by Ruby Loren
Detective Girard gestured to a seat behind a wooden desk and flipped open a folder with a sigh.
I sat down and waited.
“How would you describe your relationship with Constantine Duval?” she asked.
“We didn’t really have one. I only met her a couple of times. Both of those times she was antagonistic towards both me and my colleagues, but I hear that was just her way. I think I might have been the first person who took our grievance to the zoo manager, Monsieur Quebec. After we had a discussion, I felt that the matter was resolved,” I told her.
Detective Girard nodded and I had the distinct impression that she wasn’t really interested in tales of petty disagreements.
“Okay, thanks. What time would you estimate that you and Luna went to get food and were unaccompanied?”
I thought about it. “I suppose it was probably quarter past seven or so. We’d just been in to see the puppies and then decided to stay. What exactly happened to Constantine?” I asked.
“We aren’t completely sure, as she hasn’t regained consciousness so far and no one saw it happen. She was on her way to visit her sick mother, who she cares for, when it happened. We asked her mother and she thinks that Constantine may have been robbed,” the detective informed me.
I felt my heart drop as I thought about her poor mother, who had most likely lost the daughter she both loved and relied upon. I wonder if it was this hidden burden that had made Constantine so abrasive. Perhaps she had resented anyone she perceived as having it easier than she did. It was tragic but some small part of me was pleased that there was something redeeming about Constantine after all.
“That’s terrible,” I said.
“I know. I can’t believe something like that happened around here. Thank you for your help. That’s all for now, I think,’ Detective Girard concluded.
I hesitated for a moment, surprised it had been so simple.
The detective noticed and managed a tired smile. “Detective Prideaux likes to do things by the book. He only appears to accuse everyone of the crime in question,” she told me.
“I have a question,” I said, feeling that a barrier had been broken down. “L’airelle is a small village, but the police station here seems pretty big to me. Is there really enough crime around here to warrant it?” I asked, wondering if I should be concerned.
The detective laughed a little. “No, crime around here is usually very rare. This police station covers L’airelle and the surrounding villages and also Angoux. I suppose it's strange that it’s based here and not in the town, but it’s just the way it’s always been. I suppose at one time all of the villages were the same size, but Angoux grew.”
“Thanks,” I said, interested to learn this piece of local knowledge.
I nodded goodbye to the detective and then walked back across the room, stopping to peer around the corner into the second room where I'd last seen Luna. She was still in the cubicle, seated in a chair facing my way. She looked up long enough to pull an exasperated face. I leant against the wall, hoping my presence would show some solidarity for Luna.
Her ex was conducting his interrogation in a low voice, designed to be impossible to overhear.
“Could you speak up?” Luna repeated in a tired way. The gendarme had leant almost halfway across his desk while Luna looked like she might be about to fall backwards off her chair.
“I said, what is your association with Madigan Amos?”
I blinked in surprise, immediately feeling that I shouldn’t be watching. There was an empty cubicle adjacent to the wall and I slid inside it, knowing I now couldn’t be seen by Enzo Argent.
“She’s here to review L’airelle Zoological Park. Monsieur Quebec hired her to improve the breeding programme and animal welfare standards. We’re friends,” she finished.
“Are you aware that she has been involved in two cases of black-market animal trading?” he enquired.
I frowned. That wasn’t even true! Lowell and I had stopped the illegal sale of zoo animals at Avery Zoo and there hadn’t been any black-market trading at Snidely Safari and Wildlife Park. The police had seized some venomous snakes being kept without a licence, but that hardly amounted to black-market trading. My mouth set in a grim line, as I wondered where he'd got his information from. Perhaps there was more about me on police records than I knew, or, more likely, the two mysterious agents who had come to town had done a background check and shared their information.
I bit my lip, wondering just what else they knew. If this was the light I was going to be painted in…
“I’m sure Madi would never have anything to do with something that promoted animal abuse,” Luna said, stoically. I silently sang her praises.
Enzo sighed and I thought I heard the chair creak as he finally gave up on the leaning forwards tactic to get Luna to confide in him.
I silently wondered why he’d ever thought he’d be a good choice of person to get information from Luna. I thought she’d probably rather talk to a pile of bricks than spend time in his company.
“Luna, for your own safety, you need to tell me the truth. Is Madigan Amos dangerous? We’ve been told she has violent tendencies. Do you think she might attack someone who angered her, or perhaps someone who was nasty to you? You’ve admitted that you’re friends. Do you think she might have done it because she cares about you?” Argent asked in his softest (and unfortunately, most annoying) voice.
“Are you crazy? Madi’s not violent at all! Anyway, she’s tiny. Who is she supposed to have beaten up?” Luna asked, sounding genuinely curious.
I tried not to feel a bit miffed by her belief that I couldn't be a violent criminal if I chose to be, but at least she was defending me.
“Fine. I suppose that’s all there is to say for now. Be careful around her, Luna. She hasn't told you the whole truth about herself," Argent finished.
I just knew he'd got that line from a film.
“Let me walk you out,” he said, just as softly.
There was jaw tensing sound of a chair being scraped against a hard floor. I stuck my head around the edge of my cubical and watched the woman, whom Luna had told me was the ex-wife, stalk off.
It didn’t come as much of a surprise that Enzo Argent lost interest in making conversation after that. He stood up and made to lead Luna to the door. What actually happened was that he ended up trailing her like a puppy while she managed to keep up a spectacular pace all the way to the door. I reappeared from my hiding place and jogged after them.
Adele was waiting in the foyer with a cup of iced coffee in her hand and a bag that smelt like it was packed with doughnuts.
“Hey guys,” she said to Luna and me, pointedly pretending that Enzo Argent didn’t even exist. “I took my lunch break early and drove over to Angoux to pick up some pastries. I thought you might both need them after being interrogated for no reason at all," she said.
“Thanks, Adele," Luna said, reaching into the bag and coming out with a sugar coated bun.
"My car’s in the police station car park. I’ll drive us all back to work,” she said.
We all did our best to ignore Enzo Argent, who continued to trail our group, even out of the door.
“Here we go.” Adele flashed her keys at the blue Citroen. “Oh!”
We could all see what it was that made her say ‘oh’. A brown leather bag had been left on the bonnet of the car. A few of its contents had even spilled out across the paintwork.
I had a bad feeling about the bag.
I glanced over my shoulder and found that Enzo was mercifully distracted. I took the time to gently open the bag and came out with a purse. What I found when I opened it was of little surprise.
“This is Constantine’s purse and her bag, I reckon,” I told Luna and Adele, who both looked at me aghast.
“What is it doing on my car? How did it get there?” Adele shook her long, dark hair back from her white face.
“Detective!” I shouted, determined to avoid bringing Luna�
�s ex back into the equation.
Detective Girard looked up from the cigarette she’d been smoking outside.
I beckoned her over. “We came back out of the police station with Adele and found that this bag had been left on her car. We think it belongs to Constantine.”
“Did you see anyone, Fae?” Adele asked.
Detective Girard shook her head. “Sorry, Adele. I only just came out for my break. I’ll go and get someone to gather the evidence. You’d better all wait here.” She threw us an apologetic look - something she seemed to be an expert at - and disappeared back inside the building.
“Do you actually want to be locked up?”
I didn’t have to look at Luna to know she was frowning. Enzo Argent had been listening in on our conversation.
“Excuse me?” Luna said, taking the bait.
“Is this all some kind of way to get some attention from me? You stab a woman who got on your nerves and then when we still fail to arrest you, you decide to leave her bag on your car,” Enzo said. He had a nasty smirk on his face.
“I’ve been inside the whole time, right up until Adele arrived to pick us up. It’s not even my car, you moron,” Luna bit back and then looked a little panicked. “Adele was inside waiting. It clearly wasn’t her either.”
“Is there anyone who can corroborate that?” the insufferable gendarme asked.
“The receptionist was there the whole time,” Adele said with a shrug.
“Clearly someone is trying to frame one of us,” I cut in, just as Detective Prideaux arrived. I suppose I should have expected that he’d be the one that Detective Girard ran to get.
“We’re collecting the bag for evidence now. Please come back inside to answer a few questions.”
“No thank you,” I said, my fuse finally burning down.
“Excuse me?” the detective asked, looking for all the world as though no one had ever refused him anything before. Ever.
“We have work to be getting back to. Anyone with eyes can see that the bag was planted while Adele, Luna, and I were all inside the building. There is nothing to ask questions about. Either arrest us, or let us go,” I said, feeling tired. It was only halfway through the working day but I felt like I’d been passed through a wringer.
“We’ll be in contact if we have any further questions,” Detective Prideaux said, pretending that he was the one who’d dismissed us.
I decided I could live with that.
Now the bag had been removed, we all got into Adele’s car as fast as possible. There was no telling when another piece of evidence might crop up in the wrong place.
The interior of the car was uncharacteristically silent as we drove back up the hill to L’airelle Zoological. I knew each of us were lost in our own thoughts.
As I thought back over everything strange that’d happened I was only able to reach one conclusion: someone was out to get one of us.
Before the bag incident, I hadn't thought it was a malicious campaign. Adele’s dog being painted, the chocolates… they seemed like pranks designed to confuse, rather than intimidate. But the bag being planted was a different matter.
I chewed on my lip and wondered if any of this was somehow connected to Pascal’s strange murder. The targeting of the zoo and the eventual landing spot of the paraglider - was it telling? I just couldn’t be sure that it was all related.
“I think someone’s out to get me,” Adele muttered, and I wondered if she was right.
7
The Body in the Road
I hope your day was better than mine,” I said, when Lowell rocked up, clad in shorts and hiking boots. It wasn’t a look I was used to him sporting.
“It was great! I walked up past the paragliding place and then across another couple of valleys and up some more of the mountains. I almost wish there was a job I could do that just involved walking over mountains,” he confessed.
“That’s great,” I said, but my voice clearly lacked enthusiasm because he threw me a sharp look.
“What happened?” he asked.
I told him about the attack on Constantine and my subsequent questioning. I then explained about the bag found on the bonnet of Adele’s car.
“I think someone may be trying to cause trouble for Adele. First they send chocolates from a secret admirer - perhaps to try to cause problems in her marriage. Then they paint her dog, and now they leave a piece of evidence on her bonnet,” I said.
“But why would they attack Constantine?” Lowell queried.
“I’m sure there are no shortage of people at L’airelle Zoological who've thought of doing exactly that. Perhaps one of them cracked enough to do it and thought they could frame Adele at the same time,” I suggested.
“Maybe,” Lowell said. “I’m surprised I haven’t been brought in for questioning. I was unaccounted for at the same time you were. What if you’d told me about Constantine being nasty and I decided to take her out for you?” He raised a dark eyebrow, but I just rolled my eyes at him.
He did have a point about the conspicuous lack of being dragged in for questioning.
I thought back to what I’d overheard of Luna’s interview. “The police seem to know about what happened at Snidely and Avery. As I’ve never been arrested, there shouldn’t be any record of it all. Am I right?”
Lowell nodded in confirmation.
“I think your agent friends have been sharing a few details,” I said, grudgingly.
“Probably," Lowell admitted. “They’ll have offered an information trade in order to further their own enquiries.”
“So, what… you slipped the net because you’re mates with them?”
“We’re not mates,” Lowell said, with a grin. “Stop sulking. Your history just looked worse than mine because you don’t have an official reason to be sticking your nose into trouble.”
“Stop being so smug, or I’ll make you cook dinner again,” I told him. “On second thoughts, you’d better not. I’m not sure if we can afford it.”
“At least they didn’t arrest you, right?” he said, still grinning.
“I still think you need to make it up to me. What’s the point in having contacts if you can’t get me out of the police station?”
“Will a hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows be penance enough?”
“Maybe,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him as I thought of a few other ideas.
I looked over at the kitchen window, hoping to see the last few rays of sunlight disappearing beyond the fields. My eye caught on the clunky phone that hung on the wall. A little red light was flashing.
I walked over and realised it was the answer machine saying we had a new message. While Lowell busied himself with heating up a pan of milk, I pressed play.
“I got this number from… It doesn’t matter. Is Mr Adagio there? I need to speak with you. I will call another time,” a female voice with a French accent said before hanging up.
I turned around to find Lowell had stopped stirring the milk and was looking at me with just as much surprise as I felt.
“A new mystery. Just what we need!” I said, trying to make light of the unusual call.
“I haven't made any friends who sound like that,” Lowell promised me. “Other than saying ‘bonjour’ to the entire village, I’ve only had a decent conversation with the farmer who works up in the mountains. In fact, it’s hard to get him to stop talking. I think he misses life down in the village, but he can’t get up and down the hill as often as he used to. Trust me, he doesn’t sound anything like that.”
“I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if she calls again,” I said, neutrally.
My initial reaction had been suspicion as to why another woman would be calling Lowell at home. I’d since realised it hadn’t sounded like that sort of call. Instead, this woman had seemed nervous.
I wondered why she needed to speak to Lowell.
The hot chocolate did a lot to boost my spirits. After we’d eaten a big salad for dinner, we both went our sep
arate ways to work on our hobbies and jobs.
My job of the evening was not one I was hugely anticipating. A series of webcast interviews were a part of the campaign rewards and I needed to make a start on recording them.
I sat down in front of my laptop and procrastinated.
First, I answered the slew of daily fan emails and then I uploaded a new comic to the site. I also saw I had an email from Tiff. I weighed up the potential content of the email versus recording the webcasts and picked the email. I wondered what task Tiff had set for me now…
Hi Madi,
Hope everything is going well in France. The weather here is rubbish, so you definitely dodged a bullet. Just writing to let you know that your Etsy store has sold out of all but one of the original sketches and quite a few prints besides. It should all be in your PayPal account by the end of the month. Are you okay to package and ship them? I’ve sent you your login for Etsy, so you should be able to find all the details.
Let me know!
Tiff
I read the email a couple of times in amazement. We’d priced the original sketches at £50 each! I couldn’t believe I’d already sold nine out of ten.
Then I swore. I was stuck in France while the rest of my portfolio was back at home. I also had no access to a printer, or the supplies needed to produce a good quality art print.
I bit my fingernails for a second or two and then emailed Tiff back, offering to split the profits with her if she would go round my house and send everything off - just this once.
I also figured I owed her something for setting up and dealing with my Etsy shop. I’d never really taken it seriously until now, but I was amazed by how successful it had been. I’d known I had fans, but I was truly surprised that they were so voracious they wanted to own my original, scrappy sketches. Despite the evidence in front of me, I still felt like I was somehow cheating them. I’d started this comic for a bit of fun and now it was taking off.
On a whim, I clicked from my Etsy store over to Tiff’s. Her sales had jumped by at least a hundred since I'd last visited her shop. I smiled, pleased that her own side business was going from strength to strength.
