The Witch Who Mysteries Box Set

by Katie Penryn

  Sam became flustered. I tried to stop him from saying anything else, but he shook my arm off.

  “Of course not. It was enough that Felix and I found Emmanuelle and took her home before the damage was done.”

  I interrupted again. “Inspector, I imagine you’ve checked the CCTV of the hospital car park for the time of the murder. Wouldn’t you have found my brother’s vehicle if he’d been there?”

  Dubois laughed. “You think he couldn’t have parked up out of sight of the cameras and walked in? Honestly, sometimes Madame Munro you are too gullible.”

  I was beginning to see red and forgot his courtesy title.

  “Dubois, this is my brother you are talking about. A kind, thoughtful young man.”

  “That’s not what the hotel clerk reported.”

  “So, he and Felix gave Sauvage a bit of a lesson, but that was all. He doesn’t have it in him to plot a cold blooded murder such as Sauvage’s. All that stuff about disguise and lying in wait. It just isn’t Sam.”

  “You would say that, Madame Munro. As far as I am concerned, your brother is at the top of my list of suspects. He had transport, he has no alibi, and he had motive.”

  I made a mental note to ask Sam if the recycling center would be able to provide him with an alibi. Perhaps their CCTV had picked him up entering or leaving at the time of the murder. For the time being, what was Dubois going to do? He had jumped the gun in the past when he’d arrested Gwinny on the slimmest of evidence.

  “I can see what you’re thinking, Madame Munro, but no I am not going to make the same mistake twice. If and when I find conclusive proof that your brother smothered Sauvage I shall arrest him in the twinkling of an eye, but for the time being, I’ll have his passport,” he said holding out his hand.

  Sam took his passport out of his pocket again and passed it over. “You are not to leave Beaucoup-sur-mer, Monsieur Munro. Understood?”

  Sam nodded. He had turned pale when he realized that Dubois could have held him on suspicion.

  “You may leave now.”

  As we stood up to go Dubois suddenly rounded on Sam and asked him, “One thing — what did you do to Sauvage that morning? The clerk says he had to administer first aid in the early hours of the morning. Sauvage had a long deep scratch down his chest as if he’d been clawed by a lion or a bear.”

  Sam hadn’t a clue what Dubois was talking about, but Felix had told me what he’d done.

  I stepped in quickly, “My brother knows nothing about that,” I said with conviction because it was true. “Perhaps Sauvage harmed himself in some way.”

  “That’s right,” said Sam. “We didn’t even come to blows, you know.”

  Sam and I collected Felix on our way out and drove off quickly before Dubois could change his mind.

  Chapter 21

  We drove the first few miles in silence. Sam sat in the corner of the back seat rocking himself backwards and forwards and avoiding my eye in the rear view mirror. Felix looked across at me in query but I shook my head and mouthed Leave it.

  It wasn’t until we neared the Esplanade that Sam caught my eye in the mirror and spoke.

  “Penzi, what are we going to do? Inspector Dubois really thinks I did it. He really thinks I killed Jonny Sauvage.”

  What could I say? Dubois had shown that Sam had means, motive and opportunity. Well, at first sight he had. I mentally granted Dubois points one and two. Had I considered the possibility that Sam was guilty? The treacherous thought had crossed my mind, I have to admit, but I had dismissed it quickly. I could almost have imagined Sam wanting to kill Jonny Sauvage to punish him for what he had tried to do to Emmanuelle, but smothering an unconscious man would have been against the moral fiber of the young man who was my brother. The only possible scenario that would have made sense to me was if Sam had fought Sauvage and injured him fatally. I could imagine manslaughter but not murder.

  This case was not about manslaughter.

  We were almost home when I answered Sam.

  “It’s no good going on about how you don’t have the character to murder someone. Dubois wouldn’t listen. Two avenues of defense are available to us. One, we prove you didn’t have the opportunity. We have to show that you were elsewhere at the critical time. I leave that up to you, Sam. You must take Gwinny’s car and go back to the recycling center, find out if your car shows up on any of the records for the CCTV cameras. We know they have them from the last case. Failing that, check out the route back to the house. See if there are any CCTV cameras along the route, possibly in the gatehouse on the town walls. Check with the neighbors. Did anyone see you in our street at the critical time? Did you stop along the way? Can you do that today because Felix and I have other people to question?”

  “Yes, I can do that, but I feel so scared it’s going to be difficult to act confident and ask the right questions.”

  I smiled at him in the mirror as I turned into our street.

  “Sam, you can do it. Quite honestly, you have to because Felix and I have to concentrate on the second avenue of defense.”

  Felix turned round to look at Sam. “You know what that is?”

  Sam shook his head.

  “Attack. It’s often the best form of defense. We find the real murderer and present him to Dubois on a plate.”

  I sighed as I parked the car and switched off the engine. “Here we go again. Treading on Madame Fer-de-Lance’s toes.”

  “She can’t do anything to us though, can she Penzi?” Sam asked as he got out of the car.

  “She could. Our standing here in France is not as secure as it was when we arrived a few weeks ago. When the results of the Brexit referendum are put in motion, our living here will depend on good will and permission from the French authorities. We will no longer be EU citizens and have an automatic right of residence. So we must be discreet.”

  “I’ll be careful,” said Sam as he followed Felix and me into the house.

  *

  I worried all through lunch about how to tackle Monsieur Bonhomie when we interviewed him that afternoon. I’d phoned him when we arrived home to fix a time. As it was Saturday and I knew he loved his long weekend lunches, we agreed on 5 p.m. I should have had a siesta but ended up listening to an audiobook as my anxiety wouldn’t let me sleep.

  The afternoon started well. The mayor greeted us and took us round to the terrace at the front of his house. He had laid on an English tea for us complete with a French gâteau topped with strawberries and fresh cream.

  Once his wife had seen we all had tea and cake, she left us with the mayor.

  “Now, what is so urgent that you have to talk to me on my Saturday afternoon?” he asked me. “Do you have news about Sauvage’s family that I have yet to hear?”

  “No, monsieur,” I said.

  How to start? It was clear he hadn’t any idea that he could be considered a suspect. He was the mayor of Beaucoup-sur-mer after all.

  “Delicious cake,” I said, but the mayor waved my compliment away and lent forward with his hands on his knees.

  “Well?” he said.

  “Monsieur Bonhomie, I would like to ask you some difficult and personal questions.”

  He sat back and gave me a funny look as if to say what-on-earth?

  “It’s about Jonny Sauvage’s death,” I continued. I said death rather than murder hoping to defuse the pointedness of my questions.

  He shrugged. “Of course, anything I can do to help, but I don’t know any more than you do.”

  “May I ask you what your movements were on the Thursday morning?”

  “I was at work, of course.”

  “All morning? You were in your office all morning? Can your secretary confirm that?”

  “What the—? Are you questioning my veracity?” he said flinging his napkin on the ground and stomping off.

  I cued Felix. “Fetch him back. Smooth talk him.”

  Felix caught up with him before he reached the house. A conversation followed with much hand wavi
ng and gestures of exasperation, but Felix did succeed in persuading him to return to the table.

  “I apologize if I offended you, monsieur,” I said as he sat down again. “Can we start again?”

  “Actually,” he said. “I was wrong. I’d forgotten I had a dental appointment on Thursday morning so I wasn’t in the office all morning.”

  “What time was the appointment? And where is the surgery?” I asked.

  “Nine o’clock. The surgery’s in the new medical complex attached to the hospital.”

  So the mayor who had a good motive — wanting to kill the man who had attempted to seduce his daughter — had been within striking distance of Jonny Sauvage earlier on that morning.

  “What time did your appointment end?”

  “I would say at about ten.”

  “Did you go back to the office that morning?”

  “Yes, I didn’t stop anywhere on the way back. But why are you asking me these questions?”

  “Monsieur, we have to clear you from our list of sus—”

  That did it. He got to his feet as fast as his portly frame would allow. “I suggest you leave now, Madame Munro. I am not in the habit of being accused of murder.”

  “It’s just elimination, Monsieur le Maire,” I said, but I was talking to his back as he stalked off back to his house.

  “Oh dear,” said Felix. “That didn’t go very well. What’ll we do if he reports us to Dubois or Madame Fer-de-Lance?”

  “Fortunately, he doesn’t get on too well with Dubois. We’ll deal with that if and when we have to. For now, make a note to check with the dental surgery.”

  Felix jotted it down in his notebook. “It occurs to me Penzi, we’re going to need access to the CCTV at the hospital and medical center before we’re done.”

  “Yes, but remember the footage can show a car that’s there, but just because a car isn’t there, doesn’t mean it wasn’t.”

  “That’s a bit garbled.”

  “What I mean is a vehicle can be out of sight of the camera.”

  “Hunh,” said Felix. “What shall we do now? Interview the landlady as we planned?”

  *

  We returned home after our awkward interview of the mayor only to find that Madame Desert, Jonny Sauvage’s erstwhile landlady and Audrey’s new landlady, lived on the other side of the bay three doors down from the mayor. Yes, she could give us half an hour but no more. She had friends coming for dinner as it was a Saturday night.

  As one would expect from her position of the foremost owner and lessor of both residential and commercial property in the town, her house was superb. Although not built in the traditional style it blended in with the local tall pine trees one of which grew through the verandah running round the first floor. She called down to us to mount the wrought iron spiral staircase on the outside of the verandah. From there the view out over the bay and out to the open sea dazzled me. Glimpses through the French windows fronting on our seating area showed light spacious rooms. Bright modern art hung on white walls.

  Two little Pekineses ran to greet us snuffling around our ankles. I didn’t like small dogs much, being frightened of stepping on them or shutting them in doors, but these two bounced around like miniature rodeo horses.

  Madame Desert wore silk pajamas in the style of the Riviera of the 1920’s. Her artfully colored blond hair bounced on her shoulders in a neat pageboy as she welcomed us to her home.

  “Would you like something to drink?” she asked us as we took our seats in the cool breeze coming in from the sea. “A pineau, a kir royale?”

  Felix and I both opted for the kir.

  I had already weighed Madame Desert up as being an intelligent pro-active businesswoman. Now I added gracious hostess and art lover.

  How could anyone imagine that this woman would sneak into a hospital and hold a pillow over her victim’s face? She’d be more likely to concoct a weird but efficacious poison, and I was sure she’d never suffocate a man in a coma. But then, people continue to surprise me, and so I had to carry on with my questioning.

  After a few minutes of small talk I said, “Madame Desert, you mentioned that Jonny Sauvage, the American blues singer, left owing you a year’s rent last time he was here in Beaucoup-sur-mer.”

  “Yes, that’s right. Something in region of fifty thousand Euros. It was one of my highest earning rentals. A magnificent villa on a cliff a short way down the south coast.”

  “That must have affected your income for the year.”

  “In truth, Penzi, the damage his band caused to the building and grounds cost me far more than the lost rental. I think I mentioned that.”

  “So you did. May I ask you for your movements on Thursday morning of this past week?”

  “What an extraordinary question out of the blue.” She said stroking imaginary dust off her pajama pants. “Moreover, I don’t think I’m willing to answer you.”

  “It would help us to rule you out.”

  “Rule me out. Out of what?”

  Oh dear, I hadn’t been as tactful as I could have been. It’s all right for the police they have the right to ask questions but for amateurs like me …

  “Oh,” she said as realization hit her. “You think I could have done something to that poor young man? Well, I never,”

  And she began to laugh a well bred restrained laugh but laugh all the same.

  “I assure you that if the police were to question me — with all the weight of their legal authority, I might add — I would answer, give them my alibi, but not you. Where I was Thursday morning touches on my private life and, if I may say so, is none of your business.”

  Felix hastened to smooth her down. “Madame Desert, Penzi doesn’t for a moment think you are a serious contender for the role of murderer, but we have to narrow the list so we can concentrate on the real possibilities.”

  “Yes, I can see that,” she said, and she laughed again. “If you think I would murder that scoundrel in revenge because he owed me money, you are way off target. How would I ever get my money back if he was dead for one thing? And for another, I’m sure if you ask around you will find a plethora of businessmen and women in the same position as me. In fact, the local Chamber of Commerce held a meeting about his debts way back then but we never saw a centime.”

  “Can you give us some names?” I asked her.

  “Of course not,” she snapped.

  This time I had encroached too far on her privacy.

  “I think it’s time for you to consider leaving,” she said, angry but courteous right up to the end.

  Felix and I salvaged what we could of any good will she had left for us with fulsome goodbyes and thank-yous and made our way down the staircase to our waiting car.

  “Phew,” said Felix once we were safely away. “If we carry on like this, we’re going to have no friends left, Penzi.”

  “What else are we to do? We have to find Jonny’s killer and we have to put Sam well out of reach of Dubois’s silly suspicions.”

  Chapter 22

  Jimbo was jumping about with excitement on our doorstep when our car drew up.

  “Penzi, Penzi,” he shouted with glee, dancing around the car and getting in the way when I tried to open my door.

  “Whatever is the matter?”

  “Special delivery. Lots of parcels for you.”

  The last time I received a special delivery it turned out to be a very strange cat from the Middle Congo. What could it be this time?

  My misgivings proved to be unfounded. Two beehives, a box of beekeeper’s protective clothing and other beekeeping equipment, and two small boxes that buzzed stood waiting for us in the kitchen, already unpacked.

  “I couldn’t wait for you,” said Jimbo, picking up the small boxes and shaking them.

  “Hey, don’t do that,” said Felix quickly taking the boxes away from Jimbo and laying them carefully on the table. “I suppose you don’t understand the French labels? They say Abeilles Vivantes. Live Bees.”

&nb
sp; “I should have guessed that from the buzzing, but what are they for?” asked Jimbo.

  “We’re setting up two hives in our garden ready for when we plant it. For the time being the bees can forage in the neighborhood.”

  “Those little boxes can’t hold many bees, Felix.”

  “Jimbo, we’ll be collecting a couple of swarms tomorrow,” I said. “Would you like to help us?”

  “Sure,” he said jumping about around the kitchen table. “Now?”

  “As soon as Felix and I have had a drink you and Sam — where is Sam? Is he back yet?”

  “No,” said Audrey. “He’s asking questions up and down our street like you told him to.”

  “Jimbo, Felix and I will carry the hives down to The Union Jack ready for tomorrow. We’ll keep the new arrivals here so we can feed them a little sugar candy. Each box contains a queen bee and a few courtiers.”

  “Wow!” said Jimbo.

  Felix took out the bag of kibble we’d fed to him when he was in his cat mode. “We’ll take this with us for Brutus and Naomi.”

  “Who are they?” asked Jimbo.

  “Two cats we know. They used to work at Tidot’s bakery. They’re out of job and need a home and so Felix and I took them to Audrey’s shop yesterday.”

  “That’s the first I’ve heard of it,” said Audrey. “Piffle I know about, but two cats?”

  “You’ll need them. Felix and I have arranged to get rid of the rats living underground, but you’ll need feline help to stop them from coming back. You can’t expect little Piffle to do everything.”

  “All right,” she said. “I like cats.”

  “You mustn’t spoil them. These are working cats.”

  Felix had drained his glass of water and I followed suit. Jimbo, Felix and I set off for the shop with the two hives and all the rest of paraphernalia ready for the magic work to be done the next day. On the way I warned Jimbo we would be repeating the anti-rat spell. It was a secret because it was magic, and so he was not to mention it to Audrey.

  I put down food for Brutus and Naomi while Jimbo and Felix gave them a good petting.