A Thief in the Night by R.W. Wallace

Author:R.W. Wallace
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Varden Publishing
Published: 2021-09-16T14:59:40+00:00

The Red Brick Haze

A Tolosa Mystery

One

September 21, 2001

A fragrant, blanketing smell of runny Roquefort and rank goat cheese blew out of the fromagerie’s open door as Louis strolled past, trailing behind his friend Emilie. Louis drew in a deep lungful, enjoying the way the heady mix obscured the stench of exhaust from passing cars. A line of cheese enthusiasts crowded the tiny shop and bled onto the sidewalk, proving that the wares must have tasted as good as they smelled.

He passed into the shadow of a truck unloading goods into a hardware store, and the Saint-Michel Prison came into view. Louis tugged his black-and-white checkered scarf tighter around his neck. The towering building was an architectural beauty—a five-pronged star shape when seen from above and a medieval castle-like entrance, all in red brick to blend in with the other buildings of Toulouse—but it was still a stark reminder of the dark side of humanity. Louis hoped his father would be able to come through on his electoral promise to move the prisoners to a newer and safer facility, releasing the building to be enjoyed by the entire city as a cultural center.

Toulouse had grown incredibly quickly over the last fifty years, and what had originally been a suburb was now a central and very hip neighborhood. What was a decrepit prison doing taking up so much of the sought-after space? Louis’s father had proposed converting it to student housing, but Louis had argued that the students spent enough time locked inside classrooms as it was. They shouldn’t be living in an old prison, no matter how quaint.

Emilie skipped along the wide sidewalk ahead of Louis, twirling into a pirouette to avoid an oncoming bike; as she spun, her cute yellow sundress flared out like a sunflower and the buttons on her back glinted like diamonds in the morning sunlight. With her cherubic face lit up by an enviable inner joy and sky-blue eyes that danced with cheerfulness, she appeared years younger than her actual twenty. Her diminutive height and tendency to skip rather than walk didn’t help in the least. Louis smiled wryly into his scarf at a memory of her, kicking his ass a week earlier when he’d told her she looked sweet.

“Are you sure you won’t get in trouble for skipping class?” Emilie glanced up at Louis out of the corner of her eye.

As a car honked at a cyclist who was taking up too much of the narrow street, Louis gave an insouciant shrug. “Why should I get in trouble? Less than half the class ever shows up to Fluid Mechanics anyway. I can’t take another hour of that never-ending equation.” The class should have been named Quantum Mechanics—the teacher had definitely found a way to stop time.

“I don’t think it’s just one equation.” Emilie didn’t appear fully convinced of her own statement.

“Yes, it is. He started that first lesson by lulling us into believing the subject would be interesting, talking about channels and water and stuff. Then he attacked the integrals, and I honestly think that proof is going to take a few months.

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