The week went by quickly for Trixie. She and her friends had decided to return to Le Blues Bar for their Friday night activity. Both Trixie and Carly had looked forward to seeing Richie, Adam, and the others, and felt rather let down when another bartender, Pete, said that Joe wasn't working that night and they noticed that the other three men were nowhere to be seen. For the next hour the two young women looked around the bar, but the men still hadn't appeared.
"And why did we think that they would be here tonight?" Trixie asked impatiently.
"Cause Richie said that they were regulars." Carla responded with a sigh.
"Oh yeah. That's right." Trixie looked around again, "You know, why are we sitting here waiting around? We should go and investigate the area. Wasn't there some cute shops just around the corner?"
"Yeah, there was. Wanna go check them out? It's just barely 10pm . I think the book shop looked like it stays open pretty late."
They agreed to meet back up with the others at 11pm since several of them had to work to do the next day. Trixie and Carla left the bar and walked down the street. They weren't surprised to see that the clothing shops were already closed for the night, but as Carla had thought, the bookshop was still open. Outside of the shop were a couple of small tables and chairs. Curious, they walked in and smelled the warm aroma of coffee. Noticing the small coffee shop in the front, they ventured to the back of the bookstore. The store had a relaxed atmosphere with people sitting in chairs around the store, talking quietly or reading. They were greeted by an employee as they passed the checkout line. They walked up and down, looking at each of the books. They were clearly enjoying themselves as they browsed through the French books. They soon stumbled across a small section of English language books.
"Carla! Look!" Trixie gasped. "Its the newest Lucy Radcliffe!"
"Lucy Radcliffe? Isn't that a children's series?"
Yes it is." Trixie held the book close to her. "And it's one that I have loved
since I was a child. I have even met the author!" Trixie held the book out to inspect the cover more closely and added "I wonder how much it is?"
"I don't know. Hey, I was thinking we could get some coffee and sit outside, its such a nice evening."
"Sounds like a plan to me."
Trixie found out that the book was within her budget and decided to buy it. She and Carla then walked over to the coffee shop and bought themselves some drinks. They sat down at one of the small tables outside. Carla sat her purse down next to her and turned toward Trixie. Before Trixie could warn her about protecting her purse, a man came out of nowhere and grabbed it.
"Hey stop!" Trixie yelled at the man, intending to go after him; however a second man appeared and ran after the first man. A woman who was with the second man stopped Trixie from running too.
"Its ok, if there's a chance of getting your purse back, he will be able to get it." the platinum-blonde woman said.
"Thanks," Carla said
It was just a minute or so later when the second man reappeared. "I'm sorry. He got away in a car."
"Thanks for trying. Really," Carla said. "I guess I forget that I'm not in Kansas City anymore. Thankfully, I don't carry much in my purse, so its not a huge loss. Just annoying."
"You've learned your lesson then?" The blonde woman asked.
"Oh most definitely."
"Well that's good. Paris is full of thieves."
Trixie noticed that the man snorted at the statement. When the blonde woman glared at him, he only started laughing harder.
Noticing Trixie and Carla's confused expressions, the man said, "I'm sorry, it's an old inside joke."
"Ah, well, I see. Would the two of you like to join us for a cup of coffee, as a thank you for trying to help?" Trixie found herself saying. She was curious about these two.
The man looked at the woman and slightly shrugged as if to say, "If you want to, it's fine with me."
"Well then, thank you. We would love to," the woman said with a smile.
"Great! Oh! I guess we should introduce ourselves." Carla responded. "I'm Carla and this is Trixie."
"Nice to meet you both," the man replied, "I'm Nick Wolfe and this is Amanda Deveroux. And before we forget, we really should contact the police and report the theft."
Trixie wasn't sure but she thought she heard Amanda mutter something about "Boy Scouts." Trixie tried to suppress a grin. The four walked inside the book shop and while Trixie, Nick, and Amanda were getting more coffee, Carla called the local police to find out what she needed to do to report the incident. As they were standing in line Trixie found out that her new acquaintances worked in the security business. Intrigued, she started asking them questions about the kinds of cases they had handled. The three joined Carla back at the outside table.
"So why all the questions Trixie?" Amanda inquired.
"Oh, I am here studying international crime and investigations for a semester."
"Really? Sounds right up our alley then. Is this the kind of career that you want to pursue?" Nick asked her.
"Actually it is. I've wanted to be a private investigator since I was thirteen years old, but I realized that the kind of mysteries that I solved as a teen weren't the kind of mysteries that private investigators solve."
"You solved mysteries?" Carla asked, clearly surprised by her friend's revelation.
"Um, yeah," Trixie looked down at her coffee cup and began swirling the liquid with her coffee straw.
"What kind of mysteries?" Amanda prodded. She could tell that Trixie was reluctant to share her past experiences, but Amanda was curious. She had the feeling that Trixie was just the person that she and Nick were looking for to help them out.
"Just tracking down thieves, smugglers, that kind of thing." Trixie replied quietly.
"You tracked down smugglers as a teen?" Nick asked, clearly surprised that this young woman had been capable of doing so.
"Yeah, but it's no big deal, really." As a teen Trixie had been proud of her accomplishments, but as an adult she had realized that sometimes those same accomplishments became hindrances around others. She tried not to not talk about them as much as possible.
"In other words, you're like Nancy Drew?" Carla asked.
Trixie snorted, "Yeah but more real!"
Amanda sensed that Trixie didn't want to talk about it anymore, so she steered the conversation to other topics. She wanted to find out more about this young woman.
The four talked for awhile, but as it got closer to 11pm, Trixie motioned to Carla. "I'm sorry Nick, Amanda, but we need to meet our friends. It was really nice meeting the both of you."
"Oh, yes, you too, darling." Amanda replied. "Thank you for the coffee."
"No thank you," Carla replied.
Trixie and Carla got up, threw their cups away and walked back towards Le Blues.
"They were interesting. What do you make of them?" Carla asked Trixie after they were out of earshot.
"Mysterious. It all seems mysterious." Trixie responded in a deep theatrical voice. The two dissolved into giggles as they met their friends outside of the bar.