Belle gave a smile then, a weak, watery one. ‘Yes, I’m convinced, but I have just one more question. Was Kent hanged for killing Millie?’
Etienne wasn’t sure this was the right time to talk about that, but if he fobbed her off she would just worry about it too. ‘No, he wasn’t. There wasn’t enough evidence to charge him with her murder. Noah has compiled quite a dossier on the man’s crimes, and it wasn’t just you he sold to a brothel, there were many other girls too. They are all still missing, and it’s Noah’s hope he can expose all those who had a part in it both back in England and here in France.’
‘Then he’ll need me to be a witness?’
Etienne hesitated. He was afraid if he said that her evidence was vital she would become scared again.
‘No one is going to ask you to do anything you don’t want to do.’
‘I want him punished, for Millie’s sake. And unless he is, and that horrible Madame Sondheim, then such things will just go on and on. But I wouldn’t want people like you or Lisette to get dragged into it.’
‘I shall be fine. I was just hired to escort you to America, you were not under age, and I had no choice either. I also have my own reasons to want the guilty punished, and I will assist the gendarmes with that. As for Lisette, she is as much a victim as you are, and Noah is sweet on her too, so she’ll be looked after. Once the top people are arrested it usually follows that many others beneath them feel able to tell what they know. Noah hopes we may find the other girls too; they’ve all got families desperate for news of them.’
‘Then I must be a witness,’ Belle said. ‘It would be very cowardly not to be.’
He smiled down at her, moved by her courage. ‘It won’t be easy for you. To be the main witness in a trial of this importance will mean your name will be in the newspapers, and people will talk,’ he warned her.
‘Let them talk,’ she said. ‘Bad men have to be stopped.’
‘Were you here all night again?’ Noah asked when he arrived at the nursing home the next morning to see how Belle was and found Etienne sitting outside her door looking hollow-eyed and unshaven.
‘Yes, I was afraid she’d have nightmares,’ Etienne said.
‘Did she?’
‘No, she slept remarkably peacefully. But before you go in to see her, let’s go outside and talk. Then I’ll introduce you properly before I go back to the Mirabeau to get cleaned up.’
Noah had long since lost all his reservations about the Frenchman, even if he had been a gangster, and for him to wait outside Belle’s door for forty-eight hours was further evidence of the man’s trustworthiness and his affection for her. They walked along the passage, down the stairs and out into a small courtyard garden at the back of the nursing home. It was a warm, sunny morning, and the sheltered garden was beautiful, bright with red and yellow tulips and a small tree laden with white blossom.
They sat down on a bench and Etienne told Noah that Belle was prepared to be a witness in any court proceedings.
‘It turns out the police here have had some suspicions about Pascal for some time,’ Noah said. ‘Not only do they believe he tricked the old lady into giving him that house, but another girl, Claudette something or other, disappeared about eighteen months ago, and they think now he may have killed her.’
Etienne said that somehow it didn’t surprise him and asked if she’d been a prostitute.
‘No, she worked in a department store. A friend who worked at the same place and shared a room with her reported her missing when she didn’t come home one night. She said that she was sure that a male customer who kept coming into the store to see her friend was responsible. She didn’t know the man’s name but the description she gave of him at the time fits Pascal. It was the girl’s opinion that he had been waiting for her friend when the store closed and persuaded her to go somewhere with him.’
‘Surely they followed it up?’
Noah shrugged. ‘The police here seem almost as sloppy as in England. They did ask a lot of people whether they’d seen Claudette with anyone, but I suppose in a city the size of Paris it is difficult to find someone when they haven’t even got his name. As they didn’t find Claudette’s body and she had no close relatives to push them harder, her details were just filed away and, until now, forgotten. Philippe translated all this to me, so something might have been lost in the translation, but they did say they intended to do a thorough search of Pascal’s house and garden today.’
‘Has Pascal said anything about Belle yet?’
‘Apparently he refused to say a word for the first few hours they had him in custody, but around four o’clock yesterday afternoon he claimed he picked up Belle on the street, and she’d gone with him to his house willingly. He then said that after having sex with him she demanded five hundred francs, and said if he didn’t give it to her she was going to tell his wife and his employers.’
Etienne shook his head in disbelief. ‘So that’s his excuse for locking her in a room for days and then raping her again and threatening to kill her?’
‘He said he panicked,’ Noah said wryly, raising one eyebrow. ‘But as it turned out he played right into our hands by saying that. You see, Philippe had already said that Pascal had acted as a go-between for him and Belle, as Philippe had seen her having tea in the Ritz a few weeks earlier and he’d asked Pascal who she was. Philippe said Pascal stopped Belle as she was leaving the hotel and said there was a gentleman who wanted to meet her. And the upshot of that was Philippe taking her out to dinner a couple of times.’
‘That was quick thinking,’ Etienne said approvingly. ‘It might make some think Belle was a bit fast, but that’s less damaging to her than the truth.’
‘Exactly. Philippe isn’t the kind of man people doubt; he’s a well-known, upright citizen who just happens to be a ladies’ man, and besides, he clearly was very taken with Belle, the gendarmes must have sensed that. And as Philippe himself pointed out, if a body is found, that will be the main thrust of Pascal’s trial, and Belle will only have to play a very minor part in it. And it is extremely unlikely that any other client of hers will come forward.’
‘Didn’t the gendarmes ask what she did for a living?’
‘Yes, and Philippe said she was a chambermaid at the Mirabeau. It was Gabrielle who suggested that.’
Etienne was impressed that Philippe appeared to have thought of everything. ‘Did you say anything about Belle being abducted and brought to France?’
‘No. If I had brought that up, Kent might get word of it and disappear before the police have a chance to arrest him. Anyway, it wasn’t a good idea to muddy the waters.’
‘You did well,’ Etienne said. ‘I never did thank you for turning up so promptly at Pascal’s house. It was a very nasty situation, and I can’t tell you how relieved I was when you came charging in. What made you come so promptly? You surely hadn’t had time to eat your dinner?’
Noah half smiled. ‘The way you rushed out made me feel tense. Then I just got this gut feeling something was wrong. When we got to the house the man from next door was standing outside looking up at the windows. He was worried because you were still in there. So Philippe booted the door in. I don’t think I’ve ever been so shocked by anything as the scene in that room. The blood, the smell, Belle’s white, terrified face. Thank God you found her! He must have planned to kill her, he couldn’t have just kept her there indefinitely.’
‘I think you’re right,’ Etienne mused. ‘But from what he said, I’d say he got her there thinking he could keep her there as his mistress. How could any man be so deluded as to think he could win a woman’s heart with force and cruelty?’
‘Speaking of hearts, has Belle asked about Jimmy? I think we should send a telegram to Mog saying we’ve found her, but I wouldn’t mind betting that will make Jimmy come charging over here.’
‘No. She wanted to know who you were and I explained that, but I steered clear of other things you’d told me, because she wasn’t strong enough last night to be told about the fire, or her mother’s apparent indifference. You are the one who should tell her about the fire. Hopefully you can gloss over about her mother.’
Noah nodded. ‘I think the fire was probably a blessing in disguise. Belle will have no reminders about what she saw in the old place, and she’ll have a real home with Mog, Garth and Jimmy.’
‘I think it’s a little unrealistic to imagine she’ll pick up the pieces with him,’ Etienne said tartly.
Noah looked at Etienne and laughed. ‘Do I detect a jealous note?’
‘
Bien sûr, je ne suis pas jaloux
,’ Etienne retorted.
Noah laughed again. By slipping into his native tongue Etienne had proved he had feelings for Belle.
‘No, of course you aren’t jealous! How could you be?’
Noah was rewarded by seeing Etienne blush. He was pretty sure his blushes were rarer than hen’s teeth.
‘We’d better go in and see Belle now,’ Noah said. ‘And then you ought to go and get some sleep before you keel over.’
Etienne was pleased to see Belle looking a hundred times better than she had the night before. Her eyes were brighter, the dark circles that had been around them were gone, and the bruise on her cheek was less livid.
‘This is Noah Bayliss, my Doctor Watson,’ he said with a wide smile. ‘You were hardly in the mood for introductions last time you met.’
‘I understand I have a great deal to thank you for, Mr Bayliss,’ she said. ‘Etienne told me you’ve been to Paris several times searching for me.’
‘Please call me Noah,’ he said with a smile. ‘And no thanks are necessary; to see you now looking so much better is all the thanks I need.’
‘Now, sit down and tell me all about Mog,’ she said, and there was excitement in her voice and eyes.
‘I’m going back to the Mirabeau,’ Etienne said, turning towards the door. ‘I believe you may be able to leave here later today or tomorrow, so I’ll bring you some clothes when I return.’
‘Give Gabrielle my best wishes,’ she said. ‘And tell her I am indebted to her for finding you.’
Noah pulled a chair up to her bed once Etienne had gone. ‘Did you know he has been outside your door for the last forty-eight hours?’ he said.
Belle looked surprised. ‘But why? No one was going to harm me here.’
‘He was afraid you’d have nightmares.’
‘I seem to have the ability to recover from unpleasant things rather quickly,’ she said. ‘I slept very well last night, I didn’t even dream. And I woke this morning feeling much better. But enough about me, tell me all about how you met Mog and my mother. I understand Millie was a friend of yours, so it must have been awful to hear how she died.’
‘After you disappeared, Mog found out where I lived and came to see me. I was an investigator for an insurance company at the time, and Mog thought that meant I would be able to find you. I hadn’t heard what had happened to Millie until she told me.’
‘Didn’t my mother come to you?’
Noah heard the note of hurt in her voice. ‘I think Mog acted on her own initiative, and someone had to stay home in case you returned or somebody called with news of you.’
He went on to explain that he really had no experience of finding a missing person. ‘The police didn’t take it very seriously and Mog was distraught. But Jimmy fired me up to want to find you; without him I might have just backed away.’
‘Jimmy helped?’ She looked surprised and touched. ‘But how did you get to meet him? And how is he? Is he still with his uncle at the Ram’s Head?’
‘He practically runs it now, and he’s a fine young man, one of the best. Without him I feel Mog might have fallen apart over your disappearance. And he and his Uncle Garth saved your mother’s life in the fire.’
‘Fire?’
Noah saw the horror come back in her eyes and wondered at the wisdom of telling her this so soon after her ordeal.
‘Yes, your old home was burned down. Mog raised the alarm and got all the girls out safely, but Annie was trapped in her room. Garth and Jimmy rescued her through the window. Then they took both women back to the Ram’s Head.’
‘Was the fire an accident?’
‘We think Kent got someone to set it,’ Noah said. ‘But of course we couldn’t prove that, and such is the man’s power that the police took little interest.’
Belle’s eyes filled with tears. ‘It must have been so sad for them losing their home and all their belongings. But why did Garth take them to his place? He was said to be an unpleasant man.’
‘Like most people he can be something of a surprise,’ Noah said, and he reached out and dried her eyes with her sheet. ‘I’ve got to know him well in the last two years, and underneath that brusque exterior he’s a kind and decent man. Of course Mog has turned him and the Ram’s Head round since she became his housekeeper.’
Belle looked astounded.
‘It gets better,’ Noah said with a grin. ‘He and Mog want to get married. And when they get my telegram to say I’m bringing you home they are going to be dancing with joy and I’m sure the wedding will be a double celebration with you there.’
‘Oh, Noah!’ she exclaimed, her eyes filling with happy tears. ‘That is such wonderful news. Mog deserves all the happiness in the world. I thought she was destined to become an old maid.’
‘Love and being wanted has made her blossom,’ Noah said gleefully. ‘All that was missing from her complete happiness was finding you.’
Belle asked many excited questions about Mog and Jimmy, but then her face clouded over.
‘You haven’t said anything about my mother.’
‘She’s doing just fine,’ Noah said hastily and went on to tell Belle about Annie’s boarding houses. ‘She hasn’t fallen out with Mog, they’ve just gone in different directions. Really, the fire was the best thing that could’ve happened to them both. They are respectable now, living comfortably. Work has even started on a new building where the old one was. Annie’s Place is just a distant memory for most people around there.’
‘And I’m a distant memory to Mother too?’
Noah took Belle’s hand in his. ‘You must know Annie is incapable of articulating her feelings,’ he said gently. ‘That doesn’t mean she has none. I talked to her at length one day and because she was so upset about your disappearance, she told me about her past. She too was forced into prostitution when she was even younger than you. She is badly scarred by it, yet she kept you, and let Mog give you the mothering she felt she was incapable of. But I know she loved you, even if she couldn’t always show it.’