by Katie Penryn
I sighed heavily. “Is this going to help us solve the crime, Xavier?”
“Most definitely,” said the pathologist.
She led me over to the bank of refrigerated drawers and pulled one out.
“Ready?” she asked me.
“As I’ll ever be.”
She pulled the sheet back up to the knees to show me Ben’s left leg which had been covered by his wetsuit when his body lay on the beach. At once I saw what had unnerved the two of them. A uniform circle of deep gouges ringed his ankle above the point where his foot had been torn away. I looked quickly at the other ankle but it had no such marks.
I looked across to Dr Ambrose. “I can’t believe it, but he must have been restrained by a chain.”
“Exactement,” Dubois said.
Dr Ambrose pulled the sheet back. “I’m as sure as I can be after his exposure in the water that the wounds are pre-death.”
“So he was tied up under water and that’s why he drowned?”
“Looks like it,” she said. “And he would have drowned within eight to ten minutes of his hose being cut.”
“It’s all supposition,” said Dubois, “but maybe some large fish or even a small shark bit his foot off.”
“There aren’t any obvious tooth marks,” said Dr Ambrose. “It’s possible the storm or the estuarine riptide, or a combination of the two, tore away the foot because the joint would have been weak.”
“Can we go now, Dubois,” I asked. “Perhaps we’ll never know what happened to him.”
“The diatom test results will indicate a location and a depth,” said Dr Ambrose. “We can match them to the samples held at the Museum in Bordeaux. That could prove useful later when you find the murderer.”
I was beginning to feel queasy. The smell of the chemicals and antiseptics used made my head spin and my imagination was running away with me.
I clutched hold of Dubois’s arm. “Please can we get out of here now, Dubois?”
He chuckled and patted my hand. “We’ll make a detective of you yet, Penzi.”
He linked my arm under his and guided me out of the mortuary and upstairs to the front door. By the time we reached the front steps my legs were shaking so much I had to sit down and put my head between my knees. Where was Felix when I needed him?
“Xavier. What about Felix and Madame Marin?”
“You stay there. I’ll fetch them,” he said breaking the rules and leaving me sitting all alone on the steps of the hospital without his protection.
Visions of sea monsters attacking Ben’s body surged through my mind, but I couldn’t for the life of me put a face to the monster who had chained Ben underwater to die. What could have led to such an act? And Felix? I predicted his reaction to the details would be that it was far too dangerous for me to be involved. Although murder was murder, these crimes now had an added dimension of horror.
“Penny for your thoughts, boss,” said Felix as he ran down the steps to join me.
“Not worth a penny.”
“I knew Dubois wasn’t to be trusted. He abandoned you here in front of the hospital with no one to guard you.”
“He didn’t abandon me. He went to fetch you. If you had your cell phone switched on occasionally, he wouldn’t have had to leave me.”
“I couldn’t leave it switched on in the hospital.”
Felix pulled me to my feet.
“Don’t let’s argue about something that’s been and gone. I want to go home. That was one of the worse things I’ve ever had to do. I want to wash the stink of the mortuary out of my hair.”
*
On the way home Felix and I made a bargain not to discuss Ben’s death or the ramifications thereof until the next day. Of course, we didn’t stick to the bargain. With ideas and fears swirling around in our brains we decided to retire to the study and talk things through.
I took my father’s chair as usual and Felix sat down facing me across my father’s antique desk.
“Well, we know where Ben is at last,” said Felix.
“I’ve been naïve. It never occurred to me that he could be dead, too.”
“And for a good many days according to the autopsy report. It’s a pity Dr Ambrose was unable to pin his death down to before or after Joseph was murdered.”
“I do have an idea about that,” I said. “But first let’s spend ten minutes thinking about who murdered Ben.”
“Whoever it was had to have knowledge of the sea and probably had to be a diver whether professional or amateur we can’t say.”
“Neither Ben nor Joseph ever mentioned that their wives were scuba divers. I got the impression it was something the men did together.”
“Let’s check that now,” Felix said pulling out his cell phone. “I’ll try Bella, Joseph’s widow, first.”
He made the call and asked her if she had shared her husband’s interest in scuba diving. Shadows of surprise crossed his face as he listened to the reply. He thanked her and closed the call.
“Well?” I asked.
“Bella says not only was she not interested in diving, but Joseph wasn’t either. He used to go out with Ben to man the boat and keep a watch on deck, but when the two of them went out, Ben dived alone.”
“But that’s dangerous.”
“It certainly was for Ben, wasn’t it? He ended up dead.”
“Try Désirée, but be gentle.”
Felix called Désirée, listened to what she said and rang off. He put his phone away in his pocket.
“Désirée says she never learned to dive. Ben tried to persuade her, but she decided it was good for him to have a hobby of his own. She confirmed what Bella told me.”
“So we can strike Bella and Désirée of the list of suspects unless we find out they were secret scuba champions at a later date.”
“That leaves us with Bella’s boyfriend, André Preneur, and the Marin sister, Agnes and her husband Tanguy.”
I mulled that over for a few minutes.
“Felix, why would Agnes and her husband want to murder Ben? He shared their thoughts for a shake-up of the business. They had nothing to gain from his death. Now, Preneur is another matter. With both brothers out of the way, he stands a better chance of buying up the business cheaply. What a pity you didn’t ask Bella whether her lover is a diver while you were on the phone to her.”
“We’ll have to find another way. This is all bigger than we thought. There has to be a third party out there. One hidden from us. Where can we start looking?”
“We have to go back to square one. Here’s my idea. We need to know whether Ben was on the Princesse with Joseph when it left harbor on Saturday afternoon.”
“We’ve asked everyone. No one can say one way or the other.”
“We haven’t asked the most important people on the docks: the cats.”
Felix looked at me as if I’d gone mad. “The cats?”
“What do you find a lot of on the key of a fishing port?”
“Fish.”
“Exactly. And where there are fish ends there will be cats. You can bet that they know everything about everybody. I suggest that we make a trip to the harbor tonight, after midnight, and you morph into Felix the Savannah cat and go out and meet the local feline population.”
“Boss, do I have to? It’s been an exhausting day. My bed is calling out to me. I don’t fancy traipsing up the coast to the harbor. And shifting takes so much out of me. It depletes my energy for hours afterwards.”
“Don’t be such a baby, or should I say, kitten? I’ll be with you. If you get too tired, I’ll pick you up and carry you home. You can shift back to being a man tomorrow morning if you like. You want to find out who killed Ben, don’t you?”
Felix gave a deep sigh of resignation. “You’re a hard taskmaster sometimes, boss.”
“We’ll go to bed early and get a few hours’ sleep before we go. You won’t be so tired then.”
Felix put our list of suspects away in the drawer. It was dwindling fa
st, and we had no new names to add. Would we ever solve this case?
Chapter 23
At one o’clock in the morning Felix and I tiptoed downstairs to put on our coats and boots ready to leave for the fishing harbor. Zag wandered into the hall.
“Where are you two going at this time of night?” he asked. “To visit the scary High Council?”
“Not this time,” said Felix.
“Do you need us to come with you for protection?”
Felix shook his head.
“We’re going to visit some cats,” I said. “You won’t be welcome.”
“Right. I’ll look after the rest of the family while you’re gone then,” Zag said with a great yawn and ambled back to his basket in the kitchen.
We stepped outside into a thick mist, so thick that I considered abandoning the mission.
“Is it safe to drive in this fog?” I asked Felix.
“The car’s got good fog lights and you’re a careful driver, boss. We’ll take it slow.”
“You were the one who wanted to stay home tonight.”
“That was then. I’m up and ready to go now.”
“Remind me to learn a spell to dispel mist when we get back.”
The journey took us nearly twice as long as usual. The mist reduced visibility to about ten yards and it was slow going.
“Will the cats be around in this weather?” I asked Felix.
“Not if they’re sensible.”
We parked at the top of the key. Felix took a few minutes to summon up the necessary energy both physical and mental to make the switch from man to cat. When he was ready, he took a deep breath. Right before my eyes his muscles rippled, and he shrank until I had a large Savannah cat sitting beside me in the passenger seat. It was impossible to pinpoint exactly when Felix stopped being a man and became a cat. It was a transition so smooth no matter how many times he made it I never succeeded in catching the magic moment.
I climbed out of the car and went round to let Felix the cat out. He stretched his legs the way all cats do and thrashed his tail about, uncertain what to do next.
I stroked him from head to tail. “I’ll be right behind you, but I’ll keep out of sight until you’ve established friendly relations with the local cats. If they’re out prowling around their territory, they’re not going to welcome your sudden appearance, Felix. So, be careful.”
“I know that,” he said with another mighty thrash of his tail.
He slunk off towards the warehouses and I followed along well behind him and keeping to the walls. At least the mist would help to keep my approach hidden, but it wouldn’t help Felix. Any patrolling cat would be able to smell him from yards away.
I lost sight of him as he faded into the mist.
All of a sudden a shrill wailing and howling caterwauled through the mist. I hurried forwards forgetting the need to stay hidden. I didn’t want Felix torn to pieces. I followed the sound through a doorway into a vast warehouse. I needn’t have worried about Felix. He had a huge hyena like creature by the neck and was shaking him from side to side. The more he shook, the louder his victim screamed.
I rushed up to them but couldn’t work out how to tear them apart. This was not the calm approach we had planned. I spied a bucket under a standing pipe in what looked like a sink for cleaning fish. I filled it and ran back to the catfight spilling water all over my feet. I threw what was left over the two cats. It didn’t stop them.
“Knock it off,” I shouted at the top of my voice.
To my astonishment, they did. They fell back panting. Before I could say anything else, they arched their backs and began to prance around each other hissing challenges.
“That’s enough,” I said stepping in between them quickly.
At last I’d managed to pierce the red mist enveloping them. The incumbent took his eyes away from Felix for a moment and stared up at me.
“I heard that,” he said. “You must be a witch.”
“That’s right,” I said. “Your kind is supposed to offer me courtesy and friendship at the least and here you are attacking my good friend, Felix.”
He laughed derisively. “Felix? What a joke! I nearly had him there. If you hadn’t intervened, he’d have been food for worms.”
I looked back at Felix who’d taken the opportunity to sit down and clean himself giving the other cat the feline message that he wasn’t to be messed with.
I nearly corrected the strange cat but decided in the nick of time that it wouldn’t be politic. Instead I crouched down and offered him my hand.
“I’m Mpenzi Munro,” I said. “And you are?”
He rubbed his head against my hand.
“I’m Neptune, chief cat in charge of these docks.”
He walked backwards and uttered a long meow.
From out of the shadows came a gang of cats of all breeds and sizes, about thirty in all.
“These are my tribe,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll understand that I have to protect them and their livelihood. We can’t have stray cats wandering in here willy nilly. Your Felix didn’t even introduce himself.”
“I didn’t get the chance,” said Felix rising to his feet and sashaying over to join us. “I’m not after your food or your territory. I merely wanted to ask you to help in a case my boss and I are involved in.”
Neptune now sat down and began to groom himself. I guessed he needed time to plan his strategy. His followers copied him. Felix rubbed himself against my legs.
“Funny sight isn’t it?” he said. “All those hind legs in the air.”
I have to admit I was tempted to walk around and give each one a tug but thought better of it. We were trying to win friends and influence people here, not make fun of them. The pause gave me a chance to size up Neptune. I couldn’t decide what breed he was. Definitely not one of the elegant ones like a Siamese or Burmese. Not a Persian because he wasn’t fluffy. His years of street fighting had given him numerous scars upon his large head and they’d stunted the growth of his fur. The latter was predominantly tortoiseshell with odd patches of white and black. He was almost as ugly as Feo, one of the cats who guarded the local museum. But he must have had a Siamese gene or two because he was cross-eyed. A great defender of his people he had gone for Felix even though Felix being a Savannah was twice his size.
Felix thrashed his tail with impatience waiting for the display of nonchalance to be over.
“Come on, mate,” he said. “My witch needs to get back to her bed. It’s too cold for her out here.”
Neptune dropped his leg and sat up. “No disrespect Madame Munro, but we have to follow proper cat etiquette. Now what did you want to know? I’m guessing this is about the murder on board the Princesse early last Sunday morning.”
I nodded.
Felix put the first question. “Did any of your people witness the murder by any chance?”
“I doubt it. They would have told me, but I’ll ask, anyway.”
He turned and surveyed the motley collection of cats ranged around him in an attentive circle.
“Anyone?”
They all shook their heads.
I took over the questioning.
“Did anyone happen to notice whether Ben, the younger Marin brother, left on the Princesse with Joseph on the Saturday afternoon?”
Neptune brushed his whiskers with his paw.
“I can answer that. Ben called me over to the boat as they were about to pull up the gangplank and threw me a couple of fish heads they had left over from their lunch. So yes, Ben left with Joseph.”
“But no one saw the boat return?”
Neptune shook his head.
“No, we were all out on patrol around the back of the warehouses. That’s when the rats come out to scavenge and we’re busy. The Princess wasn’t tied up at midnight but she was there when we knocked off at five.”
“Thank you. You’ve helped us on a crucial point in our inquiries. Is there anything we can do to repay you?” I asked him.
&n
bsp; “We have our full complement of cats here now, but two of our queens give birth a few weeks ago. We need to find homes for the kittens, fifteen of them altogether. It would be wonderful if you could help us with that.”
I bent down to stroke him and he purred loudly.
“I’ll do my best. And if you come up with anything that would help us, perhaps you would tell us next time we call in.”
Felix and I turned to leave. Neptune accompanied me to the doorway weaving in and out of my legs as I walked.
As soon as we were back in our car Felix shifted back up to being a man, my bodyguard.
“What did you make of that?” I asked him.
“They confirmed that Ben and Joseph left together. As Ben drowned or was drowned with his scuba gear on it must have happened out at sea and Joseph returned alone.”
“My thoughts exactly, but it doesn’t help us much, does it?”
“Let’s get home, boss. I’m tired.”
“We must visit Désirée tomorrow and find out if we can get a look inside Ben’s shed.”
Felix harrumphed and slunk down in his seat.
“Give it a break,” he said and fell fast asleep.
Chapter 24
After we’d seen Jimbo off to school on Monday morning, we called on Désirée. Although her husband had now been exonerated by public opinion, I was sure she’d be at home having taken compassionate leave from her job to grieve for Ben and to help her son get over the loss of his father.
I stopped at the supermarket on the way to buy some essentials for her: fresh bread, some fruit, coffee and some ham and salad for lunch.
She opened the door to my knock and hugged me close.
“Thank you for coming round, Penzi. I was feeling so lonely and bereft. I don’t know what to do with myself. I spent last week cleaning the house. I can’t read or watch television. And Marcel’s asking me so many questions I can’t answer.”
We followed her through to the kitchen where she put on the coffee pot. I was glad she was up to doing that herself. When the coffee was ready, she poured it out and left the room. She returned with a photo album and for the next hour showed us photos of Ben and the family. Felix and I let her talk on and on. Her reminiscences were interrupted by Marcel who appeared in the kitchen doorway rubbing his eyes.
