Chapter 9: Marrying off Camille
A/N: Perhaps this chapter is not accurate in the slightest….good thing it's fiction. It was difficult to write.
"Right, Danielle, you remember Dwayne don't you? And this is Fidel, he also works here. His wife and daughter and Juliet and Rosie who we just met." Richard explained, trying to hide the fact that he was out of breath from racing Danielle up the steps. He had intended to make sure the girl won the competition, apparently having stored a fact away at some point that that was the done thing, but it turned out not to be an issue. She was at least twice as fast as he was, despite her legs being much smaller.
Danielle waved to Dwayne, who returned it with a grin. Fidel came out from behind his desk and crouched in front of the child, offering a hand, a winning smile and the words, "It's very nice to meet you, Danielle." Danielle developed a sudden shyness, but did take Fidel's hand tentatively.
"Is everything ok, here?" Richard asked, whilst mentally trying to decide where to set Danielle up with her colouring things.
"Fine, Sir, there are some DNA results on your desk, Camille called them in, they were as you suspected. Said she's looking into it further," Fidel didn't need to specify the fact he was talking about the DNA results from Marie Labelle's killing. It saddened him that the death of her mother had come at the hands of Danielle's father, but it did not surprise him.
"No new cases?" he enquired.
"Just some minor vandalism on some parked cars near one of the schools, probably bored kids, and the school said they'd look into it as well," Fidel confirmed.
Before Richard could ask if they'd made any progress on a missing person case pushed their way by Guadeloupe, he felt Danielle tugging on his hand, presumably to gain his attention.
"What are they," she said, pointing at the wanted posters on the notice board.
"They are pictures of people the police want to catch. We put them up so the public can call us up if they see them, ok?" She seemed satisfied by that explanation. "Do you want to do some colouring now?"
Danielle nodded. Richard decided that even though Camille's desk wasn't being used today, he didn't want to risk Danielle looking in draws when he was distracted and finding something she shouldn't. Instead he set her up on the floor in front of his desk, which didn't seem to bother her in the slightest. She ignored the colouring books and selected the pad of A3 blank paper he had bought, and Richard watched in amusement as a look of great concentration came over her face. Well, she certainly looked appropriately occupied.
It was a good hour before Danielle came round to get his attention. This was double the estimate Richard had thought he might get. She had brought a picture she had drawn over, and Richard sighed inwardly as he remembered her earlier attempt at Harry. This time he didn't have Eleanor to rescue him with an explanation of what he was supposed to be looking at. However the layout of the picture placed in his hands was familiar. Danielle clearly hadn't known what the words were on the wanted posted, so had just done some scribbles above her portrait.
"Did you draw a wanted posted, Danielle?" Now Richard looked at her closely, he could see she seemed quite upset.
"To help you catch the man who took Mummy away," she managed. Fidel was looking saddened, Dwayne looked more serious than Richard thought he had ever seen him. Over Danielle's head he mouthed the word "tape recorder" which Dwayne dutifully retrieved from his desk and passed to Fidel to set up.
"This is very helpful to us, Danielle," Richard told her gently, and he wasn't having to lie either. Despite Danielle having more enthusiasm than talent, the picture if accurate was informative. Since the DNA results confirmed Ms Labelle was killed by Danielle's father, the suspect being Black was not exactly a surprise. But Danielle had also drawn the man without hair, and what also might be an earring in one ear. "It would be good, Danielle, if you could answer some questions for me about this man. Do you think you could do that?"
Danielle looked at him miserably, "I don't like thinking about it."
"I know, I wish you didn't have to, but it would be very helpful if you could be very brave and try."
She nodded, though was still near tears. Richard spent the next 15 minutes gently teasing facts from her, confirming his impression of the man in her picture being bold with an earring. Danielle had been instructed to hide by her mother, but had snuck downstairs and had a peek. She'd come down again after it had been quiet for some time, tried to rouse her mother but failed, got scared and went to hide again until she had been found by Dwayne and he the next day.
"I'm sorry," Richard told her sincerely, when he had asked everything he could think of.
"Why, what did you do?" Danielle asked, seemingly confused by the display of sympathy.
"It's what you say, when somebody dies. It means you wish it hadn't happened, because it shouldn't have happened."
She nodded her comprehension, then asked, "Was I helpful?"
"Really, really helpful," he told her. "Do you want to do something different now? We could go for a walk?" It was Richard's attempt to find a distraction from what she had just gone through, sending her back to colouring didn't feel right even if he hadn't finished all the work he needed to do. However a distraction chose to arrive through the door at that moment, in the form of Dom McLachlan from the play group.
"Knock, knock," he said, as he came in the door. Danielle's face lit up at the sight of him, and she squealed "Dom!" in delight before running into his open arms to embrace him. She giggled when he picked her up and hung her upside down briefly. Richard felt an emotion that he thought might actually be jealousy for a moment, before he pushed it aside as unprofessional.
"Mr McLachlan," Richard greeted him. "Can I help?"
"I came to bring Danielle something," he said, smiling down at the girl. "I know at story time Danielle loves it when we read The Story of Peppa Pig, and since she missed story time yesterday I thought she might like her very own copy!" he pulled the book from behind his back like a magician might pull a rabbit out of a hat, and Danielle certainly seemed as delighted as a child at a magic show. Earlier she'd shown no interest in books, Richard felt he should try to review where he went wrong later.
"Will you read it to me please?" Danielle asked in a rush. Dom glanced at Richard, who happened to be frowning not at the concept but because he was still trying to figure out why Danielle hadn't wanted any of the books he offered. Dom interpreted his look as disapproval though.
"Well maybe not in here, Danielle, these nice police officers are trying to work, but perhaps Inspector Poole would let me read to you out on the porch? It'd be nice to sit in the sun, wouldn't it?"
Now Richard was frowning at the concept, "I'm her legal guardian, I'm not sure I should really let her out of my sight…" He tailed off, it did seem a bit paranoid when he said it out loud.
"Well, we'll just be on the bench outside and I'm sure you will be able to hear us, plus I can present my full CRB check," Dom told him in the same cheerful tone.
"No, sorry," Richard apologised to him, though he actually addressed the desk since he was a little embarrassed by his behaviour. "Please, I'm sure she'll enjoy it."
Dom led Danielle out by the hand. Despite his words, Richard still shifted his chair a little to the left, which allowed him to glimpse Danielle's feet swinging happily from the bench if he lent over. Fidel gave him a somewhat conspiratorial smile, perhaps as a father he too had experienced slightly paranoid delusions about the safety of his child and understood Richard's anxiety. Dom must have read the story to Danielle at least twice, because they were out there for some time. When they did come back in Danielle was practically hanging off the playgroup leaders arm.
"I'm sorry Danielle I do have to go now, have you got your book safe?" She nodded, holding it up to demonstrate. "Ok, hopefully I will see you soon. Goodbye."
"Bye Dom!"
Before Richard could enquire as to what Danielle wished to do next, she began to practise what vaguely looked like ballet positions in the middle of the station, and seemed happy enough doing. She was humming quietly, but not enough to disturb him.
A few moments later, she declared, "I like Dom! He's nice!"
"That's good," Richard replied, trying to keep the frustration he felt, and didn't quite understand, out of his tone.
"I wanted him to marry Mummy and be my Daddy but he is already married, so he said he can't," Danielle informed them all.
"He's right, that would be bigamy and illegal," Richard told her, glancing up from the paperwork.
Danielle froze in the middle of the pirouette she had been attempted to stare at him blankly, "What's big-gamey?"
"Bigamy. It is the law in some places, including here, that a man can be only be married to one woman – and a woman can only marry one man. So because Dom is married to Daisy he can't get married to anybody else or he'd go to jail," Richard explained patiently.
Danielle's reaction was to turn suddenly and point at Fidel, "You're married as well?" She asked.
"Yes, I am, to Juliet." Fidel replied with a smile.
"Are you married?" She next asked Dwayne.
"Oh no, little lady, there is no way I'm letting a woman tie me down," he told her cheerfully. "Well not like that anyway," Dwayne added with a little smirk. Danielle seemed confused by this last addition, frowning and asking Dwayne, "Why would a woman tie you up?"
Richard imagined he looked as horrified as Dwayne did at Danielle's question. They were both saved by Fidel, whose experience at circumventing difficult questions came more from his experience in babysitting younger cousins, saved them both.
"Tied down is just an expression that means get married, Danielle. Some people don't want to get married, like Dwayne."
Luckily Danielle seemed satisfied with this answer, turning her attention (as he had been expecting, and somewhat dreading) to Richard, "Are you married?"
"No." He prayed the next question wasn't why. Luckily it was, "Is Camille married?" Richard also provided a negative answer.
"So Camille can't marry Fidel because that would be, um, big-gamey," This time Richard decided not to correct her, it was pretty close anyway. "But she could marry Richard or Dwayne!"
"Ah, but I don't want to get married, remember?" Dwayne reminded her cheekily.
"So Camille can marry Richard then," Dwayne and Fidel smirked and nodded in agreement. Richard would have glared at them, but he was remembering something that the child psychologist said.
"Why are you obsessed with marrying off Camille?" He asked the girl, surprising both Dwayne and Fidel who were hoping for an awkward explanation of why he wouldn't be marrying the Detective Sergeant.
"I want to go to a wedding," she told him, as if it was obvious.
"Have you never been to a wedding before?"
"No," she said sadly. "I was going to, and I was going to be the flower girl, and get to wear a special dress. But now I don't think I can because who will take me on the boat to get the dress?"
"The boat? You were getting the dress from Guadeloupe?" Richard tried not to sound too excited. You didn't just ask anybody's child to be your flower girl. Or at least he didn't think you would, as technically he had no experience in that area.
"Yes, that is where Emilie is, and where the wedding is."
"Who's Emilie?"
"She's nice. She comes to visit, and sometimes we go on the boat and see her. Do you think I'll get to see her again?"
Richard was flicking through the address book, found an entry for Emilie Beauchamp whose address indicated she did live in Guadeloupe, "Oh I'm sure we can work that out, Danielle. Um, Danielle, what did Emilie call your Mum?"
Danielle gave him a look that indicated she thought he might be a bit mental, "Marie." Right, no help there confirming this Emilie Beauchamp was a relative then.
Fidel must have caught on to his line of thinking, because he asked Danielle, "Can you remember what she called your Granny?"
Danielle screwed up her face in concentration, "Aunty, I think."
Richard raised an eyebrow at Fidel, who gave a little shrug, "Round here people do use Aunty as a form of address for older women. Doesn't mean they were related, sorry Sir."
Danielle interrupted Richard's contemplation with the question, "If you marry Camille, can I be the flower girl at your wedding as well?"
Naturally, Camille chose this moment to walk back into the station.
