Without a Trace : A Novel

Contents Cover Title Page Copyright Contents Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Dedication Other Titles About the Author Landmarks Cover Cover Title Page Contents Start Copyright Print Page List v vi 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 vii iii 221 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Without a Trace is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
 Copyright © 2023 by Danielle Steel
 All rights reserved.
 Published in the United States by Delacorte Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
 Delacorte Press is a registered trademark and the DP colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Steel, Danielle, author.
 Title: Without a trace / Danielle Steel.
 Description: First edition. | New York : Delacorte Press, [2023]
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022009782 (print) | LCCN 2022009783 (ebook) | ISBN 9781984821867 (hardcover ; acid-free paper) | ISBN 9781984821874 (ebook)
 Subjects: LCGFT: Novels.
 Classification: LCC PS3569.T33828 W58 2023 (print) | LCC PS3569.T33828 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54—dc23/eng/20220304
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022009782
 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/​2022009783
 Ebook ISBN 9781984821874
 randomhousebooks.com
 Cover design: Mimi Bark
 Cover image: © Moslem Sheihaky/500px/Getty Images
 ep_prh_6.0_142201960_c0_r0
 
 
 Contents
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Copyright
 
 
 Chapter 1
 
 
 Chapter 2
 
 
 Chapter 3
 
 
 Chapter 4
 
 
 Chapter 5
 
 
 Chapter 6
 
 
 Chapter 7
 
 
 Chapter 8
 
 
 Chapter 9
 
 
 Chapter 10
 
 
 Chapter 11
 
 
 Chapter 12
 
 
 Chapter 13
 
 
 Chapter 14
 
 
 Chapter 15
 
 
 Dedication
 By Danielle Steel
 About the Author
 
 
 
 
 Chapter 1
 Charles Vincent had been sitting in his office in Paris waiting to talk to his boss for more than two hours. It was Friday afternoon and he had promised his wife Isabelle that he’d leave the city early. He had a three-hour drive ahead of him, the last half on narrow, rough country roads along the coast of Normandy. They had houseguests at their château that weekend, friends of Isabelle’s, although he knew them too. He worked late so often, and traveled so much for work, that she had a fully developed social life without him. He didn’t mind. They had a wide circle of friends. She had her own, as well as a group of devoted women friends whose husbands worked as hard as Charlie, or were divorced, so Isabelle never lacked for company when Charlie was busy. She didn’t mind going to events or entertaining without him, but he had promised to be there that night. It was someone’s birthday, the husband of one of her friends. Isabelle had organized a weekend around them at the château. She was proud of their country home on a hill overlooking the rugged coastline and the sea. The château was beautiful. They had owned it for ten years.
 Charles was the CEO of the biggest plastics manufacturer in France, Jansen Plastics. It was his second career, a reincarnation after an earlier life. The job at Jansen had saved him eleven years ago.
 He was waiting to meet with the owner and founder, Jerome Jansen, eighty-two years old and still going strong. Jansen’s only son had moved to the States years before to seek his fortune, had married an American, and had no interest in the business, nor in coming back to France, or stepping into his father’s shoes. He was a U.S. citizen now, as were his wife and kids. France was ancient history to him. When his son had finally made that clear to him, after he made his own fortune in the fast food business in Los Angeles and Southern California, Jerome Jansen had set out to find a CEO who could help him run his business with intelligence and an iron hand.
 Jerome Jansen owned the largest toy company in France, along with factories that made plastic products for other uses. It was a huge operation, and Charlie’s path had crossed with Jansen’s at the right time. Charlie’s father had been a writer of considerable literary acclaim in France but only modest commercial success, which had indirectly led Charlie into the publishing business right after college. He loved books and everything related to them except writing. His meteoric rise had been astonishing and impressive, and he found he loved the business. He had no talent for writing himself, and