Hi, thanks for all your reviews. It really makes me happy to read your opinions. And also to know that there are still people interested in my story. It's been a while, it's difficult sometimes with the corona and stuff... I hope you are all still healthy and holding on!

Thanks to Sweepeaspatch again for being my beta!

Chapter 27

Police Station

Leaning against Richard's chest gave Camille comfort in this strange situation they were in. The police station was silent. She could hear a lost bird chirping outside. But aside from that, there were ample sounds. It was quite dark now. Fidel and Dwayne were unmoving, fast asleep. Richard was silent. His chest was heaving slowly. She could hear his heartbeat in her ear. It calmed and soothed her. She loved feeling his body warmth. She pursed her lips when she felt tears prickle behind her eyes. Tears of grief or of frustration? She didn't know anymore. A whirlwind of emotions was running through her, changing every minute it seemed... She was wasting precious time here. All she could do now was think. Think what had happened, had she missed any clues? Had something been off before in Kris's behavior?

It had only been this morning that she had sat down with Nick and Richard at the table. And Kris had come out of her room looking tired after the night she had gotten drunk. When Camille had gone up to get her phone and wallet later, Kris had been there. Camille thought back about that moment.

Camille's room, this morning

"Kris? I thought you went for a brisk walk?" Camille asked, surprised to see her friend upstairs.

Kris looked up from the bed as she put on another shirt. "Yes, I just forgot my watch and I wanted to change."

Camille smiled as she took her wallet from her small coffee table. "And?" She asked after a short while.

"And what?" Kris gave her a surprised look as she studied Camille with big eyes.

Camille smiled at her and gave her a knowing look.

Kris sighed as she already knew what that look meant... She rolled her eyes as she dropped herself in the lazy chair next to the bed and began to untie her shoe. "There's something in my shoe. It bugs me." She muttered. She looked up when Camille stayed suspiciously silent. "What?"

"Were you enjoying yourself last night?" Camille asked cheekily as she smiled widely after that and took her phone from her nightstand.

Kris sighed again and focused on the shoe laces of her sneakers. "I wasn't drunk at all you know. Just a bit tipsy. I didn't know your mothers mixture would be so heavy." She groaned as she took off her tennis shoe with effort.

"So, how much do you remember?" Camille asked.

"Don't be silly. I don't know why you insist that I was drunk. Because I really wasn't." Kris didn't make eye-contact and held her shoe upside down. Something fell out. "Hah!" Kris called out as she bent and picked it up. "A small piece of... What is this? A shell? A stone?"

"So groping Nick was just for fun?" Camille prodded further as she raised her brow.

Kris looked from the obtruding piece to Camille and put it down on her nightstand.

"Don't litter my room please." Camille ordered teasingly.

Kris huffed as she grabbed the small sharp stone and walked towards Camille's trash can. "I didn't grope."

"OOO! What would you call that?!" Camille uttered instantly as she grabbed Kris in a big hug from the side. She put on a high-pitched voice. "O Nick, you're so strong! You're biceps are so big!" She tried to mimic Kris as she pinched her biceps.

"Camille! It wasn't like that. And I don't sound like that at all." Kris countered as she tried to keep on walking. She smiled slightly.

"Non? I was there, remember?" Camille smiled widely. She was having lots of fun, it was great to be able to tease Kris back after all the teasing she had done these last couple of weeks. She kept holding Kris in a big bear hug, teasing her mercilessly. "'He's so big and strong, you're so lucky to have him play your husband, he's so emphatic.' Do I need to go on?"

"No, please. Spare me." Kris sighed as she loosened herself from Camille's grip and walked towards the bathroom. "Very funny." She mumbled annoyed.

Police Station, now

"She was wounded." Richard suddenly thought out loud, after a long silence.

Camille moved softly, away from his chest and looked up at him. "Wounded?" She repeated confused.

"Yes. Her midsection. There was a bandage there, with fresh blood on it. Quite a lot. Like she hadn't cleaned it."

Camille frowned in thought. "Did you see anything else?"

"No, I went over it piece by piece. She undressed herself in front of me." He felt Camille freeze instantly.

"She undressed in front of you?" She asked in a disbelieving voice.

"Well... Yes..."

"Fully?"

"No! Not fully! I mean... Err... She did keep her lingerie on." He swallowed. Why was he stuttering all of a sudden? Stupid! "I didn't see anything else on her skin. No signs of a struggle or anything. Except for some old bruises, but she already had them. She has a small bruise on her right breast but that's an older bruise, I saw that last week when she was wearing that red top. I didn't see any new brui-" He stopped talking as he looked at her. He swallowed. Was this appropriate? Camille hated it when he ogled woman, and admitting that he had ogled Kris... More than once... Well, he hadn't really ogled her. Just looked. He had an eye for detail. He couldn't help that. That was something that happened automatically.

"What else did you see?" Camille asked in a neutral sounding voice. Her mind raced and raced, Kris was wounded? And since when? Why hadn't she noticed that? "Was it a big wound? A big bandage? Did it look bad? Or was it just a graze?"

"It covered her whole midsection. Her left side. It didn't look like just a graze."

"I never noticed that." She had seen Kris naked or half naked in the first weeks she was here. But this last week? Kris had changed her shirt this morning when she had seen her, had the wound been there then? Or was it something that had happened this afternoon? And why would she undress in front of Richard? There was enough room here to get privacy. Kris wasn't someone to flaunt herself, especially not in front of a man. Camille sagged against Richard again and put her cheek on his chest. She closed her eyes. Thinking back of this morning. When she had teased Kris.

Camille's room, this morning

Camille crossed her arms in front of her chest and leaned against the door opening of the bathroom. "You like Nick."

"What?" Kris said slowly as she looked at her.

"Oui. You do. I thought so before, but after yesterday I'm sure."

"You're talking nonsense." Kris avoided making eye contact.

"Why do you deny it?"

"Because there's nothing there." She shrugged.

"O! Mon Dieu!" Camille huffed annoyed.

"What?" Kris took a piece of floss and began to clean her teeth.

"You come here and go on and on about Richard, seeing things that aren't there. And look at yourself now."

Kris put the floss in the trash bin and took her toothbrush. "He's my partner. We work together. We're just friends. We get along well... Most of the time. Usually he just annoys me, crawls under my skin and wants to make me scream so loud that my throat will hurt for days." She shrugged as she put toothpaste on the brush. "Do I think he's attractive? Yes. So? There's more needed to have a relationship." She looked at Camille and started to brush her teeth. "There are times that we want to rip each other apart. Lots of times... I don't think that's a good base for a romantic relationship... You know how it works when you really like someone."

"Oui, I certainly do know how it works with you." She eyed Kris mischievously.

Kris rolled her eyes as Camille shook her head.

"The way you swooned over him yesterday, plastered yourself to him. And it was almost like he didn't mind it that much. It looked very natural, you two together like that. You didn't mind it; you were enjoying yourself."

Kris washed her mouth and dried her face with a towel as she put the toothbrush on the cupboard. "Don't be silly! I was just tipsy. I get cuddly... For some reason..."

"And how cuddly!" Camille pushed on. Not letting go of the subject at hand.

"Camille!" Kris warned as she neatly folded the towel and hung it on the rack and rolled her eyes.

"So what did Nick do to silence you?" Camille studied Kris's back.

"What?" Kris asked innocently as she looked for her deodorant in her toiletrybag.

"Did he kiss you?"

Kris froze.

"Mon Dieu! He did! I knew it."

She looked up at Camille. "How did you know that?"

"Please! Getting you to shut up when you're like that? There has to be something shocking for that to happen."

"It wasn't a real kiss." Kris admitted ruefully. Her cheeks colored pink. "He didn't mean anything with it." She added quickly as she searched deeper in the toiletry bag.

"Did you already talk to him?"

"No." Kris mumbled, feigning disinterest. She looked from the bag around in the bathroom.

"So how do you know that it doesn't mean anything?"

Kris straightened herself abruptly as she gave Camille a glare. "Because this is not some sort of soap opera." A hint of anger seeped through in her voice. Accompanied by a hard edge somewhere in there.

"You were all soap opera when it came down to me." Camille countered sternly as she followed Kris's every move.

"That's because it wasn't about me." Kris admitted softly as she found her deodorant and took it off the shelf.

"What's the difference?" Camille asked surprised as she straightened herself in the door opening.

"That difference is that you're normal and I'm... " Kris shrugged. "A crazy person." Kris snapped as she passed Camille.

"What?" Camille asked surprised as she turned and followed Kris back to the bedroom. "What are you talking about?!"

"You're good with men and I'm … Something of a disaster." She took the clothes for tonight up and inspected them. "The relationships I did have and the men I loved they... Didn't end well. You know that." Kris shrugged again as she put the black servant suit back onto the bed. "That's life, it happens. I'm just not ready to... Face that kind of pain again. And again and again." She stared at the bed sadly. "Maybe I won't be for a very long time." She admitted honestly.

"You're too negative now." Camille said softly when she noted the hint of pain in Kris's answer.

"I don't have room or time for a relationship." Kris muttered as she walked back towards the bathroom and took her makeup from her toiletry bag.

"That sounds different from what you just said. Why would you say that you're crazy?"

Kris shook her head as she dropped a wet cloth in the dustbin. "Maybe I've been hurt too many times." She admitted softly as she stared at herself in the mirror.

"And then you give up?" Camille asked surprised. Kris never gave up. Never. She hadn't gotten the nickname Pit Bull for nothing in her job. She bit herself into something and wouldn't let go.

"No, not- Just... For now. Not giving up. Just a short break. A break! Nick is my partner. That's really not a good idea. Not practical at all. And yes, he is amazing and he looks amazing. But we're just friends. And partners. Good partners. That's all. He doesn't look at me like that anyway, so case closed."

"But you want more."

"I'd like to use the toilet please, alone." Kris told her a she pushed Camille backwards slowly.

"I'm not letting you get away with this." Camille promised to the closed door.

Police Station, now

No mention of a wound. Camille hadn't seen any proof of it lying in the dustbins. She hadn't looked for it of course. But she hadn't seen any bandages anywhere. Nothing had seemed off when she'd seen her this morning. The sadness, the pain, it had already been there. Yes, she had been hiding something from her. But she hadn't wanted to help with this case in the first place. What about Nick? Could he be trusted? Or was he in on this? Where was he now?

'Maybe I've been hurt too many times.' She remembered Kris saying. Camille swallowed. Could that be something she had missed? Something had snapped inside of Kris? For all the good she had done, even she had reached a boiling point? A point she couldn't step back from? Kris was a woman who gave too much, always had been. She had trouble taking something for herself. Could that become too much some day? Would it be a point of no return? A tear trickled over Camille's cheek as she felt pain. Should she have seen something earlier? Should she have pushed Kris more to tell her what was going on? Confide in her? Maybe she could have prevented this from happening?

"Mrs. Shaw is black." Richard's said softly. He too was thinking deep, going through the events of the last days and weeks. "Kris knew that. Don't you think so?" He asked her.

Camille looked away shortly. "Oui. Why?"

"She changed in a dress and told me that she was going in as Mrs. Shaw."

Camille sat up immediately. She stared at Richard. "But... They will know instantly that that isn't right." She looked away, worried.

"Could she have forgotten?"

"Non." Camille shook her head. "Kris is smart. She said that she had planned this. She wouldn't make a big mistake like that. She'd go over an undercover job again and again. She is a perfectionist."

"Then why would she say that to me? And put on the evening dress?"

"What the hell are you doing Kris?" Camille whispered as she let herself sink into Richard again. She was just too tired to think much more about that and to keep at a distance from him, if that was even possible. So she just gave in to their close proximity and enjoyed his closeness and warmth.

Party

Kris opened a few more buttons of her waistcoat to show off a large amount of cleavage. She sighed. This had to do. She put on some extra lipstick. Here we go. It's all or nothing now...

Police station

Camille moved back to make as much space between her and Richard as possible.

Richard groaned, annoyed. "Camille!"

"What?!"

"Please."

"I'm just trying to make more room." Her legs were getting a cramped feeling. It hurt to be in the same position all this time. How long were they even here? It must be hours by now.

"By grinding into me?!" Richard hissed.

"I was not grinding into you!" What was he thinking?! Stupid English man.

"You were."

"I was not! You English-" She mumbled something he didn't quite catch.

"What?!"

Camille looked up at him, chagrined. "Grinding into you would feel entirely different, I can promise you that." She snapped. "I was moving away from you! Just to give you some space." She moved again.

"Camille!" He shouted.

"My legs hurt!" She gave him an angry glare.

"Mon Dieu." Was the first thing Camille heard after that. She turned towards the voice, dreading the worst...

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