French Roast by Sandra Balzo

Author:Sandra Balzo [Balzo, Sandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn House
Published: 2022-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

FIFTEEN

‘I guess it just sank in,’ Sarah said to me. ‘I thought we were doing pretty well.’

‘When you told her it would be good if Jacque was dead so he couldn’t kill more people?’

‘I believe I said to look on the bright side. If.’ She resettled herself in the chair. ‘And don’t tell me you haven’t thought about what Jacque faces if he isn’t dead.’

Prison for arson and murder, most likely. ‘I have,’ I admitted. ‘But I don’t say it—’ I held up a hand as she opened her mouth. ‘Or if I do, I couch it better.’

‘Couch, smouch,’ my partner said. ‘Amy’s not stupid. She can take the truth.’

‘And Helen is her therapist.’

‘For like half a second.’

‘You’re jealous.’ I glanced at Amy and Helen, who’d taken a table. ‘I wish we had wine here.’

‘Top shelf of the storeroom by the cups.’

The red wine looked a little muddy, but beggars can’t be choosers. At least I’d poured it into nice glass latte mugs, instead of to-go cups.

Helen’s hand was resting on Amy’s. ‘Molly was telling me about this second body in the fire. That it’s a man.’ She glanced at Amy.

‘We don’t know who it is,’ I said. ‘But Jacque is still missing.’

Helen frowned. ‘But he must have come here certainly. His Peugeot is parked in front.’

I really had to move that damn car. ‘He didn’t. I took the Peugeot to work because it was blocking mine in the garage.’

‘Has Denis heard from him?’ Amy asked her. ‘Or you?’

‘No,’ Helen said, shaking her head. ‘I’ve tried him a couple of times, but the calls went immediately to voicemail.’

‘As if he turned the phone off,’ I said.

‘Or was dead,’ was Sarah’s contribution. ‘What?’ she said when we all looked at her. ‘I meant the battery.’

‘Believe me,’ Amy said, ‘Jacque being dead is all I think about. Or his not being dead. I’m not sure which will be worse for him.’

Sarah and I exchanged looks.

‘What’s the theory, then?’ Helen asked, as her phone buzzed. She checked it and turned it over, muting the bell. ‘Jacque got up during the night and went to see Paulette? It’s not so unimaginable, I suppose. But why would he leave his car?’

‘It’s just a twenty-minute walk,’ I said. ‘We theorized he didn’t want to wake us up.’

‘More likely he didn’t want anybody to know where he was.’ Amy’s arms were folded against her. ‘With her.’

‘It’s not like that, I don’t think,’ Helen told her. ‘From everything that either Jacque or Denis have told me, Paulette nearly destroyed Jacque. He would never take her back.’

Amy sniffled. ‘She nearly destroyed him how?’

‘They were very young – just out of university,’ Helen said. ‘But there was more to it than just growing apart. Paulette apparently always drank too much.’

I had lifted my glass of wine and now set it back down.

A trace of a smile from Helen. ‘I know. And fresh out of college, they all liked a drink back then. Paulette, Jacque, Denis, his first wife and his younger brother, too.

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