Author's note: A short story (no more than 2 or 3 chapters) with adult content but nothing graphic based on Elizabeth George's novels. Fran was inspired by the character of Phryne Fisher written by Kerry Greenwood (I've not read the books but I like the TV series).
I'll never forget how she looked when she entered the room.
She took my breath away.
She wasn't tall, around 5 feet 3, and slender but she filled the room.
She was wearing a summer dress that ended in a loose short skirt that flew around her as she walked, sandals with built-up heels and a straw hat. She looked as if she were going for a picnic in the countryside.
She looked around the room above her designer sunglasses and her eyes stopped on me. She watched me from head to toes, and I felt naked under her gaze. Which was certainly how she saw me. She seemed to like what she had before her eyes because she flashed me a bright smile and came to meet me.
'DI Nkata, I suppose? It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm sure I'll be in good hands with you.'
She gave me her hand to shake and I was surprised by the firmness of her handshake.
'Winston, we'll talk in my office.'
I looked up in surprise. How had I not noticed the DSI?! She was my height which meant she was a good head taller than my lovely visitor!
As I crossed the room, I noticed the amused look on the face of my colleague and friend, DS Barbara Havers. She gave me the eye and blew me a kiss mocking the flirting manners of the still unknown woman. I stuck out my tongue at her.
I followed them to Ardery's office. The contrast between the two women was stricking. Ardery's stiletto heels were clicking sharply on the floor in quick succession, indicating to everybody she was in charge and determined not to lose time. The other woman walked just as fast but in such a sensual way she made me think of a cat. Maybe I shouldn't tell you that but I couldn't take my eyes off of, well, you know, her bum as she walked in front of me. In my defense, I wasn't the only one. All the men we came across in the corridor looked at her with admiration. I could tell she enjoyed attracting their attention. She liked men. She liked them a lot. And that's why she was there. Two of her ex-lovers had died prematurely in the previous month. Nothing suspicious. Accidental deaths was the official conclusion of the coroner's inquest. But Lady Frances 'Call me Fran, Inspector' Clifford-Haynes didn't buy that. So when a third lovers of hers disappeared she came to New Scotland Yard and the case ended on the desk of the newest inspector of the CID, yours truly.
It turned out Fran was a free spirit. Rich beyond imagination she didn't work and spent her time socializing and living the dolce vita. She wasn't inactive, though, she chaired on the boards of several charities - all of them fighting for women's rights and child protection - and she loved sports: ski in the Alps, scubba-diving in Seychelles, trek in New Zealand. She could pilot a plane and she drove around - really fast - in a sport cabriolet. She was a strong free woman who enjoyed life and its many pleasures and had no wish to settle down and start producing heirs as was expected of a woman of her social class.
In Ardery's office, she took off her sunglasses and her hat and I could see her better. She was older than me, probably in her mid- to late-thirties. Her black hair were cut short and she had beautiful grey eyes. Her lips were painted a bright red that contrasted with her fair skin. Her lips were full, inviting and I wanted to kiss them. No wonder she had numerous lovers. What man could resist her?
She was disarmingly frank about her love life. Men, or more exactly sex, was her favorite hobby and she engaged in it frequently and passionately. She was on excellent terms with all her lovers, past and present.
'Do they know your relationship isn't exclusive?' I wanted to know.
'Of course. I am perfectly clear about my intentions, Inspector. I'm all for the one-night stand. Sometimes, if I had a really good time, I would want to see a man more than once but I'm not looking for a long-term relationship, the wedding, the children...It's not for me. I've never found a man so exceptional I'd want to be his and his only.'
'No feelings involved, then?'
'I wouldn't say that. Some of them are truly special and I feel a deep tenderness for them. I certainly wish them well. Which is why I'm not satisfied with the coroner's conclusion. One can lose a lover, eventually two, but three? In a month? Someone's killing my friends, Inspector, and I'm not going to seat on my hands while this happens.'
'Why come to New Scotland Yard and not to your local police station?' the guv asked.
'It was an idea of the Commissioner,' Fran replied matter-of-factly.
Ardery raised an eyebrow.
'The Commissioner? The Met's Commissioner?'
'Yes. He's a friend of Father's. I talked to him over dinner last night, and he said to come around and talk to CID.'
Oh God, I thought, she's the very aristocratic friend of the big boss. If I screwed up that case, that'd be the end of my young and promising career. I wished Lynley were here. DI Thomas Lynley was the one who dealt with that sort of case normally, his being Lord Asherton and all that. But Lynley was in Scotland. He had been invited there by retired DI Angus MacPherson to try his hand at salmon fishing and was at that very moment either waist-deep in a river a fishing-rod in hand or nursing a very fine whisky.
'Supposing someone's targeting your ex-lovers, how many potential victims are we talking about?'
Fran opened wide round eyes and I drowned in them.
'I don't know. Eighty? A hundred? No, probably more.'
I must have looked shocked because she added with the most beautiful smile I'd ever seen: 'I started young.'
Ardery, impervious to Fran's charm, was bringing the meeting to its conclusion.
'We need a list with their names, contact details and possibly a photo. For the moment no need to go back too much in time, we'll focus on the men you met in the last twelve months. DI Nkata, you're in charge. Form a team and start working on that case immediately.'
'Can I work with DS Havers?' If this was going to be my only case as a DI, I wanted to have a friend by my side. 'Lynley's up North so he won't miss her.'
'Lynley will be back at work tomorrow; MacPherson broke an ankle on slippery rocks so he shortened his holidays; but you can work with Havers. Theirs is not an exclusive relationship either.'
There was enough venom in her voice to kill half a dozen Havers and a couple of Lynleys too.
Fran discreetly cleared her throat - she had exquisite manners.
'I was wondering, Inspector Nkata, if you would like to see the videos. Would it help you?'
I couldn't believe my ears.
'Videos? You mean you filmed your, er, encounters?'
She looked slightly - oh, so slightly - embarrassed.
'They are souvenirs.'
'And you'll let us watch them?'
'If it can help you, yes. I'd do anything to help you protect my friends.'
That's why the following day I sat in one of the video rooms with Barbara. Fran had handed us four cardboard boxes full of videos, some on VCRs, most of them on DVDs - did she remaster the films? - and we had formed two teams to watch them. Our intention wasn't to watch them in full but long enough to identify the man, snap a good photo of him and then fast-forward to the end to see if he and Fran had parted friends. Barbara and I settled as comfortably as we could, which was not much a police video room having more in common with your usual classroom than a fancy cinema. We switched off the main lights, keeping just enough light for Barb to take notes if needs be, then I picked a DVD at random and put it in the DVD player. Its content lived up to our expectations: my lovely female Casanova and a man having a very good time together. We did as planned, took a photo of the man's face and fast-forwarded to the end of the film, which didn't last long anyway - the guy had no stamina much to Fran's disappointment it seemed. That's when we had our first surprise. Immediately after that film, another one started who starred only Fran. She sat directly in front of the camera in a silky négligé and she commented what had happened. She reviewed everything from her partner's attributes to his skills; from the duration of the act and the number of times they made love to the attention he paid her. Her review was so lively and funny that Barb and I thought that was the best part of the video. All the other videos were done in the same way: first the sex scenes and then Fran's review in which she gave a kind of note to her lover going from zero to five stars. Barb and I were watching our fifth video and Fran was complaining about her latest lover - 'Just because you're big doesn't mean you're good! No technique at all. I put half a star for Nature's gift to you and that's all. A complete waste of time...' - when Barbara had a sudden flash of realization. She squatted near the cardboard boxes and rummaged through the DVD cases.
'What are you doing?' I asked.
I was in charge of this investigation after all, it was my role to manage the team.
'I wonder...Look!', she held out a DVD case in front of me, 'On all the cases there are two series of numbers and some stars.'
'Yes, and the first series is the date of the recording and the stars the guy's note. We already understood that.'
'And the other series of numbers?'
'Dunno.'
'Look,' she put several cases under my nose, 'there all in the same range, there are differences but not that much. It can't be coordinates; it's not phone numbers. I was wondering if Fran isn't assessing her lovers' size.'
'What!'
'The guy we've just seen, he's well endowed, right?'
I hesitated a bit. Call me prudish if you want but I don't like to talk about that. Barbara doesn't have the same reserve.
'Come on, Winnie, I won't assume anything about you if you admit this guy's big.'
'OK. Let's say he is, so what?'
'Biggest numbers of the lot. My guess: length and diameter in action.'
'Barb, why are you grinning?
'Because I like that woman so much! She's pushing all the boundaries. No taboo. She's great!'
'She treats these men like pieces of meat, assessing them as if they were…race horses.'
'Exactly! Just the way all blokes assess a girl's features.'
'Not all blokes!'
I had to protest, see, I fancy myself a gentleman when it comes to women.
'OK, not you. Stop sulking and put another DVD in the player.'
'I'm not sulking!' I retorted which made me sound horribly like a sulking brat.
Barbara burst in laughter. I wondered if she treated Lynley that irreverently. Yup. Probably did.
I pulled a DVD from the cardboard box and had a look at the case. Barbara enquired:
'So? If I'm right, how's the bloke going to be?'
'He's nothing to envy the last one.'
'Oh? Another boring one?'
'It's a five-star DVD.'
'Blimey! Size and technique. Can't wait to see that. If only we had pop-corn.'
When the film started, we realized we weren't in the same bedroom as for the other videos. This one was much classier with furniture made of precious woods, fine curtains on the windows, paintings on the wall, a huge bouquet of flowers on the dressing table. It looked at the same time more grandiose and more intimate. Whoever the man was, he was visibly special to Fran.
And then she appeared, completely naked.
At this time of the day I'd seen her having sex with five men but it was as if I was seeing her for the first time. She was stunning, mind-blowing. I was captivated. I watched her move in the bedroom, opening the bed, lighting some candles. I watched the shadows play on her body, drawing landscapes on her breasts, her belly, her hips. I wiggled in my chair. My jeans were becoming uncomfortably too tight and I didn't want Barbara to notice. Then the man entered the room. My jaw dropped. It was Lynley.
'I don't want to see that!' Barbara jumped out of her seat and lit the room. On the screen Fran was helping Lynley out of his clothes.
'We know it's Lynley, no need for a photo!' Barbara went on, almost shouting now.
'We identified him all right, but we need to know if they parted good friends.'
'What do you think?' she screamed at me, gesturing at the screen where Fran was, er, with her, er, on Lynley's...Oh God! I'd die on the spot if a woman did this to me.
'I don't want to see that!' Barbara repeated, and she left the room, slamming the door shut behind her.
