STOCKS & SHARES 19

Billy Rawlings had had enough. He had been a star so long that he had grown used to getting his way in everything he did or asked for. Yet Pierre Arroneaux remained elusive despite the efforts of Billy’s staff to locate him or get straight answers to straight questions. The biggest question of all was ‘where was Billy’s money?” It seemed as if Pierre Arroneaux had vanished along with it. It didn’t exactly leave Billy on the breadline, but it certainly made a sizeable hole in his once vast pot of gold.

What worried and infuriated Billy was that he was not the only dupe in this financial tangle. Many of his own friends had been sucked in by the charming but elusive Mr. Arroneaux, mainly by Billy’s recommendations and introductions, just as he had been introduced himself. They had all been taken for fools, and Billy was not used to looking like a fool.

Still, he would have to get used to it.