The covered bridge from the airport island dipped down, and the Citroën drove through an arch in the base of the dome, coming out on the perimeter road. Clean, that was the impression he got from the tidy rows of white buildings bathing under a tangerine glow, clean verging on sterile.

"Where's the casino?" Suzi asked.

André Dubaud pointed to a cluster of white-stone buildings on the cliffs. She peered up at them curiously.

The Citroën took them right up to the marble front of the El Harhari. A footman opened the door for Greg, and he followed André Dubaud up the stairs into the lobby.

A troupe of cleaners were busy inside, polishing the mirrors and dark wooden furniture, drone vacuums moving up and down the carpet. Claude Murtand, the hotel security manager, met them under one of the chandeliers. With his handsome face and perfect hair he looked like a channel star, dwarfing Suzi.

"A picture of a girl?" he asked after André Dubaud explained what they wanted.

"Yeah," Greg said. "She was here for the Newfields ball, name unknown. Attractive, early twenties, short fair hair, wearing a dark-blue gown, possibly silk. We think she's on the game."

"This is Monaco," Claude Murtand murmured. "Who isn't?"

André Dubaud scowled at him.

The El Harhari's white-tiled security centre had a long bank of monitor screens along one wall relaying scenes from around the hotel. Two big flatscreens showed the floorplans, red and yellow symbols flashing in rooms and corridors. There were two island consoles, with three operators each. Claude Murtand had a small glass-walled office at the back.

"We compile a profile on each guest," Claude Murtand said as he led them in. "In so far as we can, just what is available in public memory cores. Obviously it's only a secondary precaution. Customs and Immigration filter out anyone genuinely dangerous."

"That true?" Greg asked André Dubaud.

"Certainly," the Commissaire said. "Our passport control is the most stringent in the world. Nobody with a criminal record is allowed in."

"You and the wife must get lonely here all by yourself," Suzi said in an undertone.

Rachel smiled faintly. Greg shot Suzi a warning glance. "What about the Newfields guests, did you put together a profile on them?" he asked Claude Murtand.

"No. We have a complete list of those who originally bought tickets. But unfortunately tickets for these events change hands all the time, especially when someone like Julia Evans is attending, there's no way of knowing in advance exactly who's going to turn up."

"OK." Greg switched a finger at the monitor screens. "Did you record the ball?"

"Of course."

"Right. We'll start with the lobby camera memory for the night."

There were six cameras covering the lobby. Rachel chose the one giving a head on view of the door; Greg watched over her shoulder.

He recognized the people coming in, the category, not the names. The type that used to pester him and Eleanor during the first years after their marriage. Anybody over twenty-eight had their facial structure frozen in time with annual trips to discreet clinics, until they reached fifty-five, then they were allowed to age with virile silver-haired dignity. Appearance wasn't just important to them, it was everything.

He watched Julia make her entrance a quarter of an hour after the official start. The jockeying to greet her. One statuesque redhead beauty in a shimmering black dress quite deliberately screwed her stiletto heel into the foot of a rival to be sure of being on the front row as Julia walked by.

The faces blurred together. Beauty was a quality which ebbed when it became monotonous, and none of the women lacked it. He concentrated on the dresses, looking for blue.

"That's her," Rachel Griffith said,

Greg halted the memory playback. The girl had sharp cheekbones, broad, square shoulders held proud. Judging from her build she could have been a professional athlete, except… he stared at her. An indefinable quality. Something lacking, perhaps? Rachel was right, she was a pro.

Suzi whistled softly. "Some looker."

Greg restarted the memory, and watched the girl walk down the lobby towards the ballroom. He stopped the memory again when she was just under the camera. The white flower box was clasped in her hand. "Bingo. Can you get me a better shot of her face?" he asked Claude Murtand.

"Certainly." The security manager slid on to a chair beside Rachel. He checked the memory's time display, and began to call up corresponding memories from the other lobby cameras. He found an image of the girl staring almost straight into one camera above the reception desk, and squirted it into André Dubaud's cybofax. The Commissaire relayed it to the police headquarters central processor core.

"Two minutes," he said proudly. "We'll have her name for you."

"The name on her passport," Suzi said.

"Madame, nobody with a false passport enters Monaco."

Greg reversed the memory, watching the girl walk backwards to the door, halted it. She seemed to be by herself. "Can I see the memory of the outside camera, a couple of minutes before she comes in, please?"

The girl was the only person to get out of a dark green Aston Martin.

André Dubaud's cybofax bleeped. He began to read the data that flowed down the wafer's little screen. "Charlotte Diane Fielder, aged twenty-four, an English citizen, resident in Austria. Occupation, art student"

Greg felt a grin tugging his face. Suzi was chortling.

"She checked in to the Celestious at four-thirty p.m. three days ago," André Dubaud continued. "Then checked out at nine-forty p.m. the same evening."

"What time did the Newfields ball end?" Greg asked.

"Julia packed up around one o'clock," said Rachel. "It was still going strong then."

"Most had left by four," said Claude Murtand. "There was a party of about thirty who stayed on to have breakfast. That would be about seven o'clock."

Greg closed his eyes, sorting out an order of questions. "André, would you find out if she's still in Monaco for me, please?"

"Of course." The Commissaire began to talk into his cybofax.

"Rachel, would you and Pearse review the lobby door camera memory for the rest of the night, please. I'd like to know what time Charlotte Fielder left the hotel. And whether she was alone."

"Sure thing," said Rachel.

"What about me?" said Suzi.

Greg grinned. "You come with me to the Celestious. Make sure I don't get into any trouble."

"Bollocks," Suzi muttered.

André Dubaud slipped his cybofax into his top pocket. "Immigration have no record of Charlotte Fielder leaving the principality, so she's still here," he said firmly. "But there is no hotel registration in her name. That means she's staying with a resident."

Greg ordered his gland to secrete a dose of neurohormones, shutting off Claude Murtand's office, the turbulent thought currents of nearby minds, concentrating inwards. It was his intuition he wanted; now he had a face and an identity to focus on, he could scratch round inside his cranium for a feeling, maybe even an angle on her current location.

But he didn't get the certainty he wanted, not even a sense of mild expectancy, which he would've settled for; instead there was a cold emptiness. Charlotte Fielder wasn't in Monaco, not even close.

Back in the Citroën, Greg used his cybofax to call Victor Tyo, and squirted Charlotte Fielder's small file over to him.

"See what sort of profile you can build," he said to the security chief. "She's gone to ground somewhere. Be helpful to know friends and contacts. Her pimp too, if you can manage it."

"You got it," Victor said. "Is she still in Monaco, do you think?"

"Commissaire Dubaud believes she is."