Chapter Nine – The Witness

The roads near the cove called Anse du Pharo proved to be a great place for tourists to wander. Tourists and two determined pilgrims searching for one face in the flock.

Chang and Ellie strolled through the city, scanning the crowds around them for any sign of Tintin. Thankfully they didn't look too out of place; Chang wasn't the only Asian in the crowd, and there were plenty of Europeans as well, but there was no sign of the ginger-haired reporter they both knew.

"He has to be working on his story," Chang suggested. "If he's still alive and well, he won't stop until he gets it finished."

"There's just one problem," Ellie said, shoving her hands into her pockets. "We know he's here, we just don't know where. And we know that's writing about the recent murders, but nothing more. Not to mention the fact that he wasn't even at his hotel, and might not be for a while. How are we supposed to find Tintin in this big city?"

They walked on silently for a moment, both trying to think of a plan that would actually work. Chang was just about to say something when someone tapped Ellie's on the shoulder. Instinctively balling her hands into fists, she turned around to face them.

The person who had tapped on her shoulder was a young girl with black hair. She appeared young enough to still be in grade school. "You know Monsieur Tintin?"

"We do," Chang replied quickly. "We are friends of his."

"I was supposed to meet with him three days ago," the girl continued. "You friends of his know what he was researching, yes?"

Ellie nodded. "The murders in the South of France, yes."

The girl took a quick look around, then started walking along Esplanade du Pharo, one of the small roads running alongside Anse du Pharo. "My name is Louisa. I need you to deliver a message to him for me."

Ellie and Chang looked at each other, shrugged, and followed her in silence.

"I was a witness to the last murder, the one here in Marseille," Louisa started. "I did not know what was happening when a detective asked me to tell what happened to a reporter, but I agreed to it anyway. I was with the detective at the time when Tintin was supposed to come, but he didn't. I went back home, and my parents were gone. There was a note on the table in the kitchen that said, If you tell anyone what you saw, you'll be next."

"That's terrible," Ellie murmured as they stopped at the end of the road, where the cove's water lapped at the gravel that edged it. She pushed a rock into the water with her foot. There was no one in sight.

"It was. I have been hiding ever since that. I do not want to be found." Louisa shivered at the thought. "But I saw who the murderer was. He was Asian, like you –" She gestured to Chang for a moment. "– except he was older, possibly fifty years old. He had graying black hair, and a small beard, and he was wearing a business suit. He just pulled a gun from under his coat and shot the man, then walked away. No one else saw it but me. I followed him to a hotel on the west edge of Marseille, and I heard the receptionist say his name."

"What was it?" Ellie inadvertently leaned forward in suspense.

"I was getting there. His name was Monsieur Taka –"

BANG.

The next thing she knew, Ellie was plunged into the cold, gray water of the Anse du Pharo, waiting for the pain of a fresh bullet wound to register in her mind. It took a few seconds, just enough time for her to resurface, cling to the gravel bank and take a gasping breath, for her to realize that she wasn't in pain. It took her one more moment to notice that Chang was running in the opposite direction, toward a supposedly uninhabited building on the other side of the road with the rusty steel door of a car park. There was movement in a window at the top. A man in a black coat and fedora, staring down at them, disappeared without a sound. But there was something on his coat that looked odd, a marking of some sort –

Louisa!

Taking a deep breath, Ellie dived under the water again, opening her eyes against the sting of the water to search for the girl who just a moment ago had been talking to them. She saw a shape at the bottom of the cove and swam down toward it, grabbing the unmoving girl's arm and struggling back up to the surface. As she started up, she thought she saw a silhouette swimming away from the scene, disappearing against the darkness of the water in the distance. But then she broke to the surface and took a gasping breath, dragged down by the weight of Louisa. She reached out in the general direction of the gravel bank, trying to feel her way to land since her stinging eyes proved no help whatsoever.

Her hand was met by another.

A/N: I'm sorry for not updating much lately, so here are two chapters for today. :) I'll see you around!