Parisian Affair (29 page)

His eyes had adjusted somewhat to the
darkness, and he could make out the shape of two distinct lumps in
the bed. He aimed the pistol toward the one on the left and fired
twice, then switched to the right, and fired two more times. The
pop-pops made by the pistol wouldn't draw any attention. They
could've been champagne corks to anyone who might have heard
them.

Going to the left, he found the cord on the
bedside lamp, and felt down it until his fingers brushed the
switch. He flipped it, and the lamp immediately lit up. Yamal
looked at the bed to make certain they were both dead, before
setting about to find the emerald.

He snapped the cover back with a flick of his
wrist, and his eyes widened in surprise and disgust.

'Fuck!' he spat in disbelief.

The bed was empty, with the exception of the
extra pillows and blankets that had been arranged to make it appear
as if a couple were sleeping there.

Yamal looked about the room, almost as if he
were expecting someone to be standing in a corner snickering at his
failed attempt, but the room was deserted.

Giving the bedside table a furious kick that
knocked the lamp off and broke its bulb, he put his pistol back in
its holster and quietly went back to the door. Opening it, he
looked both up and down the hallway and, seeing no one, stepped out
and locked the door behind him. At the top of the stairway, he
paused and listened. Not a sound came from the lobby on the ground
floor below.

He'd only been a couple of minutes, and knew
that the old man could still be out. He considered searching the
hotel for Allegra and Todd, but realized that they never intended
to stay there. They were obviously in cahoots with the clerk who
had taken their key and let them out the back door after they made
the bed look like they were in it.

Convinced that a further search would be a
waste of time, Yamal went down the curving stairs. Nothing had
changed in the lobby. A glance behind the counter satisfied his
curiosity about the desk clerk. He still lay in a silent clump as
if he were a pile of dirty laundry the maid had dropped and left.
Yamal walked around the counter and replaced the key for room 103
in its box, then retraced his steps. He started for the glass door
that led to the street when he saw a man try to open it, then shake
it by the handle when it wouldn't open.

Yamal sauntered to the door as if he owned
the hotel, switched the lock, and opened it.

The man outside stepped back and turned his
face away as if he'd changed his mind about entering the lobby, but
Yamal paid no heed. He put his hands in his pockets and began
whistling as he sauntered off, merging into the still busy
sidewalks along the rue Sainte-Croix de la Bretonnerie.

Kadar patted down the sides of his hair, then
entered the small lobby and looked about but saw no one. He didn't
find it strange that the lobby door was locked, only that no one
came to lock up again. He went to the desk and rang the bell, but
no one appeared. He waited a minute and rang it again. Still no
one.

He looked around the small lobby again, then
stretched to his tiptoes to look over the counter to see if he
could locate the hotel's registration book.

He was shocked to find the clerk. Looking
over his back once again, he could see that no one was about. He
darted around the counter and checked the clerk. Out cold. He
caught sight of the registration book, lying open on a shelf
beneath the countertop, and picked it up, his eyes quickly scanning
down the page of the most recent entries. They stopped when they
hit Sheridan/Hall. He looked up at the wall of pigeonholes and saw
the key for room 103 there and took it out.

Kadar hurried around the reception desk and
up the flight of stairs to the premier etage, his sneakered feet
silent on the carpeting.

She felt him explode inside her, and Allegra
arched against him with all of her might as wave after wave of
contractions overcame her. Oh, my God, she thought ecstatically. It
was as if the world had shifted somehow, had changed in some
fundamental way, and she was at its epicenter, surrounded by a
cocoon of warmth and love such as she had never known.

Todd wrapped her in his strong arms and
peppered her face and neck with kisses. 'Oh, Ally,' he whispered,
'I love you.'

'I love you, too,' she breathed, returning
his hugs and kisses. 'I . . . can't believe this.'

'What?' he asked softly, his lips settling at
her ear, where his tongue traced little circles. 'What can't you
believe?'

'This . . . you . . . us,' she said in a
breathy voice. 'It's so . . . wonderful, so perfect.'

He hugged her to him more tightly. 'You're so
wonderful, so perfect,' he said. 'I feel as if we've reached some
new ... I don't know. Some new level. A new plane. We're closer now
than we ever were.' He kissed her lips tenderly, then drew back
slightly, his eyes reaching into hers. 'I've never been so
happy.'

'You really mean that, don't you?' she said,
looking at him in wonderment.

He nodded, his black hair falling over his
eyes. 'I've never meant anything more strongly. I've never felt
anything this powerful in my life.'

She kissed his lips then and hugged him
passionately. 'I feel the same way,' she said. 'I feel like . . .
like we were meant to be somehow.'

'Yes,' he said. 'We were meant to be
together. Always and forever.'

They kissed again. Then he drew back and
looked into her eyes with a smile of such happiness that it almost
brought tears to Allegra's eyes. To inspire such love and to feel
such love for another human being must be the greatest of all gifts
imaginable. It brought such joy to her heart that she couldn't
begin to describe it. She thought that she had felt it before with
Todd, but not like this. Not this powerfully.

'What are you thinking?' he asked.

'Oh . . . just. . . just how in love I
am.'

He laughed.

'What are you laughing at?' she asked,
punching him playfully on the arm.

'Nothing. I'm just so happy.'

She smiled. 'Maybe it's just getting to sleep
in this magnificent suite.'

'Aren't you glad we followed Whitehead's plan
and sneaked out of the last hotel?'

'Yes, especially after seeing that
suspicious-looking character talking on a cell phone across from
the hotel. I know we did the right thing.'

'The right thing would have been for me to
kill the bastard,' Todd growled.

'Well,' she said, smiling, 'I'm safe now,
aren't I? You're here with me, and the emerald is safely stowed
away in our room safe.'

'Yeah,' he said with a grin. 'I kind of miss
it in my shorts. The man with the sixty-five-million-dollar
crotch.'

Allegra laughed. 'I think it's better off in
our safe here at the Ritz, don't you?'

'Yes,' he agreed, 'and that's where it should
stay until we leave.'

She looked around at the grandeur of the
suite. 'I feel like a real princess in a palace. I've always heard
about the Ritz, but I never dreamed it was quite this
palatial.'

The bed was a magnificent canopied affair,
draped in silk, and the walls were boiserie, the carved wood
highlighted in gilt. On the parquet de Versailles floor were
Aubusson carpets, and the furnishings were all antique, very fine
French pieces upholstered in silks and satins. Huge bouquets of
fresh flowers were on consoles and tables, and at the bedside was
an opened bottle of Louis Roederer Cristal champagne with two
Baccarat crystal flutes, now half empty.

'Well, I'm sure it's not all like this,' Todd
said. 'I think this is the most expensive suite in the place. The
bellman told me it was the Duke and Duchess of Windsor Suite. They
stayed here before they moved to Paris permanently.'

'Well, no wonder I feel right at home,'
Allegra said in jest.

'Yes,' Todd said. 'Only you're much more
beautiful that the Duchess of Windsor ever was.'

'And you're a lot better looking than the
duke was,' she countered with a yawn.

Todd brushed her lips with a kiss. 'I think
it's time to hit the hay. I can tell you're worn out, and I'm a
little jet-lagged myself.'

She nodded, her eyes beginning to droop.
'I'll just brush my teeth and wash my face,' she said. 'Then I'll
be ready to call it a night.'

'Me, too,' he said.

They got out of bed, and rather than use the
separate bathrooms provided by the suite, they went hand in hand to
the same one. When they finished in the opulent bathroom, they
padded back to the grand bed, switched out the lights, and slipped
under the covers, their naked bodies cuddled together. It was only
moments before they were both sound asleep and the worries of the
day were at bay.

It wasn't a sound or a movement that woke her
from a deep sleep. It wasn't anything external, in fact. It was
something Todd had said earlier in the evening that rang an alarm
bell in her dormant brain and in one swift instant roused her to
complete wakefulness. For several moments she lay still, not daring
to move, listening to Todd's rhythmic breathing. His arms were no
longer around her, and he'd rolled onto his other side.

She knew why Princess Karima's emerald was so
important. Beyond its value as a gemstone and its enhanced worth
for having belonged to the princess, the stone must be one of the
most historically important gems in the world.

I know what I must do
, Allegra
thought
. I'm going to try to prove it. No matter what it takes,
I'm going to get to the bottom of this. It may not make any
difference to Hilton Whitehead or anyone else, but it does to
me
.

Besides, if she told him what she knew, he
would put professionals on the case, and she'd be left out in the
cold. And he'd said it himself: her job was to buy the ring, then
get it to New York. No more. Allegra knew she had to go it alone on
this. With Todd's help, she would try to prove the ring's origins,
and perhaps one day it could be returned to its rightful owner.

With that comforting thought, Allegra turned
on her side and closed her eyes. Although she was still excited by
what she knew, she fell into a deep sleep again, certain that she'd
come to the right decision and preparing herself to take on the
challenge.

Breakfast in bed was unlike anything Allegra
had ever experienced.

When she woke up, Todd had already showered
and shaved, and was clad in one of the hotel's complimentary
bathrobes. He had also ordered breakfast for them, and his timing
was psychic. Allegra had hardly run a brush through her hair and
donned a matching robe before there was a knock on the suite's
door.

'Who on earth?' she asked, appearing at the
bathroom door as he went to answer the knock.

'We'll see,' Todd replied.

When the waiters arrived, laden with silver
trays, Allegra looked over at Todd and smiled. 'I should've
guessed,' she said.

He returned her smile. 'Why not?' he
asked.

'Why not, indeed,' she said, knotting the
robe about her waist.

He took her hand. 'Let's eat in bed,' he
said. 'Unless you'd rather that they set the table.'

'I think the bed is an excellent
suggestion.'

'We'll have breakfast in bed,' he said to the
waiters.

'
Oui, monsieur
,' one of the waiters
replied.

After they were settled on the grand
silk-swathed bed, the waiters, acting in unison, placed trays on
fold-down legs before them. Coffee was poured, croissants and
various rolls were put on the trays, with accompanying condiments,
and the waiters left after asking if they needed anything else.

'This is heavenly,' Allegra declared after
taking a bite out of a buttered croissant. 'I think it must be the
best croissant I've ever eaten.'

'Thought you might enjoy it,' Todd said,
sipping his coffee. He set his cup down and looked over at her. 'So
what do you want to do today?' he asked. 'Have you decided?'

Allegra had known he was going to ask this
question, and she had given her answer considerable thought. 'I was
thinking that maybe I might do some shopping,' she said.

'Shopping?' he exclaimed, looking at her as
if she'd lost her mind. 'For what?'

'Clothes, the odd accessory. You know, girlie
things.' She took another bite out of a croissant, waiting for his
response.

'Allegra,' he said. 'We're in Paris, for
God's sake. Why on earth do you want to go shopping? I mean,
there's the Louvre, the Picasso, the Pompidou, and a million other
museums. There's . . . there's a million things you've never seen
before, you've never done before, and you want to go
shopping?
In
Paris?
' He looked at her with an
incredulous expression.

She looked at him, feigning surprise. 'But
don't you see? That's the point. Being in Paris, I mean. I can get
things here I can't get anywhere else in the world.'

'Like what?' he asked, mystified. 'They've
got all the same stores in New York. Gucci, Prada, Yves Saint
Laurent.'

'Of course they do, silly,' she said. 'But I
don't mean places like that. I'm talking about little boutiques
that New York doesn't have. Places that will have all sorts of
things I could never find anywhere else.'

'I don't believe this,' he said. 'You could
see some of the greatest art in the world, and you're talking about
looking for clothes.'

He was reacting exactly as she'd hoped he
would. Now if only the rest of her plan would work out as well.
'Todd, sweetie,' she said, turning to him, 'how often will I have
somebody else's American Express card to use in Paris?'

'Jesus,' he said. 'You know there's no way
you're going to get me to go shopping with you.'