Eclipse (16 page)

‘In her bedroom.'

‘What was it like?'

‘Comfortable. I thought she'd probably stayed over there in the past.'

Sam took another forkful of chili, then hesitated. ‘Did you happen to notice if she had a Bible?'

‘Why do you ask?'

‘Did you notice?' he repeated quietly.

Grace supposed the question meant that Felicia had not yet been entirely eliminated as a suspect in her mother's death.

Just doing his job.

Didn't mean she had to like it.

‘I did not,' she said, and knew that he sensed her lie.

His dark eyes on her were warm though, understanding.

That
she liked.

At nine thirty-five on Wednesday morning, Magda answered a buzz from the office entry system.

‘Is Doctor Lucca here?' a male voice, accented, asked.

‘Do you have an appointment?' she asked.

‘I'm afraid not,' he said. ‘I'm here unexpectedly. We met recently in Zurich.'

‘Your name?' Magda asked, just as Grace came into the entrance hall.

‘Thomas Chauvin,' the voice on the speaker said.

‘Good Lord,' Grace said.

The young Frenchman was apologetic for dropping by without notice.

‘I'm in Miami for a month,' he told Grace and Magda, ‘hoping to get material for a new project.'

‘What's the project?' Magda asked.

‘It's crime related,' Chauvin answered.

He offered nothing further, and neither woman pressed him.

‘I'm staying in Surfside,' he said.

‘In a hotel?' Grace asked.

‘A vacation rental,' he said. ‘A studio, one room and bath and a tiny kitchen.' He smiled. ‘It's quite nice, and I have a car, so I can get around.'

‘So you're all set,' Magda said brightly, and went to prepare for her ten o'clock patient.

‘I'm afraid I don't have any time right now,' Grace told Chauvin.

She was finding it hard to conceal her irritation. She worked here on weekday mornings, while Joshua was at preschool. Now and then in the afternoons she saw patients at home, but mostly she liked to focus on her son and his needs. Had Chauvin given her notice, she would have done her best to fob him off, would certainly not have wanted him showing up at her place of work.

‘I know I should have called ahead.' He looked repentant. ‘But you're the only person I know in Miami, and all I could find was your business address.'

Better, perhaps, on reflection, than showing up at home.

‘I'll do my best to schedule something, but this is a very busy time for me,' she said. ‘I hope you'll understand.'

‘Of course I do,' Chauvin said. ‘I will take whatever crumbs you can offer.'

It was hard not to smile at such abject crawling.

He leapt on the touch of warmth. ‘What I would dearly love is the chance to meet with your family and, most particularly, with your husband, so I could maybe ask him just a few questions to help with my research.'

That, at least, rang true. She said she'd do what she could, took the number of his prepaid local cell phone, and said she'd call when she'd had a chance to speak to Sam.

‘But I can't promise anything,' she said.

‘Even a cup of coffee would be wonderful,' Chauvin said.

‘He's pretty cute,' Magda said, passing her in the hallway at eleven-fifteen.

‘Don't even start,' Grace said.

‘Very cute, if handsome young Frenchmen are your style.'

Grace ignored her and called Sam to put him in the picture.

‘I told him we were both busy.'

‘We have to invite him to dinner,' Sam said.

‘We do?'

‘Sure we do. You round up the family, fix up a time.'

‘I don't think we should put your dad and Mildred through it,' Grace said, ‘but I guess if the others don't mind . . .'

‘They'll love meeting the guy who sent you flowers and then followed you all the way over the Atlantic.'

‘Don't even joke,' Grace said.

‘It's not my fault you're irresistible,' Sam said. ‘Make it this evening, and Saul and I can rustle up a barbecue.'

‘If I were you,' Martinez said to Sam, minutes later, ‘I'd check him out.'

Sam grinned. ‘What do you want me to do? Call Interpol?'

‘If Grace were my wife, I think I might.'

‘I think I'll just meet the poor guy first,' Sam said.

At eleven-thirty, Mildred and David arrived at the Adams Clinic on Indian Creek Drive for an appointment during which the curve of her cornea and the size and shape of her left eye could be measured again, after which there would be blood tests and a chance for her to ask any questions still on her mind.

If she was capable of speech, she thought.

She had rejected the suggestion she check in today and stay overnight ahead of the surgery, was determined to escape while she could.

‘Very grand.' She looked up as they entered at the sign on the marble fascia of the building. ‘I'd expect nothing less of the doctor.'

‘You're still not overly fond, are you?' David said.

‘It isn't his fault,' Mildred admitted.

For a while, her tension eased up a little. David had to go to the office to complete insurance paperwork, but everyone she encountered from the reception desk to the examination room was kind yet down-to-earth. Best of all, Dr Ethan Adams was not around, and instead there were two younger doctors, one a nice, modest man with curling fair hair called Dr Scott Merriam, the other with calm gray eyes, named Dr George Wiley.

‘We've read Doctor Adams' notes,' Dr Merriam said, ‘so we know you're a little nervous.'

‘More than a little,' Mildred said.

‘If we tell you there's no need to be,' Dr Wiley said, ‘you probably won't believe us. Yet it is true.'

‘Doctor Adams is the absolute best,' Dr Merriam said.

‘If you've read my notes,' Mildred said, ‘and if Doctor Adams has understood me at all, you'll know that it isn't belief in his skills that's my problem.'

‘No,' Dr Wiley said. ‘You're squeamish about eye exams.'

Mildred's mouth was dry, her insides tight as a drum.

‘Which means you'd like us to stop talking and get the job done, so you can get out of here,' Dr Merriam said.

‘Or better yet,' Mildred said, ‘skip it altogether.'

‘And get us fired,' Merriam said.

George Wiley's smile was gentle. ‘You will be fine,' he said.

‘Better than fine,' Scott Merriam confirmed.

Despite Grace having called him to arrange the barbecue, Chauvin came back twice more that morning, hoping she might have fifteen minutes to spare.

‘I can give you ten,' she told him finally, at a quarter to one.

‘Great,' Chauvin said, ‘because I bought us lunch from a café in Bal Harbour.' He held up a bag. ‘Some tuna salad and quiche – you choose – and crusty bread. OK with you? I brought enough for your colleague too.'

‘She's with a patient,' Grace said. ‘But thank you.'

They ate in Magda's kitchen, sitting on stools at her granite bar.

‘Is it true,' Chauvin asked, ‘that you used to see patients at your house?'

‘I still do.' Grace paused. ‘How would you know that?'

‘I must have read it somewhere.' Chauvin saw her frown. ‘Research is second nature for me, so I Google everyone I meet. It's become an addiction, I confess, but you can learn so much.'

He stopped, but Grace's hackles were already up, and most of the time she tried forgetting that her past was
out
there, and that people like this man, an aspiring photojournalist, were bound to be interested.

‘Why are you really here, Monsieur Chauvin?' Her tone was sharper.

‘I told you why.'

‘Because if you've come here to pry into my private life or find some kind of story, then dinner and any further conversation are off the menu.'

‘Not at all.' Chauvin looked distressed. ‘The last thing I intended was to upset you. I swear I will never Google you again.'

Grace almost laughed. ‘I guess I overreacted.'

‘Not really, after what you've been through.' He shook his head. ‘The worst kind of nightmare, and I've reminded you of it, but it was there for me to read, you know, and I wanted to be honest with you.'

Grace let the words hang for a moment.

‘Let's just say I prefer not to talk about it,' she said.

‘Understood,' Chauvin said.

‘I hope so,' Grace said.

The evening slipped by pleasantly enough, with Sam, Claudia, Saul and Mel – and Joshua too for a while – all helping to make it relaxing for the visitor and for Grace. Only Cathy absent, delayed by an event at JWU, hoping to arrive in time to meet her mother's ‘mystery Frenchman'.

Sam's barbecues were always easygoing, held out on their small deck, doors open to the kitchen and lanai, the calm waters beyond made occasionally choppy by boats whose skippers generally respected the laws and codes of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway that ran from Key West all the way to Norfolk, Virginia.

The conversation was easy too, Chauvin readily answering questions about his life and family at home in Strasbourg, though less forthcoming about his career to date.

‘Not enough to tell yet,' he said.

‘It takes time to build that kind of career,' Sam said.

‘And luck, too, I guess,' Saul said.

‘Which leads me to my very cheeky request.' Chauvin's blue eyes focused on Sam. ‘Is there a chance that you might grant me a “tagalong” – I believe that's what you call it?'

‘You want to ride in a patrol car,' Sam said.

‘What I would really love, if it were possible,' Chauvin said, ‘would be to ride with you and your partner.'

Sam regarded him for an instant, then nodded. ‘I have no problem with that,' he said. ‘I know journalists have to make use of anything that comes their way.'

‘It's true, I guess,' Chauvin said, ‘that we are all opportunists at heart.'

‘Tomorrow morning,' Sam said. ‘Though I'm going to call my partner, make sure we're not clashing on anything.'

‘Thank you, Sam,' Chauvin said. ‘I'll be forever in your debt.'

‘I don't know how long we'll be able to give you,' Sam said. ‘It's a busy time.'

‘I can imagine,' Chauvin said, ‘with this Black Hole killer.'

‘You read about that,' Sam said.

‘Thomas does a lot of reading,' Grace said.

Cathy arrived just before Chauvin left.

‘
Dieu
,' he said when he saw her.

Grace glanced at him sharply.

‘I'm sorry,' the Frenchman said. ‘It was just the resemblance.'

Sam smiled. ‘We know.'

‘I hoped to be here earlier,' Cathy said, ‘but things at college dragged on.'

‘I gather you're going to be a great chef,' Chauvin said.

‘I love to cook,' Cathy said, ‘but so do a lot of people.'

‘They're not all as beautiful as you,' he said.

‘God.' Cathy laughed.

‘If Cathy becomes a successful chef,' Mel said coolly, ‘it'll be her talent and hard work that get her there.'

‘Naturally.' Chauvin smiled at her. ‘You're right to rebuke me.'

‘Not that Cathy isn't gorgeous,' Mel allowed.

Chauvin held up his hands. ‘I'm saying nothing more.'

‘He seems a nice guy,' Saul said afterward.

‘A little smooth and maybe naive,' Sam said, ‘but I don't think there's any harm in him.'

‘I hope not,' Grace said.

‘He's clearly besotted by you, sis,' Claudia said.

‘And not quite as young as you made out,' Sam said to Grace.

‘I rather think it's you, the detective, he's after,' she said. ‘Not me.'

‘I thought he was cute,' Cathy said.

‘He could get annoying in large doses,' Mel said.

‘I'm concerned that he's here for a whole month,' Grace said.

‘Don't be,' Sam told her. ‘Al and I will help him out tomorrow, answer his questions, maybe suggest one more get-together just before he leaves, make it clear he'll have to fend for himself.'

‘Isn't that a little rude?' Saul said.

‘Grace saved his life,' Cathy said. ‘She's allowed to be rude.'

The doctor was feeling tense tonight.

The way he often felt before important days.

All days were important to a doctor.

Every encounter vital to a patient.

He realized that. He
felt
their need.

He wasn't sure if they always comprehended his empathy.

Hard to tell when you were up on a pedestal.

The way all doctors deserved to be.

Some days were tougher than others. Long, arduous days when it was sometimes difficult to remember to rise above, to remind himself that he was entitled to his pride. When other people, often stupid people, got in the way of that.

His reading tonight was biblical, his need for inspiration; drawing it from The Acts, the story of Peter raising Aeneas from his sickbed through Christ.

On nights like this, he craved inspiration.

A missing person's report had come in early Thursday morning that had everyone in Violent Crimes on edge.

Marie Nieper, age thirty-four, divorced, living alone in a condo on Harding Avenue. Presently working on a home study course in interior design.

She had missed a lunch appointment with a girlfriend yesterday, and no one had heard from her or seen her since.

Bad vibes all around.

Thomas Chauvin arrived at the station at eleven-thirty.

Sam gave him a swift tour of the building, as promised, and then he and Martinez walked him along Washington Avenue to Markie's for a sandwich.