Chapter 5

Bruno Lefebvre joined in the rapturous applause as Mac stepped down from the podium and made his way back to his seat threading among the tables. Bruno watched as Mac paused by a table to talk to a man in evening dress. He peered hard at the faces around the table looking for one person in particular but he only recognized the man Mac was talking to as being from the British delegation and a large woman with bleached hair who he vaguely recalled as being from Brazil and who was gazing rather brazenly at Mac while he chatted with the man in formal dress. Bruno allowed his gaze to wander around the room. As he did so he noticed Adam sitting next to Eloise. He allowed himself a small smile. They really did seem to fit well together. Though they both appeared relaxed chatting with their other colleagues he noticed that they too kept looking around. Bruno looked away from his daughter and her new friend and he caught the eye of the two men by the door. He got up and walked over to them.

Eloise noticed her father make his way over to the door and speak briefly with the two men. "They work for my father. The one on the left is Marc. The other is Jean-Philippe," she whispered to Adam. "He has asked them to try and find this Elisabeth Rossini or Elsa Rossi or whatever she is calling herself. You really think she is after Mac?"

Adam shrugged. "I don't know but Jo seems to think so and Jo is usually right." Adam looked over to where Mac was still stood chatting to the group sitting around table seven. "She'd be crazy to try something here."

"You know this might all be a coincidence or even a case of mistaken identity."

Adam nodded. "Yeah I know." But Adam intended to keep a very close eye on his boss.

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Mac made his way back to his room. His hand hovered over the key lock for a second sensing someone standing behind him then he pushed the card in and opened the door. "Adam!"

"I'm just checking okay?" Much to Mac's surprise and annoyance, Adam pushed past him and checked the room out, even looking in the closet and the bathroom. Mac stood by the door with an amused look on his face as Adam left. "Jo would kill me if I let anything happen to you. I'll see you in the morning." Adam crossed the hall to his own room and stood there watching as Mac shook his head, wished him a good night and closed the door. Adam waited for the light to turn red showing that the door was locked then Adam let himself into his room but not before checking the corridor.

Mac chuckled to himself at the younger man's concern. He had to admit that he had enjoyed his company more than he had expected to and it had been a great opportunity to get to know him better. Adam seemed to be more relaxed and had clearly enjoyed the conference though judging from their discussion earlier Mac dreaded to think what requests Adam was going to make for new technology and what that was going to do to his budget.

Mac pulled at his tie and stripped off his evening suit and hung it in it's cover. He pushed his shirt and underwear into a cloth bag, deciding to take a quick shower to freshen up after being forced to wear the rather heavy suit on a hot evening. Once he had cooled down, he flipped on the TV to CNN to watch the news and slipped into grey sweat pants and a matching grey tee-shirt. Although he had drunk very little wine with dinner he felt dry-mouthed so he opened up the mini-bar and pulled out a bottle of water. He grimaced at the taste but having just brushed his teeth he put it down to the combination of toothpaste and mineral water and he took another swig. Realizing he had left the bathroom light on he went to switch it off. He suddenly felt very tired but the three day conference had been non stop and he hadn't been getting much sleep as Bruno seemed determined to show him a good time and introduce him to as many people as possible. His arms and legs felt heavy and he wavered a little. He thought that jet lag must be catching up with him so he gulped down some more water and switched off the light. He returned to the bedroom but his limbs seemed to be getting heavier and heavier. Suddenly the bed seemed far away, the light from the night stand making a kaleidoscope of colours on the metallic threads in the material of the soft furnishings. Mac felt himself stagger and the room seemed to whirl around him even though he knew it could not be so. He watched in surprise as the bottle fell from his hand and bounced silently on the carpet as it spilled it's contents onto the floor. He didn't feel a thing when the floor rose up to meet him.

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The first thing that Adam was aware of was a loud banging on the door and someone shouting his name. He rolled out of bed glancing at the clock. It was surprised to see it was already gone nine and the sun was shining in through the gap in the curtains. He ran to the door and opened it surprised to see Bruno Lefebvre standing outside. "Do you know where Mac is?" Adam felt the blood drain from his face as he stammered out a no.

Bruno Lefebvre turned to the two men beside him. "Ouvrez-le!" he ordered. The nervous young man wearing hotel livery opened the door to Mac's room and stood back to allow Bruno and the other man to enter the room. Adam followed them. He looked around the room. Everything seemed neat and tidy. Too tidy. The bed was made as though it hadn't been slept in. Mac's phone sat on the night-stand. There were no clothes lying around; Mac's clothes were hung neatly in the closet and his suitcase sat on a rack near the desk next to his shoes. The only thing out of place was a pale blue bottle top lying on the floor just under the edge of the bed. As Adam stepped towards it, he stopped and looked down at his bare feet.

"The carpet is wet." Bruno and the other man who Adam recalled as one of the men Eloise said worked for her father bent down and touched the carpet. Bruno pulled a glove from his pocket and slipping it on picked up the bottle top. He held it up to the light.

"Merde!" he swore. Adam peered at it as Bruno held it for him to see. "There is a minute hole. Marc, check the mini-bar." Bruno's colleague pulled on gloves as he stepped over to the little fridge set in a cupboard next to the desk. He opened it, pulled a paper from and compared the contents of the fridge to the inventory.

"There is one bottle missing," he announced as he pulled another one from the fridge. "This has a hole too." He grabbed a can of soda. "This also."

Bruno stood up. "Get the team in here now. Get Jean-Philippe and Carla to check any unusual activity around the hotel. They interview everyone and get Elsa Rossi's picture out everywhere." Bruno's flawless English got more heavily accented as he began to panic. "Merde!" he swore again as he looked at Adam. "I knew something was wrong the minute I arrived for breakfast. Mac is always punctual. I am sorry. This shouldn't have happened."

Adam didn't know what to say. Bruno was right. It shouldn't have happened. Jo had been right and now it was his fault that Elsa Rossi had taken Mac. Adam felt sick. How was he going to tell Jo? Bruno seemed to read his thoughts.

"Adam, go get dressed. We need to process this room and figure out where she has taken him. My team are on their way but I need all the help I can get. Go." Adam nodded and rushed back to his room. Bruno looked around the room. There had to be something, some tiny clue and no matter how small it was he would find it. He prayed for a miracle.

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Little did Mac's friend know but that miracle was going to come some ten hours later in the form of a scruffy, slightly over-weight ex-cop by the name of Henri Gusdorf.

Henri leaned on the balustrade of his nineteenth arrondissement apartment and blew a cloud of smoke into the air as he listened to the couple next door arguing again. He sighed and took another pull at his cigarette. He supposed this meant he would have to listen to their make-up sex again later. Perhaps he would pop down to the local bar and see if his old friend was up for a game of dominoes. He looked up and down the street. It wasn't one of the more upmarket streets that had been renovated as urban renewal spread slowly outwards forced by wealthy Parisians in a desperate search for accommodation. The buildings were old and in need of repair but money had passed them by in favour of knocking down the old abattoirs further away in order to build a new museum complex, park and more modern housing. His eyes roamed the familiar buildings opposite; the row of four houses had all been converted into studios or lofts as the young people liked to call them. The ground floors were no longer shops and cafés as they had been in his youth but were either closed up or converted into apartments. He sighed and took another pull at the cigarette as a sleek black car pulled up in front of the old abandoned Citroen garage. He had seen the car several times over the previous couple of weeks and he wondered if someone was finally going to knock it down and build more apartments. Henri would be sorry to see it go. He used to love watching them repair the cars when he was a boy. To his surprise, the driver got out of the car and stood to open the rear door. Rather than someone getting out, a smartly-dressed woman in high heels staggered out of the garage. She had her hand clasped to her face. Henri squinted as she paused and pulled the door closed. Henri noticed that she didn't lock it. The woman removed her hand briefly from her face just before she got into the car. The chauffeur closed the door behind her, regained his place and pulled away.

Henri stubbed out the cigarette and straightened up automatically brushing the ash from his dark grey pants. He turned and ran back inside his apartment pausing only to grab the keys from a bowl by the door. He pushed at the button for the elevator but as usual it wasn't working so he ran down the wooden stairs, his bulky frame making the old boards squeak and groan. He passed Madame Dufour on the third floor but ignored her greeting leaving her open-mouthed as he plunged down the stairs, his bulk shaking with every step. Emerging onto the street he ran across to the garage and stopped at the kerb. He wheezed as he looked down. A bright red circle of blood lay on the dirty grey paving stone. He had been right. The woman's nose had been bleeding profusely. Slowly he walked up to the door and tested the handle. It turned and Henri Gusdorf looked through the opening into dim interior of the garage. He stepped back in shock, his breath catching in his throat. He blinked to make sure what he was seeing was real. Then he pulled a phone from his pocket, stepped inside and closed the door.

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Bruno Lefevbre sat in a heavy wood and leather chair reading the report in front of him. He looked up at his daughter and her worried young friend sitting opposite him. "Brotizolam. It is a short-acting benzodiazepine, an extremely potent drug with a half-life of about four to five hours." He flipped through the pages. "All the samples tested positive for it."

"How did they get him out of the room?" Eloise plucked at a stray strand of hair behind her ear, a habit her father had often noticed when she was stressed about something.

"In a hotel linen van. The night security guard remembered seeing a van leaving about four in the morning. He thought it was unusual. Dirty linen is usually collected later in the day. He thought he saw two men but couldn't be sure. Carla managed to trace the van with the traffic cameras but only until it left the péripherique and entered the nineteenth." Bruno picked up on Adam's frown. "The péripherique is the Paris ring road, the nineteenth is an area to the north-east of Paris. I have contacted the local commissariats for anything unusual but so far ..." Bruno lifted his hands in despair.

Adam took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He felt exhausted. Mac had been gone almost sixteen hours and Adam had spent most of them finding a variety of excuses not to call Jo. They should have been on a flight back to New York now and he knew that by the morning he would have to call. He ran a hand through his hair in despair. He looked up at Eloise as she placed a hand on his arm and gave him a reassuring smile.

They both jumped as Marc entered the room and spoke in rapid French. Adam picked up on the urgency in his voice and the startled looks of both Eloise and her father who both jumped out of their chairs. "Adam, come quickly, they've found him."