Left to Lapse (An Adele Sharp Mystery—Book Seven) by Blake Pierce (book club suggestions txt) 📗

a complaint. He turned to Adele as if sensing shewere the less prickly of the two agents, or perhaps designating her the seniorpartner, and said, “Here it is. Would you like to see the crime scene? We’veleft it mostly as we found it. Without the body of poor Ms. Mayfield, ofcourse.”

“Mayfield?” said Adele. “That’s not a French name…”

“She came on a boat across the English Channel,” the jollyofficer said. “A two-week vacation, by the sound of it. I spoke to herson-in-law on the phone. He’s agreed to fly in tomorrow and confirm the body.”

Adele sighed. This was going to be tricky. Normally, thekillers were the ones on the move. This time, the crime scene was. It made routesthrough at least four countries, and had been traveling for half a day beforethe murder. The first heart attack had occurred on a separate train line inItaly, but part of Adele—deep down—was hoping they could simply confirm thiswas an accident and move on. She had other things to worry about back in Paris,and wasn’t particularly interested in having to also head over to Italy… though…she did have a friend or two in Bel Paese.

She hid a soft smile at the recollection of AgentChristopher Leoni from Agenzia Informazioni e Sicurezza Esterna. TheCalvin Klein good looks and immaculate manners mixed with a determination tomatch her own had made them fast friends.

Adele brought her attention back to the moment. Maybe itwouldn’t be the worst thing to have to stay on this particular case for acouple of days.

“Show me where the woman died,” Adele said.

Officer Allard nodded, and whistling to himself, he movedpast the marble fountain and toward the stationary train. He led them onto theboarding platform, through an open partition in the back of the second car, andinto a spacious compartment with chesterfield sofas and blue drapes on thewindows.

Adele stepped into the place, impressed John didn’t evenneed to duck beneath the miniature chandeliers dangling from the ceiling.

“Looks smaller from the outside,” she said.

Allard cleared his throat. “Ah, yes. Part of the charm, I’mtold. Normandie Express promises the charm of a traditional carriage with theluxury of all the modern amenities. I don’t know much about trains, but itseems… nice.” He shrugged and nodded.

“Nice,” grunted John. “Hell with drapes is still hell.”

Don’t be so dramatic, Adelethought, but didn’t say it. Normally, she never would have held back. But asthings seemed to have shifted between her and the lanky agent, she didn’t wantto stir up any more hard feelings, so she let it lie. And for his part, OfficerAllard didn’t seem to notice John’s grumbling.

“Here’s where she was found,” said Allard, stepping forwardand gesturing toward a seat facing the largest window in the compartment.

“On the chair?”

“Well—ah, according to the witness who was here, she wassitting and then jumped up all of a sudden. She died seconds later, sort ofdraped across the ground and the cushions… like here.” Allard gestured with onehand in a sweeping motion.

Adele looked over. “Witness? Someone was here when shedied?”

“Oh… Yes? Didn’t anyone tell you? Sorry. There was a youngwoman who’d been here from the start of the trip. A Parisian, in fact. However,she’s currently at a nearby hospital being treated for shock.”

Adele glanced at John and her partner shrugged back. “Shock?”Adele said.

Allard winced. “She seemed quite upset by the wholeexperience. Not that I can blame her, of course. It must have been veryfrightening.”

“Well,” Adele said, “I can’t really do anything here. Andno passengers to interview. We’ll save the staff for a bit—I think it best wego talk to the young woman. John?”

“Sure,” he grunted. “Anything to get us off thiscontraption.”

This time Adele did speak her mind. “It’s not even moving,”she replied.

Instead of riposting back, John just shrugged and left thetrain. Adele found her temper rising; it was almost as if he were intentionallytrying to make her feel the cold shoulder as much as possible. Well, two couldplay at that game.

She made to follow her partner, but just then, she heardsomeone clear their throat and she looked up. There, at the back of thecompartment, next to an open door that had a sign which read Staff Only, abald man in a blue and gray uniform, boasting a pointy, pitch-black goatee thatreminded her of shoe polish, said, “Excuse me—are you the detective in charge?”

“Agent,” she said, pausing, then following with, “Sharp.And you are?”

The man with the goatee glanced at Allard, who quicklysaid, “Ah, yes—this is the conductor, Mr. Granet.”

“Yes, yes,” said the man, speaking quickly. He began tomove, and Adele realized everything about him seemed quick, as if he were ahuman played on double speed. He moved hastily across the car in half the timeit might take most and came to a halt in front of her, not gasping, butbreathing in a loud, obvious sort of way. She didn’t have much time to listen,though, as the sounds of his rapidly spewed words overtook her attention.

“Ah,” he said, “Agent Sharp. Look—I’m on a tight schedule.We’re a new company, you have to see it our way. Already, we’re makingheadlines—the wrong sorts, I’m sure you understand.”

Adele just stood waiting.

His face reddened a bit and he seemed to be resisting theurge to stroke his goatee, instead, doing this strange thing with his handwhere he absentmindedly pinched at his neck, squeezing the skin together justabout his throat. The skin was quite loose, and for a moment Adele was remindedof a friend she’d once had who’d lost a lot of weight in a short amount oftime, causing the skin to be similarly elastic.

“Well,” the conductor continued, “now that you’ve come andseen, is it quite all right if we continue on our way? We’ll have to head backto the station. The experience is more pleasure than business and as I’m sureyou’re aware it’s not easy enticing new travelers after such a failedexpedition.”

Adele blinked in the face of this flood of rapidlycommunicated words. She winced and said, “I’m sorry Mr. Granet, but until theinvestigation is over, I can’t allow—”

He coughed, cutting her off, his eyes responding to herunfinished sentence with a flash of annoyance. “Come