Belle - Lesley Pearse [195]
Etienne could see that carefully brought up Noah was somewhat naive. His foray into Annie’s brothel was his first glimpse of London’s underbelly, and though his heart was in the right place and there was no doubt about his sincerity, he had a rather idealistic view of both people and life.
‘She would be a very easy girl to love,’ Etienne agreed. ‘And God willing, you will be able to take her back to Jimmy, her mother and Mog, the lady she told me so much about. If you think that I have come here to claim her for myself, you are mistaken. I’m merely trying to right a wrong.’
Noah seemed less wary after that and listened as Etienne told him what he’d discovered the night before. ‘My suggestion is that we both go to meet my friend Fritz and see what he’s come up with. I don’t like the sound of this Edouard Pascal, and he and the man Le Brun are possibly in it together, maybe others too. We will have to tread very carefully and find out as much as possible about both of them before we make a move.’
‘What do you mean, “others”?’
Etienne sighed inwardly. As Noah had been to Paris several times in the past and tried to investigate the other missing girls, he thought that by now he would have cottoned on that it was big business. ‘Vice is universal, Noah,’ he said. ‘Fortunes are made out of it.’
‘I see,’ Noah looked very glum. ‘So she may have been taken anywhere in the world?’
‘That’s right, but my hunch is that if she is still alive, she’s here in Paris. There is a ready market for very young girls, but Belle is too old for that, so unless they had a buyer already lined up for her, it would take some time for them to offload her.’
Noah looked really alarmed now. ‘Does that mean you think she’s already dead?’
‘No, it doesn’t,’ Etienne said more firmly than he really believed. ‘But we do have to keep that possibility in the back of our minds.’
Gabrielle came into the dining room just as the two men were getting up to leave. Etienne had already told her about what he’d discovered the previous night. ‘Be careful,’ she said, looking very anxious. ‘I would hate to see either of you hurt.’
Etienne put his hand on her shoulder. He had glimpsed the vivid scar on her neck earlier when her scarf slipped, and instinct told him how she had got it. ‘We’ll be fine, now stop worrying. You did the right thing getting us here, we’ll take over now.’
Fritz was already at Gustave’s when they arrived. It was a small café-bar, and Fritz was sitting at one of the tables outside. Etienne introduced him to Noah, then asked if he had anything for them.
‘Yes and no. Found out that Edouard Pascal is an oily son of a bitch. He’s roughed up a few women in his time, and has only been working at the Ritz for three years. Before that he worked as an undertaker.’
‘An undertaker!’ Etienne exclaimed.
Fritz nodded. ‘Seems strange he went from that to being a concierge in the best hotel in Paris, and my money would be on him bribing or even blackmailing someone to get the job. Those men usually come up through the ranks. I smell something fishy.’
Etienne nodded. ‘What about Le Brun? Someone told me last night he could be Philippe Le Brun, a restaurateur.’
‘That’s who I came up with too. He’s larger than life, very rich, a ladies’ man with a taste for whores, though by all accounts he treats them well. But my source said that on the night in question he was seen with a statuesque blonde dancer until the early hours.’
Etienne frowned. ‘So we can rule him out?’
‘Of seeing your girl that night, but he has been seen twice with the same girl recently, young, very pretty with dark curly hair, and my source thinks she was English.’
Both Etienne and Noah beamed. ‘Is he approachable?’ Noah asked.
‘I couldn’t say,’ Fritz replied after a moment’s thought. ‘But I’m told he goes for coffee in Le Dôme in Montparnasse most mornings.’
Etienne thanked Fritz, then he and Noah left the café. ‘Shall we go to Le Dôme and see him?’ Noah asked.
Etienne was torn two ways. His gut reaction was to investigate Le Brun further before contacting him, but Belle had been