Murder At the Flea Club by Matthew Head

Author:Matthew Head
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781631941078
Publisher: Felony & Mayhem Press
Published: 2018-02-19T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

“W E HAVE NOW arrived,” said Dr. Finney, “at the point where you went back upstairs and found Marie Louise had skipped out on you with the Italian boy.”

“We’ve arrived at the point where I’m going to have a couple of hours sleep. I’m full of fatigue poisons.”

“It’s 5.30. Give me another half-hour and then I’ll give you until 8.00. Now tell me about Marie Louise.”

“She did not skip out on me. When I came upstairs she and Luigi and Nicole were talking like old friends together, very animated and all. No sign of Tony.”

“Any idea where he went or what he was doing?”

“None. Is it important?”

“How do I know? At this stage, everything’s important. Go ahead.”

“I joined them at the table and Nicole told me she thought my young friends were charming. Came time for her second number and she left us and pretty soon came out on the stage, etcetera. Tony seemed O.K. Nicole sang like a million bucks, got a terrific hand. Had to do a couple of encores. Came back to our table and Marie Louise said she was thrilled, which she obviously was, you could see it. Said she had to go home, though, and would I mind taking her. It was only a little after twelve, and I remembered what I had said to Audrey about keeping Marie Louise out late, but I didn’t regard it as a contract. Asked Marie Louise to wait while I made a phone call. Called their suite at the Prince du Royaume. No answer. If Audrey and René were there, I didn’t want Marie Louise bumping into anything bothersome. They must have been at René’s.”

“Taking it for granted they were together.”

“Taking that for granted, yes. So I went back to the table—Nicole was still there—and said to Marie Louise, ‘O.K., let’s go.’ The Italian boy said why didn’t I just stay there and he would take Marie Louise home and then come back and join us. I said I thought that was a lousy idea and he apologised. So Nicole said was I coming back, and I said no, it was late and I thought I’d go on home. Where Tony was, all this time, I don’t know. Luigi asked if it was all right if he stayed on, was he wearing out his welcome considering he wasn’t a member or anything, and Nicole said of course not, he was welcome to stay as her guest, and please do. He said he’d love to. I took Marie Louise home. Kissed her good-night. Turned out to be avuncular in the extreme. She said thank you, said she wanted to thank me a thousand times for a thrilling evening, she had never met anyone quite as wonderful as Nicole, good-night, Hoop. I went home. End of day.”

“Sleep well?”

“Like a top.”

“So the next morning you called for Emmy and me—I guess we have to call that ‘yesterday morning’ now—and I should know everything from that time on. But you’re hiding something from me.

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