radio bulletin switched to the latest sports news.

‘This weekend’s US Grand Prix is under threat because of a problem with the tyres. Drivers are threatening to boycott the event over safety fears. Our reporter spoke to current world championship leader, Zac Ewart, earlier.’

Nanette and Mathieu listened as Zac gave his opinion on the problem before saying, ‘I’m confident that it will all be sorted within the next forty-eight hours and I fully expect the cars to line up on the grid as usual for this Sunday’s race – with me hopefully taking pole position.’

As the news reader went on to the next item, Nanette turned to Mathieu.

‘I just don’t understand what made Zac get involved with Boris and all this illegal stuff in the first place. He earns so much money from his driving. I know he can’t drive for ever, but he was going to build up Vacances au Soleil to give him a legitimate business to run when he quits driving. He doesn’t need to do illegal stuff.’

Mathieu glanced at her. ‘Vacances au Soleil wasn’t going to be a legitimate business. Zac intended it to be a front for more money laundering.’

‘But he asked me to work for him. He knows I’d never condone anything illegal,’ Nanette protested.

‘That’s why you’d have been perfect. You’d have handled the day-to-day running of the business honestly, not realizing you were spending money that Zac had come by illicitly.’

‘But when he was arrested no-one would have believed that I was innocent,’ Nanette said. ‘They would have assumed I’d been a part of the conspiracy.’

Mathieu shrugged. ‘I guess so.

‘As to why he got involved with all this – it’s partly excitement, I think,’ Mathieu said. ‘Something to give him a kick when he loses the adrenalin rush of being able to drive at two hundred miles an hour. Also, it’s good, old-fashioned greed.’

‘Is that why you got involved – greed?’

Mathieu looked at her steadily. ‘Do you really believe that of me, Nanette?’

‘Three years ago I