“They were going to kill me once we were back out to sea,” Kim said. “Phillipe seemed to get aroused by that because later that evening he came to my cabin for the first time in weeks. I thought he might, so I had prepared.”
Instead of shooting up the powdered heroin he had given her earlier in the day, she’d saved it. When he gave her more, she heated both batches and pretended to shoot it while he stripped off his clothes. She lay back, acting as though she was in a heroin-induced stupor, and when he came to her she stabbed him with the hypodermic needle and drove the drugs into him.
Whitey and the Nose were ashore. And Rivier enjoyed S and M, so the captain never came to check when his boss yelled. Rivier punched Kim a few times before he passed out. Kim got dressed and decided she was owed something for the years he’d kept her prisoner. She knew the combination to his safe, and took one hundred thousand euros, and the only thing Rivier never let out of his sight: the lighter.
“You had no idea that it disguised a digital memory stick?” I asked.
“Is that what it was?” she said. “He always told me it was a present from his mother. I took it for spite.”
Kim got the keys to the speedboat. The captain saw her, tried to stop her, but it was too late. She made it to a dock in Marseille, and then to a church. She told the priest she was addicted to heroin and in trouble, but also that she had money to pay for her own rehabilitation.
For a twenty-five-thousand euro contribution to his church, the priest got her out of the city and to a private detoxification and addiction recovery center near Aix-en-Provence. Kim gave the center the rest of the money—seventy-five thousand euros—and spent three and a half months cleaning up there before Rivier’s men somehow found her.
“They asked for me at the gate, but the doctors refused to say whether I was there or not,” she said. “I took off that night and made my way to Paris, to a friend’s place in Les Bosquets. I had an ATM card from my trust, but no passport. I didn’t know what to do, so I called my grandfather, and he called you.”
I stood there, digesting it, until Kim said, “You think I’m a bad person.”
“I think you’ve got a few issues,” I said. “But I also think you got caught up in something that was way beyond your ability to either anticipate or control, and ultimately I have to commend you for escaping like that. It was gutsy.”
Kim smiled wanly. “Thank you.”
“One thing. Why didn’t you go to the police?”
“Because Phillipe always said he had the French police in his back pocket,” she said. “Especially in Marseille.”
I wondered about that, wondered whether Ali Farad knew cops in Marseille that he suspected were corrupted by Rivier. But before I could come up with reasons for or against the possibility, the doctor returned.
“The pilot wants us to take our seats for landing,” she said.
“Okay,” I said, and buckled myself into the jump seat next to her bed. “Rivier’s brother, Benoit. He cares about you.”
“He was in Cannes when I first met Phillipe,” she said softly. “He always cared about me. A true friend.”
“Did he know his brother was mistreating you?”
Kim shook her head. “Benoit lived in Paris, and never visited the yacht while I was there. He was shocked when I showed up at his door and told him.”
“So you were staying with him in the Marais the night of the shoot-out in the club?”
“Yes,” she said, and we banked in and landed.
When we’d pulled into a private jet hangar, I left my seat and held out my hand to shake hers. “They’ll refuel, take you to Los Angeles. The doctor will be with you the whole way, and I know your granddad will be thrilled to see you.”
Kim gripped my hand, tears in her eyes, and said, “Thank you for saving me even when I didn’t seem to want saving.”
“You’re welcome,” I said, and moved toward the divider.
“Jack?” she called after me.
She had this pitiful expression on her face when she asked, “Can people change for good? Someone like me?”
I flashed on my brother, Tommy, and felt torn, but said, “I hear it happens all the time if you just have faith and accept help from the people who love you.”
Chapter 77
Charles de Gaulle Airport
10:40 a.m.