Harper Lin - Patisserie 07 - Madeleine Murder by Harper Lin Read Free Book Online Page B

other seems to be common knowledge among the crew. Sarah’s going to be shooting all day tomorrow, and Zach’s getting the day off, so Sophie’s arranged it so I can go to the hotel and talk to Zach at the bar. My plan is to get him to talk, about anything at all. Something’s gotta slip.” 
    “So those are your two main suspects? Anyone else?” 
    “As a matter of fact, yes.” Clémence brought up the director’s wife, and told him about their encounter with her in Chris’s suite. “Cynthia Collins, née Harper. She falls into the profile of the jealous wife. With all the beauty, money, and privilege in the world, she’d failed as an actress, and now she’s a housewife. Her kids seem to like her, or at least respect her, but she seemed to be bored with her life, and even her own husband was afraid of her. You should’ve seen the way she looked at Sophie and me. If she could hate us, imagine how much she would’ve hated someone like Nicole, who basically grew up in a trailer park. Plus, her husband probably gushed about Nicole and her talent. She must’ve been green with envy.”
    “Could she have been cold-blooded enough to kill a young woman and toss her body into the river?” Arthur asked. “Then strangle another young woman to death? It’s not as if she had any martial arts training either.” 
    “I wouldn’t rule it out,” Clémence said. “She was about 5’8”, and I’m sure running around a couple of young kids would require strength. Her look alone could kill.” 
    Clémence wrote all her thoughts down. Then she reached into her black Alexander Wang purse, which was lying on the floor next to her couch, and pulled out Nicole’s agenda. She flipped to the coded entries.
    “I really need to crack the code and figure out who she was meeting. Who—or what—is OVUJOV? If I can crack one, I’ll crack the others.” 
    Arthur took a look through the agenda. “Why don’t you try to figure out an easy one? Let’s see, on the day before her death, there’s nothing in her agenda except for her call time on set, and this meeting with OVUJOV. That doesn’t help, but what if you try to decode one on a date when she had more appointments? Like this one, August fifteenth. She obviously had the day off. And isn’t ILILIL one of the codes you were trying to crack?” 
    Clémence looked at her schedule. They listed stores around Rue Saint-Honoré. “Look, she went to Chateau du Chocolat. I doubt Sophie went with her. She says they didn’t know each other at all. ILILIL has to be code for something, because I tried to look it up online and found nothing.”
    “What if it’s a person?” Arthur said.
    “It’s a possibility. Maybe the decoded name would make more sense. But maybe you’re on to something, because all these stores are around the Rue Saint-Honoré area. If ILILIL is a place, it could be around.”
    “It doesn’t hurt to look around and keep your eyes peeled.” 
    “You know what? After I speak to Zach Brant, I’ll walk around Rue Saint-Honoré and see if there’s anything that could give me a clue.” 
    “She didn’t do much that day, it seems, except shop in this area,” Arthur added.
    Miffy came in, tail wagging and with what looked like a smile on her face. She jumped up onto the couch and buried her face into Clémence’s lap.
    Clémence yawned. “Even Miffy’s tired.”
    Arthur stood up. “Come on. You should rest early. I know you’ll have a big day ahead of you.”

Chapter 9
    “You’re going to meet Zach Brant?” Celine was so excited she was practically jumping up and down. “Can I come?”
    Clémence hadn’t realized Celine was behind them when she told Sebastien and Berenice in the kitchen who she was going to see that day.
    “He’s a murder suspect,” Clémence said. “It’s not a fan meet and greet.”
    “But maybe I can just hang back and just, you know, stare at him.” 
    “I don’t know if you’d be able to contain yourself,”