Chapter two
A/N: Trigger warning, as this chapter does discuss children dying, domestic abuse and rape. However it's not all doom and gloom…Spoilers for season 2, episode 5.
Richard and Camille didn't really say much to each other as they waited outside the paediatrician's examination room. In his briefcase Richard had an evidence bag containing the girl's night dress, which a nurse had brought him half an hour before. The Commissioner and Eleanor Patterson were both due to arrive soon, and decisions could then be taken. Fidel had called to say he and Dwayne had finished processing the scene, and samples were packaged ready to send to Guadeloupe to be tested for DNA evidence. Another smaller evidence bag in his case held a cheek swab from the child, to eliminate her DNA from the evidence. Richard knew that technically they should take her prints as well, but Fidel was not an idiot and would easily be able to tell a child's prints from the others – it could wait.
"Do you think she saw the murder?" Camille finally broke the silence. Richard had spent a long time thinking about that as well.
"If she did, I don't think the killer knew she was there. I'm not sure he would have left her alone if he had."
"He?" questioned Camille, even though she agreed with the Inspector he often didn't jump to conclusions, she wanted to hear his reasoning. She also didn't want to go back to the silence, it let her thoughts run free.
"I've seen too many women killed by partners to believe that was done by a woman," Richard told her firmly, and she nodded in agreement.
"So perhaps Danielle approached her mother after she was killed, and that's how she got the blood on her. She must know her mother is dead, I can't imagine her being willing to leave with us otherwise." Camille looked angrily up at the ceiling. She was a police officer and capable of compartmentalising. She was not going to cry, even if the whole thing was desperately sad.
"When I was made a DC I was assigned to the Sapphire Units," Camille looked at him questioning. "They are units set up for investigating serious sexual crime. Apparently women don't feel threatened by me, not that I often dealt with the victims themselves. We'd get a lot of women in who'd been raped by their partners or ex-partners, sometimes with children sleeping in the next room. You'd see these little ones sitting in the waiting areas, being entertained by family liaison officers and I'd wonder how they did it. I really wish I'd asked now."
Camille understood what he was saying, there weren't any officers with specific training to question children on Saint Marie. There were only three or four social workers for the whole island, and most of them also acted as fosterers when children needed to be taken into care temporarily.
"It's not going to be easy," she said. "But I think we can do it."
Richard looked at her and gave her a small smile, showing his gratitude for her faith. A sudden burst of activity brought an end to their conversation, as Commissioner Pattison, his wife Eleanor and the Doctor who had been examining Danielle Labelle came down the corridor, talking intently.
"Inspector Poole, Sergeant Bordey, Dr Ash has just confirmed that the child is in fact physically unharmed," The Commissioner told them.
"She is a little dehydrated, but a nurse managed to get her to drink some juice. Unfortunately she refuses to speak, and since there is no physical reason preventing her the natural conclusion is it's a psychological issue. She did see her mother's body at the very least. I'm happy to release her into the care of a professional fosterer as I don't think spending the night in hospital will help her recover. However I would like her to return for appointments with our child psychologist, unfortunately she works at the special needs school today however I have one arranged for tomorrow afternoon," The Doctor paused and turned to address Richard. "I'd like you to try and encourage her to eat, I'm not sure when the last time she did was. However if she won't please inform the psychologist tomorrow and we may reconsider admitting her."
Richard looked dumbfounded for a moment, Camille was also certain she had misheard, "I'm sorry, surely she is going to a foster family for now?"
It was Eleanor who responded, "There is no place available with our normal families, in fact Selwyn and I even have two children staying with us at the moment because of the shortage. However Selwyn told me you're registered as a foster carer in the UK? Is that not correct?"
"That was to enable me to keep underage offenders at my house who were cooperating with the police to make sure they didn't disappear off the radar. They were teenagers, they got given a laptop by IT services and largely stayed in their room. It's not the same as a four year old child."
The commissioner and his wife shared a look, and he spoke next, "We still feel it's the best option. We also need to take into account the fact that if the killer of her mother discovers or suspects the girl may be able to identify them, she could be in danger."
That was a fact Richard couldn't deny, but he still didn't feel comfortable. Eleanor passed him a bag, "Selwyn and I retrieved these clothes from her house. Obviously you can't investigate this case with a child in tow, so I will come and take her tomorrow to a play group at the special needs school, and then on to her appointment with the child psychologist, before I return her to you."
Richard tried not to look too resigned as he asked the Doctor, "Anything else I should know?"
The Doctor looked into the file he was holding, "She was born here so we have her medical file, but the only other trip she ever seems to have taken here was for a cut foot when she was two. Seems to have stood in some broken glass."
Richard glanced at Camille, who showed her relief that the girl had not been abused on her face.
"You have a copy of her birth certificate then?" Richard asked the doctor.
He handed it over, "There is no father listed, which is unusual enough on Saint Marie that the midwives remembered Marie Labelle. She came to Saint Marie from Guadeloupe, already pregnant. Told the midwives that the father was a sperm donor, and in that case the space for the father legally has to be left blank."
A bell rang somewhere in the back of Richard's head, telling him that it couldn't be true, but he didn't know why he was coming to that conclusion. There would be time to review the evidence for that later.
Eleanor was going to have to drive Richard and Danielle back, because her car was actually fitted with a child seat unlike the police jeep. Before getting in the car Camille had asked him if he wanted her to come as well.
"No, I'll be alright, if I can't work the case for the rest of the day I really need you, Dwayne and Fidel to be on it. We need to talk to as many people who knew Marie Labelle as possible, and find out if this child has any other family as soon as we can."
"Yes Sir," Camille waved goodbye to the child in the car. The child raised her hand back, and Richard felt like they might be able to get through to her after all. Well, Camille if not him.
Eleanor told him to call if he had any problems, and now Richard was sitting across from the silent child unsure where to start. He wondered if it was too early to put that call in, and then he remembered what the Doctor had said about trying to get her to eat something. In fact, he was starving, since he never got lunch and it was now dinner time.
"Okay, how about some food?" He shouldn't find her lack of reply so disconcerting, the lizard never spoke back. No wait, Harry was not a child, he shouldn't really start comparing them. He doubted Danielle wanted mashed mango and bugs for dinner. He tried to remember being her age and instantly knew what he should make her.
After 15 minutes of Danielle staring silently at his food offering, Richard sighed and told her they would go out for dinner. She let him put on her shoes, and took his hand without comment. He knew it was pride, but he didn't want to have to call Eleanor. Instead he elected to take Danielle to see Catherine. Taking a child to a licenced bar didn't seem like the best idea on the planet, but he also felt if anyone could, Catherine would be able to come up with something Danielle would eat.
Several people who knew Richard looked at him like he'd kidnapped somebody else's child, but Catherine had obviously spoken to her daughter today because she wasn't too shocked when he came in.
"This must be Danielle?" She asked, smiling kindly at the child, who looked up at Catherine shyly. Richard lifted her onto a bar stool, which she happily discovered spun around and she began to entertain herself.
"Can I help you Richard?" Catherine asked.
"You really, really can," he replied a little too vehemently. Catherine just raised a questioning eyebrow. "She doesn't seem to like my cooking, and I don't think she's eaten all day and I thought you might know more about what a child wants to eat then I do. Do you think you could make something for her? Please?"
Richard Poole could really frustrate Catherine, but sometimes she found herself surprised to find he brought out her maternal side. Camille was always making excuses for him (though never when he was actually within ear shot) so perhaps her daughter's obvious fondness for the stuck up Englishman was rubbing off on her.
"What did you make her?" She posed the question partly to enable her to decide what to make, and also out of curiosity.
"Fish finger sandwich," he replied, as if it was the most logical choice in the world.
Catherine was utterly perplexed, she'd never fed Camille any form of convenience food even when rushed off her feet, it was one of her rules, "Why on earth would you make her that? It's not proper food - no wonder she didn't want it."
When he thought back on it later, Richard couldn't pinpoint what it was that made him tell Catherine the truth. He didn't normally share things about his past, but he felt like he had to defend his decision. When it came down to it, he was really worried about what other people thought about his capability to take care of child. So he told Catherine the truth.
"When I was four my Mum was going to have another baby. I was really excited, I stayed with my grandparents when my Mum went into labour. I must have asked every ten minutes if the baby had arrived yet. However when my Dad turned up to pick me up, he told me that I wasn't getting a baby brother after all. He'd been still born you see. My Mum was obviously upset, but she stayed strong in front of me. But my Dad he took it really hard as well, he was really quiet and he wasn't eating dinner with me and Mum so I stopped eating as well, because I thought that's how you showed you were sad. After two days of refusing to eat anything I heard Mum and Dad arguing and then my Dad came in and he made fish finger sandwiches and he sat down and he ate them at the table with me. So I made her them because that's what I ate when I was sad."
He hadn't been looking at Catherine when he told her the story, but he looked up to find her with tears in her eyes. This led to a general feeling of alarm and panic. Much to his surprise, Danielle was also looking at him, having stopped swinging about on the stool to listen. He doubly regretted telling the story.
"Um, please stop crying?" he tried tentatively. Catherine looked like she was resisting the urge to throw her arms around him, and Richard prayed to a God he didn't really believe it that she would manage it.
"I'm sorry I questioned you. I'll go see what I can come up with," she walked away wiping the tears from her eyes and Richard let out a breath. Then he noticed that Danielle was staring at somebody behind him.
Camille had clearly entered the bar at some point, but to his relief it was evident she hadn't heard his story when she asked disbelievingly, "What did you do to my mother to make her cry?"
"Well, the whole situation is very sad," he replied vaguely, and she seemed satisfied that her mother must have been overcome by emotion at the thought of a motherless child.
"Why are you here?" Camille asked, smiling at Danielle who had gone back to swinging round on the bar stool.
"I was hoping your mother might come up with something Danielle actually wants to eat."
"Oh is she cooking, I'm going to get her to make something for me as well I'm starving, we never had lunch you know…"
She wondered off into the kitchen. Richard lifted Danielle off the stool and took her over to a table. He realised that he stupidly hadn't brought anything to entertain her with. He'd ask what she wanted to do but he didn't think he'd get a reply…So he just started talking.
"I have a little lizard, he lives in the house. I hope you don't mind them. His name is Harry. He just sort of dashes about the place and eats bugs. Don't be scared if you see him he's quite friendly. Though sometimes he watches you for no reason." She was actually listening to him, so he supposed he wasn't doing too badly. He retrieved his phone from his pocket and pulled out a picture he managed to take of Harry so he could send it to his Mum. She hadn't seemed that impressed he'd been keeping a lizard as a pet though. "This is what he looks like if you see him."
She took the phone off him and tried to zoom in by touching the screen. She was clearly more technologically advanced than Richard and looked perplexed that it didn't work.
"Sorry it's quite an old phone. I normally only use it for actually calling people. Here if you want to look at other pictures you press these buttons here." He demonstrated and she quickly picked it up. He was pretty sure there wasn't anything that interesting on there but she seemed entertained enough.
Camille returned shortly, looking suspiciously red eyed.
"What's the matter?" Richard asked warily.
"Maman was chopping onions," she lied quickly, and badly.
Richard let out a sigh of frustration, "Oh, she told you didn't she? I don't know what you're crying for, it happened ages ago, it's not a big deal for Christ's sake!"
Camille raised her eyebrows and glanced at Danielle, who was looking at Richard wide eyed.
"Sorry I didn't mean to shout," he told her, but Camille got the impression maybe he was apologising to her as well.
"I just…you could have told me."
Camille wasn't going to say it directly, not in front of the child – probably not even if Danielle hadn't been there. It wasn't the way they worked, they never said anything directly. She wanted to know why he hadn't told her that when Aimee died, instead of the stupid dog story. The truth was he'd thought the dog story was more relevant, he was only four when his brother had been still born and it's not like he ever knew him. He had really loved that dog, however there was no way he was sharing any of that with her.
"I guess I could have," Was the response he settled for, and he thought he could interpret from her look that she might just understand.
Danielle poked him in the arm to gain his attention, and showed him his phone screen. She'd figured out how to turn the actual camera function on and had gotten a photo of that moment. Despite the poor quality of the camera, Richard still felt it still displayed too much intimacy given his working relationship with Camille. He was a little shocked by it, but he managed a smile and told Danielle it was nice. He was saved from having to show it from the clearly curious Camille by the arrival of Catherine from the kitchen, who placed a tray down holding three plates of Chicken, rice and beans. He suspected the chicken would be spicy.
"Thank you Catherine but I'm not actually hungry," he told her, hoping to get out of eating it without offending her, after all he might need her to do more cooking…
Catherine gave him a look that made him feel like she was reading his mind, so he cast his gaze downwards, "Maybe you should remember what you told me earlier. Also I didn't add any chilli."
Richard tried not to look too reluctant when he picked up his fork, especially because Catherine was right and Danielle was watching him somewhat expectantly. Despite the food not being exactly to his taste, it was totally worth it when after he'd been eating for a few minutes Danielle picked her own fork and began to eat as well.
In fact, he was surprised just how happy it made him.