Murder in Nice (13 page)

Talk about public
broadcasting
, Maggie thought
grimly.

The parting at the train station with
Laurent had not been exactly icy, but neither had it been very
mushy either. Maggie knew he wasn’t thrilled with her
leaving—especially not with a house full of guests—but she also
picked up on a certain amount of relief to have her gone for a bit.
In many ways, that scared her more than anything else.

What in the hell is going
on, Laurent?
She prayed that Grace would
have better luck in the next two days.

When her train arrived in Fréjus, Maggie saw
Desiree standing on the platform waiting for her.

Guess she got the short straw.

It was just barely midday
and Maggie found herself wondering where lunch fit into the
itinerary. She cursed Laurent for keeping her too well fed. She was
always hungry now, and the time when she could walk away from
a
tarte de pomme
or
even a simple
cassoulet
was long ago. At this rate she would never lose the baby
weight.

“
Bonjour
, Desiree,” she said brightly as she descended from the train
onto the platform.

The woman nodded curtly at her and forced a
return greeting out between clenched teeth. It was probably her
association with Lanie, but it was very clear Desiree didn’t like
her. In fact, hadn’t liked her from the get-go.

“
We are to meet the others
at lunch,” Desiree said, turning away as Maggie ran to keep up.
Desiree was wearing four-inch heels on her sandals, but her long
legs were athletic and she had to stop more than once to wait for
Maggie to catch up to her. That was all the more embarrassing
because Maggie knew Desiree was older than she was.

It didn’t matter. She consoled herself that
she was logging in the steps on the pedometer, which might allow
her to indulge in a little dessert at lunch. With a sinking heart,
she saw as they left the train station, that Desiree was not
leading Maggie to a parked car. Clearly the woman had walked to the
station.

The more steps I rack
up,
Maggie told herself reasonably,
the more I can relax at lunch.
She thought that she would look at her two days away from
Laurent and his kitchen as an opportunity to fast—or at least cut
down to three meals a day—but she felt her resolve waiver the
closer she got to the restaurant section of Fréjus.

The aroma of cooking seafood, saffron and
garlic seemed to fill the air as she and Desiree turned down one
narrow cobblestone street. Directly ahead, Maggie saw the road
dead-end into a large outdoor restaurant. The umbrellas over the
tables were a deep green and gave the impression of a lush garden
among all the stone and brickwork. Dee-Dee stood up from one of the
large tables and waved to them.

Everyone was there. Jim and Janet Anderson
looked up from their wine and dishes of olives and smiled blandly
at her and then went back to their conversation. Bob Randall stood
up from the table and spread his arms out to Maggie although he had
not even looked in her direction when they met in Nice.

“
Madame Dernier,” he boomed
out. “Come sit next to me. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that
you agreed to serve as our guinea pig for this tour!”

Maggie noticed that Desiree simply sat down
and lit up a cigarette. Her job was done.

“
We have a huge order of
fried calamari coming,” Dee-Dee said, pouring Maggie a glass of
rosé wine.

So much for the
diet,
Maggie thought with resignation as
she reached for the wineglass.

Lunch was prolonged and
wonderful. After the first hour, Maggie stopped keeping mental
notes to share with Laurent and just sat back and enjoyed
the
foie gras au torchon
, the heavenly
moules
Provençale
steamed in white wine, olives
and garlic and, oh, the amazing rack of lamb with the juniper
demi-glace. Maybe she would tell Laurent about that one. She tucked
her pedometer into her purse. It felt like it was pinching her
waist every time she turned in her seat.

Just from a cursory examination of the small
tour group, she could see that Jim and Janet were a closed society
unto themselves, caring only for each other’s conversation or
company. Dee-Dee had said they were wealthy, so it was possible
they used that as a reason not to socialize too closely with the
others.

On the other hand, the others were all
deeply crazy in one form or another.

Randall was the sun around which everyone
revolved, that much was clear. Maggie could still feel the charm
radiating off him. It wasn’t just that the sought-after prize came
at his discretion, and that it included working closely with him.
It was also because the man had an aura of charisma that seemed to
draw everyone into his sphere—even waiters and shopkeepers, Maggie
noticed.

Full and thickheaded from the afternoon wine
followed by multiple cups of espresso, Maggie wondered how any of
them were going to perform in any kind of coherent manner for the
afternoon tours.

“
We took the day off
because of you,” Dee-Dee said.

“
Oh, I didn’t realize
that,” Maggie said, her eyes watching as Desiree drunkenly tugged
at Randall under the table.

“
Well,
some
of us will be working, of
course,” Dee-Dee said tartly. “
Some
of us are always working.”

“
Tais-toi
,” Desiree snarled.

“
Now, girls,” Randall said,
his arm going around the back of Desiree’s chair. “We’ve had a
lovely lunch, haven’t we? Let’s don’t ruin it. Are you tired,
darling?” he said to Desiree, his eyes glossy with drunken
lust.

Looking at Dee-Dee and not Randall, Desiree
smiled slyly and nodded. Maggie thought it was the first smile
she’d seen the woman give. It wasn’t pretty.

Randall and Desiree stood up and staggered
away from the table without a backward glance.

“
Disgusting,” Dee-Dee said,
watching them retreat down the long street and
disappear.

Maggie turned to her. “I thought you said
they weren’t an item. I thought you said it was all in Desiree’s
head.”

A loud bark of a laugh made Maggie turn in
surprise to the Andersons at the end of the table. They were both
watching Maggie.

“
Is that what Dee-Dee told
you?” Jim said. “Well, that is truly pathetic. Even for our little
Dee-Dums.” He laughed again.

Dee-Dee jumped to her feet, lost her balance
and fell back into her chair, knocking her wineglass over onto the
table. She was successful on the next try, grabbing her purse and
making the best possible show of swanning out of the outdoor
restaurant. Maggie watched her go and then looked back at the
couple.

“
So Dee-Dee’s got a torch
for Randall?” The couple exchanged a look, trying to decide if it
would be appropriate to condescend to converse with her.

Finally, Janet leaned across the table.
“It’s a fascinating study in human behavior. Dee-Dee wants Bob but
Bob wants…wait for it…Lanie.”

Maggie frowned. “But isn’t he sleeping with
Desiree?”

“
Didn’t I say it was
fascinating?”

“
Don’t forget the best
part,” Jim said as he placed a hand on his wife’s arm. “The best
part is that Desiree
knows
that Bob really wanted Lanie.”

“
But Lanie said
no?”

“
Supposedly,” Janet said,
her eyes glittering with cryptic meaning. Maggie reminded herself
that according to Dee-Dee, Lanie
had
said yes to Jim. And while that might give him
bragging rights since it sounded like she wasn’t totally
undiscerning, it also gave his wife, Janet, motive.

Maggie looked back down the narrow road
where Desiree and Randall had vanished.

“
So Desiree is sleeping
with Randall, but everyone knows he preferred to be with Lanie—who
he couldn’t have.”

“
Exactly.”

“
Wow,” Maggie said.
“Desiree must have hated Lanie.”

“
You could say that,” Janet
said, leaning back into her chair and reaching for her
wineglass.

*****

Grace walked across the lawn, a basket of
just-cut zinnias in her hand. The sun hadn’t set yet and the warmth
of the day seeped into her thin linen tunic.

Zouzou burst out from the underbrush and
tackled Grace around her legs, making her falter but not fall.

“
Zouzou, you little
monster!” Grace laughed, wrapping her arms around her daughter and
trying to tug her into her arms. “If this is an ambush, I’ll have
you know I can retaliate with rapid-fire tickling.” Zouzou shrieked
and twisted out of Grace’s grasp. She ran back around a large
lavender bush that anchored the north corner of the flagstone
terrace.

Haley appeared from inside the house and set
down a tray of drinks glasses on the large outdoor dining table.
She had little Jem snugly tucked into a carrier she wore in front.
He was awake and, unlike how Maggie usually wore the carrier, was
facing outward. Actually, Haley’s way made more sense, Grace
realized.

The baby was kicking his feet and looking at
the world around him, his fists reaching out to grab at the trees,
the tablecloth or the ears of Laurent’s big hunting dogs, Inge and
Marthe. Little Petit Four, Maggie’s scraggly poodle terrier mix,
wisely spent most of her time under tables and away from Zouzou’s
insistent demonstrations of love.

“
Drinkies, Grace,” Haley
called to her. “Laurent thought this would lure you in.”

“
The man knows me too
well,” Grace said, dropping the flower basket on a chair and
surveying the tray of drinks. She picked up a cold crystal glass
with crushed ice and cut limes in it. One sip told her it was
vodka, but infused with something she couldn’t put her finger
on.
Basil?

She settled in a chair and put the drink
down before reaching out for Jem. “Shall I take him? He looks
heavy.”

“
He’s absolutely no trouble
at all,” Haley said, unbuckling him and slipping him out of the
harness. “But it is a little warm.” She handed him to Grace and sat
back in her chair and smiled. “You should have another,” Haley
said. “You look beautiful with a baby in your arms.”

“
I look even better when
it’s somebody else’s baby,” Grace said. “Did you have a good day?
Did Zouzou behave herself?”

“
She was an angel. I could
eat her with a spoon. Did you get a lot of work done?”

Grace took a long sip her of her drink,
turning her face away. “Not near enough,” she said. “I don’t really
know what I’m doing.”

“
I’ll bet you’re doing
better than you think.”

“
Thanks. I suppose time
will tell.”

Later—much later—Grace would remember the
next several seconds as happening in slow motion. She would realize
that time had slowed down and along with it the ability to move or
react or think until all she could do was sit frozen in her chair,
a baby on her lap, and listen to the terrified screams of her child
as they reverberating across the lawn and into the atmosphere.

Nine

After her lengthy and heavy lunch, Maggie’s first
day on the tour ended with a nap that didn’t finish until the next
morning. Furious that she’d wasted the evening when she knew
Laurent was counting the hours until she returned, she vowed to
redouble her interviewing efforts of the group to make up for lost
time.

That morning, she met the rest of the group
in the lobby of their hotel off the N7 Highway.

I guess the magic begins
after breakfast
, she couldn’t help think.
Her hotel room had been charmless and basic, and while a
continental breakfast was on offer in the small breakfast room, one
glance confirmed it was a stale section of reheated frozen
croissants, canned juice and bad coffee.

Randall was talking through Desiree to a
young man draped in various video cameras. Obviously he was trying
to get some local talent to pinch-hit for the still missing
Olivier. She smiled as she joined the Andersons and Dee-Dee as they
stood waiting for Randall to finish.

Janet wasn’t as friendly as she had been the
night before, but she’d already tipped her hand to Maggie that she
was an easy talker once she started drinking. Maggie would remember
that.

“
Everyone sleep well, I
hope?” Maggie asked cheerfully. If their faces were any evidence at
all, it looked as if the Andersons hadn’t stopped imbibing after
lunch the day before. Jim looked ill and every minute of his
sixty-one years. Janet wore sunglasses even in the hotel lobby and
clutched her arms in a protective gesture that warned all to stay
away.

Dee-Dee was drinking a diet soda from a can
and didn’t respond.

“
May I ask what’s on the
agenda today?”

Dee-Dee sighed, as if it were a terrible
imposition to respond. “We’ll do a tour of the Roman antiquities,”
she said. “That was supposed to be Lanie’s part and Bob hasn’t
decided who’ll do it now.”

Maggie wondered how deluded you’d have to be
to believe you were having a relationship with someone who was
having a relationship with someone else. She wasn’t sure she’d ever
even heard of it before. She smiled at Dee-Dee but the woman
refused to look at her.