Masquerade: A Sleuthing Circle Cozy Mystery by Claire Gardner

Author:Claire Gardner [Gardner, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-09-17T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter sixteen

The sound of indistinct voices was joined by a long mewl that Emma was able to identify.

“Lea Simons has confessed that she was unwittingly carrying the murder weapon,” Maine said.

Everyone looked at him expectantly.

“Mr. Dampierre arrived and approached her in the kitchen. He handed her a piece of cheese wrapped in a thin piece of paper, which he called special, and told her that he was going to play a joke on the listeners of the mask conference—a joke that would be useful to him. He said that she was to hand out a tray of canapés and fine cheeses at his expense, but then would offer him the special piece of cheese first.”

“I don’t believe it!” Eliza exclaimed.

“Lea, starstruck, did as Ivo asked, and told him that it was common to identify the different types of cheese they served with little flags with the names and the area of production. So, she told him that the one he should have would be right next to the Roquefort flag. Between the two of them they figured out how to identify the little piece of cheese. He paid her two hundred euros, and one small kiss on the cheek, for the harmless action.”

He paused, then continued.

“Lea saw it as exciting, fun, and lucrative. The rest you know.”

Vivien thought about what had happened. Then she remembered that when the girl entered the room, the clerk was in the middle of his announcement about Dupin not arriving. Maybe that’s why no one paid attention to Lea. She thought to herself that Lea must have offered the piece of cheese to Ivo first.

“Why would someone commit suicide like that? It doesn’t make sense,” Amelie said.

Geraldine was ashen, and her face became distorted. Antonin was looking at her.

“Of course, we will analyze the corpse and the traces of cheese on the knife Lea used to cut it. She’d been so busy in the hotel keeping the peace with patrons that she hadn’t yet cleaned up the kitchen.”

“I did think it was a bit presumptuous of that girl to start offering the tray to Ivo and not to Geraldine and me,” Doyen commented, “especially since it brought her so close to where my fiancée and I were standing.”

“Fiancée?” several voices said at the same time.

“Why would a prank like that—committing suicide in such a gruesome way in front of a group of people—be useful to him? What can be useful when you’re dead?” asked Vivien.

Her question caught the detective’s attention.

Honorio had picked up several things that the interviewees had said that led him to conclude that not everything was clear and that some of them had lied. He no longer felt sleepy at all.

He could wait no longer. He had to move on to another level in the investigation. He hoped his idea for communicating with the human world would work.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.