by Susan Finlay
They were running through the tunnel now, and Maurelle clicked on her flashlight. They found Alain lying on the ground unconscious. Dave bent down and checked for a pulse.
“He’s alive.”
“I’m . . . all right,” Alain said, coming to, his voice hoarse and cracking. “Go . . . go help the others.”
They gave him one last look to verify he was indeed all right, then rushed further into the cave system as quickly as they dared in the dark cave. Maurelle remained in the lead with her flashlight shining ahead. A couple minutes later Goddard saw the passageway becoming brighter and then he saw the four women huddled together, Jeannette wrapped in Simone’s arms and crying.
A woman Goddard didn’t recognize was hugging Fabienne Laurent, who had her face buried in the other woman’s chest. The daughter, he presumed.
The woman said, “Paul fell into the pit. We heard moans from him for the first few minutes, but we’ve heard nothing since. We called to him, but he hasn’t responded.”
“He was chasing after us,” Simone said. “He had grand-mère’s sword—attacked her with it. I struggled with him, and he fell in.”
Goddard turned to Dave. “Please go back and ask the fire chief to bring a crew in here with rope and ladders to pull him out. Send help for Delacroix, too.”
Maurelle handed over her flashlight and Dave replied, “Sure. Be back in a few minutes.”
HALF AN HOUR later, most of the villagers had gathered around in front of the chateau, waiting for the firemen to carry out Paul’s body. Goddard was standing among the crowd, watching. He still hadn’t seen René Lamont. The fire chief had told Goddard the fire appeared to have been deliberately set. Was it Paul, or René, or someone else?
Excited chatter alerted Goddard that something was happening. He turned and saw two firemen and one of his own men walking from behind the chateau. They were carrying Paul on a rescue gurney. Goddard approached the men.
“What’s his condition?”
“We need to get him to the hospital in Vendome.”
“He’s alive, then?”
The men nodded.
“There’s another body in there,” one of the men stated.
Goddard raised an eyebrow, showing he could still be surprised, and then glanced at the paramedics near the ambulance, before speaking to his officer. “I thought Delacroix was out of the cave already.”
“He is. The paramedics say he has a mild concussion but should recover.”
“Then I don’t understand. Who is the other victim?”
“We’re taking the gurney back into the cave after we put Lepage into the ambulance.”
“Another victim? Alive?”
“Not hardly. This one’s been down there a good four or five months by the looks of it.”
Goddard’s mouth dropped open.
Dave had walked up and was now standing next to him. Both Goddard and Dave looked up from Paul’s bruised body and saw Camille Wickliff staring at them, her face white as a ghost.
“I think we need to talk with Madame Wickliff,” Goddard said.
‘Oh my God,” Dave said. “I think I know why she and Jean-Pierre put up signs to keep people away from that pit.”
TWO DAYS LATER, Dave sat on one of the bar stools in Café Charbonneau, facing the tables where many locals had gathered for this meeting. Now that the town hall was gone, Simone and Alain had volunteered their café as a temporary meeting place. Alain had since told Simone, Goddard, and Dave that he’d suspected Paul for some time but couldn’t prove anything—nothing more than a gut feeling. Then while everyone was busy trying to put out the fire, he had seen Paul carrying a sword and following the women. Alain knew then he’d been right. Realizing where they were headed, he’d sneaked ahead of Paul to warn them and try to get them to safety.
Dave watched as Simone snuggled up close to Alain gently because his head was bandaged. She looked up at him adoringly. Her fiancé had become something of a hero overnight to everyone in the village but especially to Simone.
Dave cleared his throat and spoke loudly to get everyone’s attention. “I’m sure you’re all relieved that the case, or should I say cases, are over.” A few in the crowd exchanged puzzled looks. “My father and I have been working with Captain Goddard, and we learned yesterday that Camille Wickliff accidentally killed one of Chateau de Reynier’s guests four months ago—a young man on a sightseeing trip through France. What she told us is that she and her husband, Jean-Pierre, were on the landing in the chateau arguing about money issues. She had turned away from her husband and started running down the stairs, blinded by her tears. Unfortunately, in her anguish, unaware of the young man walking down the staircase, she knocked into him, sending him careening down the staircase. He landed at the base of the stairs, his neck broken.”
Dave paused, waiting for the ensuing gasps and startled comments to abate, then continued. “Both husband and wife panicked, and instead of calling the gendarmes, they carried his body into the cave and dumped him into the pit. Since then, no one had called the gendarmes to look for the poor man. A few days ago, because of the new investigations and all of the gendarmes in Reynier and in the caves, they went back into the cave and checked the pit to verify that his body was still there. While there, they got into an argument again. She wanted to confess. Jean-Pierre said no, that it was too late, that he too was implicated in the cover-up. Luc Olivier, who had been in the cave hiding, stumbled onto them, hearing their secret. A struggle between the two men resulted in Jean-Pierre stabbing Luc with his own hunting knife that he kept on his belt. Jean-Pierre then ran away.”
The café was so quiet when Dave stopped talking, that you could have heard a pin drop. Finally, someone spoke up.
“Did they kill those women, too? We thought the killer was Paul.”
“No, they didn’t kill the women. Captain Goddard had pieced together all the evidence—DNA, Paul’s relationship with all of the victims and with René Lamont, who by the way is a scam artist. Anyway, Paul had also made a statement in public about the first victim being strangled—a mistake, as the gendarmes hadn’t released that information, only that she’d been hit over the head with a heavy-duty flashlight. Captain Goddard had already determined that Paul Lepage was the killer of the three women and we were on our way here from the Gendarmerie when we got news that a fire had broken out. We later learned that Paul had also set that fire.”
“Why did Paul kill the women?” Fabienne asked. “Do you know for sure he did it?”
“Goddard now has signed confessions from both Paul Lepage and René Lamont. Paul was working with Lamont to swindle Paul’s grandmother out of a large sum of money. They planned for René to travel to Reynier and pose as an art dealer and promoter. He would tell Jeannette that he would sponsor Paul’s showing at a New York gallery and would also be opening up an antiques shop in Reynier. He would offer Jeannette a share if she would invest a large portion of the start-up capital for the business, as well as provide funding for the New York exhibit. Paul would back him up and help convince Jeannette that it was a great investment opportunity. A friend of Lamont’s, an American crook, played a role in the scam, as well. They had no intention of opening the shop or going to New York, but instead, they planned to split the money and all disappear.”
Aimee Augustine crossed her arms and frowned.
“What René didn’t know was that Paul had his own agenda. He said he planned to kill his grandmother while René was in Reynier so he could frame René for the murder. Paul would then receive the inheritance and René would go to prison for Jeannette’s murder.”
Everyone gasped again, townspeople mumbling and looking at each other in disbelief.
Coralie said, “So, did René Lamont corrupt Paul? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Well, yes, perhaps in the beginning. René Lamont is in reality the owner of a small used-car sales business. Captain Goddard checked the business finances. Sales for that type-and-size of business would not have
accounted for the large cash amounts he was depositing to his bank accounts René’s friend, Gabrielle Thibault’s father, owns an art gallery and he had also been depositing large amounts of cash. When Goddard checked with the Paris police in their arrondissement, he learned that both men are under investigation for art fraud and money laundering. Paul worked for them for a while when he was attending art school in Paris. The men had enticed him and a couple of other young artists there by giving them scholarships to the art school.”
“And you think Paul was involved in the art fraud?” Coralie asked.
“Probably. That’s what the police think, anyway. They needed expert artists to paint exact copies of famous paintings, which they then passed off as the real thing. Somewhere along the way, René then cooked up the plan to swindle Jeannette and proposed it to Paul, who readily agreed. But Paul obviously didn’t tell René what he really had in mind.”
Dave paused and took a sip of coffee to soothe his dry throat. The room was humming as people grouped together and whispered to each other.
Once the room settled down a bit, he continued. “Both plans started going wrong from the beginning. While Paul was waiting for René to arrive, Gabrielle Thibault showed up in Reynier and told Paul that she’d overheard part of a telephone conversation about a plan René had to swindle money out of Jeannette. For those of you who don’t know, Gabrielle and Paul were lovers back when Paul was going to art school in Paris and was the father of the little girl Maurelle found.
Once again the crowd erupted in rapid conversation. Dave raised his voice to continue over the din. “Paul didn’t tell her that he was actually the person on the other end of René’s phone call. Paul told Goddard last night that she had told him about the overheard phone call because she didn't want René to get Jeannette's money. She felt some of it rightfully belongs to her daughter and should be her future inheritance. They quarreled, Gabrielle demanding that Paul acknowledge his child and either pay child support or put her in his will. After their argument, she drove to Reynier and threatened to tell Jeannette. In a fit of anger Paul tried to strangle Gabrielle. She lost consciousness. At first he panicked, but he quickly began planning. He carried her to the cave and then hit her over the head with Maurelle’s flashlight and killed her.”
“So he tried to frame Maurelle?” Simone asked.
“That’s right. He figured she would be an easy target because of her past. He even placed a call from Gabrielle’s mobile phone to Maurelle, making it appear they knew each other. But Felicia Beaumont bumped into him on the night of the murder, walking near the café. The following day, after hearing the news about the murder, Paul said she questioned him about what he’d been doing. He made up some story, and she seemed to accept it, but when he began hearing whispers, he panicked again. He stole Maurelle’s key to the bookshop and my baseball bat from our house, then lured Felicia to the bookshop. He killed her there with the bat, hoping either Maurelle or I would be blamed for that murder.”
Maurelle piped in. “It’s strange, but somehow subliminally I knew it was him. When I first saw that child, I guess I knew, deep down. It wasn’t only the child’s looks. I recognized something else but didn’t think it meant anything.”
“Recognized something? But what?” Jeannette asked.
“The little girl’s necklace. It was the same design as the bracelet Paul gave me for my birthday. Yet Dave told me that Paul claimed he’d barely known the woman and hadn’t seen her after leaving Paris.”
“But why did he kill my sister?” Lillian Lefevre asked.
Dave said, “Paul and René argued in the chateau’s garden. René didn’t have qualms about swindling money, but he drew the line at Paul’s murdering the two women. He wanted to back out of their deal. Genevieve Boyer just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. When they realized she’d overheard them, Paul pulled out the knife he’d stolen from his grandmother and stabbed Genevieve. He’d planned to use his grandfather’s knife to kill his grandmother when the time was right. Serendipitous was the word he used.”
Apparently reeling from all Dave’s revelations, Fabienne asked, “They’re all in jail now, right? We don’t have to worry anymore about murders?”
“The gendarmes have all of them in custody, except for Jean-Pierre Wickliff. They’ve already received some tips on his whereabouts, and I’m sure they’ll have him soon, as well.”
Bruno clapped his hands together loudly. “Well, I think this calls for a drink, looking at Simone expectantly!”
GODDARD PUT AWAY the last of the case files, tidied up his office, and then drove straight home to his wife. He’d already arranged with his superior to take off a week from work. Now he would give Chantal the news that he’d bought two tickets for the train to Venice.
He entered their house and looked around for Chantal. Had she gone out? She’d told him she would here when he returned from Reynier.
He called her name and she didn’t answer. Reynier murder anxieties still fresh, he went room to room searching for her. He found her in their guest room.
“There you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
“Hello, mon chéri. I have some news for you.”
She held up a tiny yellow baby outfit and a pair of baby booties.
He frowned.
“What are you doing, Chantal? You know what the doctor said. He told us we should stop trying to have a baby.”
“Well, apparently he was wrong.” She wore a huge smile. “I’ve held off telling you because I didn’t want to get your hopes up. I’m pregnant. Seven weeks. I had an ultrasound this morning while you were in Reynier. The doctor says everything is looking good this time.”
Goddard pulled Chantal into his arms and kissed her. “This is the best day of my life,” he said, stroking her hair, suddenly all thought of Reynier evaporating.
“WHAT DO YOU think happened after Paul killed Gabrielle?” Maurelle asked as she and Dave walked along the trail back to their house. Edward and Eloise had remained at Fabienne’s house after their dinner there. “Did he just leave his daughter all alone in the woods? And how did her car end up in Belvidere?”
“Oh, I didn’t get a chance to tell you what else we found out. Gabrielle’s car was wiped clean of fingerprints. At least on the doors and steering wheel. But the gendarmes did find some fingerprints in the backseat. Turns out they were Bruno Houdan’s prints.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah. They brought him back into the station this afternoon and questioned him. He finally admitted that he occasionally checks car doors late at night, hoping to find one unlocked so he can sleep in a sheltered warm place. He saw an unfamiliar white car parked behind the café and when he found it unlocked, he started to climb into the backseat. Only, the child was sitting in her child seat. He didn’t know what to do. Finally, he took her out and started walking on the trail. He claims he intended to take her to Jacques and Genevre Henriot’s troglo. According to Bruno, the child started crying and he panicked. He set her down in a hollowed out tree stump somewhere in this area. I haven’t had a chance to check it out.”
“So the mother was taken from the car and killed in the cave while the child was sitting alone in the car?”
“According to Paul, he didn’t know Gabrielle had brought the child with her. She was probably asleep in the back seat of the car. Their argument occurred in the parking lot. He strangled Gabrielle there—she lost consciousness—and he thought she was dead. He carried her to the cave, thinking he would make it look like the murder happened there. She regained consciousness, and he then hit her over the head and killed her. When he returned to town, he started home but then remembered her car. He went to the parking lot and drove the car to Belvidere, slashed a tire, and walked back to Reynier.”
“Why didn’t Bruno come forward?”
“He didn’t want to get accused of something. Remember, he was suspected of molesting a little girl several years ago. You heard about that,
didn’t you?”
“Yes, I guess I did. I suppose that would make him worry.” She knew how that felt. Once a suspect, always a suspect, she thought. She’d finally been exonerated. She hoped that if Bruno was innocent, he would also be exonerated someday.
They were both quiet for several minutes as they walked through the area where she had found the little girl. Maurelle stopped for a moment and squinted her eyes at a large tree stump she’d never paid attention to before. She moved toward it and stared at the opening, then reached her hand inside. Her fingers touched a piece of fabric. She pulled it out. It was a pink child’s hat.
“What did you find?” Dave asked as he stepped close.
She held out the hat to him. “It looks like he was telling the truth. The child probably spent the night in there. It looks like a cozy little nest that would have protected her from the worst of the storm.”
Dave whistled. “I think you’re right. Poor kid. Speaking of which, has our baby started kicking yet?” Maurelle turned and continued toward home, thinking Dave might get lucky a second time tonight.
