The Russian nodded. It was the kind of work he did. None of it was legal, none of it could be mentioned, most of it was lucrative. He had removed jewels from vaults, pearls from necks, cars from underground garages. Everything had a value and there was always somebody willing to pay.
“I’ll get you the painting,” he said.
The Boss named a price. The Russian shook his head. “It’s not the value of the painting,” he said, then added, “sir,” as compensation for what he was about to say. “It’s what it’s worth to you.”
“It is worth everything,” the Boss said. And it was. He wanted that land and the painting the bitch, Jolly Matthews, had denied him in her lifetime. He would have both now that she was dead. Of course the police were looking into her death, and rightly so, because obviously, with a knife in her back, she had been murdered.
Perhaps a robbery, the police were speculating. Maybe the house was turned over, that sort of thing. They’d never trace that knife, though. There were millions like it and the Russian knew every source. Jolly Matthews had gotten in the Boss’s way, triumphed over him in life but not in death. All he had to do now was get his hands on her property.
Architectural plans were already drawn up, documents were ready to be submitted for planning permission, already promised and paid for, of course. Millions would be made by everybody, though the green hillside would disappear under a plague of small villas, most of which would be bought by people who intended them to be rented out and everybody knew that in a couple of years rental properties often became shabby and neglected, and would downgrade the area.
The Boss did not care about the future. He would make money from each part of the deal: the sale of the land, the construction of the buildings, the sale of those properties, the infrastructure—roads, water, electricity. And to top it all would be the fourteen-story apartment building, the max allowed even to him in the restricted area, and the top three floors, which would become for a few years his new home. His would be a magnificent view down to the sea, of the yachts, the palm trees, a view better than most everyone’s. Not all though, because this was a rich man’s playground, yet certainly better than many of his soon-to-be neighbors.
And to highlight it, he wanted the Turner. Of course he could buy any painting he desired, and had. His walls were already adorned with a couple of Picassos, maybe not the best because they were, even for him, hard to come by and usually went though private, almost secretive sales. He had a few Impressionists, as well as some Italians: a Raphael, a Caravaggio, whatever his advisors recommended. None of them impressed him but they were expected of a man in his position. This Turner painting had become an obsession and he was a man who got what he wanted.
Right now, the thing he liked best of all that he owned was the fifty-foot Riva he sailed himself, at top speed the length of the coast from Marseille to Menton, leaving other boats awash in the great surge of its wake. There’d been a few insurance claims as a result but of course he’d settled quietly, out of court. In that sense, he was a man of his word, and held respect for his fellow sailors.
He was aware though, of how impressive he looked to those in the passing boats, with his great height, his white captain’s cap with the gold braid and navy-blue anchor, his sun-browned chest, shaved of hair so he did not quite resemble a bear, which is what some woman had told him, mocking him, while he ran his heavy hands over her own lithe body.
Actually, he had liked the comparison; he’d chuckled over it, looking at himself in the mirror over the bed, a great bear, full of power. That was him.
And he wanted his condos on that land, and the painting, the Turner, on his wall. Everything Jolly Matthews had denied him in life would be his now that she was dead. And if that meant removing Mirabella Matthews from the scene, so be it.
2
Mirabella
My name is Mirabella Matthews, a name you might recognize as I am a well-known author of suspense novels. I’m on the train from Paris to Nice, attempting to ignore the fraught-looking young blonde sitting opposite, and whose problems I certainly do not want to hear, though I can tell she is dying to unburden herself. I turn my head away, hoping not to be the one who has to hear it all.
I am returning once again to the scene of the crime: the villa I had visited several times and which I have inherited upon the sudden and unexplained death of my Aunt Jolly, a tragedy that is taking me from an apartment in London to the shores of the South of France. They have not yet found out who killed her, nor have they discovered why.