The Diamond Dust on Dragonfly Wings: A Jeffry Claxton Mystery Novel

by Michael Yudov

  The drive from the Border had taken about twenty minutes, a pretty light commute time for someone from a real city. I drove past the number we were looking for, a fine-looking apartment complex on the opposite side of the street, with a lot of green landscaping and modern exterior upgrades. It was an older building, done in that great stonework found around that region, that had been refurbished recently, producing a mix of old and new, like so many buildings across Europe.

  I pulled a U-turn on the next block. There were almost no cars on the road, and in France, iffy driving maneuvers were the norm anyway, so there was no attention paid to us that wasn’t directed at the car, instead of us. Mostly because the people looking couldn’t identify it, not because they knew what it was. We were in the sticks after all.

  I pulled into a diagonal parking slot a half-block from the building. The plan was that I would check the ‘girlfriend’s’ place first, by myself, while Ronnie held the fort with Ted. If I came out of the place across the street with an all-clear, then Ronnie and Ted would join me as we made a check of Meir’ place.

  The building across the street was shabbier on the outside, and was newer by a couple of centuries at the same time. I checked the side alley, and the back of the building, doing a quick run around the whole place. The front door was only one of three entrances to the building, and I preferred the side door in the alley that led to the garbage bins. It had no latch or knob on the outside, it was one of those fire-doors, with the bar on the inside to open it, and no way to enter from the outside. Unless you had a knack for those things, which I did. The silenced Colt took out the entire inner latch assembly, leaving the door freely accessible to anyone with even the smallest pry-bar. I used the hole punched through the lock mechanism to get a grip on the door, and I was in. The hallway was narrow and dim, lit with a single bulb, hanging down from the ceiling by its electrical cord. A few feet past that, the hallway did a ninety-degree turn, and there was more light shining from there than from the ceiling here. I reached up and unscrewed the bulb as I passed it, one turn was enough to cut the connection and throw the hall into virtual darkness. I kept on going, guided by the glow from around the corner. I used my dental mirror to view the scene before showing myself in the light where it turned the corner.

  Everything looked normal, which was what I had expected. I moved down the hall with my Colt in hand, but under my jacket. Didn’t want to give any old ladies a scare, right? The lobby was at the end of the hallway, which was where the light was coming from. There was a choice of stairs, or an ancient but apparently functional elevator. I knew it was functional because someone was using it. It was on the way down as I entered the lobby showing its descent with one of those old pointers like on a watch face. There were only four floors to the building, and the apartment I wanted was on the fourth floor. Of course.

  I don’t believe in coincidence, or the tooth fairy, for that matter. I slipped back into the dim light of the hallway as the elevator came to rest on the ground floor. When the door opened on the elevator I was pressed against the hallway wall with my gun hand held high, at about shoulder height, against the wall as well, and my left held the small dental mirror, barely edged around the corner, but enough to show me what was going on.

  A woman stepped out, carrying a small overnight case. She was dressed in far too cosmopolitan a style for this ‘burg. She had a pant-suit on that could have come off the runways of Paris, and probably did. The whole suit was done in a blue so dark that it was almost black, but when she walked the material rippled and the sheen was a lighter blue where the light reflected on it. Expensive.

  But I would have bought it for her if she was my girlfriend. She looked like she could have stepped off the runway herself. She was about five-ten, five eleven, short blonde hair done by a good hairdresser, and a pair of legs that went all the way to heaven. She was beautiful, full stop, and the way she moved was fluid, professional. A model, no doubt at all. Or if she wasn’t, it was a waste.

  I slipped the Colt away and stepped out from the hallway as she walked out of the elevator, headed for the front doors. On a hunch, I called out the name Walter had given me. Softly.

  “Collette.”

  Instantly, her head whipped around, and when she saw me her eyes went wide with fear. What was going on here? She put her free hand up to her mouth in a very French and feminine way. She was frozen like a deer in the headlights of a truck. So, the girlfriend was real, and she was still here. Abandoned? Or did they think she was unknown, and therefore safe? Whatever the reason, she’d been delivered to my hands, and I wasn’t about to let that pass by.

  I pulled my badge out, and slowly walked towards her with it showing in plain sight. She eyed the badge while I approached her, and she relaxed just the tiniest bit, but remained rooted to the spot where she’d been when I spoke her name. As I stepped within a few feet of her she dropped her hand from her mouth and asked me who I was. I think. She had a Parisian accent and she spoke as fast as a red-tailed hawk in a power-dive. In my Montreal accent, I asked her to accompany me. She eyed the doors, thinking about how close she’d come to her getaway. Again, I spoke, repeating myself in a firm but quiet tone.

  Her shoulders let go all of a sudden, and she didn’t have that ‘runway’ look anymore. Just like that. She asked me something, like what’s going on here, or something close to that. I was having a hard time with her accent and the speed of her speech. It looked like Therese would come in handy right about now. I put the badge away and motioned for her to accompany me, back the way I had come. She turned her gaze back to the doors, and all of a sudden I realized she was waiting for someone to show up. Of course. Who would let a woman like this travel around on her own?

  I spoke under my breath into the pin mic.

  “Ronnie, watch the front door, I’ve got the girlfriend and she’s expecting a pickup any second here. Pull into the alley where I entered. Fast.”

  I could hear the sound of the big block revving high as she popped the clutch on first gear. It came from the earpiece, and through the doorway. God, I loved that car, and I didn’t even know it yet. Not well, anyway.

  I took Collette by the arm and met with no resistance at all. I only had to guide her, and she went. I started double-stepping it as I heard the ‘Vette pulling into the alley. Sliding into the alley was more like it. At some point in her career, someone had taught Ronnie how to ‘Drive’. Very few people could handle a big block right out of the gate, and it sounded like she was doing fine.

  We were almost at the door, and then we were through it, and the driver side door was open, and the seat back was folded forward. I grabbed Collette and practically threw her into the back of the ‘Vette as I climbed in right on her heels, and slammed the door.

  Ronnie was online with Evie, who was still a mile or so down the road, but closing fast. I slipped the gearshift into reverse and looked at Ronnie, who signaled an ‘all clear’, so I backed out of the alley at about thirty MPH, and braked hard as I backed onto the main road, shifted into first and peeled out of there like we were running from one of Evie’s pet rockets. The town was completely dead. The sidewalks had been rolled up long before we’d hit the ‘burg, and nobody was interested in a few kids in a sports car. Lucky us. I was ten blocks down the road in a few seconds, and then I pulled into the curb hard, and parked. The damn thing stopped almost as quick as it started. Man, I loved this thing!

  Everyone was tossed around in back like crazy, and both Ronnie and I were pressed heavily against the seatbelts. She had the sense to be holding on to the dash when I stopped. The first thing I did was check on the back passengers. Ted had tried his best to hold Collette back from getting slammed around as I’d pulled us out of there, and they looked a bit shook up, but not hurt, so I focused on business.

  “Ronnie, we’re going to need Therese and Collette wired, and quick. I can’t get a word she says. Too fast for me. Have we got an extra comm set here?”

  “Yeah, give me two minute
s.”

  “Fine.”

  “Evie, you there?”

  “Gotcha buddy.”

  “Slow down now, we’re parked about ten blocks ahead of the address, and we have the girlfriend. But I’m going to need Therese to translate for us, her French is just too highbrow for me. Ronnie’s setting her up with a comm unit as we speak. Cruise slow as you pass the address of the girlfriend. She was expecting someone to pick her up at any minute when I stepped in and snatched her. See what you can see.”

  “Understood.”

  “She’s wired, Jeffry.”

  “Great. Thanks chief.”

  “Thérèse, Êtes-vous là.”

  “Oui. C’est quoi le problème?”

  “I’ve got a very nice young lady here named Collette, and I need you to translate for me. Her French is Parisian, and I can’t do it. Okay?”

  “Effectivement.”

  “Okay. So just start talking to her now. Like girl to girl, right? Then see if you can find out who was coming to get her. Go ahead.”

  The strangest look came over Collette’s face as Therese came online with her and started chatting her up. The tension was slowly bleeding away, and then the conversation took off in earnest, and they were both going at it somewhere around Mach two. I pulled my pack of Camels out of my shirt pocket and lit one, hitting the window power switch at the same time. Four people was stretching it for this car. We were almost all nose-to-nose, and I wouldn’t like a blast of smoke in my face, so I extended the courtesy to the rest of them. I took a deep drag and blew it out the window. Evie came back on our separate channel.

  “I just passed the place, and there’s a stretch limousine sitting outside Collette’s place. No action across the street. I’m going to circle the block a couple of times and see what else shows.”

  “No! Keep on track. We need to join up. Keep coming.”

  “Whatever you say.”

  I looked at Ronnie, who was monitoring the Therese-Collette link, and raised my eyebrows questioningly. She shook her head, meaning ‘I don’t know’, ‘leave me alone’, whatever. So I smoked. A half-minute or so later, the Audi pulled in behind me, with Evie in the shotgun seat.

  “Ronnie, take Ted and Collette to the Audi, and I’ll take Therese back, now.”

  She shot a quick look at me and then made the move without complaint.

  “And put the team on channel two.”

  As she held the door open on the street side both Collette and Ted got out, Ted stretching his legs from being cramped up in the back for so long. The transfer went smoothly, and Therese got into the passenger seat, strapping herself in right off the bat. She learned fast, I had to admit. I reached over and gently took hold of her left hand.

  “You’ve been a great help so far Therese, I want you to know that. You have been more than just a material witness. You’ve been like an honorary member of the team, and I thank you for that.”

  I squeezed her hand just enough to emphasis the point, but not enough to trigger any of the now-old feelings from the night before. I hoped.

  She gave me a faint squeeze back, and then held on to my hand for a moment, holding it up half-way between us, before letting go. Then she made a point of turning off her comm link. I got the message and did likewise.

  “Merci, mon chéri. Tu es très gentille. So, this is some big adventure, yes?”

  “Yes, I have to agree with you on that. If I’d known what was coming when George brought us both down to the station that first night, I think I’d have taken us back home instead of agreeing to go to Zurich, but we did find Ted, and we found him just in time, as well.”

  “Ted is not my worries. I have some, problems, I think, with Ted. He started every bit of trouble my poor John ever had, until the trouble was so big it killed him. I hope that Ted will help you to find all of the people who did this thing to him, and then I hope that you will shoot them all. Even Ted.”

  I was shocked, to say the least. She was supposed to be so close to Ted, being J.D.’s only family and all, but here she was blaming him for the death of ‘Her John’. Technically she was right to a certain degree, but it was her J.D.’s own greed that got him in the end. If he hadn’t tipped his hand with greed, they never would have known that he was in on anything, and he wouldn’t have died. Maybe.

  These people were rather ruthless, having demonstrated that in Toronto by even killing one of their own. In the end, maybe all of the bit players were on a master list in Enrico’s head. A list for dying. Who knew at this stage? I asked the obvious question.

  “Therese, are you Okay? Is all of this too much for you? I can have you safely back in Canada within a matter of hours if you want. We can set you up in a safe-house in Quebec, with ‘my people’, not theirs.”

  I watched her eyes for any reaction to my offer, a chance to escape from this deadly escapade we’d embarked upon. I watched, but I didn’t see it. What I did see told me something different than what her words were telling me. She didn’t want to leave, and more than that, she didn’t want to leave me. Even after last night. Even I tried not to think of the night before. I was embarrassed for her, but she seemed to have taken it in stride. It was just Ted she was angry at right now. That would change, but I couldn’t tell which direction it was going to go in when it did. That, I found a bit disconcerting, but the feeling of an undercurrent that ran between us was as strong as ever, if not even more so. That had to be a two-way thing, how could it happen all on one side of the equation? Maybe I was more complex than I thought. Right.

  She had more to add, and it too was insightful.

  “I think that you are trying to make me happy, when it is not possible unless you do it yourself. I don’t want to be anywhere else. I don’t like being in the other car. I certainly don’t want to be an entire ocean away from you. I know… after last night… you do not make it easy for a woman to care for you. But I do, and that will not change because I am five thousand miles away. So, I want to stay with you until you come home too. I want to know that you are safe. Please.

  Also, I have noticed that when there is great danger, the safest person to be with is you, not some of your ‘people’. I will stay. I can help. I know how to drive, and you can’t drive and shoot at the same time. Well, maybe you can, but I want to think I make on some efforts that help. If it wasn’t true, you would tell me, I am very sure. So, I stay.”

  “It’s hard to deal with that kind of argument, because it comes from your heart as well as your head. Much of what you say is true, but please, if you’re going to stay for the whole job, when things get dangerous, at those times when weapons are being used, do not have any false ideas of my limitations. I will protect you with my life, I promise you that, but I cannot promise that I won’t make a mistake, or be overwhelmed by the bad guys. I can die just like anyone else, and if I do, who will protect you then? You have to think of all of these things before you simply say ‘I stay.’ The reason for your recruitment has been played out. We have Ted. The Toronto Police Force will want you back home now. I don’t want anyone else to have access to you until we finish this, for your own protection, but what I’m going to be doing is dangerous, and you won’t always be with me. If you stay, sometimes you may have to be with one of the other team members. Like today. Do you understand what I mean?”

  “Oui, je comprends. C’est rien, je reste avec toi.”

  Now she had had all of the kid glove treatment that she was likely to get, except for those times when she’d had me all to herself, and nothing was in the process of going down. She accepted all of that. So, she would stay. Ronnie might fuss and fume or not. I still didn’t know her well enough to say one way or the other yet without asking. Evie would be irritated. One more ball on our little chain. Not required. Taking up resources, and so on. Maybe I’d just keep her with me, like in the beginning. She had ended her argument with a change in the form she used to indicate me. I was no longer a ‘vous’, I had graduated to a ‘tu’. The familiar form of ref
erence in French. Reserved for those you cared about, friends, family, lovers. Like that.

  I would have to reassess my own state of mind on the matter, but not until the mission was done. Then I’d have plenty to think about. Too much to even contemplate at the moment. I decided to take it as it came, and in the end, we’d see what we would see. How wise.

  The truth was that it was becoming a complex subject even in my own mind. Therese had made hers up already, and she wasn’t about to change it just now, so I went along. I didn’t understand it, but I went along with it.

  “Okay. We can discuss this in detail after the mission. Until then, I’ll keep you with me as much as I can, and as much as I deem to be wise, but you have to follow orders like everyone else. Agreed?”

  “Oui.”

  Just like that I’d added a non-player to the game. Not my smartest move ever, but it felt right at the time. Until I had my hands on this Enrico, I wouldn’t feel safe about leaving her to roam on her own. So be it.

  “All right then. Now tell me what’s up with Collette.”

  She was all business.

  “Umm. D’accord. She is a model, professional, yes? Ahh, like Cindy Crawford, or Imam, but just starting the big rise in her career. When she met you in the foyer of her building, she didn’t know what to think, but she said she trusted you from your ‘eyes’. I told her she made the proper decision. When I asked her who she was waiting for, she said her lover was taking her on a petits vacances, a trip to the islands. She didn’t know where yet, because it was a surprise. They were going for three days only, then Collette has a fashion job, um, a ‘shoot’ they say, in Paris. She’s doing the cover for ‘ELLE’ magazine for the month after next, with an interview as well. Her career is just starting, but I think she will be a big model soon. La Maison Dior has been after her agent to try her for a one year contract, with one year renewable, to be the new Dior Girl. This is all very big in the world of fashion. She is just what she says she is, I think. She is very beautiful, don’t you agree?”