Chapter 13 – The Impossible Puzzle

The following morning saw Jack pacing the station, acting the scene over and over again and adding further annotations to the suspect board, Florence reading and re-reading her mountain of notes, J P looking through the background information on the suspects again in case anything important had been overlooked, and Dwayne finally getting round to looking at the correspondence on Herve's laptop.

'This is interesting' Dwayne announced as he opened a Word document. The rest of the team gathered round his desk. 'This appears to be Claire Rostant's periodic appraisal. According to this Herve had raised concerns on more than one occasion about her 'loss of temper and aggressive tendencies at work'. He had suggested that she seek counselling and warned her that if there was one more incident she would risk suspension or even dismissal'

'Strange, that seems very different from the girl we spoke to yesterday!' Florence exclaimed.

'And I just reviewed her police report and she has no prior convictions at all' commented J P. 'This bad temper has not led her into any violent crime to date'

'Yes, but she could have been putting on an act for us. She did express an interest in acting, after all' countered Jack. 'And she is young, she could have escaped being caught doing anything bad so far'

'I suppose so' Florence agreed. J P nodded resignation.

'I've also found the email correspondence between Herve and Mrs Munro' continued Dwayne. 'This is also very interesting. Did you not say that Herve told you Heather contacted him in the first instance to enquire about playing a concert here?'

'Yes that's right…yes!' Florence found the correct place in her notebook.

'Well, it appears that the first email actually came from Herve. See?' Dwayne scrolled to an email sent by Herve to the enquiries address that he would have found on Heather's web page.

'Dear Ms Munro, my name is Herve Picard and I am in charge of the arts on the island of Sainte-Marie in the Caribbean. I have heard your music on YouTube and think you are very talented, etcetera. Here we go. I was wondering if you had thought about coming to this part of the world to perform? You see, it was him who asked her to come, not the other way round'

'Very interesting indeed' agreed Jack 'Good work Dwayne. Well, I think we have a few more leads there. We will have to have another talk with Herve and with Claire. Come on Florence'

Claire was at work that day and so Jack and Florence spoke to her first on arriving at the community centre since she was not busy.

'So Claire, how have you been getting on in your job?' Jack asked when they had seated themselves at a table in the deserted bar.

'What do you mean?' she queried.

'You have a lot of contact with customers and other staff. How do you find that?'

'Challenging sometimes, especially with those who over-indulge and those who don't like me, but all in all I enjoy working with people'

'And how do you deal with the challenging people?' asked Florence.

'With a combination of patience and assertiveness'

'Is that your standard answer?'

'W-what are you getting at?' she asked them straight.

'When we searched Herve's laptop we came across your latest appraisal report. We found it very interesting' Jack informed her.

'My appraisal? Why would that be interesting?!' she exclaimed.

'It mentions you had been told off for losing your temper and acting in an aggressive manner' Florence showed her the document in question and she looked at it in shock.

'What?! I-I don't know what he's talking about! He never spoke to me about this!'

'So you're saying this is false and you never lose your temper with customers?'

'No-I mean, there was one guy who was coming on to me, tried to reach over the bar and touch my breast. I pushed his hand away and yelled at him to quit being a pervert. He went and told Herve I was rude and twisted the story, turned out he was an arts minister from Guadeloupe that had come to assess the venue for suitability for artists from the big island to come to in order to bring the music to smaller neighbours. Herve fell out with me and blamed me for ruining our chances, wouldn't listen to my story'

'Oh gosh, that's awful' said Florence.

'And then there was this underage girl I refused to serve. She went away in a huff and I later found out she was the daughter of one of Herve's cronies that I was supposed to turn a blind eye to'.

'I see. But Herve has never addressed these behavioural issues with you?

'Not formally in an appraisal, no'

Herve could not help but show irritation in his behaviour when the two detectives appeared in his office once again.

'What can I do for you now?' he offered half-heartedly.

'You could say there are possible new leads. Could we talk again?' Jack was not deterred by his attitude.

'I suppose so. What are these new leads?' he demanded.

'Well we have examined your laptop and found your correspondence with Mrs Munro. You told us she made the initial contact but that's not true, is it?'

'Come to think of it, no. I correspond with so many artists that I must have forgotten what happened with this one'

'But you said you were familiar with her music. What did you like about it and why did you invite her to Sainte-Marie?'

'I like all kinds of music and select artists I believe the people here will like. I simply thought Heather was a good candidate'.

'It must have cost you a fortune to bring her all the way over here from Scotland!' exclaimed Florence.

'Well, yes it did. But the ticket revenue and the bar sales and the CDs she left for our shops to sell, that generates revenue for the island. And it puts us on the map so to speak! Other artists will come of their own accord and the arts scene will thrive'

'I see' said Jack. 'There's just one more thing. We also found your appraisal for Claire on your laptop. It mentions that you had spoken to her about problems she has with her temper and aggressive tendencies. But when we spoke to her about this she denied that you had ever spoken about such things. Can you explain this?'

'I won't discuss staff performance with you'

'But you must see this is relevant to our case' said Florence. 'If she has aggressive tendencies could this not lead her to commit violent crime?'

Yes, I suppose it could' Herve agreed. 'I guess she realised this straight away and denied everything. But it's true. She has on several occasions been heard answering customers back in an unacceptable manner for simple things like complaints about prices, and sighing rudely when asked for a drink that takes effort to put together'

'OK, Mr Picard, thank you for your time' Jack concluded.

What did you make of Herve this time?' Jack asked Florence on the way back to the station.

'He seemed more defensive and passionate. I wasn't sure if that could mean we are onto something or if he is just fed up of being asked questions'

'Yes, you are right, it could be either. I also don't know what to think about Claire'

'It seems like they are anything but friends and ready to blame each other for their problems'

'I just wonder which of them is telling the truth about this appraisal business?'

'Yes, a strange one, isn't it?'

By afternoon the team had checked everything they possibly could several times over and still felt no further forward in resolving the case.

'Were all cupboards and lockers in the community centre checked thoroughly?' Jack asked Dwayne and J P.

'Yes, Sir. I checked all the lockers' answered J P.

'And I searched the sports equipment cupboard and the IT control room. Nothing there' added Dwayne.

'And what about the bins outside?'

'Checked. Thoroughly, absolutely' Dwayne insisted, fearing Jack would ask him to search them again.

'Anything come up in your notes, Florence?'

'Nothing' answered the Detective Sergeant forlornly.

Jack sat down at his desk, tired out from all his pacing, and brought up YouTube on his computer. He found a mix of Heather Munro's songs and the team took a break to listen to the tragic singer.

'It's so sad' said Florence. 'I really hope we can solve this murder soon'

'I know' said Dwayne. 'Her songs will live on though'

'They say you can tell a lot about people from their songs' commented J P.

'True' said Jack. 'This young woman clearly respected her Scottish culture as well as having a desire for world peace and justice…wait a minute!'

The rest of the team exchanged puzzled looks as Jack scrolled down to the comments at the bottom of the video. 'I remember she spoke about this person, and we were told…Florence can I see your notes a minute?'

'S-sure' she handed over her notepad.

'I think I may be on to something' Jack had come to life again. 'We just need to find the missing weapon and poison. You definitely checked the bins thoroughly Dwayne?'

'Oh yes, the private bins at the back of the Community centre were searched thoroughly, although I was surprised to find that the public bin on the street at the front had just been emptied when we checked it on Sunday morning'.

'Emptied? On a Sunday morning?' Florence looked puzzled. 'That's strange, the bins in Honore normally get emptied on a Monday. The refuse workers get the weekend off!'

'So where did the rubbish go?' puzzled Jack.

'Now that you mention it we met a fisherman on a boat during our search for the Buchanans yesterday who was involved in an unofficial waste disposal service' J P remembered.

'Really? And did he tell you who his customers were'

'No, he refused to tell us anything, but we did see one bag of this rubbish'

'That's interesting. I think we need to pay this fisherman a visit, Florence. Dwayne, J P, I would like you to go to the library and do some research for me – here is the information to begin with' he wrote some details on a piece of paper.

With that the team sprang into action once again.