The Mistress

by Danielle Steel

  “I only know of one stolen painting that wasn’t recovered during my entire career. The police details that handle art thefts are very good at what they do. And your father’s work is so distinctive and well known, they’ll find them. It may take some time, but they will.” Theo was slightly relieved to hear it, and it was good for his mother to hear too.

  “I’ll keep you posted about what’s happening here,” Theo promised. “I’m really sorry to burden you and Maman with this news.”

  “I’m sorry you have to deal with it,” Gabriel said sympathetically. “You’re going to be very busy. You should probably close the restaurant for a while,” he said, and in the background, Maylis agreed.

  “I canceled everyone for tonight. I just didn’t know what was going to happen, but you may be right. I suppose we’ll have the press on our backs any minute,” Theo said, and an hour later, they were there, with news cameras and trucks, trying to get an interview with Theo, who said he had nothing to say at this point, except that it was a shocking and devastating event. And La Colombe d’Or sent over a note of sympathy. It hit close to home and could have happened to them too. They were just as vulnerable, and their art was just as valuable. It was the biggest crime that had ever hit St. Paul de Vence, it said later on the news. Inez called him that night and left a message on his voicemail, telling him how sorry she was. He was too busy to talk to her when she called. He was with the insurance inspectors at the restaurant until after midnight, and all the police details came back again the next day, along with the team from Paris to help them.

  Theo felt as though his life had been taken over by aliens. He handled nothing but the art theft all week, with constant calls from his mother, asking questions. They closed the restaurant and canceled their reservations for the week, and had to figure out what to do after that. And on the fifth day the chief inspector of the art detail introduced him to two new officers who had joined their crew from the local art theft detail. They were younger than the others and seemed more aggressive. They wanted to speak to several of the employees again, and went over the crime scene with a fine-toothed comb, looking for clues. Athena Marceau seemed extremely bright and about Theo’s age. Steve Tavernier, her male partner, was slightly younger, and they asked Theo a million questions and then said they’d get back to him. He knew he was being investigated too, to make sure it wasn’t an insurance scam. And Theo had shared with the two new officers his concerns about Vladimir. Steve was not impressed, but Athena was intrigued.

  The two detectives talked about it afterward on a break when they went to get coffee offsite and pick up some chemicals they needed for the investigation. The restaurant and main house were looking like a laboratory by then, and a high-tech junk shop with all their equipment.

  “That’s crazy,” Steve said to her. “The guy’s upset. He’d accuse anybody right now,” he assessed, referring to Theo.

  “Crazier things have happened. I worked on a detail in Cap-Ferrat a few years ago. Their neighbor stole ten million in art and had their dog killed, because his neighbor slept with his wife. Some of these people are nuts.”

  “Maybe Luca did it himself. That happens too. For the insurance money. And a hundred million is pretty sweet,” Steve said cynically.

  “I don’t think so,” she said seriously. “There’s nothing to support that.”

  “Are you kidding? A hundred million in insurance? He should be our prime suspect.”

  “He doesn’t need it. He’s worth way more than that in his father’s art, and he’s got plenty in the bank. We checked. He just looks homeless. He looks like he hasn’t combed his hair all week, but he’s not our guy.”

  “You just think he’s cute,” Steve teased her.

  “True.” She grinned at her partner. “If he’d comb his hair and put decent clothes on, he’d be hot. I wonder what he’s like when he’s not running around like a lunatic after a robbery. Don’t you want to go see that boat? We could go talk to Stanislas for the hell of it. You never know what will turn up.” She smiled mischievously, and her partner laughed and shook his head at the idea.

  “We need clearance, and the chief inspector would go out there himself. He wouldn’t send us.”

  “Maybe he would. We can ask. Who knows? Maybe Luca is right. He thinks Stanislas could have had something to do with it. I’m sure he’s no saint. Guys who’ve made that kind of money never are.”

  “I think Luca’s nuts. Stanislas could buy the whole collection if he wants.”

  “Not if they won’t sell it to him. Did you see all those ‘Not for Sale’ signs? They’re not selling any of it. Who knows? It could have pissed him off, just like Luca says. Some of those Russian guys are tough customers and have nasty friends.”

  “Not Stanislas. Shit, he’s probably the richest guy in the world.”

  “Then I’d like to meet him. Maybe he’s hot,” she said, teasing her partner again. “Don’t you like boats?”

  “No, I get seasick.”

  “You won’t on his. It’s bigger than a hotel. Let’s go for it.” Steve Tavernier rolled his eyes, but he was used to her. They had worked together for three years, and Athena Marceau followed every lead and ran them all to ground. She was tireless and clever, and often right. They had an amazing track record, which was why they had been assigned to the case. They were less seasoned, and zealous, Athena’s style was that nothing was too small to pursue, and her arrest record was astounding. Steve liked working with her. She made him look good when she broke a case, and he would do damn near anything for her. As far as he was concerned, her instincts were infallible. She didn’t have any about this case yet, but she was willing to check anything out. And a tour of Stanislas’s boat sounded good to her, for a kick if nothing else. She asked their chief inspector for permission that afternoon, not to search the boat, but just to visit Vladimir, and he shrugged and told her she was crazy, but he agreed to let them do it, although he said he would have liked to see the boat himself, but didn’t have time. He was following the serious leads, while they were planning to visit yachts.

  “Just don’t ruffle him, or accuse him of anything. I don’t want a complaint on my desk tomorrow,” their chief inspector warned.

  “No, sir,” she promised, which her partner knew was worth nothing. Athena always did what she wanted, and then played innocent with their superiors, and got away with it a lot of the time. She decided not to make an appointment and just show up. She managed to get hold of a police boat with a young officer to drive it, and two hours later they were on the way to Princess Marina, sitting at anchor off the Hôtel du Cap.

  “What if they don’t even let us on the boat?” Steve asked nervously. Athena wasn’t concerned at all. She was looking forward to it.

  “No problem—then we shoot them,” she teased him. “Watch, he’s going to charm us to death. He’ll see us,” she said confidently. “He’ll want to make a good impression on us, to prove he’s above it all.”

  They pulled up at the loading dock at the back of the boat. She flashed her badge at the sailors, and a broad smile, and got out of the police boat in bare feet, with her high heels in her hand, and a flash of great legs as she hiked her skirt up to hop aboard. She explained that they were there to see Mr. Stanislas, and needed his help with an investigation of an art theft. She was sure he could guess which one, since it was all over the news by then. Steve let her do the talking as he always did. She looked like a sexy young girl and anything but a policewoman, as the sailors grinned at her, and one of them went to call upstairs while she and Steve waited and chatted with them.

  A moment later, the deckhand was back, and said he would take them upstairs. She gave Steve a knowing look, and followed the crew member into an elevator that took them up five floors to the outside bar, where Vladimir was having a glass of champagne with Natasha. Steve and Athena wandered onto the deck, and Athena held out a hand, and thanked him profusely for seeing them. Vladimir gave Natasha a nod, and she stood up. Her face
was expressionless, as Steve looked her over admiringly in her skin-tight pink bodysuit that showed every inch of her body, and her breasts. Athena saw her but concentrated on Vladimir, as a stewardess offered them champagne. Natasha quietly went down the stairs to a lower deck, which Athena found interesting and Steve disappointing as she disappeared from sight. Athena checked her watch before she took the champagne.

  “When we leave here, we’ll be off duty, so yes, thank you.” She smiled at the stewardess and then at Vladimir, and Steve accepted a glass too. Athena then proceeded to charm him, and had Vladimir laughing on a variety of subjects and then dragged herself back to the art theft, as though it bored her to do it, but she had to at least pretend to do her job. She made it clear that they had only come for the thrill of meeting him and seeing the boat, and he was pleased. But he was nobody’s fool either, and they were both playing a game, and they were good at it.

  “The robbery is most unfortunate. I bought one of Luca’s works from them last year. A very handsome piece. I saw one I liked the other night when I was there for dinner.” He knew that was why they had come. “The Lucas are impossible to deal with. They have successfully frozen the market for his work.” He looked contemptuous as he said it.

  “Why is that?” she asked innocently.

  “To drive up his prices. One day they’ll start selling. They’re establishing the high-water mark now. The art theft won’t hurt them either. It will only make the work more desirable. It could be a clever ploy on their part. People involved in the art world are capable of some very strange, desperate acts. You should explore all of it—the result may surprise you.”

  “You don’t think the work was really stolen?”

  “It’s hard to say. I don’t know. I just know there are some very odd stories, and characters, in that world, with twisted ideas and complicated motives.”

  “You could be right.” She asked him about the boat then, and was fascinated by what he said, and that he was building a new one that would be even bigger, which he told them proudly. They chatted aimlessly for an hour, and then Athena set her glass down and stood up. “I’m sorry we stayed so long. Your hospitality was irresistible.” She smiled at him, and saw him admiring her figure as she turned to Steve.

  “Come back anytime,” Vladimir said warmly, and put a hand on her shoulder. “I hope you find the paintings. I’m sure you will. Artwork never stays lost for long. A few paintings do, but not many. And it would be a shame to lose so many of Luca’s works, although it only makes the one I have more valuable.” He laughed as he said it, and Athena thanked him again, as the crew member escorted them back into the elevator, and down to where their boat was waiting. Athena gave them another flash of leg as they got in, and as the police boat pulled away and picked up speed, Vladimir waved to them from the upper deck. Athena waved back, smiling broadly. And then they saw Natasha reappear and stand at the rail with him, and then they both turned and disappeared.

  “Holy shit, did you see that girl?” Steve said to her. “She was gorgeous. Who do you think that was? Hired talent or his girlfriend?”

  “Better than that, bozo. Probably his mistress. That’s a very special breed. A beautiful bird with clipped wings. Did you see him signal to her to leave? She’s on a very, very short leash and does whatever he wants. There isn’t enough money on the planet to pay me for that job.”

  “Well, that was a waste of time,” Steve said, as he leaned back in his seat for the trip back to shore, “but the boat is amazing.” It was like an enormous luxury hotel, or bigger, almost like an ocean liner.

  “Not a waste of time,” she said, looking pensive. The broad smile was gone. She was working. The champagne hadn’t slowed her down, and she had only taken a few sips.

  “Come on, don’t tell me you think he did it.” Steve laughed at her. “If you think that, you’re crazy. Why would he bother? He can buy anything he wants. Why would he risk prison for an art theft?”

  “Because guys like him never get caught. They let someone else do the heavy lifting. And I’m not saying he did it. But he’s got the balls to do it. Whether he did or not remains to be seen. He plays a good game.”

  “So do you. I thought you were putting the make on him for a minute.”

  “So did he.” She remembered the hand on her shoulder when they left. “Not in a hundred million years. The homeless-looking artist, however—now that’s another story.” She laughed as they approached the dock. “Leave me alone in a room with him for a minute, and I could teach him a thing or two.”

  “You don’t think Theo Luca did it, do you?” Steve asked her seriously.

  “No, that was just Stanislas’s game, to create a doubt in our minds. He didn’t. Nice try, though.” One of her fellow officers helped her out of the boat at the quai in Antibes, and she managed it without flashing any leg this time, and a minute later she and Steve were back in the car, heading back to the restaurant.

  “I thought you said we were going off duty. I have a date tonight.”

  “Cancel it. We have work to do,” she said, looking distracted.

  “You’re just hot for Luca.”

  “Maybe so,” she said, smiling at him, as they headed back to St. Paul de Vence, not to talk to Theo, but to investigate the crime scene again. She had some new ideas she wanted to check out. Steve had already figured out it was going to be a long night. With Athena it always was.

  —

  As soon as the police boat pulled away and Natasha came back to the upper deck, she looked at Vladimir with surprise. “One of the boys said they were the police. What did they want?” Normally she wouldn’t have asked him, but it wasn’t business, and she was curious. She had been reading about the art theft at Da Lorenzo, and knew Vladimir had been there that week with some of his associates from Moscow who had flown in to meet with him for a night.

  “It was just a social visit. They wanted to see the boat,” Vladimir said, looking unconcerned. “The robbery was a good excuse.”

  “Have they found anything out?” Natasha asked, intrigued by the expert art theft she’d read about. And it was an odd coincidence that the Lucas were the victims, since Vladimir had bought a painting from the widow and the son had done a portrait of Natasha. It made it seem more personal than if it had happened to people they’d never met.

  “They probably don’t know anything yet. It’s too soon,” he said, and changed the subject. He told her about a painting he was bidding on at auction that week, and showed it to her in the catalog. It was a Monet. “I’m buying it for the new boat.” He smiled at her. “For our bedroom. What do you think?”

  “I think you’re incredible and the most brilliant man in the world.” She smiled at him. He leaned over and kissed her then. He didn’t tell her that he’d tried to buy another of Lorenzo’s paintings the night before the art theft, nor that Theo had turned him down flat and refused to sell. Vladimir was tired of their games.

  “And I intend to get the Monet,” he added. “You know I never lose what I want.” It was going to cost him a fortune, and he didn’t care. They talked about it for a while, and then he whispered something to her, and she smiled at him. And a moment later she followed him down the stairs to their bedroom. They had better things to do than talk about an art theft or think about the police.

  Chapter 11

  The chief inspector asked Athena about their visit to the boat the next day, and she confirmed that nothing had come of it, which didn’t surprise him. He knew nothing would. Vladimir Stanislas wasn’t their man.

  “I didn’t think so,” he said smugly. “You don’t think he’s a suspect, do you?” he asked her. She had a good reputation. She thought outside the box, to an extreme degree sometimes, and more often than not, it paid off.

  “I haven’t ruled that out yet. But probably not.” She was honest with him. It would have been a nice tidy way to wrap up the case, but even if he had a hand in it somehow, she knew it would be damn hard to tie him to the crime. Not imposs
ible, but difficult, and it would take time, more than a brief visit to the boat.

  “And the son? Theo Luca?”

  “He’s not it either.” But she and Steve went back to see him anyway, and she told him they’d paid Vladimir a visit on the boat, to follow his suggestion that they talk to him.

  “What did you think?” Theo asked her intently.

  “He’s a tough customer, but probably not our guy. What about the woman who’s with him? Do you know anything about her?”

  “She’s his mistress. She’s Russian. She’s been with him for eight years.”

  “You know her?” Athena looked interested in that.

  “I’ve seen her a few times. I talked to her twice when I delivered paintings to them. One of my father’s, and one of mine.”

  “Do you have images of the paintings?” she asked him, not even sure why. It wasn’t even a hunch. Just curiosity on her part. He hesitated when she asked him, and then went to look for them on his computer. And brought up both. Athena looked startled when she saw the portrait of Natasha and recognized her immediately. “Did she sit for you, or did you do that from a photograph?” She was on to something, but not sure what.

  “Neither. I did it from memory after seeing her at the restaurant. She has a haunting face.” Athena nodded. She thought so too, and a sensational body. And something about the way she had just vanished on command had unnerved her. She asked Theo some other questions then, and a little while later she and Steve left. He hadn’t been paying attention and asked her about it in the car.

  “Get anything?” he inquired as he lit a cigarette and she made a face.