The Adventure Continues

[abrightboy]

For thatsfascinating.



The villa Malcolm rented was in the Languedoc, not far from Marseilles, south of Avignon. It was a very historic region, though Malcolm was particularly not interested in visiting Marseilles again. There was a charming village nearby the villa and if they were going to go to an historic city for a day, he'd rather make the trip over to Montpellier, where he'd never been at all, much less with Dr Whitly.

The villa had six bedrooms. As the driver brought their luggage inside the bright and spacious main room, Malcolm handed him some folded Euros and thanked him and shut the door behind him.

"First choice of a room is yours," he told Edrisa with a smile. "But you might want to explore first."

Comments

[thatsfascinating]

"Mmm..." she said, chewing as she thought. "I think we should be able to see canis major."

[abrightboy]

He smiled. "Maybe I'll make up a story about it," he said. "That's how constellations started as a Thing, right?"

[thatsfascinating]

She pointed her spoon at him. "Yes it is! And that sounds like fun!" She smiled. "I like it when you tell me stories."

[abrightboy]

"Yeah? I was worried I was talking too much," he admitted.

[thatsfascinating]

She shook her head. "You never talk too much."

She never understood why anyone would think that.

[abrightboy]

His expression warmed.

"Neither do you," he told her.

The chef collected their dishes and brought out the dessert - creme brulee garnished with fresh berries - along with a different, much sweeter wine.

[thatsfascinating]

Her own expression warmed at that. She loved that he believed that. And that they were connected that way, too much for other people but just right for each other.

She leaned back and gave the chef a smile as he took the plate. "That was delicious, thank you!" When he returned with the dessert she clapped and bounced a little in her seat. "Oh, nice!"

[abrightboy]

Malcolm ate a berry off the side as it was placed in front of him, in case the chef didn't believe he ate the soup. Or at all. He smiled at Edrisa's reaction.

"Thank you," he told the chef, and he slipped out of the room again.

[thatsfascinating]

Edrisa picked up her spoon and cracked the layer of caramelized sugar, then scooped out some of the creme. "This looks amazing," she said, adding a berry to the spoon and popping it all in her mouth.

[abrightboy]

He took a bite as well.

"Delicious," he confirmed. "Very authentic."

He looked across at her. "I can eat maybe half. Do you want the rest?"

[thatsfascinating]

"Mmm!" she said with a nod. "Yeah, definitely!"

She took another spoonful.

"You know what? We should have a picnic tomorrow."

[abrightboy]

"That's a great idea!" he said enthusiastically. "We can throw together a few things. I'm sure there's a picnic basket or something in this place."

[thatsfascinating]

"it doesn't have to be too fancy. Some cheese, some bread, some fruit, a bottle of wine...we can find a nice tree to stop under on our way into town."

She took a sip of the sweet wine. "Mmm!"

[abrightboy]

He smiled broadly. "That sounds really, really nice," he told her. He smiled more slyly. "'A loaf of bread, a jug of wine and thou, beside me, singing in the wilderness'," he teased.

[thatsfascinating]

Her face lit up in recognition.

"Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!" she supplied. "The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam! Brilliant book. And had an intriguing role in the Somerton Man mystery."

[abrightboy]

"The Somerton Man mystery was in my journal!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Basically I think that it wasn't as mysterious and complicated as it seemed, except that a lot of evidence trails were allowed to go cold or be broken. Even the providence of the copy of the book with the missing page is suspect; I mean, the guy said he found it in the wheel well of a car, but..." He shrugged. "Who can know at this point?"

[thatsfascinating]

"I mean, there were definitely missteps in the investigation." She pointed her spoon at him. "That nurse definitely knew him. Especially since she had a son that had the same extremely rare and genetic ear shape as the guy. And the police didn't even follow up on that! Yeah, it was a different time, and she was married to another guy, but still!"

[abrightboy]

"The day that social propriety overrides investigative integrity is the day you pass down a quote-unquote 'unsolvable mystery'," Malcolm pointed out.

[thatsfascinating]

"So true." She said animatedly, clearly excited to be talking about the case. "Although there were aspects of the case that were legitimately bizarre. Sure, the book could have been tampered, but that doesn't explain why the last two words were cut out, rolled up and tucked into a small pocket in the guy's pants. Not to mention the tags were cut out of his clothes."

[abrightboy]

"Well a lot of that could be down to the killer trying to obscure his identity. It's only 'mysterious' because we haven't had a chance to analyze what drove the perpetrator to do it. The book, though... I can see why that stirred imagination. But, realistically? The answer is probably a lot simpler than some epic spy saga."

[thatsfascinating]

She pointed at him with her spoon again, the creme brulee increasingly forgotten. "See, that's the thing, though! I don't think he was murdered. I think he poisoned himself."

[abrightboy]

He leaned forward. "Tell me more," he said eagerly.

[thatsfascinating]

"He was definitely poisoned," she began. "Even though they couldn't identify the toxin, the effects on his organs were pretty blatant. Sure, poison can be used for murder, but nine times out of ten you're looking at suicide. He had abandoned his suitcase in a train station, removed all identifying information from his clothing, and cut a little piece of paper from a book that had words on it that can be translated 'it is finished.'" She waved her spoon. "All of that points toward suicide. And then there's the son!"

[abrightboy]

"With the genetic ear thing. I can see reasons that he would commit suicide; if he was really in love with the nurse, he could only be with her if she agreed to basically ruin her life." The words were barely out of his mouth and his expression faltered slightly, but he pushed himself back on track. "What I couldn't believe was that they didn't find the scrap of paper for, like, a month. They thought it was this big mystery and they didn't even go through his stuff properly."

[thatsfascinating]

"To be fair, this wasn't a regular pocket. It was a secret pocket inside the waistband."

She paused, studying his face. It wasn't the first time suicide had come up in conversation and then become tangentially linked to their situation. It scared her, frankly.

"You are not ruining my life. At all."