Parisian Affair

by Gould, Judith

The waiter arrived with the drinks on a silver tray. He placed Allegra's martini in front of her on the small marquetry table that sat between her chair and Ram's, then placed Ram's Scotch across the table from hers.

  'Merci, monsieur,' Allegra said.

  'You're welcome,' the waiter replied with a smile. He disappeared on silent feet.

  Ram came through the door at the end of the room and strode quickly toward her. She noticed that he was tucking a cell phone into the inside breast pocket of his suit jacket.

  'Sorry,' he said, quickly taking his seat opposite her. 'I don't like business interfering with pleasure, but sometimes it's a necessity.'

  'That's all right,' Allegra said. 'If you'll excuse me a minute, I have to use the powder room. Which way is it?'

  'See the door at the end of room?' He indicated the door he had just come through.

  'Yes,' she said.

  'Go through that door, and just to your left is a powder room.'

  'Thanks,' Allegra said. She quickly rose to her feet. 'I'll be right back.'

  He nodded. He watched her walk the length of the room and admired her beautiful, long legs. The way she walked had just the hint of a swing in her hips. So sexy. So confident. Such a pity she had the ring. Such a waste. Too bad he couldn't have a little fun before it was all over.

  He took a sip of his Scotch and felt it burn a fiery path down his throat and into his stomach. He glanced at his watch and sighed impatiently. I wish she'd hurry up, he thought. I want to get this over with.

  Allegra took the cell phone out of her shoulder bag and dialed the number for Hilton Whitehead in New York. Sylvie picked up on the second ring.

  'Hilton Whitehead's,' she said with her slight accent.

  'Sylvie, it's Allegra.'

  'Ahhh!' Sylvie exclaimed. 'Tell me the good news.'

  'I've got it,' Allegra said.

  'Magnifique!' Sylvie said. 'I'll let Mr. Whitehead know right away.'

  'But there's a hitch,' Allegra said, getting to the point.

  'What is that?' Sylvie asked.

  'I didn't get to the bank in time to put the ring in the safety-deposit box.'

  'You what!' Sylvie exclaimed.

  'You heard me,' Allegra said. 'The bank was closed by the time I got there. Please tell Hilton what's happened and ask him what he thinks I should do. It's very . . . frightening to be carrying around a sixty-five- million-dollar ring.'

  'Of course,' Sylvie replied. 'He's not here now, but as soon as he comes in I'll tell him.' There was silence for a moment, then, 'So you have the ring with you?'

  'Yes,' Allegra said. 'In my shoulder bag. And I don't know what to do with it.'

  Sylvie could hardly believe her ears—or the golden opportunity that had just been dropped in her lap.

  'Are you at the apartment?' she asked.

  'No,' Allegra replied, 'but I'm on my way there.' She didn't think it was necessary to tell Sylvie about the mix-up at the auction house and Ramtane Tadjer's help. At least not yet.

  'Good,' Sylvie said. 'If I were you, I'd go tuck the ring away in the apartment right now. After all, who would think to look there?'

  'Anybody who knows that I'm there and that I have the ring,' Allegra said.

  'Which is no one but me,' Sylvie said. 'So there's no problem.'

  Allegra knew this wasn't true but agreed. 'Yes,' she said. 'I guess it's the best thing to do now.'

  'In the meantime, I'll try to locate Hilton and give him the news.'

  'Okay. I'll call you when I get back to the apartment. I'd better go.'

  'An excellent idea,' Sylvie said. 'Hide it in the apartment right away, and I won't have to worry about it.'

  'I'm worried, too,' Allegra said. 'I hope you can get hold of him soon.'

  'I'll start trying him the instant we hang up,' Sylvie said, only her plans didn't include Hilton. Sylvie needed to get hold of Paul to tell him about the great opportunity that had come up.

  'Good,' Allegra said. 'Till later, then.'

  'Ciao.'

  Allegra pressed the END button, shut off the power, then flipped the tiny cell phone closed and put it back in her shoulder bag. She'd thought that talking to Sylvie would help allay her fears, but suddenly she felt more worried than ever. Hilton Whitehead wasn't in, and it might be a while before she heard from him. She took a deep breath and pulled the powder room door open, heading back to the lounge.

  As she approached the lounge, she saw Ram in the distance. He brought me here, but is it really safe? And is he really harmless? She realized that she knew almost nothing about him, a very frightening prospect. Nevertheless, she forced a smile to her lips. 'Hi,' she said, rejoining Ram. 'Sorry to be so long.'

  'That's quite all right,' he said. He lifted his Scotch in a toast, and Allegra followed suit, picking up her martini and raising it into the air.

  'To your success at the auction today,' he said.

  'Thank you,' she said. She didn't want to say anything else, as she didn't want to encourage discussion about the auction. She took a sip of her martini and set it down. 'So this magnificent house is devoted to the hunt? It is a fascinating building,' she said in an attempt to change the course of the conversation.

  'I'll show you the rest,' he said. 'Why don't we go now? We can come back to our drinks. How's that?'

  Allegra took another sip of her martini, stalling for time. The club was immense, and there was almost no one about. She wondered if she was just being paranoid because of the ring and reminded herself that he had behaved like a perfect gentleman since the moment she met him.

  'Okay,' she finally said, taking another quick sip and setting the glass back down.

  They got to their feet. 'We have to go around this way,' Ram said, taking her arm and leading her down the room toward the midsection of the building. 'We'll begin at the beginning,' he said.

  They eventually arrived at a small stairwell, and he stopped. 'Just beyond here you can see the little entry room and bookshop,' he said.

  Allegra followed his gaze and was surprised to see that it was so small with just a cashier reading quietly. 'They don't sell souvenirs, do they?' she said. 'Like in so many American museums.'

  'Only the books,' he said. 'Now we go upstairs.'

  Looking up, Allegra saw that no one was in the ancient stairwell. This place was so quiet and empty. She felt a shiver go down her spine, but Ram immediately distracted her by pointing out the stairwell's decoration.

  'See the beautifully painted tiles?' he said.

  Allegra nodded and hesitantly began up the stairs with him. 'There are so many,' she said, 'and the paintings are wonderful. I love the dogs.'

  'They were nearly all painted by Desportes or Oudry,' he said. 'Two of the greatest animal painters.'

  At the top of the stairs, he led her into a room full of antique weapons and their accessories. Rifles, crossbows, arrows, pistols, muskets, powder horns, the majority of them made from highly polished wood or steel and elaborately decorated with silver, gold, and bronze, filled glass cases and lined the walls. Allegra couldn't help wondering if should she be getting a message. But her fears were soon diminished by the artistry employed by the weaponry makers.

  The decorations on many of these instruments of death had been done by master craftsmen. They were both frightening and beautiful, she thought, and despite their artistry, they still made her feel uneasy. 'Some of these are like pieces of fine jewelry,' she told Ram. 'In fact, there are very few jewelers today who can do this kind of elaborate metalwork.'

  'I thought you would enjoy them,' he said.

  In a hallway, she stopped to look at a pair of paintings. 'They're by Rubens and Brueghel,' she said with surprise. 'Working together.'

  'Yes,' he said. 'Have you noticed anything . . . funny about them?'

  Allegra turned back to them, then smiled. 'Oh, I see,' she said. 'There's a dog in each one licking its privates.'

  Ram smiled. 'Exactly,' he said. 'Most visitors never see them, and I think it's
a pity.'

  She had to admit they were amusing but wondered why he felt compelled to point this feature out. Had it to do with a naughty sexual subtext?

  Before she could give this any thought, he led her on to the next rooms. 'Oh, my God,' Allegra exclaimed, coming to a standstill. 'This is almost too much.' She shifted her gaze from the room to Ram before she looked ahead once again.

  Confronting her was an enormous white bear, poised for eternity on its hind legs, a ferocious expression on its face. It merely served as an introduction to the contents of the room. Taxidermic animals of all kinds were grouped about the room in various configurations. Wild boars, leopards, cheetahs, lions, tigers, deer, foxes, creatures she'd never even heard of. Allegra felt another chill run down her spine. She began to worry anew for her safety and that of the ring.

  She finally turned to Ram. 'They're beautiful,' she said, 'but this almost makes me sick. To think that these were all living creatures that've been shot just to satisfy some man's ego. Just for a kick.'

  'I know what you mean,' Ram said, 'but many of these animals were killed before the animal rights activists we have today began raising people's consciousness about needlessly slaughtering animals.' He paused thoughtfully, then added, 'And before we became aware of disappearing species.'

  She noticed a plaque that thanked an Arab prince for his many contributions to the collection. 'I. .. suppose it's a good thing that the museum exists,' she said, 'so that there's a public place where people can see what they probably never would otherwise.'

  'You look a little pale,' Ram said, taking her arm. His face was etched with worry. 'Why don't you stand at one of the windows and take a little fresh air? There's one over there that's open a crack.' He gestured toward it with a hand.

  Allegra shook her head. 'No, really,' she said. 'I'm fine.'

  Ram tugged gently on her arm nonetheless, drawing her toward the window. 'Maybe you should get some air anyway,' he said, cajoling her.

  Allegra hesitantly let him lead her to the window and took a deep breath of air, closing her eyes as she did so. Suddenly she heard the crash of broken glass, followed by a dull thud. Her eyes jerked open instantly. Pieces of shattered glass hit her right shoulder, and she let out a cry. 'What the—?'

  She was immediately distracted by a woman's distant scream, which sounded as if it came from somewhere in the museum. She caught a glimpse of a uniformed guard dashing down a stairwell from another room.

  'Down!' Ram shouted, pulling her toward him, where he was crouched against the wall. That fucking Ali, he thought. I should never have relied on him to do something as simple as this.

  Allegra clutched her purse tightly as she almost fell on top of him, but caught herself against his shoulder, then crouched beside him. The unmistakable sound of running feet pounding the cobbles of the courtyard below and the urgent shouts were amplified by the enclosure created by the walls and gates and carried up to the room.

  'What—what's happening?' she asked Ram, looking at him in near panic.

  'I don't know,' he said, a worried expression on his face. 'Some lunatic on the loose, I guess.'

  'But—but the . . . glass . . . what—?'

  'I don't know,' Ram insisted. 'My guess is somebody took a shot at something or somebody, and it hit the window.'

  From the courtyard below, there were more shouts. Allegra wanted to crawl to the window and see if she could see anything, but common sense told her that would be a very silly thing to do under the circumstances. The windows were floor-to-ceiling, and she would make an easy target for a lunatic. Craning her neck, she could see where the windowpane had been broken, and she followed the natural trajectory of the bullet.

  The guard who had been on duty returned, hurrying down the hallway toward them. 'Monsieur Tadjer,' he said as he approached. 'Are you okay?'

  'I think so,' Ram replied. 'Allegra? Any damage?'

  She shook her head. 'No, nothing,' she replied, looking down at her shoulder where the glass had hit her. There was no blood, not even a tear in her sweater.

  'Very good,' the guard said. 'The coast is clear now. You are free to leave.'

  Ram helped Allegra to her feet. 'What the hell is going on?' he asked the guard.

  The guard shrugged. 'We have no idea, monsieur,' he said. 'A man came into the courtyard and fired a shot then ran back out again. That is all we know. The police are chasing after him now, but I doubt they will find him. He got a good head start before they were alerted.'

  'Did anybody see it?' Allegra asked.

  'I don't know if anybody actually saw him fire a shot,' the guard replied.

  'He shot into this room,' Allegra said.

  'You are certain about that, mademoiselle?'

  'Absolutely,' Allegra responded. 'Look.' She showed him where the shot had come through the window.

  'Mon Dieu,' the guard swore. 'You could have been injured.'

  'I was standing in the window when it happened,' she said.

  'That was probably coincidental,' Ram interjected. 'It was probably one of those animal rights terrorists, just shooting randomly inside the courtyard to scare people.'

  Allegra looked at him quizzically. 'Do you really think so?' she asked.

  'It wouldn't be the first time these weirdos have tried to scare people away from the museum.'

  The guard nodded vigorously. 'They are an unsavory element, and I wouldn't put anything past them.'

  Allegra looked at the broken window again, then scanned the room once more. Then she saw it. Almost directly behind where she'd been standing, on a level with her chest, a magnificent antelope was posed in a leap. The beautiful khaki-colored hide on its side clearly had a hole in it. She walked over to the antelope for a closer inspection of the hole, then walked around the animal. On the opposite side was a much larger hole, this one surrounded by shredded hide. She suddenly felt a shiver of fear run through her body and thought she would be sick.

  'What is it?' Ram asked, looking over at her.

  'It's ... it's .. . come look at this,' she said. She looked at the wall behind the antelope and saw another hole in the plasterwork there, cracks spread out around it in a spiderweb pattern.

  Ram and the guard joined her, and she pointed out what must have been the bullet's entry, exit, and eventual landing site.

  'I'll have to call downstairs to my superior immediately,' the guard said. 'Excuse me.' He turned and left the room and went out into the hallway, where he picked up a telephone on the wall.

  'I think we should be going,' Ram said. 'I need a drink or something to calm down.'

  'But what about the police?' she asked. 'Don't you think we should talk to them and tell them what we know?'

  He shook his head. 'The guard here can show them everything. Besides, you are a visitor in our country, and you don't want to get mixed up in a police affair. What if they want to detain you for questioning?'

  Allegra hadn't thought of that and knew that there was truth in what he said. Nevertheless, she felt that leaving the scene before telling the police everything she knew would be an irresponsible act.

  'Don't worry about it,' Ram said. 'We were simply in this room when it happened. We certainly don't want them to think either of us was a target, do we?'

  The thought hadn't occurred to Allegra until this moment, and as remote as it seemed, it wasn't altogether impossible, was it? She was carrying around an emerald worth sixty-five million dollars. An emerald that she'd casually tossed into her shoulder bag as if it had been a tube of lipstick. She felt a knot of fear twist her stomach.

  'Okay,' she said. 'Let's vamoose. And in double time, too.'

  Ram took her arm and led her out into the hallway past the guard. He was still speaking on the telephone, but motioned toward them with his free arm to come back. Ignoring him, they calmly descended the nearest staircase to the ground floor. Straight ahead was the small museum entrance and bookshop. The elderly woman whom they'd seen manning the cash register earlier was not
in evidence. She'd probably taken refuge in the staff's lounge or in one of the museum's offices. They walked out into the tiny vestibule that led directly to the entrance gates.

  Beyond the gates, the big Bentley sat at the curbside, softly purring like a big cat, as exotic and rare as some of the beasts in the museum. With a hand in the small of her back, Ram propelled her toward the car quickly, and not waiting for the chauffeur, who was getting out to open the door for them, he pulled it open and practically shoved her into the car. Allegra was nonplussed by his sudden aggressiveness, even though she had every reason to hurry out of the museum if she was unwilling to be detained by the police.

  'Gerard,' Ram said, 'get moving. And fast.' He turned to Allegra as the driver gave the car gas and sped off down the rue des Archives. 'I don't mean to alarm you, but the quicker we're away from here, the better. If the police want to question you, they'll be searching this area very soon.'

  Allegra nodded, but knew if the police wanted to question her, all they had to do was get in touch with Ramtane Tadjer. Everyone at the museum saw them together, and he was a member of the club. She knew one thing for certain: if she wanted to avoid the police, she would have to extricate herself from the charming company of Ram and get back to the apartment.

  'I understand,' she said to Ram. 'I think it would be best if you dropped me off a couple of blocks from here. I have to get back. My friend will be coming in soon.'

  Ram slid an arm across the leather seat just above her shoulders. 'Why not stop by my place for a quick drink first?'

  Allegra shook her head. 'No,' she said. 'Really. My friend is expecting me, and I have to get back.'

  'Where is it you are staying exactly?' he asked.

  Allegra almost blurted out the address, which was only a few short blocks in the opposite direction on the rue des Archives, but something— some self-protective instinct told her to hold back. 'I—I ...'

  The blast of police sirens suddenly seemed to surround them, and Allegra saw that two policemen on motorcycles had pulled up even with the Bentley. When she turned to look, she saw that there was a police car behind them.