Page 61 of Mountain Challenge

Beau nodded coolly. “Good.” He turned to Hugo, Alex and Lorenz. “Tell Vincent to hurry. We’re not waiting for him.”

In the end, Vincent and his team arrived at the same time as they did. As they all exited their vehicles, a few neighbors stepped out of their houses to stare at the six large, uniformed men. Ry knew just how out of place they looked.

They walked past the small chapel to Saint Theodule. Ry had been told it marked the spot where, in the seventeen hundreds, the plague had stopped its spread into the Chamonix valley. Ry had paid little attention at the time, but he was paying attention now. He’d never needed a miracle as badly as he did this moment.

“This is the one,” Beau said, pointing at a nondescript ground-floor apartment with red flowers on the window sill.Red flowers. None of this was adding up.

“Stay behind us,” Vincent growled. “You shouldn’t even be here.”

Vincent raised his huge fist to knock just as the apartment door opened. The gendarme’s hand went to his belt, then froze, staring at a tiny woman who seemed as surprised to see them as they were to see her. Her eyes were dark pieces of coal on her pale face.

“Bonsoir, Madame,” Vincent began.

“Que se passe t’il?” she asked, not bothering with any pleasantries, her eyes and mouth both round with worry.

“We’re looking for Mr. Getty.”

“Miles?” she asked. “I haven’t seen him in weeks.”

Vincent’s expression grew stern. “How’s that? Doesn’t he live here?”

“He used to,” the woman said, sighing. “We broke up. I couldn’t … I couldn’t deal with his behavior anymore.”

Ry looked over the woman’s shoulder and into the house. She sounded sincere enough, but he’d learned long ago people could lie.

“Mind if we come in, Ma’am?” Beau chimed in. Ry shot his boss a grateful glance.

“Sure,” she said. Though still reluctant, she eased her body away from the door, making space for them to walk through. “But if you’re looking for Miles, he’s not here.”

They spread out in pairs, clearing each room in the small, cluttered apartment before meeting back in the living room two minutes later.

“Happy now?” the woman asked, looking in irritation at the tracks they’d left on her old beige carpet. “I told you he wasn’t here.”

Vincent’s tone turned apologetic. “Apologies, Madame …”

“Adeline. Adeline Racine.”

Vincent didn’t take his eyes off her. “Sorry again for the inconvenience. It is very important that we find Mr. Getty.”

Adeline gave a very unladylike snort. “Right. What has Miles done now? Has he swindled someone? I’m surprised he still has enough brain cells left for that.”

“Why would you say that?”

Adeline’s dark eyes went liquid with unshed tears. She waved her hands at Vincent’s uniform. “I don’t know if I should be talking about it.”

“We don’t care about the drugs,” Ry said, hoping he was interpreting her worried look correctly. At least, he didn’t give a shit about the drugs. All he wanted was to find Isla and Laura. “But we do need to speak with Miles. It’s a matter of life and death.”

Adeline’s shoulders hunched up. “He didn’t use to be like this. He was so sweet when I met him. But that stuff he started taking … I’m sorry. I don’t know where he is.”

“Please think,Mademoiselle. Anything you can tell us, would help,” Ry insisted, forcing himself to keep his voice steady, when all he wanted to do was drive his fist through the paper-thin wall separating them from the next-door apartment.

Stony silence met them. Ry sighed, looking around the cluttered living room. This wasn’t going to get them anywhere. They were still wasting time—time that Isla and Laura didn’t have.

His eyes hit on a group of pictures on the side table next to the couch. One of them grabbed his attention, as he realized he knew three of the people in the picture. A younger Adeline, standing in front of Miles Getty, the big man’s arms wrapped tightly around her. Beside them, Miles’s buddy, whom he’d met on the mountain, his arms around an unknown blonde woman. But what caught his attention, even more than the people in the picture, was the mountain hut they were standing in front of.

“Where is this?” he asked, his voice tight.

Adeline took a long moment to respond. “That’s Miles’s uncle’s place, in Saint-Gervais-les-Bains. It’s the reason Miles came out here. His parents used to send him here to spend time with his uncle every year.”

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