Kate walked across the brick pavement toward the majestic Notre Dame looming in front of her. Many believed the famous cathedral to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture in the world, with its flying buttresses, stained glass windows and spiral staircases leading to spectacular views of the city.
But she wasn’t here as a tourist. Instead, she searched for Chad among the crowd bustling around her. A couple fed the birds gathered in the square. Uniformed police patrolled the street corners. She glanced at her watch. She was still five minutes early. Chad had always been prompt. If he didn’t show, they’d be back to square one.
As he’d promised, there was no sign of Marcus, only the influx of those coming and going from the church. She had to admit that knowing he was in the background helped tame the butterflies chasing each other around in her stomach. Despite her hesitations, she was grateful she’d agreed to listen to his advice.
Tourists with their backpacks and cameras gathered outside the church, where a street musician sang Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” She closed her eyes for a moment to listen to the words and let the music settle her nerves. But all she could think about was that her sister was dying and she might not ever see her niece again if she didn’t figure out what was going on.
Feeling out of place, she pulled out her cell phone and snapped a photo of the church, trying to remember what else she’d read about the cathedral. It had been constructed with over five thousand gargoyles, held priceless paintings, and the largest bell in the tower was close to four hundred years old and weighed over 28,000 pounds.
She snapped another photo of the front of the building. Rachel had the same shot of the church with her and Sophie standing in front of it from one of their visits to Paris. Smiles on both their faces...
“Kate?”
She turned toward the voice. “Chad.”
He walked up to her, gray slacks, white button-down shirt and pullover sweater. Kate could see why Rachel had fallen for him with his ruddy good looks and European accent. He’d always been sure of himself, charming enough to sweep Rachel off her feet. Today, he stood beside her, his gaze sweeping the crowd, nervous and clearly leery that someone was watching them.
He shoved his hands into his pockets, stopping beside her as he stared up at the church from the open plaza.
“Stunning, isn’t it?”
“Much more so than I expected,” she answered.
“Walk with me inside. Visiting the cathedral is free.”
She hesitated briefly, then followed Chad through the entrance. While the outside of the building had left her amazed, the inside of the church, with its long halls, vaulted ceilings and the beauty of the soft lighting from stained glass windows, was enough to leave her breathless. But today, even that wasn’t enough to shift her focus. She was here for one reason and one reason only.
Chad stopped in front of a votive rack and lit one of the candles. “It might be the most visited cathedral in the world, but I’ve always found it peaceful here. My mother used to bring me to mass on Sundays, though I suppose today, my going to confession might be more appropriate.”
Kate pressed her lips together at the comment. A confession wasn’t going to be enough to change what had happened.
He turned away and guided her down the majestic hall, his voice barely above a whisper this time. “Were you followed here?”
“I’m not sure, but I am certain that they know I’m in Paris. I told you two men tried to grab me off the streets already.”
“I’m sorry.” He kept moving, avoiding her gaze. Clearly scared.
“I’m sorry, too,” she said. “I need to know what is going on.”
Despite the sense of awe and serenity from walking through the cathedral, anger had settled into the pit of her stomach. In her sister’s eyes, Chad had always been the knight who’d rode in and swept Rachel off her feet. How that romantic scenario had turned into her fighting for her life, she had no idea. But it had.
“Tell me what’s going on, Chad. How do they know I’m here?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
She shook her head, not believing him. He clearly knew much more than he was willing to tell her.
“Then at least tell me who they are.”
He slipped into one of the rows of pews and sat down, waiting for her to join him. A woman in her mid-forties wearing a pale gray scarf around her neck slipped into a pew behind them, her head bowed in prayer. Across the aisle a mother with her daughter, no more than six, sat down across from them. A coin dropped from the little girl’s fingers and rolled under the pew. Kate hesitated as the little girl tugged on her mom’s sleeve to help her find the money and started crying.
The image of the girl opened a flood of emotions.
Was Sophie crying right now? Had they hurt her?
She finally took a seat beside him, feeling as if they were two people on a spiritual pilgrimage, trying to figure out who had tried to murder her sister. No one should be trying to discover the truth behind such a horror.
“You don’t need to know who they are, or get involved in this,” he began.
Kate leaned forward. “Are you kidding me? I’m already involved. In case you’ve already forgotten—”
He held a finger to his mouth.
She pressed her lips together, then lowered her voice. “They know who I am, and that I’m here in Paris. Tell me why.”
She’d only been able to come to one conclusion. Chad was clearly involved in something very serious and very illegal. Beyond that, she was certain they’d been watching her family. For leverage against Chad, perhaps they’d come after Rachel and Sophie. And if Marcus was right, these people had both connections and money. As for her involvement? Maybe they thought she was Rachel? Maybe they thought she knew more than she did, but the bottom line was that Chad was clearly involved in something that had just ripped his family apart. Which was why she had to trust Marcus...and find out the truth from Chad.
Chad folded his hands inside his lap and dropped his head. “Rachel...how bad is she?”
Kate felt a wave of anger seep through her at Chad’s question. As far as she was concerned, what had happened to her sister was Chad’s fault. Whatever he was involved in had trickled down and affected his family.
“I’m surprised you asked.”
“We might not have the greatest marriage, but I certainly don’t hate her. Besides, she gave me the best thing that ever happened to me. Sophie.”
“If you really cared about Sophie, it seems to me that you wouldn’t have allowed this to happen in the first place.”
“Just tell me she’s going to be okay,” he said. “Please.”
“The bullet missed any major arteries, but it’s still serious. She’s in ICU and unconscious. I’m waiting for another update from my mother.” She hoped her mother had gone home to get some needed sleep, but knowing her mother, she was still at the hospital.
Which was why at the moment there was really only one question that really mattered.
“Where’s Sophie, Chad?” she asked.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re telling me that you had nothing to do with Rachel’s shooting and Sophie’s disappearance.”
“Of course not.”
“Then who did? Someone used Sophie’s passport to bring her here. Who else would do that?”
He turned to her and shook his head. “I swear, I didn’t take her, Kate. You have to believe me.”
Kate pressed her fingers against the edge of the hard wood bench they sat on. Until talking to Marcus, it had been easy to believe that Chad had been behind Sophie’s disappearance. An unhappy father wanting custody of his daughter and deciding to take things into his own hands. Foolish, but common. And for her, a far easier scenario to swallow than believing terrorists were behind Sophie’s kidnapping. That was still something she wasn’t ready to accept.
“You’re telling me you’re not behind this?” she pressed.
He reached out and grasped her arm. “You think I took Sophie to get back at Rachel?”
Kate pulled away from his grip. “I don’t know what to think at this point.”
“You have to believe me. I didn’t have anything to do with it.”
“Then what do you know? Because the way I’m looking at things, because of you, my sister might not make it another twenty-four hours, Sophie is missing and apparently they’re after me as well, because someone thinks I know something, but I don’t know anything. I need to know the truth, Chad.”
He paused as a couple walked by, snapping photos of the stained glass windows. “I got involved with the wrong people, Kate.”
“You got involved with the wrong people. That’s your excuse?”
“You have to believe me when I say that it wasn’t supposed to happen this way.”
“Forget the excuses, just tell me the truth, Chad.”
“The truth is that I’m the one they want. They took Sophie to get to me.”
“Who are they?” Marcus might have told her that they were middlemen working for the highest bidder, but she wanted to hear the truth from Chad.
“I think they work for my boss, and they believe I’ve been stealing diamonds from the company I work for.”
“And have you?”
Chad’s gaze shifted to the floor.
“Chad? Have you been stealing diamonds?”
“Yes.”
Kate let out a sharp breath. “How many?”
“Five million dollars’ worth over the past two years.”
“Five million dollars?” Kate glanced behind them. A group of Japanese tourists had entered the cathedral, but none of them seemed to be paying any attention to them. Tourists continued snapping photos. Studying the intricate panels of stained glass. Staring up at the vaulted ceiling. No one knew or even cared what they were talking about. “You can’t be serious. How did you steal them?”
“I smuggled them inside the music boxes I sent to Sophie for her birthday and Christmas. I planned to return and get them eventually, but I wasn’t in a hurry to sell them. It seemed smarter to lay low. Seemed like a perfect hiding place where no one would ever find them, including Rachel.”
A perfect hiding place? Instead, he’d foolishly risked both Rachel’s and his daughter’s lives with his greed.
“And no one noticed they were missing until now?”
“Half of what my company receives is under the table. No paperwork means no paper trail. I’ve managed to cultivate relationships with some suppliers who are happy to let me get rid of their dirty diamonds. We, on the other hand, pay a fraction of the price.”
“Which means more profit for your company, until you decided to keep a portion for yourself.”
Which was exactly what Marcus had mentioned to her at the café. Kate tried to sort through the information she had so far. She’d spent time in Africa and had learned enough about blood diamonds to know that the illegally traded stones funded weapons and wars primarily in central and western Africa. Thousands—including children—were used in forced labor to mine the diamonds. And while efforts had been made to stop the trade and ensure that the gems weren’t funding the violence of war, clearly there were those who had found a way around it.
And she wanted some answers.
“How did you do it?”
“The diamonds are laundered into the global supply by export houses like ours, then cut and sold on the regular market.” There was little expression in Chad’s voice. “I skimmed a percentage of those off the top.”
Kate stared at the blues and purples of one of the stained glass windows. Rachel had shown her the cylinder music boxes Chad had collected for Sophie, with their melodic sound and Swiss precision. She’d taken one of them to a dealer and discovered they were crafted with burr elm veneers and hand-cut designs. And that they were worth at least two thousand dollars each. Knowing what else had been inside the music boxes, Kate realized the value of those boxes had just skyrocketed.
But when Rachel’s relationship with Chad soured after he moved permanently to Paris, she’d packed up the boxes and returned them. Kate had assumed she’d sent them back to Chad. And when Kate had asked why, her sister had told her she wanted a husband who was there for her and Sophie, not one who only knew how to buy his daughter’s love.
“But you have the music boxes, Chad.”
His eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
Kate shivered, wishing for the warmth of outside. “Rachel returned the music boxes to you. All of them. Or at least I thought she did. She told me she didn’t want them. That you were trying to buy Sophie’s love.”
Chad shook his head. “No...no, she didn’t return them.”
“You’re telling me you don’t know where the music boxes...the diamonds are?”
Chad ran his fingers through his hair and clasped his hands behind his head. “I don’t have them, Kate. She never sent them to me.”
“Then where are they?”
“I don’t know.”
Kate gauged his expression and frowned. Something else was wrong. “What did you do, Chad?”
Chad’s gaze dropped, his voice still barely above a whisper. “I had someone break into Rachel’s house to get the music boxes. You have to understand, they were threatening to kill me if I didn’t produce them.”
“And when they went to get the music boxes for you, they...they shot her instead?”
Kate shook her head. It didn’t make sense.
“No...they just searched the house for the music boxes while she was out with Sophie, then left empty-handed. Whoever shot her...it had to have been someone else. Someone who was there when she returned.”
“Someone who decided to use your wife and daughter as leverage to get the diamonds.”
Chad nodded.
“Then where are the diamonds?” Kate continued.
“I don’t know.” Chad raked his hands through his hair again. Drops of perspiration marked his forehead.
“So when they demand the diamonds in exchange for Sophie, you won’t have them.”
“I was hoping you knew where they were.” Chad’s hands shook in his lap as he scanned the area around them. “I might have something else I can give them as leverage, but I’m not sure it will be enough. I was planning to turn it in to the police.”
“What is it?”
“I...I have a list of contacts and a ledger of my company’s illegal activities. I’ve been collecting it as a...safety net.”
“While you played Russian roulette with your wife’s and daughter’s lives.”
He looked up and caught her gaze. “It wasn’t supposed to end up this way.”
“Of course it wasn’t supposed to end with your daughter being kidnapped and your wife in the hospital, but you decided to get greedy.”
“I’m sorry, Kate.”
“Sorry doesn’t fix anything at this point.”
Kate shook her head and tried to focus on the solemn music playing in the background. The place where they sat was more than just a tourist spot. To many, it was a house of worship. A place filled with God’s presence. A place of forgiveness. She’d always been taught to forgive, but this...this was different. How could she forgive Chad for what he’d done?
“Have you heard from the kidnappers?” she asked finally, breaking the silence between them.
Chad studied a group of tourists walking by. “They called me this morning. They are demanding the diamonds in exchange for Sophie.”
“When?”
“On the second level of the Eiffel Tower at nine o’clock tomorrow morning.”
Kate felt her stomach turn. No diamonds meant they couldn’t meet the demands for Sophie’s exchange. There had to be a way out of this. “You have to go to the police and tell them what you know.”
“I can’t.” Chad shook his head. “I have to find the diamonds myself.”
“How? If you don’t have them...and Rachel doesn’t have them—”
“I think we should go.” Chad started to stand. “If they find us here together...”
Kate hesitated as she glanced toward the entrance of the church. Marcus was here somewhere, along with Jocelyn and Pierre. She grabbed his arm. “Wait a minute. I’ve got someone who can help you.”
He sat back down and leaned toward her. “You promised you’d come alone, Kate.”
“His name’s Marcus O’Brian. He’s with the FBI, working with French intelligence.”
Chad shook his head. “The authorities will arrest me if they find me. The only reason I decided to talk to you is because I need to find those diamonds.”
“Chad, please.” Kate tried to curb the desperation in her voice. “Forget about the diamonds and think about Sophie. They can help us get her back. They just want to talk to you. They’re after the men who took Sophie. You said you had evidence. They’ll listen to you. Make some kind of deal.”
Chad drummed his fingers against the pew. “They’re here, Kate. And they’ll kill me if they find out I can’t find the diamonds.”
“Who?”
Kate studied the people filing by, looking for the men who’d grabbed her. An older couple. Some American tourists. A group of students with a guide. She glanced back at Chad. Surely he was simply jumping at shadows.
“They’re here to make sure I do what they told me to do,” he said.
“Where are they, Chad?”
“I was foolish to think I could outsmart them. If you don’t have the diamonds, then you’re of no use to me or Sophie at this point.”
“Don’t put this back on me.”
He stood up and started toward the entrance, and she hurried to follow.
“Chad, wait. What did you tell them? Where did you tell them the diamonds were?”
Chad kept walking, avoiding her gaze until they were out in the plaza again, but she wasn’t finished.
“Chad...” She moved in front of him, forcing him to stop. “What did you tell them?”
“I told them I didn’t have the diamonds, but I was going to get them. I told them... I told them that Rachel had the diamonds. I was just trying to buy myself some time—”
“Your buying yourself time might have gotten her killed!”
“I didn’t think they’d find her. And I had no idea you would show up here.”
“Wait a minute.” The jumbled pieces of the situation had yet to make sense, but something wasn’t right. Marcus wasn’t the first person who’d told her that she and Rachel could be twins. “They think I’m Rachel.”
“I don’t know... Maybe... I think so.” She’d never seen him so hesitant. So scared.
She glanced behind her. Maybe Chad wasn’t jumping at shadows. They had to be here somewhere. Watching. Waiting. And they thought she was Rachel.
She turned back to Chad. “What happened at Rachel’s house that day? Did the person you sent to find the diamonds end up shooting my sister when she walked in on them?”
“No.”
“Are you telling me the truth?”
“Yes. I’ve got to go, Kate.” He pulled away from her and headed toward the street in front of the cathedral.
“Not yet, Chad, please... There are still too many questions.”
She started after him, still not sure about who he’d seen that had spooked him. Still unsure about everything.
* * *
Marcus watched Chad slip from the entrance of the church and start toward the busy street. He was walking fast, almost running as he wove between tourists carrying cameras, peddlers asking for money and a group of street performers who were gathering a crowd with their upbeat rap.
Something had spooked Chad.
Kate followed behind him, with Jocelyn, in her gray scarf, just a few steps behind her. Either Kate had managed to scare him or someone was after him. He searched the crowd, trying to figure out what had spooked him.
“He’s running,” Pierre said.
Marcus picked up his pace. Who was Chad running from?
People exited the church, but no one who fit any of the descriptions they had. Maybe the man was just being paranoid.
What just happened in there, Kate?
He looked back at where a group of street performers were in front of the cathedral drawing a growing crowd, dancing to the music. Kate had vanished into the crowd behind Chad.
“We’re not losing her again...”
“She got caught up in the crowd watching the street performance,” Jocelyn responded, “but I’m right behind her.”
Marcus picked up his pace. “What happened inside there?”
“I don’t know. They were sitting on one of the pews, talking, when something spooked him.”
“Grab Chad. I’ll get Kate.”
He spotted her at the edge of the crowd as Chad stumbled off the sidewalk. He called out to her, but there was no way she could hear him above the music.
Marcus saw the truck a second before it hit Chad, but by then it was too late. The driver honked his horn and slammed on his brakes. Chad’s body flew like a limp rag doll, before slamming seconds later onto the pavement.