Page 11 of French Escapade

She works on the screen and sets the phone down on the table. Now the only thing we can see is the ring. The design is not original—it’s the two-headed eagle, the Russian insignia. However, in the center, in the place usually held by a drawing of Saint George slaughtering a snake, there’s an incredible diamond.

“With a diamond like that, I could buy a three-bedroom house with a double garage,” Jimmy notes.

“With this stone, the garage should come furnished with two very luxurious cars.”

Élodie’s joking, but her expression is closed off. I’m ready to bet that she’s seen the ring before. She looks up at us.

“You said pictures, plural?” she asks Jimmy.

“Yes, if you scrawl down the feed, you will see that later that night they went to a club, and there are a few pictures of the dance floor. Those are not great pictures, but I recognized Madison in a few of them, so maybe you will recognize someone else.”

Élodie takes the phone again and squints while looking at the pictures.

“I can’t see anything well enough. Would you share the girl’s name and password so I can look at these pictures on my computer screen back at the station?”

“Sure thing,” I say. “You can have them, but please, tell me; you recognized the ring, didn’t you?”

Élodie looks into my eyes. I can see she’s trying to decide what she can tell us. After an endless moment of silence, she nods and coldly states, “Arkady Oushkin, sounds like Pushkin without theP, but, believe me, he’s no poet. He was born on April 24th, 1995, in Moscow. His mother was a whore. His father is unknown. He was raised in a bordello. He started earning his reputation very young by protecting his mother and her fellow workers when the clients were too difficult.”

So, he’s a regular choirboy with good family values. A retelling of the good son who decided to get into the family business.

“Because he was very good at his job, he quickly climbed the ladder, and now, he’s growing his own network in France. He’s very well connected. He’s got political support and strong allies in the police force.”

“Some of those allies have fallen recently,” she continues. “But I think internal affairs didn’t chop the head off the monster. Those who were caught red-handed swear that they do not know who’s at the top of the network. I don’t believe them for a second, but one thing is for sure, whether they do or don’t know who they were covering, they’re not talking.”

“What sort of network are we talking about?”

Élodie continues looking straight into my eyes while answering. “It started with prostitution, but he’s diversified. Art, drugs. He deals in anything that is profitable.” She remains silent for a few seconds to let me digest the information.

“So he travels, pick up young, naive girls in foreign countries, takes them to France, and then what? Puts them to work on the Riviera?”

Jimmy holds his breath while waiting for Élodie’s answer. It doesn’t come right away. Finally, she shakes her head.

“He does put some to work around here, but he also exports them. Where, I have no idea. I’ve only been able to save one of those. Actually, truth be told, I didn’t really save her. She saved herself. I only helped her find her way home.”

Élodie rubs her temples and closes her eyes. “There’s no two ways about this. I’m going to be blunt—we only have three days to find her.”

“Three days? What do you mean? Why three days?”

“Because today is the 27th, and the shipments occur on the first day of each month, a few days after the sale.”

“But how do you know that?” Jimmy asks.

“The one who got away was a young girl from Thailand. Arkady lured her into France with the promise of a part in some action movie. She was a Muay Thai champ. The day she understood there was never going to be a movie, she ran to the gym where we had met. The owner called me right away and hid her until I arrived.”

“You helped her leave the country?” Jimmy asks.

“Yeah, I have a friend who works in a service in charge of deporting illegal aliens. At the last moment, he put her on a plane to Vietnam to make sure she wouldn’t be intercepted in Bangkok by Arkady’s welcoming committee. As far as I know, she now lives in the northern part of the country, close to the Myanmar and Laos borders. Anyway, once she felt safe enough, she decided to thank me by sending me a letter, three pages long, in which she explained all the information she’d gathered while she was in France. This is why I can tell you that, for Arkady, it’s a sort of superstitious thing. He only moves his goods on the first of the month.”

“Three days,” I repeat softly, wondering if my sister will be strong enough to try to save herself. I taught her the basics of some self-defense. I should have forced her not to quit judo.

“Yes, three days, and not even full days, since today is already half gone.” Élodie throws a bill on the table. “So let’s get going.”

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