by Katie Penryn
“It was about nine or ten years ago. They had a little daughter. She was three or thereabouts. Marie’s husband was a drunkard in those days. He reversed his van without checking where the little one was and ran right over her. Horrible accident. The child survived for only a day. Of course, after that he drank more and more. I never understood why Marie stayed with him.”
“Maybe she loved him in spite of everything. They seem fond of each other.”
Martine snorted, put our mail in our box and drove away leaving us to walk to the market.
“Marie never mentioned anything to me. She told me her garden was her child,” I said. “What about Kiki when you were alone with him. Did he say anything?”
“No,” said Felix. “It’s not the sort of thing you tell people you hardly know is it?”
“Does it have any bearing on the case?”
Felix shook his head. “Not that I can see, but murders can have deep roots.”
We had to push our way through the crowds of holidaymakers at the market to find Marie’s stall. A wave of compassion swept through me when I saw her standing there selling her produce. Poor woman to have lost her child and in such a way. However, we had to push on and question her friend.
We greeted Marie who said, “It’s good to see you again. I enjoyed our lunch the other day.”
I thanked her again for the day and bought some fruit and a rhubarb tart.
“I’d like to speak to your friend, the one who looks after your stall for you when you take a break.”
“Come, I’ll introduce you.”
She called out to the older woman running the stall on the left, a stall selling stuffed toys and rag dolls.
“Anna, these are friends of mine. They want to ask you some questions about last Thursday’s market.”
We drifted across and I bought a doll for Simone to open the conversation.
“What do you want to know?” Anna asked.
“You look after Marie’s stall for her when she has to leave it from time to time?”
She nodded.
“Can you remember whether you did so during the last market?”
“I did. I remember because I heard the church bell strike ten a few minutes after Marie left and she didn’t return until just before it struck eleven. It was a busy market day, and I was a little annoyed with her for taking so long, but she’s a good friend so I didn’t make a fuss.”
We thanked her and moved back to Marie. She’d been away an hour over the critical time. I asked her what had taken so long. She pulled me aside, away from Felix and whispered to me that she’d had to go home and change because her period had turned heavy.
What could I do but sympathize? It’s happened to all of us at some time or another. But was it true? There was no way of verifying her story so once again we had made no progress with our list of suspects. We hurried home stopping on the way to buy a present for Wilfred and Jimbo.
*
By four o’clock Sam, Felix and I were on our way to Jonny’s funeral having stopped to collect Emmanuelle as her father had refused to attend. Because Jonny was to be cremated, his funeral didn’t take place in the church but at the funeral parlor adjacent to the town’s crematorium outside the city walls.
Father Pedro led the short service. I had expected a flock of Jonny’s old girlfriends to attend, but only the front two pews were taken. Zack, Petey and Joliette sat there with Kiki and Marie. Apart from a few older people I’d never seen before, that made up the congregation. Emmanuelle sobbed quietly into her handkerchief all the way through the prayers. I gave the short eulogy I had prepared in both French and English at Father Pedro’s suggestion. Before we had time to realize what was happening the coffin disappeared behind a curtain and Jonny Sauvage, the golden boy, had turned to ash.
I left the chapel more determined than ever to find the monster who’d presumed to take Jonny’s life.
Despondency ruled in the car on the drive home. We couldn’t discuss the case until we’d dropped Emmanuelle off. Sam went with her. Felix and I made straight for the study. We needed to talk about the case in private.
“It’s so hopeless. We’re getting nowhere,” I said collapsing into my father’s chair.
Felix paced a few turns up and down the room while I rocked myself backwards and forwards for comfort. He stopped, sat down and pulled his laptop towards him.
“I have to trace the money as your French colleague said.”
While he waited for his system to boot, he pulled out his hipflask and poured me a tot of his trusty Laphroaig.
“We need to wash away the funeral gloom so we can think straight,” he said before swiftly swallowing down two capfuls for himself. “This should be savored but needs must.”
I picked up my audio-pad and settled back in my chair waiting for Felix to come up with the goods.
I hadn’t listened for long when he clapped his hands and said, “I’m in. It wasn’t so difficult after all. I’m in the Festival system. Just hunting for the right account.”
A few moments of fast clicking followed before he said “Gotcha. They paid two hundred thousand dollars to a Jonny Sauvage a month before the festival. By internet transfer to his account in New Orleans.”
“Two hundred thousand? Where’s it all gone?”
“Hold your horses, boss. I’ll tell you that when I get there.”
Time passed as he clicked his way through screen after screen. I’d listened to a quarter of my book when he stopped working to ask me to fetch a couple of beers.
He drank his down in one go and returned to the screen. When the screen began to shine on his face I rose to switch on the lights and draw the drapes. Out to sea the sun had fallen off the edge of the world, taking the horizon with it. Navigation lights switched on as the fishing fleet returned to port.
“Could you give my neck a massage, boss,” Felix asked without looking up from his work.
I wasn’t sure what my puny hands could do to relieve the tension in Felix’s rope hard muscles but I did my best, digging in my fingers and kneading with my knuckles until the knots softened.
He snatched his head away from the screen for a moment and dropped a kiss on my palm.
“That’s wonderful. I’m closing in. Through the first two barriers now. This last one is a killer.”
A knock at the door. Jimbo on his way to bed.
“Are you coming up to read me a story and tuck me in?” he asked.
I tapped Felix on the shoulder but he didn’t look up. “Can you spare me for ten minutes?”
Felix grunted. I took that for a yes.
When I returned Felix was stretching his arms above his head and smiling to himself.
“You’ve done it?”
“Yup. And you’ll never guess what I’ve turned up.”
“The money’s still there in Jonny’s account?”
“No, not a cent.”
He got up from his seat and windmilled his arms.
“Felix?”
He put his hands on his hips and bent backwards to get the kinks out of his spine. I tickled him in the ribs. His feet went from under him and he collapsed in a heap on the floor. Before I knew what was happening he’d pulled me down to join him and struck back. Within seconds we were laughing and squirming about on the floor. Not exactly the picture of serious minded investigators.
Someone knocked on the door and Gwinny came in. “What’s all the noise about?”
The three dogs pushed past her and launched themselves at us.
“What’s the occasion?” said Zig planting her front paws on my chest.
When I didn’t answer because I was laughing too hard, she licked me from ear to ear.
“It’s so good to see you having some fun,” she said.
Zag stood off to the side with a disapproving look on his face.
“You two are supposed to be our parents and show us an example.”
Felix grabbed hold of his front paws until Zag lost his balance. “Do
n’t be so stuffy, Zag.”
Piffle ran round us in circles darting in and out to snuffle and nip.
Gwinny watched us arms akimbo. She shook her head and left us to it, closing the door behind her.
At last the giggling and dog play died down leaving the five of us spread-eagled on the floor and out of breath.
Zag scrambled to his feet first. “You’re not bad for a cat, Felix,” he said offering his paw in a high-five.
Felix launched himself to his feet in one smooth movement and held out his hand for me. I made a fuss of the dogs.
“That was fun,” I said, “but Felix and I have to work, so out you go.”
I opened the door and shooed them out into the hall.
“Now, tell me what you found out,” I said to Felix who was sprawled out in his chair taking deep breaths.
He straightened up. “Jonny’s account is empty. In fact, the bank charges are sending it into the red.”
“Did you find out where the money’s gone?”
“I sure did. Small payments for airfares for the band and traveler’s checks, amounting to a little under fifteen thousand dollars. A massive payment of a hundred and seventy-five dollars to a Francine Lim—”
“Not our Francine? Marc’s mother and Jonny’s once-upon-a-time girlfriend?”
“The very same. And that’s not all. The remaining ten thou was sent to a Christopher Renard.”
“That’s Kiki!”
“Janine’s lawyer friend was right. If it’s not cherchez la femme, it’s follow the money.”
“It’s too late to go round to Francine’s now. It wouldn’t be right to upset the child,” I said. “Let’s get an early night and visit her tomorrow before she goes to work. She’s on day shifts, isn’t she?”
“If she hasn’t changed from last week,” said Felix switching off his laptop.
Chapter 32
Francine Liman had locked her front door. She had her back to us. Marc stood waiting by her side with a kid’s brightly decorated backpack full of toys when we crested the last stairs to her floor.
“It’s Natalie’s friends again, maman,” he said tugging at his mother’s white nurse’s uniform.
“What now?” she asked with ill grace as she spun round to see us. “I’ll be late for work and I have to drop Marc off at Natalie’s.”
“We won’t keep you long,” Felix said positioning himself ready to block her way down the stairs.
“Just a couple of questions,” I said, shaking Marc’s hand and herding Francine back towards the door of the flat.
“Very well then,” she said, unlocking the door and pushing Marc inside before her.
She didn’t offer us a seat. She herself remained standing to indicate she wasn’t prepared to be held up for long from her morning routine.
“Interesting pamphlets,” I said picking up the sales information we’d seen on our last visit. “Are you thinking of buying a new house in the immediate future?”
“What? No. I told you it’s a pipe dream. My long-term goal but nothing more.”
“Oh, I thought you might be going to spend the a hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars you received from Jonny Sauvage?”
“What?” Her hand flew to her throat before she had time to think. It was early in the morning. “You know about that? How did you find out? It’s a secret.”
“Not any more, it isn’t,” I answered sitting down after all. “Tell us about it. If we’ve found out, imagine what the police can do.”
Francine guided Marc over to the hall to the bedrooms. “This won’t take long, chéri. Please wait for me in your room.”
She turned back to us. “It’s not what you think.”
She sat on the other end of the sofa from me and stared at the floor for a while.
“Francine?”
“Yes.” She snapped her head up. “I suppose I’ll have to tell you everything.”
I waited, and the silence ran on.
Felix reminded her she’d be late for work. She shook herself and began her story.
“As I told you before, Jonny never sent me any money for Marc although I wrote and asked several times. Time passed. I gave up and brought Marc up without his help. A few weeks ago I was stunned to bump into him in the shopping mall. He looked just the same. A little jaded maybe, but just as sexy. He sat down at a table in the mall café with a bunch of friends. I took the table next to his and wrote a quick note.”
“To Jonny?”
“Yes. I sent Marc over with it. I’ll never forget the look on Jonny’s face when he opened it.”
“What did it say? Something about Marc?”
“I’d written, I am Marc, your nine-year old son, from your fling with my mother in 2006.”
Felix moved away from the door and took a seat. “That must have blown his mind.”
“It did. He turned white, put the note in his pocket and scraped back his chair in a hurry. I thought he would storm over to me and start an argument, but he took hold of Marc by the shoulders, gently, and turned him this way and that as if checking him out.”
“He wasn’t angry?”
“Not a bit of it. He joined me and the questions poured out him. What? Where? Why hadn’t I told him? Of course I had but Jonny was always in the moment, and now he’d found out he was a dad. It went to his head. He took the two of us out on a shopping spree, to restaurants, fun fairs, pizza palaces, everywhere a kid wants to go.”
I’d never seen Jonny in this light, but it was heartwarming to know he and one of his sons had met up before his death even if the relationship had been fleeting.
“What about Natalie and Pierre? Did you tell him he had another son in the same town?”
She hung her head for a moment but looked up defiantly. “No. I didn’t. I’d waited so long for Jonny to care about my son I wasn’t prepared to share the attention.”
“And the money? What happened there?” Felix asked leaning forward with his forearms on his thighs.
“He said it was our secret. I guessed there was something not quite right about it but I didn’t want to turn it down. I should have done so. Look what’s happened.”
“What happened?” I asked wondering where the story was going. So far if Jonny had given the money to Francine and no one knew, I couldn’t see that she had a motive to murder him. Quite the opposite.
“He came to see me. Up here at my flat disguised in a hoodie and a baseball cap of all things. He told me his band members had threatened to sue him for non-payment of their salaries and he couldn’t afford the bad publicity. He wanted me to give a hundred thousand back. When I said I couldn’t see my way to doing that he threatened to tell the police I had blackmailed him.”
Felix flashed me a look. Here was a motive all right.
“You didn’t pay anything back. His account is empty.”
She didn’t answer me. Her eyes lost focus. She swayed for a moment before collapsing sideways over the arm of the sofa. Her shoulders shuddered. “God help me,” she whispered.
I slid along towards her and raised her into a sitting position. She gave me a quick look and burst into tears. I signaled to Felix to find some tissues. He came back with a box. I handed her a wad, and she wiped her eyes.
I fetched a glass of water and she took a few sips. It calmed her down enough to speak.
“I nearly did it. I nearly killed him. You don’t know how close I was. I couldn’t bear the thought of handing back the money I’d waited so long for and which was going to change Marc’s life.”
“You say nearly. Why?”
“When Jonny was brought into the hospital in a coma, I saw my chance. I lost my reason for a while. I thought of finding a way to end his life, but I couldn’t work out how to do it. I knew about the cameras, of course. Then the murderer beat me to it. He took Jonny’s life but he saved my soul. Thank god I didn’t do it. I’d never have been able to live with myself if I had.”
She stopped and asked me what we were going to do
now we knew about the money and her intentions.
“I’ll have to think about it. His band members have a legitimate claim on that money.”
She was blowing her nose and straightening her clothes when Felix and I left.
*
We drove straight from Francine’s block of flats to the band’s chalet to ask them about suing Jonny for their wages. Our questions caught them by surprise. With only Jonny and the two of them privy to their threats, they wondered how we knew about their plans.
Zach told us they’d realized they’d have to wait until they returned to the States to begin their case against Jonny.
“Then someone killed Jonny and our plans flew out the window,” he said with a shrug.
‘But you felt strongly enough about Jonny’s bilking you of your cut to have threatened him with legal action, didn’t you?”
Zach turned surly. “I’ve just told you that.”
“Don’t you see that strengthens your motives for murdering Jonny?”
“Not me,” said Zach backing away and waving the notion away with his hands. “You know I have a sound alibi.”
Petey dropped back into one of the scruffy armchairs and put his head in his hands. “This is all so terrible. I didn’t do it. I didn’t even want to. I liked Jonny. We just wanted our money.”
Back in the car I said to Felix, “It was probably an empty threat. I can’t see those two holding it together for long enough to carry out any plan let alone sue someone once they returned home to Louisiana.”
“And Petey’s at the bottom of my list for the murder,” Felix said. “He’s too wishy-washy. Jonny’s murder took planning to gain access to the victim.”
“On that note,” I said taking the turnoff to the hospital, “I want to view the hospital grounds from the roof to see if I can work out how anyone could have reached Jonny’s room through the service doors at the back.”
I couldn’t find a parking space. I’d forgotten it would be peak visiting hours. Felix told me to move over and he took the wheel.
“I’ll drop you off at the front entrance and find somewhere to park along the road. I’ll walk back and join you on the roof. You’ll be safe in the hospital. No one’s going to strike twice in the same place.”
