Speak Softly My Love
Page 21
Emile Tailler’s mouth opened as he took the box.
“For me—really?” The look on his face was priceless.
“No, Emile—they’re for somebody else.” Gilles stepped back, nodding gravely as Levain guffawed.
“It’s either the one or the other, Emile.” Hubert grinned from behind the desk.
Tailler found words.
“It is just so hard to be accepted around here.” He sighed. “And I suppose, there will always be doubts…”
Lifting a beignet and biting into the wrong side, a squirt of red jam flew out and over and spattered down on their black and white tiles.
Merde.
“I have just one more question, Emile.”
“Ah, yes, sir?” His mouth was full and he gasped at the sticky mess. “And what’s that, sir?”
“What is the moral of the story?”
Tailler broke off his quick search for a rag or a cloth or something. A weird, comical look crossed his homely mug and then he regarded the Inspector.
“Didier Godeffroy loved women.” The room broke up and Emile flushed. “It was pathological with that guy. Like the loaves and the fishes, he figured out a way to indulge it in a most spectacular way. You really got to hand it to good old Didier. He loved women, loved them, altogether, just a little too much. Too much for his own good. And too much of a good thing can kill you.”
Tailler sighed deeply, almost in a kind of admiration.
“For all of his fascination, it’s like he just didn’t appreciate them enough.”
“Ha!” LeBref had just come in. “He’s got you there, Gilles.”
Levain snorted. Hubert was wondering when the phone would ring; probably soon enough.
“Hmn. I’ll buy that. I guess.” Maintenon’s hands came up and he led the room in a sustained golf clap that brought a blush to Tailler’s face.
It was all over save the actual eating of the aforesaid beignets.
There was still that bit of goop on the floor too.
End
About Louis Shalako
Louis Shalako began writing for community newspapers and industrial magazines. His stories appear in publications including Perihelion Science Fiction, Bewildering Stories, Aurora Wolf, Ennea, Wonderwaan, Algernon, Nova Fantasia, and Danse Macabre. He lives in southern Ontario and writes full time.
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