Part 2
Fortunately, Dwayne rushes up with yet another meticulously teased-out clue and snaps her out of her daydream! The man is either VERY lucky or incredibly adept on-line!
Later, listening to their two suspects fight in the cells, she wonders at the caprice of Life. These two had been so in love… and NOW… at total loggerheads. Such reversal of fortune. How do couples manage to stay together through thick and thin? Her father hadn't even tried.
Now, Richard… would Richard be a serious partner? He once said he upheld the institution of marriage… had felt awful to expose a husband and ruin a marriage… but he'd done it all the same. He did his duty no matter what. She is sure he would do his duty by his woman too… if the woman could ever get him to NOTICE her!
Oh, now he has another clue to add to the pile and he rushes out to see Sister Anne about her chemo-therapy treatments. The nun has been lying to us all along! I'm beginning to come around to his way of thinking… they are just human and capable of anything! When he comes back, he is dispirited and frustrated. It isn't Sister Anne after all. What a neat closure that would have been! He is so dejected that the team practically hi-jacks him down to La Kaz and he is so distracted that he actually goes!
He is a powder keg tonight! The lock to Therese's room bothers him. There is a vital clue missing… and they all know what that means! He will bang away at this immoveable object until it begins to crumble… but in the meantime, when he slams the lock down onto the table in fury and leaps to his feet, he makes them all jump! They haven't seen his temper in a while. It's a bit scary. THIS time, though, he quietly apologizes and sits back down. He's never done that before… taken their feelings into consideration so quickly. Usually it takes her hitting him over the head to make him see it. Progress!
This time it is HER that provides the angle he needs to make the next deductive leap… that and Fidel's comment. Funny how merely supporting him emotionally seems to kick-start his brain into action. She doesn't think he ever got any support back home… in England, she means. The team gives him everything they've got… here… where he belongs.
The look on that tourist's face when he borrows then returns her paper drinks umbrella… priceless! If he hadn't scarpered back to the station the woman might have called the cops on him. Ha! Imagine arresting the Chief of Police for assault on one of Maman's cocktails. Try to explain THAT to the Commissioner!
But he is right. He always is. Soot inside the lock but NOT on the key that was IN the lock. And Dwayne, always direct and to the point… smash... and the penultimate clue is revealed.
She has the great good fortune to provide him with the final clue. The look of delight on his face when her bit of the puzzle falls into place is almost more than she can bear. They all hurry back inside to get their canards in a row. He works furiously at the whiteboard while they organize the evidence. He is something to watch when he's on fire like this… almost like a different person and not Richard at all.
She wonders if he's a Gemini? Two different people in the same body. The Chief and not-the-Chief. What wouldn't she give to have not-the-Chief all alone to herself for a few hours!
The Big Reveal is strange. Even when he presents the facts and their findings, Sister Anne and Father John are totally still and quiet. That must come from living a life of total submission. Anyone else would have cracked two minutes into his spiel but they calmly listen and do not react at all. Camille is almost ready to confess just to cut the tension until Sister Anne finally stands up and does it for her.
And it is so sad… so petty… so squalid. A young woman murdered, two lives ruined, and all because two people didn't talk, didn't tell each other what they needed to hear. Umm… that hits kinda close to home, actually. I MUST find a way to talk to him… to try to get through to him... to tell him…
Outside, she watches Daryl and Sheila make up and is amazed how fast they are back in love. Just goes to show that people are either incredibly shallow… or incredibly deep. Which am I? Which is he? I like to think we are both deep. Him. Deep. A deep Poole. Oh, I like that.
You have to be careful of deep water, though. You can drown.
His little joke about the miraculous cure of his hand takes her totally by surprise! It jolts her out of the doldrums and gives her hope! He's never pulled a gag before. She doesn't think he's ever felt confident enough to try it. But now he does. That's hopeful, right? Shows a bit of trust on his part? Now I need to keep that little bit of trust and ADD to it… show him I'm the person he needs in his life…
OH MY GOD! I almost blew it!
Sitting outside La Kaz, enjoying what little tiny bit of his time that he deigns to spare her, Sister Marguerite swans up and makes a quip about checking underpants!
Merde!
The look of absolute shock and betrayal on his face! The low disbelieving tone of his voice! It shoots an arrow right through Camille's heart! How COULD she have revealed something so private that he'd trusted to her? At the time, it had seemed funny and trivial… but now she sees it was NOT. The bit of his heart and his past that he'd given to her… and she'd SQUANDERED it like trash!
She tries to look as trust-worthy as she can despite the bolts of panic racing through her. Her mind is a complete BLANK! What do I SAY? How do I ask forgiveness? Sister Marguerite saves her by distracting him with the tube of medicine... her quirked eyebrow indicates she knows more than she's letting on. Dwayne's quiet smirk indicates where she's getting her information. Camille is SO glad when they leave and take their knowing eyes with them!
Mercifully, he IS distracted. She hopes he lets it slide… her betrayal. Never again! Whatever he allows her to learn in the future will be furiously guarded to the DEATH! She is now a locked diary! Without a key. Pages glued together. Written in invisible ink.
His secrets are now HER secrets.
Her mental ramblings are interrupted by his abrupt announcement that he is going home. So soon? Why can't he stay? Her best intentions are immediately dashed by her temper. She all but calls him a monk… walling himself up… away from people. Which he does. She wishes he wouldn't.
And this time… THIS time he allows a tiny chink in his armor to show and she leaps for it! It is disguised as banter but he pauses for a long moment, looking at her. Does he see something? Hear something? She thinks he does because he relents and calls for more drinks, going to join Fidel inside to pick up their order.
He is going to stay with them… her.
For how long?
Oh, she hopes he heard her tell him for how long.
Forty years.
That's just about right.
Yep.
A life-time.
END