by Katie Penryn
He shook my hand and said, “Oh, you’re British, too. My French is excellent because I’ve been living here since my parents moved over when I was a kid. I went to school here. But I enjoy speaking English when I get the chance.”
“Mind if we sit down?” Felix asked pointing to a circle of beanbags, the only seating available.
“Please,” he said dropping into one himself. “I’m sorry if I seemed hesitant opening the door. I’ve been working on the black and I was worried you were the authorities come to grill me. But you say the mayor sent you about the explosion?”
I nodded. “We saw you working in the baker’s shop the night before the explosion. He left you to finish the job and asked you to lock up?”
“That’s right. I had no idea I would be the last person in the building before it blew up.”
“Apart from the saboteur,” said Felix. “You do know the police think it was deliberate and not an unfortunate accident?”
“Yes, and I’ve heard rumors of insurance fraud.”
“That’s why we’re here,” I said. “To find evidence to prove it wasn’t.”
“Of course, the mayor’s sister is married to Tidot.”
“So, what can you tell us? Did you smell gas before you left?”
He shook his head.
“Did you use your drill to make a hole in the pipe leading to the oven?”
He shifted in his seat. “Now look here. I said I’d answer your questions, reasonable ones, not accusations of a crime.”
“What time did you finish work and leave?”
“Shortly after Tidot did. Say, half an hour.”
“And then what did you do?”
“I went to the pub and had a meal and came home and watched a bit of TV. Then went to bed to be jolted awake by the blast at 4 a.m.”
“What did you do with the keys?” asked Sam.
“I didn’t have any. The front door closes on a Yale. Once out I couldn’t get back in. Tidot’s assistant has a set of keys. She let me in one morning when I got there before Tidot.”
I made a mental note to ask her about that when I noticed faithful Sam writing it in his notebook.
“So you can’t prove you didn’t cause the explosion, can you?”
He got to his feet and opened the front door. “Go. I’ve answered your questions. And no I can’t prove I didn’t, but you can’t prove I did.”
“What did you think?” I asked Felix and Sam as we walked back to our car.
“Hard to say,” said Felix opening my car door for me.
“Didn’t like him much,” Sam said. “But that doesn’t make him the murderer.”
Chapter 16
Xavier Dubois had said he would pick me up at six thirty. I was sitting in the living room looking out of the widow across the bay waiting for him when Felix came in. I couldn’t miss his clean jeans, long sleeved shirt and tie.
“Felix, you’re not coming with me. I told you that at lunchtime.”
He came right up to me and stood fixing me with his peridot colored eyes. “Penzi, I’m your bodyguard, and so you have to let me perform my function in life. I can’t let you go out in the evening without me. This town is no longer free from evil.”
“Really, Felix. You’re exaggerating. Inspector Dubois will be looking after me door to door this evening. How could I be any safer than with an inspector of the local police?”
Felix stepped back from my chair, turned and stalked out of the room as Dubois’s car drew up outside.
I didn’t mind Felix protecting me when necessary but I drew the line at being smothered.
Dubois was all French charm: courtesy kiss on the hand, bunch of violets and a hand on my waist to steer me through the door and down to his waiting carriage.
*
We turned right at the top of the road away from the Esplanade and drove for about ten minutes down the south coast. It was early for a summer’s evening. The road was busy with traffic in both directions, holidaymakers out seeking enjoyment at the many restaurants in and around Beaucoup-sur-mer.
Dubois had chosen a restaurant right on the cliff top overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. We were shown through the main building to a terrace built out over the sea and lined with pillars draped in purple bougainvillea.
I couldn’t wait to ask him what he had uncovered so far about the explosion at Tidot’s bakery. As soon as we were through the pleasantries of ordering our food and had received our apéritifs of kir royale I launched my first question.
He shrugged it off saying, “I hoped this was to be a social occasion between us, Mpenzi. Can we leave the police business until another time?”
“Xavier you invited me on the pretext of filling me in on your investigation, you know you did.”
He had the grace to smile. “Here in France we say, En amour comme à la guerre, tous les coups sont permis – All’s fair in love and war.”
“And which was this? Love or war?” I asked him with a hint of the flirt in my smile.
“I think you know. A little bit of both.”
“How come?”
“Well, you must know I find you very attractive, but we have this professional rub between us. You the amateur, me the professional.”
“Xavier, I have been careful not to usurp your authority or get in your way.”
“I know that, but I have to deal with Madame Fer-de-Lance. You make her feel territorially challenged.”
“I’m working on the mayor’s invitation.”
“I understand that, but you must keep a low profile. No?”
I nodded in agreement and was on the point of asking him to catch me up to date again when the maître d’ appeared at my elbow and coughed to attract Dubois’s attention.
Dubois said, “Yes?”
“I have a message for Madame Munro. There is an animal in the kitchen — a big cat…”
Oh no, that wretched Felix. He hadn’t dared turn up as a leopard, had he? I held my breath while the man continued.
“It has a note tied round its neck saying it belongs to Madame Munro.”
Dubois tutted. “Send it away. We’re having a quiet dinner here and don’t want to be disturbed.”
“Very well,” the maître d’ said and left only to return a minute later leading a Savannah cat on a blue leash.
Felix the wretch rubbed himself against my ankles and meowed in his signature baritone. The customers at the nearby tables said, “Oh how sweet. Look at that cute cat.”
What could Dubois do? He would have seemed ungracious if he’d insisted Felix was removed especially when the maître d’ picked Felix up and sat him on the chair next to me.
Felix smirked and gave me a cat wink.
So he was determined to protect me. From what? Evil or Dubois?
I turned my back on Felix, determined to ignore his bad behavior and concentrate on pumping Dubois for information.
“May I ask you if you investigated the driver who delivered the gas to the bakery?”
Dubois narrowed his eyes. “Not now, Mpenzi.”
“Just one question, Xavier.”
Dubois shook his head but he answered me. “Yes, we have checked out everything to do with his delivery. He performed all the mandatory safety checks, and he has an impeccable record.”
“What about other suspects?” I asked him, eager to strike while I had him in a responsive mood.
He stretched across the table and drew my hand into his. “Mpenzi, no business while we have our dinner. You are spoiling the rom—”
Clunk! Dubois’s wine glass toppled over spilling red wine all down his pristine white jeans.
“Punaise!” Dubois leapt to his feet snatching up his napkin and dabbing frantically at his trouser leg.
A muffled snort sounded on the chair beside me. Felix had his paw across his whiskers to hide his grin.
“I’ll murder that cat,” Dubois cried out snapping the wet napkin at Felix.
Felix shrank back in his chair in mock fear. The c
ustomers all called out to Dubois, “Shame on you. The poor cat.”
The poor cat jumped off his chair and soared through the air to land on my lap.
That did it. Dubois shouted, “Ca suffit!” He took hold of Felix’s leash and pulled and dragged him out of the restaurant. I left them to it knowing that Felix could hold his own.
Dubois returned still wiping at his pants and sat down with a harrumph.
“What did you do?” I asked him, trying not to laugh.
“Mpenzi, it is not comical when your pet does such a thing. I shut him in my car.”
All right, I thought. At least Felix would have a lift home.
Chapter 17
Felix
I knew Penzi would be angry with me for following her to the restaurant. She would have thought I was stalking her and I suppose I was to be honest. I didn’t like the thought of her alone with Dubois in a romantic setting. Call me insecure but my relationship with Penzi, that of boss and bodyguard, precluded any romantic involvement between us. You know the old adage, don’t mix business with pleasure. Not being able to push home my own advantage left me with only one alternative, to scupper any notions Dubois might have had about romancing Penzi. I sat in the back of Dubois’s car on the way home at the end of their date and stroked my whiskers with my paw congratulating myself on heading him off at the first fence. I had to stay in cat mode until he had dropped us off. That meant tolerating his long speech on the doorstep while he tried to angle Penzi into position for a goodnight kiss. I succeeded in insinuating myself between his ankles causing him to lose his balance as he leaned towards her. The curse that escaped him didn’t endear him to her giving me a double victory.
Penzi ignored me when we entered the house letting me pass through in front of her before she closed the door. Even when I morphed into Felix the man in front of her, she looked the other way. It was past midnight and the household was asleep. She had to be tired after a day spent interviewing suspects but I had hoped she would see the funny side of things. So we parted without a word, Penzi making herself a cup of cocoa and taking it up to bed, leaving me to switch off the lights downstairs. That was the first night since we had met that she hadn’t said good night to me. I was forced to realize I had overstepped the mark in thrusting myself into the middle of her dinner with Dubois. I should have believed her when she said she was going on the date because she needed to keep Dubois on side.
The dogs picked up on the atmosphere between Penzi and me.
“What have you done?” they asked.
“None of your business,” I said as I left them in the dark in the kitchen and made my way upstairs to my bedroom feeling depressed.
*
A shriek of terror broke through my dreams of Africa. Penzi’s voice calling out for me. Pitch black surrounded me. I couldn’t find the light switch but that didn’t matter because I was already shifting into my leopard persona, an automatic response to danger, and leopards can see in the dark. I was by far the most powerful of my three beings as a leopard.
I took a few seconds to breathe deeply and pump oxygen around my muscles before bounding out of my room and along the corridor to Penzi’s. A foul odor reached my nostrils, an odor of decay. As I reached her door she let another piercing cry for help, “Felix, where are you?”
I crashed through the door and slid across the floor to the side of her bed brushing against a cone of icy blue light beaming down at the foot of her bed. I felt a presence as I passed. A malign presence. The fur down my spine stiffened in a ridge, but I only had eyes for Penzi. She had pressed herself back into the headboard in an effort to get as far away as possible. She let out her breath when she saw me, took a gulp of air and pointed a shaking finger at the foot of her bed.
What I saw propelled me into a giant leap onto the bed to shield her from the evil that confronted her. That brought me muzzle to mask with one of the most wicked men I have ever met. I recognized him immediately by the belt of monkey skulls girdling his waist and the necklace of black scorpion skeletons hanging round his neck. I feinted a blow with my paw and he jerked backwards setting the skulls to a hollow rattling and making the bleached bones of his headdress clack. His face was eighteen inches tall and half as wide, stark white with great black circles through which his evil eyes flashed as he assessed the level of Penzi’s protection. His right hand stabbed at me with a machete while his left brandished an orb made from a human skull. The stink of putrefaction wafted across the room from the half cured animal skins of his costume.
“It’ll take more than that,” I snarled at him. “You know I carry the magic of my people with me wherever I am. I didn’t leave it behind in my African village. I will not let you harm her.”
Penzi touched my flank. “You know him? Who is he?”
Without taking my eyes off the villain I told her the bad news. “He’s the witchdoctor of the Wazini tribe and your father’s arch enemy.”
Penzi whispered behind me, “What’s he doing here?”
The witchdoctor slashed at me with his machete again. I ducked the blow and roared out loud at him. He shrank back within his protective cone of blue light.
“He’s tracked you. He means you harm because you are Sir Archibald’s daughter.”
I jumped down onto the floor and prowled around the cone of blue light, lashing my tail in anger. I roared at him and clawed at his shield but his magic was too strong for me to penetrate. Penzi put her hands over her ears and scrabbled back even closer to the wall.
I leapt back onto the bed. “I can’t break through his protective ring but he can’t risk attacking you while I’m here. So it’s stalemate. I’ll stay here in front of you until he gives up and leaves.”
“Are you sure he’ll go?” asked Penzi her voice quavering as she tried to keep a hold of herself.
“He’ll have to go at daybreak or he won’t make it back to Africa.”
The witchdoctor’s eyes glittered behind the mask. He brandished his orb three times in Penzi’s direction, spun around twice widdershins and vanished.
Penzi clicked the light on. “I was too scared to move before,” she said. “Has he really gone?”
“Until next time.”
“How did he get here?”
“By magic. There must be a portal here somewhere otherwise he would have been imprisoned in spacetime. Do you know of any magic portals?”
Penzi sighed. “Of course not. We’ve been here for a fortnight and I’ve been a practicing witch for only about ten days, but who’s counting?”
I curled up on the end of her bed. “I’m staying here for the night. Lock your door. We don’t want Gwinny or Audrey walking in with a cup of tea in the morning and dying of fright when they see a leopard on your bed.”
As soon as she was back in bed, I continued, “Tomorrow we will scout around for anything that could be a magic portal.”
Penzi laughed. “We don’t have any dolmens in the garden.”
“No, I know that. But do you have any strange arches that don’t appear to lead anywhere or mirrors in unexpected places?”
Something registered. She blinked twice. “Funny you should ask that. The first time we went into the brocante I found a large ornate mirror but no one else could see it. They all thought it was a door. Could that be one?”
“It’s possible. Tomorrow we’ll have a look and we’ll find a spell to give you protection from his magic. I can’t sleep on your bed every night. Apart from the proprieties, I take up too much room.”
Penzi smiled at me. “Thank you, Felix. I’m sorry I was so snarky earlier on. Don’t forget we have more interviews tomorrow.”
She snuggled down and fell asleep before I had even cleaned my whiskers.
Chapter 18
Felix lay fast asleep on my bed when I woke up the next morning. I gave him a kick.
“Wake up. I don’t want anyone to see you leaving my room. They might get the wrong idea, especially Gwinny or Audrey who don’t know you’re a shape sh
ifter.”
He stretched his great muscles like the big cat he was and his coat rippled from his head to the tip of his long tail. His mouth opened in a yawn akin to a silent roar and leapt onto the floor, an image of molten gold.
“Right, boss,” he said as he morphed back into his human form. “How are you feeling after the scary drama of last night?”
“Don’t call me boss,” I said automatically but without any real force. I was too busy trying to analyze my feelings.
I wasn’t frightened but I was apprehensive. Would we be able to do anything about these nocturnal visitations from the weird witchdoctor? We would have to do our best. As Felix said, he couldn’t sleep on my bed for the rest of my life.
“We’ll see what we can do but it will have to wait until this evening. We have more interviews to carry out today.”
“Who shall we see first?”
“I suggest Monsieur Brioche. He’ll be back from the conference now. In fact, if you give me a few minutes to get dressed, we could go together to fetch this morning’s breakfast.”
Felix gave me a mock salute and left my room.
*
Strolling up the cobbled street in the early morning sun with the smell of the sea blown in on a gentle breeze, I struggled with my memories of the night before. Could it all have been a strange dream, a magic dream involving both Felix and me? But Felix hadn’t hesitated for a moment in his recognition of the apparition. I feared he knew much more about the situation than he was letting on.
Brioche was opening up his shop for the early morning crowd as we arrived. We stood by while he served the clutch of waiting customers so we could speak to him at some length when they thinned out.
“Good morning, Madame Munro,” he said. “I’m sure you heard everyone discussing the explosion at Tidot’s bakery. Have you heard the latest news?”
I shook my head. “What news?”
“Only that Tidot was in the bakery when it blew up and is presumed dead.”