by Agnès Ruiz
“Do not go too fast. And have the paintings appraised. There may be surprises.”
“Like finding out that they were also stolen, for example?”
Rachel Toury did not respond to this possible finding. She will probably have to conduct an investigation on this. She let Annabelle leave the parking lot, still wondering about the fresh comments.
Detective Toury went to the science laboratory and presented the envelope to Matthieu Lorieux.
“Can you do a fingerprints search for me and open it up to the rules of the art, Matt?
“It’s like asking a monkey to refuse a banana!”
The detective laughed at the curious analogy.
“The envelope has nothing special about it. That was a person who did not want to leave a clue,” the expert commented.
“I think so, indeed.”
The sheet of paper inside is of superior quality. A thick grammage...”
They both leaned over the letter. Words had been cut off from a newspaper. It was clearly a blackmail letter.
Rachel took a snapshot of the letter and left the contact details of the investigating officer with Matthieu Lorieux so he could send him the result of his analyses.
“Thanks for everything, Matt. I’m going.”
“It’s always a pleasure.”
A few days later, the detective was visited by her colleague. He shook her hand with vigorous cheeks.
“Thanks to you, Rachel, I’ve just completed a case that’s more than 20 years old. You would not understand how much it upset me.”
“On the contrary, I can understand of course,” the detective said. “We’re going to drink something, and you’ll tell me everything?”
He agreed, and they crossed the street to the cafe where most of the colleagues used to meet.
The new elements had largely contributed to fill the terrible gaps in this famous unsolved Vincent Caron murder case.
“You were right, Rachel. Micheline Lemercier used to blackmail the Rambouillets. Or Ritchards, their real names. Her boss, the private detective had done a good job. He had discovered their true identities. We finally found the documents... when Micheline Lemercier’s corpse was found.”
“If I remember correctly, she disappeared without a trace,” the detective said.
“And for a good reason, she had been murdered. No doubt because of the blackmail she tried to exercise on the Rambouillets. We searched their garden. The body had been there for all those years, with very revealing clues. Why was the purse not with the body, I do not know. Maybe this was an oversight. When the murderers discovered the bag, they put it all in the attic. Who knows...”
“Did the Rambouillets also kill the private detective?”
The detective remembered Annabelle’s comment on this and her obvious and legitimate fright. Yet the policeman shook his head sharply.
“Not at all. It was Micheline Lemercier who committed this crime. The investigation experienced a bounce back with these new clues. We were able to start all over and get the DNA. Modern technology has made it possible to make an unequivocal link. She used an alabaster book press. It was in Vincent Caron’s office. We are thinking of a quarrel. A disagreement, obviously, with the private detective’s discovery...”
“I suppose the son Grégoire Caron is relieved by this conclusion.”
“It’s hard to say. He thinks it’s too late to search and understand.”
“I do not agree. You did what you could when you had the elements in hand. Today, we have a good conclusion.”
“And I repeat, it is thanks to you, Detective Toury.”
“We’re all in the same boat! And it’s mostly teamwork.”
“You’re an example of humility.”
“That’s just the truth.”
They raised their glasses and enjoyed this moment of relaxation. And Jeff soon joined them.
About the Author
Agnès Ruiz has written many bestsellers. She achieved immense success with her first novel “Ma vie assassinée”. She writes for adults and youth alike. Her short stories about Detective Rachel Toury’s investigations have also been very successful in Europe and across the Atlantic. Several of them have been translated into other languages. She is from Normandy (France) and has lived in Canada for nearly 20 years. Agnès Ruiz is married and has three children.
Bibliography
— Oublie la nuit
— Ma vie assassinée
— Et si c’était ma vie ? (la suite de Ma vie assassinée)
— La main étrangère,
— L’ombre d’une autre vie,
— Hôtel du bord de mer (The Seaside Hotel, translated by Sarah Sharman)
— Clous et marteau, c’est toi qu’il me faut
— Demain, Cappuccinos, bikinis #love
— Mon affreux maillot beige,
— Série jeunesse Pom-pom girls (plusieurs tomes)
— Série jeunesse Elias Sparte (plusieurs tomes)
Short stories
— Assassinat d’un prêtre, (Death of a priest, translated by Kirsty Snaith)
— Un striptease de trop, (One striptease too much, translated by Natalie Paige Jenkins)
— Un cadavre sur la plage,
— L’assassin de la gare, (The Station Killer, translated by Kirsty Snaith)
— Mort sur le St-Laurent
— Meurtre à la course
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