Sibling Rivalry

by E A Harvey

  Yes she was still looking and she would be happy to receive the English ladies.

  Justine had booked her flight and had a couple of hours to spare before she needed to leave for the airport. A taxi and they were off to the address which Alberto had given them.

  It was a tall grey building in a lovely leafy street 121, Promenade des Anglais. Justine asked the driver to wait while they viewed the flat. It had a very noisy metal cage lift which clanked as they entered. As it rattled its way to the top floor they were both full of anticipation. Penny pressed the brass bell to the flat; it was opened by a fresh-faced young girl.

  "Bonjour Madame Et Mademoiselle" she offered her cheek to first to Justine and then to Penny followed by welcoming outstretched arm for them both to enter her apartment.

  The two women gasped at the sight before them - it was perfect. The lounge was bathed in dappled sunshine; the view from the lounge window overlooked the Seine. “My name is Gabrielle DuPont and I am very happy to meet you both”

  “Gabrielle thank you for sparing the time to see us, I am Justine Scott and this is my daughter Penny”

  “Gabrielle your home is lovely and so are you if you don’t mind me saying” “Penny I am so pleased you like it, and thank you”. Said Gabrielle

  “Mummy, I am sure that I can be very happy here! It is just the place for me to heal, Gabrielle I would love to be your flat mate if you would have me I think we could be such great friends" "Oh yes please Penny it would be good for me, is that correct, good for me" Both girls laughed and put their arms around each other.

  Penny's bedroom was very "French-looking" decorated with pale blue walls with dark cherry wood antique furniture with blue and white gingham fresh cotton curtains. Penny felt instantly at home. Justine sat busily writing a cheque for rent which highly excited Gabrielle - she had the biggest smile which showed her beautiful mouth and tight long black curly hair, this girl was a natural beauty.

  "Take all the time you need to recuperate, come home when you are ready darling, but make it soon

  Penny said her goodbyes to her Mother; she would ask the taxi driver to bring up her cases. Gabrielle suggested that they go out for the evening, a meal to get to know each other. "Please let it be my treat, a thank you for my new home" said Penny

  Paris by moonlight really was a very magical place to be the smells coming from the kerb side cafés seemed to say welcome. The people sitting around seemed so relaxed and happy - yes, this was definitely the finest place to be when trying to mend a broken heart.

  The girls had an instant rapport, walking down the busy avenues arm in arm. Gabrielle asked if she liked Chinese food, "Oh yes, that's a really great idea" The girls were a perfect match for each other Gabrielle spoke perfect English and Penny, of course, of course, spoke fluent French. The twins had been to finishing school in Lucerne to complete their education. They had stayed at the family's chalet and attended classes whilst living there. Mother and Father had shared happier days in this hideaway before the Alzheimer's started to take their wonderful Father away from them in such a cruel way! It had meant skiing in the winter and then the lakes in the summer. Gabrielle led her down an alleyway and into this rather grand looking red and gold building “The Red Dragon”. Fleetingly the red and gold decor seemed to remind Penny of Janet, just as gaudy and noisy she laughed to herself.

  The two girls were nattering away nineteen to the dozen as though they had known each other for years.

  "Gabrielle I need to tell you something about the reason I have decided to stay in Paris, all I will say is that I was in love with who I thought was Mr Right but he slept with my sister, I hope that you never meet her!"

  "Oh Penny I am so sorry for you, I also have recently split with my boyfriend, men are how you say bottoms"

  Penny burst out laughing “I think you mean arseholes"

  "Paris will fill you with only happy memories as the sad ones will be driven from your mind" She leaned across and kissed Penny sweetly on the cheek.

  Months went by and Penny’s heartache was replaced by wonderful new feelings inside the broken heart had healed and the bedroom scene was just a distant blur. Gabrielle was now her replacement sibling and she wished she really was her sister; she would never try to hurt me she thought.

  In the not too distant future Penny was to have a birthday and Gabrielle would make it special for her friend.

  This birthday party was going to be a complete surprise and Gabrielle knew that her friend was missing her mother and brother, she had called them and told them of her idea, and they agreed it would be wonderful.

  Gabrielle seemed to be having a lot of private phone calls lately where she would leave the room for privacy. Penny was not really concerned, it was just a little strange, a new boyfriend maybe? The party was going to be celebrated in the Red Dragon, where they had their first meal together.

  On the evening of the party Gabrielle was acting like a woman possessed - she shouted to Penny to put her glad-rags on, to hurry as she only had 45 minutes before the cab arrived.

  Gabrielle was looking fantastic in her pale lemon chiffon little number showing off all her assets at once. The lemon showed off her lovely dark curly hair and golden glowing complexion, the dress had a heart shaped neck and was a perfect length to show her lovely long legs which seemed to go on forever!

  Penny finally came into the lounge waiting for Gabrielle’s approval of her new black Chantilly lace dress. Her friend just gasped and said "Oh my, I have never seen you look so very beautiful, everything about you is so perfect, you are one lovely lady you know"

  "Thank you, sister, but you are also drop dead"

  "Drop dead, what is drop dead"

  "Gorgeous just Gorgeous" they both laughed

  The buzzer from downstairs rang to let them know that the taxi had arrived. They both giggled all the way down in the clunking lift where the taxi driver with his black beret clamped tightly to the side of his head was waiting. "Mademoiselles” he took a step back to allow these two beautiful young women access to his cab.

  They made their way to the restaurant - Penny, of course, looking very quizzical; she was really beginning to wonder where on earth they were going to end up.

  When the taxi stopped Penny realized that they were in the alleyway that led to the Red Dragon.

  "Oh how lovely"

  They walked in but there was not a soul to be seen, empty how very odd thought Penny this restaurant was always busy, it served great food and was very popular.

  Two waiters suddenly appeared with white serviettes over their arms and ushered them to a table for two in a corner. Penny was feeling very inquisitive by now and Gabrielle really was being very secretive, but obviously excited at the same time.

  As Champagne in tall crystal flutes served on a silver tray was brought to the table she saw Gabrielle smile broadly "What are you up to, I know you're up to something Gabrielle”?

  As Penny smiled at her friend she noticed that over her shoulder was this gorgeous man coming up behind her. He put his hands on her shoulders and bent down to kiss her cheek. She turned around breaking out with a huge grin, "Oh Pierre, I am so glad that you could make it”

  "Actually Sis, I nearly didn't', I have just flown in from Singapore, but the good news is, you will have a flat mate for the next month or so because I have a complicated business deal going on here in Paris which I need to tie up"

  Gabrielle, now on her feet, had flung her arms around him giving him multiple kisses, his face cupped in her hands. “Sorry Pierre, this is my best friend and flat mate Penny" she dropped her hands from his face and pointed to Penny who was flushed with this latest excitement. “She now has the spare bedroom so you're out of luck, but you can use the couch until you find something”.

  Penny stood up and offered her hand which Pierre immediately bowed his head and kissed the top of fervently. Before her stomach had time to lose that butterfly feeling, there was a big cheer of “Happy Birthday” coming from behind
a large screened area.

  “How wonderful, everyone is here “screeched Penny

  Justine made a beeline for Penny and gave her hug and kisses. "Daddy couldn't make it, but he sends his love darling”

  "Kiss him when you get home to Mummy, please"

  For the next ten minutes Penny spent saying hello and kissing friends and relations that had made the trip.

  A disc jockey played music in the background and later in the evening, Pierre took the opportunity to ask Penny to dance.

  Paula and Patrick were already on the floor as were a few other guests.

  As he put his arms around her he could feel her resistance when he tried to pull her closer.

  "I am sorry Pierre I don't mean to be rude or stand offish but I am a little wary of men”

  "Then I will be the perfect gentleman Penny because I would like to spend time with you while I am in Paris, maybe my sister will chaperone"

  “Maybe Pierre maybe”

  Later in the evening

  "Happy Birthday darling" Justine presented her daughter with a set of keys for a new Renault. "Don't tell daddy I spent more of his money”

  The both giggled "Thank you so much Mummy, Gabrielle and I will use the Paris Metro a lot less now”

  "Gabrielle thank you for this absolutely wonderful party, now I know what your secret phone calls were about”

  "You are so very welcome my darling friend, and it is so much fun, and is it not time you called me Gabby, everyone does”

  “Yes I know but you have such a lovely name, maybe I will try Gabby” They both started laughing.

  Throughout the evening Penny caught Pierre staring at her on quite a few occasions and she felt herself blushing. Even though she did not want to be she knew she was attracted to him.

  The evening was a great success, the wine flowed freely and every one had a wonderful time.

  Janet had of course chosen not to attend.

  In the taxi back to the flat, Pierre was sitting in between the two girls and Penny could not help but noticed that he had a very seductive cologne which gave her this uncontrollable urge to put her head on his shoulder, even against her better judgment.

  The drink had certainly gone to everyone's head, getting into the lift was causing more trouble than seemed possible, certainly more than it should have. The tight squeeze Pierre used to advantage and he made sure he was facing this beautiful woman Bending down he kissed Penny so gently on the cheek, she gave a sigh of pleasure, and upon seeing her reaction he kissed her once more this time very passionately. Although she knew she shouldn't she could not help herself and returned his kiss, her heart beat so loudly she was sure he would hear it. - She found herself wanting more of his kisses “God, I can hear bells ringing in my head, is it the kiss or the drink? No, I am not ready to fall in love again as wonderful as this man is" she said to herself

  Gabrielle’s voice brought her back to reality. “Brother behave yourself”

  Chapter 6 - Patrick

  "Good morning Mr Scott, thank you for coming in. I do hope you slept well in spite of what must have been a very harrowing experience for you last night. Please take a seat.

  May we offer you some tea, coffee, I can recommend the tea, but the coffee is something to be desired" said D. I. Daniels seated across the desk.

  Patrick had spent a restless night with friends, hardly slept a wink, but a shower had at least woken him up a little.

  "Thank you, Inspector, tea would be good" replied Patrick looking up at the uniformed officer. "Clarke, could you arrange two cups of tea, and one more thing, see if there are any of the chocolate biscuits left in the tin please"

  "Yes Ma’am“. The young PC went scuttling off to get the drinks.

  As PC Clarke left the room she muttered “I doubt if there are any biscuits left if George Wentworth's been around”.

  "Last night we sent two officers to call on Mr Peter’s family in Vauxhall to give them the bad news.

  We will call personally to interview them at some later date, after they identify his body.

  The officer collected a recent photo, take a look would you”.

  “Yes that’s him”

  "Right let's start again shall we?

  "Why do you live in a flat in Roehampton when your home is in Central London? Surely it would be cheaper to commute"

  "Yes I know, but I can afford it and it is so much easier than going back and forth".

  "You spent all of the weekend in London with your girlfriend, is that correct”?

  "Well, partly.

  “Sorry - how do you mean partly”?

  "We were supposed to meet up on Friday night, for a long weekend but on the train as I travelled into town I had a text from her to say that something had come up at work and she would not get back home until Saturday morning. This sort of thing often happened so I did not question her about it"

  "So where did you go to?

  I have family who live in Chelsea, so I stayed there until Saturday when Paula arrived back home. I then went to her place"

  "I take it that all this info can be verified by your girlfriend and your family Mr Scott"?

  "Yes of course!"

  "Brian Peters. How well did you know him? Is there anything else you can tell us, as to why he would commit suicide or why anyone would want him dead"?

  "To be truthful, I really did not know Brian that well at all. The only time I spent real time with him was when we met in London one weekend" said Patrick.

  "Did you meet anyone else in London, or did you see him with anyone”?

  “No only my aunt and cousins, plus my girlfriend."

  "Anything, no matter how trivial you might think it is, could be important"

  "Well, Brian had this thing about famous women, I just happened to mention that my cousin's place was close to where Maggie Thatcher had lived”

  "He got really excited about this”?

  "We met as planned, I showed him 73 Chester Square, Margaret Thatcher's pad, which he took photos of. I could see he was in his element”

  “Then only a few hundred yards away we visited a house on the corner of Eaton Square, this was

  the home of Mary Shelly who I am sure you know wrote Frankenstein. Brian I could see was very much enjoying his day so to finish it off I thought, how about tea at my aunt Justine, there he could

  meet Paula and my cousins and maybe talk more about his interest in the homes of these famous women”

  "Carry on please Patrick”

  "You did say, was there, anything, no matter how trivial”

  "Well, when we had arrived at my cousin's place my aunt Justine warmly welcomed us. “Everyone is in the conservatory” she said pointing through the huge white double doors.

  As we walked through, Brian saw the three sitting on the cane sofa, Janet and Peter my cousins and Paula my girlfriend.

  He took one look at them I am not sure if he was surprised, or startled, but for a moment he just stood rooted to the spot - and stared "Penny" he said, “Penny”?, then he just rushed out of the house muttering “Penny, oh my God Penny" and he disappeared.

  "Is that it, that’s all he said? And did you question him about it later"?

  "Yes I did but this is the strange part, "Penny" is the name of my other cousin she lives in Paris and has done for some time, she is Janet and Peter's sister.

  "I am one hundred per cent sure that he had never met Penny before, so he could not have mistaken one for the other, the girls are identical in every way, so why call her Penny”? "So what was his explanation when you saw him again”? Asked the D.I

  "Well, he said that I was mistaken and he had not said Penny but Jenny! Then he went onto say that Jenny was a girl he had once been very much in love with and it broke his heart when she dumped him.

  “I always thought Brian might be gay. He never seemed much interested in girls but I guess I had got that wrong, He explained that he had been so shocked at that meeting, that he did not want to embarr
ass himself or anyone else by bursting into tears in front of the family, so he fled. It all sounded a bit odd to me, I suspected there was more to it then he let on”

  "How do you mean Patrick”?

  "How can I explain? You know when something does not ring true. Despite my uncertainty Brian assured me he had been so much in love with this Jenny”.

  At that point the officer arrived back with two teas and half a dozen chocolate biscuits on a tray; I guess whatshisname Wentworth had not been around thought Patrick on seeing the biscuits. "Let's finish this off after tea and then, Mr Scott, would you mind being fingerprinted so that we can rule you out of our inquiries. The fingerprints will be destroyed at a later date”.