Chapter Eleven

Perry stretched out his long legs beneath the bed sheets and gave Della a gentle nudge with his foot. "Are you awake?" He pulled her closer to him when he heard her tired sigh. "Time to get up sleepy head... Rise and shine, girl!"

Her eyes still closed, Della snuggled into him and put a hand on his upper arms to gently massage his muscles. "Mmm. I don't want to wake up yet..." Her stomach made a gurgling sound.

Enjoying the gentle massage of his biceps, Perry noticed that her arms were covered by the long sleeves of his pajama top. "When did you put on my pajama top?"

Della blinked her eyes. "Around two o'clock this morning when I got up to go to the bathroom. I noticed that you were wearing only your pajama bottoms by then... When I saw your top on the foot of the bed, I put it on because I was chilly." Her stomach made a louder gurgling sound.

He gently slid his hands up and down her arms. "You're hungry. It must be because I didn't give you your dessert last night..."

She giggled. "Oh, you gave me dessert all right last night... It just wasn't your crème brûlée that you planned on."

Perry grinned, rolled onto his side, and took a hold of her hands. He brought them together on his chest as they now laid face to face in the bed. "I still plan to make that crème brûlée, but first, for breakfast, we're going to have leftover quiche, fruit salad, and croissants..."

"Umm. That sounds good. Dinner was superb last night, by the way... Either Vincent is an excellent cooking instructor or you're a quick-learning student. Or both... If you plan to make more dinners like that back home, you might have to remodel your kitchen."

Perry rolled over onto his back so Della could rest her head on the edge of a pillow on his shoulder. "Ha! We'll be married when we get back home to LA. Maybe we should think about getting rid of our separate apartments and just buy a nice home somewhere. I'll make sure we have a nice kitchen..."

Della adjusted her position on the pillow and rested an arm across his chest. "Our home in Carmel has a nice kitchen. You're always so busy working in LA, that I think the only kitchen you will have time to prepare a nice meal in is when we're away relaxing in Carmel..." She paused and was thinking about his proposal to relinquish their separate apartments. "Do you really think it's a good idea to give up our apartments? I mean, they've been really convenient for both of us – so close to the office and all. So suitable for our life styles..."

He thought to himself right away, "What if she's having second thoughts about getting married? I better not push future housing arrangements too fast." He decided to downplay the subject. "Good point. Once again, your reasoning makes a lot of sense... We'll have to think about that when we get back home..." He heard her stomach growl again. "But right now, we need to get out of bed so I can feed you... I'll go and put the coffee on..." He kissed her on her forehead and sat up on the bed.

She weakly objected and also started to sit up on the bed. "Why don't I make the coffee so you can prepare our breakfast leftovers? After all, it's not my birthday anymore so I shouldn't let you do all the work..."

They got out of bed and headed for the kitchen to get their breakfast made. While Perry heated the leftover quiche, he began discussing their plans for the day while Della started the coffee brewing.

"If you want another quick stroll along Rue Sainte-Catherine before we drive back to Paris, we better get packed up here right after breakfast."

Della's next task was to bring out the rest of the leftover fruit salad from the refrigerator. "Another shopping trip here really isn't necessary. It was a sensational shopping area, though." She put the bowl of fruit salad on the kitchen counter and paused to try and recall their dinner conversation from the night before. "Wasn't there a reason that we were going to return to Paris before this evening? You mentioned something about City Hall last night."

Perry was whipping up the ingredients for the crème brûlée while the quiche was heating. "It wasn't important. I just thought that maybe we could go and check on whether or not our marriage banns were posted. They usually do that at least ten days before the civil marriage ceremony."

"Explain to me again about these marriage banns." Della was laying out the croissants on a plate. "Are they really necessary? Really official?"

"As far as I know they're important. Especially in our situation with residency requirements. If the marriage banns are posted for us, your residency requirement that I got waived will show that we are good to go – uh, as soon as we recover or replace our stolen certificate of marriage." Perry placed the crème brûlée mixture in the oven next to the quiche.

Della poured coffee from the percolator into their cups. "I still don't understand why they are necessary. Does anyone ever legally challenge them to prevent a marriage?"

Perry wiped his hands on a towel and was about to answer when he suddenly froze thinking of ways their marriage could be challenged. "I just thought of something... Do you remember if Inspector LeMaire knew that we are going to be married?"

Sitting at the kitchen table and sipping her coffee, Della thought it over. "I think he did! He listed our completed marriage certificate on the stolen property section of the police report didn't he?"

Frowning, Perry slapped his hand down on the countertop. "Damn! I don't remember if he listed each item in the briefcase or just lumped it into a legal papers category. He has to know by now that we weren't arrested as art smugglers – or whatever else he tried to pin on us... I wonder if he's going to try and pull another stupid stunt with the marriage banns?" He looked around the kitchen. "We don't even have a phone here, do we?"

"The caretaker's cottage probably has one. What are you thinking?"

"I should call Paul. He can go and check on the posting at City Hall." He looked at his watch. "It's too early for City Hall to be open right now. Before we leave here and return the keys to the caretaker, I'm going to call Paul!"

Clearly Perry looked concerned, but Della tried to ease his anxiety. She stood up to walk over to him so she could give him a kiss and a hug. "Relax, Counselor... If they are to be posted ten days ahead of our marriage ceremony, they would have been posted yesterday. That gives you over a week to figure out some sort of legal maneuver if we find a problem with them when we get back to Paris."

Perry embraced her harder and kissed the top of her head. "You sure have a way of making me calm down and think straight... Let's enjoy our breakfast and not worry about those damn marriage banns! We don't need any added stress on our long drive back to Paris today." He took the quiche out of the oven and checked on his crème brûlée. "By the time we finish our breakfast, take a shower, and pack up, dessert will be ready!"

Della shot him a mischievous grin. "I was hoping that we'd have dessert after a shower – or were you still talking about your crème brûlée again?"

Perry chuckled. "Hmm. I just love it when you talk so risqué!"

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The morning sun was up in Paris where Paul scratched the beard stubble on his chin and took another slug of his coffee. He looked over to Captain Lavigne who was staring out the window of the surveillance van with a pair of binoculars fixed on a large warehouse door. "It's almost seven-thirty. LeMaire's been inside that place almost an hour already. When are we going to go in and find out what he's doing in there?"

Without removing the binoculars from his eyes, Lavigne replied. "Have patience, Paul. This is his third stop now. We left a team of officers at each of his other stops. When they find something, they'll report it to me. I think you'll agree that the more evidence we collect against LeMaire, the better our case against him will be..."

Paul had to agree. "We're just so lucky that we were able to follow him at all last night. That was a real heads-up move by your officer driving the taxi with Jimmy and Marie last night! We were all so distracted by that bus accident, it was a good thing that your man stayed around the police station and was able to see LeMaire leaving then follow him in the taxi!"

Lavigne lowered the binoculars from his eyes. "We have a good unit. The officer in the taxi would not have known that I pulled the other team members from their surveillance posts to help on that bus crash. He just knew what our objective was and did his job. And your friends Jimmy and Marie were helpful, too. Without their call to us about what my man was doing when he noticed that we were no longer following LeMaire, we might still be searching for LeMaire this morning..."

"Well, I hope he comes out soon. These all-night stakeouts are killing me!" Paul finished drinking the rest of the coffee in his cup.

Lavigne's police radio began to crackle as one of his officers was trying to contact him even though the radio signal was weak. Lavigne tried to make sense of the jumbled radio transmission. He could only hear parts of the broadcast.

"Capitaine Lavigne... entrepôt... remplir un camion... chemin de fer abandonné... comprendre..."

The radio traffic stopped and Lavigne keyed the radio mike to reply. "Le transmission radio est bad. Réessayer."

A moment later the repeated radio traffic came through loud and clear. Lavigne turned to Paul and gave him a thumbs up gesture while he translated it. "One of the teams has found a stash of property big enough to fill a truck in an old warehouse near the abandoned railway!"

Lavigne immediately gave instructions back on the radio for his teams to remain in place until they can follow LeMaire away from the warehouse he and Paul were staked out by. He turned back to Paul. "This was a good thing to be patient with LeMaire. Now we will follow him to his next stop and legally seize all of the property we have uncovered along his route."

Paul was relieved. "Well, now I hope that this is his last stop and he goes home! I'm tired and hungry."

When LeMaire left the staked out warehouse about ten minutes later, he did go home. Lavigne assigned a team to keep watching LeMaire until he could get a new team of rested officers to relieve them of their duties. Paul and Lavigne then drove to the old warehouse near the abandoned railway.

Two of Lavigne's officers met them at the warehouse adjacent to the old railway and walked them into the building. The place was an old abandoned freight office with a large walk-in safe inside. The door to the safe was broken so LeMaire had secured it by piling old wooden pallets in front of it. The officers on site had been able to follow LeMaire into the building without being seen, and watched as he left a box of property inside before he closed the safe door.

Using flashlights inside the old, dark building, Lavigne and Paul took a look inside of the safe. It was full of several boxes containing paper documents, passports, jewelry, art objects, and even household furnishings. After viewing the contents of the safe, Lavigne sent his officers to do the paperwork necessary to legally seize the property.

Lavigne turned to Paul. "It will take several hours to inventory the contents of this safe. If you would like me to have the officers take you back to your hotel, I can arrange that."

Paul caught his second wind upon seeing the property in the safe. "Thanks, but I think I'll just stay here and give you a helping hand. I have nothing better to do right now!"

Altogether, Lavigne's teams recovered stolen property from all three of the places they had followed LeMaire that night. By two o'clock in the afternoon, they were finished sorting and inventorying over one thousand items of stolen property. Back in Lavigne's office, some of the team members and Paul stayed around to add up the cash they recovered.

Lavigne finished adding up the cash on his adding machine and tore off the paper with his figures. "United States currency – nineteen thousand, two hundred and twenty-two dollars. French Francs – twenty-four thousand five hundred. German Deutsch Marks – eight thousand. British pounds – seventeen thousand. They're still counting other foreign currency in our property room. I would say that Chief Inspector LeMaire has a lot of explaining to do!"

Lavigne opened a drawer in his desk and brought out a bottle of brandy. He motioned to a man standing near the office door. "You'll find paper cups in the filing cabinet in the corner. Let's have a drink before we go home and get some rest. If all goes well, our reports will be reviewed by the prosecutor later today and LeMaire will be in front of a juge d'instruction tomorrow after we arrest him!" When everyone in the office filled their paper cup, he proposed a toast. "A votre sante'!" There was a hearty "Tchintchin" reply by Lavigne's officers.

After their second round of brandy, they slowly began leaving the office one-by-one. As the last ones out the door, Lavigne offered to give Paul a ride back to his hotel on his way home. Paul gladly accepted the ride. Walking out of the building Paul was wondering about Perry's property.

"How can we get Perry's property released? He'll need their passports and the briefcase so that they can get married..."

Lavigne thought it over. "Now that it is processed, we'll have to make a request to the prosecutor to release the property before any trial. We can work on that when Mr. Mason returns to Paris. It will be a great relief to him, I'm sure. LeMaire is supposed to work again this evening. At some point, we will serve papers to him at his office and gather the rest of the property out of his office. We have already frozen his bank accounts and sealed the safe deposit boxes. LeMaire is out of business now!"

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As Captain Lavigne's team was ending their long overnight of work that afternoon, Inspector LeMaire was waking up in his apartment. After he made a pot of coffee and lit a cigarette, he paged through his police notebook looking for the phone number for his contact at INTERPOL. Cigarette dangling from his mouth, he held the phone to his ear while his call was being sent through to his contact. Unfortunately he was told that his usual contact was not in, so his call was transferred to another INTERPOL administrator. Further informed that his normal go-to man at INTERPOL was suspended from his duties pending an internal investigation, a shocked LeMaire crushed out his cigarette. A moment later, he received more bad news – his order for the detention for Perry Mason was no longer valid. He disconnected the call wondering what went wrong.

LeMaire shrugged off the disappointment of not getting Perry set up for a bogus arrest. If the suspension of his contact at INTERPOL was due to his fraudulent detention request for Perry Mason, so be it. His contact took a chance and was paid quite well for helping out with the illegal request in the first place. After getting dressed, he left his apartment around two o'clock to stop by the apartment of one of his girlfriends. It was his intent to have this girlfriend stop by a bank for him and cash a check from one of his bank accounts funded by profits from his black-market sales. As he walked into the lobby of the apartment, he was surprised to find Fulbert Gasiere standing in the entryway.

"What are you doing here? I thought that you left Paris? That was the word on the street."

"I did leave Paris... And now I'm back. I have some important information for you – but this time you will want to pay me for what I know!" Gasiere kept his distance from LeMaire knowing that at any moment LeMaire would try and bully him.

"I don't buy information from anyone – especially a petty thief like you. Now if you are smart, you will get out of here before I pound you to a pulp again and throw you back in jail!" LeMaire began to walk past Gasiere to go to the elevator.

Gasiere didn't back down and got right to the point. "The police department that you work for knows all about your little money-making scheme..."

That stopped LeMaire in his tracks. He quickly turned back towards Gasiere and grabbed onto him. "You don't know what you're talking about! Where did you hear this?" He pushed Gasiere back into a wall and pinned his arms against the wall. "Who gave you this information?"

Now, worried that his attempt to make some money off of his information was backfiring on him, Gasiere started to talk. "I don't know the policeman's name, but he is a Captain. And he has lots of men following you and now they are even following me! I had to wear a disguise to lose them and get here ahead of you..."

LeMaire did not loosen the grip he had on Gasiere. "How did you even know that I was coming here?"

Gasiere relaxed a little thinking that now he had the upper hand and that LeMaire would listen to his proposal. "I just guessed that you would stop to see your girlfriend. Sometimes you are predictable..."

LeMaire punched him the face causing Gasiere to fall to the floor. "If I am so predictable, you should have seen that coming! Now tell me what you know!"

After beating the information out of Gasiere, LeMaire called for police officers in the area to come and take Gasiere away to jail. He gave the officers instructions as they hauled away the semi-conscious Gasiere. "He needs solitary confinement. Just lock him up for me and I will deal with him later..."

Eventually LeMaire's girlfriend went to the bank for him and returned to him with more troublesome news. He found out that his account has been frozen by the authority of the Federal government so the check was no good. A very worried LeMaire went to a nearby cafe to contemplate his next move. He then noticed the men from Lavigne's team that were still tailing him.

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Paul was dropped off at his hotel by Lavigne and found two phone messages from Perry asking him to check on the marriage banns at City Hall. He thought it over for a moment, then decided that taking a nap after a long night of work was a better idea. There would be plenty of time the next day to see if the marriage banns were posted. He was still asleep around five o'clock when Perry and Della returned to the hotel from their trip to Bordeaux.

A young bellhop accompanied them, bringing their bags up to the suite. The door to the suite banged open against the wall as the bellhop struggled to unload the bags inside the room. He asked if there was anything else that they needed as the bags landed with a loud thud on the floor.

Indicating that there was nothing else needed of the hotel worker, Perry gave the bellhop a generous tip to send him on his way. "Merci beaucoup." The bellhop nodded and backed out of the door. Perry looked around the room. "I wonder where Paul is?"

Della stood in the living room and casually took off her gloves while looking around the suite. She noticed a pair of Paul's shoes by the couch and his suit coat draped over the back of the couch. "I think he's here, Perry. His shoes and suit coat are here anyway."

The bellhop was gone and Perry closed the door behind him. "I wonder if he went to City Hall. The desk clerk said that he got my messages..."

A groggy-looking Paul slowly shuffled out of his bedroom scratching his head. "You could have made a quieter entry into the suite... And no, I did not make it to City Hall. I just got in a couple of hours ago after a full night and morning of action..."

Perry and Della exchanged astounded glances and both of them replied with laughter at the same time. "A full night and morning of action?"

When his laughter subsided Perry continued. "Are we to assume that you've recovered from this marriage-in-Mexico business? Who's the girl?"

With a playful look of contempt at his friends, Paul retrieved his pack of cigarettes from the table in front of the couch. After pulling out a cigarette, he lit a smoke before he replied. "I'm glad that you lovebirds find my trivial love life so amusing. But just to let you know – and my expense report will show this – I was out all night and until after noon today recovering your stolen property." He took a long drag on his cigarette waiting for their reaction to his news.

Perry glanced quickly at Della with a pleased look on his face then turned back to Paul. "Do tell us more..."

"Long story short, I think we've put Chief Inspector LeMaire out of business. And what a profitable business it was! He's not under arrest yet, but he might be by later tonight or tomorrow."

Della walked over to Paul and gave him a hug. "That's great news, Paul! If you were out all night until this afternoon, you must be beat! Are you hungry?" She looked around for the room service menu. "May I order something for you to eat?"

Paul waved her off. "I have a better idea. Why don't we all go out for a nice dinner – my treat? Just give me a while to get cleaned up first..."

"I won't turn down an offer like that – unless it ends up on his expense account billed back to me!" Perry turned to Della. "Let's get unpacked and ready for dinner. This is a good way to end your birthday getaway!"

"Oh! That's right! Your birthday!" Paul motioned for them to wait in the living room while he hurried back into his bedroom. He emerged a moment later with a long, thin, rectangular gift box that he presented to Della. "For you, Beautiful. Happy belated birthday!"

Della smiled and looked from Paul to Perry and then back to Paul. "Thank you, Paul. You shouldn't have..."

"Well, open it up before you thank me. You might not like it..."

Still smiling, she unwrapped the box and was delighted to see what was inside. "A silk scarf! It's beautiful!" She moved back to Paul and gave him a peck on his cheek. "Thank you again. This will dress up any of my outfits!"

Paul was proud that she liked his gift. "Well, it won't be long until summer is upon us and silk is an outstanding material for a scarf as an accessory to any outfit..."

Perry gave Paul a look of surprise before he moved closer to Della to look at the scarf. "Since when are you a women's fashion expert, Paul?"

"Since I met Julia downstairs in the gift shop!" He gave Perry and Della a wink.

Perry shook his head and groaned. "Let's get unpacked, Della. I think our wandering boy is back in the game..."

While dining later in the hotel restaurant, Paul began telling them what had transpired with the investigation of Inspector LeMaire. "Captain Lavigne and his unit are remarkable to work with. Aside from discovering that LeMaire has several bank accounts all over, and contacts that fence his stolen property, they found out a lot about the theft victims that were brought into his office. This jerk routinely conned some of the female victims into buying their own property back under the guise that that's the way the system works here in France! Seems he was jilted at the altar by his girlfriend who ran off with a wealthy American tourist. Thus, the reason for his animosity towards tourists." He took a sip of his cocktail as Della and Perry listened intently. "And I'm afraid to say, I think he was trying to lure Della away from you, Perry. But his schemes failed miserably..."

Della shook her head in disbelief. "How could he get away with this for so long? It sounds like his supervision on the police department was a complete failure..."

Paul agreed but added, "He must have some dirt on his superiors. This has been going on for at least two years!"

Della had one more thing to add. "Well, for the record, I would have never allowed him to coax me away from my handsome fiancé!"

Perry raised his cocktail glass to propose a toast. "Here's to the demise of Chief Inspector Henri LeMaire – compliments of Captain Maximilian Lavigne and some fine work by Paul Drake!" Then he grinned before adding, "And here's to my beautiful girl who has very good taste in men!"

Smiles all around, they clinked their glasses together to complete the toast.

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The next morning, loud voices in the living room area woke Perry and Della from a sound sleep. Della cuddled in closer to Perry as he shifted onto his back to make her more comfortable. "That sounded like Paul's voice. I didn't recognize the other voice. What time is it, Perry?"

Perry adjusted the bedsheets covering them and gently caressed Della's back. He glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand. "It's almost eight o'clock. I thought he'd sleep until at least noon today since he stayed up all night the night before..."

They heard Paul saying, "Merci" and then heard the door to the suite close. They both wondered what Paul was up to. Then Della caught a whiff of bacon. "Umm. I think Paul is having breakfast..."

Paul was standing outside of their bedroom door with a room service cart loaded with breakfast food, fanning the aroma of crisply fried bacon towards them. "Time to get up, lovebirds! Breakfast is here!"

It only took Della a moment to put on a robe over her nightgown and open the bedroom door. "What's the occasion for such an early start to your day, Paul?" She walked into the living room fixing her hair the best that she could with her fingers.

A moment later, Perry wearily emerged from the bedroom tying the belt from his robe around his waist. "Yes! What's the rush to start your day, Paul?"

Paul ushered them towards a dining table where he had the table set for three persons. "While you two are off on your errands, I will be touring Paris with a very pretty local tour guide..."

Grinning, Perry assisted Della into a chair at the table. "Would this 'pretty local tour guide' by any chance be a sales clerk from our hotel gift shop named Julia?"

After he finished pouring three cups of coffee, Paul uncovered the breakfast platters for everyone to help themselves family style to scrambled eggs, bacon, and croissants. "Before you get all worked up about this, I'll let you know that she offered to show me around. Geez, I've been to Paris now about a dozen times for work. Don't you think it's about time I actually see the sights for once?"

While the men loaded their plates, Della was already swallowing a strip of bacon but managed to give Paul encouragement. "I think you deserve a nice day off to sightsee, Paul. I just hope that you don't end up moving here to chase after a French girl like Jimmy Meacham did!"

After breakfast, Paul left to meet up with Julia while Perry and Della took a taxi to City Hall. On a bulletin board in the hallway outside of the Bureau des Mariages, they anxiously looked for a posting of their marriage banns. Della found it right away. "This must be it, Perry. That's your name on the Jeune Mari'e line and my name for La Mariée'..."

They stood in front of the document trying to translate the legal terms from French to English. Perry put his arm around her and pulled her closer. "It looks legal to me. I think we're a step closer to a wedding!"

Della tilted her head to the side resting it on his shoulder. "Would you like me to take notes and write down every word on the document so you can translate it to be sure?"

"I can translate enough to know that this is what we need."

While they continued reading the document, a man wearing a clerical collar walked up to the board and stood next to them. "Excusez-moi. Est-ce que votre mariage affichage bann?"

Perry turned to the man to reply that the document was their marriage banns. "Yes... Uh, oui..."

With a heavy French accent the man replied in English. "Oh, you are not French? Maybe British or American?"

"We're from Los Angeles, California – in America." Perry was really specific.

"How nice to come to Paris to be married. Will you have a religious ceremony in a chapel after your civil ceremony here in City Hall?"

Perry looked closer at the man and noticed the clerical collar so he thought there was no harm in telling a minister of their plans for marriage. "Yes. We will be married here in about a week and then we will find a chapel for a more official ceremony."

The minister smiled and nodded his head. "You say that you need to find a chapel? I will be glad to help you with that."

Perry and Della exchanged surprised glances before Perry replied. "Just how can you help us?"

The minister looked around and then guided them to walk away from the bulletin board as other people arrived to view other marriage banns documents. "I am the new minister of a small chapel not far from here. Parts of the chapel are being rebuilt, uh, as you say remodeled... Our funds are running a little short for this project because I cannot conduct regular Sunday services during this remodel. When I do not have a congregation, I cannot collect money."

Perry got the hint. "But in the meantime you will perform small marriage ceremonies for a fee to make up for the revenue lost by not being able conduct regular Sunday services."

The minister nodded enthusiastically. "Oui! Oui! You understand, Monsieur!" He reached into his suit coat pocket and brought out a small notebook. After scribbling out his name and address for the chapel, he handed the paper to Perry. "Will you come to my chapel, uh, perhaps tomorrow at this time and look at the facility?"

Perry accepted the note and handed it to Della to review. "I think we can do that."

Holding Perry's hand upon leaving City Hall, Della was a little cynical. "Things are really different here in France. I've never heard of a minister that needs to hang out in City Hall to solicit business for his chapel..."

Perry gently squeezed her hand. "Okay, Miss Doubting Della... But let's check it out tomorrow anyway!"

After leaving City Hall, the pair worked on more of their errands. The Matisse painting that they purchased on their way to Bordeaux was shipped home to Los Angeles. Della stopped by her art school to finalize her schedule for her final week of classes. After a light lunch at a sidewalk cafe, they returned to the hotel.

Perry stopped by the front desk to see if there was a message from Paul, but was surprised to find an urgent message to call Captain Lavigne instead. When they got up to their suite, Perry called Lavigne.

"Thank you for calling, Mr. Mason. Welcome back to Paris! I have to inform you of a couple of things right away. First, my team is needed for a dignitary protection detail that we were notified of this morning. We are no longer able to keep an eye on Inspector LeMaire."

Perry was thankful for all that Lavigne had done for them. "I understand completely, Captain Lavigne. You did a big favor for us and we're very grateful..."

Lavigne had more news for Perry. "Thank you, but I have more information for you that you might not like at all. We'll need to keep your stolen property a little longer than expected because the paperwork to arrest Inspector LeMaire has not been completely reviewed by the Prosecutor. Even worse, before I had to pull my team away from watching him this morning, we found out that Gasiere told him that we have uncovered his crimes. Then we learned that he slipped away from our surveillance team. So he has not been arrested and we do not know where he is. If he thinks he will be arrested, we don't know what he will do. I need to urge you to be very cautious because right now, you don't have us to protect you and LeMaire can be very unpredictable at this point..."

When Perry finished the call to Lavigne, he gave Della the bad news. She walked over to him to put her arms around his waist and rest her head on his chest. "I think we'll have to keep Paul on the payroll until Inspector LeMaire is locked up and no longer a threat to us."

Perry wrapped her in his arms and kissed her on top of her head. "I think you're right."

TBC

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