Paris Love Match

Chapter 10





Piers pounded up the steps from the Montparnasse-Bienvenüe subway to the railway terminus above. Sidney was a good flight of steps behind him shouting, “stop.”

According to the station clock they had seven minutes to find Auguste Chevalier’s traveling companion. He surveyed the monitors and found the Milan train.

Sidney staggered to his side, doubled over, and grabbed a railing. “When I say stop, I mean f*cking stop.”

He patted her on her back. “You’re doing great. Come on. Platform four.”

“Platform nothing. I can’t move.”

Piers hooked his arm under hers. “Come on, we can’t split up.”

She wriggled, but he kept a firm grip and dragged her toward platform four.

She thumped his back. “Let go before I call rape.”

Piers stopped and let her go. She massaged her side and eased herself upright. “For your information, that hurt.”

Piers nodded. His shoulders slumped and the muscles in his face relaxed downward. “I’m sorry. But the train leaves in six minutes.”

Sidney grunted and rubbed her stomach. “All right, action man, go on.”

They hurried to platform four, passing several railway employees who were more interested in their lunch destination than checking passenger tickets.

“How are we going to find this person?” Sidney said, still holding her side.

“Easy. They haven’t got a ticket, so they’ll still be here when the train leaves.”

Piers slowed his pace. A train sat idling, but a mass of people stood waiting, their luggage beside them. Small shops ran along the rear of the platform. Stairs led up to a balcony that ran the length of the shops and gave access to offices above. Sidney pointed to the departure board. A second train departed from the same platform ten minutes after the Milan train.

He rubbed his forehead. “Great, so we don’t even know which train these people are waiting for.”

“Who do you think it might be?” Sidney said.

Piers shrugged. “A woman?”

Sidney hummed and looked around the crowd. “Maybe. He could be married.”

“You didn’t nick his ring then?”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t take his wedding ring?”

She glowered at him, her eyebrows pressed down hard. “He didn’t have a wedding ring.”

“So, you did check?”

She shook her head angrily. “Women notice these things. Unlike men who think they’re just a decoration.”

“Right.”

Occasional people joined and left the platform, a sandwich seller did a brisk business in baguettes, but no one stood out as Auguste’s companion.

“It might be a he,” Sidney said.

“Maybe.”

“We’re not really getting anywhere here. Perhaps we should just walk up and down calling out his name.”

Piers turned his attention from the crowd to Sidney. “You think someone’s going to answer us? The guy was obviously doing something bad, and has tickets to leave town in a hurry. Whoever it is, they’re hardly likely to put their hands up, now are they?”

Sidney grunted. “So what’s your plan?”

“I—”

The phone in Piers’ pocket vibrated. The sound of the ringer was muffed but persistent.

“You going to answer that?” Sidney said.

“I don’t care. It’s probably just the office.”

“You have the same ring tone as the dead guy?”

“I—oh, shit.” Piers thrust his hand into his pocket, grabbing for the phone and pulling it out. He flipped it open and the ring tone stopped. “Bugger, missed it.”

He pressed a few keys and found the missed call list. “April.”

“April, what?”

“The call was from someone called April.”

Piers looked at the station clock. Three minutes before the train was scheduled to depart. “Maybe his companion is getting worried.”

April’s number still glowed on the display. He placed his finger over the redial button. “Spread out, see if anyone’s phone rings.”

Sidney pushed her way through the people on the platform. Piers knew this was going to be a long shot. There were a lot of people and even if they could hear a phone ring they’d only have seconds to locate the person. He took a deep breath and pushed the button.

There were a few moments of agonizing silence, then clicks, then the earpiece started to give a ringing tone. He looked around and saw Sidney doing the same. There was no telltale phone sound, and no one was rummaging in their pockets or handbags. He moved the phone back to his ear to hear a whistling sound.

Damn, the call hadn’t gone through.

The clock said two minutes to go. He punched off and redial in quick succession. There was the same silence, the same clicks, and the same ringing. Only this time a shrill chirrup joined in. It wasn’t coming from the earpiece, it was on the platform. It was April’s ringtone. He looked all around, his eyes and ears searching. He glimpsed Sidney doing the same. Whoever it was had to be between them. He pushed through the crowd, his eyes scanning left and right. The noise seemed close, but no one was answering a call. Sidney was closing in too. They made eye contact. She shrugged.

He heard a voice on Auguste’s phone and whipped it to his ear. Then he heard the same voice nearby. April had to be close, but still no one was moving. He looked straight up. A woman stood on the balcony. As if by psychic connection, she looked down at the same instant. Their eyes met. Without words or facial movements, she knew she had blown her identity, and Piers knew he had found her. She was running in an instant.

Sidney had spotted her, too, and was running for the steps at the far end of the platform. Piers took the steps closest to him. April wasn’t going to get off the balcony without passing one of them, but there were plenty of doorways adjoining the balcony, and April took one.

In a moment, she reappeared and took the next doorway. Piers ran hard, but it looked like Sidney would reach April first. Piers’ skin prickled. April was Auguste’s partner in crime. The man who had been shot in their taxi. The man with the gun. And if he had a gun …

“Sidney! Stop! Wait there!”

Sidney didn’t stop.

Piers ran harder, waving his hands. “Stop! Sidney!”

Sidney skidded to a halt by the doorway April had taken and stood very still. Shit, shit, shit. Had April drawn a gun? Piers was only paces away from the doorway. He stretched his arms out and barreled into Sidney, sweeping her up and away from the opening. She gave a scream, and he managed a couple of paces before he lost his grip and his footing. They went down in a jumble of arms and elbows on the hard floor. He rolled off her and up onto his haunches, bracing himself for the sight of a gun.

She lay on the floor. “What the hell was that for?”

“She has a gun.” Piers grabbed Sidney’s hand and started pulling her up.

Sidney wrestled out of his grip. “No, she bloody doesn’t”

Piers stopped mid-grab for Sidney’s arm. “She doesn’t?”

April was back on the balcony. He shoved Sidney aside and lunged for April. The woman stepped left, but Piers caught onto her big coat and manhandled her back into the doorway.

She twisted uselessly. “Get off me or I’ll scream.”

“We need to talk to you.”

“I don’t care. I’ve got a train to catch. Let me go!”

“We came to tell you why Auguste’s not here.”

April’s expression froze for an instant, a brief stutter in the film of her life. “I don’t know who you’re talking about. I’ve got to go.”

Piers relaxed his grip. “He’s dead.”

He felt a smack on the back of his head and Sidney pushed him aside. “For god’s sake, is that the best you can do?”

April put her arms up in front of her face. “I don’t know who you’re talking about. I have to go.”

Sidney touched her arm. “We really need to talk to you.”

The train gave a long blast of its horn and the passenger doors slammed shut.

“That’s my train. I should be on it.”

“We know. We’re sorry.”

The train’s engine roared and the floor trembled faintly as it pulled out of the station.

April didn’t move. “I should be on that train. It’s my train.”

Sidney put her arm around her. “We know, we know.”

“Auguste’s just late. He’s just late.”

Sidney gave a slight shake of her head.

April looked at her, her eyes imploring, “He’s never late. I know him. He’s dependable. Always. He must be stuck in traffic.”

Sidney shook her head again. “He jumped in my taxi a couple of hours ago.”

“No.”

“Yes. He was injured.”

“No … no … no, he wouldn’t have been in a taxi.”

“He was,” Piers said.

April kept shaking her head. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she sniffed.

“He’d been shot,” Sidney said.

April’s head shaking grew more forceful. “No. You’re wrong. It couldn’t be. Not Auguste.”

“Yes.”

“He was going to meet me here.”

“We know.”

“He couldn’t have been in a taxi.”

“He was. He was being shot at. They shot at us too.”

“No.”

“It was the police,” Sidney said.

“Might have been the police,” Piers said.

Sidney gave him an angry glance before giving April a squeeze. “We were there. He died in the taxi.”

April pawed at the collar on Sidney’s jacket. “But he wasn’t supposed to be in a taxi. That can’t be right. He’s just caught in traffic. He’ll be here.” She bit her lower lip. “Won’t he?”

Sidney and Piers shook their heads in unison.

Tears welled up and poured down April’s face. Her mouth was half open and her bottom lip stuck out, trembling. Sidney pulled her close while she wept. Piers patted her on the back as he looked up and down the platform. There was no one suspicious, no police, no Little, and no Large. Maybe they were ahead of the game.

He looked back at Sidney, only to find her glowering at him. “What?” he mouthed.

She rolled her eyes and patted April’s back.

“We need to keep a look out,” Piers said. Sidney gave him a disgusted glance.

April pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped her nose. “What happened?”

“We were in a taxi. He jumped in.”

“No, he wouldn’t.”

“He did. People were shooting at him.”

“There shouldn’t have been … no … he wouldn’t have been in a taxi.”

“All we know is he jumped in our taxi.”

April blew her nose. “So how did you find me?”

Piers pulled the wallet from his pocket and held up the train tickets.

Sobbing, April took them. She ran her finger down the line of the blood on the leather. “Are you police?”

Sidney shook her head.

“Then why do you have this?” April held up the wallet.

“We took it,” Sidney said.

April’s eyebrows narrowed. “You took it off my Auguste?”

Sidney hesitated then nodded.

April put her hands around the wallet. “You took it from him when he was dying?” She shoved Sidney backward. “You stole it. You’re a thief. You’re a con … you, you … maybe you killed him.”

“No, no. He jumped in our taxi. He was injured.”

April turned to Piers. “You had his phone. You took his phone. You must have killed him.”

“No, the men he was running from were shooting at us. They killed him. They did.”

“You used his phone.”

“To find you.”

April’s face jerked and contorted, a slow dance of pain and grief. “No, no, no.”

Auguste’s phone buzzed in Piers’ pocket. As he reached for it, April launched a punch. She hit him at the base of his ribs. He didn’t think it was going to hurt but the pain welled up through his lungs and down through his stomach. He gripped his side and stumbled backward, crashing into the railing overlooking the platform.

April ran.

Sidney took off after her.

Piers fumbled Auguste’s ringing phone from his pocket. “What?”

It was Little’s high-pitched voice, but without a hint of his sarcastic tone. “Don’t know what you’re doing up there, but you might want to leave quick. You’ve got company. The police are heading your way.”