Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 130, No. 1. Whole No. 791, July 2007

“The exchange will take place tomorrow at eleven P.M. The ransom is twenty thousand euros. In fifty-euro bills. You’ll receive further instructions one hour before delivery.”

The voice was harsh and sounded disguised. The most accurate description Madame Azoul could come up with was to say that it sounded fake.

“Impossible to locate the call,” interjected a police officer.

“Twenty-four hours, only twenty-four hours!” Suzuki cursed.

They had just hung up the phone when it rang again. Antoine leaped from his chair and snatched up the receiver. “Hello? Hello?”

“It’s me, Hinda... They’re asking for a ransom? Oh my God, that’s awful!” She was clearly very agitated.

An instant later, Mathieu knocked at the door, panting for breath. “When did Yasmine disappear?”

Madame Azoul explained the circumstances surrounding the kidnapping before leaving the room, her footsteps heavy with fatigue.

“Monsieur Dufour,” said Officer Suzuki cautiously, “we have examined the threat letter and found no conclusive evidence. No fingerprints. The culprit hasn’t left a trace.”

“Quelle merde!” Antoine exclaimed.

Suzuki went on calmly. “We’ve brought in the extremists we know to be connected to Islamic groups for questioning. They've made no secret of their religious fanaticism, but we failed to find anything incriminating when we searched their premises. We’ve turned up nothing to confirm our fears.”

With a perplexed look on his face, Suzuki mused, “Why ask for only twenty thousand euros? And no allusion to the promotion of the book. Strange.”

“But that’s made very clear in the threat letter.”

“Precisely! That’s what intrigues me. This time round, he’s stated no conditions in that regard. Unless...”

“Unless?”

“He has no intention of letting her go. We have twenty-four hours to solve all this.”

“Why he?” Antoine’s voice trembled just the right amount.

“There must be a connection between the thug who assaulted Yasmine in your bookshop, the explosion, and the kidnapper. Given the urgency of the situation, you should contact your distributors immediately and tell them to stop everything for the moment. Nevertheless, you’re quite right. We must remain open to any possibility.”

Taken aback, Antoine exclaimed, “Give in to threats?”

“Let’s just say we need to calm things down a bit. In your eyes, who, other than a lunatic, might hate Yasmine so much that they’d...”

“As far as I know, she doesn’t have any enemies.”

“A witness noticed a metallic-grey Renault Clio hatchback parked in front of Yasmine’s home toward the end of the afternoon. They couldn’t make out who the driver was, but he or she was obviously watching the place.”

“A Clio, you say!”

“That’s right, a Clio.” Suzuki was all ears.

“My wife Gabrielle drives a grey Clio. She thinks I’m having an affair with Yasmine. I’ve asked for a divorce. Her pathological jealousy is poisoning my life. She’s staying at her parents’ place at the moment with our daughter. In a sudden fit of madness she might conceivably have come by here, looking for some sort of evidence to support her phony accusations. Gabrielle is definitely unpredictable, but she’s not a criminal.”

“Unpredictable?”

“She drinks too much.”

“What does your wife do for a living?”

“She’s the director of a chemical laboratory.”

“Perfect profile for putting together a homemade bomb like the one that wrecked your bookshop.”

“Hold it right there. You’re going too far. And you’ve got things wrong. She was at work that day. I’m not trying to find alibis for her, but it would be hard to imagine Gabrielle’s trembling fingers assembling a bomb. Since she hit the bottle she’s been plagued by clumsiness, even at work. In fact, just recently she burned herself preparing a solution without her gloves on. She was handling acid like a beginner.”

“Like a beginner?”

“Yes. You hardly need to be an expert to know that you add acid to water and not the other way around. That’s high-school stuff.”

“I don’t remember what I learned in chemistry at high school!”

“I’m married to a specialist on the subject.”

“Exactly! Now, there’s a lead worth exploring.” Despite Antoine’s display of scepticism, Suzuki’s voice was charged with innuendo.

“Il n'y a pas de fumée sans feu, Monsieur Dufour.”

“If you’re trying to be funny, think again.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Fumée, feu, Dufour.”

“You strike me as very defensive about the matter... How would you describe your relationship with Yasmine Azoul?”

“I’m just her publisher and a friend. Gabrielle imagines the most dramatic betrayal scenarios every time a woman gets anywhere near me.”