WHO AND WHERE IS RIVIÈRE?
"Who is Rivière?"
Here was a new factor in the situation. Lars Larssen mentally docketed
it as a matter to be dealt with immediately. After sending off a reply
telegram to Cherbourg (which reached the quayside too late and was
afterwards returned to him), the shipowner got a telephone call through
to Olive at the Hotel des Hespérides.
"This is Mr Larssen speaking. Are you Mrs Matheson?"
"Yes. Good morning."
"Good morning. I called you up to say that your husband has sailed for
Canada on 'La Bretagne.' I had a line from Cherbourg this morning."
"So had I."
"I suppose he explained matters to you?"
"No, he referred me to you for explanations. Just like Clifford!... What
about Rivière--is he coming to Monte?"
Lars Larssen had to tread warily here. So he answered: "I didn't quite
catch that name."
"John Rivière, my husband's half-brother. He lives in some suburb of
Paris, I forget where, and Clifford was to bring him along to Monte."
The shipowner decided that he must find this man and discover if he knew
anything. The words of Jimmy Martin flashed through his brain: "I doubt
if the police'll do much unless the relatives kick up a shindy."
Meanwhile, there was nothing to do but tell the truth, which was his
usual resource when in an unforeseen difficulty.
"Don't know anything about him. If you give me his Paris address I'll
dig him out."
"We don't know his address."
"Then I'll find it at the office. As soon as I get a line on him I'll
wire you. Rivière? The name sounds French."
"French-Canadian. He's a couple of years older than Clifford, I
believe.... When are you coming yourself?"
"To-night's train or to-morrow. I'm not sure if I can get away
to-night."
"Do you play roulette?"
"No. Never been at the tables."
"Then I must teach you," said Olive gaily.
"Delighted!"
After the telephone conversation, Larssen went straight to No. 8, Rue
Laffitte. He had wired the night before to London to have a secretary
sent over--Sylvester, his usual confidential man, if the latter were
back at business; if not, another subordinate he named. Catching the
nine o'clock train from Charing Cross, the secretary would arrive in
Paris about five in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Larssen, had to make his
search for Rivière in person.
The business of a financier differs radically from a mercantile
business on the point of staff. The main work of negotiation can only be
carried out by the head of the firm himself, as a rule, and the routine
work for subordinates is small, except when a public company flotation
is being made. Matheson had found that his Paris office needed only a
manager, Coulter, and a couple of clerks, one English and one French.
Coulter was a steady-going, reliable man of forty odd, extremely
trustworthy and not too imaginative.
He knew Lars Larssen, of course, and received him deferentially.
"What can I have the pleasure of doing for you, sir?"
"I want the address of Mr John Rivière. Or rather, Mrs Matheson wants
it."
"Who is Mr John Rivière?"
This came as a fresh surprise to Lars Larssen, and made him doubly
anxious to discover the man. Why all this mystery surrounding him?
"I understand from Mrs Matheson that Mr Rivière is her husband's
half-brother. Lives somewhere around Paris."
"Strange! I've never heard of him myself. I'll make enquiries if you'll
wait a moment."
Presently Coulter returned with the young English clerk of the office.
"It seems that Mr Rivière called here yesterday afternoon and enquired
for Mr Matheson," explained Coulter.
Lars Larssen turned to the young clerk with a questioning look. "It was
the first time I had ever seen him, sir," said the clerk. "He came in
and asked quite naturally for Mr Matheson. There was an astonishing
likeness between them, but that was explained at once when he told me
they were half-brothers."
"An astonishing likeness?"
"When I say a likeness, sir, I mean of course in a general way. Mr
Rivière is younger and different in many ways."
"Describe him."
The clerk did so to the best of his ability.
"Did he leave an address?"
"No, sir."
"Or a message?"
"No."
"Or say where he was going?"
The clerk could offer no clue to the whereabouts or intentions of John
Rivière. Repeated questioning added little to the meagre information
already given.
"Mr Matheson has not been at the office to-day or yesterday. Have you
seen anything of him?" asked Coulter of the shipowner.
"I know. He's away to Canada."
"To Canada!"
"Yes. We discussed the matter the night I was here. Hasn't he written
you?"
"We've heard nothing."
"Reckon you will to-day.... Say, couldn't you look in Mr Matheson's desk
to find the address of this Mr Rivière?"
Coulter was the financier's confidential man. He had full power to go
over his employer's desk except for certain drawers labelled "Private,"
and he did so now.
When he came back from the search, he had an envelope in his hand
addressed "Lars Larssen, Esq."
"All I could find was this envelope for you, sir. There seems to be no
record of Mr Rivière's address."
The shipowner slit open the letter and read it with a countenance that
gave no clue whatever to what was passing in his mind.
"My dear Larssen," it ran, "I estimate your expenses on the Hudson Bay
scheme at roughly £20,000, and I enclose cheque for that amount. If this
is right, please let me have a formal receipt and quittance. I want you
to understand that my decision on the matter is final. I regret that I
am obliged to back out at the last moment, but no doubt you will be able
to proceed without my help."
The letter was in handwriting, and had not been press-copied. Larssen
noted that point at once with satisfaction. But the letter itself gave
him uneasiness. It explained nothing of Matheson's motives. From the
'phone conversation with Olive, it was clear that she had no suspicion
that her husband wanted to withdraw from the Hudson Bay deal. In fact,
she had asked anxiously if anything had gone wrong with the scheme. Sir
Francis Letchmere might of course be closer in Matheson's business
confidence, and that was one of the reasons for travelling to Monte
Carlo and talking to him face to face.
But with his keen intuitive sense, Lars Larssen felt that the
explanation was in some way connected with this mysterious John Rivière.
It was imperative to get in touch with the man.
Where was Rivière? Was there nobody who could throw light on his
whereabouts? His jaw tightened as he began to chew on the problem. Paris
is too big a city in which to hunt for a mere name.
After thanking the manager, Larssen withdrew from the room. Passing
through the outer office, he was addressed by the other of the two
clerks, a young Frenchman.
"Monsieur," said he in French, "here is a point which perhaps will be of
service. I am at the window when Monsieur Rivière arrives _en
taxi-auto_. On the _impériale_ I see a portmanteau. Doubtless Monsieur
Rivière journeys away from Paris."
"Did you note the number of the cab?"
The young Frenchman made a gesture of sympathetic negation. There had
been no reason to look at the number, even if he could have read it from
a window on the second story.
"Thanks," said Larssen, but the information seemed at first sight
valueless. A man takes an unknown cab from an unknown house in an
unknown suburb to an unknown terminus, when he buys a ticket for an
unknown destination. Sheer waste of energy to hunt for a needle in that
haystack!
Yet his bulldog mind would not let go of the problem. Presently he had
found a new avenue of approach to it. If Rivière had travelled away from
Paris on the evening of the 15th, probably he stayed that night or the
next day at some hotel. There he would have to fill in his name, etc.,
in the hotel register according to the strict requirements of the French
law.
Advertise in the papers for one John Rivière from Paris, age
thirty-seven, staying at a hotel in the provinces on the 15th or 16th.
Offer a reward for information. The average Frenchman is very keen on
money; without a doubt he would answer the advertisement if he knew
anything of John Rivière. Advertise in _Le Petit Journal_, _Le Petit
Parisien_ and a few other dailies which cover France from end to end, as
no English or American journals do in their respective countries.
That was the right solution!
Larssen did not pay the cheque for £20,000 into his bank. He was after
big game, and a mere £20,000 was a jack-rabbit. It would be safer, he
felt, to let it lie amongst his secret papers.
When Sylvester, his private secretary, arrived by the afternoon train
from London, Lars Larssen placed him in touch with only so much of the
situation as he considered desirable. This was little. Sylvester was to
stay in Paris while the shipowner went on to Monte Carlo. If the various
advertisements brought a reply, Sylvester was to hunt out John Rivière
in whatever part of France he might be, and then communicate with Lars
Larssen for further orders.
The secretary was a quiet, self-contained, silent man of thirty or
thirty-one. A heavy dark moustache curtained expression from his lips.
Not only could he carry out orders to the letter, but he was to be
trusted to keep his head in any unforeseen emergency and act on his own
responsibility in a sound, common-sense way. But Lars Larssen trusted no
man beyond the essentials of any situation. His was the brain to plan
and direct. He preferred obedient tools to brilliant, independent
helpers.
At the train-side, Larssen gave a final direction to his subordinate:
"Keep me in touch with every move."
Back at his hotel, Sylvester occupied himself with the development of
some films he had taken on the Channel passage. In his hours of leisure
he was a devoted amateur photographer. At the present time there was
nothing to be done but wait the possible answer to the advertisement.