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PARIS
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PHILIPPE NOIR LOOKED up in surprise when the door to his office burst open unexpectedly. He relaxed when he saw that it was his cousin, Jean-Paul Renault, whom he employed to handle his security, who had entered so abruptly, but he remained annoyed at the interruption. All that kept him from venting his feelings was the look on his cousin’s face, which told him something was up.
“What is it?” he asked in as even a voice as he could manage.
“The police in Barcelona have a witness.”
“Are you sure?”
Jean-Paul nodded. “I got it from my usual source, and he’s never wrong when it comes to this kind of information.”
Noir had never met his cousin’s source, but he knew who he was and, more importantly, what he did for a living. Because of that he trusted the information that was provided.
“What was he able to tell you about the witness?” Sitting back, Noir waited to hear what his cousin’s source had been able to find out, so he could decide what to do. The news that there was a witness to the murder of Tomas Abrantes and his family was unwelcome, but he didn’t panic. It wasn’t the first time there had been a witness to one of his crimes, and none of those who had been found by the police in the past had caused him any problems.
“Not much,” Jean-Paul admitted. “All he knows right now is that there’s a witness, and they can identify you.”
“How’s that possible? Everyone at the estate was killed.”
“I don’t know, and until we know more about the witness, we won’t know. I’ve instructed my source to find out everything he can, so we can determine how much of a threat they are, and what we should do about them. He’s to report back as quickly as possible.”
“Good. Did he have anything else for you?”
“Yes. Interpol and the Barcelona Police are putting together a request for the police here to take you into custody so you can be questioned.”
Noir wasn’t impressed. “If all they have is one witness and no evidence to back them up, they don’t have much of a case.”
“I assume you want the witness killed.”
“Of course. If they can identify me, they need to die.”
“I’ll begin working on a plan just as soon as I have enough information to come up with something.” Jean-Paul had anticipated what his cousin would want done about the witness, but he knew his cousin didn’t like people to take the initiative, which was why he had checked. “I think this should be done discreetly, though, no blazing guns.”
Noir studied his cousin for several long moments before asking, “Why? I’ve always had great success with that strategy.” He was a firm believer in the terror inspired by a bloodbath. He had discovered early in his career that people were terrified by displays of violence. A few examples had been enough to persuade most people not to interfere with or obstruct his plans, which had made things a lot easier for him as he built his empire.
“No, you’ve been lucky,” Jean-Paul said, hoping Noir was in a good mood. Cousin or not, if he was in a bad mood, Noir was likely to lash out in response to being disagreed with. “You’ve left people alive after several of your bloodbaths. We kill them when we find them, and they’re almost always too scared to talk to the police, but that doesn’t change the fact that your method is as likely to make a situation worse as it is to solve it. It’s time you took a more sensible approach to business. You’re sensible when it comes to banking, now you need to be sensible when it comes to everything else. You’ve proved to the world that you’ll go after anyone who’s a threat to you, and you don’t care who gets in your way, now it’s time for you to be sensible and discreet. Unless you want everything to blow up in your face.
“You know Marc’s capable of dealing with problems without letting an entire neighbourhood know what he’s doing, and without leaving witnesses, so why not have him do so.”
“And you’re saying that’s better than killing everyone who gets in my way?” Noir asked in a dangerous voice.
“Yes. It served a purpose when you were starting out and needed to build a reputation, but you have a lot more to lose now.” Jean-Paul subconsciously held his breath as he waited for an explosion that didn’t come.
Instead of erupting, Noir pushed his chair back and got to his feet so he could step out onto the balcony behind his desk. He remained there for more than a minute, gazing out over his estate.
“So, your advice is to send Marc back to Barcelona to discreetly kill this witness,” he said when he returned to his desk.
Jean-Paul nodded, relieved that his advice was being taken calmly.
“Fine,” Noir said after another period of thought. “But this is on your head. Where’s Marc now?”
“I’m not sure, but I can track him down and have him here in a few hours.”
Noir shook his head. “Don’t bring him here, that’s a waste of time, send him straight to Barcelona. He’s to find out anything he can about the witness, to go with whatever you can get from your source, and then take care of them. I want the witness dead before he or she can cause me any problems.”