by Katie Penryn
“Stay there until I arrive and keep everyone off the boat.” With that he rang off.
I hurried down the gangplank to join the others.
“Twenty minutes at least,” I said.
The mist still hung over the key which faced west out over the Atlantic Ocean. It would take some time for the sun to rise above the warehouses and fish factories, high enough to burn it away. Down at the end of the key people were beginning to arrive to start their working day: pleasure trips, diving excursions and a few hopeful fishermen.
I shivered in reaction to my first discovery of a dead body and from the penetration of the cold damp mist.
Felix took out his trusty flask and gave me a tot of the miracle working Laphroaig. He handed the flask to Garth and Izzy.
When they’d had their tipple and passed it back to him, he said, “You girls, go back and wait in the car. Garth and I will guard the gangplank until Dubois and his cohorts arrive.”
There are times when I don’t mind being called a girl, and this was one of them. I linked my arm through Izzy’s, and we stumbled back to the car where we switched on the heater and bundled ourselves up in a car rug. Izzy switched on the radio but turned it off again saying perhaps listening to pop songs showed a lack of respect for the dead.
“You said there was no sign of Ben?” she asked.
I shook my head. “Just Joseph and a dead Joseph at that.”
“Even if Ben was late, he would be here by now.”
She looked around the parking area. “I can’t see his car. Give him a ring.”
“You do it,” I said not wanting to go through the rigmarole of getting her to find the number for me.
Izzy made the call, but there was no answer.
“It is early on Sunday morning,” I said. “Wait a few minutes and try again.”
We sat without talking for about ten minutes watching the early morning seafarers go about their business. From time to time someone approached Garth and Felix, exchanged a few sentences and left shaking their head.
Izzy tried Ben’s number again, but it rang and went to voicemail.
“Try the landline at the house,” I suggested.
Izzy looked up the number and launched the call. Again the phone rang and rang.
“You’d expect his wife to be up if her husband was working today,” she said.
“Not necessarily. Désirée works hard all week as a primary school teacher.”
“Wait, she’s picked up.”
Izzy asked to speak to Ben. As she listened to the response, she slid back in her seat and blinked.
“Put it on speakerphone,” I said.
Izzy switched over and asked Désirée to repeat her answer.
“As I said, I don’t know where my husband is. I know he was supposed to take your party out early this morning, but he didn’t come home last night. He and his brother Joseph sailed out in their boat yesterday afternoon after Ben’s diving lessons were finished. Ben hasn’t called me.”
“Has he ever done this before, stayed out all night and not contacted you?” Izzy asked.
“No, he’s a good husband. He doesn’t fool around. I’m worried. I want to call the police and register him as missing but they don’t hunt for missing adults any more. I don’t know what to do.”
Izzy raised her eyebrows at me. I shook my head. It was Dubois’s job to tell her about the murder of her brother-in-law, Joseph, not ours.
“If Ben turns up, we’ll get him to call you,” Izzy said and closed the call.
“So, where is he?”
“If he’s not on the boat with his brother and he’s not at home, he must have left the boat after it docked. After all, his car’s not here.”
“Or he didn’t go out with the boat yesterday afternoon.”
“Then where is he?” asked Izzy.
“Ring Désirée again and ask her if Ben’s vehicle is at home?”
Izzy called again on the landline, turned to me and shook her head when Ben’s wife answered.
“He got a lift with Joseph, so that doesn’t tell us anything.”
We fell silent and stared out at the mist which if anything had thickened since we’d snuggled up together in the car. Even so, Garth and Felix were still visible in the distance, stamping their feet and rubbing their hands to keep warm in the first cold snap of the autumn.
At last, the strident ee-aw of the approaching emergency vehicles broke through the silence on the key. Tires screeched and two blue police vans drew up alongside followed by Dubois. The latter jumped out of his car and hurried across to us, knocking on our car window.
“Penzi, you are all right?” he asked.
I buzzed the window down. He leaned in to peer at me and then at Izzy.
“Bonjour, Madame Tointon, ça va?”
Izzy shrugged. “Hardly. It’s not every day one finds a body on a pleasure boat.”
“You saw him, too?”
“No, don’t worry. Felix wouldn’t let us on board. You’d better get over there. They’ve been waiting for you for ages.”
“Very well,” he said and strode off through the mist.
I closed the window and scrambled out of the car.
“I want to find out what happened,” I said to Izzy. “You don’t have to come with me. Stay and keep warm.”
Izzy nodded and wrapped my share of the rug around her.
I risked a fall on the wet cobbles as I rushed to catch up with Dubois. I linked my arm through his and he patted it.
“This is not a professional way to approach a murder scene, Penzi,” he said. “You must stay on the key.”
“But you’ll tell me what you find, Xavier? We all knew Joseph and we’re worried about Ben.”
“What do you mean?”
I explained that we’d made arrangements for my first dive out at sea, that Ben was my instructor and we’d expected to find him waiting for us on board.
“We rang his wife. She says she hasn’t seen him since he left to go sailing with Joseph yesterday afternoon.”
“We’ll have to make enquiries to see if the boat did go out yesterday, and if so, whether anyone saw Ben on board.”
“I understood from Ben that the Princesse needs a minimum crew of two. So if Joseph did go out he would have had to have someone with him.”
We’d reached the gangplank by now. We exchanged greetings all round. Dubois posted his gendarmes along the key. He was about to step onto the gangplank when the pathologist from the local hospital arrived. Dubois introduced her as Dr Ambrose.
Dubois patted me on the shoulder and said, “You should go home, Penzi. This is police business now.”
Felix asked if he could fetch our picnic basket from the top of the gangplank. “We’ve not had breakfast yet.”
Dubois nodded and gestured for Felix to precede him. Dr Ambrose followed Dubois.
Felix waited for them to step off onto the deck and came back down with our breakfast.
Dubois called down to us. “Felix, take them home now.”
I nudged Felix. “I want to stay until we hear what the pathologist has to say.”
“A cup of coffee all round,” he answered delving into the basket for the flasks and cups.
“I’ll take a flask back to Izzy,” Garth said. “I’m taking her home. She’s in the car on her own and there could be a murderer lurking about here.”
He strode off into the mist carrying one of the flasks.
I sipped my tea keeping one eye on Dubois and Dr Ambrose. The angle of the deck obscured most of what they were doing. Only their heads bobbed up and down as they bent to their task and discussed their findings. When they straightened up, Dubois looked down at us. He walked towards the head of the gangplank with Dr Ambrose in tow.
“I thought I told you to go home now, Madame Munro.”
“Please, Inspector Dubois, tell us about your preliminary findings, then we’ll go.”
Dubois looked at Dr Ambrose and she nodded her consent.
“Dependent upon a full autopsy, someone murdered Joseph Marin by slitting his throat from behind. There’s no murder weapon close to the body. The forensics team will scour the boat for the knife and the diving team will check the water around the mooring. Dr Ambrose says he’s been dead for approximately six or seven hours, since shortly after midnight.”
“Thank you, Dubois. You’ll inform Madame Bella Marin about her husband’s death… and Désirée Marin that her brother-in-law has been murdered?”
Dubois nodded. “Please call in at the gendarmerie later on this afternoon to make your statements. Your friends as well please.”
“Will do,” said Felix taking my arm and steering me back towards our car.
“So, the million dollar question is: where is Ben?” I said as I climbed in behind the wheel. “I have a horrible feeling Dubois is going to jump to conclusions and say that Ben must have killed his brother.”
“Whatever and whoever, we are staying out of it this time, boss.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” I said switching on the ignition, anxious to get out of there and back to our safe home.
Chapter 9
The church bells pealed out for Sunday morning mass as we passed through the town gatehouse. I drove down through the lingering mist and around the Esplanade towards our house. Jimbo came out of Brioche’s bakery as we passed. I slowed down and asked him if he wanted a lift.
“Please,” he said and jumped into the back seat filling the car with the delicious aroma of freshly baked croissants. “But what are you doing back so early? Your trip was supposed to take all day.”
“It’s a long sad story,” Felix said as I drew up outside Les Dragons.
Gwinny opened the front door and peered out.
Jimbo ran over to her and pushed past into the kitchen while I helped Felix unload the car. Gwinny came over to give us a hand.
“You weren’t due back until tonight,” said Gwinny. “What happened? You look rough, the pair of you.”
“Wait till we get inside and we’ll explain,” I said.
We hurried in out of the damp sea air and dumped our kit down in the hallway.
“I’m starving,” I said. “With all that happened we didn’t get a chance to eat our packed breakfast.”
Gwinny put on the kettle and made tea while Jimbo set the table.
“I hadn’t planned on cooking a full English breakfast this morning,” she said. “Do you want me to?”
“No, sit down and join us for a moment.”
The kitchen door opened and a bleary-eyed Sam came in. “Oh, I slept too long. Why are you back so early?”
“Penzi only went and found a body,” said Felix.
Jimbo bounced up from his chair and came round to grab my arm and rock back on his feet. “Whaaat? A dead body? A person?”
I nodded.
“Wow!” he said. “How exciting. Just like on TV. You have all the fun, Penzi.”
I pushed his hands away. “It wasn’t fun. This is real life, Jimbo, not TV.”
“Did you know the person?” asked Gwinny.
“It was Joseph Marin—”
“Oh no,” said Jimbo. “I like him. He cooked a pizza for me specially when we visited his farm.”
“Well, someone’s murd—”
“Not murder again,” Gwinny said knocking her mug of tea over.
“I’m afraid so. Someone cut his throat.”
“Aaaargh!” said Jimbo grasping his neck with his hand and staggering around the kitchen.
“Jimbo!” said Gwinny taking hold of him. “Stop that.”
“He’s only a kid,” said Felix. “He doesn’t understand.”
I broke off a piece of my croissant and nibbled it, but it stuck in my throat. All of a sudden, my hunger had fled to be replaced by nausea. I was too tense to eat. Although I had seen bodies before, this was the first time I’d been the one to discover the corpse. The image of Joseph lying on the deck as a hunk of lifeless flesh wouldn’t leave my mind.
“Gwinny,” I managed to whisper. “I’m so cold.”
She felt my forehead. “Felix put the kettle on while I fetch a blanket. Penzi’s in delayed shock.”
Jimbo put his arms around me and hugged me. “I’m sorry for joking. I didn’t know it was so bad.”
Felix got down the cognac and poured a tot into my tea. I tried to pick it up but the shaking in my hands wouldn’t stop. Felix held the mug up to my lips and I took a few sips. Gwinny came back with a rug and wrapped it around my shoulders. As soon as the kettle boiled she filled a hot water bottle and tucked it into my arms.
I hugged it tightly and rocked backwards and forwards waiting for the heat and the brandy to do their work.
“I wonder if Garth is doing this for Izzy,” I said to Felix.
“Izzy didn’t stumble across a dead body,” he said. “As soon as you’ve warmed up, I’ll carry you upstairs to bed.”
“No,” I shook my head. “I want to stay down here with my family.”
Felix dropped it. We spent the next hour talking over Joseph’s murder and speculating on who could have committed the crime.
“We simply don’t have enough information,” I said. “Without Ben we don’t even know if they took their boat out yesterday or not. Where is he?”
“I’m sure Dubois is making enquiries,” said Felix. “We can ask him when we go to the police station this afternoon to make our statements.”
*
The mist had cleared away by the time Felix and I drove off to the gendarmerie to see Dubois. He was occupied when we arrived. An officer showed us into one of the bleak interview rooms and said he would send someone along to take our statements. We had a long wait.
“It’s Sunday. Maybe they’re short staffed today especially with most of the available men down at the key,” said Felix.
Nausea still hung heavy in my stomach. I couldn’t get the sight of all that blood out of my mind. Every time I closed my eyes for more than a second, Joseph’s body loomed into view. I feared the memory would prove to be indelible. I took a few deep breaths and thought of pleasant things: Christmas presents and puppies, but it didn’t work.
“You’re pale, boss. Do you want to leave?”
“We can’t. They need our statements. We must help the police catch this man… or woman.”
“If the murderer is a woman, she’d have to be over six foot and powerful. It takes strength to make a slash like that.”
“So probably a man then?”
Felix nodded.
“What if Joseph was kneeling,” I said. “The murderer wouldn’t need to be tall then.”
“Possible but unlikely. As you said we don’t know enough. Anyway, it’s not our job to find the murderer, is it?”
I shook my head. “But one can’t help trying to work it out.”
“As long as that’s all you’re doing. You aren’t to get involved this time.”
I was about to launch into my speech about Felix not being in charge of me when the door opened and an officer came in to take our statements. He recorded them, asked us to wait while they were typed up and left. A couple of minutes later he came back with mugs of tea for us. As usual, without milk. He left to fetch a small jug of milk. The milk was hot but better than nothing.
We’d drunk our tea halfway down when the officer returned again with our statements printed out and ready for signature. Having read mine through I was on the point of signing when the door opened and Dubois poked his head in.
“Ah, Madame Munro. Good to see you here.”
He entered and we all shook hands. He pulled up a chair and waited for us to finish with the statements. He gathered them up and handed them to the officer to take away for filing.
“How unfortunate it was for you, Penzi, to find Joseph Marin’s body this morning. I wish you could have been saved that experience. You don’t look well.”
“She’s still in shock,” said Felix. “I should get her home if you don’t need us anymore.
”
Dubois scanned my face.
“She’s strong enough to learn what we’ve found out so far.”
My goodness. Dubois wanted to catch us up to date and I hadn’t even had to ask.
“Of course,” I said. “I’m guessing Madame Fer-de-Lance isn’t here today.”
Dubois smiled grimly.
“She’s away for the weekend. Dr Ambrose has carried out her autopsy already. We want to move fast on this one.”
“And?”
“Cause of death was the wound to the throat and the subsequent exsanguination as we all guessed. Dr Ambrose found no other wounds. No puncture marks. She’s revised time of death to between one and three. We must wait for the toxicology report, but at this stage it looks as if he was taken by surprise and voilà.”
“Have you informed Bella, Madame Marin, about her husband’s death yet?”
“Yes, but we couldn’t interview her because she was too upset. We did, however, with her permission search the house, but we found nothing with any bearing on the case.”
“And his brother, Ben? Have you managed to track him down?”
“No, we’re working on it. There are officers out interviewing everyone down at the docks. He’s not at his diving school which is closed for the day.”
“And the forensics?”
“Too soon to tell, but nothing obvious. The Marin brothers take many tourists and local divers out in their boat so there are fingerprints and trace evidence everywhere. Without knowing what we’re looking for it is not much help. When and if we find the murderer we may be able to use the forensic evidence to place that person on the boat, but who knows?” he said throwing his hands up in the air. “It is truly like a horror film where the monster comes out of the deeps, kills someone and disappears back into the water.”
Dubois had nothing else to tell us, and I didn’t want to alarm Felix by asking too many questions. He had already said several times that he didn’t want or expect me to get involved, but as we’d been talking the conviction had come over me that I wasn’t going to get the picture of Joseph’s corpse lying in that pool of blood out of my mind until the murderer was brought to justice, if then. I had to uncover the villain.
