Murder in the Latin Quarter (25 page)

M
aggie looked wildly
around the room for anything she could use as a weapon. Her mind raced and she felt a tightening in her chest. Suddenly she saw a yardstick propped up against the bookcase and she snatched it up and whirled around to face the door. The door began to inch open slowly. Maggie's palms were damp. She held the yardstick up high like a spear at eye level to whoever was coming through the door, and willed her heart to stop crashing in her chest like a drum.

Suddenly the door flung open. Startled, Maggie lunged at the figure in the door, stabbing at his face with her stick. She heard a grunt of pain as she connected. The man's hands flew to his face and he staggered back but he was still blocking the door.

Maggie needed to get to Mila in the bedroom. She dropped the stick and pushed him hard in the chest with both hands. He was off balance and started to fall but before she could dart past him, he grabbed her arm and pulled her to the floor with him.

Instantly, Maggie jabbed him in the throat with her elbow. She knew being on the floor was bad.

You don't get back up once you're down.

She grabbed his hair and wrenched with all her strength.

He howled and released her as his hands flew to his head.

“Maggie, stop!” he gasped. “It's me, Noel!”

Maggie scrambled to her feet. Noel's nose was bleeding from where she'd hit him with the yardstick.

“What are you doing here?” Maggie yelled, her eye on the front door. If she could get it open, the neighbors would hear her screams. “Why didn't you knock?” She scanned the foyer to see if there was a vase or something she could use if she needed to.

Noel pulled a handkerchief from his coat pocket and held it to his face. When he covered up his big nose, Maggie was startled to realize how handsome he was.

“I didn't want to wake Delphine,” he said in a muffled voice behind the handkerchief. “She'd invited me to stay the night—”

“That's a lie, Noel,” Maggie said. “She only has one guest room and she knows I'm in it.”

“All right, all right,” he said, struggling to get to his feet. “But I knew she wouldn't mind. I was just going to sleep on her couch so I could talk to her first thing in the morning.”

“If that's true then why were you trying to get into the storage closet?”

Noel looked at her with surprise. “I saw the light under the door. I could hear someone was in there.”

Maggie took a long steadying breath. The ambulance would be here any minute. She had nothing to worry about from Noel. He was an old man.

“What was so important it couldn't wait until morning?” she asked.

“I thought Delphine might still be up.”

“At two in the morning?”

“I saw you go in nearly an hour ago and when the salon light didn't go off—”

“You were watching from the street?”

Noel ran a hand across his face and his head drooped as if too heavy for his neck.

“I was with Delphine this evening. I tried to get her to come out with me. She wouldn't. One thing led to another…”

“And you began haranguing her again.”

He looked at her and for a moment Maggie felt a twinge of pity for him.

“How did you get a key?” she asked.

“I didn't. The door was open. May we do this from the relative comfort of the living room, please? It's very uncomfortable down here on the floor.”

“How was she when you left her?” she asked.

“Upset.”

“But alive?”

Maggie studied his reaction which was swift and guileless. If he had goaded Delphine to the point where her heart failed, he was unaware of it.

“What are you saying?” His voice was a whisper.

Maggie's shoulders sagged and she stepped out of the way as he pulled himself to his feet. He took two steps into the foyer and saw Delphine slumped in the wing back chair. With a moan, he ran to her and dropped to his knees.

“No, no, no, no….” He clasped her hands and kissed them, the tears flooding his face. “I am such a fool,” he whispered. “Mother, forgive me. Delphine, dearest aunt, forgive me.” His shoulders shook with silent sobs. Maggie stood watching him as the minutes ticked by.

Eventually, he leaned back on his heels. His face was a grimace of anguish.

“The last thing she said to me was
please leave me in peace
,” he choked out.

“Do you have any idea who she could have been talking to on the phone tonight?” Maggie asked gently.

Noel looked at her and shook his head. “I've been calling all evening to apologize but the line was busy.”

“I'm so sorry, Noel,” Maggie said.

He looked at Delphine through wet eyes. Maggie went to the kitchen and put the kettle on for tea. When she returned, he was sitting opposite Delphine with his hands looped together between his knees, the picture of woe.

“The front door wasn't open,” Maggie said, placing a mug of tea in front of him. “It locks when it closes.”

He nodded and sipped the tea. “Michelle Normand had a universal key created,” he said dully. “I put it over the door ledge.”

“
Michelle
has a key to Delphine's apartment,” Maggie said. “Crazy ragbag Michelle who hates Delphine. You were plotting with
Michelle
? Against your aunt?”

“My
mother
you mean!” Noel said fiercely and then he sagged back into his gloom. “And it wasn't like that. But nothing else I'd ever done or said made a difference. Not me being a perfect son, not trying to make her proud of my accomplishments in office, not badgering her, not throwing tantrums or ultimatums. I'm not proud of it but time was running out! She had to tell me the truth!”

“Did it ever occur to you that she
was
telling you the truth?”

“No. She loved me. Georgette didn't.”

“Maybe Georgette was embarrassed about the circumstances of your birth. Maybe Georgette just wasn't the maternal type. Did you ever think of that?”

“Delphine was my mother. I just needed her to say it.”

“If whatever Michelle did tonight is the reason Delphine is dead, Noel, you're an accessory to murder.”

“That's ridiculous! It's clearly a heart attack. And besides, we called it off. Michelle was never here.” He put his face in his hands. “I just wanted her to claim me.”

Maggie sipped her tea. The clock over the mantel said it was nearly three now. It looked like nobody was getting any sleep tonight.

“So what was your plan?”

“What?” he lifted his head to look at her.

“What were you and Michelle planning to do?”

He dragged a hand through his thick white hair and Maggie thought he looked even older than his seventy-two years.

“I was to get Delphine out of the apartment while Michelle looked around for the treasure Delphine told Michelle's father she had.”

“Treasure?”

“Michelle seemed convinced Delphine had some kind of treasure—from the war. ”

The Degas!

“That's grand larceny, Noel. ”

“Michelle said Delphine wouldn't go to the police about it. But whatever it was Michelle believed it was something she
could
blackmail Delphine with.”

“Gee, Noel, you're a son any mother would be proud to have. ”

“Do not judge me! You have no idea what my life has been! I was desperate. ”

“And how was this going to help you? Once you had your mother quaking in her boots about going to prison or destroying the family name, she would then admit you were her son?”

He shook his head. “I was crazy to think anything would change her mind.”

“So what went wrong tonight?”

“Delphine wouldn't leave with me. Said she wanted to have supper with you and the baby. I rang Michelle and called it off. ”

“Bet she was thrilled with that. ”

“Look, you can hate me. Now that Delphine's gone—which was the very thing I worried about for years—I can see it doesn't matter. What I had with her—whatever name you want to put on it—
that's
what mattered. I'm a fool. And nobody can make me feel worse than I already do. ”

“How awful that you had to go through all this to finally learn that,” Maggie said standing up. “Go home, Noel. Go back to Switzerland.”

He stood and walked to the front door like the old man he was. Only now he was beaten and heartbroken too. Maggie touched his hand at the door.

“The key, Noel,” she said softly.

He dug in his pocket and handed her the key. “I loved her, you know.”

“She knew that, Noel,” Maggie said, patting him on the arm as he trudged through the door. “I'm sure she did.”

He smiled bleakly and then turned to walk down the stairs. Maggie closed the door and moved back into the apartment to finish packing. A few minutes later she heard the medical personnel finally clanging their equipment and gurney in the narrow stairwell.

She walked over to Delphine and kissed her on the cheek.

“Goodbye, Delphine,” she whispered. “I'll make sure Mila doesn't forget you, or Laurent either. And I promise I never will.”

Then Maggie called for a taxi and went to open the door to greet the last guests Delphine would ever receive.

M
aggie was never more
grateful for Beatrice. She arrived at Grace's apartment just after five in the morning. Beatrice was already up making muffins and eagerly took an unusually cranky Mila out of Maggie's arms when Maggie stepped across the threshold.

“It is such a surprise that you are back!” Beatrice said. Maggie wasn't sure she wasn't talking more to Mila than her.

“Is Grace here?” she asked.

“She is still asleep,” Beatrice said.

Well, at least Grace was home, Maggie thought. She dragged her bag to the guest room and took her shoes off and fell into bed too tired to care about anything.

She awoke hours later with the feeling of the sun shining through her bedroom window. A quick glance at the bedside clock revealed it was nearly noon. The bedroom door opened and Laurent came in with a steaming mug of coffee in one hand. As usual, his timing was uncanny.

Maggie held out her arms to him and after he set the coffee down, he gathered her close to him on the bed. He just held her for several moments. A familiar voice coming from the living room made Maggie lift her head.

“Jemmy,” she said with a smile.

“I told him to allow his
maman
her morning coffee first,” Laurent said. He kissed her mouth and pushed her bangs off her forehead. “A hard night for you,
chèrie
.”

A flash of the catacombs came into Maggie's mind and she shivered. “You have no idea,” she said.

“But you will tell me everything?”

“Eventually. Oh, Laurent, I'm so sorry you didn't get a chance to see Delphine before she died. She was a wonderful woman. I'm just so grateful I got to know her.”

“
C'est juste
,” he murmured as he held her and kissed her hair. “I am glad too. What did the medical
techniciens
say?”

Maggie sighed and disentangled herself from him long enough to reach for her coffee. It was aromatic with chicory and cinnamon and felt like something they might serve in Heaven.

“They said it looked like natural causes,” Maggie said. Laurent nodded. His thick brown hair was longer than usual, she noted, as if he hadn't had time to get a haircut. As usual, his dark eyes were impossible to read.

“After I talked with you last night, Noel showed up.” Maggie said.

Laurent's eyebrows shot up but he didn't say anything.

“Plus, some of Delphine's neighbors were milling about when the ambulance came and one lady said she saw Noel there yesterday in the early evening and she heard shouting. He told me as much but I didn't know they'd actually been yelling at each other.”

“You think Noel had something to do with her death?”

“I don't know. My gut says no. When I found her she had the phone receiver in her lap like she'd been talking to someone.”

“The police will be able to determine who it was she was speaking to.”

“If they bother. I hope so.”

There was a light tap at the door and Maggie pulled away from Laurent to see Jemmy standing in the doorway.

“There's my baby boy!” Maggie said, holding her arms out wide to him. Jemmy ran and threw himself into her arms. Maggie smothered his face with kisses. “Oh, I missed you so much! I'm never leaving again. Ever.”

“
Bon
,” Laurent said, wrapping his arms around both of them.

That afternoon after lunch Laurent carried a sleepy Jemmy off to take his nap—as effortlessly as if he were carrying a football. As he passed Maggie standing with Mila he reached for them both with his free arm and pulled them into a hug. The sensation of his strength and the sweet love of her family broke down her last defense and Maggie began to cry which woke both Jemmy and Mila. Beatrice took the children away as Maggie watched from Laurent's arms, grateful beyond words for the girl's expert care and attention.