Flossed (Alex Harris Mystery Series) (12 page)

“Forgive me for asking and for my bluntness, but why did you have an affair? You have a lovely wife, very beautiful, in fact.”

“Yes, I do. The affair with Martine only lasted a month. The guilt was killing me. I’m not cut out to do that sort of thing. And I assure you it was the first and only time I’ve strayed. As to why, I don’t know exactly. Martine started flirting with me from the beginning, but no.” Doug put both of his hands up. “I don’t want to put the blame on her. It was a two-way street. I was just starting out here with my own business, along with Bill, and the stress was tremendous. Plus my wife and I had been trying to have a baby for a long time. We had so many tests and I guess it just all got to me. Not a very good excuse, is it?” Doug looked truly sorry for the affair.

“I’m not here to pass moral judgment, Monsieur. None of us are perfect, no? But if your mistakes, past or present, lead to murder, then I will pursue every avenue. Getting back to my questions, do you and your wife have children now?”

Doug brought his hands together and leaned forward resting them on the desk. “No. We don’t. Despite all we went through, it just never happened. It turned out my wife was the one with the problem and she went through several painful operations but we still were never able to conceive. I wouldn’t mind adoption, but Donna doesn’t want to hear about it. If it wouldn’t be out of line for me to ask
you
something, Inspector, why does my affair with Martine have anything to do with her murder? As I said, it ended a long time ago.”

“That is precisely what I am trying to ascertain—when it ended. Did your wife know of this affair?”

“Yes. Well, no. Not while I was having it, but I told her later. Maybe I shouldn’t have and maybe I did it to appease my own guilt but after it was over, I told her. She said she suspected it. I don’t know why you think it’s so imp—Ah. You suspect Paul killed her because he found out about the affair. That’s it, isn’t it? It ended so long ago. Why would he have waited all this time?”

“No, I suspect no one for the moment. Madam Cassé was pregnant when she was killed.”

“I’m sorry, I still don’t understand,” Doug shrugged.

“It is impossible the baby was Monsieur Cassé’s.”

Doug tilted back in his chair and crossed his arms, letting out another sigh. “I see. So Martine must have been with someone else.”

“Yes, it looks like that is true.”

“At the risk of protesting too much, please believe me my relationship with Martine in the past two years has been strictly a professional one.”

“Do you have any idea as to whom Madam Cassé may have been seeing?”

“No. None at all. I was under the impression she and Paul were happy. After they got married I just assumed all was well between them.”

“One more question; being the two of you were intimate at one time, did you find it difficult to work together?”

Doug thought this over for a moment. “No, not at all. As a matter of fact, it was almost as if the affair never happened. Other than work-related issues, we didn’t talk much, never had lunch together or anything. I think, at least on my part, I realized what a mistake it was and I just put it out of mind. I’m pretty sure Martine did the same.”

“And your wife never pressed you to get rid of her and to find another secretary?”

“Yes, at first, when I told her, yes she did. That’s only natural. But Bill was happy with Martine, and he didn’t know about us, plus she did an excellent job. And then with all the problems my wife and I went through and the operations, the affair just ceased to be important.”

“Just one more question. Do you use dental floss?”

“Excuse me? Did you say dental floss?”

“I did? Do you floss, Monsieur?”

“Well, yes,” Doug laughed, “I do. So does my wife. What does this have to do with anything?”

“Bien,” the inspector rose from his seat, “Thank you for your time. I’ll let you get back to work.”

*****

Before going to lunch John and Inspector Willix made one more stop.

“
Bon
. Then speaking hypothetically, Doctor, if someone had the same procedure as Paul Cassé, could it be reversed?” Inspector Willix asked the elderly doctor who had performed the vasectomy on Paul Cassé and who now seemed reluctant to divulge any details claiming patient-doctor confidentiality.

“Well, hypothetically speaking,
bien sûr
! It could be done.”

“But you are not going to tell me whether Monsieur Cassé came to you with such a request?”

“I will tell you, hypothetically, of course, I have had no patients come to me in over a year wishing to have the procedure reversed.”

“
Bon
. Thank you for your time.” Inspector Willix clapped his hands together and he and John left the office.

Chapter 19

Donna Parmelee was not a happy woman. She stood behind the bar of the women’s club café while she poured what looked like iced tea into several glasses. When this was done, she took the glasses and delivered them to a table, placing them in front of three women and giving each a smile. She walked back to the bar and I noticed how tall and thin she was. And also very pretty. Both she and her husband were extremely good looking people. She had thick, expertly highlighted hair, which she pulled back into a ponytail and of course it looked terrific. So I already had to hate her, right? She wore a pair of Liz Claiborne black walking shorts and a black and white blouse, which set off the highlighted strands of her hair. When she was approached by someone, she smiled and chatted, filling drink orders with ease. But when she was alone, I noticed a tense expression had come over her face and the bright blue eyes lost their sparkle.

Sam and I sat at a table alone and hadn’t yet spoken to Donna. We consulted the menu and placed our order for the day’s special with the cheery young woman who stood at our table. She explained everyone in the club, with the exception of the chef, the nursery attendant, and a secretary, were volunteers. At present, there were over twelve hundred members, and from all the activity, I thought a good portion of them were at the club today. The waitress, whose name was Helen, said this was a rather quiet day. Most of the members returned to the United States or some other holiday destination for the summer. Just a few remained for the summer and thus, the clubhouse hours were reduced.

“Well, if this is a slow time,” Sam said, “I’d hate to see it when everyone’s here.”

“Yeah,” the young woman laughed, “it can be a bit hectic, but we have a lot of fun. I don’t know what I would do without it.”

Wanda had said the same thing at the cookout and I began to get the feeling living in a foreign country was a lot different than just being a tourist. There were only so many days one could go off to see another castle before you wanted to do ordinary things. Wanda had explained most of the women gave up their own careers to follow their husbands and the club provided a much-needed creative outlet for the wives.

When the volunteer left with our orders I turned to Sam. “I’ve been trying to get Donna’s attention but she’s really busy. Maybe we came at a bad time.”

“We’ve got all day. She’s got to finish some time. We’ll just sit and eat our lunch.”

“Can you see us living here and not having the agency to go off to everyday? I’m not sure I would like it much. Maybe for a year or two,” I mused.

“Well, I think that’s about all they stay, isn’t it? Didn’t someone mention the usual stay is about three years?” Sam asked. “I think it might be fun. But I would miss Mom and Dad too much.”

“And Meme. For grown, married women, we sure are Momma’s girls, aren’t we?” I laughed.

“Two iced teas?” Donna stood at our table. “Oh! Alex. Sam. What are you doing here?”

“Having lunch,” Sam said brightly.

“We’re at loose ends today. Sam’s husband is off observing a surgery and John is working with Inspector Willix on Martine’s murder.” Donna’s face went pale. “Can you join us?” I asked.

Donna looked around. There was a full crowd in the café but no one new had walked in for a while. After making sure everyone had a drink, she took a seat, keeping an eye on the bar. “It feels good to sit. I’ve been here for about three hours stocking the bar and washing glasses. We’re a bit limited on volunteers this time of year.”

“I would imagine you’re probably still upset over Martine’s death, too,” Sam said. My sister was really getting into the swing of things. I knew some of our friends thought it was odd she joined me on my honeymoon, but I was having a blast. And considering the groom was occupied with other things, I was happy she and Michael came with us.

“I haven’t given it much thought.” Donna picked at something on her shorts.

“Really? But she was Doug’s secretary. I thought it would really bother you,” Sam said.

“I didn’t know her well. I only saw her when Wanda had her various parties. We never did anything together outside of that.” Donna’s expression had become stern and she tensely folded her arms across her chest.

“Doug and Bill must be having a hard time. They were all together for several years,” I offered knowing I was being a bit insensitive and feeling guilty for it.

“I don’t know about Bill,” Donna shrugged, “as for Doug, I haven’t asked him and he hasn’t said.” Donna crossed her legs and started to swing one.

Sam asked, “Is there going to be a funeral? Are you going?”

“Look,” Donna said, trying to keep her voice down but having a difficult time of it. “If you must know, I wasn’t all that fond of Martine, for reasons I won’t get into. So if there’s going to be a funeral, I wouldn’t know and I wouldn’t go even if I did.” Donna tapped the fingers of her left hand on the table. “I’m sorry. I sound rude and insensitive, I know, but I have good reason. Oh hell. You’ll probably hear about it before long. Now that Martine is dead, these things have a way of showing their ugly selves to the world. And your husband is helping that Belgian detective, right?” She gave me a less than friendly look. Donna took a deep breath. “Doug had an affair with Martine several years ago. It didn’t last more than a month and we had a lot more important things going on in our lives at the time so I really didn’t give it much thought. It wasn’t important and I’ve forgotten all about it. And even if he hadn’t had an affair with her, I’m sure she and I wouldn’t have been close. We had nothing in common and we were, well, we were just different.”

“Gosh, I’m sorry, Donna. It’s none of our business. We didn’t mean to pry.” I had become quite proficient at lying. I wasn’t too happy about that, but I couldn’t very well tell the woman we knew most of what she just said and that the murder and everyone’s part in it, whatever that turned out to be, had become our primary topic of conversation.

“Don’t worry about it. It happened a long time ago. It’s all in the past.” Donna flashed her smile again showing off a set of teeth that would make Michael proud. “Don’t give it a second thought. I never do. Martine and I were able to get past it and we found a way to be cordial to each other. She was never a threat. Look, I’ve got to go. A few more tables have filled up.”

“Donna, one more thing,” Sam said. “If you and Martine got along so well, then why were you so mad at Wanda for inviting her?”

Donna’s eyes blazed into Sam and I grimaced. Donna turned abruptly and stormed off without saying another word as I glared at my sister.

“Why did you say that?”

“Why not? That’s what we’re here for, aren’t we?”

“Well, yes,” I conceded, “but you didn’t have to be so blunt.”

“Blunt. She’s the one telling us, complete strangers by the way, her husband had an affair with his secretary.”

“Sshhh! Keep your voice down. She probably hasn’t made a public announcement to the club yet,” I added sarcastically.

“Look, I’m just pointing out all this forgiveness stuff is a bunch of bunk. You said she was angry with Wanda. Well, if she’s pretending to not have any ill feelings toward Martine, beside despising the woman—but we know she did—then who’s to say she didn’t take a piece of floss from the medicine cabinet, or better yet, maybe she already had it with her, her teeth are impeccably clean, by the way, and just mosey on into the bathroom to teach Martine a lesson.”

“Samantha. Really. Not getting along with the woman your husband has slept with doesn’t necessarily mean you would kill her.”

“I don’t get you. I thought that’s what we wanted to do, shake things up and find ourselves a murderer. I don’t know about you, but if Michael were to have an affair with his nurse, murder would be at the top of my list.”

“Sorry, it took so long,” the waitress put two steaming plates of coq-au-vin in front of us. “We’re a bit behind in the kitchen. We got very busy all of a sudden. The chef wasn’t expecting such a turnout today.”

After she left, I continued. “You’re right. About trying to shake things up a bit,
not
about killing Michael. I just hate to upset someone. For all her talk, Doug’s affair is obviously still a sore point.”

“Exactly. And that sore may have been in need of a good dose of a soothing balm in the guise of a few pieces of mint floss twisted just a tad too tightly,
n’est ce pas
?”

“Honestly, Sam. You’re taking this sleuthing a bit too seriously. What have I created?” I always knew my sister’s way was a bit like a steamroller gone berserk, but I hoped I could keep the brakes on before we both got killed.

We ate our coq-au-vin while Donna remained on the other side of the room ignoring us completely. We had just ordered dessert and hot tea and coffee, delivered by a volunteer other than Donna, when a somewhat recognizable voice startled us.

“Mind if I join you?” Jobeth Mulberry asked and then promptly called after the waitress and ordered a piece of cake.

“Certainly. I’m sorry, we didn’t see you come in.” I hoped Jobeth hadn’t heard our conversation.

Jobeth’s roots were still peeking out from under the beehive—maybe she was out ministering to a member of the flock instead of going to the hairdressers, I thought as I moved over to allow her room to put another chair.