45

“Good evening, Mr Noir.” Without waiting for an invitation or asking for permission, Luke crossed the room and settled himself in the chair opposite Philippe Noir in his office at the vineyard with a grimace. His decision to limit the pain relief he was taking to keep his mind as sharp as possible was causing him more discomfort than he liked.

“Mr Caldwell,” Noir returned the greeting, while hiding the annoyance he felt at the man’s casual attitude. “I was told you were injured.” His gaze went to the sling that held Caldwell’s bandage encased arm. “Given what you did, I’m surprised you got off so lightly. I applaud your skill. I would not have thought it possible for one person to deal with one of the targets, let alone all three, without receiving serious injuries. I confess, when you didn’t contact Jean-Paul immediately after dealing with Sofia Torres, we were concerned that you had either been caught or killed.”

“I gathered as much from your cousin when I spoke to him last night,” Luke remarked. “And that that is the reason you failed to pay me promptly after I eliminated the last of your problems. That, and you being unhappy with the price he agreed with me.”

“You’re right,” Noir said. “I was unhappy with the price Jean-Paul agreed to pay you. When I told him to find me a professional who could deal with my problems,” he wasn’t the sort to admit that it was his cousin who had brought the idea to him, via Olivier, “I didn’t expect it to cost me anything like five million pounds. Of course, I was in jail when he made the deal, and by the time I got out I’d had time to think, and you had killed that bloody witness and my useless employees, so Jean-Paul was able to convince me that he had done the right thing.”

“I get the impression you’re now glad you had your cousin employ me to kill Sofia Torres and the others,” Luke remarked, relieved that Noir was making it easy for the surveillance team, who were listening to the signal from the tiny microphone hidden in his bandages, to get him on record incriminating himself.