The Case of Lisandra P. by Hélène Grémillon

Author:Hélène Grémillon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2015-11-10T16:00:00+00:00

Eva Maria climbs off the bike. She looks up at the window. She’s back to square one. You always end up back at square one. Time to decide whether to stop. Or to go on. Eva Maria crosses the plaza. She leans the bike against the wall. She goes into the little café. Francisco turns around. He raises his arms to the sky. Eva Maria thinks about the Incan rites.

“Eva! What a nice surprise, we haven’t seen you in a long time.”

“That makes sense . . . I haven’t been coming.”

“You’re not the only one.”

“I can imagine.”

“The usual?”

Eva Maria sits at the counter.

“No, a coffee, please.”

“Oh, really? Right, then, one evening coffee coming up!”

Francisco looks at Eva Maria.

“Have you been crying?”

“It’s the wind.”

“Do you miss him?”

“Who?”

“Vittorio.”

“I haven’t thought about it.”

“It must be tough to stop like that overnight.”

“I haven’t thought about it.”

Francisco puts the coffee on the counter.

“It must make a strange impression all the same, to find out that the guy who’s been explaining life to you is a murderer; it’s as if I were poisoning my wife—that would send a chill down my customers’ spine . . .”

“What, you have a wife now?”

“Just a manner of speaking.”

“Go on, then, Poisoner, make me another coffee instead of talking nonsense.”

Francisco sets the cup down in front of Eva Maria.

“Two espressos in the evening; you’re in for a sleepless night.”

Eva Maria drops a sugar lump into the steaming liquid.

“Coffee only prevents happy people from sleeping. With others, it’s not the coffee that keeps them from sleeping.”

“I’ll quote you on that one.”

Silence falls. Eva Maria drinks her coffee. Francisco plays with a little spoon next to the saucer.

“Still, you have to wonder, a shrink who turns murderer . . .”

“Haven’t you heard of ‘presumption of innocence’?”

“In case you hadn’t noticed, your innocent man is still in prison.”

“You really have it in for him.”

Francisco strikes the zinc counter with the little spoon.

“I don’t have it in for him; I just know.”

“Do you hear what you’re saying?”

“I have proof.”

“Oh, really?”

“Yes.”

“What sort of proof?”

“I have proof that Lisandra had a lover.”

Eva Maria shoves her coffee cup to one side.

“That’s the first I’ve heard.”

“And it’s because Lisandra had a lover that Vittorio killed her.”

“That’s pretty simplistic.”

“If truth has to be complicated, well then, there’s nothing I can do for you.”

“I’m not expecting anything from you.”

“If you weren’t expecting anything from me, you would have sat in the room, the way you usually do, and not at the counter.”

Eva Maria touches his temple. Twice.

“You’ve certainly got your share in there.”

“Yeah, well, see, a waiter is like a shrink, only not as expensive.”

“I would’ve said more like a private detective, given everything you seem to know.”

Francisco busies himself folding the dish towel in front of him.

“A madwoman who drives you crazy—it wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Stop making these mysterious pronouncements. If you have something to say, say it.”

Francisco starts wiping glasses.

“If she did it with me, she surely did it with others.”

“If she did what with you?”

“Carried out her weird plan.

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