McDonald's Fletch is an investigative journalist who files stories on two separate-but-interrelated scandals, then flees with a briefcase full of money.
In his second novel, published two years later, he is out of the journalism game and living on his ill-gotten fortune.
He's engaged to a beautiful young woman whose father is an Italian count who has fallen on hard times.
In the book, Fletch falls in love with the would-be widow of Alan Stanwyk, a supposed cancer patient who wants to end his suffering.
When it turns out he's actually being faking his own death, he flees the country with her and an entire briefcase full of money.
The kidnappers are specifically asking for one of Menti's (the count's) paintings, so his fortune doesn't come into play.