Parisian Affair (24 page)

'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.

'
Merde!
' Ram swore, slamming a fist
against the seat. 'The police. It'll be hours before we get away
from them.'

The look of fury on his handsome face was
almost scary, but Allegra tried to remain calm. 'Oh, well,' she
sighed. 'I guess I'll have to call my friend and have him wait on
me.'

'Don't breathe a word about the auction or
the emerald,' Ram said hurriedly.

'Don't worry,' she said. 'I won't.' She slid
a hand inside her shoulder bag and gripped the ring tightly.
Perhaps it was a coincidence that someone fired a shot into the
club while she was there. Standing at the window, no less. But
Allegra didn't think so, and with that realization, she felt her
stomach twist into a sickening knot again.
Somebody may have
tried to kill me to get the ring,
she thought
. Not only
that, but Ram took me to the club where the shot was fired. He
might have set it up. Would he have done such a thing?
she
wondered. She didn't know, but she certainly didn't feel safe with
him any longer.

Bonneur, one of the two policemen who had
been questioning her in the club's lounge, flipped a notepad shut
and smiled at Allegra. 'You have my card in case you think of
anything else, Miss Sheridan. I'm sorry we've had to detain you,'
he added in slightly accented English, 'but that should wrap it up.
You've been very helpful, and we appreciate it very much.'

'You're welcome,' Allegra replied. 'If I'd
thought I could tell you anything useful, I would never have left
the museum, Monsieur Bonneur.' She knew that wasn't quite true, but
she wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. They had
only asked her a few questions, and for that Allegra was grateful.
She could see Ram looking toward her from the far end of the
lounge, where another pair of policemen were questioning him. He
smiled, but she thought that he looked anxious and impatient.

'Could you thank Mr. Tadjer for showing me
the museum?' she said to Bonneur. 'I would myself, but I really
have to run.'
I've got to get back to the apartment and hide the
ring, she thought, and I've got to find out what Hilton Whitehead
wants me to do with it.

'Of course, Miss Sheridan,' Bonneur replied.
He looked at her with a curious expression. 'But I'm sure he'll be
ready to leave in a few minutes if you want to tell him
yourself.'

'I really have to run,' Allegra said, giving
him her best smile.

'Would you like for a policeman to escort you
back to where you're staying?' he asked.

'No, but thanks,' Allegra said. She waved
toward Ram and saw him stand up abruptly and pull out his cell
phone. Pointing to her wristwatch, she waved again and fled out the
door to the courtyard.

Once outside, she walked briskly toward the
gate, training her eyes straight ahead, determined to give the very
handsome Ramtane Tadjer the dodge. As she sailed out the gates, she
saw the Bentley parked at the curb- side again, its engine running
and Gerard, the driver, standing beside it.

At that instant, he turned around, and his
eyes widened in recognition. Without a moment's hesitation, he
rushed around the big car toward her, and Allegra, ignoring him,
began to run down the rue des Archives. Gerard reached out with one
muscular arm and grabbed her arm with his hand.

'Mr. Tadjer wants you to wait for him here,'
Gerard said, a smile on his lips.

'I'm sorry,' Allegra said, 'but I've got an
appointment.' She tried to jerk her arm free, but his grip on her
was so tight she could hardly move. She could feel the ring box
squeezed against her, and began to panic. He pulled her toward the
car, and she stumbled in her high-heeled boots. 'Let me go!' she
cried, struggling against him.

Suddenly Gerard's grip loosened on her arm,
and she watched in horror as he slumped to the sidewalk. Then she
saw blood spreading across the breast of his uniform jacket.
Allegra stifled a scream and began to run down the street as fast
as her feet would carry her, her eyes focused straight ahead of her
and her hand clasped around the ring box buried in her purse. She
was aware of passersby staring after her, but she didn't care. The
apartment was only two blocks away.

She didn't stop to catch her breath until she
had reached the big black doors on the street. Gasping for air, she
reached out and punched the security code on the little steel
buttons, then shoved on the door. It didn't budge.

She took a deep breath, then tapped in the
numbers once again, more carefully this time. The door gave when
she pushed on it, and she slipped inside the passageway and slammed
the door closed behind her. She rushed through the dark tunnel and
hurried up the stairs to the apartment after she reached the inner
courtyard. Fumbling in her shoulder bag for the key, she nearly
jumped out of her skin when the door across the little hallway
opened.

A young woman smiled. 'Hello.'

'H-hi,' Allegra stammered breathlessly. She
attempted a smile. Her fingers felt the key, and she withdrew it
from her shoulder bag. In a moment of panic, she searched further
until she found the suede box. As she unlocked the door, the young
woman began descending the stairs, turning once to stare at Allegra
with curiosity. She probably thinks I'm crazy, Allegra thought.

The door swung open, and she stepped into the
apartment, locking the door behind her. Slumping against it, she
realized that her heart was pounding and she was covered with sweat
and shaking. As she caught her breath, her eyes darted about the
little studio wildly.
Nothing out of the ordinary here,
she
thought
. Thank God
.

When the nervous shaking had all but ceased,
she went into the living room, dropped her shoulder bag on the
sofa, and took off her coat and scarf, draping them over the back
of a chair. She glanced at her watch. She still had an hour or more
before Todd was due to arrive, plenty of time to shower and change,
but that was out of the question right now.

She knew she should call Sylvie again and
tell her that someone might be trying to kill her to get the ring,
although she wasn't absolutely certain about that. Should she call
the police about Ram's driver being murdered right before her eyes?
But when she considered the almost certain possibility of being
detained by the police in a foreign country in a homicide
investigation, she decided that calling them would be a last
resort.