Against the Wall. Lyn Stone
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myself.”
“Yeah, right. You think he’ll believe you if you just waltz in there bragging about the chances you took to get him out? That’s the whole point of your going into the prison in the first place, wasn’t it? To get the kid out and make the dad grateful!”
“I’ll make him believe me.”
Holly threw up her hands. “Jeez, then Will might as well have dragged the boy out when he was there to leave the truck! René Chari can’t toot your horn for you if he’s been out like a light the whole time. He won’t even know who you are when he comes around.”
“He saw me earlier. I interceded for him during the last beating.”
Solange butted in, forming the English clearly and concisely. “But he was hurt then, probably dazed. Perhaps he won’t even recognize that it was you who helped him.”
Mercier growled, “I’ll think of something.”
Amberson threw up her hands in frustration. “Jack, be reasonable! You need her.”
“You do,” Solange agreed. She got right in his face to drive her point home. “If what you have told me about René’s father is true, then I must do everything within my power to help prevent what he is planning. And we must find out if he is the only one doing this. This is what you told me yourself.”
Amberson nodded emphatically. “She might even be able to help assess what Chari has and how much damage it might do. I’ve checked you out, Doc,” she told Solange. “When I did the background search on your father, I did his family, too, so I’m aware of the training you’ve had. I wish you’d been into research in this particular area, but then, I guess you wouldn’t have been where you were at the time, huh?”
Solange smiled politely. “I suppose not. However, with the sort of threats the world has been living under these past few years, I have read extensively of anthrax, smallpox, ricin and other likely weapons of terror. Most of us within the medical community realize what we might be called upon to do if such disasters occur and we have to be prepared.”
“Excellent!” Amberson gave her a smile of approval that looked quite sincere. Solange returned it. She could like this woman who spoke her mind so freely and had no qualms about contradicting a man when she knew she was right.
“I can do this,” Solange stated with conviction. “And I will.”
“You see, Jack? She’s actually better qualified than we’d hoped. Get her inside that lab if you can. See what he’s got.”
Mercier glared at his friend for a moment, then lowered his head. Obviously he was the one in charge of this assignment or whatever they were calling it, but he had to recognize that she and Amberson were right in this instance. In any event the argument seemed to be over for the moment.
Solange sat drinking her coffee while Mercier ignored them both and began typing something on one of the computers.
Holly Amberson smiled her encouragement and offered Solange a pastry from a box near the coffeemaker. “Here, you might need some energy, however this works out.”
“I am going,” Solange said to her, then bit into the orange-glazed confection she had chosen.
“I know,” Holly replied. She winked at Solange and toasted her with a croissant. “Come with me. I’ll show you where to freshen up and we’ll see about getting you immunized.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Mercier said.
“Yes,” Solange argued. “It will.”
Chapter 3
Though he knew Holly and Solange were right, Jack hadn’t conceded yet. He finished jotting down the brief report on his time at Baumettes for the record, then got up to pace out the kinks he had acquired from riding in the cramped vehicle for so many miles.
“You’ve had a couple of weeks to delve into Chari’s history, Holly. Anything new?” he asked.
“Some,” she answered, sitting down at one of the laptops and pulling up a file. “He’s made three visits to his relatives in Iran. Last one was three years ago. That’s confirmed. The first film he made had to do with the political unrest in the area. Went all the way back to the expulsion of the shah. Even if it had been well-done—which it wasn’t—he rode the big wave too late. People everywhere were up to here with that stuff in the news.”
“He got into the movie business through his wife, didn’t he?” Jack said.
“Yep. She had a pretty good career going when they married, and got him on the film crew of her last picture. When it was winding down, she got pregnant. She was diabetic. After René’s birth, her health went downhill fast and she died. With what she left him, Chari decided to finance his own effort. He parked the kid with her parents here in Tournade. It took him about six years to get the picture together. When it tanked, he was out of money.”
“What then?”
Holly sighed. “Well, he borrowed from his in-laws, tried a couple of get-rich-quick schemes, both legit. Nothing wildly successful but he made enough to back another small production. An artsy film. Trust me, this guy has truly weird tastes in entertainment. And a humongous ego.”
“That film flopped, too,” Jack guessed.
“It got laughs. Most were directed at him. In the four years since, he’s kept a low profile. Lived in Paris awhile. Made a couple more trips to Tehran. Soon as his in-laws died, he came back here. His son inherited the house, so Chari couldn’t sell it. Can’t touch René’s trust fund, either.”
“Unless the boy dies,” Jack said, not liking that possibility at all. What if Chari had no fatherly affection at all? What if he had wanted René to stay in prison where his life would be at risk? “Did you find out if the robbery that sent the boy to Baumettes was a setup?”
“On the surface it appears he was just caught up in bad company. Maybe didn’t know what was going down until he was right in the middle of it.” She sighed. “No priors on him. No trouble at his schools.”
“How long has Chari had all that dubious company out at the farm?”
“That’s the problem. We don’t know. There was that anonymous phone call to the security minister’s office almost a month ago. We were brought in a few days later.”
“Because he made two trips to the States last year,” Jack said.
“To New York,” Holly verified, “where he met with some very shady dudes our guys were keeping an eye on.”
Jack nodded. He had that information already. “Okay. Fill me in on personality. I don’t need the minute details you uncovered. I just need to know what he’s like. What drives him.”
Her lips turned up in a wry twist. “My guess would be he’s sociopathic.”
“Gee whiz, Holly. No wonder they pay you the big money. Seriously now.”
She tapped the keyboard idly with one finger, but she wasn’t even looking at the screen. No file on this, Jack realized. All of it was in Holly’s head. This was where she took all facts gleaned from known actions, did her magic and constructed a profile. Her accuracy was legendary.
“He’s smart and knows it, feels vastly superior to everyone else. But he lacks identity. I’m a product of two cultures myself, and Chari’s two are even more diverse than mine, so I can see where he’s coming from. He craves success and recognition and will do anything to get the validation he needs. I mean, anything.”
“But why this?” Solange asked, her voice hardly more than a whisper. “Only to finance a film? This is madness. His reasons are so…so trivial!”
“Not trivial to him,” Holly explained. Her gaze met Jack’s. “He has to have a vast amount of money and he chose a certain